by Cynthia Eden
No, she couldn’t take that risk.
It’s time to say goodbye.
“Beautiful,” Brodie murmured from beside her.
She nodded, still staring at the lake and trying to gather her courage for what she had to say. “It is.”
“I’m not talking about the lake.”
Her gaze flew toward him, and she found Brodie staring right at her. With his eyes on her, he closed the distance between them. His hand slipped beneath her chin, and he kissed her. Softly. Sensually.
Jennifer leaned into him. He’d been at the hospital with her, nearly every single moment. But he’d been so careful with her there. Every touch had seemed restrained even as every glance he’d sent her way had been filled with a desperate need.
She could feel the power in his body. Taste the desire in his kiss.
“Davis isn’t here,” Brodie told her. “It’s just you and me.” He stepped back. “Come inside with me?”
She should tell him goodbye now. Walk away even as she shattered on the inside, but Jennifer nodded. I can’t leave him, not yet. Their hands entwined as they went back to the ranch house.
Then they were inside his bedroom. Her clothes fell to the floor. His hand slid over her, learning every inch of her body once more.
He was still dressed. Still wearing his shirt and his jeans, and that just wasn’t going to do for her.
She pushed up his shirt. Her fingers slid along the hard, muscled expanse of his abs. Seconds later, Brodie’s shirt went sailing through the air, and she kissed his chest, loving the power that he held so easily. Her fingers pulled on his belt. Unhooked the snap of his jeans. His aroused length pressed against her. Hot and hard. Her fingers curled around him, and she stroked him, pumping his flesh. She loved the way he responded to her. Loved the hard growl that broke from him and the way his body tensed beneath her touch.
When he tried to take control, she pushed him back onto the bed, and Jennifer slowly crawled on top of him. Her knees pressed into the mattress as her hips pressed down on him. They were flesh to flesh, just the way she wanted him, but she wasn’t taking him into her body. Not yet.
She wanted to enjoy him more.
Jennifer wanted this moment to last as long as possible because this would be their final time together. I don’t want to leave Brodie. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
Jennifer bent toward him, and her hair swept down, falling around them. She pressed a kiss to his neck. Her tongue licked his skin. His hands were around her, sliding down her back, urging her closer. So close.
She kissed her way down his chest. Licked his nipples and heard the reward of his ragged groan.
Down, down she went as she learned every inch of his body, just as he’d learned hers before. There were no secrets between them. Only pleasure.
Her mouth pressed to his aroused flesh. She—
Was on her back. He’d rolled her in a lightning-fast move, and he had her carefully pinned beneath him.
“Sweetheart, you’re driving me out of my mind.”
Then his hand was between her legs. She arched toward him because his touch felt so good. He was stroking her, moving those wicked fingers against the center of her need, and her release rushed up, strong and hot just as he pulled his hand back and drove into her.
Time seemed to stop right in that moment. She was on the precipice of pleasure but trapped by his gaze. Then he kissed her, and the world exploded as his hips pushed hard against her. Again and again, he thrust into her, and the climax surged through her. So strong, so powerful, that Jennifer lost her breath. Her nails dug into his back, and she locked her legs around him.
He kept thrusting. Kept driving toward release.
And when she was sure her body couldn’t take any more, when she was limp and trembling and sweat coated his body...
Then the desire grew again. He withdrew and drove deep.
And she held tightly to him.
I don’t want to leave. I want to stay with Brodie...forever.
* * *
EVEN THOUGH THE lamp spilled light into the room, Jennifer knew it was dark outside. The sun had set long ago. She’d lost herself to hours of pleasure with Brodie.
She could slip away in the darkness. She should slip away.
But Jennifer couldn’t take her gaze off him. They were tangled together in bed. His arm was over her stomach, her leg over his. The sheet had fallen to his waist.
As she stared at him, she thought, as she had so long before...
Sleep makes him look innocent. Sleep took away the hard intensity of his eyes. Sleep softened the warrior.
Almost helplessly, her hand rose and her fingers smoothed over the dark stubble that lined his jaw. At her touch, his eyes opened, and that green stare wasn’t the least bit foggy. He was 100 percent awake and aware.
And it’s time for me to leave.
“Thank you,” Jennifer whispered, and it was as if she were trapped back in the past. Saying goodbye to him all over again at that little safe house. “Thank you for saving me.” I thought I was going to die. Just like before. Her chest ached.
He didn’t say a word, just stared at her as the lamp’s light fell onto the bed.
Being with him then...it was so much like before, when they’d been in the Middle East. She hadn’t wanted to leave him then.
Will I ever see you again? Years ago, that question had been pulled from her.
But then, he’d told her...Hopefully, you won’t need to see me.
Yet she’d hoped to see him.
Try not to get kidnapped again, and you won’t need me.
Danger was a part of her life. A part that she wouldn’t push into his world. Not anymore.
She attempted to smile because she didn’t want him to see just how much this was hurting her.
“No.” His hard growl had her smile freezing.
Then vanishing.
“You aren’t leaving me,” Brodie told her as he rose up from the bed.
She grabbed for the sheet and held it carefully to her breasts as she suddenly felt far too vulnerable next to him.
“I had to watch you walk away before. I had to wonder about you for years.” His head came toward hers. “That’s not happening again. I can’t go through that hell again.”
“Brodie—”
“Do you even remember what I said to you? When I was carrying you out of that damn blood-filled garage?”
No, she didn’t. Things had been kind of foggy then, what with the blood loss and the panic and the shock.
“I. Love. You.”
She shook her head. Was she still in shock? Because Jennifer thought she’d heard him say—
“I love you,” he said again, the words softer but the expression in his eyes just as hard.
“You can’t,” Jennifer whispered back as she tightened her hold on that sheet. “You don’t...you don’t know me.” No one did. Jennifer Wesley wasn’t real. She—
“I love Jennifer Wesley. I love Jenny Belmont. I love the woman who goes wild in my arms. I love the woman who risks her life for my family. I love the woman that I hold in the night. The woman who makes me smile even when I want to explode. I love you.”
“I’m not safe.” Her words seemed far too soft. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Stephen found me. What if others do, too? What if—”
“If anyone ever comes after you again, I will be right there, standing at your side.”
He wasn’t listening to her. I love you. And his words were all she could hear. “I don’t want you put at risk.”
“I can handle risk.”
“Your family—”
He had her caged between the headboard and his body. “What do you think I’ll do without you?”
She didn’t want to think about her life without him. So much had changed for her in just a few short days. No, he’d changed everything.
“You came to me because you thought you could trust me. You thought I’d help keep you safe
.”
Jennifer nodded.
“Sweetheart, I will spend the rest of my life loving you and keeping you safe. Making you happy. Doing anything you want.” His gaze searched hers. “I can’t watch you walk away again. I told you that before, in that damn police station.”
He didn’t understand. She was trying to do what was right. “I never should have brought my danger to your door. If Sullivan had been killed, if Davis had—”
“They weren’t, and we can do what-ifs all day long, but they don’t change anything. The fact is...I love you, and I’d take any risk to be with you.”
But would he really risk his family? No, that just wasn’t Brodie. For him, family always came first.
He swore, obviously reading her fears on her face. “If you leave, then I’m just going to come with you.”
And leave his family? “No!”
“I can vanish with you, or you can stay here and build a life with me. Those are the choices.”
He would really give up everything for her?
“Unless...” Now she saw a flash of vulnerability in his eyes. She’d never seen him look vulnerable before. Not Brodie. “Unless you don’t love me. Unless you don’t want to be with me—”
She put her hands on his cheeks and she kissed him. Deeply. Wildly. The same way she loved him. “I love you,” Jennifer whispered against his lips. “More than anything.”
His shoulders slumped. “Then stay with me. We can make it work. We can make anything work if we’re together.”
“If something else happened to your family because of me...” With the past already between them, with his parents’ death... “Brodie, I couldn’t handle that. You couldn’t handle it.”
He pulled back just a little and stared down at her with blazing eyes. “You didn’t do it. You weren’t responsible for what happened to my parents.”
“But I brought Stephen—”
“My brother asked Shayne if he killed my parents. In his final moments, he said he didn’t.”
Jennifer’s breath caught in her throat.
“Then Davis asked him...he asked him if he knew who had killed them...”
Pain came then, flashing over his face.
“Brodie?”
“The last thing Shayne said was...Montgomery.”
She started to shake her head—
“The Montgomery ranch is right next door. Mark Montgomery’s father...he killed himself two months after my parents died. The puzzle pieces are all there. We just have to figure them out.” His hands tightened on her arms. “We will figure them out.”
Her heart ached as she stared at him.
“We know Brushard had a man in the area back then—the same man who was watching you. We will track him down. We’ll get all of his photos, learn everything he saw. Every day, we will get closer to finding out what really happened to my parents.”
She wanted closure for him because every time he mentioned his parents, she could see the pain in his eyes.
“I can face anything,” Brodie told her, “any damn thing, as long as I have you. Please, Jennifer, don’t leave again. Stay with me. If danger comes, then we’ll be ready for it. Hell, sweetheart, I’m a SEAL. I’m the best man you can have at your side when hell comes calling.”
He was the only man she wanted at her side, and in her bed, for the rest of her life.
The only man in her heart.
“Stay?” he asked softly, his mouth just inches from her own.
She thought about the past six years. About the times she’d caught herself looking over her shoulder, looking for him.
Life wasn’t about fear. It wasn’t about regret.
So she stared into his eyes, she saw the love there, and Jennifer whispered, “Yes.”
Because he was right. They would face any danger coming their way. Together. He would fight for her, she knew it, and Jennifer would do anything to protect him and his family.
Her SEAL had given her a second chance. She was going to take that chance, and they’d see where the future led them.
This time, her love was stronger than her fear.
This time...she held him tightly. She didn’t let go.
And she knew that finally, finally, with Brodie...she was home.
Epilogue
Mark Montgomery had been Davis McGuire’s friend for as long as Davis could remember.
Davis trusted him just as much as he trusted his brothers.
But then...he’d trusted Shayne Townsend, too.
Davis stood back. His brothers were at his side, his sister close by. They all watched as Shayne Townsend was laid to rest. He turned his head and glanced over at Brodie. His twin’s face was hard, tense. Jennifer was at Brodie’s side, her arms around him.
Jennifer Wesley. She’d come into their lives like a cyclone, and she’d changed Brodie’s world. There would be no going back for Brodie, not now.
I want to marry her. Brodie had told him that the night before. But Jennifer’s scared... She worries her past might hurt me.
Brodie wasn’t going to let anyone or anything hurt his lady.
Davis’s gaze slid to the right. To Mark Montgomery. Mark was staring at the grave site with an expression much like Brodie’s. Hard. Tense. Angry.
But then Mark moved...shifted...and his stare locked on Davis’s sister, Ava.
Davis saw the flash of longing there. Davis had seen that same longing in Mark’s gaze before, but Mark had never made a move to touch Ava.
And I’m damned glad of that fact.
Because after Shayne’s dying words, Davis didn’t know if he was looking at a friend...
Or at a killer.
The service ended. The crowd started to slip away. But Mark...Mark closed in on Ava.
“Ava, we need to talk,” Mark said softly.
Ava glanced up at him, and for just a moment, Davis could have sworn he saw a flash of longing in her eyes, too.
Hell. He stepped forward, aware that his brothers were all following his lead. They knew about Shayne’s last words, but they hadn’t told them to Ava. Not yet. They wanted to do more digging first.
But it looked as if they might have just run out of time...
Because Mark appeared to be done with waiting.
Davis stepped in front of Ava. “Stay away from her,” he told his friend.
“What?” Mark looked at him as if Davis had lost his mind.
Maybe he had, but Davis wasn’t about to lose his sister, too.
“We know, Mark,” Davis said. “Shayne told us.” It was a deliberate push, to see what Mark would reveal.
But Mark just shook his head. “You don’t know anything.” He leaned in close to Davis. “And you aren’t going to keep me away from Ava. I’m done waiting.”
The words were a threat, and Davis tensed, more than ready to do battle.
“Not here,” Brodie said, grabbing his arm. “Not now.”
He’d almost forgotten they were at a cemetery and the grieving were all around them.
Mark stepped back. He gave a curt nod, then turned on his heel and stalked away.
Ava yanked Davis around to face her. “What are you doing? Are you crazy?” she demanded. Ava was small, delicate, an exact opposite of her brothers. But she had the McGuire eyes—green and glinting with emotion.
“Ava...” Hell, he didn’t know what to say then. “Mark isn’t... He may not be the man you think.”
Her gaze hardened. “And maybe he is.” She stepped back from him. “Maybe he’s exactly what I need.” Her voice was determined.
Then Ava straightened her shoulders. She turned away. Walked slowly and carefully and left him behind without a backward glance.
“We’re going to have trouble,” Grant muttered.
Yes, they were.
But no one was going to hurt Ava. Davis would keep her safe, no matter what.
Even if I have to battle another friend...I will. I will protect my sister, at all costs...
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from DECEPTION LAKE by Paula Graves.
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Chapter One
The weather was warm for March in the Smokies, or so the woman at the diner counter informed Jack Drummond when he commented on the heat as he took a seat at the counter and scanned the large menu board behind her. She was a broad-shouldered woman in her late thirties, with work-worn hands and a plain but pleasant face devoid of makeup. The name tag over her left breast read Darlene.
“Won’t last,” Darlene warned in a hard-edged drawl as she pulled a pen and order pad from her apron pocket. “We’ll get another frost in time to kill off all the daffodils that’ll be blooming.” She shrugged. “Spring in Tennessee.”
Jack could tell Darlene a few stories about spring in Wyoming that would curl her lanky brown hair. Late-season snowstorms piling up in feet, not inches. Winds so strong and cold they seemed to blast the skin right off your face. But he refrained, ordering a steak sandwich and a sweet tea, his gaze sliding past the beer menu without snagging for even a second.
Progress.
The bell on the door behind him tinkled as another customer came in from the March sunshine. A woman’s voice called out, husky and lightly tinted with a Texas twang. “Darlene, do you have the to-go orders for The Gates ready?”
The skin on Jack’s neck prickled, and he swung his head slowly toward the newcomer, certain he’d imagined the familiar tones he’d heard in the feminine voice. She’d be too old or too young, too tall, too short, hair too red or not red enough, wrong eyes, wrong face, wrong build.