“And that’s why we’re doing this.” Pete’s gravelly Boston accent made the statement harsher.
Kieran, protecting an Afghani child, was shot below his protective plate, and the bullet ripped through his bowel. Unable to reach an evacuation zone in a timely manner, the only chance for his survival was to operate in some of the most uninhabitable conditions. Pete and his pararescue jump partner, Tucker Hanlon, took the chance, and Kieran lived to tell about it.
Chapter 2
Monique sat in a chair in a tent set up on the beautiful beach. She refused the trip to the hospital and insisted on going forward with the photoshoot. A makeup artist brought out her naturally beautiful features and covered the red blotches, while a hairstylist blew out the long black wig into gigantic proportions.
Her manager flitted around her. “Monique, you don’t have to do this today if you’re not feeling well.”
“Alain, what I’m feeling is I want to get this photoshoot over with, and then I am booking a new hotel and getting some rest. And you are going to leave me alone. No one is going to find me.”
“Monique, you cannot do that. I need to know where you are in case we need to do some business.” He grew flustered.
“I will call you once a day, and you will update me on anything I need to know. Any business can wait a few hours.” Her manager failed to take seriously that she had a business degree, ran a nonprofit in her sister’s name, had a cosmetics line in her mother’s name to make sure her parents were always taken care of. She had also put away a nest egg for a rainy day. She was a model and knew her current way of life wouldn’t last forever.
“Alain, you can watch the shoot. And then you and everyone else are going to leave me alone. Tell Mattia I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”
Alain pursed his lips and walked out of the tent in silence.
* * *
Most California beacheswere open to the public. The exquisite Del Mar beach was no different. He waited patiently for his temptress to exit the white tent. He dreamed of the moment they could be together again, holding on to the memory of their last time, when she had stared adoringly at him.
The mixture he placed in her seltzer bottle was too strong. It almost killed her. He would never forgive himself for that. He only wanted to hurt her enough for her to need him.
Seeing all the firefighters and police officers left him afraid. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her thank the man in the sergeant’s uniform and the firefighters. They’d better not come around again; Monique was his. He’d watch her today and come back tomorrow to find another way to get to her.
His job as a nursing assistant at the nearby hospital would give him access to her when she suffered an injury. Once he saved her, she would realize he was the only man capable of loving her, and they could spend a happy life together.
* * *
A female assistantwalked Monique into a bluff filled with wildflowers. Her hot pink bathing suit provided a contrast to the beautiful background. Mattia, her photographer, cooed at her to turn, to lift her chin, turn slightly to the left, turn to the right, balance on her elbows, to look sexy, to pout and every other potential position he could think of. Her eyes focused on the assistant behind Mattia using the baffle that shaped the light surrounding her.
She was grateful cameras were digital, so they only had to change lenses and filters. After an hour and a half in the Bluffs, the photographer let her take a break before he would move to the ocean. She shivered thinking about it. She’d been to San Diego before and knew no matter what time of year, the waters were cold.
After a bathing suit and wig change and a makeup touch-up, she walked to the beach. Spending the time in the Bluffs, she had attracted a crowd. A team around her used rakes to even out the sand once she walked to the water’s edge. The first sets of pictures, though freezing her feet and ankles, at least kept the rest of her dry. She jumped, ran, walked slowly and held another set of poses to satisfy her photographer. Next, he asked her to walk knee-deep into the water. Always the professional, she did not let on how cold she was.
“Alright, beauty, the last set of pictures. Show me how much you like the water,” her very Italian and hypersexual photographer said. “Go with it, roll in the waves.”
Monique flashed a beautiful smile and yelled over the sounds of the seashore, “Only if you come roll with me!”
“My beauty, I have a surprise for you. Look, I brought an old friend.”
She looked toward the beach to see Jack Martinez approach. The 6’4” male model had a swimmer’s chest, with a perfect trail of soft black hair that ran beneath the waistband of his bathing suit. She worked with him before for a tourism brochure advertising the Greek islands. He could be mistaken for a Greek god.
“Bonjour, Jacques, I am so excited to see you! Perhaps you can keep me warm.” She opened her arms.
“I will keep you warm, Monique, but only in the ocean. After we’re done, my fiancé, George, and I would love to take you to dinner. So much has happened since the last time we were together.” Jack walked into the water beside her and hugged her to his broad, muscled chest. From his corded neck to his sculpted abdomen, he dripped sex.
Mattia watched as they greeted each other with a cheek-to-cheek kiss. “Are you going to suck face, or could we get on with the photographs? We are losing light,” he called.
Jack laughed. “Mattia, without us, you have nothing to sell. If I want to kiss Monique, I will do so if I feel like it—if she will tolerate me.” He lifted her into his arms and twirled around. His mouth pressed against her neck.
“Well, if you’re going to share so much love, show me for the camera. You are selling her bathing suit. You are also selling the idea that if a woman wears that bathing suit, she will meet the man of her dreams. My beauty, show me the face of the woman with her man, and Jack, show how much you love her. Good.”
The shutter sounded as Mattia took them through more paces than a gym class. He demanded, “Brooding, I want to see brooding. That’s it. Jack, wrap your arms around her, kiss her neck, pull her to you, take her out deeper and hold her in your arms, but I need to see the suit.”
Monique absorbed the heat from Jack’s body. She shivered, her limbs frozen. She curled tighter into him; the adrenaline ebb from earlier left her exhausted.
