Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) by Kat Attalla Read Free Book Online Page B

Kelsey snapped out of her stupor. "You can park it in the garage."
    "They won't mind?"
    "No. I have a parking space. You'll have to beep your horn for security. I left my purse at the library."
    Wolf didn't understand the connection between the two but she was hardly in a coherent state of mind. "Your purse is in the back."
    She took the leather handbag from the back seat and shot a confused glance towards him.
    "O’Brien brought it to the station," he said.
    With a shrug, she reached inside the purse for the electronic key card. He pulled up to the booth and swiped it through. The door opened to allow entrance.
    "How easy is it to get one of those cards?" Wolf asked as he maneuvered into the parking space.
    "Not easy. You have to request them from the association board."
    "Why do you have one if you don't own a car?"
    A quiet sadness flashed in her eyes. "It was my father’s."
    He swallowed a groan. Every time he opened his mouth he managed to ram his foot inside. "So you only have the one?"
    "No, there are two. And I do own a car. I just don't keep it in the city. I have a farm house upstate."
    He shook his head. She didn’t seem like a roll through the hay , farm girl type. Champagne on a brass bed with satin sheets was more in keeping with her refined class. The fantasy of sharing that bed with her caused him to grow hard.
    Was he some kind of masochist? Uptown girls and downtown cops didn’t mix. He knew that first hand. Rather than lusting after a futile dream, he’d be better off figuring out how to get his runaway hormones under control.
     
     
    * * *
     
    Kelsey got out of the car and waited by the elevator. Her stomach cramped with painful knots and her mind wasn’t doing much better. Hell of a day, when the aloof Detective Krieger turned out to be the most calming force in her life. He didn’t like her, but at least he was honest about it.
    “How come you’re living in the City if you have a farm?”
    “I’m taking a class this semester at NYU. Which reminds me, I need to be at the university on Wednesday? ”
    He seemed surprised. Did he think that today’s incident would make her withdraw from the world of the living? Never again. Some deranged gunman had already turned her into a virtual shut in. She wouldn’t allow him to turn her into a paranoid coward as well.
    “So what do you do with the farm while you’re here?” Wolf asked.
    “I rent ed it out to some SUNY colle ge students for the semester . Uncle Daniel nearly had a stroke. He says I have no business sense.”
    Wolf grinned. “He’s probably right.”
    She exhaled slowly, trying not to lose her temper at his apparently low opinion of her. “I am not some air-headed princess looking to live the rest of my life off Daddy’s money. I don’t need to make a profit off my house just because I can.”
    “That’s not what I meant. Damn, you’re touchy.”
    Maybe she was touchy but she'd taken her share of knocks about being rich. She didn’t need attitude from him as well. The press had had a field day with her very short-lived marriage. Carlyle Heir Calls Marriage Quit s After Six Months, the headlines had read.
    Her marriage had ended in the first week. It took six months to get the divorce. Perhaps she shouldn't have hidden the truth. She’d been too humiliated to let the public know what a naive fool she'd been. She didn't like to remember that time in her life. However, the present wasn’t much better. She wondered if Wolf deliberately taunted her to divert her thoughts from her problems.
    No, she silently decided. That would be crediting him with feelings for her. He had no feelings at all. The poor guy nearly had a stroke when she threw her arms around him. He’d tensed like a block of granite. How ironic that the first man to spark her interest in years, had absolutely no interest in her. Or perhaps not so ironic. Her bad luck had been consistent lately.
    The elevator arrived and the doors slid open. They rode to the