Read Online Forever After by Catherine Anderson - Free Book Online Page A

Meredith stopped and hugged her waist, her gaze fixed on those gleaming white fangs. Oh, God . She had no doubt that the dog would leap on her if she went closer.
    Gathering all her courage, Meredith took another step. Goliath’s snarl gained force, seeming to vibrate the walls. She pressed a hand to her throat, afraid to move. In a frenzy, the Rottweiler might turn on Sammy. The only things Meredith had in the house to use as weapons were a butcher knife and a tack hammer, and it would take her at least a full minute to go get either one.
    She retreated to the kitchen and ran to the wall phone. By the light from Sammy’s room, she could see well enough to find Heath Masters’ phone number.
    He answered on the second ring, sounding surprisingly alert. “Masters, here.”
    “Get over here! Your dog is in bed with my daughter! I can’t get close to her!”
    “Meredith?”
    The fact that he’d somehow learned her name barely registered. Throwing a frightened glance over her shoulder to make sure the dog hadn’t begun devouring her child, she cried, “Of course! Who else would be calling you at two in the morning?”
    “I’ll be right there.”
    The line went dead. Hanging up, Meredith pressed her back to the wall, wondering how long it might take him to get there. Five minutes?
    Shaking and almost beside herself, she ran her hands into her hair. Oh, dear heaven, her hair ! She couldn’t answer the door like this.
    She charged to the bathroom. In her hurry, she knocked the contact case off the counter. One side popped open. Falling to her knees, she carefully palmed the linoleum for the lost bit of fragile plastic. She had a spare set of lenses, but she couldn’t recall which drawer she’d stuck them in. Oh, God, please…
    She nearly sobbed with relief when she finally found the lens. Then she almost lost it down the drain as she rinsed it off. After popping the colored disks into her eyes, she groped for her dark wig, jerked it on her head, then reached for her generously padded bra. At just that second, a loud knock resounded through the house.
    Heath Masters looked bigger than life when she saw him standing on her rickety porch, his partially buttoned uniform shirt revealing an expanse of well-muscled, deeply bronzed chest, his faded jeans encasing powerful legs that seemed to stretch forever. Dim light fell across him, casting his dark, chiseled features in shadow and glistening in the sleep-rumpled waves of sable hair that curled loosely over his forehead.
    Slate blue eyes still bleary with sleep, he asked, “Where is he?”
    Meredith stepped back and beckoned him inside. “Careful of the flowerpots.”
    She led him to the kitchen, where two rectangles of light spilled across the floor, one from the bathroom, the other from Sammy’s bedroom.
    “They’re in there. Sammy had a nightmare. When I went in, there he was.”
    Heath stepped to the doorway. After taking in the situation, he bent to pat his knee. “Goliath! Come here, buddy.”
    When Meredith heard the dog leap off the bed, she expelled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She backed away when Heath led his dog to the kitchen.
    “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he said as he tugged the dog past her.
    Meredith ran to her daughter. After checking to make sure Sammy was all right, she tucked her back under the covers. “I’ll be back in just a minute. Okay, sweetness?”
    Sammy, who seemed to have recovered with record speed from her bad dream, caught Meredith’s hand. “Don’t be mad at G’liath, Mommy. I’m the one who sneaked.”
    Meredith reached down to smooth her daughter’s hair. “Oh, Sammy…”
    “I di’n’t fib. Honest, Mommy. You asked if I let him in, ’member? All I done was open the window. G’liath comed in all by hisself.”
    “I see.” Meredith looked deeply into her child’s eyes. Little angels, it seemed, could be as duplicitous as adults. “And why didn’t you just tell me