Shadow’s pulse spiked with fear when her only real means of defense landed feet away, hitting the carpet with a disheartening thud. Refusing to give up, she dove forward, toward the fallen weapon.
Pain shot through both her knees as they hit the floor not far from where it lay. She reached out, her fingertips meeting with the pistol’s cool metal handle. Just a little farther, and she’d be able to?—
The man’s warmth and weight surrounded her as his muscular form hovered over her in his efforts to grab the gun. Shadow screamed out loudly, kicking and bucking with all her might. And in one particularly satisfying move, she jammed her elbow back into the side of the face she couldn’t see.
He grunted again, and for a second, she thought she might actually win. But just as the tendrils of hope began to flourish, she was flipped over onto her back with the man straddling her at her waist.
“Dammit, Shadow, stop! It’s me, Digger!”
The world around her came to a screeching halt. That voice. Sheknewthat voice.
I’ve had fantasies about that voice.
But that’s all they ever were. Fantasies. Because until this very moment, she and the mouthwatering man had never actually met.
“Digger?” Shadow stared up through the moonlight with awhat in the ever-loving hellexpression. “Is that…really you?”
Slade “Digger” Garrison was the stoic leader of the Tac-Ops rescue team. He was also a man whoshouldbe in Charlotte, North Carolina, not?—
“Yeah, princess. It’s really me.” The broody man sounded as grumpy as he did over the comms their team used in the field. “Now do you promise to behave yourself if I let you up, or are you gonna keep trying to shoot me?”
A rush of emotion she didn’t expect blurred her already strained vision. She blinked several times, refusing to cry in front of this man, even if her tears were that of relief.
“I’m good,” she managed to say, praying he hadn’t heard the thickness in her voice.
But the former SEAL remained completely still, his muscular thighs and hands continuing to hold her in place. Through the touch of moonlight that had seeped in from the still-open door, she could barely make out his features…and the eyes that were laser-focused on hers.
Shadow’s heart kicked hard inside her heaving chest. Minutes before she’d believed she was seconds away from death, and now…
I could stare into those eyes forever.
But rather than grabbing onto his shirt and pulling his mouth to hers—which is what she really,reallywanted to do—she added a quipped and sassy, “You can get off of me now, Dig. Unless, of course, you plan to stay on top of me the rest of the night.”
Oh, the fun we could have.
As expected, the surly Tac-Ops operative muttered an unintelligible curse before releasing her wrists and rising to his feet. Upright once again, Digger did the gentlemanly thing and offered her a hand.
Obstinate enough to refuse the help, Shadow rolled to her side and pushed herself back into a standing position. “What the hell are you doing here?” She brushed her hands down her front as a show of regained composure. “Better yet, how did you even find me?”
“The ‘how’ is irrelevant.” The deep timbre of his voice seemed to fill the air around her. “As for the other…” Those shadowed eyes seemed to bore straight into hers. “I’m here to bring your sweet ass back home.”
CHAPTER2
Slade watched as Shadow—fuckingShadow—slid past him on her way back to the room’s entrance. Bypassing the door he’d forced his way through, she reached for the light switch on the wall next to its left.
A small lamp on the sorry excuse for a dresser behind him instantly came to life, casting a dim glow onto the woman who, moments earlier, had fought like hell to shoot him. She turned back around, giving him his first close-up look at the face belonging to the voice he secretly craved to hear.
Big, blue eyes. Light brown, barely arched brows. A sharp nose and cheekbones that were built for a model.
But it was the set of lips that looked as though they’d been created for the sole purpose of kissing that drew Slade in like a desperate moth to a tempting, desirable flame.
Holy. Shit.
Owens had given him the woman’s picture to help in his search, and Slade had seen Shadow in person earlier when he’d been surveilling her from the diner’s lot. But as he stood in her motel room, staring back at her from less than five feet away, he realized…
She’s not pretty. She’s fucking beautiful.
Beautiful.
