She set the water on the desk and wrapped her arms around herself. “It might seem incredibly stupid to you now, but at the time I thought I was doing the right thing.”“Stupid doesn’t even come close to what I think about it. Dammit, Dani. What in the hell were you thinking? In the first place, we’d only known each other a short time by then. There was no thought of anything long-term between us, at least not on my part.”“You’re right. There wasn’t.” By then she’d already fallen in love with him, but that was something she didn’t want him to know. “It’s just that I didn’t want to stick around and see what happened. I decided the longer we were together, the more our inevitable parting would hurt.” She swallowed against the rising nausea. “Nathan, try to put yourself in my position. That accident that Gil and I had was the greatest trauma of my life. It not only robbed me of Gil and our future, and the child I was carrying, it also, according to the doctors, robbed me of my chance of

If one more overdressed, intoxicated, holly-jolly male patted her cheek, or any odier part of her anatomy, Justine Miller was going to scream. In fact, if anything else went wrong today, she’d explode.Any normal person who had just gone through what she had would feel this way, she reassured herself. She forced yet another smile and moved through the boisterous Christmas-party crowd, skirting around the huge tree that twinkled merrily with lights. No, she corrected grimly, any “normal” person would have broken down by now and cried. But Justine didn’t break down or cry easily, and she wasn’t about to start.“Sis.”Her already tense body tightened as the need to escape nearly overwhelmed her. The grip she had on a still full glass of champagne became perilous. But she’d never run from a problem. Never. Besides, this was her beloved brother. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. Slowly she turned to face the tall young man with the too-serious blue eyes that matched her own. “Devlin.”“Hi.” His

“It has to be off the record.”“Why?” she demanded. “Still hate publicity? It’s a little late for that, after the entrance you made.”He couldn’t handle the hostility in her eyes. “I want to talk to you, not the entire population of Heather Bay.”“Then why did you show up like that? You knew everyone would be there, you knew we’d draw a crowd.”“I had to see you right away.”He didn’t add that he’d come to her as soon as he could. The threat to him was gone, and Hopkins had released him from both the Federal Witness Protection Program and his obligation as a special agent for the FBI. Reluctantly, but he’d done it. “I knew if I showed up at your house or at work, you’d refuse to listen.”“You have no idea how I’d react to anything. Not anvmore.”There was a hitch in her breathing he was afraid to analyze. “Jussie—”“No. We’re over.” Her voice wavered and he leaped on that.“I can explain—”“I know,” she said sadly. “And the worst thing is, I’d probably believe you, fool that I am. I u

He’d see about that. “And you’ll work with me?” Please , God.She dragged her lower lip across her teeth as she contemplated him, and Mitch’s gaze hungrily followed die movement. He’d wondered whether their unbelievable sexual sizzle would still be there when he saw her again. His painfully aroused body gave him his answer.“Yes, I’ll work with you.” The words were unrelentingly hard. “But only because I refuse to quit, and I can’t afford to buy this paper back from you. Yet”He smiled easily and felt like jumping for joy. It was a small victory, but he’d take it.* *“I won’t kiss you,” she promised, eyeing him as if he was planning on jumping her. “Not ever again.”“Maybe you should reserve judgment until after I’ve told you again where I’ve been.”“You’ve told me enough. The rest doesn’t matter to me one little bit.”“Don’t lie,” he said quietly.“Fine,” she exploded, raising her hands. Her chest heaved. “ Fine . It matters. Too much. But I just can’t—I don’t w r ant to—please. I n

Sleep hadn’t come as easily for him, but rage had. He’d spent most of those years filled with it, promising vengeance on the man he felt had destroyed his mother’s happiness.Mitch had vowed this, even as he continued to blame himself for what had happened to his happy little family. He knew damn well it would have killed his mother to know how much he believed the fault to be his. That he believed his father had left because of him.But by then she’d sunk so far into her own loneliness and depression, she didn’t, or couldn’t notice.Mitch had stayed angry and filled with the need for revenge for as long as he could, but the anger had eventually succumbed to sheer aloneness. He tried, desperately, to get his mother to crack the shell she’d put up around herself, to no avail.In the end he’d been left to fend for himself, but he’d learned quickly enough. He’d gotten good at being alone, had even liked it.Until Jussie had come into his life; sweet, caring, beautiful Jussie.She’d reope