Highly Charged! Read Online Free PDF Page A

lights circled the room fromthe cop car pulling in the driveway. The exposed-wood ceiling beams were bathed in the red-and-blue glow.
    â€œNo. In fact, several of them helped me move in a couple of weeks ago. But Chloe’s oldest stepbrother, Harold, is a local town councilman and he encouraged me to change the locks as soon as possible, implying he couldn’t vouch for everyone in the Ralston clan.”
    Their conversation was cut short by a knock at the door. Nikki rose to admit two uniformed officers while Brad waited on the periphery to give his statement.
    He’d started work here today to distract him from his enforced downtime and to take his mind off disturbing dreams. The enticement of a sexy next-door neighbor had been more than enough temptation. But a threat to Nikki’s safety?
    Today’s prankster didn’t know who he was dealing with. Because when Brad turned the full focus of his training and determination on the person responsible, the guy would be sorry he ever messed with a woman for whom Brad felt oddly protective. He had two weeks’ worth of resentment about an op gone wrong just looking for an outlet.
    A little retribution seemed right up his alley.
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    B Y THE TIME THE POLICE had finished, Nikki could smell the scent of barbecue chicken back on the grill.
    The thoughtfulness of that simple act speared past the defenses she liked to erect around men who were too handsome for their own good. How could she stay strong against someone who wanted to feed her after a long, tiring day capped off by vandalism?
    That would be a feat she couldn’t tackle tonight.
    Nikki wound her way through the house sorely lacking in furniture but crammed full of clutter, toward the back door. She really needed to start culling Chloe’s possessions to make room for her own, but it wouldn’t be easy to part with anything. As a kid, Nikki had compensated for her lack of a real home by collecting artifacts from every place she ever visited, in an attempt to surround herself with happy memories if not security. Chloe had been the same way, and their combined hoarding legacy created a staggering amount of material goods. Nikki squeezed past a box of Mexican corn husk dolls she’d made while attending a summer camp as a teen and stepped out onto the back patio.
    Brad manned the grill in the moonlight with that cute dog of his at his feet. The torches she’d lit earlier still burned in a ring around the flagstones, illuminating the wrought-iron table and a couple of place settings he’d resurrected from the kitchen counter. A bowl of grapes from the fridge served as a centerpiece next to a halfmelted candle he’d stuffed in an empty wine bottle.
    His efforts touched her.
    â€œThank you.” She slid into a seat at the table to thwart her sudden urge to fling her arms around him. In one day, this man had accomplished more on Chloe Lissander’s neglected property than she’d managed in the last week. He’d relocated the most menacing reptile she’d ever seen, chased off a trespasser and waited with her until the police arrived. Now, he had dinner ready when she was starving and exhausted. No matter that she’d cooked it originally. She could think of boyfriends in her past who wouldn’t have bothered to reheat a leftover for her sake.
    The buggers.
    â€œThank you . The hard part was already done.” He took the chicken off the grill and served it straight to their plates, next to foil packets of veggies and cobs of corn speared with oddball little corn holders shaped like smiling lobsters that had belonged to Chloe. “Plus, I figured the scent of our dinner might chase off the cops once the visit devolved from investigating to blatant flirting.”
    She was so entranced by the taste of barbecue sauce that it took her a minute to catch his surly tone.
    â€œFlirting? Those two?” She tried to recall one comment that could have been