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eBook Category: Erotica/Suspense/Thriller
eBook Description: Annie's pulse raced and her heart skipped a beat the moment she gazed into detective Thomas' dark midnight eyes. He was everything in a man that usually sent her running the other way, and everything she'd dreamed about in her fantasy lover. He was slowly killing her with his sexy grin and hungry eyes, until one moonlit night when she succumbs to the passion simmering between them. Rating: Contains graphic sexual content, adult language and situations, and violence.

eBook Publisher: New Concepts Publishing, Published: 2005
Fictionwise Release Date: February 2006

24 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [846 KB], eReader (PDB) [179 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [166 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [147 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [147 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [195 KB], hiebook (KML) [409 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [200 KB], iSilo (PDB) [137 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [171 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [214 KB]
Words: 51392
Reading time: 146-205 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
ISBN: 1-58608-809-2

Annie kicked back the smothering covers and sat up with a low groan of frustration, running her fingers through her sweat-damp hair. The air conditioner had broken down on her floor, and for the second night in a row she was forced to try and sleep in the stifling Florida heat. September wasn't the warmest month of the year, but when you were forced to go without air conditioning it seemed unbearable. Well, at least they'd fixed the electricity, again. She supposed it could always be worse.

She glared up at the inoperable ceiling fan, wondering why everything seemed to break down all at once. It was dark in the room except for the soft glow of the moonlight filtering through the motionless lace curtains, allowing her just enough light to see her familiar surroundings.

She sighed heavily, plucking her nightgown away from where it was plastered against her breasts. If she'd been a little less inhibited, she would have slept in the nude, but memories of sleepwalking when she was a child remained with her and were a deep-rooted fear. The last thing she wanted was to give any of her neighbors something to gossip about for the next fifty years.

Help. Help.

She started violently and then calmed herself with a nervous laugh, realizing that it was her pet Mynah, Harold, a comforting knowledge that didn't stop her heart from missing a beat, all the same.

Help.

"Hush up Harold!" she ordered harshly, running her hands through her tangled hair again and fluffing it against her hot neck. The relief was gratifying but brief.

The cops are here.

In spite of herself Annie felt her lips twitching as she swung her legs over the side of the bed to get to her feet. Thank goodness she lived on the second floor, or she would never have felt safe leaving the place open. She walked to the open balcony doors, pulling the sheers aside, closing her eyes as the faintest of breezes lightly touched her over-warm body.

Help!

"If you don't quiet down, Harold, I'm going to give you to the cook," she threatened, tugging at her damp nightgown again. Harold was repeating that particular word because of the cop show they'd watched before going to bed. It was a bad habit of his, picking up phrases and repeating them over and over again until it made her want to pull her hair out.

You need a man.

Annie rolled her eyes. She was not going to get into that conversation with him again. It went nowhere. Moreover, if the neighbors heard her having a discussion about her sex life, or lack of one, with a Mynah bird they'd think she was crazy for sure. Not that the walls were exactly paper thin, but she knew with the air conditioning out other tenants would have their windows and doors open, too. Unfortunately Harold's voice tended to carry.

You need a...

"Harold!" she warned.

Man.

"That's it!" Annie turned from the balcony, stomping toward him in the darkness, forgetting about the antique blanket chest she'd purchased the day before. Stumbling over it, she fell heavily to the floor, directly beneath Harold's perch, which only added to her frustration because it gave him the opportunity to sit there gloating down at her.

"Darn it!" She probably broke her toe, she thought, using the chest to pull herself to her feet. She sank on the edge of the bed to examine the injured digit with her fingers.

Harold's sorry, sorry, sorry, he chanted in rapid succession.

"You should be, it's all your fault," Annie grumbled, rubbing her throbbing toe. It wasn't broken, thank God, but no thanks to Harold. The thought of banishing him from the bedroom entered her mind, knowing he'd hate that.

Sorry, he repeated almost pitifully, as if sensing the direction of her thoughts.

She knew he wouldn't cease until she acknowledged him. Honestly, sometimes he was as bad as having a disorderly child around. Of course, Annie's only experience with that was when her neighbor's seven-year-old grandson was visiting and he used the corridors as a racetrack.

Sorry.

"Okay, enough, I forgive you," she lied. "Just be quiet will you? I want to try and go back to sleep."

Why then, was she limping back to the open balcony doors? She stepped onto the small verandah, moving to the railing that protected her from the two-story drop. Once in a while a mild breeze off the ocean whipped at her ultra-thin nightgown, feeling wonderful against her skin. Tilting her face toward the sky, she let the wind blow through her shoulder-length hair.

Paying a small fortune to live here was definitely worth it. Nothing could replace the calm and serenity she felt living near the ocean, smelling the salty air, and hearing the surf crash against the beach every night. The sound had lulled her to sleep many a time and in her book was better than any glass of brandy or sleeping pill. The screech of the seagulls was somehow soothing as well, although they upset her psychotic bird.

Smiling, Annie couldn't resist opening her arms to the sky as if offering herself up to the heavens, or some unknown man of her dreams--a lover waiting in the shadows to draw her into the protective shell of his embrace to keep her warm and safe.