Tell Me No Lies

Tell Me No Lies
Kathryn Shay

What her husband doesn't know could destroy them allDan Logan thinks he's got it all: a great job as a D.A., the ideal marriage and two wonderful children. Now he's been nominated Citizen of the Year. Seems his rigid pursuit of honesty and integrity has paid off.He has no idea that his picture-perfect life is about to be shattered.A man from Tessa Logan's sordid past has tracked her down and is intent on getting her back. If he can't have her, he won't hesitate to expose her past mistakes. One way or another, her secrets will be revealed.Even if Dan can live with the terrible truth, can he survive Tessa's deceit?

“Hello, Trixie.”

Tessa slammed on the brakes. Her heart leaped in her chest as she saw the man’s face in the mirror. She gripped the steering wheel, scenarios of stalkers and what they did to their victims running through her head.

Then she realized the significance of what the man had said.

Trixie. He’d said Trixie. There was only one person in the world who’d ever called her that. It was his pet name for her. Too stunned to speak, she stared into the rearview mirror at Frankie Hamilton. At least, she thought it must be him. He bore little resemblance to the boy she’d known. The mixed-up boy for whom she’d almost thrown away her future.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to my twentieth Harlequin Superromance novel. I hope you enjoy my latest tale, and especially the characters I’ve created. The idea for this book came to me when I was contemplating the nature of marriage. With divorce rates high, and young people staying single longer, or forever, I wanted to write a story about the enduring nature of marriage, even if the couple runs into problems they think they can’t overcome.

A central question in plotting was, when two people love each other deeply and have built a life together, what could pull them apart? To me, most sins are forgivable. In any relationship, people let each other down. They also grow and change from who they were when they took their vows, and this growth doesn’t always occur at the same rate for both. Having been married for over three decades—I’ll be celebrating the thirty-fifth anniversary with my own personal hero right when this book comes out—I know the ups and downs of relationships. I also know that trusting someone implicitly, even after a difficult time, is a true joy. It’s worth working toward.

In Tell Me No Lies, Dan and Tessa Logan have an ideal marriage—on the surface. But the pasts of both threaten their happiness, and send each into a tailspin. They do love each other, though, and learn that loving means forgiving even the deepest breaches of trust. I enjoyed seeing Dan and Tessa learn this, and I hope you do, too.

I love to hear from readers. E-mail me at kshay@rochester.rr.com or write to me at P.O. Box 24288, Rochester, NY 14624. And please visit my Web site at www.kathrynshay.com, and the Harlequin Superromance author site at www.superauthors.com.

Happy reading,

Kathryn Shay

Tell Me No Lies

Kathryn Shay

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For Zilla Soriano—

thanks for picking my first book out of the slush pile, loving

the rest of them and helping to make each better. I miss you.

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

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

AS TESSA LOGAN POURED the jasmine bath salts into her claw-footed tub, she thought about her husband. Tonight they’d celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. Picturing the evening to come, she smiled, turned on the taps and breathed in the scented steam. Her daughters were staying with her sister for the next twenty-four hours, and Dan would be home from work any time now. She hummed as she stood, pinned up her hair and undressed.

The dinner was ready. She’d placed a prime-rib roast in the oven, set the potatoes in the microwave to bake later, stuck the green salad she’d put together in the refrigerator and uncorked the merlot. The next sixty minutes were just for her.

She crossed into the bedroom, newly done in shades of green with white accents. Dan had been surprised at the redecoration, so different from the rest of the traditional colonial furniture and earth tones in the rest of their rambling Victorian. She didn’t know why she’d taken this tack with the bedroom, except that once in a while she felt stifled by the constraints of her life.

The phone rang as she removed a box from her dresser drawer.

“Hello.” She expected it to be Dan, and hoped he wasn’t calling to say he’d be late getting home from work.

“Hey, Tessa.” Her sister.

“Hi, Janey. Everything okay?”

“Yep. Just checking to make sure you’re wearing the gift I bought for you.”

“I’ve got it in my hand. I’m running my bath now.” She chuckled. “You know Dan will be scandalized.”

“St. Daniel could use some loosening up.”

Tessa hesitated. “Don’t tease about him, Janey. Please.”