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Excerpt:
Walker
padded into the kitchen, feet bare, black Tee overshooting the waistband
of his jeans, and sleep-tousled, raven-hued mane shrouding shoulders
broad even when stooped as they were now. He strode past Madison
like she was invisible, opened the fridge, and snagged a Pepsi.
"Walker--"
"You surprise me,"
he leveled, turning on her. "I didn't expect to see you crawl into
the daylight quite so early. Or is that the reason for the sunrise
pot of coffee?" He nodded at the coffee filled mug in her hand-the
mug she'd held out to him in silent offering as he'd passed. "Is
that your hangover remedy?"
She winced. "About
last night--"
"Faint of memory?
You want to know what happened?"
"I remember," she
murmured, her lips twitching at the memory of his hungry kiss, her
abdominal muscles tightening against the remembered weight of his
arousal pressed into her stomach. She drew a breath between parted
lips and across a tongue that still recalled the sweet cola flavor
of his mouth and repeated in a pained whisper, "I remember."
"Good, then there's
nothing to be said about last night." He wheeled away from her and
headed for the back porch.
"I just make it
a point not to get involved with men on the rebound," she blurted
at his back.
"Men on the rebound?"
he pitched almost chidingly, circling back at her. "Men on the rebound!"
His voice crescendoed and his hair shuddered across his shoulders.
"What the hell difference should it make to a one night stand?"
Madison blanched.
"Who the hell told
you my business anyway?" he demanded. "Mike? Dalton? Damn the pair
of them!"
Her hand shook,
spilling hot coffee out of the mug and over her fingers.
"You don't do rebounds,
hell," he growled, advancing on her, towering over her with his
massive height and brute strength. He waved the Pepsi can so close
in her face she felt its chill, a chill that all but hissed with
evaporation as it buffeted his burning rage. "You uptown girls don't
do anything that's not trendy."
"Trendy?"
"There was a time
when having a man of my shading was trendy." His voice had gone
low, threatening; and a shadow crossed his eyes, the same shadow
she'd seen in them last night on the back porch when he'd accused
her of having tastes for paler men. She thought she understood why
he was so deeply injured.
"This has nothing
to do with you being--"
His eyes went dead,
paralyzing her to silence.
"Have you forgotten
the latest politically correct label?" he mocked when she didn't
continue. "I believe it's Native American."
"It had nothing
to do with your heritage," she croaked, fighting the urge to back
away from him. "You just surprised me."
"Now you say I surprised
you. A minute ago you said you didn't do rebounds. Last night you
said you hadn't offered me any invitation. Which is it?"
"It-it's all of
it."
He straightened,
squared his shoulders, and peered down at her through narrowed eyes.
"If I was white, this would have ended last night...on the porch
floor."
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