Read For All of Her Life for Free Online Page A

drawn, James and Jeremy following behind them, both trying to explain, but so incoherently that nothing was made clear. The officers were convinced she was in danger. Once again, Kathy’s blood raced to her cheeks as she tried to speak for herself, but the police were trained to move swiftly and she didn’t have a chance to talk to them before they seized Jordan.
    “Against the wall!” an officer roared, his hand upon Jordan’s shoulder as he started to slam him against the bedroom wall.
    “No, wait!” Jeremy cried in dismay.
    “Sweet Jesus!” the doorman moaned upon reaching her room and falling back against the wall behind the second policeman who had burst in and now held his gun on the crowd of them, looking from one to the other. “Here goes my job!” James moaned.
    “Please!” Kathy shouted, ignoring him and talking to the officers. “Wait, please! This is my home, and you don’t understand the situation!”
    “Is it an assault, a rape?” the older officer asked.
    “It’s just dinner,” Jordan said wryly, staring across the room at Kathy.
    The officer went still, both brows raised in confusion. “What?” he asked.
    “Dinner. Ms. Connoly was changing to go to dinner,” Jordan said. He firmly caught the policeman’s hand, easing it from his body. He wasn’t angry or ruffled. “Officers,” he said pleasantly, “thanks for coming, but there’s really nothing wrong here.”
    “I thought someone was attacking Kathy,” Jeremy murmured. “I told James to call the police when I came hurrying up.
    “Mr. Hunt didn’t realize that the man up here was Mrs. Connoly’s husband,” James tried explaining.
    “Ex-husband,” Kathy said. No one seemed to notice. James was still trying to explain.
    “And I didn’t know that Mr. Treveryan had come in because I was helping old Mrs. Lunstead from upstairs into a limo. It’s really all my fault.”
    The officers—the younger one a twenty-something fellow with neatly cropped dark hair and large, soulful Latin eyes; the older one a grizzled-looking, blue-eyed Irishman—stared hard at Jordan. The older fellow was already grinning. “It is Jordan Treveryan, as I live and breathe!” he said.
    “Wow!” said the younger fellow. He glanced quickly to his superior. “Really?”
    “Oh, yeah!” the older man said on a breath of hero worship.
    And Kathy realized that she was still standing in her own bedroom in nothing but lace panties and clutching a piece of cotton to her chest while these guys ignored her and paid homage to Jordan.
    She cleared her throat. “If you all wouldn’t mind?” she said, stressing the last word.
    Ridiculous. The cops didn’t even notice her irritation—or her state of undress.
    “So is Blue Heron getting back together?” the younger one asked.
    “Want to set those guns back in their holsters?” Jordan suggested, his tone still level and calm, his smile casual. “I think you’re distressing Kathy, but it sure is great to know New York’s finest can make it here so promptly.”
    “Kathy!” the older one said with a gasp. He gave her his full attention at last. “Then you were with Blue Heron! Ex-wife, you were Kathy Treveryan, you were...Oh, wow, what a night!”
    Now they were all staring at her. She felt like a lobster—only lobsters had shells and she just had a handful of cotton.
    She tried to be pleasant, though she had to grit her teeth. “Will you all please get out of my bedroom!” she demanded with what patience she could muster.
    “Oh, my God!” the young cop suddenly exclaimed. It was his turn to become beet red. “William,” he said to the older officer. “Kathy and Jordan Treveryan. I think we—oh, no—I think we interrupted...” His voice trailed away awkwardly. It was quite clear just what he was afraid he had interrupted.
    “You didn’t interrupt anything,” Kathy assured them all quickly. She wanted to hit them, but she wasn’t about to give anyone a chance to say she had protested too