Elizabeth Lennox

After Hours Desire Excerpt

After Hours Desire - Kade - Small

“No!”  Frankie whispered, staring at the enormous, sexy man sitting behind the massive desk.  The man who had invaded her dreams almost every night for the past six month was leaning back in the chair, his feet propped up on the old, wooden desk!  The man who had distracted her during the days as well, to the point where she’d lost track of a person she was following! 

That mouth, which had featured so heavily in her fantasies, pressed slightly in reaction to seeing her.  Recognition flared and Frankie’s heart began to pound.  “NO!” She burst out again, this time more vehemently.  “No, no, no, no!”

 Spinning around, Frankie paced across the wide space between the horse stalls, the dirt floor covered straw and dust and…other things she wasn’t willing to identify at the moment.  She ignored the scents of well cared for horses mingling with dust and leather as she stomped her foot.  “This is not happening!  He isn’t here!” 

Standing in the middle of the wide space, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the air slowly ease out of her lungs.  But when she opened her eyes again, the man was still behind the massive desk of the stable manager’s office.  But now, his expression had changed from one of stunned surprise to…amusement?  Triumph?!

Still pacing, she shook her head, glaring at the floor.  “It isn’t him!  No.  I left him back in Dallas and vowed never to see him again.  Never!  I don’t care how handsome he is or how charming, it simply doesn’t matter!”

She paced some more, struggling to focus on her breathing in a futile effort to calm her temper.  Frankie simply couldn’t believe that Fate had such a twisted sense of humor!

“I didn’t have sex with him for a reason!” she muttered vehemently.  “And that was a valid reason!  So why?  Why is fate putting him in my way again?  I’m so close!  So close to finishing this stupid job!  Why would Fate do this to me?”

A deep male voice interrupted her thoughts.  “You know that I can hear every word you say…right?”

Startled, Frankie spun around and glared up at the man she’d vowed never to see again.  He’d moved from the chair to the doorway of the rough office, leaning a shoulder against the frame of the door. 

She looked into those eyes – silver, she realized ­– and noticed the dimple on his left cheek as he unsuccessfully tried to hide his amusement…and groaned, closing her eyes as she realized what she should have caught back in Dallas.  And she might have, if she’d been in her right mind!

“No!” She stomped her foot, shook her head, and sighed.  Reluctantly, she lifted her gaze to meet his.  “Why did it have to be you?”

He chuckled and pushed away from the doorframe, walking towards her.  “Well, that’s an interesting question.” 

Frankie held her breath when he reached out and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.  Frankie still hadn’t taken the time to get her hair cut, so now the curls were just past her shoulders, riotous and messy.  But oh, she loved his touch!

She told herself to move away from him.  She ordered her brain to move her feet, to duck from his fingers.  But she did none of that.  Nor did she understand why she stood there, letting him touch her.

“I guess I could ask you the same question.”  He chuckled.  “What is a city girl like you doing way out here, in the middle of nowhere?”

“This isn’t nowhere,” she shot back.

“Close enough,” he countered with a one shouldered shrug.

“Please tell me that you’re not Kade Wilson,” she pleaded. 

He chuckled again. Frankie couldn’t stop the shiver of awareness that bolted through her system.  She remembered that laugh.  Remembered how sexy it had sounded when she’d first heard it so many months ago.  Different city.  Different moment.  Different circumstances.  Same sensuous reaction!

“I’m afraid I am Kade Wilson, honey.”

Her mouth opened and closed, as if she wanted to argue his point but wasn’t sure how.  “But…you live in Dallas!” She blurted.  “I met you in Dallas!”

He nodded, the sunshine making his dark hair gleam.  “Yeah, well…I was only there briefly.”

Wait a minute!  Had he just hesitated?  It had been slight, but Frankie had heard it!  What was he hiding?  Frankie’s spidey sense kicked in. As a child, she’d learned to sense hesitations and lies.  Because of her childhood, she’d made a career out of discovering those secrets! 

So, what was he hiding?

Whatever it was, hopefully, it wasn’t her problem.  Besides, just like back in Dallas, she wouldn’t be around long enough to get to know him well enough to care about his secrets. 

Besides, Frankie had a job to do!  A very important job worth a great deal of money.  Edward Meyers, her bastard of a client, had offered her a bonus if she could convince the third son, the last of the children that he’d ignored over the past thirty plus years, to come to Seattle.  Ten thousand reasons why she needed to focus on business.

 “I need your DNA,” she blurted out, then flinched, realizing how her request probably sounded.  Crossing her arms over her stomach, she glared up at him.  “Sorry,” she muttered through clenched teeth. 

Kade Wilson.  It was a very nice name.  It wasn’t the name Edward Meyers, her client, had given her when he’d hired her for his third son, but that was not unexpected.  Lots of people changed their names for all sorts of reasons. 

She’d been hired to find this man and discover if he was one of Edward’s sons. If so, her client wanted her to somehow get this guy back to Seattle for a conversation.  Only a conversation, Edward had assured her. 

With that reminder firmly in mind, she pulled herself together and looked him right in the eye. “As you already know, I’m a private investigator, Mr. Wilson,” she started off, trying to be professional.  “My client hired me to find his three sons.  Your father is interested in talking with you.”  If she hadn’t been watching him so closely, Frankie might have missed the way his eyes shuttered.  A moment ago, those fascinating silver eyes had been glowing with curiosity and…dare she admit it?  Desire.  But at the mention of a father, those eyes had gone blank. 

Interesting reaction, she thought.  “My client would like to reunite with his children in the hopes of passing along a substantial amount of money.”  She shifted on her feet.  “I would need to confirm your DNA to ensure that you are my client’s son, which can be done easily and painlessly with a simple DNA test.  A cheek swab that I’d send off to a private lab.” 

There was a long silence.  Flashes of their last moments together, that kiss, the heat that had swept through her…and all the nights since then, when she’d dreamed about him doing a whole lot more! 

So, this silence felt…awkward.  Painful, almost. 

Finally, he shook his head.  “No,” he crossed his arms over his impressively muscular chest. 

Frankie blinked, surprised by his outright refusal.  No questions or curiosity.  He didn’t ask about the man who might be his father, nor about the amount of money involved.  Just a simple, flat out rejection. 

“No?” she repeated.  “Just no?  You don’t want to find out about your father?”

“My father died about six years ago,” he said flatly.  His arms dropped and he moved closer.  “Have dinner with me tonight.”

She blinked again, startled by abrupt subject change.  She was still wondering why he wasn’t interested in meeting his father and…his father died? Dinner?  Had he really just asked her out to dinner? 

Wait.  No, that wasn’t a question.  That was a command.  Which, of course, caused Frankie to bristle.  She’d never been good at taking orders! 

Giving herself a mental shake, she focused on the ten thousand dollar bonus that she desperately needed. “No dinner.  Give me some spit,” she countered.

 

Kade looked down at the tiny woman with the flaming copper hair and the lustrous green eyes. He hadn’t been able to see her eyes in the bar that night back in Dallas. It suited her perfectly.  She was a true redhead with pale skin and freckles across her nose.  But it was hard to see the freckles.  Her eyes dominated her features.  Add in a killer body that was wrapped in dark denim jeans, a plain, white tee-shirt and boots…bless her heart, Kade loved a woman who wore boots…and Frankie Windward was a spitfire!  She had more energy in her pinky than most women had in their whole bodies.  Plus, it was such a fascinating package, it was no wonder that he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind over the past six months. 

Dallas.  Damn, he remembered watching her walk into the bar.  Frankie walked as if she owned everything and disdained the rest of the world.  Until she smiled.  Her smile changed everything!  When he’d watched her smile at the bartender, just a friendly expression when she’d ordered a beer, his gut had tightened with…a hell of a lot of reactions. 

Then their eyes had met.  It had been all over after that.  She’d paid for her beer and sauntered over to his table, sitting down across from him and he’d been lost.  Completely lost in those eyes and that smile.  He had been turned on from the first words out of her mouth and he couldn’t even remember what their conversation had been about. 

But he remembered laughing.  Frankie had broken through the grief that had swamped him over the previous year.  His mother had died. She’d been the last woman who had given a damn about him.  The only woman who had genuinely cared for him.  His mother hadn’t cared about his money or the power he wielded.  His mother had demanded that Kade come home for Thanksgiving and call her every Sunday night, just to check in.  His mother had consistently refused his money, demanding his time instead. 

Frankie had done that for him too.  She’d sat down across from him and reminded him how to laugh.  She’d paid for his drinks, refusing his money.  Those glittering green eyes of hers had warmed his heart and reminded him that there was good in the world.  And beauty!  Damn, Frankie was gorgeous! 

Not to mention delicate, but he doubted he’d ever be brave enough to say that out loud within earshot.  She had one of those figures that men would fight over, would die for!  But she probably had no idea of the impact her tight, petite body had on the male population.  The woman wrapped herself up in jeans and boring tee shirts that did nothing to hide her tiny waist and beautiful ass!  She had long, lean legs and strong arms.  He’d seen the muscle definition when she’d pulled her leather jacket off.  But there was something about Frankie that defied her daredevil image.  Something delicate and vulnerable. 

She was such an incredible mixture of contradictions. 

“Why did you walk away in Dallas?” he demanded, needing to know.

She stiffened and he could tell that she was thinking hard.  He could see it in her eyes. 

The woman shuffled her feet uncomfortably.  An interesting reaction, he thought. 

“Because I had a flight the next morning,” she replied.  “Remember?  I wasn’t lying.  It was the truth.”

Kade shifted, mirroring her stance by crossing his arms over his chest.  “Yeah.  You mentioned that.  But you didn’t even look back at me as you walked away.”  He watched her carefully, then chuckled softly.  “You were scared,” he said, the statement almost a whisper as he realized the truth.  And yes, it was there.  In her eyes!  Damn, those green eyes were alluring. 

“I wasn’t scared,” she shot back, her voice laced with heat.  “You don’t scare me, Wilson.” 

He slowly shook his head.  “I scare the hell out of you.  Why?”

Kade watched the flash of panic in her eyes, but it vanished almost immediately.  It was hidden behind those beautiful green eyes and elfish freckles.  The tough-girl façade was again firmly in place.  That pointy chin lifted and those green eyes narrowed, almost as if she were trying to outstare him.  It wasn’t working though. 

“I’m not afraid of you, Wilson.  But are you going to give me the DNA sample or not?  Because I have better things to do than argue with you.”

“Temper temper,” he replied, chuckling.  He contemplated his next move carefully.  If he told her that he wouldn’t give her the DNA sample that she wanted so desperately…and yes, there was desperation in her voice…then she’d simply turn around and walk away.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  There was a stubbornness about her that belied the idea.

And in that moment, an idea came to him.  One that would play that adorable stubbornness to his advantage. 

“I’ll make a deal with you.”

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