A man worth waiting for - Episode 1

Demola Adenuga stood in the middle of the lodge, watching the giant-screen television with the crowd of fifty or so people who'd gathered around for the big event. On screen four women, all tall, all pretty.

The Angels were at it again.

Demola shifted his gaze from the giant picture to the small family that stood directly in front of the screen. At least there was a halfway decent reason behind this madness. Like most of the other stunts the Angels women had performed in the last three years, this one was a fund-raiser. The recipient was the ten-year-old boy sitting in the wheelchair front and center, flanked protectively by his parents. He needed a bone marrow transplant and his family had no insurance to cover the cost.



Demola studied the boy. He was small for his age, pale and looked as if they couldn't start the procedure any time soon. But he was a cute kid with a killer smile and there was a sparkle in his eyes that said he was living this minute for all it was worth.

He shifted his attention back to the screen. In total surround sound, the whir of the chopper's blades filled the room and vibrated beneath their feet. The scream of the wind howled in their ears. It was probably quieter in the damned helicopter. But even over the steady thump in the floor, he could feel his heart pounding, hear it over the roar of the helicopter blades.

At the helicopter's open door, Tomilola Adeyemi. Or as she knew herself, Tomilola Daniels, the woman he'd come to bring home came down from the helicopter. She looked back at the camera, her sensuous lips smiling widely, her light brown eyes sparkling with excitement and her long curly black hair blowing in the wind.

His breath caught in his throat and the same sensation he'd gotten the first time he'd seen her picture, not twenty-four hours ago, hit him hard. It was a feeling not unlike one of his wild mustangs delivering a hard kick to the gut. But this sensation was lower, harder and twice as powerful. He wanted her. Like a stallion scenting a mare, he wanted her. Irrational and startling. But undeniable.

And equally unwelcome.

Because Wole Adenuga, just before he'd died, had made Demola promise he'd not only bring Tomilola back to her father's estate, but he'd make sure she had everything that was good and wonderful and bright. And no matter how you saddled that horse, an ex-con didn't fit into any of those categories.