a cognizant v5 release august 27 2010
“What are you trying to do, Deanna?”
“Ask you on a date,” she said, her expression innocent. “Wasn’t I clear enough?”
He studied her suspiciously. “What if I said I’d take you to some other pub in the city?”
“Then I’d say you’re avoiding your brother,” she responded. “And you certainly wouldn’t want me to get an idea like that, would you?”
Sean held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “We’ll go the first weekend I’m off,” he said.
To his surprise, instead of feeling trapped, he felt a faint stirring of genuine anticipation. Maybe it was Sean’s turn to take a risk and keep the lines of communication open.
He met Deanna’s penetrating gaze, saw the warm approval in her eyes and realized that there could be yet another benefit to taking a tiny chink out of the wall around his heart. Eventually there just might be enough room for a woman like Deanna to squeeze through.
SEAN’S RECKONING
SHERRYL WOODS
Books by Sherryl Woods
Silhouette Special Edition
Safe Harbor #425
Never Let Go #446
Edge of Forever #484
In Too Deep #522
Miss Liz’s Passion #573
Tea and Destiny #595
My Dearest Cal #669
Joshua and the Cowgirl #713
*Love #769
*Honor #775
*Cherish #781
*Kate’s Vow #823
*A Daring Vow #855
*A Vow To Love #885
The Parson’s Waiting #907
One Step Away #927
Riley’s Sleeping Beauty #961
Finally a Bride #987
‡A Christmas Blessing #1001
‡Natural Born Daddy #1007
‡The Cowboy and His Baby #1009
‡The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter #1016
**A Ranch for Sara #1083
**Ashley’s Rebel #1087
**Danielle’s Daddy Factor #1094
††The Littlest Angel #1142
††Natural Born Trouble #1156
††Unexpected Mommy #1171
††The Cowgirl and the Unexpected Wedding #1208
††Natural Born Lawman #1216
††The Cowboy and His Wayward Bride #1234
††Suddenly, Annie’s Father #1268
◊The Cowboy and the New Year’s Baby #1291
◊Dylan and the Baby Doctor #1309
◊The Pint-Sized Secret #1333
◊Marrying a Delacourt #1352
◊The Delacourt Scandal #1363
A Love Beyond Words #1382
§Do You Take This Rebel? #1394
§Courting the Enemy #1411
§To Catch a Thief #1418
§Wrangling the Redhead #1429
‡‡Ryan’s Place #1489
‡‡Sean’s Reckoning #1495
Silhouette Desire
Not at Eight, Darling #309
Yesterday’s Love #329
Come Fly with Me #345
A Gift of Love #375
Can’t Say No #431
Heartland #472
One Touch of Moondust #521
Next Time…Forever #601
Fever Pitch #620
Dream Mender #708
Silhouette Books
Silhouette Summer Sizzlers 1990
“A Bridge to Dreams”
Maternity Leave 1998
“The Paternity Test”
††The Unclaimed Baby
§The Calamity Janes
SHERRYL WOODS
has written more than seventy-five novels. She also operates her own bookstore, Potomac Sunrise, in Colonial Beach, Virginia. If you can’t visit Sherryl at her store, then be sure to drop her a note at P.O. Box 490326, Key Biscayne, FL 33149 or check out her Web site at www.sherrylwoods.com.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Chapter One
Sean Devaney’s eyes were stinging from the smoke at the still-smoldering ruins of a tumbledown Victorian house that had been converted into low-rent apartments. Bits of ash clung to his sweat-dampened skin and hair. Even after stripping off his flame-retardant jacket and coveralls, Sean continued to feel as if he’d just exited an inferno…which he had. The acrid smell of smoke was thick in the air and in his clothes. Even after ten years with the Boston Fire Department, he still wasn’t used to the aftermath of fighting a blaze—the exhaustion, the dehydration, the stench.
He’d been young and idealistic when he’d joined the department. He’d wanted to be a hero, craved the rush of adrenaline that kicked in when an alarm sounded. Saving lives had been part of it, but so had the danger, the thrill of putting his own life on the line to do something that mattered. In fact, it seemed Sean had spent most of his life trying to matter in one way or another.
Now, though, with the adrenaline wearing off, all he wanted was a warm, pounding shower and about sixteen straight hours of sleep. Unfortunately, until these last hot spots were thoroughly dampened and the location made secure, Sean was destined to stay right here just in case there was another flare-up.
The landlord was damn lucky no one had been killed. Indeed, from what Sean had observed inside, the landlord of this building himself ought to be shot. Even in the midst of battling heat and flames, Sean had noticed that there were so many code violations, he couldn’t begin to count them all. Though it would be another twenty-four hours before investigators pinned down the cause of the blaze, in Sean’s opinion it was most likely the outdated and overloaded electrical system. He hoped the landlord had a healthy insurance policy, because he was going to need it to pay off all the suits from his tenants. Most had lost just about everything to flames or to extensive smoke and water damage.
Sean scanned what remained of the crowd that had gathered to watch the inferno to see if there was any sign of a likely landlord, but most of the onlookers appeared to be more fascinated than dismayed by the destruction.
“Hey, Sean,” his partner, Hank DiMartelli, called out, a grin splitting his face as he gestured toward something behind Sean. “Looks like we’ve got a new helper. He’s agile enough, but I doubt he meets the department’s age and height requirements.”
Sean turned around just in time to catch a kid scrambling inside the fire truck. By the time Sean latched on to him, the boy was already reaching with unerring precision for the button to set off the siren.
“Whoa, fella, I think this neighborhood’s heard enough sirens for one afternoon,” Sean said, lifting the boy out of the truck.
“But I wanna do it,” the child protested, chin jutting out in a mulish expression. With his light-brown hair standing up in gelled spikes, he looked a little like a pint-size member of one of those popular boy bands.
“Another time,” Sean said very firmly. He set the boy on his feet on the ground and was surprised when the kid didn’t immediately take off. Instead
