Savin' Me Read Free Page B

Cara
said, interrupting Kat’s thoughts. “No one works harder than Erik,
but he plays equally hard. He’s wild and untamed. Many have tried,
but most believe he’ll never settle down.”
    Kat studied Cara as she absently stroked her
arm and glanced around the room, obviously searching for the object
of their discussion. Kat didn’t know if she was being warned off
Erik for her protection, or because Cara had designs on Erik and
wanted one less competitor in the field. Either way, it didn’t
matter. Erik was off-limits to Kat regardless of his settling-down
tendencies.
    “You said the name of his company is
Monteague Boats?” Kat asked.
    Maggie confirmed with a shake of her head,
and Kat ran a quick mental scan of the client list Rusty had passed
on to her. She’d known Erik’s last name and that he lived somewhere
along the North Carolina coast. Although his name hadn’t been the
main focus of her memories, she felt certain if she’d stumbled
across it on her client list, she would’ve noticed.
    At least she could take small consolation in
knowing that, even though he was a client of the agency, he wasn’t
one of her personal clients. Therefore, she wouldn’t have to see
him on a regular basis. He might even be a client who preferred
doing everything via email and fax, and she wouldn’t have to see
him at all.
    Feeling slightly better about the situation,
she thanked the trio for their information and excused herself.
After that near freak-out, she needed to slip into the backyard
garden for some fresh air and a moment of solitude before diving
back into the fray.

Chapter
Two
     
    The old Victorian’s backyard garden was
spectacular. The massive branches of the ancient oak trees were
like giant arms, wrapping themselves protectively around the
Victorian and all who resided within. Three magnolias stood sentry,
protecting the side and back, while a climbing rose hung
tenaciously to a trellis at the corner of the house. The fact that
renovations had been completed without disturbing or destroying the
rosebush, was a testament to the care and commitment Rusty had to
restoring the old house to its original splendor.
    Gardenias, azaleas, and jasmine wore the last
few fading blooms of spring, while other plants were just beginning
to stick their heads through the soil and wake from their winter
slumber.
    In the three days she’d been with SMG, she’d
found the garden to be a peaceful refuge where she could grab a
quick breath of fresh air or eat a quiet, leisurely lunch. The
warm, homey atmosphere of the old Victorian, overlooking the
Pamlico River from the front and surrounded by the peaceful gardens
in the back, was the polar opposite to the chrome and glass
environment of her old office. Everything about SMG implied the
dog-eat-dog world of advertising might be a little gentler and
friendlier in this small town.
    She wound her way along the path, moving
deeper into the garden oasis until she reached her favorite spot,
the gazebo and Koi pond. She climbed the steps and stared into the
water, watching the colorful gold, white, and brown spots flit back
and forth while she tried to make sense of the past half hour.
    Compartmentalizing had always been the key to
maintaining her sanity, but as she sorted the information she’d
just gathered into two separate compartments, personal and
business, it kept collapsing back into one large debris pile:
Erik.
    He wasn’t only a potential threat to her
career; he was lethal to her emotional wellbeing. The universe had
an incredibly warped sense of humor, and right now, it had to be
getting one hell of a belly laugh at her expense. After the wildly
tempestuous night she’d spent with him, no other man could turn her
head. Now, when she needed to be fully focused on her job, who
should appear but the physical incarnation of wild abandon
himself?
    “He’s not Superman. He’s just a normal,
ordinary guy.” Convincing the fish seemed easy enough. But the
second she