McKnight in Shining Armor Read Online Free PDF

glad—”
    “What do you think you’re doing, horning in on my gig?” Studs clamped his Stetson down low over his eyes, looking like he was about to say “Draw, pardner.”
    Stunned that anyone could think he’d purposely subject himself to a strip search by a bunch of crazed women, Alec could only gape at Studs. Studs somehow took that the wrong way, and, just as Kelsie arrived on the scene, he took a swing at Alec.
    The punch caught her a glancing blow off her left cheekbone, but Kelsie went down for the count like a felled prize fighter, dropping back into Alec’s arms as the police stepped into the house.
    When she started to come around, the first thing Kelsie saw was a blurry, somewhat one-dimensional image of Alec McKnight. He was bending over her with a worried expression creasing his forehead and turning down the corners of his interesting mouth. In the foggy recesses of her mind, she wondered what that mouth would feel like on hers. It was finely chiseled, with an almostcynical twist to it when he wasn’t smiling. Yet it wasn’t hard-looking. It looked kissable.
    As things came more into focus, she could see beyond Alec to two uniformed police officers. Police officers? She tried to sit up, groaning at the sudden bass drum beat in her head.
    “Easy, honey,” Alec said in a soothing voice, stroking a hand down the side of her face. Luckily it was the side that didn’t feel like it had been kicked in by a Clydesdale. His fingertips were firm and warm.
    “What happened?” she said, moaning, levering herself up on her elbows. Alec helped her sit up on the couch, positioning himself beside her so he could get a good look at her.
    “Jeez,” said the taller cop with the thinning blond hair, “you got socked by a guy in a leather cowboy suit.”
    “For real?” Kelsie asked. Her memory was too fuzzy at the moment for her to trust it.
    “I think so,” the cop said, nibbling on a cheese puff from the hors d’oeuvres tray, “but you never can tell nowadays. They make a pretty good vinyl that looks just like the real thing.”
    Not following his answer at all, Kelsie groaned and looked around the room. The party was over. Evidently one of the neighbors had called the police because of the noise. Many of the women had left for home. Paula, the bride-to-be, was dozing in a recliner, snoring loudly, with lingerie piled across her a foot deep.
    “How long was I out?” Kelsie asked.
    “Just a few minutes,” Alec said, fingering the purplish bruise that was beginning to color her left cheekbone, wincing when she winced. “He didn’t hit you very hard.”
    “Oh, really?” she said dryly. Her head felt as if it had been used for a soccer ball.
    “But you’re going to have a shiner,” he added.
    “Piece of raw meat’s the best thing for that,” said the tall cop.
    The cop with the bad toupee shook his head. “Cold bag of cheese curds. Conforms better to the shape of your face.”
    The pair wandered away discussing the relative merits of cheese curds.
    “Kelsie, I feel terrible,” Alec said, looking boyishly contrite.
    “That makes two of us.”
    “That punch was meant for me.” What was she going to think of him now, he wondered. That he was a rude jerk who hated animals and let women take his punches? Obviously he was going to have to postpone asking her out.
    It seemed to Kelsie that who Studs meant to punch was irrelevant now. She was the one with the blackening eye. At any rate, the whole thing had been nothing more than a huge misunderstanding.
    “What happened to Studs?” she asked one of the officers.
    “Some other cops hauled him away. Do you want to press charges?”
    “No,” she said, resting her throbbing head in her hands. “I want to go home.”
    Alec insisted on driving her. He even talked the policemen into following them with Kelsie’s battered Blazer so she wouldn’t have to return for it the next day.
    She huddled against the door on the passenger side of his car, trying