On the Edge by Heather Graham, Sharon Sala, Carla Neggers, Sharon Sala, Carla Neggers

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These masters of romantic suspense deliver three dangerously addictive new stories that will keep you... On the Edge

HEATHER GRAHAM: "Will they make it? And if they do, how on earth will they manage? And last, but never least, will they survive together? The combination of romance and suspense is irresistible. I love the genre, and hope to give back just a percentage of the pleasure I've enjoyed over the years."

CARLA NEGGERS: "Romantic suspense has it all--a great love story, interesting characters, pulse-pounding action, a sense of adventure and drama and more than a dash of fun. I love to write romantic suspense, and I love to read it."

SHARON SALA: "Writing romantic suspense is, for me, a challenge, both creatively and emotionally. I love the freedom of developing stories that not only challenge the reader to figure out 'who done it,' but also, to give them characters that they will never forget."

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• Read a Sample Chapter

Read a Sample Chapter

On The Edge

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

Chapter One

It had been foolish to make threats, Marina knew. Obviously. But, then, she'd been so angry,
frustrated and powerless, and in all honesty, her temper had always been her downfall. Well,
there was nothing she could do about it now. Her words couldn't be taken back.

She blinked back a sudden onslaught of tears, thinking of the people she had not meant to hurt.
Including herself, she reflected wryly. But she had been feeling weepy. Still was. But she
shouldn't have been drinking. Drinking always compounded everything. Along with the guilt,
anger, and sorrow that were going to haunt her when she turned the world upside down
tomorrow, she was going to have a crippling hangover.

She quickened her pace along the walkway that led deeper into the grounds of Bougainvillea,
the vast Delaney estate, knowing that she might somewhat calm her state of anguish if she could
just reach the beach, feel the soft breeze that came with the late afternoon, and watch the sunset
falling over the pond near the docks. This is what she would miss. She loved the property as no
one else did. Unless it was ...

That despicable man!

Oh, they were all despicable. Seamus, Martin, Lenore, Josh, Kaitlin.Sometimes even David,
because he could look at her with such strange eyes ...

Then, if the household wasn't enough, there were the neighbors. Always there. Martin Callahan
and his darling little Shelley. And Eli.

The ones she needed to be thinking about were Mark.

And Kit.

Not now, she was in such a roil of anger!

She quickened her pace and reached the beach at last. The scene before her was postcard
perfect. Lazy palms, drifting in the breeze. Golden sand, stretching out to the surf. The water,
with small whitecaps forming that just caught the dying light, and dazzled beneath it like
diamonds. A little crane strutted along the beach, at once elegant and gawky. A gull swept
down, and the crane took flight.

"Marina!"

She heard her name called, and she knew his voice. As she turned back, she trembled, both
with fury and because she wanted what she shouldn't have. Even when she knew better.

"Don't!" she told him as he caught up with her on the beach. "Don't come near me ... this is
entirely wrong, and I'm going to leave, do you understand?"

But he kept coming anyway, and his features carried the same agonizing torment as her own. He
reached out and pulled her into his arms and ended her tirade with a passionate kiss. In those
first moments, she would have pulled away. But he was stronger, and proving his force. She
stiffened, willing to fight ... but for no more than embarrassingly brief seconds. Then a sense of
nostalgia seized her. She was leaving ... just one last taste of everything that was forbidden, and
she would spend her life repenting her sins, repairing the damage she had done ...

With that logic and illusion, and of course, a bit of the alcohol coursing through her bloodstream,
she began kissing him in return with equal passion. Hot, wet, greedy kisses as they fumbled with
each other's clothing. He shoved her skirt up to her hips while she ripped his shirt from his
pants, and slipped her hand beneath his belt line, fondling his erection. Half undressed, they
tumbled to the damp sand together. They made love desperately, like a pair of maddened
animals, natural perhaps, for the lover she had taken. For brief moments in the aftermath of their
violent mating, she was sated and satisfied, as if something had come to completion. Yes, she'd
needed this once more. A tempestuous and dramatic goodbye. If nothing else, we've had this
passion, burning too brightly perhaps, so illicitly, but precious nonetheless. Because it's so sweet
to have this power, something I can lord over one man ...

That would devastate another.

Remorse set in.

But she reminded herself once again, she was leaving. And she would use the years ahead to
atone for all that she had done.

Tomorrow, she would become everything that she should have been all along. A good wife.
Lord knew, her husband deserved as much. More than that, she would be a good mother. She
had always intended to be.

Tomorrow....

Tomorrow she was leaving. Before that, however, she would see to it that she carried out her
threats. She meant to tell everything that she knew.

She meant to atone.

And so, by God, would the others.

All of them.

For everything.

But that would be tomorrow! Her resolve was strong; she could and would change. But for
now, she needed to cherish these last few precious seconds. She would first finish what she had
begun, then she would leave, and never look back.

She had just seconds left.

And then ...

Tomorrow.

But for the moment, they lay side by side, both aware that they were going to have to rise, and
deal with the fact that they'd mangled each other's clothing and that they did have to go back to
the house. But she didn't want to talk yet. She just wanted to feel what it was like to lie beside
him as if she belonged there. The sun had now created beautiful crimson streaks across the sky.
The ocean was darkening, the whitecaps would soon have to look for moonlight, and the color
of the air was dusky and gentle and the breeze was sweetly sensual.

"Marina -"

"Shh. Just close your eyes. Hold me, please. Just for a minute."

He held her. He closed his eyes, as she did. The palms whispered softly as the breeze lifted
them.

* * *

The parrots were back.

Early every evening, the little buggers escaped their tourist-attraction home and hightailed it
across town. They landed in the trees, and they began squawking. Making tea in the little
bungalow on the Delaney property that had been her home since 1935, old Mary O'Hara,
retired now from her post as head housekeeper, looked out her rear windows.

"Birdies!" she exclaimed with disgust. "Bloody, wretched birdies!" she continued, raising her fist
toward them. She shook her head, wondering how any creature that screeched so loudly and
annoyingly could entice a paying audience. Ah, well. The parrots hadn't always come here.
Maybe they'd find a new place to visit soon.

She made her tea, sat in her rocker and turned on a repeat of Hollywood Squares. She just
loved game shows. And at her age ... well, there were only so many pleasures left. She raised
the volume on her television. All right, she was nearly as old as God himself, and maybe she was
losing her hearing a bit, but it was those bloody birds forcing her to turn the TV so high, and that
was a fact!

She paused for a moment, predicting that sometime tonight Marina would come. Mary's hearing might be bad, but she did still know what was going on around the place. She believed that she had talked the girl into her senses. Marina, for all her madness, was one of those few pleasures Mary had left, along with her reruns. Marina always made her laugh. Mary loved the girl, and knew for her own good, Marina had to leave. But she would come to say goodbye. But until then...

Mary turned up the television again. The birds were so loud! She simply wasn't able to hear any of the
punch lines.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from On The Edge by Heather Graham Carla Neggers Sharon Sala
Copyright © 2003 by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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