Once Forbidden.... Carla Cassidy

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СКАЧАТЬ seemed to burrow deep inside her and find the small place that held all her pain. Damn him. Damn him for coming back here.

      “Look, I’ll talk to Erin,” she said. “Okay?” She just wanted Jerrod to leave, to go away and leave her alone. “I’ll make an appointment and meet with her first thing tomorrow morning. Understand, I’m not making any promises. I’m just agreeing to talk to her.”

      “I appreciate it, Johnna.”

      “Good, then our business is concluded and I’d like some time alone, if you don’t mind.” She turned back to stare down into the streets.

      She relaxed only when she heard his footsteps receding, then the soft closing of the door that led off the roof. She’d lied. She had held a grudge for the past nine years. She’d never completely gotten over Jerrod’s betrayal.

      She still mourned the loss of the dreams and fantasies they’d spun together in the blissful optimism of youth. There were moments in the long dark nights when she ached for the feel of his strong arms around her, his mouth pressed firmly to hers.

      But she knew her loss had made her strong. Just like her painful childhood with her miserable father had made her strong. She neither wanted nor needed any man in her life. She was best alone…and alone was exactly how she intended to stay.

      Jerrod might have forgiven himself for what he’d done to her years ago. God might have even forgiven him. But that didn’t mean she intended to. There were some things that were simply unforgivable.

      Jerrod sat in the tiny lobby area of the Inferno police station, waiting for Johnna to show up for her 9 a.m. appointment with Erin Kramer.

      “Sure you don’t want a cup of coffee?” Sheriff Jeffrey Broder asked from his desk in the corner.

      “No, thanks, I’m fine,” Jerrod replied. He shifted positions on the wooden chair, his thoughts drifting back to his conversation with Johnna the evening before.

      For trailer trash, I’ve done all right. He winced as he remembered saying the words. He’d sounded childish and petulant even to his own ears.

      He’d believed he’d long ago worked through the baggage of that childhood label. But never had that name hurt more than when it had fallen from Johnna’s lips so many years ago. They had been words that had destroyed his illusions of her, of his place in this town, but most of all, they had destroyed the illusions he had of himself.

      But he was no longer the rebellious trash that had blown out of town with a chip on his shoulder and rage burning in his soul. He was now a man at peace.

      He’d found his true vocation and had gotten a college degree. At the moment, however, more than anything he was a man who didn’t want to see a dear childhood friend spend the rest of her life in prison for a crime he truly believed she wouldn’t, couldn’t commit.

      He stood as Johnna swept in. He could tell by the narrowing of her eyes that she was not particularly happy to see him. Clad in a pair of tight jeans that emphasized her long, slender legs, and a biscuit-colored blouse that accentuated her dark hair and tanned face, she looked lovely, but tense.

      “What are you doing here?” she asked with more than a little edge to her voice.

      “I thought maybe I could help.”

      “I don’t need help. I haven’t even agreed to do anything other than speak to her.” She nodded to Sheriff Broder. “Hi, Jeffrey.”

      “Johnna,” he said as he rose from his desk. “Erin is our only prisoner at the moment, but I figured you’d be more comfortable in the conference room.”

      “Thanks, Jeffrey. The conference room will be fine.” She looked back at Jerrod, her eyes an impenetrable smoke gray. “You’re here. I suppose you might as well come on back with me.” The invitation was not given graciously, but rather grudgingly.

      Broder led them through the doors that led to the back of the police station and into a small conference room with a locked steel door. He opened the door and gestured them in. “I’ll be right back with Erin,” he said.

      The door slammed shut behind him with a sickening thud that was all too familiar to Jerrod. He’d spent more than one night in the Inferno jail.

      “I wonder what happened to old Sheriff Kiley?” he mused aloud.

      “Last I heard, he’d retired to Florida and was spending his days playing golf.” Johnna opened her briefcase on the table in the center of the room and pulled out a pad and pencil. “Why?” She looked up at him. “What made you think of him?”

      Jerrod walked over to the table and sat in the chair next to where she would be sitting. “I was just remembering how often in my wicked youth I heard one of those steel doors slam shut behind me.”

      “Sheriff Kiley was just trying to keep you out of trouble by locking you up,” Johnna said.

      Jerrod nodded, knowing she was right. He’d never been charged with anything, but occasionally he’d get in a foul mood, have a snoutful of beer and try to pick a fight. Kiley would keep him overnight until he’d sobered up or calmed down, then release him with a stern lecture.

      The air in the tiny room was stuffy and, within seconds, filled with the scent of her. The scent of wildly blooming flowers with a hint of vanilla was the same fragrance she’d worn years before. To his surprise, it still had the power to stir him.

      He stood and paced the room, amazed by how quickly he’d responded to her scent, and tried to dispel the memories that assaulted him. Memories of Johnna, warm and yielding in his arms. Johnna, eyes blazing flames of heat as she clung to him in breathless wonder.

      Broder appeared at the door, Erin looking small and defenseless in front of him. He felt Johnna’s shock when she saw the black eye and swollen lip Erin sported. “Just bang on the door when you’re done,” the sheriff said, then closed the door and left the three of them alone.

      “Thank you for coming,” Erin said to Johnna with as much dignity as possible in her current situation.

      Johnna nodded and gestured the petite blond into a chair across from her at the table. “I hope Jerrod explained to you that I haven’t agreed to represent you yet.”

      Johnna sat down as Erin did the same. As she began to ask background questions and make notes on the pad before her, Jerrod studied the two women who had played the most important roles in his life.

      Erin—childhood friend, confidante and fellow dreamer. They had commiserated together, schemed together and, in one moment of sheer insanity, had effectively destroyed any hope Jerrod had of a future with Johnna.

      He frowned and studied Johnna, seeing the changes the years had wrought. She was thinner than he remembered. And in his memories, her eyes had always been the soft gray of a predawn sky. As he had yesterday, he noticed no softness in those eyes now, rather a brittle hardness.

      He wondered what life experiences had stolen the softness from her. He certainly wasn’t egotistical enough to believe that it had been his long-ago betrayal. In the years since he’d been gone, surely she’d had other lovers. Funny how that thought bothered him more than just a little bit. He frowned and focused on the conversation.

      “Erin, СКАЧАТЬ