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“Kelly, where’s Dad?” He kept his voice cool, kept himself controlled.

But fury was racing through him. Only one thing could cause a reaction

-9-

Lora Leigh

like this, only one thing would have changed the teasing, tempting little minx he had known into a terrified, scurrying little rabbit.

“The marina.” She licked her lips again, her gaze jumping away from him, her expression warring between fear and frustration. “I have to get dressed. I’ll…I’ll be down later.”

She ran from him. As quick as that she turned tail in those sloppy, ill-fitting clothes she was wearing and moved quickly from the kitchen to the staircase in the entryway and rushed upstairs.

She left him alone in the sunlit kitchen, his fists clenched, anger surging in his gut and his suspicions all but confirmed.

He turned abruptly and stalked to the phone, ripping it from the base hanging on the wall and punching in the marina’s number.

He waited through four rings impatiently, one hand propped on his hip, the other clenched around the phone with a force that should have shattered it.

“Mackay Marina.” His father’s booming voice suddenly came over the receiver.

“Hey, Dad, how’s it going?” Rowdy kept his voice calm, controlled.

“Hey, Rowdy, not too bad.” Ray Mackay chuckled. “How did you get to call so early? That CO Of yours sleeping on the job?”

“Hell if I know,” he drawled. “I didn’t sign up for another tour, Dad.”

He had planned to, had every intention of doing so until his last birthday passed and he realized that running from some things wasn’t working.

“I’m home. Showed up about seven this morning.” Tension suddenly sizzled across the line.

“You’re home?” His dad’s voice was deliberately bland, the tone mild.

But Rowdy knew his dad, sometimes too well.

“Yep. Saw Kelly too.”

-10-

NAUTI BUOY

He wasn’t a fool, but even if he had been the muttered curse that came across the line would have warned him.

“We’re on our way home.” Ray confirmed his worst fears. “We need to talk.”

Rowdy hung up the phone, stared around the kitchen then breathed out heavily as he wiped his hands over the short strands of his hair.

Hell’s fire. He came home to court his favorite girl, to settle down, to stop fighting what he knew was a losing battle. Had he come home too late?

ad

Kelly let the hot water from the shower flow over her, wash away her tears, though it couldn’t wash away the feeling of hands holding her down, of fetid breath on her face, hard, wet lips covering hers.

It couldn’t drown out the rage and anger, or the fear. It turned her skin pink from the heat and stung her tender flesh, but it couldn’t ease the need that lay just below the memories of a night she feared had changed her life forever.

Rowdy was home. All six-feet-four-inches of hard, muscled flesh and teasing sea-green eyes. He was home after more than a year away, a man full-grown, mature, and sexy as hell.

She wiped at her tears again, her breath hitching in her throat as she remembered one of the few nights she had followed him to the lake. She had known where he was going when he left, knew where to find him.

The houseboat was Rowdy’s pride and joy, and it was his escape. And she knew where he would head, to the Point, a serene cove where he and his buddies gathered on the weekends to drink, fish, to let off steam and party out the excessive energy they always seemed to have.

-11-

Lora Leigh

“Dad’ll kill me.” He had been just a little drunk, and way too sexy. His
sea-green eyes had darkened, his expression growing heavy with desire
as he pressed her against a tree
.

They had been hidden in the shadows from the rest of the group,
sheltered. The heat of summer and lust had wrapped around them. He
had been a man, and she had been too innocent, too uncertain in how to
contain the need that pulsed in every cell of her body.

“I won’t tell him,” she had whispered, her palms smoothing up his
chest, feeling the prickle of the light growth of body hair that spread over
his torso as his hands had gripped her hips, pulling her against his thighs.

“He’ll know I touched you.” His lips had quirked into a smile. “You’re
like pure, raw liquor, Kelly. And you go to my head faster.”

She had fought to breathe, to contain the explosion of satisfaction and
joy that rushed through her bloodstream.

“I’m leaving again tomorrow, baby.” At first the words hadn’t made
sense. “I took another tour. Damned good thing, because sure as hell I’d
end up doing this, and fuck us both up for good.”

Agony had washed over her body even as pleasure had exploded into
fragmented, flickering rays of sensation. His lips had covered hers, his
tongue teasing her as he sampled her kiss then tasted the tears that fell
from her eyes.

“One kiss, baby. Just this. Damn, you’re going to break my heart.”

He had kissed her as though he were starved for her. One hand had
curled in her long hair, the other had cupped her breast, his thumb rasping
over her engorged nipple, their moans whispering together as the summer
night enfolded them.

The hard length of his cock had pressed between her thighs, rasping
against the thin material of her bathing suit, caressing her swollen clit.

-12-

NAUTI BUOY

Even through the heavier material of his jeans she had felt the throb of his
erection, the length of it, the promise of passion and satisfaction.

“Don’t leave,” she had whispered as he drew back from her. “Don’t go,
Rowdy.”

“If I don’t, I’ll ruin us both forever…” He had set her from him, staring
down at her, his eyes raging with lust. “Don’t forget me, darlin’, because
sure as hell, I don’t think I’ll ever forget you.”

He had never touched her again. He had taken her back to the shore and walked her the short distance to the small parking area above the point. He had put her in her car and sent her home. And the next morning, he had been gone. And he had never touched her again. She had lived on fantasy and dreams, because Rowdy made certain there was no chance of a repeat performance. And she had plotted and planned for his return. She had moved out of her mother’s home into a small apartment in town. She had begun monthly visits to the local spa where she was plucked, waxed, toned and lotioned on a regular basis. For too short a time.

Within three months of moving out all her dreams had turned to ashes and fear had taken its place. Her own foolishness had led to her downfall, and pulling herself from the shadows of the terror she had experienced was taking all her strength. She didn’t know if she could survive dealing with Rowdy and her need for him, on top of it.

She leaned her head against the shower wall, her breath hitching as she fought back her tears. He knew something was wrong. There was no way to hide it. She looked at him now and she didn’t just see the man she had been in love with since she was a child and he was a teenager.

She saw someone she couldn’t fight, couldn’t struggle from if she needed to. She saw a threat.

-13-

Lora Leigh

Her fists clenched as she pressed them against the tile, anger building in her chest until she wondered if she would be able to hold back the screams that pressed at the back of her throat.

She loved him. She had loved him forever. Dreamed of him, ached for him, waited for him. And now she was too damned scared to even welcome him home.

Are you my good girl, Kelly?

She flinched at the memory of the rasping voice at her ear as a hard male body held her down, as the slickened fingers of the other hand probed between her buttocks, ignoring her struggles, her muted screams through the gag over her mouth.

She had been bleeding from the numerous cuts he had made on her body after he tied her spread-eagled on her bed. The wounds had burned like fire as they bled, the adrenaline pumping through her, making the blood race through her body and pour from the cuts. It had made her weak, made it hard to think; to work the hastily tied gag loose enough for one piercing scream as she felt him attempt to penetrate her rear.

God, she hated the memory of it. Hated the feeling of helplessness that followed her, even now. She had been unable to fight; unable to protest anything he did to her. And the nightmares that alone brought left her shaking in the darkest hours of the night.

She had been terrified of Rowdy knowing. Fearing he would blame her, that any chance she had of being held by him in the future would be gone.

Because they weren’t finished. He had assured her they weren’t finished, that the time would come when she
would
be his woman. And she had known what that meant. Had known that there were hungers, pleasures Rowdy would give her that she would never experience with another man. Pleasures that she feared had now been taken from her.

-14-

NAUTI BUOY

But even more, she had feared for Rowdy. He would have never stayed where he was if he knew what was going on at home. He would have left, with or without permission, he would have returned for vengeance. Rowdy protected those he cared about, and Kelly knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he would have come racing home, even if it meant going AWOL.

She rolled her head against the shower wall, clenching her eyes closed, seeing Rowdy, his gaze suspicious, his expression hard, determined. He would know now. Dawg and Natches had promised to keep the knowledge to themselves only until Rowdy returned home. And that knowledge might very well destroy what was left of her heart.

Shame curled through her mind, lashed at her emotions and left her stomach churning with the sick realization that there was no longer a way to hide from him. As long as he was a world away, she could pretend, for short periods of time, that it hadn’t happened. That everything was the same as it had always been, and that the sick bastard who attacked her wasn’t now trying to finish the job. She could pretend…

But now Rowdy was home. And Kelly knew, once he learned the truth, he would never let it rest. He would find the stalker tormenting her, or he would die in the effort. And the fear of his death overshadowed even the fear of the threat she faced herself. Because life without the promise of seeing Rowdy, of hearing his laughter and the dark promise of passion in his voice, was a life Kelly didn’t want to contemplate. A life she knew she didn’t want to face.

-15-

Lora Leigh

Ray Mackay was a big man. At fifty, he was still a powerful man, with hazel eyes and black hair only beginning to gray. His weathered face was beginning to crease with deep laugh lines at the sides of his eyes. Eyes that were usually cheerful, always warm and friendly.

Rowdy was waiting on the front porch of the two-story white and red farmhouse when his dad pulled into the driveway, the dark green Jeep Laredo parking beside Rowdy’s Harley.

Maria Mackay was out of the jeep before Ray turned the engine off, rushing up the cement walkway, her gray-blue eyes concerned as she met his gaze.

“Is Kelly okay?” Maria Benton Mackay was still slender for her forty-two years of age, the summer shorts and crisp, white cotton shirt showing off her tanned legs and arms attractively.

“Why wouldn’t she be?” He leaned against the railing, watching her with narrowed eyes. “And why do I have a feeling that if I had warned ya’ll I was coming home, that I might have found my way barred?”

He could see it in her face, in his father’s heavyset expression. They hadn’t expected him, and they weren’t comfortable with him being there alone with Kelly. And that just pissed him off now. Whatever the hell was going on, one thing should have been set in cement in their heads and that was the fact that he would die before he hurt Kelly.

“I’d never bar you from your own home, Douglas.”

-16-

NAUTI BUOY

He winced. Maria was the only person who called him Douglas, and the snap in her voice when she said it now was as sharp as a knife. No one called him Douglas, ever. But hell, she had taught him in school and breaking her of the habit wasn’t easy.

He crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at her intently as she stepped onto the porch.

“I’m going to check on Kelly.” She moved for the door.

“Not yet.” He didn’t move, he didn’t intend for his voice to lower warningly, or his body to tense as he watched a main source of information attempt to escape. But he wanted answers, and she wasn’t running off until he had them.

“Go on, Maria.” Ray stepped up behind her, his large hands settling on her shoulders as he gave them a comforting squeeze. “I’ll talk to Rowdy. We’ll be in soon.”

She glanced up at Rowdy, worry and regret shimmering in her eyes before she turned to her husband, kissing his cheek gently before moving into the house.

Rowdy had never been comfortable with his dad’s demonstrative relationship with Kelly’s mother. From the first night he had seen them together he had noticed the care and joy his father showed in the woman. It was a radical change from the relationship he remembered his father sharing with his mother before her death.

Rowdy’s attention fixed on his father, watching as he swiped his fingers through his hair before burying his hands in his jeans pockets.

“Was she raped?” Rowdy lifted the bottle of water to his lips, taking a long sip as he watched Ray’s eyes darken painfully.

Ray breathed out roughly, his shoulders shifting as he lowered his head.

-17-

Lora Leigh

“Attacked,” he finally muttered. “She wasn’t raped. But she was cut up pretty bad, traumatized. And it gets worse.” He lifted his head and Rowdy wondered if his father could see the pure murder burning inside him now.

“How can it be worse?” He kept his voice even, cool, but he couldn’t still the rage blazing now.