Read A Man Like Morgan Kane for Free Online Page B

and bringing me my address book and the cards beside it? They're on my writing desk. I owe so many thank-you notes for the flowers people keep sending. It's such a lovely day, I think I may stay out here for a while after Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    lunch."
    "Of course, Nana." Standing, Anne Marie leaned over and caressed Claudia's shoulder. "I think I'll go through the kitchen and check out what Ida Mae fixed for dessert."
    The minute Anne Marie and Ida Mae disappeared inside the house, Claudia turned to her son. "Bethany and Amery did not have a good marriage. She didn't love—"
    "I don't want to hear about Bethany and Amery's marriage!" Morgan knocked over his chair in his haste to stand. Tossing down his linen napkin, he glared at his mother.
    "No, don't leave. Don't run away. Not now. You leftBethanyonce when she… Please.Bethanyneeds you, and I believe you need her."
    "I don't need anyone. Get that through your head right now."
    "You always were so headstrong and rebellious, but you didn't used to be quite so cold and unfeeling.
    What sort of life have you led that has turned you into a heartless machine?"
    "You don't want to know."
    "Perhaps not." Claudia ran her fingertips over the glass top of the wicker table. "We made a mistake, your father, Eileen and I, pushingBethanyinto a marriage with Amery. They were both miserable. I've felt guilty for such a long time. And ever since you told me the other day that sixteen years ago you'd actually come home, come back forBethany… If only we'd known…Things could have been so different."
    "All of this is past history." Morgan reached down, grasped the back of his wicker chair and set it upright. "What does any of this have to do with my taking the job asBethany's bodyguard?"
    "Bethanyis very dear to me. Over the years she has become a daughter to me," Claudia said. "And Anne Marie… I love that child as much as I ever loved you."
    "All right, we've established what Bethany and her daughter mean to you, but that still doesn't—"
    "In all the years you've been away, the only thing I ever asked of you was to come home to your father's funeral, but the Navy couldn't reach you in time. You were God knows where, doing God knows what.
    "Well, I'm asking something of you again. Just this once. Do this one thing for me and I'll never ask anything of you again, Stay here inBirmingham. ProtectBethany. And find a way to prove her innocence."
    "I can't!" Turning his back to Claudia, he gazed out at the vibrant, verdant, manicured garden surrounding the gazebo, then let his vision focus on the wide sweep of the city below them.
    "You lost her once, and that was partly my fault and partly your own fault." Claudia eased back her chair, stood and walked around the table. She laid her hand on Morgan's rigid shoulder. "Don't you see?
    This could be a second chance for you and Bethany. Aren't you the least bit curious to find out if—"
    "Don't do this!" Stepping hurriedly away from his mother, Morgan leaned forward, grasped the top of the banister railing and clenched his teeth tightly. Was he curious aboutBethany? About what kind of woman she had become? About whether or not that same sizzling chemistry existed between them?
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    Hell, yes, he was curious. And scared. He hadn't wanted or needed anyone in a long, long time. And he liked it that way. People came and went in his life. But there had been no oneand nothing permanent. Not caring about someone made life easier. If you didn't care, then no one could hurt you. If nothing and no one mattered, then no one could disappoint you, no one could let you down.
    He did his job atDundee's with the same controlled, unemotional professionalism that had seen him safely through over a dozen years as a SEAL. Could he becomeBethany's personal bodyguard and remain uninvolved? It wasn't that he still loved her. Hell, he