Dangerous Place For Love (6 page)

Many women had sat, stood and lay in
this position before her. Had they been so lost and felt so alone?
She couldn’t think past the buzzing of the machines and the
stillness of the room. At least back on the island she would have
the sound of the ocean. Ironic, she wished she could be back to the
place where she once wished she could leave.

Kelly took a sip of water from the cup
and filled her glass with more liquid. She lifted the plastic cup
with the tablets and emptied the three unknowns into her palm. She
gazed at them. The two large, identical circles were the pain
killers and she singled out the one pill giving her so much
indecision.

“
I can’t do this,” she
whispered. The tears dropping from her face to the blanket. She
gathered all three pills and put her hand to her mouth. Opening her
mouth she fought with herself to release her fist and allow the
three pills to fall inside. She would have no choice but to swallow
then. However, her fist refused to open and the tears poured out of
her eyes. The battle a personal one. Inside she was screaming for
something miraculous to happen. Anything to make life
easier.

The door to open and Erik to be
standing there would be a good distraction.

She waited for several minutes,
praying someone else would intervene and take the choice away from
her.

This is your choice,
baby.
Hearing the words once spoken by her
mother, Kelly gasped and flung the offending tablets away from
her.

What happened on that island was hers
and hers alone. She didn’t need Erik to change her mind or make the
decisions for her.

Gulping down the water, her muscles
relaxing, Kelly lay down and allowed sleep to claim her.

She’d faced her father and the threat
of death. She would handle any problems brought by her time with
Erik.

~* * *~

“
Why can’t I see her?” Erik
paced his hospital room, the stitches in his side hurting like hell
but he refused to back down. Kelly had fainted in his arms and the
last vision she had was of him being carted away, pale and
bleeding.

“
She’s being taken care
of,” Strider said. He liked Strider, the guy could be an asshole
sometimes but mostly he meant well.

“
We need you to get well so
we can update you and your status,” another man whom he didn’t
remember said.

“
No, let me tell you two
something. I won’t be doing anything until I see Kelly. I need to
know she’s okay.” He stopped and ran his fingers through his
hair.

“
Erik, I hate to do this
but you know it’s protocol. You don’t get involved with a witness.
Kelly, as far as you’re concerned, is dead. She died in a plane
crash eight weeks ago. Her body never recovered.”

Erik watched both men leave his
room.

His side killed him though the
operation to remove the bullet had gone swimmingly.

A great big void settled in his chest.
He was nothing without Kelly. No matter who her family was he loved
her.

As soon as he was out of this hospital
he was going hunting for her. He didn’t care how many rules he had
to break. Nothing and no one was keeping him from the woman he
loved.

Erik settled down on the hospital bed
with one mission in mind. To get well and heal as quickly as
possible so he could find Kelly and tell her how he
felt.

Chapter Nine

Two weeks
later...

Kelly put the finishing touches to her
new home, part of the special witness protection. She was now
Amanda Lynne, had finished college and was working part time as a
receptionist at a gymnasium.

A sofa and few bits and pieces dotted
her house. Not much but it was home. The money and luxury of her
old life would have to remain there. She couldn’t touch any of the
inheritance her mother left her in case one of her father’s old
friends wanted to come and look for her. Kelly O’Donald died in a
fatal plane crash brought down by one of Arthur’s enemies. At least
that was the story she’d been told.

No matter. She was pleased to have the
old life behind her and be able to focus on the fresh new one
waiting for her.

Today was a day off and she’d booked
an appointment into a clinic to go and get herself
checked.

Her period hadn’t arrived and instead
of wasting money on one of the home pregnancy kits she decided to
use the free health insurance the new identity gave her. She washed
her breakfast bowl and sipped her warm coffee as the handle on the
clock began to chime nine in the morning.

Kelly picked up her purse and keys and
made her way to her car and the doctor’s.

A few hours later she didn’t know what
to do. The pregnancy test had been positive and the nurse and
doctor assured her the test was reliable. She had some vitamins to
take on a regular basis. Her whole world had been turned upside
down.

Later she pulled up outside her house.
Her life was about to take a drastic turn. At the hospital she
thought she was ready to handle anything. Now she wasn’t so
sure.

Picking up her bags, she made her way
inside the house. She would spend the time wishing for
work.

~* * *~

Erik watched the woman walk to her
car. This woman from all of his digging had only been alive as long
as two weeks according to the system. He should thank Strider for
being sloppy at work. Maybe the guy should be told his password was
piss easy to work out.

The mystery woman opened her car door.
She looked dazed and confused. Erik squinted through the binoculars
he was holding to try and get a better look at her. If it was
Kelly, she’d lost a small amount of weight in the short time they’d
been apart.

“
Turn around,” he
whispered. Waiting to see her was killing him.

Finally, she turned around and looked
over the houses. Erik got a good shot of her. He watched her walk
into her house and he was out of the car.

The woman was Kelly and he was going
to claim her.

~* * *~

Kelly stirred the tea bag in her cup
until it had a nice dark consistency. Coffee was out of the
question and so too was nuts and cheese. Thank God. Chocolate was
still on the menu.

The murky darkness did nothing to ease
her aching head. She took a sip of the dark liquid and wished she’d
stuck with water. The sweet brew tasted disgusting. She tossed it
down the drain and went to the fridge, uncapping a bottle of
water.

Resting her head in her hands, she
wondered what she was going to do. Work would soon be out of the
question. She could only call the agent’s number in case of an
emergency and this wasn’t much of an emergency. According to the
reports, she’d taken the pills at the hospital before she’d been
discharged.

A knock at the door distracted her
from the thoughts whirling round her brain.

“
Who is it?”

“
Delivery guy.” Frowning,
Kelly opened the door and screamed.

Erik Coldwell stood on her doorstop
looking cocky, arrogant and in a lot of pain.

“
What are you doing here?”
she asked.

“
Nice way to say you’ve
missed me.” Kelly let him into the house and glanced out to make
sure none of her nosy neighbours would see.

“
You shouldn’t be here,”
she whispered even as her heart soared. Erik was here, in her
house.

“
I couldn’t stay away.” He
coughed and Kelly led him to her small two-seater sofa.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I know I’m not supposed to
be here and you’ll probably hate me for the rest of my life.
Pointing the gun at you was the biggest mistake of my life and I’m
so sorry to have hurt you, baby. How is your shoulder?”

He reached out and touched the tender
spot.

“
My shoulder was merely a
scratch. I don’t understand. What are you doing here?” Kelly didn’t
want to get her hopes up. More than anything she wanted to fling
herself into his arms but she couldn’t bring herself to do
it.

“
I had to see you. The time
we spent on the island meant more to me than anything. I can’t go
on living until I tell you how I feel. In fact, if you hate me,
then as soon as I tell you, you can kick me out. But I couldn’t go
another day without looking in your sweet eyes and saying to you, I
love you.” He stroked her cheek and her breath caught in her
throat.

“
How can you love me?” The
insecurity coming back to play havoc with her mind.

Erik took her hand and laid it across
his heart. “This beats for you and you alone. I can’t go another
day without you not knowing how I feel.”

Kelly reached over and kissed him on
the lips. A sign from the big man upstairs. In her hour of need,
the man she loved had come for her.

“
I take it I’m not in any
kind of trouble, Amanda Lynne?” he teased as he kissed her
back.

“
I didn’t get to pick my
name. Strange as it is.”

“
You’ll always be Kelly
O’Donald to me. The daughter of a drug cartel, a person who asks
endless questions and the woman who owns my heart.”

Kelly responded to his kiss, her heart
racing. Her arms circled his neck to bring him closer. The few
weeks they’d been apart had been more like a life time.

“
What’s going to happen
now?” she asked.

“
Well, I think I need to
move a little more furniture in here and then I must warn you I
sleep on the left side of the bed.”

“
Not about us. This isn’t
allowed to work.”

“
Screw the people who say
it shouldn’t. I’ve spent a great deal of my time prepared to take a
bullet. Just consider this my next full-time position. Keeping a
wanted daughter protected.”

Kelly moaned as he leaned her back on
the sofa. She reclined as he worked the top button of her blouse
open.

“
Stop. Stop. I’ve got
something to tell you.” Kelly held his hand to stop him working her
blouse off.

“
What?”

“
We’re going to have a
baby,” she blurted out.

“
Seriously?”

“
Yes, I went to the doctor
today and I’m pregnant.”

Erik’s face went from serious to
smiling. “I’m going to be a dad?”

Kelly nodded her eyes forming
tears.

“
You’re an amazing
woman.”

Erik kissed her and for the remainder
of the day he kept her on her back, making love to her.

He promised to settle things at work.
No longer could he live his life as an agent with his focus being
on her. Erik figured his boss’s would agree to their staying
together to keep him working for the company. As long as they were
together, Kelly didn’t care. She was pregnant, in love and the
world was at her fingertips.

Unless something drastic or dangerous
happened she was going to spend the rest of her life living it with
her dangerous man.

Erik Coldwell.

About The Author

Sam Crescent
is
passionate about
fiction. She loves a good erotic romance and so it only made sense
for her to spread her wings and start writing. She began writing in
2009 and finally got that first acceptance in 2011.

She loves creating new characters and
delving into the worlds that she creates. When she’s not panicking
about a story or arguing with a character, she can be found in her
kitchen creating all kinds of havoc. Like her stories the creations
in the kitchen can be just as dubious but sometimes things turn out
great.

Website:
http://samcrescent.wordpress.com

PPB

Pink Petal Books, an imprint of Jupiter
Gardens Press, would like to invite you to explore the entire
Jupiter Gardens, LLC family.

Don’t forget to sign up for our
reader’s loop where we have monthly giveaways, chats, and more!
Information can be found on the Pink Petal Books’
website.

Jupiter Gardens, LLC –
http://www.jupitergardens.com/

Pink Petal Books –
http://www.pinkpetalbooks.com/

Jupiter Gardens Press –
http://www.jupitergardenspress.com/

Thank you for buying and reading our
books! Our authors appreciate your patronage.

T
op of Form