by Elle James
Klein nodded. “Thank you. You and your team have been invaluable to this event. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you.”
Diesel’s lips twisted. “We were never here.”
Klein’s mouth turned up on the corners, and he nodded. “Right. Then, I’ll see you two in the morning, for the ride to the airport.”
Klein entered his room, closed the door and locked it.
Alone at last, Diesel turned to Reese. “This is it.”
Reese nodded. “Our last night together.” She ran the card over the reader and opened the door. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.” She stepped across the threshold.
Diesel followed and closed the door behind him. Then he took her hand, spun her around and clamped her body to his. “Let’s make this night count.”
She laughed, the sound ending on what could only be a sob. “Damn right, we will.”
“But it won’t be our last,” he said, as he lowered his mouth to hers.”
“No? But, I’m leaving tomorrow,” she whispered against his lips. “I won’t see you again.”
“But that’s only tomorrow.” He touched her lips with his in a feather-soft brush. “We’ll be back in the States soon.”
“And?” Reese reached for the hem of Diesel’s shirt and dragged it up his body and over his head, and then tossed it to the floor.
“And, though I’m stationed out of Mississippi, I have a car. I can hop on a plane.” He ran his fingers through her hair and cupped the back of her head. “I’m coming to see you.” Then he kissed her and slid his hands down her neck and into the lapel of her suit jacket. With little effort, and a little help from her, he had that jacket on the floor in seconds.
Reese laid her hand along the side of his face and sighed. “Long-distance relationships never work.” She reached for the button on his trousers and worked it free, and then dragged the zipper down ever so slowly.
With his body on fire, and his need for her rising with every move she made, Diesel fought back the urge to pound his chest like an eight-hundred-pound gorilla. She was special, and he needed to show her just how special she was. “Then I’ll ask for a transfer to Virginia. It’s closer to DC.” He frowned. “Come to think of it, I don’t even know where you live.”
She shrugged. “I can live practically anywhere they have a need for bodyguards. Do they need them in Mississippi?”
“Only to fight off the alligators.” He tugged the blouse from the waistband of her skirt and pulled it up over her head.
Reese raised her arms. “Alligators?”
“Yes. We train on the river and in the swamps. There are snakes and alligators.”
Reese shivered. “Are they as bad as the crocodiles here in the Congo?”
Diesel shook his head, released the button on the back of her skirt and dragged her skirt down over her hips. “And there are no gorillas in Mississippi.”
Reese’s skirt fell to the floor.
Diesel slid his hands from her waist over her hips to cup the backs of her thighs. Then he lifted her, wrapping her legs around his waist. “Unfortunately, there’s probably not much use for bodyguards, unless your client is having a Bubba feud with his neighbor. But Mississippi is probably a lot safer than here.” He kissed her long and hard before he broke it off and sighed. “Please tell me your next assignment isn’t to Africa.”
Reese chuckled and held on as he carried her through the bedroom and into the bathroom. “I don’t even know if I’ll have another assignment. Not after all that’s happened here in the DRC.”
“You’ll be overwhelmed with work.” Diesel set her on her feet beside the shower and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “But do me a favor and save a little time for me.”
“Really?” she asked, her eyes wide, shining with a layer of moisture. “Because I’m willing to give this long-distance thing a go, if you are.” She brushed her thumb across his lips. “You see, I kind of like having a knight in shining armor swoop in to rescue me.”
“Heck, I know you. You’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, but please promise me you won’t take on any more assignments in the jungle.”
She shook her head. “I can’t make any promises I can’t keep. What if my next assignment takes me to the wilds of Costa Rica or Honduras?”
Diesel’s fingers tightened on her arms. “I’ll be crazy with worry.”
“What if you are sent back to Afghanistan or Syria? I’ll be nuts with worry.”
“So, you care?”
She frowned. “Damn right, I do.” She clasped his cheeks in both hands. “You don’t get dragged through the jungle by a sexy man and not come out without forming some sort of attachment.”
“Attachment, is it?” He liked the sound of that. “However we make it happen, promise me you’ll see me again when we get back.”
“That I can promise. If you can’t come to me, perhaps we could meet halfway.” She tipped her head. “What’s that, someplace in Georgia?”
Diesel gathered her close, crushing her body to his. “We have the entire night to ourselves. No rebels, no teammates, no bosses. Just you and me, babe. Make love with me.”
“Now you’re talking.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down so that she could meet his kiss with the fierceness that Diesel had learned he loved about this amazingly strong woman.
If they only had the night, he would make it the best night of their lives. But he wasn’t ready to say goodbye. And he wouldn’t. He’d find a way to see her again, stateside.
In the meantime, he had a job to do. He had a woman to please, and he wasn’t going to waste a single minute he had with her.
He scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the shower, where they would begin their long night of forever.
* * * * *
SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
The twisted machinations of a ruthless cult leader have robbed Lola Dayton of her life—and her baby. Now it’s up to Sheriff Flint Cahill to find the truth buried beneath Lola’s secrets and her family’s lies.
Read on for a sneak preview of
COWBOY’S REDEMPTION,
A CAHILL RANCH NOVEL from
New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels!
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Cowboy’s Redemption
by B.J. Daniels
Chapter One
Running blindly through the darkness, Lola didn’t see the tree limb until it struck her in the face. It clawed at her cheek, digging into a spot under her right eye as she flung it away with her arm. She had to stifle the cry of pain that rose in her throat
for fear she would be heard. As she ran, she felt warm blood run down to the corner of her lips. The taste of it mingled with the salt of her tears, but she didn’t slow, couldn’t. She could hear them behind her.
She pushed harder, knowing that, being men, they had the advantage, especially the way she was dressed. Her long skirt caught on something. She heard the fabric rend, not for the first time. She felt as if it was her heart being ripped out with it.
Her only choice was to escape. But at what price? She’d been forced to leave behind the one person who mattered most. Her thundering heart ached at the thought, but she knew that this was the only way. If she could get help...
“She’s over here!” came a cry from behind her. “This way!”
She wiped away the warm blood as she crashed through the brush and trees. Her legs ached and she didn’t know how much longer she could keep going. Fatigue was draining her. If they caught her this time...
She tripped on a tree root, stumbled and almost plunged headlong down the mountainside. Her shoulder slammed into a tree trunk. She veered off it like a pinball, but she kept pushing herself forward because the alternative was worse than death.
They were closer now. She could feel one of them breathing down her neck. She didn’t dare look back. To look back would be to admit defeat. If she could just reach the road before they caught up to her...
Suddenly the trees opened up. She burst out of the darkness of the pines onto the blacktop of a narrow two-lane highway. The glare of headlights blinded her an instant before the shriek of rubber on the dark pavement filled the night air.
Chapter Two
Major Colt McCloud felt the big bird shake as he brought the helicopter low over the bleak landscape. He was back in Afghanistan behind the controls of a UH-60 Black Hawk. The throb of the rotating blades was drowned out by the sound of mortar fire. It grew louder and louder, taking on a consistent pounding that warned him something was very wrong.
He dragged himself awake, but the dream followed him. Blinking in the darkness, he didn’t know where he was for a moment. Everything looked alien and surreal. As the dream began to fade, he recognized his bedroom at the ranch.
He’d left behind the sound of the chopper and the mortar fire, but the pounding had intensified. With a start, he realized what he was hearing.
Someone was at the door.
He glanced at the clock on his bedside table. It was after three in the morning. Throwing his legs over the side of the bed, he grabbed his jeans, pulling them on as he fought to put the dream behind him and hurry to the door.
A half dozen possibilities flashed in his mind as he moved quickly through the house. It still felt strange to be back here after years of traveling the world as an Army helicopter pilot. After his fiancée dumped him, he’d planned to make a career out of the military, but then his father had died, leaving him a working ranch that either had to be run or sold.
He’d taken a hundred-and-twenty-day leave in between assignments so he could come home to take care of the ranch. His father had been the one who’d loved ranching, not Colt. That’s why there was a for-sale sign out on the road into the ranch.
Colt reached the front door and, frowning at the incessant knocking at this hour of the morning, threw it open.
He blinked at the disheveled woman standing there before she turned to motion to the driver of the car idling nearby. The engine roared and a car full of what appeared to be partying teenagers took off in a cloud of dust.
Colt flipped on the porch light as the woman turned back to him and he got his first good look at her and her scratched, blood-streaked face. For a moment he didn’t recognize her, and then it all came back in a rush. Standing there was a woman he’d never thought he’d see again.
“Lola?” He couldn’t even be sure that was her real name. But somehow it fit her, so maybe at least that part of her story had been true. “What happened to you?”
“I had nowhere else to go.” Her words came out in a rush. “I was so worried that you wouldn’t be here.” She burst into tears and slumped as if physically exhausted.
He caught her, swung her up into his arms and carried her into the house, kicking the door closed behind him. His mind raced as he tried to imagine what could have happened to bring her to his door in Gilt Edge, Montana, in the middle of the night and in this condition.
“Sit here,” he said as he carried her in and set her down in a kitchen chair before going for the first-aid kit. When he returned, he was momentarily taken aback by the memory of this woman the first time he’d met her. She wasn’t beautiful in the classic sense. But she was striking, from her wide violet eyes fringed with pale lashes to the silk of her long blond hair. She had looked like an angel, especially in the long white dress she’d been wearing that night.
That was over a year ago and he hadn’t seen her since. Nor had he expected to since they’d met initially several hundred miles from the ranch. But whatever had struck him about her hadn’t faded. There was something flawless about her—even as scraped up and bruised as she was. It made him furious at whoever was responsible for this.
“Can you tell me what happened?” he asked as he began to clean the cuts.
“I... I...” Her throat seemed to close on a sob.
“It’s okay, don’t try to talk.” He felt her trembling and could see that she was fighting tears. “This cut under your eye is deep.”
She said nothing, looking as if it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. He took in her torn and filthy dress. It was long, like the white one he’d first seen her in, but faded. It reminded him of something his grandmother might have worn to do housework in. She was also thinner than he remembered.
As he gently cleaned her wounds, he could see dark circles under her eyes, and her long braided hair was in disarray with bits of twigs and leaves stuck in it.
The night he’d met her, her plaited hair had been pinned up at the nape of her neck—until he’d released it, the blond silk dropping to the center of her back.
He finished his doctoring, put away the first-aid kit, and wondered how far she’d come to find him and what she had been through to get here. When he returned to the kitchen, he found her standing at the back window, staring out. As she turned, he saw the fear in her eyes—and the exhaustion.
Colt desperately wanted to know what had happened to her and how she’d ended up on his doorstep. He hadn’t even thought that she’d known his name. “Have you had anything to eat?”
“Not in the past forty-eight hours or so,” she said, squinting at the clock on the wall as if not sure what day it was. “And not all that much before that.”
He’d been meaning to get into Gilt Edge and buy some groceries. “Sit and I’ll see what I can scare up,” he said as he opened the refrigerator. Seeing only one egg left, he said, “How do you feel about pancakes? I have chokecherry syrup.”
She nodded and attempted a smile. She looked skittish as a newborn calf. Worse, he sensed that she was having second thoughts about coming here.
She licked her cracked lips. “I have to tell you. I have to explain—”
“It’s okay. You’re safe here.” But safe from what, he wondered? “There’s no hurry. Let’s get you taken care of first.” He’d feed her and get her settled down.
He motioned her into a chair at the kitchen table. He could tell that she must hurt all over by the way she moved. As much as he wanted to know what had happened, he thought she needed food more than anything else at this moment.
“While I make the pancakes, would you like a hot shower? The guest room is down the hall to the left. I can find you some clothes. They’ll be too large for you, but maybe they will be more comfortable.”
Tears welled in her eyes. He saw her swallow before she nodded. As she started to get to her feet, he noticed her grimace in pain.
“Wait.”
She froze.
“I don’t know how to say this delicately, but if someone assaulted you—”
“I wasn’t raped.”
He nodded, hoping that was true, because a shower would destroy important evidence. “Okay, so the injuries were...”
“From running for my life.” With that she limped out of the kitchen.
He had the pancake batter made and the griddle heating when he heard the shower come on. He stopped to listen to the running water, remembering this woman in a hotel shower with him months ago.
That night he’d bumped into her coming out of the hotel bar. He’d seen that she was upset. She’d told him that she needed his help, that there was someone after her. She’d given him the impression she was running from an old boyfriend. He’d been happy to help. Now he wondered if that was still the case. She said she was running for her life—just as she had the first time they’d met.
But that had been in Billings. This was Gilt Edge, Montana, hundreds of miles away. Didn’t seem likely she would still be running from the same boyfriend. But whoever was chasing her, she’d come to him for help.
He couldn’t turn her away any more than he’d been able to in that hotel hallway in Billings last year.
* * *
LOLA PULLED OUT her braid, discarding the debris stuck in it, then climbed into the steaming shower. She stood under the hot spray, leaned against the smooth, cool tile wall of the shower and closed her eyes. She felt weak from hunger, lack of sleep and constant fear. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept through the night.
Exhaustion pulled at her. It took all of her energy to wash herself. Her body felt alien to her, her skin chafed from the rough fabric of the long dresses she’d been wearing for months. Stumbling from the shower, she wrapped her hair in one of the guest towels. It felt good to free her hair from the braid that had been wound at the nape of her neck.
As she pulled down another clean towel from the bathroom rack, she put it to her face and sniffed its freshness. Tears burned her eyes. It had been so long since she’d had even the smallest creature comforts like good soap, shampoo and clean towels that smelled like this, let alone unlimited hot water.
