A tumultuous reunion.
Logan took three steps towards her. He stared at her, and she found it difficult to breathe. It seemed forever before he spoke. And when he did, his voice was harsh and matched the haunted look in his eyes.
âWhat are you doing?â
âWhat do you mean?â
âAll of a sudden Iâve got Redstone Security on my tail. They said you put them up to it. Why?â
âIâm trying to help,â she said.
He gave a low, humourless chuckle. âDonât,â he said. âDonât waste your time.â
Liana studied him. Had he given up? Or was he just in shock over what had happened to him and hadnât yet begun to fight back? She had to believe the latter; the Logan Beck whoâd saved her life would never give up so easily.
âItâs my time to waste,â she said firmly.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Justine Davis lives on Puget Sound in Washington State. Her interests outside writing are sailing, doing needlework, horseback riding and driving her restored 1967 Corvette roadster â top down, of course.
Justine says that years ago, during her career in law enforcement, a young man she worked with encouraged her to try for a promotion to a position that was at the time occupied only by men. âI succeeded, became wrapped up in my new job, and that man moved away, never, I thought, to be heard from again. Ten years later he appeared out of the woods of Washington State, saying heâd never forgotten me and would I please marry him. With that history, how could I write anything but romance?â
Dear Reader,
As a writer, I spend a lot of time pondering human nature. As a writer of romance, I spend a lot more pondering the nature of heroes. The quiet kind who never gets the hero fanfare but never stops trying, even in the face of impossible, crushing odds. Thereâs the hero who takes a stand for whatâs right in the face of fierce opposition, and the people who become situational heroes, ordinary people who respond heroically in a crisis.
Then thereâs the hero I can never wrap my mind completely around, the one who regularly risks his life for strangers he will never see again. The one who believes in something bigger than himself and is willing to die for it. Perhaps itâs because Iâm in such awe of that mind-set that I find it so fascinating. It is that awe and a simple question that inspired Deadly Temptation; what if someone had the chance to actually repay one of those heroes?
I hope youâll enjoy Logan and Lianaâs story; I have a feeling Iâll be revisiting this ground often.
Happy reading!
Justine Davis
Chapter 1
Liana Kiley stared at the photograph in the newspaper on her desk. Read the caption again, then the headline, just to be sure. In some part of her mind she knew that when the initial shock wore off sheâd be swamped by a mass of emotions and memories, but for now the buffer was there.
âGood morninâ.â
The drawled greeting from her office doorwayâa doorway still half-blocked with two as yet untouched moving boxesâmade her jump, and she smothered a gasp.
âThought Iâd see how youâre settling in.â
She stared at the tall, rangy man leaning against the doorjamb. So it was true. The great, the brilliant, the incredible Joshua Redstone really did make a tour of his own Southern California headquarters every morning when he was in the building. Theyâd told herâwarned her?âbut she hadnât quite believed it until now, with her new boss standing there in front of her. Heâd actually stopped to see her, the newest, lowliest face on the huge Redstone totem pole.
âIââ She swallowed, tried again. It wasnât every day you talked to one of the richest, most successful entrepreneurs in the world. âIâm getting there, Mr. Redstone.â
He gave her a lazy smile that eased her nerves. âTo anyone who works in this building Iâm not Mr. Redstone. Iâm Josh.â
âJosh,â she said, although even at his request it felt presumptuous.
âNeed anything?â
Theyâd told her about that, too, that if you indeed did need something, job-related or not, these morning tours were the time to ask.
I should ask him to save Logan, she thought, flicking a glance at the newspaper sheâd dropped on the desk.
âProblem?â
Her gaze shot back to her bossâs face. He was as quick as sheâd thought he must be. This might be her first day on the job, but even she could see that somethingâ¦alert had come into those cool-gray eyes.
Sheâd never been, as some were, fooled by the lazy drawl into thinking he was slow or stupid; sheâd researched him and the empire heâd built too well before sheâd applied for the rare opening. No fool could ever have accomplished what he hadâtaken a single design for a small jet and built it into one of the biggest privately held multinational operations in the world.
When she didnât immediately answer his question, he straightened from the doorjamb and came toward her.
âWhat is it?â
âIâ¦just some disturbing news,â she said, gesturing at the paper.