LITMIR.BIZ

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the delicate angles of her face, giving her the illusion of being tough, when he knew instinctively that she was anything but. Crazy? Obviously. But there was something vulnerable and soft in her that fascinated the hell out of him.

      God, he was so fucked.

      â€œLook, I realize this seems like some kind of joke to you, but I’m not trying to scam you,” she murmured, her left hand fidgeting with the bottom button of her shirt, just above the waistband of her jeans. “I really don’t want your money or anything else. The only thing I’m asking is that you pay attention to what I have to tell you.”

      â€œNow see,” he replied in a slow slide of words worthy of any natural-born Southerner, “the problem is that I’m too much of a bastard to pay you even that.” He pointed the hammer in the direction of her car, needing her gone. Now. Before he gave in and forgot why bedding her would be such a bad idea. “So why don’t you just hightail your crazy little ass out of Henning and back to wherever it is you came from.”

      A soft sound of irritation rumbled in her chest, making him grin despite himself. It was refreshing to know that little miss innocent looking had a temper, and he found himself wondering what she looked like when that passionate temper was truly riled.

      Sweat popped out on his forehead that had nothing to do with the heat rolling up at them in waves from the sweltering ground—and everything to do with the feminine package standing before him. It was his own fault, but he’d been too long without a woman. Now he was in a bad way, and Ian knew he should’ve ignored his waning interest and dropped by Kendra Wilcox’s earlier in the week. If he’d gone ahead and gotten laid, then maybe he wouldn’t be getting geared up over the strange little female standing in front of him, talking about conversations with his mother’s ghost.

      â€œLook, Mr. Buchanan. If forgetting about this whole thing was an option, then believe me, I would. Unfortunately, it isn’t. I’ve no other choice than to follow through with this, whether you act like an arrogant jerk or a gentleman.”

      Mumbling around the nail he’d just placed between his lips, Ian arched one brow. “Much to my mother’s heartache, I never did take to the whole Southern gentleman way of life. It all started the fateful afternoon I put a frog down Sally Simpson’s pants in kindergarten,” he informed her, setting the nail in place. He flashed her an unrepentant smile, getting a perverse pleasure out of pushing her buttons. “And I’ve never changed.”

      â€œAnd you sound remarkably proud of that fact.” Her voice held a hint of challenge that twisted the irritating hunger in his gut a notch tighter, and he nearly smashed his thumb as he swung down on the nail head. “A rebel through and through.”

      â€œWhich really shouldn’t come as a surprise,” he rumbled softly. “If you’re so chatty with my mother, then I’m sure she’s already warned you that I’m a stubborn son of a bitch. You’re wasting your time here, Molly.”

      The use of her first name had her blinking with an odd look of surprise. And damn, but if he didn’t feel that strange little jolt between them again, like something electric and tangible skittering on the air. Something too intimate for comfort. He didn’t know why he’d used her first name, but he couldn’t deny that he liked the way it felt on his lips.

      â€œShe’s told me enough for me to know that you’d be less than cooperative,” she answered after a moment, while the wind picked up, molding the soft cotton of her plain white shirt to a petite pair of high, rounded breasts. “She also warned me that you’d react this way.”

      Ian cut her a sharp look from behind his dark lenses, but bit back an even sharper retort. It was twisted, but the harder she pushed him, the more he wanted her.

      â€œSo, we can either go ahead and have this conversation here,” she pressed on with firm conviction, taking advantage of his silence, “or I can follow you around night and day until you give in and listen to what I have to say. Your mother isn’t going to leave me alone until you do.”

      Bent over, his weight resting on one arm while he held the hammer in the other hand, Ian studied her. Studied her in the way a fighter sizes up his next opponent. She sounded so confident, but her body language told a different story. The little details he picked up on, like the way she kept licking at her lower lip, her left hand now clenching and unclenching at her side while her right held on to the leather strap of her purse as if it was a lifeline, told a story of their own. White knuckles. Rigid spine. In the base of her pale throat, her pulse fluttered with a telltale sign of nerves. Or was it fear? Arousal?

      Whatever it was, Ian suddenly found himself captivated by the intimate sight of the pulsing vein beneath that smooth, flawless skin. It looked too delicate, too fragile, like something he could so easily sink his teeth into and mark. Taste. Something that was too much like the dreams he’d been having, and it scared the shit out of him.

      â€œEven if what you’re saying is true, which I don’t believe for one second, what could my mother want with me?” he asked in a low, rough blast of words that felt ripped out of his chest, all traces of sarcasm and humor gone. “We didn’t talk for the last sixteen years of her life and she’s been gone for five months. Seems a little late to start mending fences now.”

      â€œElaina regrets that all those years were wasted,” she said with such an earnest expression, he honestly believed that she was buying her own bullshit. God, she really was a whack job. “Still, she contacted me because there are things she wants you to know. Important things she wishes she had explained while she still had the time. But first…” She paused, and the look in those big brown eyes made him want to reach out to her and—hell, Ian didn’t have a clue what he would have done. He was saved from finding out when she cleared her throat, wet her bottom lip with a nervous flick of her tongue, then quietly said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you that someone close to you is in danger.”

      Aw, shit. What kind of sick game was this woman playing? Whatever it was, his patience was at an end.

      â€œIn case you’ve missed the clues, Miss Stratton, I’m going to spell it out for you all nice and slow like. I do not think this kind of crap is funny.” Each word came from his lips with biting precision, his voice low, hard, expression even harder as he pulled off his glasses and glared at her through narrowed eyes. “Never have, even when my mother was parading her psycho friends in and out of our lives and putting my little brother and sister through an emotional wringer. I’m warning you now, get back in your dingy little rental and just get the hell away from me.”

      She crossed her arms over her chest, as if she could shield herself from the blast of his anger, but she didn’t budge. “Trust me, Mr. Buchanan. Ian. I’m not enjoying this any more than you are, but I made a promise to your mother and I’m keeping it. I know she made mistakes, but she’s trying to set things right. And if you don’t listen to her—to me—to us…then someone is going to end up hurt. I can feel it.”

      Why in God’s name do I always have to go for the psychotic ones? he silently cursed, running one hand through his hair so hard that his scalp stung. Must be in my goddamn genes.

      That was one of the reasons he’d kept things going with Kendra—the simple fact that she was so different from the women he usually hooked up with. The hard-nosed CPA didn’t take to bullshit any more than Ian did, and they both got what they wanted from each other, even if their encounters left him with that gnawing edge in his gut. Left him cold inside. Left him… wanting.

      It sucked, sure—but he’d learned to live with it.

      â€œLike I said before, my mother died five months ago. Now get off my property. This is private land and you’re trespassing.”

      He

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