My Secret Fantasies

“You can come back to work,” she said between tears. “Maybe just take a few weeks off and all this will have died down. You can buy half my tearoom and we can run it together. I miss you, my friend.”

“Wow.” I wondered if the adrenaline had been at work for her, too, but that was still a really nice thing to offer. “That’s very generous—”

“Miranda.” Damien appeared beside us, pressing a palm on my shoulder and—oh, it felt so good—reaching for my hand. “Can we talk first? Privately?”

“We’ll have some questions for her, Damien.” One of the police officers spoke up. “Actually, we’ll need a formal statement from you, too.”

Damien nodded and Joelle pulled back, sniffling and clutching her cell phone. I noticed Damien’s hand stayed on my shoulder, warm and strong. I wanted to curl into him with a fierceness that rocked me to my core, but I had to stay strong. I couldn’t cave when times got tough. I wasn’t the coward Rick had made me out to be, running from my problems.

This time, I really was running toward something. Strength, wholeness, fulfillment. Wherever I landed, back in L.A. or somewhere else, it would be my decision.

“Can we talk afterward?” Damien asked, his cheek close to mine.

I inhaled the scent of him. Leather and musk, horses and cinnamon tea. It seemed impossible we’d been in each other’s arms just a few hours ago. It felt like a lifetime.

And no matter how difficult it might be to face him privately and not be swayed by the magnetic draw I felt whenever I was near him, I needed to at least say thank-you for what he’d done for me. He’d been right to worry about Rick. I shouldn’t have been so careless.

“Of course.” I tried to smile up at him, to prove to myself and to him that I was fine and strong and moving forward.

So it was really embarrassing that I chose that moment to burst into tears.

13

DAMIEN LOOKED TO HIS FRIEND on the local cop squad, who gestured toward Miranda as if to say “she’s all yours.”

If only she was.

He’d barely shown up in time to help her, and then his request for a private audience made her cry. Damien would give his attempts to win her back a negative ten.

“Miranda?” It tore him up to hear those sobs wrenched from her throat. “Should we talk now? Just sit for a minute before the police take our statements? They can speak to Joelle first.”

“No.” Miranda shook her head, adamant. “I’m sorry. I’m fine. It’s just been an emotional day.”

His brother’s words blared in his ears, about not being emotionally equipped to deal with romantic relationships. Damien was failing at this before he even started.

“Are you sure, miss?” The younger officer, a guy with a nameplate that said Squire, approached Miranda. “This should only take a few minutes.”

“I’m ready,” she said. “I really have to tell you what a bastard that guy has been to me.”

Damien wanted to hold her hand. Sit beside her while she told her story. But he’d been requested to make a statement, as well, since he’d had Barrow in a headlock when the police arrived. Besides, Miranda looked focused once she’d dried her tears. Something about the set to her shoulders told him she really needed to do this.

“She looks like she’ll be okay,” his friend Rafe assured him as he came over with a pad of paper and a pen in his hand. Rafe had been out to the farm more than once to ride his grandmother’s horse, which boarded in Damien’s stables, so they’d known each other awhile. “I wouldn’t let him talk to her if she didn’t seem ready, but my sense is the timing is good.”

“I hope you’re right.” Damien tried to respect the other man’s opinion, but it wasn’t easy to squelch the urge to tuck her under his arm and take her away from this nightmare.

“Do you want to say anything formal about the so-called erotic novel that she was writing, or do you want to ignore that facet of Barrow’s ranting?”

“Can I wait to see if Miranda wants to address that issue?”

Rafe grinned. “Mr. Fraser, I like to think we’re friends, but when I’m on the job I can’t let you match stories with your girlfriend.”

“In that case, I will say that Miranda is a creative force to be reckoned with, and she’s working on a novel in addition to her acting career and her entrepreneurial efforts.”

Rafe whistled as he transcribed the statement to his notebook. “Someone knows how to stick to the talking points.”