Falling For A Redneck by Eve Langlais Page A

the front porch to get his Sunday paper. Bending over to grab it, he caught a glimpse of a person ducking down out of sight in a dark Cadillac across the street.
    What the hell?
    He went back into the house, shut the front door, and then stepped to the side so he could peer through the side glass at the car across the road. A head popped back into view, wearing dark glasses and a visored ball cap.
    Surveillance? Dirk felt himself break out into a cold sweat. Surely they hadn’t followed him. He’d kept his word and stuck to his story. I’m no snitch. Deserved or not, he’d done his time and, once they let him out, left his old life behind to start anew. Don’t tell me they’ve followed me out here, not after all this time.
    T he more he watched the person in the car, he realized that maybe he had it wrong. The boys he used to run with wouldn’t be caught dead in a Caddy, not to mention subtlety had never been one of their strong points.
    Curious, Dirk stayed at the window spying on the watcher. Not once did the person look over at his house, and Dirk let out a sigh of relief but then knotted his brow as he realized the watcher seemed fixated on the house next door. My ice princess’ house.
    Did she have a stalker? Hard to think of her attracting the attention of someone like that, but then again, she was a mighty attractive woman. Dirk cracked his knuckles; they’d better look elsewhere if that was the case. She’s mine now. When and where he’d decided that, he didn’t care to dwell on. He just knew in that moment, until he’d had more time, she was his.
    Maybe the mysterious person was casing out the joint. Home invasions were a much more frequent occurrence nowadays. In which case, they’d be in even worse trouble once he got his hands on them. Dirk couldn’t abide petty thieves. Lazy bastards.
    Or maybe Marissa is a secret spy in disguise, and the bad guys have found her. Ha! My prim and proper ice princess doesn’t have the imagination to lead a double life.
    But just in case the mysterious watcher was up to no good, Dirk would keep a close eye. After all, when the guy saved the girl, didn’t he always get lucky?
    The ache in his groin sure hoped so. Just one taste and already he felt addicted.

Chapter Seventeen
    With her grocery list in her purse and her ecological shopping bags tucked under her arm, Marissa was ready to do her weekly shopping. She came out of her house and locked it while carefully avoiding any stray glances at his house. It took some effort. She’d spent half the night dreaming about Dirk, tasting him this time. Having him in her bed, at her mercy to play with. Being at his mercy.
    She’d even go ne so far as to wonder what it would be like to have been married to a man like him instead of her asshole of an ex. Pleasant fantasies of being a mom to the boys and having a cookie-cutter life like June Cleaver. Such a bittersweet fantasy and a dream that would never come true, not for a person like her.
    As she hit the unlock button on her key fob, the lights on her car blinked, and she heard the electronic whir as the locks disengaged. Marissa clambered into her car and checked her mirrors then buckled before starting the car and putting it into reverse. She had to wait, though, as a dark sedan pulled away from the curb across the street and rolled up the street. Marissa eased off the brake and reversed down the driveway carefully. Accident free, and planning to stay that way to keep her premiums down. Not to mention, getting parts for her older car would prove practically impossible. Coast clear, she shifted into drive and started up the street when she remembered. She’d forgotten to grab her dry cleaning. Dammit.
    Unbuckling her seat belt, she shifted t he car into reverse. She turned around in her seat to watch as she eased backward up the street to her house, carefully watching for traffic. Once she reached her house, she shifted into drive again to pull into her laneway. She gave