Crash Into My Heart

CRASH INTO MY HEART

SELENE GRACE SILVER

This is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations and events portrayed are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, companies, and locales is purely coincidental.

This book contains explicit sex.
It is intended for
mature audiences
.

Copyright
©
October
2012 by Selene Grace Silver

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in articles or reviews. Please do not plagiarize or pirate the contents of this book. The author can be reached through her website, selenegracesilver.com or by email at [email protected].

FOR MY MOTHER
,
NITA
JEAN

Thanks to Alan for all his help in formatting this digital book, creating the cover design and, most important of all, providing ongoing emotional s
upport during its development.
Special t
hanks to Barb, Nancy and Erin for reading the story in draft form and providing insightful feedback.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

CRASH INTO MY HEART

Author Biography

Works Published

Adrian
ground his teeth
, irritated
he
’d
had to cancel his weekend plans
on his boat
to rush up to the high desert to
fix problems
his VP should have
handled.
On top of that annoyance, t
he 405 had been a parking lot. Now he was
stuck driving
below
the speed limit on a
winding
road
,
held up behind some
old
biddy
in a Volvo
. He’d hoped to
be
on his way
back
to LA by now.
He
noted the position of the sun
slipping
down beyond the hills, casting the canyon into shadowed dips and curves.

“Finally!” he
muttered
as the road straightened. H
e
floored
his
Alpha Romeo 8C coupe
to pass
the
clueless
driver
. He
slowed
briefly
to throw
her
a
dark
look
for failing
to pull over
during
several
opportunities in
the p
ast five miles
. 
He
did a d
ouble take as he realized
the woman didn’t have
gray
hair
as he’d thought
; she had silvery
blonde
hair.
She turned to scowl back
at
him.
And h
uge
,
smoky blue eyes fogged the world as he knew it.
His anger evaporated, replaced by something quite different.

H
e crested the
next
hill, glancing
back
through his rear view mirror
.

All he saw was dust.
What the hell?
There’d been
no turn off, and he
hadn’t been d
riving fast enough to lose her—yet.

T
he image of that
unexpected dust
kept intruding
on his efforts to think
instead
about what he needed to say to his VP
. Had she crashed? He hadn’t come anywhere close to
running
her
off road
, he thought,
mulishly
.
He eased
off the
gas.
He shifted
, letting
the car
slow
to a crawl.
The
car
w
hined like an unhappy cat. N
o
Volvo
appeared behind him.

Damn
! His work obligations warred with his conscience. He
should
see
his VP
tonight. It couldn’t wait.
Well,
it could
wai
t
.
The sun
had
dropped behind the hills
leaving
the canyon awash in grey shadows. It would be dark soon. He
checked
his phone. No signal
.
What would his mother say?

He
whipped
around
, squealing
his car’s
tires
.

***

Okay. The
important thing was that she was
alive
, Janice
told herself
shakily
as she
struggled
from behind
the
inflated
airbag. S
he swung open the driver’s door, which
wedged itself into the
dirt
, giving her a
too narrow
escape
route
.
She gave
the door
a tug
back
to loosen it
. It didn’t
budge.
Good thing she was skinny.
She
slid
out
sideways
,
feeling
stunned
,
wiping
blood from w
hat she hoped was a simple nose
bleed. She t
entatively tapped her nose. W
hile it hurt
like a son of a bitch
, it seem
ed
unbroken
.

When
her front passenger tire blew
,
she’d been cast
off the road into
the
ditch. It’d taken all her
strength
to
keep the car from rolling
.
She’d survived a
bumpy
ride through the
shrubby
,
slanted
terrain
, landing
abruptly
on
a
giant rock
.
She sent a prayer up to the universe, grateful the boys were
already
on a plane headed to Denver.

She stared
at
her
totaled
car
.
Her beautiful car.
The one
luxury
she
allowed
herself.
Smashed.
She reached
back
into the car and pulled out her
purse,
sitting on the seat as though nothing had happened. She
dug out her cell
phone. No signal.
She looked
up and
down the road
and saw no
one
.
Certainly not that
obnoxious
, if totally gorgeous,
driver of the
James Bond car
that had
ridden
her ass the last fi
ve
miles.
Asshole
.

The road was desolate. Cutting through the back canyons between Los Angeles and the high desert,
the route was traveled predominantly by
lo
cals
. At this
late
hour on a Friday
evening
, it
might
be another hour before anyone passed.

I
f she
walked to the top of the pass,
she might get a signal
. She surveyed her outfit. The light
strapless
sundress and her
high-
he
eled sandals were perfect for
lunch
with the girls
, rotten for hiking a canyon road. She crawled back into the car and
unearthed a sweater from under
the boys’
discarded backpack
, and slipped into it
.

Just as she was
sliding
out of the car again, she heard the
sound
of a large engine purr
ing
towards her. She looked up at the road and saw the top of the
James Bond
car.
He
should have been long gone by now. She panicked.
A woman, alone, stranded on an empty road.
Crap. The car stopped,
went silent
. Settling back into
her
drive
r’s seat, she tug
ged
at the door to close and lock it. It wouldn’t move.
She glanced
up.

The
man stood above her
on the edge of the road
—
broa
d-shouldered, dressed in a white
business
shirt
and dark trousers.
She couldn’t make out his
shadowed
face, but he looked
a bit…
sw
arthy. He
had
his hands fisted
on his hips
.
H
e looked imposing.

“
Miss
?
Y
ou al
l
right?”

H
e sounded irritated.
Well!
Why’d he bot
her to stop
?

“I’m fine,” Janice called up
tensely. “You
go on now.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“I am, really.
”
She tugged
frantically on her door.
“
I’ve got everything under control.”