Susan Andersen - Baby, Im Yours

This ones for the guys in my life
Dedicated with love
to Steve,
who still rocks my gypsy soul
and
Christopher,
who fills my heart with pride

And in memory of Linda Ann Bell

I think this one mightve finally knocked

Present Danger off the top of your list

S AM M C K ADE RAN down the airport concourse toward the boarding area, arriving just in time to see Flight 437 roll away from the gate. He skidded to a halt.

Son of a bitch ! Slamming a fist through the air in frustration, he spun around, then brought his hands up to ram all ten fingers through his hair, glaring off into the distance. He was blind to the people giving him a wide berth as they carefully skirted around him.

He wanted to hit something. Man, did he want to hit something! A golden opportunity had just dropped in his lapand then been snatched away before he could grasp it.

Trying to calm down, he told himself to look on the bright side. Hell, it was strictly by chance that hed spotted Kaylee MacPherson in the first place. Hed been coming back from a meeting with the North Carolina bankers who were financing the fishing lodge he wanted to buy, and the last person hed expected to see at the airport was a bondsmans client. Yet there shed been, and while hed stopped dead to watch in amazement, shed undulated down the concourse with that killer walk of hers, her suitcase bouncing off her shapely calf.

Unable to credit his eyes, hed failed to react immediately. But it was impossible to mistake herearlier in the week hed been in the office picking up a check while the bond bailsman who employed him made arrangements to be at Kaylees arraignment to post bail. Sure as heaven made catfish, there werent two women in Miami with hair that color or a body like that. And Sam knew damn well that by leaving the area, she was breaking the terms of her bail.

Man oh man, hed thought, there was a God after all. The bounty on her bond would put him over the top for the last of the financing he needed for the lodge. Then it would be good-bye, dregs of society and humid, gritty streets, and hello, serenity on cool, misty mornings. Talk about easy pickins.

Which just went to show what happened when you underestimated the job at hand. It gave unwelcome teeth to that famous last words thingno way in hell he should have assumed nabbing MacPherson was going to be a piece of cake.

She was such a dim bulb, though, that she hadnt even attempted to tone down or change her appearance, let alone travel under an assumed name. Hell, looking at her, a man could all but hear the sultry bump-and-grind drumbeat set up by those well-rounded, spandex-encased hips. Not to mention the enormous wealth of red hair that blazed so brightly. There might as well have been a row of flashing neon arrows overhead to point out the way. He could keep her in sight merely by following the path of turned male heads.

A fat lot of good it had done him.

He hadnt anticipated the new hire who had hung him up at the checkpoint, and for that he had only himself to blame. Now he had no choice but to buy a ticket to Seattle and try to pick up a trail that would undoubtedly be stone-cold dead by the time he got there. God, he wanted a cigarette. What a damnfool time to quit smoking.

He called the office to let them know where he was headed, to make arrangements to have the fugitives bond undertaking messengered to him, and to get all the information on MacPherson he could garner. Then he went to the ticket counter, where he finally got lucky in a good-news bad-news sorta way. The good news was, he could catch a flight that would land him in Seattle less than an hour after MacPherson. The bad news was, it blew his budget all to hell and gone. But that couldnt be helped.

Somehow hed have to find a way to economize on the return trip to Miami. The thought caused Sam to utter a soft, unamused snort of laughter. That ought to provide one mother of a challengeconsidering the high-maintenance woman hed have in tow.

C ATHERINE M AC P HERSONS FIRST impulse, when the doorbell rang, was to ignore it. She wasnt feeling particularly sociable.

Self-pity, on the other hand, was such an unattractive trait, and one that filled her with guiltin spite of the permission shed given herself to take one full day to wallow in her misfortune. The doorbell pealed again, relentlessly, insistently, and in the end, years of self-discipline won out. She went to answer the summons.

The last person she expected to see on her front steps was her identical twin. Kaylee, she said blankly, and simply stood there for an instant, staring dumbfounded at her sister.

Surprise ! Kaylee exclaimed in the breathy contralto shed perfected when they were fifteen years old. With the shoulder strap of her purse sliding down her arm, her suitcase ricocheting off the doorjamb, breasts jiggling, she tripped into the foyer. Dropping luggage and handbag, she flung herself at Catherine, enveloping her in a lush and fragrant embrace.

Catherines arms automatically closed around her sister to return the hug, but she couldnt suppress the little voice in her brain that whispered, Uh-oh. I smell big trouble in River City. Patting Kaylees shoulder, she disentangled herself from the embrace and stepped back.

Kaylees gaze took in the foyer and she peered into the living room, then looked back at Catherine, one eyebrow sardonically quirked. Ever the Suzy Spotless, I see, she commented with lazy amusement. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

It was like having a bruise poked with a careless finger, and Catherine replied stiffly, Actually, its much neater than usual. I was supposed to leave for Europe last night, but when I arrived at the airport, I discovered my travel agency had gone bankrupt and taken my money with them.