Private Investigation (8 page)

It was her mother’s death that had precipitated her leaving Riding. After a long battle with cancer, a battle Isabel had seen her through, to the detriment of her college acceptance and future prospects, her mother had succumbed to the disease on the eve of Isabel’s twentieth birthday. The day after the funeral, she’d telephoned the college to cancel the deferment she’d requested more than two years earlier and told them that she’d see them for the winter semester. The day after that, she’d packed up her possessions and left at daybreak.

Cary and Dex had come after her, of course, ready to cajole, bribe and finally browbeat her into returning home. She’d told them that she didn’t have a home anymore. And for four more years, that had been the truth. No matter where she’d lived, it had not been a home. Until Jason had moved into her apartment and made it one.

Dex, eyeing her in the mirror he’d pulled down from his visor, smiled tenderly. “Go ahead and cry, darlin’. We’d understand.”

But his brother’s snort of derision kept her clear-eyed. Crying over a man! How that would make Cary howl with mocking laughter. No Armstrong man would ever cry over a woman.

But, Isabel told herself for the thousandth time, I’m not an Armstrong—I’m a Morgan! And Morgans cried aplenty.

“I’ll pass,” she said, earning a grin from Dex and the slightest nod of approval from Cary.

God, she’d forgotten how easy it was to live her life under their thumbs, to be ecstatic when she earned their respect and crushed when they disapproved of her behaviour. It was a pattern as old as the hills they were passing. Somehow, she would have to break it. Someday she would have to stand on her own two legs again. Someday soon.

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About the Author

Fleur T Reid is a romantic at heart, who thinks what the world needs is more whimsy. She lives partly in England but mostly in Cyberspace. She enjoys dreadful puns and naughty MF and ménage stories, and believes the best way to have a good time is by being bad.

Email:
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Fleur loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at
http://www.total-e-bound.com
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