Read Showdown at Lizard Rock for Free Online

words Kaylyn Smith heard from the cell behind her were King Vandergriff’s furious, colorful cursing, Mac trying to calm him down, and Harold delivering a mournful rendition of “When We Meet on Heaven’s Happy Shore.”
    …
    “She’s what?”
    “She’s camped out at the springs, complete with tent, cook stove, lounge chairs, and a portable television.”
    King groaned. “I don’t believe it. What are the men doing?”
    “They’re … waiting.”
    “Mac, you’re the job foreman. Couldn’t you have prevented this?”
    “I should have posted a guard. But it never occurred to me that she’d be back. Sorry, King.”
    This couldn’t be happening to him, King thought. Not only had he spent half the night in jail listening to Harold grieve over Kaylyn’s being “sent to the Big House,” he hadn’t been able to sleep for thinking of her. Now he was facing another day of disruption on the job, disruption that he couldn’t afford.
    “Reporters?” he asked. “Has she called in the world press this time?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Then what the hell is she doing?”
    “When I left to call you, she was … frying sausage.”
    Twenty minutes later King and Mac were at the construction site. King stopped at the rock and looked up at it with dismay. He wouldn’t admit it to anybody, but from the moment he’d put his arms around Kaylyn Smith the day before, he’d felt as if his entire body were racing out of control, leaving his logical calculations in some cottony limbo.
    Now this. Even as he stood considering his options, he heard the rich sound of her laughter and knew that he wanted to feel the warmth promised behind those cool blue eyes. But hell, not here, and not on his project. This was business and she waspleasure—pure, muscle-tensing, man-woman pleasure.
    “Is she dressed, Mac?”
    “She’s dressed, but shorts and a tank top don’t do much to take the men’s minds off what she looks like.”
    King groaned. She wasn’t going to make it easy. But then, when had anything easy been worth having? He straightened his shoulders and strode around Lizard Rock to a cluster of smaller rocks surrounding a large, deep pool of bubbling spring water.
    “Good morning, your highness,” Kaylyn said sweetly. She poured coffee from a large metal pot into a ceramic cup. “Have some coffee with us.” The smell curled around King’s nose and wafted in his nostrils as she held out the mug.
    “Us” was his construction crew, the entire bunch. Sheepishly the men stood up, mouths paused in mid-chew, holding paper plates filled with half-eaten eggs and pancakes. King surveyed the group angrily.
    “Gentlemen, do finish your breakfast. I wouldn’t want to be accused of depriving you of your last meals.”
    The men backed away, and King faced Kaylyn across the springs. She looked like a lithe African lioness ready to defend her territory.
    He turned to Mac. “I don’t want to see any of the men around this spring again, not as long as she’s here.”
    “Yes, boss.”
    The mass exodus was complete within seconds, leaving only King and Kaylyn within the circle of rocks around the springs. In the silence he could hear the gurgling of the water as it rose out of theground and fell over rocks in little waterfalls that ended in the pool.
    “You’d better have a cup of coffee,” she said. “It’s made from spring water. I promise it will calm you down. Grand for the nerves. How did you sleep?”
    Kaylyn’s plan to remain calm had evaporated the moment she allowed herself to look directly at King Vandergriff. Dammit, she thought, why did he have to resemble Robert Redford and William Hurt rolled into one? He must have a closet full of custom-tailored jeans and Western shirts.
    But this morning he was wearing running shoes instead of those alligator boots. He planted his feet apart, and she realized that the confrontation over Pretty Springs was rapidly turning into a personal standoff between the two of