Excerpt: The Peacekeeper Journals IV: Shades of Love

*Excerpt*

“If you’re done staring,” he drawled out in a voice that had the south written all over it, “y’all can tell me what you’re doing trespassing on my property.”

Her nerve endings tingled. It wasn’t fair. Bedroom eyes and a voice hot enough to melt butter. No man should have that combination. She bet he had women lined up from one side of the house to the other just to be talked to.

Then what he’d said caught her attention. “Your house?”

An eyebrow arched. “Mine. Let’s just say I’m in charge of what goes on around here.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and saliva pooled in her mouth when the muscles in his forearms bulged. She moaned inwardly. Lord…what a time for those long dormant female hormones to kick in. Pushing back the screaming chorus, she tried to decide how to handle him.

“You gonna answer my question any time soon?”

His mocking words made her stiffen. Enough was enough. She had handled far worse in the last few years. She could deal with an overbearing overseer. “I wasn’t trespassing.”

He cocked his head at her. “Really? You have permission from the owners to be here?”

She almost said yes, but something in his eyes told her that would be a mistake. “I mean…I was working and then I just wanted to look around.”

That dimple flashed when he grinned and she groaned. It was as devastating as she’d thought it would be. He had to speak twice before she heard his next question.

“I said, you just happened to have a fifteen hundred dollar camera in your pocket when you went looking around?”

It took all that she had to keep her eyes steady. “I was curious.”

“You’re lying.”

Her mouth gaped open at his blunt statement. “How dare you?”

Patrick grinned again. He was having a grand time and he wasn’t even sure why. His ribs smarted, and his thigh hurt from her punches, but his curiosity was growing stronger by the minute.

The woman in front of him was a contradiction in terms. She was tall and thin, almost boyish in her shape, yet her face was the most feminine he’d ever seen. A perfect heart shape, with cupid bow lips and white even teeth. Her chin was softly pointed, and just a tad stubborn. Her cheeks were a beautiful rose, the color sitting high on the delicate bones. Her forehead was smooth and wide, but there was an adorable furrow between the eyes that bespoke unease.

And her eyes. Whoever had said the eyes were a window to the soul had never seen this girl. Slightly tilted, they were long-lashed and the pale, pale green of the Spanish moss that grew in the trees over the bayous back in Louisiana. But what was in them was less easily defined. They swirled with mysteries and hidden secrets that Patrick suddenly longed to discover. Who was this woman, and why was she sneaking around The Haunted House? He knew damn well she was no worker. No day laborer could afford the equipment she’d been using. It was time to find out the truth.

“You have one chance to give me your story. If I don’t like what I hear, I’m calling in the police.” Her eyes flashed and he bit back a chuckle. “And give up the lame I just work here excuse. It’s as thin as a wet sheet of paper.”

Her perfect lips thinned and he knew she was trying to figure out what to say to him. He could almost see the wheels turning.

“I’m not here to do any harm. I promise.” Her hands clasped in front of her and her gaze met his beseechingly. “I just wanted to look around.”

Patrick cocked his head. So, she’d decided to try the helpless female act. If her eyelashes fluttered any faster, she’d take off like a butterfly. “Is that so?”

“It is,” she said earnestly. “I’d just heard so many great things about the house, I was curious. Since you weren’t giving tours, I decided to pretend to be a construction worker so I could get in.” She beamed at him. “And it’s all I’ve heard it to be. You’ve done a wonderful job.”

Even though he knew she was purposely flattering him, he found himself affected by that beautiful smile. She certainly knew how to work a room. Dangerous as a rocking chair in a room full of long tailed cats, she was. Patrick cleared his throat. “So, the camera is just for personal use?”

“Oh yes. I’m an amateur photographer.”

He still wasn’t buying it. Something was off, he just couldn’t put his finger on it. “I think you’re telling me part of the truth, but not all of it. Try again.”

The sweet look on her face dropped away as if it had never been. “I don’t have to tell you anything else. I just came in for a look around and got a little lost. So give me my camera and I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Nope. Ain’t gonna happen. Ya haven’t convinced me. You ain’t goin’ nowhere until you do.”

“Give me my camera!”

To his surprise, she snatched at it, pushing him hard out of the way. Irritated all over again, he drabbed her around the waist, holding it up high out of her reach. She struggled, but he was too strong.

“Knock it off. You’re only going to hurt yourself.”

She ignored him and Patrick couldn’t help but notice the soft womanly feel of her body. As she moved against him, he could tell she might be long and lanky, but there were curves in all the right places. He decided it wasn’t a hardship to hold on a while longer.

“Let me go!”

Her voice was somewhat breathless and he wondered, with a sudden rush of heat to his groin, if she was feeling the same odd sense of attraction he was. That thought made him let her go abruptly, and she stumbled back against the wall.

Not looking at her, he opened up the camera, removed the memory card and tucked it in his pocket. Her squawk of surprise made him grin. “This stays with me, but if you want the camera back, you’ll have to tell me the truth.”

Those moss green eyes darkened into murky pools. “Damn it. That’s my property. You can’t just take it.”

“Sure I can. I just did.”

She stomped a foot. “Give it back.”

“I told you,” he said patiently. “The card stays. You’re trespassing on personal property, darlin’. You don’t have a right to any pictures you took here. Want the camera back? Explain to me why I shouldn’t have you arrested.”

He watched, fascinated, as she struggled with her temper and lost. Her fists went to her hips and she glared at him. “You want the truth? Fine. Here’s the truth. You’re messing with the first amendment, you jerk!” Her stubborn chin lifted and she tossed her head.

“I’m a reporter.”

*end of excerpt*