helping of humiliation.
She didn’t even want to think about the weakness she’d shown him out here— an unwilling witness to a meltdown that had probably been ten years in the making. Since when did she let her guard down like that?
If she’d learned anything climbing her way up the corporate ladder, she learned that when something didn’t work, don’t be an idiot repeating the same mistakes again and again. Try something new.
It was time to stop letting her unresolved issues with her father mess with her decisions. What just happened here solidified what she’d just begun to grasp in her father’s hospital room. She wasn’t going anywhere until she had answers from her father about her past and his present.
No more secrets. She would be persistent, digging as deep as she needed to resolve things with her father once and for all.
“Return to Dallas? I must have forgotten to tell you. I’m spending some quality time with the old man after his whole health scare. What better way to do that than go on an eight-day cruise with him?”
His jaw went slack, his eyes guarded.
Reveling in her hollow victory, she marched past him toward the Maserati, the
Fortuna
license plate mocking her every step.
* * *
Jolynn drove like a maniac.
Undeterred, Chuck hooked his elbow on the passenger door of the Maserati and just watched the coast speed by. Wind whipped through the car, the coastal highway perchedclose to the rocky ledge with the sea crashing hard on the shore below.
Although she expected to freak him out by driving like an Indy 500 pro, then she had another think coming. This was small potatoes in comparison to the missions he’d flown as an air force test aviator.
This woman, however, was giving him emotional whiplash. The first brush of her lips against his had almost sent him to his knees like an untried teen. What was he thinking allowing himself to lose control?
Allow? Just looking at Jolynn Taylor made him question his sanity more than his military shrink ever had. The woman was dangerous to his concentration, not to mention his mission. He turned away to look at the rolling waves again, sea mist hanging in the air and stinging his face.
Thank God she’d left her purse— and the silver token surveillance device— in the car so no one else heard him kiss her like an idiot with no will. Like the fool he’d been two years ago. He should have listened to his instincts back in Nevada. His edge was gone.
He refused to consider what could have happened if Jolynn hadn’t nudged his gun as she stroked his back with insistent, arousing hands. Luckily, he’d still possessed a fragment of reason and recognized the insanity of what he was doing. She was the daughter of a major suspect.
She could be involved.
Believing her “poor little rich girl” act was dangerous. If she was acting, people would die.
And if she wasn’t acting? Then the best thing he could do was keep his distance because she would be hurt a helluva lot more when his role in bringing down her father came out.
Another scenario— even worse— exploded in his head.What would her father’s underworld buddies think if they discovered she was hanging out with an undercover military operative, someone with dark ops connections?
Once they got back to the
Fortuna
, he needed to focus his fact gathering on someone else, like the director of operations. The colonel could chat up Jolynn.
And the knowledge that Scanlon wouldn’t hit on her since he was far gone on Livia Cicero?
Mighty convenient.
Hell. He was so screwed.
Another gust of wind tossed an auburn lock across his cheek, plastering it against his skin for four heartbeats before it slithered away.
His body throbbed rock hard just that fast.
There was no denying it. He wanted her. And that in and of itself knocked him on his ass all over again.
After his capture, after the torture and beating in Turkey, he hadn’t had sex with a woman for nearly a year. He hadn’t
She didn’t even want to think about the weakness she’d shown him out here— an unwilling witness to a meltdown that had probably been ten years in the making. Since when did she let her guard down like that?
If she’d learned anything climbing her way up the corporate ladder, she learned that when something didn’t work, don’t be an idiot repeating the same mistakes again and again. Try something new.
It was time to stop letting her unresolved issues with her father mess with her decisions. What just happened here solidified what she’d just begun to grasp in her father’s hospital room. She wasn’t going anywhere until she had answers from her father about her past and his present.
No more secrets. She would be persistent, digging as deep as she needed to resolve things with her father once and for all.
“Return to Dallas? I must have forgotten to tell you. I’m spending some quality time with the old man after his whole health scare. What better way to do that than go on an eight-day cruise with him?”
His jaw went slack, his eyes guarded.
Reveling in her hollow victory, she marched past him toward the Maserati, the
Fortuna
license plate mocking her every step.
* * *
Jolynn drove like a maniac.
Undeterred, Chuck hooked his elbow on the passenger door of the Maserati and just watched the coast speed by. Wind whipped through the car, the coastal highway perchedclose to the rocky ledge with the sea crashing hard on the shore below.
Although she expected to freak him out by driving like an Indy 500 pro, then she had another think coming. This was small potatoes in comparison to the missions he’d flown as an air force test aviator.
This woman, however, was giving him emotional whiplash. The first brush of her lips against his had almost sent him to his knees like an untried teen. What was he thinking allowing himself to lose control?
Allow? Just looking at Jolynn Taylor made him question his sanity more than his military shrink ever had. The woman was dangerous to his concentration, not to mention his mission. He turned away to look at the rolling waves again, sea mist hanging in the air and stinging his face.
Thank God she’d left her purse— and the silver token surveillance device— in the car so no one else heard him kiss her like an idiot with no will. Like the fool he’d been two years ago. He should have listened to his instincts back in Nevada. His edge was gone.
He refused to consider what could have happened if Jolynn hadn’t nudged his gun as she stroked his back with insistent, arousing hands. Luckily, he’d still possessed a fragment of reason and recognized the insanity of what he was doing. She was the daughter of a major suspect.
She could be involved.
Believing her “poor little rich girl” act was dangerous. If she was acting, people would die.
And if she wasn’t acting? Then the best thing he could do was keep his distance because she would be hurt a helluva lot more when his role in bringing down her father came out.
Another scenario— even worse— exploded in his head.What would her father’s underworld buddies think if they discovered she was hanging out with an undercover military operative, someone with dark ops connections?
Once they got back to the
Fortuna
, he needed to focus his fact gathering on someone else, like the director of operations. The colonel could chat up Jolynn.
And the knowledge that Scanlon wouldn’t hit on her since he was far gone on Livia Cicero?
Mighty convenient.
Hell. He was so screwed.
Another gust of wind tossed an auburn lock across his cheek, plastering it against his skin for four heartbeats before it slithered away.
His body throbbed rock hard just that fast.
There was no denying it. He wanted her. And that in and of itself knocked him on his ass all over again.
After his capture, after the torture and beating in Turkey, he hadn’t had sex with a woman for nearly a year. He hadn’t
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