Ready. Lucy Monroe

totally rely on.”

      Did she still love the other man, the man too honest to have an affair but untrustworthy enough to fall in love with another woman? Were leftover feelings from her dead marriage why she was so bothered by her reaction to Joshua?

      “You feel passion with me.”

      “It’s too intense. I don’t want to feel anything that deeply again.”

      He understood. Too well. Emotion could mess up your life, but he thought she was confusing desire with love and they weren’t the same thing. He didn’t know if he could convince her of that fact, but he was pretty sure he was going to have to try.

      He wanted Lise Barton and no way could he promise he would never act on that desire, no matter how good his intentions were.

      Nemesis paced his one-room efficiency apartment.

      Where was she?

      Rain beat against the dingy windows, the gray skies making his home dark even though it was still daylight outside.

      He didn’t like this wet climate, or the cold that his small baseboard heaters didn’t completely dissipate. His physical discomfort was something else to blame Lise Barton for. She’d ruined his life in every way that mattered.

      She’d been gone for three days now, and he’d been unable to find credit card charges for Joshua O. Watt.

      The satisfaction Nemesis had felt in discovering that Joshua’s last name was different from his sister’s had faded to nothingness in the face of his quarry’s continued absence.

      The man must have used cash to pay for their hotel room, so Nemesis had no way of knowing where it was. He consoled himself with the thought that even if he’d driven her out of state to Oregon or something, they wouldn’t have gone far.

      No way would she have run…not without her precious computer and the book she was working on. He’d hacked in to make sure it was still there and he’d found the book she’d been working on for the last month.

      In his fury at her deviation from the plan, he had deleted it.

      He didn’t regret the rash action. It would show her she could not play with him. He had a project launch schedule he was not about to let her impede.

      He had to see his goal realized.

      It would vindicate him and all the other men she had wronged with her meddling in affairs that were no concern of hers.

      He’d reverse planned everything down to the time of day for his initial contact with her. But his plan had not taken into account this disappearance. She wasn’t supposed to leave her apartment. It did not fit her profile—he had spent a great deal of time compiling the necessary statistics on her.

      He had nothing better to do with his time.

      Not now.

      Up until three days ago, she had behaved exactly as he had anticipated. She had waited to go to the sheriff until he broke into her apartment. It was a sign of how right his ultimate goal was that the sheriff had dismissed her complaints as unimportant.

      And as Nemesis had expected, even then she had avoided going to family for help. He had encouraged her separation from her family by subtly implying he had designs on her sister-in-law and niece. Which he didn’t.

      If Lise were as smart as she thought she was, she would have realized that. The innocent should not pay with the guilty.

      The man, Joshua Watt, was no longer innocent.

      Nemesis’s efforts had borne fruit, however, precipitating Lise’s flight to Seattle. While he had expected her to run, it had been a surprise when she’d opted to relocate to such a wet and cold climate, but he had followed her regardless. He had a mission and could not allow slight personal discomfort to sidetrack him.

      Fury made him shake as he realized that she had already messed up his plans for Thanksgiving. He’d planned for them to spend it together, but she had thwarted him.

      No, not her…the man. Joshua Watt.

      No mere woman could hinder him—even the home-wrecking bitch. None of her efforts would have done any good if his wife had not found help from misguided men.

      Despair surged through him as the memory of what he had lost tormented his agitated mind.

      He must not focus on what he had lost, but on the justice he would mete out to the woman who wreaked such havoc with her horrible book.

      He would see justice done on the Day of Judgment he had assigned.

      Chapter 4

      Lise sat on the porch swing, a throw around her shoulders to ward off the chill. Her white flannel nightgown wasn’t warm enough for the winter weather, but she had needed to be outside. She’d spent so much time hiding in her apartment the last few months that the outdoors had called to her like the irresistible sirens of old.

      The stars that were invisible in Seattle’s light-polluted night sky glittered overhead and the fragrance of fresh air teased her nostrils. At three o’clock in the morning, the ranch yard was deserted. Even the dogs were sleeping. And she was thoroughly enjoying the solitude.

      No stalker could see or hear her. Nemesis did not know where she was, and that would change tomorrow. So, for tonight she was determined to enjoy every nuance of the freedom she would not have again until her stalker was caught.

      Being drawn to the swing could be attributed to having spent so many evenings of her childhood curled up on it, telling stories in her head and avoiding the coldness of the ranch house. Only she wasn’t remembering her childhood, or telling herself a story in her mind, or even plotting her next book.

      Instead she was reliving the volatile feelings she’d had in Joshua’s arms last year on this very swing before she’d come to her senses and rejected him. Those feelings had been so different from anything she’d experienced with Mike, she’d been terrified. And she’d run.

      Just as Joshua had accused her of doing, but tonight she could not run from the memory. She didn’t know why…perhaps because she’d realized today that Joshua still wanted her and while that desire frightened her, it also exhilarated her.

      His wanting her confirmed her femininity in a way she was beginning to see she needed very badly, even if she didn’t want to explore the ramifications of it.

      But knowing he wanted her impacted her senses almost as much as the kiss had and she was filled with unwanted sexual excitement. If she closed her eyes, she could almost taste his lips again.

      Remembering the moment when his mouth had laid claim to her own made her nipples pebble with a stinging sensation against her nightgown. Had she ever wanted Mike this way? She didn’t remember it if she had. Pressing against her swollen breasts with the palms of her hands, she tried to alleviate the growing ache. It didn’t do any good. Between her legs throbbed and she clamped her thighs together, moaning softly.

      This was awful.

      She was not an overly sexual being. The coupling of male and female flesh did very little for her. It was a pleasant way to connect on an emotional level, but that was all.

      This consuming ache was not pleasant, nor did it feel particularly emotional.

      She was a physical animal, in touch with primitive needs she’d been certain she didn’t have.

      In a reflexive move, her hands squeezed her breasts and she cried out softly, unbearably excited by the simple stimulation.

      A harsh sound to her left caught her attention.

      Her eyes flew open.

      “Joshua…”

      He stood a few feet away, sexual energy that matched her own vibrating off of him in physical waves that buffeted her already overstimulated body. He was just as he’d been on the night of the christening. Only this time he remained