Free Unbelievable by Lori Foster Page A

stung her eyes. Frantically, she searched for Sebastian, but didn’t see him, which made the panic even worse.
    When someone took her arm from behind, she started to scream, but the sound was cut off as she was whipped around and both arms grabbed in a tight hold. “What the hell is the matter with you? What’s happened?”
    Sebastian. Brandi threw herself against his familiar strength, uncaring that they were drawing notice, or that he might feel her violent trembling. She clung tight to him as she tried to shake the fear. Rather than asking questions, he held her close until she calmed. Several minutes passed in complete silence except for her racing breaths. Sebastian’s big hands smoothed up and down her back, and twice she felt the light touch of a kiss to her temple. When she lifted her face from his chest, hesurveyed her, then with a grim look, said, “Come on,” and started them down the street, his arm tight around her waist. She went with him gladly, not even protesting when he pried her shopping bag out of her numb fingers to carry it for her.
    Taking them slightly off the main drag, he urged her toward a low stone fence and then lifted her up to sit. Pink-and-white azaleas bloomed all around them, their sweet scent heady in the air. Sebastian stood in front of her, his legs braced apart, his expression enigmatic. “Tell me what happened, Brandi.”
    Oh, God, she couldn’t. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Sebastian stepped forward until her knees brushed against the front of his body. She didn’t dare look down to see exactly where they touched.
    “Brandi, you’re as pale a ghost.”
    “And every bit as vapid,” she said in disgust.
    “You want to tell me what that means?”
    “Not particularly.” She’d acted the fool, once again. She might as well have been eighteen again, the fear had come back that strong. She was ridiculous and stupid and…
    “Brandi? Talk to me, honey, right now. I don’t like this one damn bit.”
    She could hear the genuine concern in his words. Reaching out, she took his hands and held them. “I’m sorry. I overreacted, that’s all. Sometimes I can be very silly and foolish.”
    “Overreacted to what?”
    Uh-oh. He sounded ready to do bodily harm to someone. Eight years of military training and hardness sounded in his tone. The barbarian warrior was back.
    But no real harm had been done. The men hadn’teven been all that brazen. “It’s nothing, really. Two men got a little friendly, that’s all. And I…well, it frightened me just a bit. I behaved like an idiot, running off like I did.”
    He didn’t look convinced, but he did correct her. “You didn’t run off. You ran to me.”
    “Well…yeah, I guess I did.”
    “You felt safer with me.”
    “I know you, for crying out loud! I didn’t know these men. Don’t make more of it than it is.”
    “What did they say to you?”
    Now that she was away from them and the panic had ebbed, she couldn’t bear to repeat it all. “They were just two men flirting the way men do. They said a few things, and I should have answered them, to put them in their place. But instead, I just ran off.”
    “To me.”
    Brandi rolled her eyes. He did seem to be stuck on that small fact. “Yes, to you. Did you expect me to run all the way back to the cabin?”
    “I didn’t expect you to be running at all or I never would have left you alone. It didn’t feel right in the first place. I was just coming to get you when I saw you dashing across the street.”
    Needing desperately to change the subject, she asked, “Did you get your coffee?”
    “No. I saw a sign for an outdoor musical and thought that would work as good as caffeine to wake me up. You want to go? We could grab a hamburger or something there for dinner.”
    Surprised, Brandi checked her watch. It was going on five o’clock. The morning and afternoon had flownby and they hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The idea of an outdoor concert was appealing, but