61d9ab3b-ebe1-5fb7-b6b9-5181bd695ddb">
“A month,” Kelly said.
“With a partner,” she added as clarification since Durant wasn’t answering her. Not if that disinterested look he’d just sent her way was any indication. “Is that the life expectancy of a partnership with you?”
Kane shrugged, apparently totally uninterested in her choice of topics to verbally pursue. “Give or take,” he finally replied vaguely, aware of the way she was looking at him, waiting for an answer. “I don’t keep track.”
Or so he thought.
Kelly nodded. “Fair enough,” she told him. “I just wanted to know what I was up against, that’s all.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kane asked.
“I’m going to look at this partnership as a challenge. If I can hang on beyond a certain point, say longer than your longest lasting partner, then it’s okay. I made it. You know, kind of like staying on a bucking horse for eight seconds.”
He looked at her as if she were a few cards short of a complete deck. If the woman wanted a challenge, he had one for her.
***
Be sure to check out the next books in
Cavanaugh Justice— Where Aurora’s finest are always in action.
How to Seduce a Cavanaugh
Marie Ferrarella
USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award-winning author MARIE FERRARELLA has written more than two hundred and fifty books for Mills & Boon, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, www.marieferrarella.com.
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Contents
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
Fear clawed at his small, heaving chest. It felt like long, sharp nails tearing into his very flesh.
He was aware of breathing hard, of being dizzy because he was unable to get in enough air.
A feeling of déjà vu oppressively weighed him down, pressing harder than an actual boulder could.
He’d been through this before, felt this way before, even though it was happening right before his eyes, so achingly vivid he couldn’t look away.
Not even for an instant.
Not even if his own survival depended on it.
Kane Durant was small for his age. But even if he hadn’t been, if he had been bigger and stronger than he actually was, he still would have been powerless against the big man.
Powerless to make him stop.
His father was a hulk of a man and only seemed to become more so when he was enraged.
Just the way he was now.
Enraged and spewing obscenities, hurling them at the trembling woman kneeling before him on the cracked vinyl kitchen floor.
The bruises on his mother’s face from his father’s last eruption were just now beginning to fade. The arguments, the rages, they were occurring more and more frequently these days, leaving an ugly rainbow of colors on every limb of her body.
The sense of constant anxiety never really went away anymore.
From the very moment he opened his eyes in the morning, Kane felt the frightening tension. Even during the lulls, which came less and less frequently, he knew it was just a matter of time before the next vicious outburst happened.
He’d been in his bed, fearfully watching the shadows moving on his ceiling when he’d heard his father bellowing, heard his mother crying out in fear and then in pain.
He was just a scrawny boy of ten, but the moment he heard his father yelling at his mother, he had abandoned his room and run into the kitchen to try to help his