Just Beyond Reach

by Candace Irvin

This time, it was he who closed his eyes, averted his face.

  "Joe?"

  Madre de Dios, give him strength. It was still so very difficult to speak of it, even with her. Especially when she saw so much. At times, too much.

  He turned back and sighed. "Sí."

  She spoke the truth.

  Even this very morning—after the blissful night they had shared together—he had intended to seek his vengeance. But then he had burst into that converted barn and had seen that pistol aimed so resolutely at her—and then it had fired.

  He closed his eyes once more, heard the deafening rent once more, felt the blinding anguish once more.

  That single shot had sealed his fate.

  He turned his face into her palm as her fingers slipped down to the growth he had yet to shave from his jaw. There had been no time to remove it. It had taken far too long to return to his home and wait for Miguel to return his call.

  But the delay had been necessary. His brother deserved to know that he had finally accepted the wisdom of his arguments. Though Miguel had been surprised, Joe had also heard the relief in his brother's voice—as well as the promise that if the situation changed, Miguel would not hesitate to call upon him.

  And so, he would take his vacation after all.

  Though his purpose had changed, and for the better. He would give up his hate and honor his mother's final wish for him instead, as he should have been doing these six years past. His intent now was not to use his days to seek vengeance, but in learning to deepen his relationship with this most precious of women—his woman.

  His friend, his lover.

  And when the both of them were ready, his wife.

  "Joe?"

  He drew strength from her hand and her voice, from the enchanting curves cradled against his body—even so, he could not look into those soft eyes as he confessed what he had never before shared, not even with Miguel. "My mother, she spoke of many things that day. She spoke of my brothers, of my aunt and my uncle…of me. But most especially, she spoke of my father. At the very end, she assured me that even had she known what would happen, she would still have loved him, would have married him. Of course, I did not believe her. How could I? Having seen what I had seen?"

  "Oh, Joe."

  He shook his head sharply then, and did find the strength to open his eyes and absorb the love shining through from the woman whom he also loved with his entire being. "I tell you this so you will know what I now know. What I have somehow learned only today. This very afternoon. When that woman fired that gun, I knew in my heart I would never trade these past six years. Not one moment of them. They are mine; you are mine. Just as I am yours. Perhaps I should have spoken of my heart when I entered the apartment. I had intended to, but then we kissed and I was…distracted."

  "A-are you saying what I think you're saying?"

  He nodded.

  "Then that…wasn't goodbye?"

  He smiled as he cupped her cheek and smoothed his thumb across those softly curving lips. "That, querida, was most definitely hello. Though perhaps we should practice the greeting again—slowly this time, and often—so you are sure to hear it."

  Her smile spread. "Perhaps we should."

  But as he bent to her lips to begin to do just this, she placed her hand upon his chest to halt him. She looked intently into his eyes for so long, his uncertainty turned once more to fear and began to grow.

  He took her hand in his and squeezed gently. "Tessa, is something wrong?"

  She merely shook her head.

  Then what…?

  She brought her free hand to his face, gently touching the earring she had given him all those years ago as she smiled. But this smile was not one he had seen before. Surely if he had, he would have remembered it. For this smile, soft and warm though it was, captured the very of essence of joy and made it his own.

  "I just wanted to take a moment and make sure I wasn't dreaming."

  "No, Tessa. You are not." And as he bent low to claim his woman, he knew.

  Neither was he.

  Have you read my Sisters in Arms military romantic suspense series?

  * * *

  To get Book 1, Crossing the Line

  Click Here.

  What’s Next?

  Love begins with trust...and he's already broken hers.

  Twice orphaned as a child, US Army Captain Eve Paris has never depended on anyone, save the women of her university's military sorority. Now a Black Hawk pilot, Eve is thrilled to fly troops into the jungles of Central America. She'll see her best friend for the first time in years.

  Joy turns to tragedy as their chopper crashes miles inside hostile territory. With her sorority sister and the crew dead, Eve is forced to depend on Special Forces Captain Rick Bishop to make it out alive.

  Back on American soil, Eve's wings are stripped. Her career is over because of a statement made by Rick.

  Rick's certain pilot error caused those deaths—until he's reunited with Eve and looks into her grief-stricken eyes. Rick's determined to find out what really caused that crash. Because of his own part in his fellow passenger and platoon sergeant's death, yes.

  But Rick has also begun to care for Eve.

  To accomplish their private, unauthorized mission, Rick and Eve must reenter enemy territory—and risk igniting an international incident...as well as a passion that may prove deadlier to both their hearts than any bullet could.

  Crossing the Line is now available.

  Click Here to get your copy so that you can start reading this series today!

  Sneak Peek: Crossing the Line

  Sisters in Arms, Book 1

  You have never lived until you have almost died. For those who have fought for it, life has a special meaning that the protected will never know.

  —U.S. Special Operations motto

  * * *

  She was on top of the world—literally.

  Eve grinned as the newborn sun finally seared up through the dense canopy of trees that formed the Central American jungle below, igniting the world with swaths of emerald green, fiery red and burnt orange. She tightened her grip on the chopper’s joystick and leaned forward in the cockpit, drawn in by the Black Hawk’s panoramic windows and the spectacular view below. There was no doubt about it. She’d finally made it into heaven and she wasn’t even dead.

  “Takes your breath away, doesn’t it?”

  Another shot of adrenaline pulsed through Eve’s veins, matching the rhythmic thunder of the chopper’s blades. She grinned across the cockpit to her copilot. “You got it. The question is, how can you give it up?”

  Carrie’s answering laughter bubbled though Eve’s earphones. “I’m not giving it up, exactly. I’m just trading it in for a hot bath back in the old U.S. of A. with enough bubbles to soak the sweat and grime off my face and restore my complexion to manageable.” Carrie swept her hands toward the dense trees two hundred feet below. “It’s all yours, honey. For the next six months, anyway.”

  “I’ll take it.” Eve nodded crisply, then cocked her mouthpiece toward the aerial map spread out on Carrie’s lap. “But first, find my blasted landing zone, woman!”

  Once again laughter bubbled above the thundering blades as Carrie turned her sparkling blue gaze to the map she’d been using to supplement the Black Hawk’s malfunctioning global positioning system for the last thirty minutes. Carrie was all business as she glanced up and pointed dead ahead. “Keep it steady. The LZ is just over that ridge.”

  Two minutes later they were there.

  Eve nudged her stick and swooped the Black Hawk down into the tiny clearing. Even before she felt the gentle thump as the bird touched down into the six-foot elephant grass, the squad of San Sebastián soldiers and their two U.S. Special Forces advisors were storming out of the chopper and melting into the perimeter beyond. Eve didn’t bother taking off but peered into the dense foliage.

  Nothing but early-morning shadows and trees.

  Where was the American soldier she
was supposed to pick up and fly back to the San Sebastián presidential compound? Eve glanced at the clock on her instrument panel. The man had better show soon. His briefing started in less than an hour.

  “Relax. He’ll be here.”

  “Me? I’m not the one blushing like a sophomore waiting for the school jock to cruise past my locker.”

  “I am not blushing.”

  But she was and they both knew it. Just as they both knew why. Or better yet, who Carrie was hoping to see.

  Eve waited until their crew chief bailed out of the bird to scan the perimeter for their next set of passengers before she powered the chopper’s engine down to idle. As the roar eased, she switched off her mouthpiece and pulled off her helmet, running her fingers through the tangles on her head as she scrounged up the courage to voice what had to be said. She might have only been in San Sebastián a couple of days, but she knew Carrie well enough to know that this time the woman was in over her head.

  Eve finally sighed. “He’s enlisted.”

  Evidently, Carrie had been waiting for her pronouncement, because she just shrugged. “He’s a hunk.”

  “You could lose your wings—and your commission.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Damn. It was worse than she’d feared. Eve glanced out the side door of the chopper. The jungle was eerily silent beyond, no doubt due to the recent man-made intrusion. She turned back to Carrie, but Carrie still wouldn’t meet her gaze. For once she wasn’t sure how to respond to her best friend. Though they’d spoken regularly on the phone, they hadn’t seen each other in two years.

  Evidently things had changed.

  She swallowed hard. “Carrie, do you realize what you’re saying?”

  Carrie turned then, pulling off her own helmet and running her fingers through her inky curls as she shrugged. “Yeah, I do.”

  Oh God.

  Now what?

  Fortunately, she didn’t need to worry about a comeback, at least not right then. Because, as Eve tipped her head to the left and stared past her friend’s olive-drab flight suit, she spied two camouflaged soldiers with fully-loaded rucksacks on their backs stepping out from the trees beyond.

  Two?

  She must have stiffened, because Carrie turned around to stare as well. Her friend was smiling as she swung back. “It’s him. I was hoping he’d have to tag along. But I couldn’t be sure.”

  Eve’s heart sank. Though there’d been more men in Carrie’s life than either of them could count, she’d only seen that beatific smile once before. It was during their senior year of college. During the reign of Jake-the-Great. Her heart sank even further. Carrie hadn’t been pretending. Her friend knew darn well she was playing with fire.

  And she didn’t care if she got burned.

  Eve flicked her gaze back to the men as their crew chief, Sergeant Lange, joined them. A couple yards more and they were close enough for her to make out their camouflage-greased facial features, though not the flat black ranking insignia on their collars. It didn’t matter. Her heart sank to her toes as she studied the taller of the two Green Beret advisors. If that was Sergeant Turner, it was too late for Carrie or the woman’s career. Heck, even she’d be tempted to rip off her wings for a night with the man.

  Hunk was an understatement.

  With those dark forbidding brows beneath the man’s field cap, strong cheeks and firm lips, combined with that mouth-watering physique beneath his jungle fatigues, the Army could skip the Be All You Can Be recruiting logo. For the women, anyway. Just slap a poster of this guy up in the halls of America’s high schools and they’d be signing up in droves.

  As he drew closer, Eve sucked in her breath—and realized she’d been staring. A split second later, she caught the twin bars on his collar. They matched hers. Thank heaven. At least she hadn’t been ogling the man her best friend thought she was falling in love with.

  If Carrie wasn’t already beyond saving.

  Moments later, Eve knew she was. Before Eve could stop her, Carrie had vaulted from the cockpit and headed out to meet the men. The blinding grin still on her face as she turned back confirmed it. Jake-the-Great and every lover after was nothing more than a distant memory.

  Against her better judgment, not to mention standard procedure, Eve climbed out of the cockpit as well. She rounded the front of the bird as her crew chief tossed the soldiers’ rucksacks into the rear of the chopper and climbed in after. Carrie stepped forward and grabbed her arm, practically ripping the sleeve of her flight suit off as she hauled her toward the men.

  “Eve, this is Sergeant Turner. Bill, Captain Paris.”

  Eve winced.

  Not only had Carrie lost her head, she’d lost her manners, at least her military ones. It was bad enough for Carrie, also a captain, to be on a first-name basis with the enlisted man while in uniform, but did she have to advertise the fact before Turner’s commander?

  Maybe the man would let it slide?

  The deep frown on his face said otherwise.

  Anxious to ward off a set-down within earshot of their crew chief, Eve nodded to the sergeant and stuck out her hand toward his commander. “Captain Paris. You must be Captain Bishop.”

  If anything, Bishop’s frown deepened as he ignored her outstretched palm. “I am. Now, if social hour’s over, perhaps you soldiers would do me the favor of getting this damned bird off the ground before I miss my briefing.” He flicked his steel-blue gaze into the belly of the chopper. “Where’s my headset?”

  Eve stiffened as the jackass stepped crisply past, dismissing her as curtly as he’d ignored her hand.

  “My spare headset is on the fritz.”

  Bishop spun about, the swift arch in his deep black brows clearly voicing his suspicions.

  Too bloody bad.

  Her crew chief would support her, as would Carrie.

  In fact, behind Captain Marvel’s very back, Lange was already calmly slipping the extra headset with its perfectly functioning two-way communications link into its storage slot. From the way her chief snapped the door shut, she wasn’t the only one who’d taken offense at Bishop’s brusque comments.

  Eve shrugged. “Global positioning is down, too. Fancy that.” She turned her back on the man before he could answer and strolled around the front of the chopper to climb in.

  Captain Marvel wanted to play drill sergeant?

  Fine with her. But she’d be damned if she was going to give him the courtesy of listening in while he did it.

  * * *

  Of all the lousy luck.

  Rick bit down on his scowl as he studied the two pilots who had been tasked with ferrying him to the presidential compound for his briefing. He had no idea who the blonde was—and if she was anything like her copilot, he didn’t care. But the dark one, he knew that one all right. Better than he wanted to. Carrie Evans was going to cost him the best sergeant he’d ever had if he wasn’t careful. Dammit, he should have requested a set of male pilots. He would have, too, if it wouldn’t have led to questions.

  Questions he couldn’t risk answering.

  Still, he should have kept a tighter lid on his disappointment, not to mention his anger. After all, it wasn’t Captain Paris’s fault.

  Well, it was too late now.

  The crew chief slid the chopper’s side door shut as the officer he’d snubbed settled in the pilot’s seat and powered up the Black Hawk. Rick tugged off his field cap and scrubbed his hands through his shorn hair as he sank down into the webbed bench at the rear of the bird.

  Another bad move.

  His sergeant promptly took advantage of the forward empty seats, commandeering the one directly behind the pilot’s. In doing so, Sergeant Turner had afforded himself a choice view of the copilot—the same copilot Turner had been preoccupied with for five of the last six months. Rick tried scowling at the man as the chopper’s crew chief moved to the rear instrument panel to busy himself with the takeoff checks. Unfortunately, Turner’s attention was already focused on Carrie
Evans.

  As usual.

  The bird took off smoothly, thundering over the trees where Rick had spent the last eighteen months training San Sebastián’s soldiers. He allowed his gaze to stray to the back of Captain Paris’s helmet. Eve. A good two inches of dark-gold curls spilled out from beneath the bottom edge of the Kevlar bucket, curls that were a shade lighter than the smooth brows framing those striking emerald eyes. He’d seen them for all of five seconds as the woman initiated their introduction. Thickly lashed, her eyes were unusually large…until her gaze had narrowed.

  For the first time in a long time, he pushed aside regret.

  In the end it wouldn’t matter how professional the woman was. In twelve years in the Army, he had more than enough experience to know that a woman that stunning was nothing but trouble out in the field. Take Carrie Evans. The captain was already paying more attention to his sergeant than to the aerial map spread out on her lap. It’d be a miracle if they reached the presidential compound on time. If at all.

  Just then, Paris turned to say something to her copilot. Unfortunately, Rick couldn’t make the words out over the pounding of the chopper’s blades. If only the extra headset wasn’t down. What he wouldn’t give to listen in on that conversation. Rick had the distinct impression Captain Paris hadn’t been any more thrilled with Carrie’s familiar behavior toward his sergeant back at the LZ than he’d been. The suspicion bit into him again as the curve of the woman’s jaw tightened. Especially when Carrie jerked her gaze from his sergeant’s and fused it to the aerial map.

  Way to go, Paris.

  Evidently an apology was in order when this bird landed because at least one of the women was intent on the mission at hand. His sergeant, however, had an ass-ripping coming as soon as he shifted that blasted lovesick-puppy gaze of his to the rear of the chopper long enough for Rick to catch it.

  Of course, his sergeant didn’t.