An Excerpt From:
CHAOS
Copyright © BARBARA
HUFFERT, 2009
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave
Publishing, Inc.
Chapter
One
The clanking of metal against metal shattered the early
morning silence. Shane McKade felt the stiffness in his shoulder and the
pressure on his wrist as he tried, unsuccessfully, to lower his arm.
McKade, pull my arm off?”
Shane’s brown eyes locked with luminescent green. He muttered
his own set of obscenities. “Campini? What the hell
are you doing here?”
“I was sleeping until you so rudely woke me.”
“This isn’t happening. I must be dreaming. Yeah, that’s it.
I’m dreaming.”
“Why?” Alyssa Campini glared at
him. “Is finding me in your bed so repulsive? That’s not what you implied last
night.”
“Yes. No. Damn! I don’t fucking believe this.” Shane managed
to sit up, relieving some of the tension on his shoulder.
Alyssa squirmed upward to face him. “What, exactly don’t you
believe? The fact that we ended up here at all or the fact that I didn’t slink
off during the night, as I assume, from your reaction, your other partners do?
In case you haven’t noticed, that was impossible but if me being here annoys you
so much uncuff me and I’ll go.”
“Uncuff you?” he said with
disbelief.
“What?” she demanded, scowling.
“Me. Uncuff you. As in, you didn’t grab the key last night with
the cuffs.”
His words sank in. “Where is it?”
“Over there, on the dresser, with my badge and cell phone.”
He pointed to the other side of the room. “And, for reasons I’ll never
understand, you weren’t happy to hook us to just the bed. No,
that we could have managed. You just had to be thorough and loop the
cuffs around the pipe too.”
“Why is that pipe there anyway?”
“It’s an old building, who knows?”
“Well? What are you going to do?”
“What am I going to do?”
“Yes, you. You’re the cop. Do something!”
“I’m the cop?”
“You know, McKade, this habit you’ve developed of repeating
everything I say is getting old. It’s not helping. Can’t you pick the lock
somehow?”
“I could if I had a paperclip maybe. We’re in bed, Campini.”
“I know where we are. Don’t you have something in your
nightstand you can use?”
“I doubt it but shift your arm this way as far as you can and
I’ll look.”
Alyssa pushed her hand behind the pipe in order to give him as much
leverage as she could. “Nothing.”
“Where’s your gun? I thought all cops slept with their guns
under their pillows.”
“You watch too much TV. My gun is locked in my gun safe where
it belongs. What good would it do us anyway?”
“You could shoot off the link between the cuffs.” Shane
stared in disbelief. “Come on, McKade. Do something! You’re the cop.”
“You keep saying that like its significant. Yes, Campini, I am a cop. That doesn’t make me Houdini. You’re a
photographer. Why don’t you come up with something?”
“Argh,” she growled in frustration.
“This is all your fault!”
“My fault! You’re the one who snapped on the cuffs.”
“Well, you sure as hell didn’t stop me! In fact, you didn’t
seem to think any of this was such a bad idea last night.”
“Yeah, well, it was different last night.”
“Why?” she demanded hotly.
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the romantic feel of the entire
day or the moonlight on the patio while we were dancing or that you looked so
soft and feminine in that dress.”
“Oh so that’s why you started kissing me.”
“No, I kissed you to stop you from biting my head off every
other minute.”
“What’s your excuse for bringing me here?”
“Lust? Why did you come with me?”
“Your kisses had me hot. I wanted you. When I want someone
and he’s willing and unattached, I see no need to be shy.”
“You, shy.” He snorted. “Now that’s a
laugh.
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2 comments:
Thank you, Taylor! It's always fun to be here.
You are such a doll! Love having you.
:}
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