The Devil's Due by Lora Leigh

guest suite to allow Khileen Langer into the room.
    She was one of the few women Cassie had met that she actually identified with. Perhaps it was the black hair, blue eyes and similar features.
    They could have passed for family members.
    Khileen was also generous natured and loving, though, attributes Cassie found she herself didn’t possess in quite the same quantity.
    “Just as you said it would.” Smiling, Khileen propped her delicate hands on her hips as she braced her legs apart.
    Dressed in jodhpurs, a cool white sleeveless top and riding boots, the other girl looked ready to enjoy a day riding across the desert. In no way did she look the part she played so often, that of Cassie’s confidante, and one of a few rare friends. But, Cassie had found, Khileen tended to give in to the same lovingly placed manipulations and gentle nudges that Cassie herself often found hard to resist.
    “Excellent.” Cassie moved to her desk where she shifted through several papers until she found the small wireless mic and receiver she’d hidden there earlier.
    Flipping the antenna down to connect with her father, she waited until he answered the call.
    “Cassie?” There was concern in his voice. It was rare that he didn’t worry whenever Cassie convinced him to accompany her on one of her little “adventures.”
    “When is your meeting with Mr. Reever?” she asked him.
    “I’m waiting outside on the patio attached to his office,” he answered her, the growl in his tone attesting to his irritation.
    “Keep him out of the office. Ms. O’Sullivan is at the Devil’s doorstep at the moment.”
    “You have to be related to Jonas Wyatt,” he all but snarled.
    “Well, he did help a bit in raising me,” she reminded him with a fond smile. “And you know, I’m prone to adapt to certain instruction quite well.”
    There were many instances when she’d been forced to stay at the Lion Breed compound in Virginia while her parents fought to ensure her and her brother’s safety over the years.
    “Don’t remind me,” he retorted, though she could both hear and feel the love he held for her. “Lobo isn’t so happy at the moment, either, that we’re questioning his protection of this girl.”
    “As long as we get the desired results, then he’ll be okay with it later,” she promised.
    If they didn’t accomplish what she had come here to do, then there would be problems. It was those problems that had convinced her father to do as she asked.
    “Let’s hope,” he grunted. “I have to go, he’s stepping into the office.”
    They disconnected.
    Turning back to Khileen, she saw the other girl watching her, a frown tugging at her brow.
    “Do you ever get tired, Cassie?” she asked softly, with far more compassion than Cassie thought she had the right to.
    “Tired?”
    “Of trying so hard to hide from what you’re trying to hide from?”
    “And what do you think I’m trying to hide from?” She had to force the amusement and unconcern into her tone. What had this woman seen that no other ever had?
    “Yourself,” Khileen answered softly, surprising her. “You’re hiding from yourself, Cassie. I was just wondering if you were tired of it yet.”
    Khileen turned and left the room then, not bothering to wait for an answer. It was a good thing, Cassie thought, because she didn’t have one.

FOUR

    D evil narrowed his eyes on the young woman that stepped into his office before closing the door with careful emphasis behind her.
    The long spiral red curls that fell around her head and down her lithe, toned body should have reminded him far too much of Lobo’s stepdaughter for the reaction that immediately knifed through his body.
    He’d never had a sexual interest in Khileen, no matter her harmless flirtation at times. If only he could feel the same brotherly affection toward her Irish friend.
    Emerald eyes flashed with fiery anger, immediately rousing the animal instincts that surged through him. As though all the