She curled up against his chest, only gradually waking from the aftermath of loving to look up at him. His turquoise eyes deepened to sapphire by starlight; she loved that. “I’m sorry,” she said gently, “about Morgan. Sorry you lost a friend.”
“He wasn’t,” Kyle said simply. “I think I’ve known that for a long time, really. But his family was so good to me when I was in school.”
“Loyalty again, Kyle?” she asked.
He kissed her forehead, lightly branding her.
“Where exactly were you the night after the belling? I waited and waited-”
“At the hospital.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, staring at him in the darkness. “At the-?”
“Morgan broke his nose. He had to be patched up before he could take that trailer of his back where it came from, Erica. I don’t understand how he could have fallen against that packing crate-”
“Kyle! You hit him?”
“Of course not. Grown men don’t hit other grown men. You were the one who sent him away, Erica. That’s what counts.” He leaned over and kissed her chin, then the small hollow in her throat. “I came damned close,” he whispered, “to taking that St. Christopher’s medal around his neck and strangling him. You haven’t got a perfect husband, Erica. If anyone knows that, you do. He cracked a rib, too. On another packing crate.”
“Kyle-”
His lips touched down on her shoulder. “Mine,” he whispered. The same lips captured her right breast, neglected until now in favor of the left one. “Mine,” he whispered. “I don’t like people who hurt you, Erica.”
They headed into the takeoff between her third and fourth rib. Ignition, payload, soar. Poor Morgan, she thought fleetingly. A lonely ship in the night that foundered for lack of light. She had her lighthouse, her beacon, to guide her to shore. She had her love.
About the Author
Jennifer sold her first book in 1980, and since then she has sold more than eighty books in the contemporary romance genre. Her first professional writing award came from RWA-a Silver Medallion in 1984-followed by more than twenty nominations and awards, including being honored in RWA’s Hall of Fame and presented with the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. Jennifer has been on numerous bestseller lists, has written for Harlequin Books, Avon, Berkley and Dell, and has sold over the world in more than twenty languages. She has written under a number of pseudonyms, most recognizably Jennifer Greene, but also Jeanne Grant and Jessica Massey.
She was born in Michigan, started writing in high school, and graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English and psychology. The university honored her with their “Lantern Night Award,” a tradition developed to honor fifty outstanding women graduates each year. Exploring issues and concerns for women today is what first motivated her to write, and she has long been an enthusiastic and active supporter of women’s fiction, which she believes is an “unbeatable way to reach out and support other women.” Jennifer lives in the country around Benton Harbor, Michigan, with her husband, Lar.
