The Midnight Hour - Brenda Jackson [121]
"Because I'd like for you to check on Christy-discreetly of course-"
"Christy? Why would Christy be in Cincinnati?"
"She's moving there."
"What!"
"Yeah, we were surprised as hell, too. She broke the news to me, Justin, and Dex this evening. She's taking a job there, claims it's the opportunity of a lifetime."
Alex took a deep breath, not believing what he was hearing. Christy was moving to Cincinnati? He couldn't believe that the Madarises were letting her move someplace way across the country, considering how overprotective that they had always been of her. Her leaving home to attend college was one thing, but permanently relocating to another state was altogether different.
"So will you do that for me?"
Clayton's question reclaimed his attention, and somehow he got himself together enough to say, "Yeah, I'll check on her whenever I'm in Cincinnati."
"Thanks, man, I owe you one."
A few minutes later, Alex pushed his sliding glass door aside and stepped out onto his deck. The night was cool, not uncommon for February. He inhaled deeply as he thought about Clayton's call.
He stared into the darkness as his thoughts then shifted to the day of Christy's thirteenth birthday. He had come upon her crying and saying that no guy would ever want to marry her when she grew up because of her overprotective brothers. As a way to cheer her up, he had told her to stop crying because he would wait for her to grow up and marry her himself, and had gone so far as to take a ring he wore on his pinkie finger and place it on hers.
With an exasperated sigh, he then recalled that night almost two years ago when Christy had been home on spring break from college and had reminded him of that promise. He was surprised she had remembered that time and tried to
explain to her that he had only been teasing with her that day. He had emphasized the eight-year difference in their ages, told her that she needed to start dating guys her own age and to stop waiting on him because he had no intention of ever marrying her or any woman. His words had hurt her that night and since then she had made him her sworn enemy.
But what he hadn't been able to forget, more than anything else about that night, was the kiss they'd shared before he had given her the brush-off. Desire for her had consumed his body to a degree he hadn't thought possible. And when he had kissed her-devoured her mouth was a better way to describe it-he had felt things he had never felt before… or had felt since.
He rubbed his hand down his face, admitting that that was the crux of his problem. Christy Madaris was still off-limits to him and would forever be the baby sister of three of his closest friends. But that hadn't stopped him from realizing something over the past two years. Christy was no longer a girl but a woman-a very beautiful and desirable woman.
A woman he desperately wanted.
It had taken him almost two torturous years to finally accept what Christy had said all along. He had been waiting for her to grow up.
He glanced down at his hand. He had placed the ring back on bis finger when an angry Christy had given it back to him, and to him that ring represented unfinished business between them.
And he knew, just as sure as there was a moon in the sky, that he was willing to risk everything to finish it.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18