McKnight in Shining Armor Read Online Free

chimp. “No ice cream for you tonight!”
    Alec snagged the teddy off Millard’s head anddried his face with it. Pain was pounding in his temples, and, pretty blonde or no pretty blonde, his temper was about to erupt like Mount St. Helens. First Vena the Vampire, now a madman and his maniac monkey. It was just too much.
    “Mr. Krispin,” he said threateningly, “will you please keep that animal under control?”
    “Of course,” Millard replied, trying to wrap his arms around Darwin as he sat back in his chair. The chimp wriggled around until he was sitting on Millard’s shoulders and began playing his head like a bongo drum. “I think perhaps he’s been eating too much refined sugar. What do you think?”
    Alec stood, bracing his hands on his desk and leaning across it. He stared at Millard and said in a low, tight voice, “I think you’ve got a screw loose.”
    Millard gasped.
    Kelsie snapped the lid shut on her briefcase of underwear and stood up, driven by a need to leave before she burst into tears and started reciting Chapter Eleven—the bankruptcy code. She had to get Millard and Darwin out of Alec McKnight’soffice before the chimp did any more damage. The last thing she needed was to get embroiled in a lawsuit. As it was, Millard was going to have to pay the cleaning bill on an expensive wool suit and replace a drapery rod.
    “Perhaps it would be better if we discussed this at another time,” she said, trying to cling to some tiny shred of hope, “without Darwin being present.”
    “But Kelsie—” Millard whined, cutting himself off at a murderous look from his agent.
    Alec handed her the lace teddy. “I think not, Miss Connors. I believe I can safely say Van Bryant’s would not be interested in a neurotic monkey with an underwear fetish.”
    “How dare you!” Millard exclaimed.
    Kelsie turned and gave him a shove toward the door. “Put a cork in it, Millard.”

TWO
    “M OM, CAN I have a ’guana?” Jeffrey asked, trailing after Kelsie as she tried to get her things together for the lingerie party.
    “A what?” she asked, shooing Cheevers, the striped cat, out of her tote bag. She had just enough time to get to the hostess’s house in the neighboring suburb of Hopkins and get set up.
    “You know, a ’guana. They’re long and green and stick their tongues out.”
    Kelsie stopped and thought for a moment. “An
ig
uana!” she exclaimed, dismayed.
    “Wow! Great! Thanks, Mom!”
    She snagged him by the shoulder of his football jersey before he could make a getaway. “Whoa there! An iguana is a lizard. A lizard is a reptile. You know the rule: No reptiles.”
    Her son looked as if she’d just told him he could never eat ice cream again. “But, Mom! Brent has one, and it’s so awesome!”
    Kelsie gave him a look that said don’t give me any nonsense while she dug in her purse for her keys. “It’s a snake with legs. No, you may not have one.”
    She bent and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be home around eleven. Please behave yourself and don’t fight with your sister.”
    She almost made it to the door before the phone rang.
    Jeffrey grabbed up the receiver from the phone on the entry table. “Connors residence, Jeffrey Connors speaking. Shoot man, it’s your quarter.” He looked up at his mother’s exasperated face as he listened to the caller. “Miss
Who?
Who wants to know?”
    Kelsie rolled her eyes. Jeffrey was his father’sson when it came to etiquette. She clamped a hand over the mouth of the receiver as he handed it to her. “Who is it?”
    He made a face as he wandered toward the couch. “Some night guy.”
    Alec waited on the other end of the line, a little bewildered. He certainly hadn’t been expecting a little boy to answer
Miss
Kelsie Connors’s phone. Another bit of intrigue to add to the puzzle of who the lady with the sexy eyebrows was. He’d spent most of his afternoon thinking about her. There was a chemistry between them that deserved exploration. She’d