Kiss an Angel(63)

Acid burned inside her. How could he love that no-talent little rich girl when he hadn’t loved her? Couldn’t he see how unworthy Daisy was? Had he lost all his pride?

Now she intended to put into action a plan that had been taking shape in her mind for days. It made business sense—she never did anything that wasn’t for the good of the show, regardless of her personal feelings—but this idea also might finally pull the blinders away from Alex’s eyes regarding his new bride.

She came up behind him as he worked on the stake driver. His damp T-shirt clung to the strong muscles in his back. She remembered how that taut skin had once felt beneath her hands, but instead of arousing her, the memory filled her with self-hatred. Sheba Quest, the queen of the center ring, had begged for this man’s love and been rejected. Her stomach curled with loathing.

“I need to talk to you about your act.”

He picked up a greasy rag and wiped his hands with it. He’d always been a first-rate mechanic, and he’d somehow managed to keep the ancient stake driver running, but right now she couldn’t summon any gratitude for the money he was saving her.

“Go ahead.”

She shaded her eyes, taking her time, making him wait. Finally she spoke. “I think you need a change. You’ve only made a few variations in your act since the last time you went out with us, and there’s too much of the season left for you to get stale.”

“What do you have in mind?”

She pulled the sunglasses from the top of her head and folded in the stems. “I want you to put Daisy in it.”

“Forget it.”

“Afraid she won’t be able to do it?”

“You know she won’t.”

“Well, then, you’ll have to make her. Or does she wear the pants in the family?”

“What are you trying to do, Sheba?”

“Daisy’s a Markov now. It’s time she started acting like one.”

“That’s my business, not yours.”

“Not while I own this circus. Daisy has a way with the crowd, and I intend to take advantage of it.” She gave him a long, hard stare. “I want her in the show, Alex, and I’ll give you two weeks to get her ready. If she needs persuading, remind her that I can still file a criminal complaint against her any time I want.”

“I’m getting real sick of your threats.”

“Then think about the good of the show instead.”



Alex finished repairing the stake driver, then stalked to the trailer to scrub the grease off his hands. As he took a nail brush and a bar of Lava from a chipped saucer under the kitchen sink, he forced himself to acknowledge the truth of what Sheba had said. Daisy did have a way with the crowd, and although he hadn’t admitted it to Sheba, he’d already thought about putting her in his act. He’d hesitated, however, because of the difficulties of training her.

The assistants he’d worked with in the past had all been seasoned circus performers, and the whips hadn’t bothered them, but Daisy was full of fears. If she flinched at the wrong time . . .

He pushed away the thought. He could train her not to flinch. His Uncle Sergey had trained him. Even when the show was over and the perverted son of a bitch was beating the shit out of him for some imagined offense, Alex had held himself completely still.

He’d mentally traveled the torturous path of his childhood too many times, and he had no interest in stirring up the muck again, so he pushed the old images away. There was another advantage to using Daisy as his assistant, one that was more important to him at the moment than simply sprucing up his act. This would give him a valid reason to ease her workload, a reason she couldn’t argue with.

He still couldn’t believe that she’d refused to let him make things easier for her. This morning when he’d started to insist, he’d seen something in her expression that had made him back off. Her work had become important to her, he realized, a survival test.

But regardless of what she thought, he didn’t intend to let her drive herself into exhaustion. And whether she knew it or not, performing in the ring with him would be a lot easier than hauling elephant manure and cleaning out animal cages.

As he rinsed his hands and reached for a paper towel, he remembered how fragile she’d felt under his hands last night. Their lovemaking had been so good it scared him. He wasn’t quite certain what he’d expected, but he’d never imagined that Daisy would have so many facets to her: sultry and tempting, innocent and unsure, both aggressive and giving. He’d wanted to conquer her and protect her at the same time, and that confused the hell out of him.



On the opposite side of the lot, Daisy stepped out of the red wagon. Alex wouldn’t be happy when he saw that she’d been making long-distance calls on his cellular phone, but she was more than satisfied with what she’d learned from the keeper at the San Diego Zoo. He’d suggested some changes she was going to try: adjustments in the animals’ diets, additional vitamins, alterations in their feeding schedules.

She walked toward the trailer, where she’d seen her husband heading a few minutes earlier. When she’d finished her work in the menagerie and gone to help Digger out, the old man had growled at her that he didn’t need her help, so she’d decided to grab the extra few hours and make a trip to the library. She’d spotted it earlier as they’d driven through town, and she wanted to do some more research on the animals. First, however, she had to get Alex to part with the keys to his truck, which, until now, he’d refused to do.