Desiree Holt

Chapter One

Cameron Greeley blew a wayward red curl out of her eye and wondered how bad prison really was. Surely she could find some nice woman to protect her. Couldn’t she? Because what she was contemplating could land her plenty of time behind bars if things didn’t go her way.

“Stop worrying.”

Cam ignored her companion and her words. Did they still make prisoners wear those ugly orange jumpsuits? The color would clash with her dark auburn hair.

“It’s all going to work out, Cam,” her best friend and conspirator whispered as they hid in their unsuspecting victim’s laundry room.

“This is all your fault,” Cameron whispered back in a voice strung tight with nerves. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life in prison wearing an awful jumpsuit the color of a clown’s wig. And desperately trying to please a woman named Sue so she won’t share me with the other inmates.”

Thea Brandon’s brown eyes gazed back at her with astonishment. “You have put way too much thought into that, hon. Gabe Holder is not going to have you arrested. You’re not going to prison much less sharing a cell or your…um…goodies with a woman named Sue.” Dark brown curls bobbed as Thea shook her head. “Sheesh, where do you come up with this crap? You’re an attorney, for heaven’s sake. You should be more realistic.”

Cam shifted her weight wondering if their victim would ever show up. His housekeeper, Jimmie, had assured both women Gabe wouldn’t be out later than midnight. That’s when he generally returned from his monthly poker game.

“It’s because I studied the law that I know exactly what’s going to happen to us,” Cam hissed. “It will be all over the papers. My neighbors will say how I seemed like such a nice young woman. Mrs. Gilcrest will tell the reporters she always knew I was up to something fishy because I hired a lawn service instead of cutting my own grass. And more crap like that.”

How had she gotten to this place in her life? One glance at her best friend reminded her.

Two weeks ago Thea had called with the news that set off a chain of events.

“Gabe Holder is getting married,” Thea announced. “Or at least half the town thinks he is.”

Cam’s hand tightened on the receiver. Gabe? Married? Who the hell to? And why did she care? “Wha…”

“Did you hear me, Cam? I said the word’s all over town that Gabe’s getting married.”

A red curl drooped over her eye. Cam brushed it away with impatient hands. “Yeah, I heard you, Thea. Umm, I guess congratulations are in order.” Her voice held steady even as her stomach clenched.

“Hell, no, we aren’t congratulating the news. That money–desperate, backseat porn queen, Tina the Tart Tartinson, is the one who’s making the big announcement. She’s been divorced twice already and she’s got her fake fingernails so deep into Gabe the poor man doesn’t know his head from his ass,” Thea complained. “She’s going all over town bragging about how she’s about to bag Gabe, like he’s some big game cat.”

Tina? Tina the Tart? What the hell was Gabe thinking? Tina had more silicon in her than a computer.

“Umm.” Shit. What should she say? What the hell was she supposed to do about it? She and Gabe were over, had been for fifteen years. Ever since Gabe had broken her heart when he left Heron Bay to see the world. Why did she even care about him now or worry that he was marrying the town tramp?

“That’s the best you can do? The love of your life is marrying a two-bit street whore and you just sit there and mumble?” Thea’s voice screeched across the line, jolting Cam back to awareness.

“Crap, Thea, what do you want me to say? Gabe and I haven’t seen each other since he left Heron Bay. I seriously doubt he’ll want my opinion on his upcoming marriage. And why do I even care?” she retorted before getting up to pace the wide space of her office.

But apparently that was just a rhetorical question. Every bit of feeling she’d buried for Gabe Holder all these fifteen years apparently had just been waiting for a situation like this. Now it surged upward and grasped her in its clutch. Her shattered heart banged in her ribs and her nipples tightened, her pussy dampened with the memory of that one long-ago night.

“I really don’t want to have this conversation,” she said. “I have a life here and it doesn’t include some egotistical asshole who dumped me for his own ambitions.”

“Gabe never got over you,” Thea pointed out.

“And you know this how?”

“He looked for you all over town when he first came home. Interrogated everyone. Too bad for him your folks had already moved to Arizona. Jimmie finally told him you were living in Houston and working at some high-priced law firm.”

“He could have called me if he wanted to see me that badly.”

Yes, Gabe. Why didn’t you call?

Thea paused. “He was hurt pretty bad covering that uprising in Africa, in case you didn’t know. When he came back here and took over the paper he was a real mess. That’s when he let Tina latch on to him, like some money-sucking leech. I just know Gabe’s going to get worn out and buckle under the strain of that woman.” Another pause. “Do you want to be responsible for the entire town of Heron Bay’s loss of sanity if he marries that woman?”

“What do you want me to do, Thea?” Cam couldn’t keep the exasperation out of her voice, even as her body clenched remembering the one night she and Gabe had spent together and her head started to pound under the pressure “Drive into town and kidnap him until he sees reason?”

“Hey, you know? That’s a great idea, Cam.” Thea’s voice perked up. “I knew we could count on you.”