The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,69
an investigator.”
“What?”
“You want to help people find answers to the questions that keep them awake at night. I should warn you that this kind of work can be extremely frustrating, because a lot of people won’t thank you for the answers you give them.”
“Because they won’t like those answers?” Lyra asked.
“More often than not, that’s the result. A wife who hires you to find out if her husband is cheating on her won’t like it when you confirm her suspicions. Families who ask you to find a missing relative will be devastated if it turns out the relative is dead or, worse yet, vanished for a very good reason.”
“But they still want answers.”
“Yes. And so do you.”
“Is that what it’s like for you?”
“In a way. I need to use my talent. If I don’t—”
She touched the side of his jaw. “If you don’t use it you’ll feel like you don’t have a purpose. You’ll drift through life.”
“Something like that.”
“Do you want to kiss me again?”
Simon’s eyes heated. “Yes.”
She smiled. “It’s okay by me.”
“Just okay?”
“Better than okay. I’d like you to kiss me.”
He put a warm, strong hand on either side of her waist and drew her closer. “When I drove to Burning Cove to report to Luther Pell, I told myself that I would check in to a nice resort, spend some time by the pool during the day, and drink cocktails at the Paradise at night. I wanted to find a free-spirited, single woman, preferably a divorcée, who was not looking to get married.”
“You wanted a short affair. A vacation fling to take your mind off your last case. No strings attached.”
“That was the plan,” Simon said. “I told myself I would look for a reckless, independent lady who held modern, sophisticated views when it came to relationships.”
“You found her.”
Lyra stood on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck, and brushed her mouth across his. Testing her powers of seduction. Hoping she had not misread the heat in his eyes.
“Lyra.”
Her name was a husky whisper on his lips.
He tightened his grip on her waist, pulled her close, and took control of the kiss. The fierceness of his response thrilled her and briefly overwhelmed her senses. The atmosphere in the room was suddenly charged with a hot, sensual energy. She would have collapsed if he had not held her so tightly.
She had run a number of experiments with kissing over the years and had become adept at the art. But no man had ever kissed her like this. She knew that for the first time in her life she was experiencing something beyond casual sexual attraction, an emotion that was more intense, more compelling. Passion. The kind that left a woman breathless, the kind that could change her life. And this was it. Regardless of the outcome, this was a kiss she would never forget.
She launched herself into the storm.
Chapter 32
Angela Merryweather studied the stranger standing in the middle of the living room and told herself she had been a fool to let Luther Pell into the house. What smart woman opened a door to a man at four thirty in the morning?
Everything about him set off warning bells. Her intuition told her he was ruthless and driven. She suspected that he carried a gun under his elegantly tailored jacket.
When he had arrived a short time ago and told her why he wanted to talk to her, she had known the smart thing to do would be to send him away and lock the door. But instinct had warned her it would not be that easy to get rid of him. And deep down she desperately wanted to talk to someone about the terrible thing that had happened to her. She wanted someone to believe her and tell her it was not her fault that she had been kidnapped and violated. She yearned for an avenging angel or the devil—she no longer cared which one showed up so long as he promised to destroy those who had hurt her.
The rage seethed inside her night and day. It kept her awake and stole the light from every aspect of her life. Her marriage was falling apart because of what had happened. She knew the only reason Bradley had not filed for a quiet Reno divorce was because it would ruin his plans for a political career. He felt trapped in the marriage, not only because he needed her money but because the damned photos could destroy him. He blamed her for