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eBook Category: Erotica/Romance
eBook Description: Renee Wells left the west coast and headed for Ohio, the Heartland--though her own heart was encased in ice. Recently divorced, she'd sworn off men and that was fine. She was on her way to a new life, a new job, and was glad to be gone. She was in a state of rebellion and that's exactly where she was headed--Rebellion, Ohio. When she arrives, something she sees intrigues her--a mysterious man behind a fogged window. Her thoughts swirl around him and she is quickly drawn into the workings of small town life. What Renee doesn't realize is that before long, her icy heart will melt as she is drawn into the steamy situations that happen behind the closed doors of Rebellion. Rick Loman, attorney, is swamped. His receptionist is retiring, his father passed away leaving him to handle all of their clients and now, he is handling the most notorious case in Rebellion's recent history. A murder that involves sex, a cop and his sister's best friend. When he meets Renee Wells, Rick is drawn to her like a moth to a flame. He begins to question his own state of bachelorhood while his feelings for her get tangled up with the sweltering heat of the murder case. When Renee agrees to help him with the case, both of them are threatened with spontaneous combustion as they come together in a white-hot heat, while they work to solve the question of Rick's client's innocence.

eBook Publisher: Atlantic Bridge/Liquid Silver Books, Published: 2005
Fictionwise Release Date: July 2005

13 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [612 KB], eReader (PDB) [101 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [80 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [73 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [124 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [137 KB], hiebook (KML) [264 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [158 KB], iSilo (PDB) [66 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [83 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [138 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [109 KB]
Words: 25808
Reading time: 73-103 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
ISBN: ISBN 1-59578-101-3

Where the hell was he?

It was a foggy April evening as Renee cruised the parking lot of the motel, squinting through the windshield, searching for that nasty little red car. She'd hated that car from the day Bruce had bought the little convertible. He had said he'd bought it because it had good gas consumption, which was a plus here in California. Renee knew the real reason. He wanted it to attract women. Young women.

Younger than me, she thought, catching a glimmer of red up the next row of cars. Bruce Crane liked his 'girls' to be barely legal. No older than twenty-two. Well, too bad that Renee had recently turned twenty-six and was one year older than Bruce himself.

Renee Wells-Crane was on a mission. This time, she was going to catch him red-handed. Or red-whatever.

She and Bruce had been married for two years and the first few months had been great. Then, when Bruce realized that marriage was 'real', he started going to business meetings at night. But the type of 'meetings' he was going to had nothing to do with business.

Renee had suspected for a long time, but hadn't done anything. She was hoping that it was just Bruce getting used to being married. That she was only being paranoid.

She pulled into an empty parking spot next to the nasty little red car. Throwing the gearshift into park, she seethed. Enough was enough. She was no cowering wife and it was time that Bruce realized it. This ... she would not put up with.

Not anymore.

Renee got out of the car, slamming the door.

Narrowing her eyes, she scanned the doors of the motel rooms. Which one?

"There's one way to find out," she said, thinking about the personalized car alarm that Bruce just had to have for his nasty red toy.

Renee strode over to the driver's side of the convertible and grabbed the door handle. With a smirk, she gave it a yank.

The car alarm shrilled, screeching through the air and echoing off the motel.

Renee casually leaned against the front fender of the car, arms crossed. She didn't have to wait long.

Two rooms down on the left, Bruce threw open the door. "Get away from the car!" He rushed out, a faded flowered bedspread wrapped around him.

Renee didn't move. Her heart, which over the past few months had suffered many razor cuts thanks to Bruce's messing around, had finally turned to stone. He couldn't hurt her. In the last few weeks, Renee had grown a very thick skin when it came to her husband. She had a rock hard shell that he could no longer penetrate.

Stumbling toward her in his bare feet, desperately trying not to trip over his ugly bedspread toga, Bruce's face turned white. "Renee?" He stopped, luckily out of arm's reach. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you freaking kidding?" She shoved off the fender, her hands dropping to her sides. She fisted them, her fingernails digging into her palms to keep from rushing up to him and slapping him. "What are you doing here, Bruce?"

"I ... uh..." He struggled with his bedspread, bunching it up in his hands.

Renee stepped toward him. "You don't need to tell me. I know what you're doing here. I know what you've been doing all along." She walked past him, making a beeline for the open door of the room he had burst out of.

"Renee, stop. Don't."

But she didn't stop. She could hear his bare feet slapping the sidewalk behind her. She moved faster.

Renee entered the motel room and flicked the light switch just inside the door.

The young woman on the bed cringed away from the light like a vampire. That's what she is, Renee thought. A vampire sucking the life out of my marriage. Then she shook her head. No, that wasn't right. There hadn't been life in her marriage for a long time. It wasn't this woman's fault. It was Bruce's.

With a sigh, Renee turned to leave. "You can have him, honey. I'm finished with him."

One step out the door and Bruce blocked her way. "Move Bruce."

He sidestepped, blocking her when she tried to walk around him. "Where are you going? Renee, let me explain..."

"I don't need an explanation and you don't need to know where I'm going because you know what?" She dodged past him, making it around him this time. "You don't care where I'm going and you never did. All you've ever cared about is yourself."

Renee started to walk away.

"Stop, Renee, please." Bruce's voice sounded like a twelve-year-old, whining.

Renee just shook her head and kept on walking.

"You're going to do something stupid, Renee!" Bruce yelled. "You're just in a state of rebellion. You always have been. You're too headstrong. You're not the woman I thought I married. Someone sweet, that only wanted to please me. That's the whole problem. That's why I'm here."

Renee froze. Anger seethed inside her now. In one quick movement she whirled around to face him. "Don't you ever ... EVER ... try to blame this on me," she said, her voice booming through the parking lot. Doors were opening, people looking out to see what was going on. Renee didn't care. "You've seen the last of me, Bruce. You can have all of the playmates you want. I'm gone. I'm worth more than this." Then she turned and started walking to her car, a sense of relief beginning to flow over her. It was done. It was over, or would be as soon as she filed for divorce. Then she was really going to be gone. As far away from here as possible.

"You'll regret this, Renee. You will!"

Renee opened her car door and took one last look over her shoulder.

Bruce stood on the sidewalk in front of the room with the open door. The bedspread he was wrapped in drooped around him and his normally perfectly styled white-blond hair stood up in a hundred different directions.

A smile bloomed on Renee's face.

God, she couldn't believe she had settled for him in the first place. She had been blinded by his California good looks. Well, he didn't look so good once his true self was revealed. In fact, those Beach Blond looks were a bit worn at the moment, not so good at all.

Regret leaving that?

Never.

She got in her car and pulled out with a squeal of tires. She was in a hurry. A hurry to get started on a new life. And after she started divorce proceedings, the first thing she was going to do was find a new job to go along with her new life.

And it would be a job as far away from Bruce and this city as she could get.