Bayou Heat (23 page)

“Crap,” he said a bit too loudly.

He glanced up, expecting the old lady to cluck at him again. Instead, he found himself
face-to-face with Emma Bishop, Star Harbor’s librarian and his friend Jimmy’s new
wife. She and Jimmy had gotten married a couple of months before, but Theo had missed
the wedding due to a book tour commitment. Emma looked good—shiny russet hair, sparkling
blue eyes, and wire-rimmed glasses perched on a pert nose. Dressed in a tweed skirt
and silk blouse, her small figure reminded him of an elegant little bird.

Before she could say anything, he raised his hand in apology. “Let me guess,” he said.
“I’ve been reported.”

“You could say that,” she confirmed, shooting a quick glance at the love seat. The
old lady had her face buried in the paper. Though Emma looked apologetic, there was
a little twinkle in her eye. “Could you please keep it down? I’d hate to—”

“Kick me out?” Theo laughed. It wouldn’t be the first time. Except now he was thirty-two,
not twelve.

“I don’t think it’ll come to that,” she said. “You’ll behave.” This was said with
the hint of a smile. She knew how to handle him, all right. No surprise, given that
her husband had been almost as much of a troublemaker as the Grayson boys back in
the day.

Theo sighed and rose, stretching his arms up over his head. He knew his size was intimidating,
but to her credit, Emma didn’t even blink. Being married to Jimmy, whose nickname
was—appropriately—“the Bear,” must have inured her to intimidation by large men. He
jerked his head in the direction of the lady. “You can tell my good friend over there
that I’m leaving for the day.”

“I think I’ll leave well enough alone,” Emma said without rancor as she tilted her
head at him. “But I hope you don’t mind my saying that you look tired, Theo.”

He began to pack up his laptop. “Let’s just say I haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep
in over a week.”

“Out on Val’s boat? I’d imagine not. Are you sharing a cabin with Cole?”

Theo nodded. “Yep. As if the tiny berth wasn’t uncomfortable enough, I have my big
brother in there to keep me company.”

Emma touched her forefinger to her chin and looked thoughtful. “There are some nice
places in town where you could stay. Why don’t you look into it?”

Pulling on his thick, lined pea coat, he nodded. “Best advice I’ve gotten in a long
time.”

“Try the Inn. And Theo, perhaps you’d like to do a reading for us? I’m sure folks
would love to hear T. R. Grayson read from his critically acclaimed bestseller,
The Pirate’s Sextant
. It’s not every day we have a famous author in our midst.”

“Sure,” Theo said, happy that Emma thought highly enough of him to ask. “Just let
me know when.”

“The next spot we have available for our Evenings with an Author series is a week
from today. I hope that’s not too soon, because we’ll have to get a poster of your
book before you come in.”

Way to stroke his ego. “Call my agent. He’ll overnight one. I’ll even autograph it
for you.”

“Thank you, Theo. That would be lovely.” She gave him a sweet smile.

Theo flipped the collar of his coat up. “Tell Jimmy I’ll catch him later this week
at the Rusty Nail. ’Bye, Emma.” He stepped around her to leave, but as he walked to
the front door, he couldn’t resist giving the old lady on the couch one parting shot.
“See you tonight, baby,” he growled, raising one eyebrow.

Rewarded by her shocked gasp, he grinned. Yeah, he still had it. Too bad he’d never
use it on anyone who counted.

#

“I shouldn’t be here.”

Avery Newbridge finally spoke the words that had been running through her head for
weeks, her voice echoing off the wood-paneled walls in the foyer of the Star Harbor
Inn. Ostensibly, she was in Star Harbor, Massachusetts, to mind the Inn while Aunt
Kate underwent treatment for breast cancer. But Avery knew what she was really doing.

Hiding.

She couldn’t even pretend anymore. At first, it had been nice to think that she was
helping out family, but Kate had finished recovering from her last round of chemo
two weeks ago and had resumed most of the duties of managing the Inn. While Kate sometimes
suffered from bouts of weakness, she was doing all right. Still, Avery stayed in this
tight-knit little town where everyone seemed to know everyone else’s name—and their
business.

Sighing loudly, Avie leaned back in her little chair behind the large, walnut-wood
reception desk, trying to release some tension. It didn’t make her feel better. At
this point, she didn’t know what would. Not after what she’d been through in Boston
and all the weird stuff that had been happening at the Inn lately.

At least what had happened at the Back Bay Recovery Center made sense. Losing a client
would be enough to make anyone feel emotional, but she worked with the most serious
substance abuse cases, not all of whom had it in them to stay sober. What didn’t make
sense were the odd sounds she and Kate had been hearing at night in the Inn. Sure,
it was an old building—one of Star Harbor’s registered historical sites, something
of which Kate was proud—but in its three hundred years of existence, no one had ever
said that the Star Harbor Inn was haunted. There was simply no explanation for the
strange, ice-cold drafts and the creepy thumping sounds at night. Avery herself had
heard them a few times since she’d been in town, but Kate told her she’d been hearing
them for months before that. And over the last week, there’d been some even stranger
stuff. A few times the furniture had been shifted into slightly different locations—even
though no one
admitted to moving it—and some supplies had gone missing. She and Kate had taken to
saying “boo” at each other whenever the Inn creaked or the wind moaned.

And Avery didn’t even want to get started on the odd guests. Such as the group of
women from Australia who’d been drunk for three days. They must have spent every evening
at the Rusty Nail. Or the guy last week who’d looked like some upscale mobster, complete
with a slick Italian suit and a ridiculously heavy gold watch. He’d stayed all of
one night, leaving behind a stack of old newspapers that was almost a foot high.

Good Lord, what
was
she doing here?

Avery couldn’t stop thinking about her work at the Recovery Center. Still, she didn’t
feel ready to return. She needed to come to terms with what had happened, and until
she did, she’d stay in Star Harbor. How long that would take, she had no idea. But
as each day passed, Avery felt her future slipping farther and farther away.

As if on cue, the antique black phone on the reception desk rang.

“Star Harbor Inn, how may I help you?” she said in her best telephone voice. “All
right. Let me check the reservation book for next year. Please hold on a moment.”
Avery placed the phone on the counter and bent down to retrieve the leather ledger
from underneath the desk. Why Aunt Kate couldn’t go digital was beyond her. Just as
she bent her head, the front door to the Inn opened and snapped shut, letting in a
biting gust of cold air.

“I’ll be with you in just a moment,” she said as she continued to fumble for the heavy
reservation book. “Ah, got it.” She pulled it out from under the desk and plopped
it onto the wood. Unfortunately, the book hit the pen she was about to use and it
began to roll toward the edge of the desk. Standing on her toes, she leaned over to
grab it, catching it just before it fell off the side. Then she looked up.

Directly at the most handsome man she’d ever seen in her life.

He was huge, easily six-four, and he filled the small foyer so completely that all
the air seemed to be sucked out from her lungs. Despite the thick coat he wore, she
could
tell he was in impeccable shape from the way the cloth was stretched over his broad
shoulders and how his jeans hugged his long legs. And his boots? Enormous.

Embarrassed that she was even considering the size of his feet, she jerked her gaze
up, cheeks beginning to flush. It was a mistake.

Because now she was staring at his face. Hair as black as a raven’s wing swung over
his forehead, tousled by the winter wind. Prominent cheekbones and full, lush lips
made him look both angular and alluring. But his eyes were what really got her. A
curious mix of green and amber, they seemed to glow behind the glasses he wore. He
was sinfully beautiful. Could you call a man beautiful? This one was, despite the
hard line of his jaw and a nose that looked like it had been broken more than once.
It was the imperfection that made him gorgeous. So gorgeous it was scary.

And as she appraised him, he was surely returning the favor, those oddly colored eyes
sweeping over what he could see of her behind the desk. His mouth dropped open a little—was
he about to say something?—and his gaze sharpened. And then it happened. The thing
that robbed her of any ability to function. His lips curled up on one side, displaying
straight white teeth, and he smiled. Directly at her.

The small quaver in her belly told Avery one thing: this man was trouble with a capital
“T.” And for her, a woman who attempted never to take anything at face value, who
tried to look impartially at every issue before making a decision, the fact that her
body wasn’t listening to her brain was bad. Really, really bad.

A moment passed. Or maybe it was two.

“Hello? Hello?” the woman on the end of the line squawked.

“I think you’d better get that,” the man rumbled bemusedly in a low, deep voice that
warmed her from within.

She blinked and scrambled off the desk before snatching up the ancient phone and flipping
the huge book open. “Yes, I’m here,” she said. “March twentieth? Yes, we have availability
that week. When would you like to come? Okay, to reserve that I’ll need a
credit card number.” She took down the woman’s information, giving her the cancellation
information in turn. “Wonderful. See you next March.” She hung up the phone and for
a moment, tried to gather her thoughts. Then she returned her attention to the fallen
angel before her.

“You must be a Grayson,” she said coolly, trying her best to sound dispassionate.

“I see that my reputation precedes me,” the man said smoothly. “You look familiar,
too, but I know we’ve never met.”

“Emma Newbridge—now Emma Bishop—is my sister.”

“You look like her, except for the hair.”

“Oh,” she said, self-consciously sweeping the mass of it over her shoulders, hiding
the length from him. “Yes, a lot of people say that.”

Orange. There was no delicate way to put it. Her hair was bright orange. Always had
been. While Emma had been gifted with deep, auburn hair that shone like mahogany in
the sun, she’d been cursed with hair the color of a ripe pumpkin. Most of the time
she wore it in a long braid down her back or up in a twist so people wouldn’t gape
so much. And when she met with her clients it was always in a tight bun. Not anticipating
any guests at the Inn today, she’d worn it down. From the way this man was staring,
she wished she hadn’t.

“So how may I help you?” Despite her jitteriness, she met his gaze evenly.

Without breaking eye contact, he stepped closer to the desk and leaned one large forearm
against it. “I need a room.”

With difficulty, she swallowed. He was making it impossible to be rational. “Why don’t
you stay with one of your brothers? I’m sure they’d be happy to have you.”

“I’ve been staying with Val on that damned houseboat of his. It’s no good for writing,
sleeping … or anything else.”

Blinking, she tried to focus. “So, ah, how long will you be staying?”

“Indefinitely.” He was still staring at her with great interest.

“We don’t really do that here—”

“Theo,” he supplied.

“This isn’t really a long-term kind of place. For one thing, it’s very expensive.”
For another, having you stay here would be dangerous
. She knew her aunt would tell her that turning away customers during the low season,
especially when the Inn was empty, was bad for business, but she tried to convince
herself she was simply looking out for his best interests.

“You don’t think I can afford it?”

“No,” she said quickly. “What I meant to say was that if you’re going to be staying
in town for a while, you might want to consider renting an apartment instead. It would
be more cost-effective.”

“Cost isn’t an issue.”

“Even so, sir, I think that—”

“Theo,” he insisted.

“
Theo
, I think that you should find someplace else.” Somewhere far away from the Inn where
she wouldn’t be distracted by him. She needed to figure out her long-term game plan
for getting back on track with her career. The last thing she needed was to be tempted
into some short-term affair that could only go nowhere.

“Clearly, you don’t have a background in sales,” he said wryly.

The redness suffusing her cheeks was answer enough.

“Look, do you have any available rooms or don’t you?” he asked softly. But there was
hard steel behind his voice.

“We do, but—”

“Then I’ll take one.” He reached into his pocket, pulled a credit card from his wallet,
and handed it to her.

Avery frowned as she looked down at his enormous hand. She reached for the card, but
as she grabbed it, her fingertips brushed his. Before she could even think, an
electric jolt raced from the place they’d touched and zapped up her arm. It wasn’t
static electricity—it was something different entirely. Now she was tingling. All
over. She snatched her shaking hand away and glanced up at him.

A mistake. Again.

This time he gave her a full smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling. This man
was
dangerous, no doubt about it. She quickly swiped the card, all too aware that he
was watching her every move.

“So,” she said when the card cleared, “would you like me to show you to your room?”

“That would be nice.”

“Follow me, then.” Immediately missing the sanctuary of the desk, she walked as briskly
as possible through the foyer. When she reached the staircase, she stopped and turned.
He was right there behind her, and though she knew it was unwise, she met his gaze,
praying he couldn’t tell how nervous she was. “After you,” she said, gesturing for
him to go up first.