The Outcast

'Now this is the kind of reception I was hoping for, Mr. Jones.' Dropping her jacket on the floor, Luanne rubbed herself against Reece, her dark pink lips curving into a self-satisfied smile.

Elizabeth walked out of the bathroom, took several tentative steps across the carpeted floor and stopped to stare at Reece and the woman in his arms. Who was the woman and why had she come to Reece's motel room? Anger combined with jealousy, totally annihilating Elizabeth's sixth sense.

Elizabeth noticed that the blonde had caught a glimpse of her. Dropping her clothes on the floor, Elizabeth smiled and nodded her head. The woman Reece had called Luanne widened her eyes, staring at Elizabeth as if she thought she might be seeing an aberration.

'Look, honey, I'm interested in spending the night with you, but-' Luanne blinked several times when Elizabeth waved at her.

'And I'm interested in the same thing,' Reece said. He knew that sooner or later Elizabeth was going to come out of the bathroom, and if she caught him in a compromising situation with another woman, she was bound to storm out of the motel and get her butt back to Sequana Falls and out of his life.

'Well, I'm not into these threesome deals, honey.' Luanne kept staring at Elizabeth.

Without releasing his hold on Luanne, Reece pivoted just enough to catch sight of Elizabeth in his peripheral vision. 'I wondered if you planned to stay in the bathroom all night. Come on out and meet a friend of mine. Lizzie, this is Luanne. Luanne, Lizzie.'

The two women sized each other up, each taking in every inch of the other's face and figure. Reece tried not to make comparisons, but the obvious stared him in the face. Elizabeth was a bigger, taller woman, with broader hips and shoulders. For all her bustiness, Luanne was small, with a fragile quality, whereas Elizabeth's body proclaimed her vitality and strength. Luanne wore heavy makeup, her hair was bleached almost white and her long fingernails were painted a bright pink to match her jumpsuit. Elizabeth's face was scrubbed clean and her long dark hair hung around her shoulders, hitting her at the waist. Her thermal underwear hugged her body, revealing every round, feminine curve. Her clear blue eyes glared at him, demanding an explanation.

Luanne was smoke; Elizabeth was the fire. Luanne was like a gaudy trinket that could be bought at the dollar store and discarded the moment it turned your skin green. Elizabeth was jewel-studded gold, priceless, and once possessed, the owner would rather die than ever part with it.

'Don't get in a huff, honey.' Reece returned Luanne's endearment. 'Lizzie showed up a while ago, uninvited.'

Luanne grinned, first at Reece and then triumphantly at Elizabeth. 'Is that right? Well, why don't you send her on her way? 'Cause I'm not staying if she does.'

Reece set the whiskey bottle on the nightstand, then turned to Elizabeth and shrugged. 'Well, Lizzie, you see how it is, don't you?'

Yes, by golly, she did see how it was. She saw clearly. Ms. Luanne Evans was a new acquaintance, not one of Reece's old friends. Luanne's mind was quite uncomplicated, and was wide open for anyone to pick up her rather raunchy thoughts. The woman certainly had plans for Reece. Elizabeth had no intention of allowing those plans to come to fruition. If any woman shared a bed with Reece Landry tonight, it was going to be Elizabeth Mallory.

Elizabeth sat on the bed. Reece frowned. Luanne pulled away from Reece, planting her hands on her slender hips.

'Look, Lizzie, maybe you're deaf or something, but the man said he wants me.' Luanne glared at her rival.

Elizabeth scooted up in the bed until her back touched the headboard. Raising her arms behind her head, she stretched and yawned.

'Well, the only problem with that, Lu, is sometimes Mr. Jones says one thing when he means another.'

Taking a few steps over to the bed, Reece reached down and grabbed Elizabeth by the arm. 'I mean what I say, Lizzie. Get dressed, pick up your clothes and get the hell out of here. I've got plans for tonight.'

Turning her nose up, Luanne smiled, then shook her head just enough to toss about her thick, teased hair.

Elizabeth slapped away Reece's hand. 'I'm not leaving.' She glanced over at a smug Luanne. 'Besides, Luanne can't stay all night. When her boyfriend gets home from work around one in the morning, she'll have to be there or he'll come looking for her.'

Luanne's mouth fell open. 'How do you know when Joey gets home from work?'

'He's going to get home early tonight. From his job on the assembly line at Stanton Industries,' Elizabeth said. 'Around eleven-thirty. He's sick with a stomach virus.'

'How do you know where Joey works and that he's going to get sick?' Luanne backed up against the wall, staring at Elizabeth with round, dark eyes. 'What are you, some kind of fortune-teller?'

'I'm a witch. Honey.' Rising up on her knees, Elizabeth sat in the middle of the bed and pointed her finger directly at Luanne. 'And if you stick around here, trying to put the make on my man, I'll cast a spell on you.'

Luanne picked up her coat off the floor and hurriedly slipped into it. 'I'm outta here. Just forget you ever knew me. Okay?' Glancing at the whiskey bottle, Luanne hesitated, then opened the door. 'The drinks are on me.' She rushed outside, slamming the door behind her.

Reece leaned over, bracing his hands on each side of Elizabeth where she sat on the bed. 'You think you're cute, don't you?'

'I think I did what any sensible woman would have done under the circumstances.' Tilting her head just a fraction, Elizabeth smiled at Reece. 'I eliminated my competition.'

'I had plans with Luanne. Plans that included getting rip-roaring drunk with her and-'

Elizabeth covered his lips with the tip of her index finger. 'You didn't have any plans with that woman. You turned her down when she offered. She showed up here all on her own, just the way I did.'

'How do you know?' Glaring at Elizabeth, Reece lowered his head until they were face-to-face, their breaths mingling. 'You didn't read my mind!'

'No, I read hers. Minds like Luanne's are easy to read, but not very interesting.'

'Damn you, Lizzie! I don't want you here with me. What do I have to do to make you understand?' He was too close to her. He needed to back off, to get away from her big blue eyes, her soft pink lips, her flowery scent, her womanly heat.

'Why are you so afraid of me?' Elizabeth slipped her arms up and around Reece’s neck. 'I would never hurt you. All I want to do is help you.''

'I don't want your help.' He prized her arms from around his neck and shoved her away from him.

Elizabeth fell back across the bed. She lay there staring up at Reece. 'You don't want to need me, do you? You're afraid to want me, to need me, to care about me.'

She wasn't reading his mind or picking up anything with her sixth sense, only with her feminine intuition. Reece was afraid of her, of the way she made him feel. And she had to admit the truth to herself-she was every bit as afraid of the way he made her feel. She couldn't remember a time in her life when she'd acted so irrationally, even when her actions were prompted by her psychic revelations. She had never felt so connected to another human being, never felt so essential to another's very existence. She had opened her home and her heart to a stranger, a man accused of murdering his own father, and she had followed that man halfway across the state of Georgia, determined to save him, not only from a wrongful conviction but from the pain and anger slowly destroying him.

'Don't send me away, Reece. Don't shut me out of your life.'

Reece didn't want to think about what she'd said, about the truth of her words. Dammit, she was right. He was afraid of her, of the way she made him feel. That was the whole problem-Elizabeth Mallory made him feel more than anger and hatred, and Reece didn't want to feel anything else. He'd built his life on those two emotions. The thought of ever caring about another person scared the hell out of him.

For both their sakes, he had to get rid of Elizabeth. He had to make her see reason. Maybe the only way to do that was to show her what kind of man she was dealing with, what kind of man Reece Landry really was-a white trash bastard who didn't give a damn about anybody but himself.

'All right, honey, if you want to stay, stay.' Grabbing her around the waist, Reece jerked her up off the bed, bringing her body tightly against his. 'I had planned to enjoy Luanne's company all night, but you'll do just as well. After all, a woman's a woman.'