Loaded by Cher Carson Read Free Book Online

taught
Rachel to embrace hard work, which she did, often working twelve- or fourteen-hour
days to make a living. Life was often a struggle, Rachel accepted that. She
didn’t believe in pity parties, not when she could expend that energy on
finding a way to make her life better.
    She glided her hand over the
dark polished wood of the door casement. “I love these old houses,” she
whispered. “There’s so much history. It makes you wonder who lived here before,
whether they had a family, if they were happy. Were these hallways filled with
love and laughter?” She blushed when she realized he was watching her intently.
“Sorry, I’m just being silly. You probably don’t think about things like that,
do you?”
    He tucked a strand of hair
behind her ear. “Actually, I am interested in history. I’ve spent a lot of time
researching Brant, and this house specifically.”
    “Really?” She wouldn’t have
pegged him for a history buff, but then she didn’t really know him at all,
which made the fact that she was even considering an intimate relationship with
him all the more outrageous. The one and only man she’d ever given herself to
brutalized, terrorized, and stalked her until she eventually had to run for her
life in the dead of night. She shivered at the memory. Just knowing he was out
there somewhere, possibly watching her now, waiting to make his move, made her
blood run cold.
    “Hey, you okay?” He pulled
her into his arms. “Are you cold?”
    She smiled up at him. He was
so strong, so handsome, the epitome of every woman’s fantasy and the kind of
man she’d never even allowed herself to dream she might find. “No, sorry, I
guess my mind was just wandering there for a minute.”
    “Let me make that pot of
coffee I promised you.”
    She shook her head. “You
don’t have to go to all that trouble.” She knew he invited her inside for a reason,
but suddenly she was having reservations. This was a big step for her and,
given her history, a potentially dangerous one.
    “It’s no trouble.” He took
her by the hand and led her through the dining room into the kitchen. “This
will give us a chance to talk. I want to get to know you better.”
    She withdrew her hand from
his. “Didn’t that background check tell you all you needed to know?” She’d done
her best to cover her tracks so her ex couldn’t find her, but she wasn’t a
professional, and she knew there was always room for error. There was no
telling what a seasoned cop might be able to uncover if he was willing to dig
deep enough.
    “I’m not interested in what’s
printed on a piece of paper, Rachel. I want to know you, what makes you laugh,
what makes you cry, what you’re afraid of…” He let the kitchen door swing closed
behind them as he pulled her into his arms. He linked his hands behind her
waist. “I want to know your heart, what your hopes and dreams are, where you
see yourself in five or ten years.”
    Wow, this big, burly cop with
a slow smile really was a romantic at heart. She wondered what loving a man
like Tucker Carlton would be like, probably all-consuming, which in her case
meant dangerous. She had a daughter to think about. She couldn’t afford to let
her guard down, not even for a second. She knew her ex, Glen, was just waiting
for her to make a mistake, then he would swoop in and make good on his promise
to slit her throat in her sleep.
    That threat had been the last
straw. She knew couldn’t spend the rest of her life sleeping with one eye open,
so she ran, with the two people who meant more to her than anything.
    Glen didn’t know about her
cousin, Dixie. He didn’t want her to have friends, so she kept her relationship
with Dixie a secret so she would still have a lifeline to the outside world when
she needed it.
    “That’s asking a lot,” she
whispered.
    She wished she could just sit
down with him over a cup of coffee at his kitchen table and tell him her life
story. It seemed so simple. She assumed