Free Harvest Moon by Lisa Kessler Page A
Authors: Lisa Kessler
glanced around the club. “Where’d your brother go?”
“Todd had to go work.”
Apparently Todd worked the night shift someplace. Since all of our true identities never walked through the door of the club, I didn’t know his, either. Didn’t matter anyway; I just wanted to be sure Marv was taken care of.
“Do you have a ride home?”
“I’m taking the boy home.” Bob had a gym bag on his shoulder and a Wolf Pack baseball hat on his head. It usually made me chuckle to see the University of Reno gear, but I was too exhausted to smile. No one had any idea a real Wolf Pack lived here.
“Thanks, Bob.”
The lines in his face deepened. “Marv’s right about restin’. This club is for recreation, not for a guy with a death wish.”
I ground my teeth and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll take a few days off.”
“See that you do.” His expression lightened. “Good fight tonight.”
“Thanks.”
But deep inside, in places I didn’t want to examine, I knew there was nothing good about what I did tonight.
Chapter Eight
K ILANI
A fter slamming the door, I turned around to find the king-size bed from my vision. Shit. Really? The first room I storm into is his bedroom? I pulled the elastic band out of my hair with a groan. If I opened that door, Jason would be standing there ready to dose me with more fear.
Did he seriously think I needed more?
I sat on the edge of the bed, trying to resist pulling the comforter back. Part of me wanted to find out if the sheets were the same from my vision, and the rest of me didn’t want to know. There was no way I’d allow myself to get naked with that man out there.
Sure, he was gorgeous, and the artwork on the walls proved there was more to him than I ever would have guessed. But I’d sworn off doctors for my own protection, and this one not only already lied to me, he also wanted to make me completely dependent on him, and that was something I’d never do, danger or not.
I noticed a stack of hardback books on the nightstand and wandered over. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Richard Matheson. Fiction. I’d expect to find some hard-core nonfiction titles about patient care, or new studies on green diets, or maybe a reference book on investments, or…Well, anything other than fiction.
Somewhere in Time was on top. I opened it carefully, keeping the pages he had tucked inside the book jacket from sliding free and losing his place. I hadn’t read the novel in years, but I remembered it fondly. The romantic notion that love could transcend time infatuated me. I’d been young, naive. Life had quickly set me straight. There was nothing mythical or magic about love. It was more of a shell game.
Just when you thought you had it, it already found a new place to hide.
The front door closed. I placed the book back on the stack and moved to the bedroom door. After all the talk of danger, he left without a word? I frowned and cracked it open.
Empty.
I slipped out, embracing the frustration brewing inside. Anything was better than fear. I wandered past the artwork-covered wall into the spacious kitchen. I wasn’t really hungry, but a snack would be nice. A welcome focus for my scattered thoughts. I needed to get my head together so I could think straight and plot out my next move. I’d left my car at the ranch. Mistake. And now I was in Jason’s house with no way to get away.
Where would I go anyway? Whatever security I thought I had in the well-lit halls of the medical center, he stole from me.
His fridge was well stocked, bringing about a whole new set of problems while I tried to figure out what to eat. I finally pulled out a slab of Colby jack cheese and laid it on the counter. Now all I needed was crackers. After poking into a couple of cupboards, I found a box of crackers. I plucked the knife from the wooden block when the front door opened.
My grip tightened on the handle, and my breath caught in my throat.
It was Jason. I was about to chew him a new one when I
“Todd had to go work.”
Apparently Todd worked the night shift someplace. Since all of our true identities never walked through the door of the club, I didn’t know his, either. Didn’t matter anyway; I just wanted to be sure Marv was taken care of.
“Do you have a ride home?”
“I’m taking the boy home.” Bob had a gym bag on his shoulder and a Wolf Pack baseball hat on his head. It usually made me chuckle to see the University of Reno gear, but I was too exhausted to smile. No one had any idea a real Wolf Pack lived here.
“Thanks, Bob.”
The lines in his face deepened. “Marv’s right about restin’. This club is for recreation, not for a guy with a death wish.”
I ground my teeth and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll take a few days off.”
“See that you do.” His expression lightened. “Good fight tonight.”
“Thanks.”
But deep inside, in places I didn’t want to examine, I knew there was nothing good about what I did tonight.
Chapter Eight
K ILANI
A fter slamming the door, I turned around to find the king-size bed from my vision. Shit. Really? The first room I storm into is his bedroom? I pulled the elastic band out of my hair with a groan. If I opened that door, Jason would be standing there ready to dose me with more fear.
Did he seriously think I needed more?
I sat on the edge of the bed, trying to resist pulling the comforter back. Part of me wanted to find out if the sheets were the same from my vision, and the rest of me didn’t want to know. There was no way I’d allow myself to get naked with that man out there.
Sure, he was gorgeous, and the artwork on the walls proved there was more to him than I ever would have guessed. But I’d sworn off doctors for my own protection, and this one not only already lied to me, he also wanted to make me completely dependent on him, and that was something I’d never do, danger or not.
I noticed a stack of hardback books on the nightstand and wandered over. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Richard Matheson. Fiction. I’d expect to find some hard-core nonfiction titles about patient care, or new studies on green diets, or maybe a reference book on investments, or…Well, anything other than fiction.
Somewhere in Time was on top. I opened it carefully, keeping the pages he had tucked inside the book jacket from sliding free and losing his place. I hadn’t read the novel in years, but I remembered it fondly. The romantic notion that love could transcend time infatuated me. I’d been young, naive. Life had quickly set me straight. There was nothing mythical or magic about love. It was more of a shell game.
Just when you thought you had it, it already found a new place to hide.
The front door closed. I placed the book back on the stack and moved to the bedroom door. After all the talk of danger, he left without a word? I frowned and cracked it open.
Empty.
I slipped out, embracing the frustration brewing inside. Anything was better than fear. I wandered past the artwork-covered wall into the spacious kitchen. I wasn’t really hungry, but a snack would be nice. A welcome focus for my scattered thoughts. I needed to get my head together so I could think straight and plot out my next move. I’d left my car at the ranch. Mistake. And now I was in Jason’s house with no way to get away.
Where would I go anyway? Whatever security I thought I had in the well-lit halls of the medical center, he stole from me.
His fridge was well stocked, bringing about a whole new set of problems while I tried to figure out what to eat. I finally pulled out a slab of Colby jack cheese and laid it on the counter. Now all I needed was crackers. After poking into a couple of cupboards, I found a box of crackers. I plucked the knife from the wooden block when the front door opened.
My grip tightened on the handle, and my breath caught in my throat.
It was Jason. I was about to chew him a new one when I