Kerry laughed. “Not always, from what I hear.”

“Oh?”

“As I told you, I met Jenny through the Hendren Foundation. She was engaged to Hal Hendren when he was shot.”

“Cage’s brother?”

“Yes.”

“The missionary?”

“Right.”

Linc shook his head. “I must have taken a blow on the head I don’t remember. Or is this as confusing as it sounds?”

“It is rather complicated. Jenny knew the brothers quite well. You see she grew up with them. The Hendrens adopted her when her parents were killed.”

“So they were all one big, happy family?”

“Yes.”

Linc’s eyebrows shot up and he grinned lecherously. “Sounds kinky to me.”

“Hardly. They were reared in a parsonage. Cage’s father is a minister.”

“Preacher’s kid, huh? No wonder I liked him immediately. Bet he’s a hell-raiser.”

“Until Jenny got hold of him.”

Even though Linc was bedraggled, his eyes sparkled. “I think I’m looking forward to meeting this Jenny.”

Kerry laughed. “You should be, but not for the reason you think. She’s a real lady. She and Cage, who was a lady killer extraordinaire, are devoted to each other. They have one child, a little boy, and she’s expecting another. I’m sure that’s the only reason she didn’t come with Cage to pick us up.”

“Well, if she had come along, I don’t know where we would have put her.”

Linc’s comment called attention to how cramped they were. They were sitting so close that Kerry’s knee was propped on his thigh. As unobtrusively as possible, she moved it away.

Both were remembering the kiss he had given her before the airplane arrived. There were kisses. And then there were kisses. And that kiss had been the kind a man gives a woman he wants badly. It had been ravenous and undisciplined and carnal. Each time Kerry thought about it, she trembled with aftershocks. And each time Linc thought about it, his manhood threatened to embarrass him.

“Are you comfortable?” she asked huskily.

His gaze popped up to hers. At first he thought she had read his mind, or, God forbid, noticed the rigidity behind the fly of his pants. Then he realized that she was looking at his shoulder, not his lap.

“No, it’s nothing,” he said in a strained voice.

She shivered at the bloodstains on his tank top. He could have been killed so easily. He had risked his life. It would be impossible to repay him for the sacrifices he had made for her and the children, but she knew that some kind of thank you, insufficient though it would be, was in order.

“Linc?”

Because he couldn’t look at her without his desire running rampant, he had leaned his head against the wall of the aircraft and closed his eyes. Now, when she spoke his name with such appeal and laid her cool, dry hand on his arm, his eyes opened slowly and he turned his head to look at her.

“Hmm?”

“What you did back there...” Her voice trailed off and she lowered her eyes. “I want to thank you for everything. I...I...” The right words wouldn’t come. She couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t come close to sounding like a declaration of her love. Unwisely, she blurted out the thing that came to mind. “I’ll give you a check for the fifty thousand as soon as possible.”

He sat perfectly still for several moments. It was the calm before the storm. He violently jerked his arm from beneath her hand. He wanted to tell her to keep the goddamn money. Money! Is that all she thought this had meant to him?

“Go to hell.”

Tags: Sandra Brown Hellraisers Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net