Read One Penny Surprise (Saved By Desire 1) for Free Online

useless in getting the body out of the river on her own, even if she did summon the courage to try. He suspected that if anything were to frighten her, she would vanish in an instant. If he was stupid enough to try to stop her, she would start to scream like a banshee again and become hysterical to the point that he was forced to do something rash; like kiss her to shut her up. He eyed the luscious curve of her lips and quickly turned away.
    “Who is it?” she whispered when she could find her voice. She watched the man search the river for something and wondered what he was looking for because the body was right before them.
    Luke shook his head and glared at her. “How should I know?” he snapped. “You seem to be the one who attracts the criminal element around here. You tell me.”
    “I have never seen him before in my life. I was just standing here waiting,” she retorted, but then quickly shut up when she realised she couldn’t explain to him why she had been waiting, or who for. It irked her to realise that she didn’t even have a name for the man she was supposed to meet; assuming it was even a man. That thought made her frown, and she quickly set it aside to think about later.
    “For who?” Luke landed a glare on her that pinned her to the spot. He hoped that by startling her she would answer before she thought to caution her words. To his consternation, she hesitated for a fraction of a second before she replied far too carefully to be believed.
    “For you to come back,” she lied. She mentally apologised for her untruth and struggled to keep guilt from her face as she stared at the handsome stranger as innocently as she could. “He floated down from there,” she added in a desperate attempt to turn the focus of his attention off herself. She mentally winced when she realised how dense she had just sounded. The river only flowed one way. Of course the body would float toward her. It couldn’t float upstream. The man must think her a total imbecile.
    “I didn’t see him at first and was about to turn away when I saw the flash of his shirt in the water. He is dead, isn’t he?”
    Of course he is. She mentally winced as she watched him roll his eyes. Her annoyance at herself, at him, at this entire situation grew when she witnessed his patronising demeanour. All right, so the man in the river was clearly dead but the handsome stranger didn’t need to be rude about it. Still, she tried hard not to antagonise him right now because she needed his help to decide on the best course of action to take.
    “I am sorry. I know I am babbling nonsense but this has just thrown me,” she whispered. “The last thing you expect on a trip to the park is to have a corpse on your hands.”
    Rather than answer, Luke studied the riverbank. There was no sign of drag marks which led him to think she was being honest with him about this at least. Although he had questions for her, he set them aside for now so he could focus on getting the body onto dry land. The investigator in him was busy scouring the area for signs of a struggle, or any clues as to where the man came from, or where he entered the water. He was so engrossed in his work he practically ignored her for several long minutes.
    “You used that to haul him toward you?” He asked with a nod toward the stick she still held.
    She nodded hesitantly and looked cautiously at it.
    “May I?” he asked holding his hand out.
    “Pardon?” Poppy asked blankly; strangely unable to tear her gaze away from the body in the river.
    “Give me that stick,” Luke demanded firmly. He knew she was scared by what she had just found. The distress was barely veiled in those emotion-filled eyes, but he needed her to stay calm for him. His morning had been bad enough as it was. The last thing he wanted was a weeping female on his hands as well as a corpse. “Just give me the stick, please.”
    Poppy stared down at the stick in her hand as though she had no idea where it had