by Dana Marton
“No.”
She looked disappointed. “I am.”
“A joint mission with the CIA?”
“I begged the Colonel to put me on the team. With Jamie’s help.”
His head was spinning. “I’m quitting the team.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I want to marry you and I never want to see you in the kind of pain I saw when you lost your brother.”
Her amber eyes went wide. “You’re trying to guarantee that you won’t die on me?”
Now that she put it that way, it sure sounded stupid.
“I’m buying a house. A condo, actually.” Maybe that would help. “I’m trying to—”
“You want to marry me?” Her eyes narrowed. “When we were in the chopper and I said I loved you, you didn’t say anything back.”
“I needed a little time to recover. I needed to figure out a way I could make our relationship work.”
“And your way is to quit?”
That did sound bad. He wasn’t a quitter. A woman like Megan wouldn’t want a quitter for a husband.
“Do you want to quit?” she asked.
“No. But I can live with it,” he tried to explain. “I can’t live without you.”
“You won’t have to. I’m going with you.”
“Where?”
She looked at him as if he was slow in the head. “Back to the jungle. I’m coming over to Colonel Wilson’s team in six months.”
“You can’t.” He wasn’t sure he could handle seeing her getting shot again.
“Watch me.” She was all cold steel on the inside. And all hot curves on the outside. A combination that would keep him fascinated for the rest of his life. Then a thought popped into his head and stole his breath. “Why wait six months?”
His gaze fell to her midriff. How much could a man trust an old condom he found on the bottom of a drug dealer’s duffel bag?
Her belly was flat, but you could never tell. His heart jumped up into his throat. Spots swum in front of his eyes.
She pulled a folder from her bag on the floor and handed it to him.
His hands shook as he opened it, expecting ultrasound pictures. He blinked hard when he saw the photo of a familiar one-year-old instead. Cindy. The world spun with him.
“What are you doing with my sister’s file?”
“Finding her.”
He couldn’t allow his hopes to rise. That part of his heart was dead, even if Megan had awakened the rest. “I spent years chasing down every lead. I searched hard. There was nothing to find.”
“But have you ever searched with all the tools of the CIA at your full disposal?” she asked.
“And you’re giving them to me for the next six months?” Hell, with something like that, he could do miracles.
“For the next six months. That’s when the Colonel is shipping a team back to the jungle. He’ll need that long to process all the information we brought in and devise a strategy.”
Of course she would. But she wasn’t going without him. No way.
“We’ll do this together.” Because when the chips were down, the truth was he’d rather have her at his back than anyone else he knew. “And when we come back we get married?”
“Jeez, don’t be so pushy.” But she grinned. “Maybe.”
His heart leaped.
“And while we’re waiting for that deployment, we’ll find your sister. I’m going to do everything in my power to help.” She smiled at him.
He stepped closer. “I love you, you know that.”
When she stepped into his arms, he wrapped himself around her. Kissed her with all the need of the three long months they’d been apart. He was never going to let her go again. There wasn’t another like her on the planet.
She pressed against him, smiled against his lips as she brushed against his hardness. His body was more than ready for her.
“And what might that be?” She teased him between kisses.
“I’m very happy to see you.”
“It’s either that or you had a run in with a banana spider.” She laughed at him, then jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist.
He caught her, got lost in her. She was his. He didn’t deserve her, but as long as God saw it fit in His generosity to bring the two of them together, he would do whatever it took to make her happy and keep her safe.
He didn’t know how long they’d been kissing when someone cleared his throat behind them. They jumped apart, suddenly mindful of where they were.
“There are rules about fraternization in the SDDU rule book, soldiers,” the Colonel said with a hard voice. But his eyes were dancing with mirth.
“The SDDU has no rule book, sir,” Mitch retorted as the tips of his ears turned red.
“Impertinent, the lot of them.” The Colonel turned to Jamie who was right behind him. “Are you sure you want to rejoin a team like this?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Jamie, you can’t be serious.” Megan ran to him, crouching next to the wheelchair and searching her brother’s face.
“This man has more experience than any ten others put together,” the Colonel told them in a no-nonsense tone. “He’ll be an operations coordinator at our Texas office.”
Mitch wrinkled his forehead. “We don’t have a Texas office.”
“It’s on a need to know basis. We started up operations in South Texas six months ago. Too many of our international ops uncover terror plots with links to sleeper cells and the like in the U.S. We needed to add another office here. Texas Headquarters will investigate drug and gun smuggling as well as human trafficking from Central and South America as it relates to suspected terror activity.”
“If it’s top secret…” The puzzle pieces were falling into place in Mitch’s mind.
“You’re being transferred there effective immediately. Megan will begin working there when she starts with us in six months,” the Colonel responded. “You are both experts on South American ops.”
“Jamie?” Megan still sounded unsure, but a change was slowly coming over her. It seemed she was beginning to understand that this was exactly what her brother needed to get his life back on track.
The Colonel knew, Mitch thought. The Colonel knew and he saw to it. No wonder his men would walk through fire for him.
“There are still things I can contribute.” The harsh lines softened on Jamie’s face. “I can coordinate missions and play wedding coordinator at the same time. I’m good at multitasking. From the looks of you two when we walked in, the sooner we hold that wedding, the better.”
“She hasn’t said yes, yet,” Mitch put in, just to make sure Jamie knew he’d asked. Jamie Cassidy wasn’t a man he wanted to tangle with, wheelchair or no wheelchair.
All eyes moved to her.
The Colonel raised an eyebrow. “My soldiers are not known for being wishy-washy.”
“Megan?” Jamie watched her closely.
“Oh, please. I’m too old for peer pressure.”
Nobody blinked.
“Seriously.” She patted an errant lock of hair into place at her temple, looking flustered suddenly. “He doesn’t need me for anything. He made that plenty clear, every day we were together.”
Was she serious? Mitch stared at her.
Did he want to say this with two other guys in the room? He didn’t have a choice.
He went down on one knee. “Megan Cassidy. I need you more than air. Please help end my misery by staying in my life. Because without you it’s not worth living.”
She cocked her head, and looked like she was struggling to suppress a grin. “So you’re asking for my help? Just to be clear.”
“I’m asking.”
“And you will let me save your life if the occasion should arise, and will admit you need such assistance freely.”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
“Is that a yes?”
A smile of pure joy broke loose all over her face as she plowed into hi
m and nearly knocked him over, locking her arms around his neck and kissing him. “Yes.” Then she kept on with the kissing.
He kissed her back hard, then remembered the others. But when he looked behind him, the Colonel and Jamie were gone, the door closed.
His body came alive with need for her. His heart opened fully, for the first time in years. “I love you, and I need you.”
“I love you and I need you, too.” She slid her hand under his shirt.
He choked back a laugh. “Here?”
“It’s a lifesaving op.” She backed toward the desk. “Think of it as an emergency.”
Certainly felt like it. Heat flooded him as he slipped his hands to her hips.
“So who’s saving who this time?” He asked as he eased her dress up her lean thighs.
“We’re saving each other,” she said as she kissed him.
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459219700
Copyright © 2012 by Dana Marton
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