Authors: Lori Foster
He’d planned it that way.
Headlights shone on the impressive and ornate iron fencing that enclosed the front of his property. The rest of the land, all fifteen acres, was protected with electric fencing. Only the lake offered free access, but that, too, was secured with lights and alarms.
Agog, Molly twisted in her seat to look out each window, taking in the view. “This is where you live? Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
She dropped back into her seat. “It’s like vacation property.”
“Pretty much.” Once he reached the security gate, Molly went silent. All movement stopped, and she stared as Dare rolled down a window and punched in a private code that opened the gates. He drove beyond them and they closed again.
She just stared.
In response to her mute amazement, Dare told her, “Be prepared.”
She blinked fast as if to refocus. “For what?”
“Chris will come out to meet us. My girls, too.”
After moistening dry lips with a quick lick, she said, “I heard you mention them. On the phone, I mean. Back at the motel room.”
Her stilted speech amused Dare. “I do love my girls.”
She cleared her throat. “Chris, too?”
“Definitely.” Knowing she didn’t entirely understand, and willing to tease her, Dare said, “Chris will try to intimidate you, so be prepared.”
She cleared her throat. “Chris is…?”
“Housekeeper, manager, assistant—pretty much everything.”
“Everything?”
she asked, her voice high and faint.
Dare couldn’t help but grin. “Sure.” And then, “Just ask him. He’ll tell you how important he is.”
Her jaw loosened. “
He
will?” Then, before Dare could reply, “Chris is a guy?” And then with confusion, “You live with another man?”
“Yeah.”
“Does…he have a wife? Or maybe a girlfriend?”
“No.” Dare knew she was trying to figure out the dynamic. He waited two heartbeats, then said, “Chris is gay.”
“Gay?” Mystified, she stared at him. “But you’re not…?”
Dare gave her a look. “Are you actually asking me that? Because I thought I’d made my sexual preferences pretty clear already.”
“I thought you did, too. But then you kept mentioning Chris and your girls, and I wasn’t sure what to think.”
“I’m not involved with anyone.”
“Good.” Her eyes widened when she said that, and she quickly clarified, “I mean…okay.” Thoughts visibly churning, she took in the woods and the dirt road that changed to pavement, and then the landscaping as it opened up to his home. She fell back in her seat.
The sight of manicured lawns under bright lights that flickered on with their progress distracted her.
Molly gave up. “Okay, then, since you and Chris don’t have that kind of relationship, why would he want to intimidate me?”
“Suspicion, most likely.” And because that explanation didn’t suffice, Dare added, “I never bring women here. Hell, I don’t bring anyone here. You’re a first.”
Her interested gaze transferred to him. “You don’t?”
Dare shook his head.
“But…why?”
“Policy.” He glanced at her, saw her frowning and said, “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
Pulling around the circular drive, Dare stopped in front of the pedimented entry. Warm lights poured through the cut glass in the door, the transom and the sidelights, spilling onto the front porch and out onto the paved walk-way. The double doors opened and his girls shot out in berserk joy. Each of them had a stuffed toy clamped in her teeth.
Chris came to stand at the top step. He folded his arms over his bare chest and waited.
Eyes widening even more, Molly asked in a whisper, “Is that him?”
Wondering what she’d expected, Dare glanced at Chris. His personal assistant stood there shirtless, sloppy shorts hanging low, feet bare. His shaggy black hair became even more disheveled by a brisk wind.
Shaking his head, Dare accepted that Chris looked nothing like a businessperson and very much like a lake bum. “I think we’ve kept him up past his bedtime.”
“Oh, dear.” Casting Dare a sideways glance, she said, “He was waiting up for you?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that part of his job description, or just because he was concerned?”
“Most likely, it was curiosity.” Dare grinned at her. “Chris and I are best friends. Like brothers, really.”
She let out her breath, but asked with accusation, “Did you know what I thought?”
“Maybe.” Tamping down his grin, Dare said, “It gave you something to think about besides your kidnapping.”
She frowned at him but said nothing more.
“And there are my beautiful girls, Sargeant and Tai’ree, better known as Sargie and Tai.”
Eyes rounding, Molly stared as the two Labs bounded toward them.
“Dogs,” Molly said, now completely exasperated. “So Chris is a guy, and your
girls
are animals.”
“They’re members of the family.” Impatient to see them, Dare didn’t pull on around into the garage. Before he had the SUV in Park, the dogs were at his door, jumping with undiluted joy. They dropped their toys to yap, bark and make other dog noises of pleasure.
For only a moment, Dare was able to take his focus off Molly.
He opened the door and was greeted with sloppy kisses, snuffling and wildly thumping tails.
Laughing, he stroked them both, taking the time to scratch Tai’s back just above her tail, which was her favorite spot and never failed to put her into a doggy trance. Sargie immediately did her Chewbacca impersonation, sort of a growling yodel of eagerness, until he rubbed her ears.
“Come on, ladies. I have someone for you to meet.” He rounded the car but not in time to open Molly’s door for her. After stepping out, she looked at both dogs and gave a huge grin.
“I thought you had daughters. Or…something.”
“Something furry,” he told her. The dogs eyed Molly, determined she was fair game and charged over to her.
Molly went to one knee—a mistake given that both girls took that as an invitation and immediately knocked her to the ground so they could jump on her, slobber on her and generally give her loads of wet dog affection.
Waiting to see how she’d react, Dare crossed his arms and watched. If she acted like she needed help, or was afraid, of course he’d intervene. But if she was going to stay with him for a spell, and she was, she needed to know how to deal with his dogs.
To his surprise and pleasure, Molly laughed.
“Oh, my God, they’re enormous.” Catching a collar in each hand, she moved the dogs back enough to sit up again. She opened her arms and embraced them both. “That’s the most loving I’ve had in…forever.”
Interesting. Dare pulled Sargie away. “She’s seventy pounds. And this beast of a girl—” he retrieved Tai “—is a solid eighty-five. Tai is the older and calmer of the two, but that’s not saying much. They both think they’re
Lap
radors instead of Labradors. If you’re on their level, they’ll sit on you. Or at least try to.”
“Guess I’ll have to remember that—not that I minded, though. It’s nice to be so accepted.”
Because she wasn’t used to it? She’d said many of her readers could count as suspects, too. Family, readers, ex-fiancé… He needed to start making a damned list.
Holding out a hand to her, Dare hauled her to her feet and waited while she dusted off that lush backside.
Both dogs now sat on their haunches, still trembling with energy and excitement but curious about Molly, too.
She offered a hand for them to sniff and then took turns petting them. Tai gave her a soulful look, earning a hug. “I love animals. Dad wanted nothing to do with pets when I was growing up, and my apartment doesn’t allow them. I’d actually been thinking of getting my own house just so I could get a dog. Probably not one as big as yours, though.”
Dare couldn’t imagine not having pets around. They were part of the welcome he got whenever he had time away from work. “House or dog?”
Grinning, she said, “Both—but I was talking about the dogs.” She straightened, looked beyond them to his home and shook her head in wonder. “And here I’d thought to impress you with my success. What a joke.”
“I am impressed.”
“At least enough to let me hire you, knowing I can pay up. But we should probably discuss terms, don’t you think?”
“Soon.” He released the dogs to retrieve his duffel from the SUV, and then put a hand to the small of Molly’s back to get her moving forward. “That’s Chris on the porch. He’ll stand there and stare all night.”
Under her breath, Molly said, “He’s as big as you are.”
“I’m bigger,” Chris announced, “if you know where to look.”
“Knock it off, Chris.” But Dare was trying not to laugh.
Aghast, Molly whispered, “He heard me?”
“He hears everything,” Chris told her. “You might want to remember that.”
“Voices carry here,” Dare explained in a normal tone, “especially at night. It’s the lake that does that.”
“There’s a lake?”
He could show her that later. Right now he wanted to get her out of the chill night air, get them both settled and eat real food. There was a world of difference in March weather between Kentucky and California. He saw her shivering and wished that he’d thought to buy her a jacket.
“Let’s get you inside.”
The dogs ran up the steps ahead of them, but then ran back down—and up again.
Dare stopped before Chris. “Molly, meet Chris Chapey, my personal assistant. Chris, this is—”
“The complication. I know.” But Chris no sooner said that than he got a good look at Molly in the light. Arrested, he studied her face, saw the injuries, the marks of abuse. “Did Dare drag you here?”
“We’re tired, Chris. Can you save the sarcasm for later? After I’ve eaten, maybe?”
His gaze went over Molly, and his brows came down—proof that Chris abhorred abuse as much as Dare did.
“Not a problem.” Still with his attention on Molly, Chris said to Dare, “Just tell me that someone paid for this.”
“Oh, yeah.”
He nodded with satisfaction. “Glad to hear it.”
To break the awkward exchange, Molly cleared her throat. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mr. Chapey.” She held out a hand. “Molly Alexander. Please call me Molly.” Her obvious eagerness to make his acquaintance stymied both men.
Dare watched in amazement as Chris gave in and took her hand. Of course, Molly wasn’t just any woman posing as an interloper; she was a woman badly victimized who still had a backbone of steel.
Who could be immune to that?
Molly enfolded Chris’s hand in both of hers. “I’m sorry that we’ve kept you from your bed. I promise that I’m going to try to stay out of your way. I don’t want to be a bother.”
Given the shape she was in, that took Chris aback. He glanced at Dare in confusion, then said, “Definitely complicated.”
Dare leaned against the outer entry wall. “Told you so.”
“I get up early,” Chris said in an uncharacteristic effort to explain himself. “Crack of dawn to run with the dogs. Otherwise—”
“I totally understand. And again, my apologies for messing up your routine.”
“Chris’s routine is whatever I say it is.”
Chris narrowed his eyes at him. “Does that mean you’ll be running the dogs tomorrow?”
“Yeah, it does.”
“Great. Then I’ll sleep in.”
“’Fraid not.” Dare half grinned as he told Chris, “I have a long list of things for you to do.”
Molly ignored their exchange and, still holding Chris’s hand, said, “Mr. Chapey, you’re the one who set up the chartered flight, right?”
“It’s Chris, and yeah, I make all of Dare’s travel arrangements.”
“Thank you so much for that. I was dreading a commercial flight after…well, everything.”
In case she didn’t understand, Chris said, this time slowly, “It’s what Dare told me to do.”
“I understand that, but you did it so quickly and your choice was terrific. I really do appreciate it.”
She was killing Chris with kindness—and Dare loved it. “Yeah, well, no problem.” He gave Dare a “help me” look.
Molly finally freed his hand. “Good grief, I’m keeping you out here talking when you have to be freezing.”
“I’m fine—but you have goose bumps.”
“It’s probably only fifty degrees here, and damp, too.” She rubbed her arms. “At least I’m dressed, but you’re all but naked.”
Chris’s brows shot up. “I’m wearing shorts.”
“That barely cover you.”
He shifted his stance, put off by what sounded like censure. “Is that a complaint?”
Her smile didn’t quite answer one way or the other. “It is so beautiful here.” She turned a full circle. “And so incredibly quiet.”
“Secure, too,” Dare told her. Then, tired of the verbal games, he asked Chris, “You reset the alarm codes?”
“Soon as you cleared the gate. And I went grocery shopping for you, too. Fresh food is in the kitchen. After I put your car away, I could cook you something—”
“I’ll take care of it.” He turned to Molly. “Chris makes a lousy cook.”
“Says the master chef.”
Molly looked impressed. “You’re a master chef?”
“Pure sarcasm.” Chris ushered her along and then held the door open for her. “But he is good. At freakin’ everything. So get used to it.”
Molly stepped inside and went awestruck again. “Holy cow.”
Chris paid no attention to her. “Wasn’t sure if you needed it or not, but I freshened up the back bedroom upstairs.”
“Thanks. I’ll get her settled.”
“Want me to put your things away?”
Normally, yes, but this time Dare’s priority was Molly, not checking messages. “I’ll do it.”
“Okay, then. I’ll be right back.” He took the keys from Dare and strolled out to the SUV.
D
ARE WATCHED
M
OLLY AS
she looked around the central foyer.
“It’s a mansion.”
“Not really.” He was a man of comfort, and, as such, though the house had a lot of amenities, it wasn’t fancy enough to be called a mansion.
“I’ll get lost in here.”
Dare shook his head. “I wouldn’t expect someone with your background to be in awe of a house.”
She gave him a telling look. “I’ve known plenty of wealthy people, and they’re not at all like you. What I mean is, you don’t act like you’re rich. You’re too nice and normal for that.”