Tall, Dark and Texan. Annette Broadrick

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      “You must be out of your mind,” he muttered. “I don’t need a housekeeper.”

      She patted his hand. “Well, let’s see how it goes for the next few days, all right?”

      “No! It isn’t all right. I came down here to be alone. Being alone would preclude having a housekeeper.”

      “Don’t worry. You won’t even know I’m around.”

      “Oh, right,” he replied, heavy on the sarcasm.

      “What do you usually do at this time of day, Dan?”

      Did she have to sound so blasted reasonable? He was feeling anything but reasonable at the moment. He made himself pause and get a grip on his rapidly escalating temper before he spoke.

      Finally, he said, “I’m usually asleep at this time of day,” he said through a clenched jaw.

      She smiled. “Well, now that you know what you’ve been missing, you should be thankful I got you up. How about a walk on the beach at dawn tomorrow? That’s my favorite time of day on the island. You’ll love it.”

      “My God, haven’t you heard anything I’ve said? I don’t want you here!”

      She finished loading the dishwasher before she turned around and faced him. “Don’t worry. I’ll grow on you. Eventually.” Then she had the absolute nerve to walk out of the room humming.

      He sat there, seething.

      All right, enough already. He’d call security and have them get her out of here.

      Oh, that would look good. Order security to remove a woman who was scarcely tall enough to come to his shoulder. As though she were some kind of threat to him.

      Actually, she was a threat to his peace of mind. He didn’t need the aggravation. He stomped into the living room and went out onto the balcony. Actually, the day looked quite pleasant. Not many people on the beach.

      Maybe he’d go down for a swim. He hadn’t bothered to get out much since he’d arrived. Hell, the first week he’d been here all he’d done was sleep, almost around the clock.

      The trial had taken its toll on him, that was certain. Helping to convict his long-time friend and business partner for stealing from their own company had been an exhausting nightmare. But it was over now and he had the rest of his life ahead of him. It was no one’s fault that his life no longer seemed to have any direction.

      Nor did he particularly care.

      He went back inside and marched down the hall to his bedroom. Shannon met him in the doorway with her arms full of linens and towels. She gave him a nod and a smile and eased past him.

      All right, so maybe he did need to get some chores done. Laundry hadn’t been a priority for him. He changed into swim trunks, found a lone towel in the cabinet and took it. Without comment he left the condo, went downstairs and outside.

      Chairs conveniently tucked beneath umbrellas clustered the beach in front of the high-rise building. He found an empty one, tossed the towel on it, then stalked to the water and waded in. He forced himself to keep going, despite the shock of the temperature to his warm body. At the moment, it was just what he needed—to cool off and to figure out what the hell he was going to do about his unwanted guest.

      Meanwhile, Shannon was upstairs on the phone with Mandy.

      “You made him angry?” his sister repeated worriedly.

      “I worked hard at it and I believe my efforts were successful.”

      “I suppose that’s better than the apathy he’s been going through.”

      “It would help if I understood what was going on with him,” Shannon said. “You told me that he’d had some business setbacks, and yet the company seems to be growing.”

      “Oh, I forgot you haven’t been here for the past few years. There was this huge investigation going on about the company. It started a couple of years ago. It seems that Dan’s partner, James Williams, was secretly taking microprocessor chips from the company, reporting them stolen, then helping to smuggle them out of the country so they could be sold to some Middle Eastern countries with whom the U.S. is no longer doing business of any kind.”

      “Oh, my.”

      “Yes. And when he finally got caught—thanks to Rafe’s СКАЧАТЬ