“Because I…well, I didn’t like it anymore.” She frowned, shaking her head. “I think maybe I never liked it. Not really. And Ihatedthe violence,” she admitted with a shudder. Every night since it happened, she’d had nightmares about killing that terrorist, about the AK-47 jumping in her grip, about his neck flaying open. “I realized I wanted something more from my life than assets and assignments. I wanted…” She trailed off.Ahome. A family. People to love me. People I could love.
“What?” he prodded.
And it was then she realized all those things she wanted were bundled up in justonething. One person. One man. “You,” she admitted. “I wantedyou. I love you so damn much, Leo.”
He sucked in a breath and got very still. She could hear his heart beating steadily beneath her ear, its rhythm matching the advance and retreat of the waves shushing against the beach.
“Say it again,” he demanded, his low, syrupy accent sliding into her, traveling down to swirl delightfully her belly.
“I love you.”
He kissed her then. All deep, slow glides of his tongue and cinnamon-flavored deliciousness filling her mouth. His scratchy beard stubble abrading her cheeks and lips. She gave herself over to the moment, reveling in the feel of his strong arms around her, holding her tight. Imagining what it would be like to have those arms wrapped around her every day of her life. Her happiness was so complete she wondered if she was glowing, lit up like a roman candle. And just when the kiss changed, when it went from one of tenderness and warmth to one of passion and heat, a low buzz sounded in the sky to the south.
They broke apart, and she was breathless. She glanced up in time to see a floatplane coming in for a landing in the lagoon. “Are you expecting company?” The aircraft’s pontoons hit the water with asplooshand ahiss.
“Christ on the cross,” he grumbled. “I forgot all about that.”
“What?”
“That historian I hired to translate the documents from the Spanish Archives emailed yesterday to say he’d be headed our way. He thinks he’s found somethin’ that might interest me.”
Olivia could feel the sudden excitement in Leo, a buzz that radiated through him. It was clearly catching. Because she was unexpectedly anxious, itching to hear what the historian had found. Scooting off his lap, she stood and wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks as the plane nosed onto the beach. It was a Seaplane Charters aircraft, and the minute the propeller clicked off, the captain propped open the door and hopped out. He was barefoot, wearing a wifebeater and sporting a scraggly beard that hung down to his beer belly. He looked more beach bum than pilot.
OnlyintheKeys, Olivia thought with a snort.
“Larry!” Leo called, pushing to a stand and dusting the sand from his shorts. She was appalled to discover the front of his white T-shirt was soaked with her tears. “How’s the wife?”
“Got a pot roast waiting on me back home,” Larry called, opening the door to the fuselage. A giant duffel bag was handed out to him. Following that were the shapely legs of a woman. She hopped from the aircraft and took the bag from the pilot, saying a few words to him before heading up the beach toward them. If she was one inch over five feet, Olivia would eat her flip-flops for breakfast. And the woman looked about twelve years old.
No one else exited the plane. And then Larry lifted himself back inside, cranking the engine.
Oh, this should be good.Olivia quirked a brow at Leo. “I thought you said this historian you hired was ahimnot aher.”
“Uhhh,” was all he managed before the flame-haired woman was standing in front of them, dropping the duffel and extending her hand.
“Hi!” She grinned, her green eyes bright with enthusiasm. “I’m Alex.”
“As in…Alexandra?” Leo asked, shaking her hand.
The new arrival cocked her head. “Yup. Why?”
“Just…” Leo stuck his tongue in his cheek. “A bit of a mix-up on my end. I was expectin’ a man.”
“Oh.” Alex wrinkled her nose. “I guess those are the perils of online correspondence, huh?”
“I reckon so,” Leo said, introducing himself and then Olivia.
“Good to meet you.” Alex pumped her hand enthusiastically. Thewhirof the floatplane’s engine grew louder as it reversed out into the lagoon.
Leo lifted a brow at the departing aircraft, then glanced down at the duffel at Alex’s feet. “I take it you’ll be stayin’ with us for a spell?”
Alex nodded vigorously. It caused her wild mass of hair to bounce around her face. “I’ve got a proposition for you in regards to that,” she said. “But before we go there, I want to show you this.”
She bent to unzip the duffel bag. It appeared to be stuffed haphazardly with all manner of unfolded clothes. Shoes were tossed here and there. Olivia and Leo exchanged a covert glance. This Alex woman might notlooklike much of an absentminded historian, but her packing skills certainly fit the bill.
“Aha!” she crowed when she located a giant binder. She pulled it out and thrust it at Leo with a flourish just at the floatplane caught air and sailed out over the whitewater frothing up around the underwater reef. Leo took the binder, holding it in front of him like it might be a bomb. Olivia had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing.
“Well, don’t just stand there,” Alex huffed. “Open it! To the page marked with the blue sticky note.”
