LITMIR.BIZ

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Highness,” Sam said. He began to wind in his fishing line.

      “Definitely not,” she replied with a small laugh.

      “Still, it’s nice to know you have the monster thing under control.”

      “Thankfully in Bachelor Moon we don’t have to worry much about monsters. Can I bring you a glass of iced tea or something?” she asked, obviously eager to change the subject.

      He shook his head. “No, I’m fine.” He cast his line out closer to the shore where Macy had indicated he should be fishing.

      “Again, I apologize for my daughter. She can be a bit of a handful.”

      “Nothing to apologize for,” Sam assured her. “Besides, I’m sure she’s the apple of her daddy’s eyes.”

      Her eyes darkened. “I divorced my husband a year ago. Enjoy the rest of the morning and we’ll see you inside for lunch.” She didn’t wait for a reply but instead turned on her heel and hurried back toward the house.

      Sam watched her until she disappeared into the house, then turned back and stared out at the pond. The whole bed-and-breakfast thing was a pretty big operation for a single mother.

      Of course, just because she wasn’t married didn’t mean she was all alone. A woman as gorgeous as Daniella Butler probably had any number of men willing to step up and help her in whatever way she needed.

      Sam wouldn’t mind helping her if she needed a body to warm her bed. He definitely found her physically attractive, and it had been way too long since Sam had been with any woman.

      Monsters. Sam didn’t worry much about the monsters he encountered in his work. What he worried about was the monster he feared slept deep in his soul, a monster that might awaken at any moment.

      DANIELLA STOOD AT THE back door and stared at the back of her newest guest. Hot. The man was definitely hot, with his slightly shaggy black hair and intense blue eyes.

      When he’d first gotten out of his car and had stretched, she’d watched from the door and admired the width of his broad shoulders, emphasized by his lean torso and long legs.

      Even though she’d officially sworn off men years ago, that didn’t mean she couldn’t lust after a particularly handsome specimen when he was right under her roof.

      She told herself the slight flush of heat she felt was from the corn bread cooking in the oven and not from speaking with Mr. Hunky Sam Connelly.

      Thinking about her corn bread, she opened the oven door to check on it. Dinner this evening would be a traditional gumbo with corn bread. Lunch would be chicken salad croissants with potato salad and coleslaw. It would only be Sam for lunch. Her long-term guest, Matt Rader, was rarely here for the noon meal.

      When Daniella had opened the bed-and-breakfast she’d decided to offer three meals to her guests. She loved to cook and adding the additional meals meant she could also make a little money on the food.

      And money was always an issue, so she was pleased that for the next month she was pretty well booked solid for the weekends.

      Johnny would be so proud. The words jumped unbidden into her mind. As always, thoughts of her ex-husband brought with them myriad emotions that ranged from anger, to grief, to an uneasy lack of closure that might always haunt her.

      The knock on the back door shoved thoughts of Johnny right out of her head. Frank Mathis peered in through the screen, and she motioned him inside.

      “That flower bed on the north side of the house is looking pretty dismal,” he said. “I thought I’d head into town and pick up a couple of new plants to add in. Is there anything you need from the stores?”

      She smiled at Frank, who had been her right-hand man since she’d bought the place a little over five years ago. He could make a flower bloom as easily as he could fix the temperamental air conditioner. “No, I think I’m good until Sunday when Macy and I will do some grocery shopping, but let me get you some money for the new plants.”

      Frank raised a hand to dismiss the offer. “I’ll take care of it. I still have some of the money left that you gave me to replace those shrubs in the front.”

      “Thanks, Frank. And you might want to plan to eat dinner here tonight. I’m making gumbo.”

      He patted the slight paunch at his middle. “You know I love your gumbo. I’ll definitely be here.”

      As Frank left through the back door, Daniella pulled her corn bread from the oven and thought about the man who had been such a support when Johnny had disappeared and she’d been left alone to run this place.

      Frank had worked with Johnny at a factory that manufactured furnace boilers. Two months before Daniella and Johnny had opened the doors to her bed-and-breakfast the factory had closed down, leaving Frank and many other men in the small town unemployed.

      Frank had come to them and confessed that he was broke and needed to move out of the apartment he’d been renting. He knew they had a caretaker’s cottage across the pond, and he’d sworn that for free rent and board he would take care of whatever needed to be done around the place. Two months later Johnny was gone, but Frank had proven himself invaluable around the place. And it was an added bonus that he adored Macy.

      She found herself once again standing at the back door and staring out at her latest guest. Even though he was still seated in the chair she sensed a tenseness about him, a simmering energy that she’d noticed the moment she’d introduced herself to him.

      She closed her eyes and for a moment could imagine his strong arms wrapped around her, the spicy scent of his cologne on her skin, in her bedsheets. It had been so long since she’d been held in the warmth of an embrace, felt the breathless excitement of making love.

      Sam Connelly looked like a man who would know how to please a woman. There had been a dark heat in his eyes as his gaze had slid the length of her, a sultry heat that had made her feel all tingly inside.

      She snapped her eyes open and moved away from the window. What on earth was she thinking? It was ridiculous to fantasize about a guest, even one who looked like Sam.

      One of her cardinal rules was to never get involved with her guests. Sam Connelly was just like all the other people she allowed into her life—fleeting and definitely temporary.

      The ring of the phone pulled her from her crazy thoughts. As she went to the desk in the kitchen to answer, she noticed that the caller ID indicated the call was anonymous.

      It wasn’t unusual for her to get anonymous calls. Some people called to find out the rates and information about the bed-and-breakfast and didn’t want her to have their number. They were probably afraid she’d make follow-up calls to them and try to talk them into a vacation they didn’t want.

      “Bachelor Moon Bed and Breakfast,” she said into the receiver. There was a long moment of silence, although she could tell the line wasn’t dead. “Hello?”

      “For you.”

      The voice sounded strange, as if it had been somehow altered. “Excuse me?” Daniella replied. There was a soft click and she knew the caller was no longer on the line.

      She hung up the phone with a frown. For you. What in the heck did that mean? Maybe she hadn’t heard right.

      She tried to dismiss the call from her mind, knowing it was time to get lunch prepared. Still, as she got busy setting the dining room table for Sam’s lunch, she couldn’t stop the dark sense of foreboding that slithered through her.

      Chapter Two

      Sam fished through the lunch hour. He had a couple of bites but never landed a single fish. It didn’t matter. As the day wore on and the peaceful silence of his surroundings seeped through him he began to relax in a way he hadn’t done in years.

      Not once did the details of a case enter his mind. Not once did he think about any of the killers

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