A Most Shocking Revelation Read Online Free Page A

compassion. I failed your mother in many ways, but I would like to think that I made up for my mistakes with you. Always remember, you are nothing like her. You deserve the best, and I hope that you will find happiness after so much hardship. Perhaps this will help.
    All my love,
Gran
    After putting the letter away, Valerie pulled out the journal from beneath the other clues that should help her accomplish her mission. Every evening before she retired she wrote down the details of her day, a habit she’d formed at an early age. Sometimes that habit had been the only thing that had gotten her through the toughest of times, through the pain. She dug a pen from herpurse, took a seat on the lounger and opened her book of memories, the newest volume among many others she’d kept over the years, and began to write.
    I’m in Gavin O’Neal’s house after a ridiculous run-in with Mr. Raleigh, the swine. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be thinking what I’m thinking about the sheriff—that he leaves me weak-kneed and feeling entirely too feminine. He’s arrogant. Gorgeous. Too charming for my own good. He had that look in his eyes tonight, that gleam that I’ve witnessed several times in the diner. The one that says he wants me. But I doubt he would want me if he knew the truth. If he knew about my past transgressions. If he knew my shame. If he knew I’m the great-great-granddaughter of Royal’s most infamous and hated outlaw.
    For that reason I have to get out of here fast, before I might be tempted to stay.

Two
    T he following morning Gavin awoke to the smell of coffee wafting into the bedroom. He automatically went for his gun on the nightstand before he realized his stupidity. He seriously doubted he’d been visited by a band of fugitive chefs who’d made themselves at home before planning his demise. As the haze of sleep cleared, he remembered who was in his kitchen—the lady who’d come to his house last night but not to his bed. Unfortunately.
    After laying the weapon aside, Gavin sat up and streaked both hands over his face before checking the bedside clock. Five o’clock. Valerie hadn’t been kidding when she’d said she was an early riser. But then, so was he, especially at the moment.
    He tossed back the covers and draped his legs over the edge of the bed. For a second he considered joining her just as he was—wearing nothing except some serious evidence of his usual morning state of arousal—but that might send her flying out the door and out of his life for good. Instead he stood, tugged on his jeans and headed down the hall on bare feet and without a shirt.His mother would have claimed he was being ungentlemanly had she still been around to scold him.
    The closer he got to the kitchen, the more the excitement began to build. Last night he’d told Valerie only a partial truth—plenty of willing women still existed in Royal if a man knew where to look. And he did. He’d encountered a few in Midland, too, at a conference right after he’d been elected sheriff seven months ago. That was the last time he’d indulged in a woman’s company. That was the last time he’d cared to look beyond Valerie Raines and he didn’t understand that one bit. Maybe it was the challenge, the chase. Or the fact that she hadn’t acted as though she cared for him much since that first time he’d seen her at the diner.
    He still planned to get to know her better. He’d seen some serious awareness in her eyes last night when he’d inadvertently begun disrobing in front of her before he’d realized what he was doing. That hadn’t stopped him. After her little double lingerie displays, she’d deserved to be caught off guard.
    And off guard was exactly how Val looked when Gavin walked into the kitchen to find her at the stove. She’d already dressed in her standard uniform with her hair pulled up in