Shaking Off the Dust (42 page)

“Don’t even go there, Shimodo. You’re kicking a dead horse on that whole subject.” I was annoyed with his need to get us married, when all he should be thinking about was getting better.

“Anything we can do to assist you, Dr. Shimodo, that is within my power, consider it done.” Enrique bowed to him then turned to me. “Hannah, I have come to take you home with me. I was so overwhelmed with the last few days that it just dawned on me that you haven’t had anywhere to stay.

Not even a wallet, money or suitcase to live out of. I am so sorry for my negligence. I have arranged rooms at a bed and breakfast very close to here.”

“No, she will stay with me. I have an extra room. She can come and go as she pleases there,” offered Mateo.

Hector came to my side and stood in front of me. “I hoped for your company in my home until Dr.

Shimodo is better.”

I shook my head laughing. “You boys are all a few days late and a penny short. I’ve managed for days in this foldout chair. I can manage a good while longer, although regular showers would be a nice break for Shimodo. He’ll get tired of me stinking up the place.”

“What about you, Dr. Shimodo? Where would you like her to stay? Your input would be the thing to help her decide on a nice comfortable bed.” Hector, my little negotiator, tried for group decision.

“Hannah, I insist on seeing this list, alone with you.” Takeshi looked serious.

I smiled. “Well, honey, you’re looking at four of the top ten on the list. Keep in mind that a sense of humor brings up the points in my book, or list.”

“That is what I feared. Agent Eneas, I need to arrange a marriage for tomorrow, the next day at the latest. She’ll have to remain in my room until it is done.”

Enrique stared at us both, not sure if Takeshi was joking or not.

“I am very serious. Tell me what we must do to arrange a marriage between Hannah and me.” He looked at Enrique as if he should know the answer.

“Ignore him, Enrique. He tends to hallucinate on the drugs they give him.”

“Quiet, woman,” Takeshi ordered in a loud whisper. He gestured to Enrique. “I will not rest until we are married. If something happens to me, I want her protected. This is the way I can be sure. Please help me do this thing.”

“Yes and we talked about this already,” I started.

“You talked. I listened. It did not change my mind,” he declared.

“Aren’t you all grumpy.” I tried to placate. “You need a nap, I’ll just start tapping on your wrist and see if I can put you to sleep.”

“Do this, or I will go into a decline.” His voice was barely a whisper.

“We’ll talk later. We’ve got company right now.”

“You’ve not eaten your sandwich, Hannah. Why don’t you let us take you to eat?” Hector asked.

“Yes, that would be good,” Takeshi agreed.

“Got you mad enough to kick me to the curb.” I blew him a kiss.

Mateo came forward and offered me his hand. I went with them out of the room. I wasn’t deceived when Enrique stayed behind with Takeshi.

I stayed at the bed and breakfast blocks from the hospital. My room was next to Enrique’s. Shimodo locked me out of his hospital room at eight p.m. and insisted I not return until after ten the next morning.

When Takeshi had been in the hospital two weeks, I began asking Dr. Santiago when he’d be well enough to fly back home. “Soon, Hannah, soon” was his standard reply.

Everyone was attentive to Takeshi and me. I felt that I had become an imposition to these wonderful people. I tried to explain that to them over dinner.

“I love that you make time for me in your days, but I’m an adult. I understand that you have busy lives and much more important things to worry about then two grumpy Americans. Shimodo knows you can’t

spend every day keeping us company. Don’t get me wrong. You three are our friends forever. Anything we could ever do for you, we will, but you need to get back to your lives. You don’t owe us anything more than your friendship.”

Enrique smiled. “We understand what you are saying. Now, tell me of this list Dr. Shimodo refers to. He calls it the replacement list. He seems concerned.”

I laughed at him. “It’s a joke. A rude joke on my part, but you should know nothing is sacred as far as I am concerned. The day he woke up, I told him he’d better get well quickly because I had a replacement list of men to fulfill his…manly duties, until he was able.”

I laughed at their faces and took a deep breath to explain. “Don’t act so shocked. I told him he could help me decide who’d be on the actual list. I put all three of you on it. He informed me he’d have to dispatch you all to hell. He was joking of course.”

“I wouldn’t be sure of that,” Hector said.

“Tell me, Hector, if you woke up from sure death, major surgeries and I wept all over you, would that be therapeutic for you? Would my misery impress you? Would it make you feel better or would it be one more burden as you lay there in pain?” I shrugged.

“You know me, my sense of humor. When he woke, I squeezed his hand. I told him, you better get well soon because now I have been with you, I need a man. He knows I’m teasing, but I’m telling him how important he is to me as a male, that I can’t wait for him to be back in my bed. The replacement list is our way of using sexual innuendo to remind each other how much we want to be together. I know the replacement list is of men I find attractive. In truth, they are men who would not be interested in me, but in some weird way it is a tribute to him.”

The three of them digested what I’d said. Men’s minds are very different, but somehow Shimodo understood me. That was all that mattered.

Mateo frowned. “Were I Dr. Shimodo, this conversation from you would very much make me want to get better, but I would be very jealous of any man you might put on that list. To say I am on the list is a great compliment. Shimodo is a strong man. I would not handle the knowledge that the same men who take my woman out for meals, are men she finds attractive enough to be on this replacement list.”

“I find you all attractive. Hell, Dr. Santiago, Bill and Jack are on that list. You are all good men and yes, sexy too. More important, you are all dear to me. But there is only one man I gave my heart to and he’ll never need to doubt that. If he doesn’t know that now, then we have no chance of a life together. I tease him, because I couldn’t imagine him not understanding how I feel about him.”

“Why do you argue against his wanting to marry you?” Enrique asked.

“I don’t want him to marry me because he needs to protect me. That is not a good enough reason. I want him to marry me because he couldn’t imagine not being with me, the same reason I want to marry him. This rushing to marry me is not out of love; it’s out of fear.”

“He does love you that way,” Hector interjected.

“I know.” I nodded.

Mateo shook his head in frustration. “Hannah, you want to marry him?”

“For the right reasons.”

I don’t think I’d explained things well enough to them. We finished our meal and they walked me back to the bed and breakfast in polite conversation. I went inside feeling frustrated. I couldn’t sleep, so I got dressed again and walked to the hospital.

I almost didn’t knock when I went into his room, but it was habit. I woke him. The lights were out except for a square night light on the wall. He lay on his left side, facing the door.

“I missed you.” I marched up to his bed. “I need to tell you something.”

He patted his bed, moving over to make room for me. I stripped to my tee shirt, took off my jeans and shoes, and slid in next to him curled on my side. I pulled the blanket over us both. He closed the space between us until he curled against my back. It had been a while since I’d felt him close to me like this.

“Tell me, what brings you to my bed?” His voice whispered against my neck.

“I need to take the three Spaniards off the replacement list.”

He stilled against me. “They have misbehaved towards you.”

“No, they just don’t get me. That’s a big issue. So few people really get me.”

“Praise the heavens.” He sighed in relief and it sent chills down my spine.

“Oh, by the way, I have to enter a convent as soon as you’re better. I promised to, if He saved you.” I yawned. “When are we going home?”

“Anytime, I suppose. Where will our home be?”

“You already have it all figured out. I’m tired now.”

“Stay here with me.”

“I’ll hurt you. I’ve been a restless sleeper.” I made a halfhearted attempt to get up, but he bit my ear until I lay still.

“You’re restless because I’m not with you, as am I. I toss and turn, trying to find that sweet spot. My sweet spot is a person. You.”

“I’ll hurt you.” I was so comfortable sinking into the warmth of him against my back. I realized Takeshi had slipped his left arm under me and had taken my wrist and was doing pressure points. “Shimodo, Japanese voodoo shit. I’m going to kick your ass when I wake up.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” His laugh rumbled against my back as I drifted off to sleep.

The wedding was at Enrique’s estate three days later. We finally got to use the ballroom. I realized

neither of us would get a good night’s sleep unless we were together. Waking up to him was better than anything I’d ever known. We could work out the logistics when we got home as long as we were together.

At the reception, Takeshi and I were presented with two envelopes. I opened mine, reading the top in bold calligraphy.
The Replacement List.
Ten names were written, almost all also signed by the individual.

It included all the men I mentioned, and more. They must have gone to Vicki and my brothers for names, because it even included the name of an old high school boyfriend.

Carl, my favorite research assistant, sat with us at the table. He’d been flown in with the other wedding guests. “We drew lots for list position.” He was number three and very proud.

Even Takeshi’s cousin, Nico, had put his name on the list. I laughed wondering who was on Takeshi’s list. I tried to snatch it from his hand, but he wouldn’t let me even peer at it.

“I did not make or contribute to this,” Takeshi claimed. “You don’t need to ever think about the names they put on this list.”

Carl grinned. “Tom and Jack felt it was only fair for the professor to have his own replacement list.

Melissa told Dr. Ling that Tom thought she should be on it. She showed up at the lab demanding to sign the list. Dr. Ling made it to the number ten position.” Carl came over and handed me a disc. “I thought you should know who your competition is, pictures and a bio on each.”

Takeshi frowned. “Carl, you should know Hannah is very jealous of any interest I show in other women.”

“That’s true,” I said calmly. “I’ve warned him there are very few women who look good once their eyes have been scratched out.”

All of the people involved with the investigation, including Santiago, arrived a couple of days after Christmas. On New Year’s morning we all went to a frozen lake, under a blackened oak tree. I’d convinced Tom and Brodie to spend the holidays with us before they said goodbye forever. There were no storms predicted for the day. As the sun came up, we watched Tom and Brodie walk into the light.

I held Takeshi’s hand, as the brilliant light seemed to grow where they stood, then burst into tiny pieces of radiance that shot up to the sky. I heard something like music, only it was in the trees, in my head. I know it was too soon, but I could have sworn the babies kicked. I put Takeshi’s hand on my stomach and when I turned to look at him, he was crying. I wondered what it was that he saw. He still honored his own religion.

“Did you see the light, Papa? Did you hear the music?” Eszie asked, pulling on Enrique’s hand. He leaned down and picked her up into his arms.

“We all saw the light.” He held her tightly.

About the Author

To learn more about Rhianna Samuels, please visitRhiannasamuels.com . Send an email to Rhianna at [email protected] or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Rhianna Samuels!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SHAKINGOFFTHEDUSTGroup
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She keeps a secret buried in the past. He wants the truth—now. But an unknown killer could
destroy their future.

Hold On to Me

© 2007 Linda Winfree

For FBI profiler Caitlin Falconetti, immersing herself in her job is the only way to quell the memories of a vicious, near-fatal attack and all it cost her, including the only man she ever loved. Better to let him think she simply rejected him, rather than reveal a painful secret that she’s certain would have destroyed his feelings for her.

Investigator Lamar “Tick” Calvert is determined to clean out the corruption-riddled sheriff’s department in his hometown. While he understands Caitlin’s drive to excel at her job, it doesn’t mean he’s happy about the prospect of working with his former lover, the one woman he tried and failed to hold onto.

A rash of unsolved murders brings them together to find the murderer before another woman dies. Daily contact re-ignites the lingering attraction between them, but Caitlin won’t risk opening herself and revealing her secret. She plans to complete the killer’s profile, make an arrest and get out of town for good.

Tick plans to solve this case, too, but now that Caitlin’s back in his life, he also plans to finally dig up the truth about why she left him.

But there’s an added complication—the killer isn’t done, and Caitlin could be the next target.

Book Three in the
Hearts of the South
series.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Hold On to Me:

Sorry? How could he be sorry, with Caitlin’s lips against his, her urgent hands on his skin? Tick cradled her head, dipping his tongue into the dark heat of her mouth. She moaned, the sound sending a heavy rush of need to his groin, before she pulled away, grasped the hem of his shirt and tugged it over his head.

Her desire-shadowed gaze lay on him like a touch and stoked his need higher. Eyes locked on his, she settled her hands on his shoulders and eased forward, her thighs straddling his. “What do you want?”