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  She stood with as much dignity as a woman could who’d nearly been ravished and then shoved into a ball on the floor to stay out of harm’s way. One of the guys looked at her.

  “You okay, honey?” he asked, low, probably so as not to scare her further.

  She nodded.

  “Weapon’s not even loaded,” Shaw told the massive man beside him.

  Struck with the realization that he hadn’t been calling the man’s bluff, she said, “H-how did you know?”

  Shaw’s gaze lit on her, making her feel warm and protected even from several paces away. “It’s a known fact that many armed robbers don’t even have bullets in their weapons.”

  So he didn’t truly know but had guessed. She didn’t know whether to think damn, he’s good or run for the hills. This man was a harder version of himself from the old days. Changed.

  She couldn’t imagine the things he’d done in his lifetime that he hadn’t even confessed to her. Honestly, it terrified her to think of.

  In the back of her mind, she heard her momma’s voice, asking if she was still up to the challenge.

  She was.

  Lifting her chin a notch, she looked at the man who seemed to be leading this show. “I’m Atalee.”

  “Nash,” he grated out. “Want to give me your statement?”

  One of the guys chuckled.

  “She doesn’t have to do that,” Shaw said.

  “You know protocol. We gotta get it from another perspective, if there is one.”

  She nodded to Shaw, and he gave the slightest nod. Nash took her arm and moved her back to sit in the open doorway in the driver’s seat. He crouched before her. Behind him, the guys picked up the gunman with the dislocated shoulder. She couldn’t see how they handled him, but he screamed in pain all the way to the back of the SUV.

  She looked up at Nash. Under his cowboy hat, his eyes were dark and in shadow but not unkind. “W-what will you do with him?”

  “Drop him at the emergency room and then he’ll be escorted to the county jail for assault with a weapon and attempted robbery. You okay, Atalee? Can I get you a water or something?”

  “No, I’m okay.”

  Shaw was back, standing over Nash’s shoulder, listening to every word as Nash asked what had taken place. She paused to ask if he needed to write this down, he smiled and tapped his temple.

  When she got to the part where Shaw had told her to pretend to kiss him, Nash tossed a look back over his shoulder.

  “Sounds familiar. Who knew it was one of your regular ploys?”

  To her surprise, out of nowhere, Shaw’s hard expression splintered into a grin so wide and beautiful it would make any woman around him fall to her knees and beg.

  “It worked well before. Figured it would work again,” he said.

  Nash chuckled and returned to questioning Atalee. Once the rest of the story was out, he nodded and pushed to his feet. Shaw butted him out of the way and reached into the car for Atalee. She placed her hands in his and he drew her into his arms, head bowed to her hair, rocking her lightly in a way that made her think of slow dancing.

  “We got this handled, Woody. Guts ’n glory.” Nash headed to his vehicle.

  “Guts ’n glory,” Shaw called after him. Then he tipped up Atalee’s face to his. Searching her eyes, he said, “Where were we?” And kissed her.

  Chapter Seven

  Shaw walked Atalee to her front door and watched her open it with a key. She pushed open the door and looked back at him.

  “Come in,” she said quietly.

  Hell, he’d scared the shit out of her and it was a miracle she wasn’t shoving him away from her.

  He caught her gaze, held it. “You sure?”

  “Yes.” To prove it, she took his hand and pulled him inside. He closed the door and locked it.

  They stared at each other. “I’d like to change,” she said.

  He nodded.

  When her stare skipped over his face and down his body, his cock gave a hard twitch, coming alive at the obvious lust on her beautiful features. The ripe pink of her lips drew him in, lassoed his heart. Damn, he was hog-tied by this woman and she didn’t even freakin’ know how much she owned him.

  Reaching out, she offered her hand to him. He took it, enclosing the soft, delicate one in his own hardened one. His hands had killed while hers only healed. They came from such opposite worlds—could it even work if they tried?

  “Come with me.” She tugged on his hand, and he followed, unable to find some control to deny her. Walking away at this point was probably best, but damn if he could summon the will.

  He’d seen her room before, last time he was here. All the windows were secure but if he had his way, he’d place a firearm in her nightstand drawer for protection. The space, however, was tidy and feminine, just like her. Shades of white on walls and bedding with a few touches of rose and some white marble accents with gray veining completed the space.

  She let go of his hand and stood before him. “That was one exciting afternoon.”

  He cocked a brow. “Exciting?” She had been scared to the point of paleness that had worried him. Maybe it was his turn to take on the therapist role and force her to tell him her feelings.

  When he reached for her, she moved her hands to her waist instead. He watched as she pulled her blouse out of her skirt and then began unbuttoning it. Bit by bit, her creamy flesh was revealed and his cock grew harder and harder.

  Need pulsed in his veins. Battle wood, it was called, when a man got aroused following an adrenaline rush. This time it had everything to do with Atalee being within touching distance of him and the memory of her soft ass in his lap before the gunman had shown up.

  He groaned as she dropped her top, revealing a lacy white bra with see-through bits. He wet his lips but didn’t move a muscle, too mesmerized with the striptease.

  Her breasts strained forward as she reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. It loosened around her ribs and dipped to show off two perfect mounds, the centers set with rosy hard nipples.

  Cock fully distended now, he nudged himself into a more comfortable position behind his fly but it did no good. When he was this hard, fitting in his jeans didn’t always work out well. Even now, the tip was nudging up over the waist of his boxers.

  Her blonde hair tumbled around her shoulders, caressing her nipples as she reached for her skirt. A hidden zipper slid down, and she stepped out of the fabric.

  In only tiny baby blue panties, she was the stuff of a Victoria Secret’s catalog, but to him she was so much more.

  He knew what sort of mind lived behind the pretty face and the sweetness of her heart. His throat closed as he took a step forward.

  “Shaw…”

  “I’m so damn sorry about what happened, baby doll.”

  She cupped his jaw, running the pad of her thumb back and forth over the scruff growing there. “You shouldn’t be apologizing—I should be thanking you.”

  His chest expanded and he held his breath. “I’m not the man you knew.” His voice hitched.

  “No. We’re both different.” She threaded their fingers, eyes so earnest as she stared up at him as if he was the only man in the world. He didn’t deserve that. When she tugged him by the hand toward the bed, he was helpless to do anything but follow.

  She shoved him down and wedged her naked body between his splayed knees. “Let’s find out who we are now.”

  When she kissed him, his heart exploded with love and his balls grew heavy with need. He put his hands on her—who wouldn’t?—and let them glide over her slippery nakedness. She crawled onto his lap, straddling him, and the fresh scent of her arousal struck his senses.

  With a growl, he deepened the kiss while rolling her onto the mattress, exploring every inch of her with his hands.

  “Taste me, Shaw.” She cupped one breast, and the rosy tip begged for his tongue.

  Lowering his head with a groan, he captured her nipple and felt his world shift into a peacef
ul state where only happiness and pleasure lived.

  * * * * *

  Each nibble and lick Shaw placed around her nipples sent more and more need squeezing through her body. Her insides clutched, and she sank her fingertips into his shoulders, drawing him closer.

  He released a groan that rumbled through her system in the sexiest of ways. When he looked up into her eyes and purposely ran his tongue around her areola, her breath caught in her lungs. She couldn’t look away from this gorgeous, tough guy who lived on the edge and made her feel completely safe.

  As he trailed his angled jaw down between her breasts, she let out a shuddering breath of anticipation. He traveled over her ribs, abdomen and paused with his mouth hovering over her mound as he rested between her legs.

  His skin was warm steel beneath her fingers as she guided him right where she wanted him. A second before he parted his lips over her pussy, his eyes flashed like a bolt of blue lightning.

  Liquid heat passed from his mouth to her pussy, and he immediately gave a sucking pull on her clit. Driving her up fast and hard.

  She bucked forward, and he drove a finger inside her sheath.

  After that, she was only aware of sensations passing through her, barely discernable as movements but only feelings as he pleasured her toward a pinnacle she’d never reached before.

  Her inner thighs quaked around his ears. He twisted his tongue around her clit and then down her wet seam to dip into her pussy alongside his finger. When she moaned, he thrust another finger inside her, high, hard, plunging now with both as he worked his tongue frantically over her nubbin.

  A release shook her with a loud cry. Waves pounded her. Bliss stole her mind, and until Shaw was poised to enter her, she floated on ecstasy.

  His lips and jaw were wet with her juices, and he didn’t wipe them away as he sank balls-deep between her thighs.

  Wrapping her arms around him, she dragged him down for a kiss, sharing her flavors and enticing a growl from him. With her ankles tucked behind the hard planes of his ass, she held him in place, deep.

  “I feel you throbbing,” she rasped.

  The corner of his lips twitched. “You’re gonna feel my hot cum in a second.” He jerked upward, breaking her ankles’ hold on him, and fucked her in one smooth glide. Then another and another until they were galloping toward an end that was already rocking her world.

  Passion rose up to twine around the blissful sensations. She buried her face against his neck and snaked her tongue over his salty skin.

  “You feel so damn perfect,” he bit off, hips churning faster, disjointedly.

  Suddenly, he changed rhythm, slowing his pace and dragging his thickness through her wet walls. A low cry left her, and her pussy pulsated. The abrupt shift had her on the ledge of orgasm again.

  How did he drive her to it so quickly? The man only had to look into her eyes to send her pulse racing and make her panties soaked. But being in bed with him…

  She never wanted him to leave it.

  “Kiss me as I come,” she said in a rush.

  Another growl twisted his lips as he claimed her mouth, sinking his tongue in time to his cock. When the peak of pleasure hit, she was so wrapped up in him that she knew the split second that he let go for her as well.

  * * * * *

  Atalee woke with confusion tearing at her. She stared at her dark surroundings, but everything was as usual—her bedroom was the same quiet, peaceful space it always was.

  Then she caught the trace of Shaw’s scent and realized what was wrong.

  He wasn’t in bed.

  She sat up and swung her legs over the mattress. She was completely naked, so she grabbed the first thing she saw, which was his shirt, and put it on. He wouldn’t have left without his shirt, so that must mean he was around here someplace.

  “Shaw?” Her voice was dulled by the silence with only the hum of the refrigerator in the other room answering.

  Moving through her house, she didn’t find him in the bathroom or living room. Following the whir of the fridge, she walked into the kitchen thinking he might be getting a drink. The back door stood open.

  Slipping outside, she welcomed the rush of cooler night air on her bare legs. Her deck was the size of a postage stamp, with only room for a couple chairs and tiny table that held a drink or two. And Shaw was seated in one of the chairs, elbows resting on his knees and his face in his hands.

  Panic swept her, waking her fully. She moved to him and when she touched his bare shoulder, he came alive, sitting back in his chair and reaching for her.

  She slid into his arms, and he drew her across his lap with her legs over his hard thighs. He wore only boxers, and the hair on his legs tickled against her skin.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, though it was clear from the tension coiled in his muscles that he wasn’t.

  “Bad dreams.” His voice was pitched low but overflowed with torment.

  Her heart reached out to him, and she leaned into his chest. “Talk to me. Whatever comes out, I’ll listen. Just please talk to me.”

  He started in Mexico, words falling from his lips in broken fragments until she gathered that he’d taken the life of a young man who’d been about to shoot Shaw. And how ever since, Shaw saw the boy’s face on others during missions.

  When he came to a finish, he seemed wrung out, slumping in the chair.

  “Now that I know what you’re battling, I can try to help you,” she said.

  He nodded, moving his hand up to settle on her nape, holding her to his chest. “I don’t know why it even plagues me—I know plenty of police or Texas Rangers who’ve done what was necessary in the line of duty and don’t think twice on it. But this has made me second-guess my actions more than once, and it can’t continue if I’m going to stay with Ranger Ops.”

  “Do you want to stay in the special forces?”

  He nodded at once. “It’s where I belong, where I do most good in this world.”

  She wasn’t about to make this about herself and tell him that it frightened her, being in love with a man who faced such danger on a daily basis. Fact was, she could lose him at any moment, and she’d be left to carry on without him.

  “Then we have to get things straight in your mind, help you grieve for that boy.”

  “Grieve?” The word came out as a gulp of surprise.

  She nodded. “I think in this case, what you’re feeling isn’t unlike what those who’ve been in a car accident with a loved one and lost that person have experienced. Some survivor’s guilt, some guilt that they lost their life at your hands.”

  He swallowed hard. Under her ear, his heart thumped away without a hitch to give away what he thought about what she’d said.

  After a minute, she tipped her head to look up at him. In the low light, his eyes glittered black.

  “You’re good for me.” His voice was rough as he drew her head back down to his chest.

  “I’m here as long as you need me, Shaw. We’ll do it together, okay?”

  His only response was a flex of his arms around her body, enfolding her tight. They sat there a long time looking at the moon before heading back to bed.

  Once she was cuddled against his side, he ran a hand over her backside. “I want you bad, but is it okay to just lie here and be quiet?”

  Love sprang up in her heart and overflowed through the rest of her body. She latched a hand onto his shoulder and curled closer. “Of course, Shaw. I just love being next to you.”

  When she woke, he wasn’t in bed and only a scribbled note told her that she wouldn’t see him for a while—he’d been called out on a mission.

  Chapter Eight

  “Man, I left a naked woman in my bed for this?” Linc’s drawl had half the Ranger Ops team shaking with laughter. He turned his head to look at Shaw next to him, kitted out in full gear of cammies, helmet, half a dozen gadgets and weapons strapped to his person and his night vision scope to his eye as he evaluated the situation and attempted to stop thinking about
the woman he’d left in bed too. Hell, he hadn’t even taken the opportunity to make her scream in pleasure one last time, and he may never return to her.

  Linc let out a snort and directed his attention on the woods between them and the sonsabitches that officials were saying had enough firepower for a real fight. Knight Ops had arrived by Chinook chopper, and they were spread out across a line of force to be reckoned with. They had enough firepower of their own.

  “I’m tellin’ ya,” Linc went on. “Long legs.”

  “Tanned?” Lennon asked at his side.

  “Freckled.”

  “Oh Jesus. It’s a wonder you climbed out from between them then. You always did have a thing for fair women.” Lennon raised his binoculars. “Fuckin’ A, I caught a flash just now.”

  “I saw it too,” came one of the Knights through their comms. “Shit, it’s HE, one mike out.”

  Highly explosives one minute out.

  Nash had Cavanaugh moving in as breacher, the first to scope out the area, and the Knight brother who dealt most explosives angled through the trees to meet up with him. A minute later, Cav filled them in on what he’d found, and they would have stepped into, if they hadn’t seen that flash of light on an electronic fuse.

  “Well, that won’t just blow our balls off. We’d be six feet under.” Shaw’s words were met with grunts of agreement.

  Nash ordered Cav and Rhoades Knight to pick apart what they could of the wiring and hurry back. “Woody, you’re with me,” Nash said.

  Shaw unfolded from his position on one knee, weapon raised against any threat he happened across. His mind hovered on the present, and for that he was grateful—he didn’t have room in this mission for errors or ghosts.

  As he and Nash converged, one of the Knights met up with them. “I’m Ben,” he said, low.

  “Woody.”

  Nash shot Ben a grin, teeth white in the face paint he wore. “Nash.”

  “I know your ass. Could smell ya from ten paces.” Ben’s words had others chuckling in their ears, and Nash went out ahead a step or two, head and weapon swaying in sync as he attempted to root out the bastards looking to ambush them.