Read Online Silent Warrior: A Loveswept Classic Romance by Donna Kauffman - Free Book Online Page A

you realize you might actually be experiencing a positive, non-job-related emotion?” She realized immediately she’d gone too far. “Of course you seem to have no problem cutting loose with the more negative ones,” she added dryly, hoping to ease the sudden tension.
    He propped his elbow on the chair, mimicking her pose.
    “Gee, I don’t know, Doc,” he said with mock sincerity. “But whatever I do, or don’t do, works just fine for me. And if you want me to work for you, then let’s can this psychoanalysis and concentrate on getting your butt out of a very tight sling, okay?”
    She’d hit way too close to home. That only goaded her on. “Will you answer one question for me?” His scowl didn’t intimidate her in the least. All of a sudden John McShane was very human to her. She was very attracted to that, despite common sense telling her she was crazy. “Then I promise we’ll get back to unslinging my butt.”
    He actually groaned and slumped over, forehead pressed to his arm. It was so theatrical and uncharacteristic, it made her laugh.
    He was silent for several moments, then she heard a gruff muffled, “What?”
    “Why did you really come down here?”
    There was a long pause, and she thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he lifted his head and looked right at her. “You needed me.”
    This time she couldn’t detect the hint of a false note to his sincerity. Her insides twisted just a little. She also wondered what it would be like to be needed
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him. The twinge tightened another little knot. It was disconcerting, but not in the least unpleasurable.
    “Do you always go where you’re needed?”
    “It’s my job.”
    “So, I’m just another assignment?” The ideashouldn’t have hurt. But it did. “What will this cost me?”
    “The cost is no more questions.” He sat up abruptly and shoved back from the table, snagging the binder as he stood. He walked from the room without another word.
    Perplexed with his sudden departure, she stood and started after him. Halfway to the door she turned back. Scooping up the diskettes, she slid them in the envelope, then grabbed her backpack from the hook by the back door and slid the whole thing inside. John was waiting at the front door.
    “Are we off to see the photo wizard?” Her attempt to ease the tension fell flat. He said nothing. He just stood there holding the door open. She sighed in defeat and walked out into the steamy afternoon heat. “You are a very hard man to get to know, John McShane,” she said. “I don’t know why I even tried.”
    He stepped onto the porch behind her.
    When she didn’t hear the shells crunch under his feet, she looked back over her shoulder. He was standing beneath a swath of blossom-heavy bougainvillea.
    “Well?” She gestured to the path stretching between them. “It’s not made of yellow bricks, but if we follow it, we will be in Aleria in less than ten minutes.”
    “I have no idea why I’m here.” His quiet words seemed to flow through the muggy air.
    She faced him fully. “You don’t have to stay.”
    “Oh yes, I do. You may drive me crazy but you can’t drive me away.” He stepped off the porch and walked to her. “But you’re not just another assignment, Cali Ellis.”
    John had no idea what in the hell had possessed him to make such a declaration. Cali would have let it drop. For all her directness and tenacity, she was also good at masking tension with humor, babbling on about anything.
    He’d been surprised that she’d pushed things back there in the kitchen. It had occurred to him at that moment that he didn’t really know her.
    He didn’t like that realization.
    The only time he’d spent with her, she’d been at her worst, her most vulnerable. Otherwise he’d always seen her with Nathan, as half of a happy couple. He’d known her as wife and widow. He’d admired and respected both.
    But who was Cali Ellis, woman? Independent Cali Ellis? Free Cali Ellis?