Excerpt: Copyrighted Material
He heard a door open and shut down at the other end of the house. At least some of his brothers were home. The click of claws on the wooden floor sent alarm skidding down his spine. He tensed. The truth might come out sooner than he liked.
Emily sighed against his chest. “I should ring Maggie. She’s probably frantic.” The thought of speaking with Maggie rubbed away some of the gloss. They would argue—she sensed it. Maggie would probably sulk and ignore her for weeks. Yeah, she should ring right now and get it over with. But she didn’t want to move. Saber warmed her through. A generous lover, he tempted her to commit the ultimate folly. A bit silly of her, considering her experience with Michael. A sliver of fear worked through her at the thought.
To trust again. To lay her heart down and become vulnerable.
“She’ll know you’re with me.”
And she was probably having a cow because Emily wasn’t acting the grieving widow. Not for the first time, Emily wondered if she’d made a mistake in trying to protect the family from Michael’s shortcomings. They had given him saint status, and already Maggie was questioning her right to date again or go out for a night of fun after only six months of being a widow. Emily grimaced. “She’s probably guessed since we both disappeared.”
The seductive idea of staying formed in her mind. A week or two in the fresh country air. No, she thought. Treasure this one perfect night. Nothing stays the same. Save the heartache. Go home and start over.
The bedroom door creaked. When Emily turned her head, a huge black cat pushed the door open and prowled into the bedroom. Emily froze, her mouth dropping open in shock. The cat halted just inside the door.
“Out,” Saber snapped.
The cat mewed, sat on its haunches and fixed them with a haughty stare. The door flew open again and another cat stalked into the bedroom to sit beside the first.
Saber reached out and snagged the sheet off the floor. He covered her naked limbs before turning his attention to the cats. “Out.”
“Um, big kitties,” Emily said in understatement. Her voice trembled more than she liked. There really were panthers?
Hurried footsteps sounded outside the bedroom and one of Saber’s brothers burst into the bedroom.
“Anyone else waiting out there to come in?” Saber demanded with a note of impatience.
“The local cop car is heading up the driveway,” Joe said.
At his words, the two black cats raced from the room. Strange. It was almost as if they had understood. In the distance, she heard the peal of the doorbell.
A hand seized Joe by the scruff of the neck and hauled him out of the room. Felix stuck his head into the bedroom. Emily tugged the sheet up to her chin, very aware of her nakedness beneath the sheet and Saber’s erection pressing against her leg.
“I’ll deal with Allan.” A brief smirk tugged at Felix’s lips before he disappeared, pulling the door shut.
“Sorry about that,” Saber murmured. “They’re used to walking in whenever. I don’t usually…”
It made her feel good to know he didn’t have a procession of women in and out of his bedroom. Special. “Um, about the cats—”
“I’m not leaving until I see with my own eyes,” a furious voice shouted.
“Oh, damn.” Emily frantically sought a place to hide. Wardrobe. No time. Damn. Under the bed. Emily half-slipped out of the bed before she realized that drawers filled the gap between the mattress and the floor. Footsteps thumped closer. Just as the door opened, she tugged the sheet Saber had retrieved from the floor over her head and shut her eyes. Maybe Maggie would go away?
“What have you done with my friend? Where is she?” Maggie demanded.
“I haven’t done anything with her.” Saber’s voice held a hint of amused arrogance.
That wasn’t true, Emily thought, chewing on her bottom lip. Each time she moved, she felt the pull of well-used muscles. And his erection pressing against her had woken her libido so much that she wanted him again. Her pulse hummed in sexual awareness. But he’d done more than make love to her. He’d changed the way she thought about herself. The words Michael had screamed at her weren’t true. She was capable of attracting a man. And keeping his attention.
“She’s in that bed with you, isn’t she?” Maggie snapped. “I’m not stupid. I can see there are two bodies in that bed.”
“I love an intelligent woman,” one of Saber’s brothers said.
“Me too,” another agreed. “A brain is a sexy thing. I think I might be falling in love,” he added in a dramatic tone.
“Oh, shut up!” Maggie snarled in a very Michael-like growl. Emily trembled, knowing in her gut that her friend was going to hate her when she found out. Maybe she’d just go away? Please let her go away.
The sheet was yanked off the bed, leaving them both visible. Emily gasped in shock and tried to make herself small. Saber calmly replaced the sheet and tucked it around them.
Sly walked up to Maggie, trying to divert her. “Why don’t we discuss this over coffee? Let Saber and Jo get dressed.”
“I’ll be out in the kitchen,” the policeman said. “Doesn’t look like a crime scene to me.”
Color surged to Emily’s cheeks and seeped down to her chest. One perfect night of passion. That’s all she’d wanted. But even that had gone awry, turning into a fiasco of gigantic and embarrassing proportions. It took two hands to count the number of people who had seen her naked this morning.
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Scarlet Woman by Shelley Munro
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