Free Give Him the Slip by Geralyn Dawson Page B

idea. She could indulge
herself guilt free. She could satisfy this deep, delicious ache without
responsibility. She could...
    "No. Please." She could hear the needy whimper in her
voice. "Please, Luke. I can't do this."
    He went still. For a long, tense moment, he didn't move, yet she
could feel the pound of his pulse, the hard ridge of his arousal against her.
Maddie moved her hand, which had been clutching his shirt, and ever so slightly
pressed against his chest.
    Luke Callahan rolled off her with a curse. So much for being
forced.
    Gulping air like a diver down too long, he lay on his back on the
houseboat's deck with his arm slung over his eyes. Above, a dark cloud drifted
across the moon's silvered light, and the night turned inky. The sounds of the
bayou seemed to swell in the sudden darkness—the constant chirp of crickets,
the repetitive croaks of frogs.
    The rapid breathing of two people in the moments following
thwarted lovemaking.
    From somewhere behind them came the bellow of an alligator. Luke,
however, didn't speak.
    Maddie didn't know what to say. Despite the fact that sexual
attraction had hummed between them all day, this inferno had caught her by
surprise. How had a simple thank-you kiss evolved into something so... intense?
    "Luke, that shouldn't have—"
    "Don't ask me to apologize, lady. You're the one who started
it." His voice vibrated with frustration as he added, "I guess I
missed the tabloid story about Baby Dagger being a tease."
    Hurt by his anger, she sucked in a breath. "I'm... going
downstairs. Good night."
    She scrambled away from him and fled down to her cabin, where she
dove into bed and yanked the covers over her head, trying to hide from herself. Oh, Maddie. You're such a mess.
    The events of the day and of yesterday rolled through her mind
like a bad movie. She lay for a long time before finally drifting off to sleep.
    She never did hear Luke come down from the flybridge.

CHAPTER 6
    Dawn crept like a thief across the bayou, stealing the shadows and
songs of the night and leaving an anticipatory quiet in its wake. Luke stood at
the wheel, waiting for the moment that sufficient light filtered through the
trees to illuminate the surroundings.
    His eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep, and his head ached from a
night spent doing too much thinking while arriving at too few answers. He'd had
trouble wrapping his mind around the idea that an honest-to-God rock princess
had managed to get herself involved in mayhem and murder while hiding out in
Brazos Bend, Texas. It was so farfetched, so completely unbelievable, that he
had to believe it might be true.
    However, he couldn't rule out the possibility that his father had
orchestrated the entire thing. Branch Callahan was the King of Conspiracy, and
Maddie could easily be working with him. Or she could be his innocent pawn.
Either way, if Branch Callahan was acting the puppet master, damned if Luke
wanted to dangle on his strings.
    Which left him balanced on the old horns of a dilemma. He'd tossed
and turned for hours trying to decide what to do with Maddie "Baby
Dagger" Kincaid. He'd considered easing the Miss Behavin' II upto
the dock at Caddo Bayou Marina, and stopping only long enough to kick her and
her goldfish off his boat before heading right back toward the gulf. He'd pondered
hanging around long enough to check the back of her minivan and verify the
existence of the shrooms. If all was as she claimed, he could then wash his
hands of her and her problem by calling his old boss and dumping the problem in
his lap.
    Then there had been a third possible course of action that had
flitted through his mind like a sin off and on throughout the night. He could
tie up the Miss Behavin' II, blow off his brother, and devote himself to
solving his houseboat guest's problems. It'd screw his fishing trip, but
chances looked good that he'd get seriously laid. Judging by the heat of their
kiss, Luke doubted they'd last another day together without going at