Breathless [McKnight, Perth & Daire 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  McKnight, Perth & Daire 3

  Breathless

  Leaving the troubling dilemma of loving two men behind, Charlotte Perth heads home to California. The last time she was there she’d just come back from the dead with the gift of being clairvoyant. Now, another young swimmer has drowned and Charlotte realizes it’s another victim…one who might not have been if Charlotte had only told the truth twelve years earlier.

  She doesn’t count on Jonas Daire and Nash McKnight following her, ready to hammer out the details of being in a ménage relationship. Both love her so they’re willing to share, as long as they don’t kill each other. Only now they have to convince stubborn Charlotte they can make the unusual relationship work.

  Before she can possibly think of the future, however, she’s got a murder to solve while not falling victim twice to the same killer…one who’s waited a very long time for Charlotte to come home.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal

  Length: 50,108 words

  BREATHLESS

  McKnight, Perth, & Daire 3

  Beth D. Carter

  MENAGE AMOUR

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

  BREATHLESS

  Copyright © 2013 by Beth D. Carter

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-907-3

  First E-book Publication: May 2013

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Breathless by Beth D. Carter from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Beth D. Carter’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Carter’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  There are many to thank. To my editor, Claire, and to Siren for giving her to me on this project.

  To Harris for amazing covers!

  To Lark for always listening. To Dahlia for being my Delia.

  To my mom who asked, “Do you really have to use those words?”

  To Brian, who never complains when I haven’t done the dishes or cleaned the apartment, and says very nicely that if I have time to wash clothes he’s out of underwear.

  And to everyone who stuck with Nash, Charlotte, and Jonas. Thanks for reading.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  In my research of drowning, I came across a paper published for the Department of Paediatric Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of Sick Children, Toronto, Ont., Canada, which talked about the presence of periorbital and conjunctival petechial hemorrhages in accidental pediatric drowning. Although very sad to read, I found the literature so interesting I decided to use those facts for this story. It was published in March 2008.

  BREATHLESS

  McKnight, Perth, & Daire 3

  BETH D. CARTER

  Copyright © 2013

  Chapter One

  For a second, Charlotte couldn’t breathe.

  She stood in the center of LAX and stared at everything that was unique to Los Angeles. The palm trees in the center of the large terminal, the plastic Oscar statuettes for sale, and of course, a huge billboard displaying Hollywood. After twelve years she was home. It seemed surreal and yet, the time had gone by in a blink of an eye.

  She was here to catch a killer.

  She felt like she was going to throw up.

  It was so much easier to run away and part of her wanted to buy a ticket back to Santa Fe right now. But if there was anything she’d learned in the years of channeling spirits, it was that surviving and being a survivor were two vastly different things.

  So with renewed determination gripping her stomach, she gripped the handle of her rolling carry on and continued toward the exit. The airport offered a barrier of some sort, a buffer between going to her childhood home and jumping on the next plane back to Santa Fe. As much as she wanted to play ostrich right now and bury her head in sand, she knew it was time to put on her big girl panties and confront her past.

  “Charlotte!”

  Charlotte halted her determined stride toward the airport’s exit and looked around. It had sounded like Kira had called her name, but of course, there was always the possibility that she’d misheard…

  “Charlotte, wait up!”

  Nope. She hadn’t. Her little sister came running toward her in ridiculously high heels and a skirt so tight Charlotte could read the name brand of her panties. Kira had always loved showing off her every asset. She just didn’t remember her sister’s assets being so…prominent.

  No sooner had the thought entered her mind when she was being engulfed between the two pillows, er, breasts.

  “Good lord, did you have a boob job?” Charlotte asked once Kira had pulled back.

  “Why don’t you say that a little louder? I don’t think the people back on the plane heard you,” Kira replied with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

  “What did mom and dad say?”

  Kira waved her hand. “They never even noticed.”

  Charlotte couldn’t seem to break eye contact with the two hot air balloons. “Oh, I bet you anything they noticed.”

  “Then they’ve been polite enough not to stare,” her sister remarked tartly. “You have any luggage we need to pick up?”

 
; Charlotte shook her head. Kira might be the youngest of the four Perth girls but she was the tallest. She’d been born in a little town in Russia so Charlotte chalked up the six-foot stature as being a side effect of her birth mother drinking too much vodka.

  “How’d you know I was coming in?”

  Kira raised one expertly arched brow, a few shades darker than the pale tresses resembling a Veronica Lake hairdo. “You seriously need to ask?”

  “Holly?”

  “She and Alastair will be here tomorrow.”

  This time Charlotte had to ask, “Seriously?”

  Kira shrugged. “I think it has something to do with the fact you’ve not been home in, what, twelve years? Mom and Dad are excited having all their daughters under one roof again.”

  Though it was meant as a flippant reply, Charlotte was surprised to hear an underlining note of bitterness in her sister’s tone. She didn’t think Kira had missed her that much.

  “We were together at Thanksgiving at Holly’s house,” Charlotte protested. “And I offered to host Christmas. It was you guys that declined.”

  “It’s always about you, isn’t it? Just like old times.”

  “Oh for God’s sake,” Charlotte muttered as she turned and continued toward the exit. It gave her a small amount of satisfaction to hear Kira’s clickity-clack as she ran to keep up.

  She loved all her sisters but each had their own personalities. Holly, the oldest, was the mother hen who loved to organize her siblings, which actually meant she loved to be bossy. Delia, who was the second oldest, was a pediatrician and a fantastic baker. Kira was a whiz with numbers, which in turn made her a whiz at making money. She’d convinced Charlotte a long time ago to invest her money, which meant Charlotte was very well padded for retirement.

  “I parked across the street, in the garage,” Kira told her as they came to a stop at the crosswalk. “Listen, do me a huge favor. I have someone coming over tomorrow night, so please be normal.”

  Charlotte glanced at her sister. “Who?”

  “A…friend,” Kira hedged.

  “A boyfriend? You’re bringing a boyfriend over for the parents to meet? Oh, they’re going to love that. Maybe they’ll get off my back to give them a grandchild and start bugging you.”

  “Well, um, the relationship is really new,” Kira stated absently. She hit the walk button once more and the little man flashed on and she took off, this time leaving Charlotte to catch up. They entered the parking garage and were silent as Kira led the way to her car. A second later, the lights flashed on a bright-red Jaguar as Kira opened the backseat door. Charlotte felt her jaw drop as she admired the beautiful car.

  “When did you get a Jag?” she asked.

  “Yesterday.”

  Charlotte chuckled until she realized Kira wasn’t joking. She laid her carry-on across the seat. The smell of new car wafted upward, enveloping her in a cloud of envy. Kira closed the door with a click and Charlotte made her way to the passenger seat. As she sat on the buttery soft tan leather, she couldn’t hold back a whistle of appreciation. Charlotte was, after all, a lover of expensive things, although she preferred to be a little thrifty in her shopping.

  “Jesus, how much did this cost?”

  Kira slid behind the wheel and slipped off her shoes. “You don’t want to know. Even I’m having second thoughts.”

  Charlotte figured she was probably right. The car started up and rumbled like a big old cat being stroked in the just the right spot. “So tell me a little bit about your boyfriend. What’s his name?”

  “Alex.”

  “Alex what?”

  “Karlin.”

  “Alex Karlin with a C or K?”

  “K.”

  “Kira Karlin. Nope, you can’t marry him.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “Your middle name is Kendall. Your initials would be KKK.”

  “Then I’ll keep my maiden name.”

  Charlotte’s eyes went wide. “You’re that serious about Alex? You’re going to marry him?”

  “No! Wait,” Kira said, a touch of annoyance creeping into her voice. “I said the relationship is new. Do not go pushing me into marriage already, okay? Geesh. What about you? Where’s your boyfriend?”

  “How do you know I have a boyfriend?” Kira sent her another irritated look. “I’m going to have to staple Holly’s mouth shut,” Charlotte grumbled.

  “Well?”

  Charlotte shrugged and looked out the side window. “I kind of left him in Missouri.”

  She didn’t add with the other one. Somehow she knew that would come out sounding all wrong. It had been twelve years since she’d been to Southern California and the changes shocked her. First, a lot more traffic, and second, holy heck, where did the all the buildings come from? Kira took Lincoln Boulevard and she could barely believe her eyes at how much the suburbs like Westminster and Playa del Rey had been built up. Once upon a time Lincoln had been the go-to way to get to the airport, bypassing the heavily traveled 405 Freeway. However, now it seemed like they were crawling at a snail’s pace.

  “I can’t believe how much everything has changed,” she said softly, more to herself than to Kira.

  “People wanted suburbs.”

  “You?”

  Kira shuddered. “Good God, no. I live right next to the Staples Center and I’ve got front row seats whenever the Lakers are playing.”

  “I didn’t know you liked baseball.”

  Kira shot her a stupefied look but didn’t answer. Charlotte shrugged and resumed looking out the window. They stopped at a light and she began to remember and recognize some things.

  “I know where we are,” she said.

  “Almost home. Mom and Dad painted the house a few years ago.”

  Charlotte nodded. “Mom told me. She said they also added a deck out back, next to the pool.”

  “They’ve done a lot of stuff, Charlotte. Not that you cared.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Charlotte demanded.

  But Kira remained mute until they pulled into the driveway of her childhood home. Annie and James Perth waited in the threshold of the front door.

  But before Charlotte could exit the car, Kira grabbed her hand. “What kept you away so long, Charlotte?”

  Charlotte opened her mouth but she shut almost immediately. “Not right now, Kira.”

  Kira’s mouth turned down and she dropped Charlotte’s hand like it had burned her. “You’ve hurt them, you know,” she accused with a nod to their parents who waited for them. “Every time they invited you back for a holiday or for a special occasion and every time you declined, you broke their hearts.”

  “I’ve always invited them to visit with me,” Charlotte argued back.

  “It’s not the same. You turned your back on them.”

  “Don’t be so melodramatic, Kira,” she snapped and opened the door. But her sister’s words bounced around in her head like a ping-pong ball. She wasn’t ready yet to tell her secret. Call her a coward but she wanted Holly by her side because if she told one secret she’d have to reveal everything. And she had a feeling it was going to be hard for her family to finally learn the reason why Charlotte had fled her home.

  How would she tell her family that she died…and then came back to life to commune with the dead? That her whole life was based on a lie?

  And that she only came back to catch the killer?

  Chapter Two

  Her mother, Annie, held her hands clasped in front of her, bobbing up and down with excitement. The complete opposite of his wife, James Perth had his hands in his pockets and waited patiently with a small grin on his face.

  When she saw her mother begin to race toward the car, Charlotte forgot all the concerns bubbling over like a teakettle. Forgetting her purse and suitcase, she jumped out of the car and met her mother half way and the two women embraced.

  “Good lord, it’s good to see you!” Annie exclaimed as she hugged Charlotte tightly.

  Charlott
e laughed. “Mom, I saw you six months ago.”

  “And you’ve changed so much!” Annie pulled back to study her daughter, her hands cradling Charlotte’s face. They were about the same height so they stood eye to eye. “Your eyes are different. Sad.”

  Slightly disturbed by her mother’s keen observation, Charlotte gave a forced laugh and pulled the hands away. “Only sad that it’s taken me so long to come home.”

  At that moment Kira walked by and gave a snort, in her hands she carried Charlotte’s suitcase and purse. “She’s not taking my room.”

  That caught her mother’s attention and Annie hurried after her. “You’re spending the night? Oh, Kira, this is going to be so fun! Delia is going to love this!”

  Charlotte followed after and stopped when she got to her father, who still stood silently in the doorway. Her father was just a tad taller than his wife, standing only about five foot eight, although the way he carried himself gave the illusion he was a lot bigger. To Charlotte he had always been the steady rock in her life, the strength she leaned on when she lost a swim meet or when she felt overwhelmed with the scope of her Olympic dream. He’d always known exactly what to say to make it all better.

  “You’re looking a mite peaked,” his deep voice rumbled. “Let me go make some coco.”

  And then he slipped one arm around her and hugged her. Inside the circle of her daddy’s arms, Charlotte knew everything was going to be all right.

  The house hadn’t much changed in eleven years. The huge magnolia tree was still in the front yard. The white fence surrounding the property was still bright white. The swing on the front porch still waited to be used. She’d had her first kiss on that swing with a boy named Kenny, though she couldn’t quite remember what he looked like. She’d been eleven years old.