First Do No Evil: Blood Secrets, Book 1 (41 page)

“Damn it, Charlie,” she muttered as they both lunged for the plate of deviled eggs.

Triumphantly he held out the rescued eggs. “No harm done.”

“To the eggs.” She arched a matter-of-fact brow and made a quick survey of each high heel.

He set down the plate on the porch swing and moved in close. One hand found her hip and the other grazed her palm, and magically her arm rose with his. Her body canted forward until he could feel the brush of her warm breasts against his chest. Her knees buckled every so slightly as he pulled her against him. She was trembling at first, but then she steadied. Her heart beat against him, keeping time with his own, and their breathing synchronized—as if their bodies knew how to talk to each other even if they didn’t.

He swallowed hard
. Man up, Charlie
.

She shifted positions, bringing her hips in line with his, and by now, at least one part of him needed an admonishment to
man down
. “About that dance.”

Sliding out of his arms, she quick-stepped back, almost tumbling off the steps in the process. She skirted him, retrieved the platter off the porch swing and stuck it in his hands. “Welcome home, Charlie. The eggs are for you.”

“You remembered.”

Her nose scrunched up. “What?”

“Deviled eggs are my favorite.”

“Are they?”

“C’mon Peaches, don’t be mad.”

“Stop calling me Peaches. Mad about what?”

He squinted at her. She squinted back with no trace of animosity. Surely she wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. He refused to accept this display of equanimity as truth. She was either mad and covering it up by playing it cool, or she had amnesia, and amnesia was the least parsimonious explanation for her behavior he could think of. “Look,
Anna
, can we go somewhere private and talk?”

Shaking her head emphatically, she said, “No way.”

“Why not?”

“First, it would be rude to disappear from your welcome home party. Simone and Nate have gone to a lot of trouble over this affair, and second it was Simone who asked me to bring the eggs, and third—”

She might’ve disabled his hands by sticking him with the platter of eggs, but he was far from disarmed. After all, he was carrying a backup weapon. In less than a heartbeat he’d loaded up the trusty charm gun. “Hey, girl.” He aimed a smoky look her way, one that could have felled hundreds, maybe thousands of librarians in a single shot.

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Are you supposed to be Ryan Gosling in this scenario? Since when do you follow librarian humor?”

“Since I saw your facebook page.”

“You checked out my facebook?” Her lips transformed into a defiant pink pucker.

“You’re not the girl next door anymore, Anna. You’re the hot librarian.”

Her eyes flashed with determination, but her mouth signaled his impending victory. Anna’s
you-cannot-make-me-smile
pucker was a sure sign he could.

He cocked the charm gun. “Hey, girl. When’s amnesty day at the library?”

He pulled the trigger. “‘Cause I need to turn in an apology, and it’s ten years overdue.”

Her pink pucker twitched at the edges. Wait for it…ha! Like a field of prickly poppies answering the call of the morning sun, her expression opened and transformed into a thing of beauty—the best smile he’d seen since the day he’d left Tangleheart, Texas.

“Twelve years if you want to be accurate.” The smile crept into her voice too.

“So you did miss me.”

Her face flushed, and her mouth flat-lined. “I’m just pointing out the facts, Charlie. No apology is necessary, and I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I think the past belongs in the past.”

“Then let’s go someplace private and talk about the future.”

“You’ve got more nerve than sense, Charlie.”

“And you’ve got great legs.”

“I run.”

His gaze crawled unapologetically from her well-turned calves, up up up and around her curves, climbing higher and higher until at last it reached her big-old baby-blue eyes. “It shows.”

“Guess running’s my own form of therapy, so I won’t be needing your apology or your psychiatric services, Charlie. I’m over it.”

Blinking hard, he forced his attention away from her knock-out body and onto her words. And when those words sank in, he said, “I’m not a psychiatrist.”

“I heard—”

“You heard wrong. I’m a Pediatrician.”

“But you don’t even like kids.”

“You sure about that?” He’d always liked kids. Just wasn’t the kind of thing a guy wanted front and center on his high-school yearbook page.

Charlie “Drex” Drexler—student body president, captain of the football team, voted man most likely to appear on The Bachelor and fail to propose in the end, really likes small fry
.

Nope. Never would’ve worked.

Anna tilted her head, surveying him. “You’ve changed.”

Finally, they were getting somewhere. Because he had, in fact, changed a great deal. And he was smart enough to realize he was going to have to prove to her that he was a different man. She wasn’t about to let him take her home with him, or anywhere else for that matter, anytime soon if he didn’t. He didn’t know much about what Anna Kincaid had been up to all these years, but one thing was certain, fantasizing about getting Charlie Drexler naked wasn’t it.

First Do No Evil

Carey Baldwin

One killer is in her blood. The other is in her house.

Blood Secrets, Book 1

There’s a killer lurking in Dr. Skylar Novak’s family tree: the gene for breast cancer. That’s why her brilliant brother invented the Bella vaccine. But even if the miracle drug protects her from the cancer that took her mother’s life, it can’t save Sky from the flesh and bone evil stalking her in secret.
 

When the killer strikes, detective Daniel Benson finds himself in the wrong place at the right time. The bold detective manages to save Sky’s life…just in time for her to return the favor. Survival leads to seduction, and Danny risks everything—his career, even his life, to keep Sky safe. But will the buried sins they uncover cost him her heart?

Danny’s strong arms may hold her close, but only Sky can stop the terror that’s coming next…

Warning: Contents include: One heart-melting hero—good luck getting this delicious detective out of your head. One reluctant heroine—wielding a Glock was never on her to-do list. One crazed villain—an entire flock of baa baa black sheep won’t be enough to put you to sleep. And a lifesaving vaccine with one deadly side effect—
murder
.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Cincinnati OH 45249

First Do No Evil

Copyright © 2012 by Carey Baldwin

ISBN: 978-1-60928-881-5

Edited by Lindsey Faber

Cover by Angela Waters

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: June 2012

www.samhainpublishing.com