Copyright © 2007
All rights reserved, The Wild Rose Press
Claire spun around to face the owner of the voice that made her insides clench. Her heart skittered beneath her breastbone and she gasped. "What the hell?" She grabbed her cell phone from her purse and started to punch in 9-1-1. "Get out! I'm calling the police."
"Is that any way to treat an old friend?"
She stopped dialing and narrowed her eyes at the stranger who was beginning to look more familiar with each frantic beat of her heart. His hair was no longer orange but a deep cherry wood red, and it was pulled back from his face in a ponytail. His pale skin had darkened to a bronze glow that could only have come from time spent beneath a tropical sun. Skinny? Not any more. He had to have bench-pressed his weight in coconuts on whatever island had given him that tan. He was Leland. Or Latham. Damn. One of those bully Coyne boys, and the nicer of the bunch.
"I'm hurt you don't remember me," he said, his square jaw tilted with a sly grin. "I was the one who protected you from my cousins when you were just a bairn . That canna have slipped your mind."
Speechless, she managed a guttural, "La... La..."
"Are you singin' or tryin' to remember my name?"
She gaped at him.
He sighed. "It's Liam, darlin'. Liam Coyne."
Ah, yes. She remembered all the Coyne boys now. And Liam wasn't a whole lot better than his cousins. At least he wasn't the one who put mud in her school bag, ripped her classwork to shreds while she watched, or stole her lunch money. But he was still a Coyne. Her skin grew hot as the rage of childhood humiliation returned with a vengeance.
Liam stood in the tiny living room, one hand braced on the sofa as he leaned against it with relaxed arrogance. Then his friendly expression abruptly changed to alarm. She wasn't the only one remembering how it had been when they were kids.
"Wait, Claire." He backed up. "Don't be actin' up now, hear? I just dropped by for a visit—"
Visit, hell. She bent at the waist and plowed forward, her bowed head aimed squarely at his belly.