Read Online Skin Deep by Pamela Clare - Free Book Online Page B

danger tonight. “Please be careful. I don’t want you or anyone else to get hurt.”
    “Hey, we do this for a living, remember? I’ll let you know how it goes.”
    “Thanks, Marc. I love you.”
    “Love you, too, sis.”
    Megan ended the call and walked back to the kitchen to find Emily with a cocoa mustache and a handful of extra marshmallows.
    Nate looked up as she approached. “Everything okay?”
    “Yeah.” But Megan could tell he didn’t believe her. “They’re going to drop off the money tonight and see if anyone shows up to take it.”
    Jack stood, reached for a red-and-white checked apron that hung over the back of a nearby chair. “Nate has filled me in on what’s happening, so here’s my unsolicited advice. You’re safe and warm up here, and there’s nothing you can do about what happens in Denver tonight. So try to sit back, relax, and get ready to enjoy a pot of Cimarron Ranch Chili made by the expert. It’s a life-changing experience.”
    Megan couldn’t help but smile at this smug declaration. “Can I help?”
    “No!” Jack shook his head. “You all get the hell out of my kitchen.”
    Nate shook his head, but the affection he felt for his father was plain to see. “Let me show you the house and get the two of you settled.”
    He led Megan around the main floor. In the center were the great room, formal dining room, and the kitchen, which she had already seen. On the far side of the kitchen were a walk-in pantry, a wine cellar, a bathroom, a laundry room, and the five-car heated garage. On the far side of the great room were Jack’s office, three more bathrooms, an exercise room with a sauna, and a home theater with its own fireplace and an enormous flat-screen TV.
    Upstairs, there were five bedrooms, each with its own television, bathroom and fireplace, and a library, which also had a fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out toward the mountains. With the sun shining, the view would be staggering. As it was, all Megan could see was blowing snow.
    “This is beautiful.” Megan had seen wealth before. Her adoptive parents were relatively wealthy, and their friends had been wealthy. But never had she seen anything to equal the comfort and beauty of the Cimarron, glass and stone and wood tastefully joining the interior of the house to the landscape outside.
    “It’s a bit much for two people, but it’s home.” Nate led her to a bedroom with a big four poster bed covered with a blue and green quilt and matching shams. “Why don’t we put you in here? Do you want to share a bed with Emily, or would you rather have a room to yourself?”
    “Oh, we can definitely share a bed. I don’t want to make any more trouble for you than I already have.”
    Nate reached up, brushed his thumb down her cheek, leaving a trail of heat on her skin. “You haven’t made trouble for us, so put that idea out of your head.”
    For the span of a heartbeat, maybe two, she found herself looking up at him, lost in the warmth of his blue eyes.
    “Th-thank you.” Then she remembered. “I was planning to stay at Marc’s tonight, so I packed suitcases. I need to get them from the trunk of the car.”
    “I’ll get them. You just make yourself at home.”
    Home.
    Megan sat on the bed and looked out the window at the swirling storm. And for the first time since Donny had forced his way back into her life, she felt … safe .
    # # #
    Nate turned up the lights as the credits rolled on Beauty and the Beast , a movie he hadn’t seen since … well, ever. He looked over to find Emily asleep on her mother’s lap looking sweet as candy in fuzzy pink pajamas, her tiny body limp. Megan held her daughter, stroking Emily’s hair, a soft smile on her face. Out of nowhere, the photos from the Denver Independent article came back to him.
    His urge to shelter and protect ratcheted up another notch. “Do you want me to carry her upstairs?”
    Megan didn’t look thrilled by the idea. She clearly trusted very