by Flora Burgos
FIND HER
Texas Hearts Series
Book 2
Flora Burgos
Copyright © 2018 by Flora Burgos
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Find Her
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
About The Author
Acknowledgements
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Also By Flora Burgos
All Rights Reserved.
NO PART OF THIS BOOK may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
THIS BOOK IS A WORK of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Designed by Tracie Douglas at Dark Water Covers
Edited by Julia Goda at Diamond In The Rough Editing
Dedication
THIS ONE IS FOR YOU, Qubra Mageman. Thank you for falling in love with my Texas boys and making me pound these words out. Of all the things that becoming an author has brought into my life, your friendship is one of the best! I love you, girl, and I hope I do your man justice!!
Abrazos y besos,
~FB
Prologue
HE HAD BARELY SHOVED her into the room and quickly shut the door before she whirled on him and screeched, "I. HATE. YOU." She enunciated every word she spat at him and punctuated it with a shove to his chest.
He had reached his limit when her words and the stabbing, burning pain they caused slammed into his chest, and he lost control, speeding past his limits, causing him to snap into action. Cole grabbed her arms and yanked her to him, and when her eyes snapped to his, she couldn't have torn them away from his if the building were on fire. She didn't even realize he was forcing her back until she bumped into the solid wall and gasped.
Cole dropped her arms and wrapped his large, rough hands around the back of her head, and still holding her gaze, daring her to look away, he lowered his mouth to hers. Then, just before they touched, he whispered, "Liar," and before she could respond, he was kissing her refusal away.
Years of longing, love, betrayal, and heartbreak rose to the surface as they both lost control.
When he pushed her even deeper into the wall and she gripped his hair, Cole finally released her head and reached down, instead tightly grabbing her denim shorts-clad ass and boosting her up so she could fold her legs around his waist. She quickly wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could, removing any distance between them. He leaned even harder into the wall, and she moaned deep in her throat as his chest ground into hers.
That noise. That sexy noise coming from the woman who owned his heart and soul but didn't want him, the woman who, God help him, he had loved since he was thirteen years old, after so many years of torture, that noise was his undoing and released a beast.
A beast that lashed out and shredded any tiny bit of control he had left.
Those years of heartbreak, anger, guilt, and betrayals, of losing the person he loved most while she resented him and then, once faced with the damning evidence he couldn't deny, hated him... All those years had just struck flint over a gasoline-fueled pyre, and there was no turning back.
They were mindless, completely overcome and past the point of return when their already frantic movements got even more so as they fought to outrun reality. When he released her and tugged at the bottom of her shirt, she let go of him with her hands, and without taking her mouth from his, she helped him as he wiggled the shirt loose and past her breasts.
He tore away from her mouth only long enough to pull the shirt up and over her head. She lifted her arms expecting him to throw the garment to the floor, but instead, she found her arms trapped, the tee wrapped around her arms from elbows to wrists. When he threaded his fingers through hers, she held on to him with her legs only but started to strain against him as his mouth met hers once more. He nipped, nibbled, and licked her mouth to get her to open, but she refused, so he changed tactics. While still holding her hands with his, he took his mouth from hers and instead began an erotic assault on her skin. He nibbled his way from the edge of her lips to the lobe of her ear. She began to squirm, whether in pleasure or in an effort to escape, he didn't care. He was determined for her to finally see that they still belonged together, that even if he had broken her heart more than once, he could make her love him again. He had to.
He let go of her hands and quickly pulled the length of her tee down her arms and behind her head, which made her arch and shove her breasts at him. His hands went back to her ass to help balance her, so he gripped the edge of the lace cup of her bra and pushed it down with his chin, then teasingly licked her nipple, which became erect instantly. He blew gently on it, and when she instinctively pushed her breasts further toward him, he let out a satisfied groan and forced himself to ease back and take a deep breath. He was on fire for her.
Silent and unmoving, she stared down at him and waited, suspended in the air as she was in time. He looked up at her, arms trussed in her top, breasts pushed out for him, and watched as she exhaled the breath she had been holding. There were no thoughts, no feelings except for the primal desire to keep going, and while they maintained eye contact, she leaned her head over him, using the cascade of her hair to hide them away in their own little temporary oasis. And this time it was her who brought her lips back to his.
He turned, and with her legs still wrapped around his waist, braced her back while she pulled her arms out of her shirt and reached behind her to unhook her bra.
They fell, and she landed on her back on the bed. The moment was all that mattered to her. Damn the consequences. He pulled away from her only long enough to rip his shirt over his head before leaning back down to her.
He rained kisses all over her body, which had changed into a work of art during their years apart. When he braced himself up on his arms slightly so that he could swirl his tongue around her belly button, he surprised a breathless laugh out of her that turned into a moan as he nipped down to the waistband of her shorts. She lifted her hips and rubbed her warmth against his chest.
His forehead rested against her pelvic bone as he gasped for breath and desperately tried to calm himself. He couldn't force her, and she had plainly stated that she didn't want this. So, he was surprised at her words when she groaned out in sexual frustration, "Cole La Barron, I swear to heaven above that if you stop now, I really will kill you!"
Now she surprised a laugh out of him, and he met her eyes with her warmth still pressed against him and saw that she was serious. So, he went for it. He sat up long enough to unbutton her shorts and help her shimmy out of them. He didn't even bother to undress any further; still wearing his jeans, boots, and spurs, he unbuckled his belt and jeans snap and shoved his jeans and boxers down just far enough to get what he wanted. He met her eyes and smiled a smile they hadn't shared in years right before he lined his tip up to her and slammed inside. Giving them both a fe
eling of being home for the first time in almost a decade.
As he thrust into her, he knew he would stop at nothing to get her back. He had royally fucked up with her and nearly cost them everything. Now, he’d be damned if he was giving her up again.
When he slammed into her one final time and she convulsed around him as he throbbed through his release, he knew she didn't stand a chance.
Chapter 1
8 Years Ago
SHE BOUNCED FROM EXCITEMENT, sitting next to Cole on the bench seat of his rust bucket pickup truck as they bumped along down the driveway to her parents' ranch. He had served his country and successfully completed two tours overseas as a Seal, and now he was home. His contract with Uncle Sam had drawn to a close, and now it was all about their future. The best part was that one of his final acts as a man in uniform was to get down on one knee and propose to her with a beautiful solitaire engagement ring when she had flown to meet him. She could barely contain herself and was beyond excited to spend the rest of her life by his side. After being together for years, their future was finally beginning.
Dinner at her parents that night was not only to celebrate their upcoming nuptials but also a good-bye dinner of sorts, as Cole had accepted a short-term job as a civilian contractor with the military, working with his brother, Clint, and her big brother, Devon. He planned to work this job until they were married, and then he was officially hanging up his M16 and returning to civvy life to run his ranch and build a family with his bride.
Her feet were propped on the dash, and she sang along to the rock song blasting through the speakers, dancing in her seat and celebrating that after almost a decade of living separate lives and flying to each other when they could—while he was in Coronado, when she was anywhere in the country, from Cheyenne to Houston, following the rodeo circuit—and accumulated calls that totaled days and voicemails that totaled hours in their time apart, they were finally only months away from what they had always wanted.
Cole shook her hand loose and threw his arm behind her on the seat while he sang along with her. She trailed off and tilted her head to watch him as the setting sun reflected across the windshield and he sang to her, caught up in the frivolity of the moment. She wished she had brought a camera to snapshot this moment and keep it with her forever.
There had been a shift in their relationship since her last trip to meet him, the one where he had proposed to her in front of his brothers-in-arms, and her own happiness and excitement echoed from him as well. They had been playing house in the old ranch house on the property he and his brother had inherited when their mom had passed a few years back. Every night, she had gone to sleep curled into his side, and every morning, she made their breakfast while sipping coffee and wearing one of his Navy tees. She was forcing herself not to dwell on the fact that that night would be their last together for the foreseeable future.
The brothers had decided to rebuild the La Barron Ranch, and doing that was going to take capital. Clint and Devon had left the service at the same time and were recruited by a PMC, a private military company, as civilian contractors, so it made sense for Cole to follow them into it as a sure way to make a quick profit he could save and invest in the ranch with the goal of turning it into a profitable venture.
Courtney didn't like it, but she knew that she was marrying a man who had to have a plan. A man who would never put their future to chance or put her in what he would deem a precarious situation. That meant sealing their future so that when the time was done, they could get on with their lives. As her daddy had said repeatedly throughout the last several years when she had complained and whined and cried about not being able to see Cole or speak to him, she was the one who wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, so she was going to have to accept him for the man he was. That meant accepting him doing things in his own time and in his own way. Besides, this stint was bound to be easier because no one but Cole was deciding how long he would have to be away. And she finally had a ring on her finger, which meant the wait was almost over.
As Cole slowed to swing into the parking area in front of her parents' house, Courtney was the happiest she had ever been in her life.
AFTER DINNER WITH HER parents and snuggling on the couch in front of the late show, they were lying naked in Cole's bed, her head in the crook of his arm, facing each other. Cole was playing with her hair, twirling the pieces round and round his finger while they were talking and planning. "Cole, you are not the one who will be pushing these seven babies out. I am willing to settle for two!" She said with a giggle, "One boy and one girl."
He gave her hair a gentle tug. "Baby Girl, the more babies we have, the less we’ll spend on hired help. It's a win-win. Plus, you're gonna give me some real pretty babies. I want lots of them."
Those were the moments she lived for. A person couldn't do the job that Cole had done—in the thick of combat and seeing the worst of the worst—without coming away scarred. Without a doubt, there were times when Cole disappeared to that place where she couldn't reach him, but he could still find it in himself to hold her so close and joke about how many kids they were going to have. He had told her once when he was home that she was his light and had been his reason to stay alive at times. She took that responsibility seriously and did everything she could to make sure she remained his light. Every time the thoughts of him possibly being returned to the desert that haunted him rose up during what she knew was her last night with him for a while, she pushed them back and vowed to worry about it later, to only live in the moment and make sure he did the same. She was going to stay strong for him so that he could do what he believed in, and then they could celebrate surviving it every day for the rest of their lives. With that on her mind, her response was, "Well, how about we have one and go from there? Then we can have as many as we want."
She watched as his face softened, and her heart swelled as he leaned into her, brushed his lips against hers, and said, "Yeah, baby," on a soft exhale.
There you go, Court, anything is possible as long as we talk it out.
They had spent years together, and damn if he couldn't still make her stomach flutter as it did when he slid his hand down her side and adjusted his body so that he was over her with intent burning in his eyes once more.
Chapter 2
6 months later
COURTNEY COULD BARELY contain her excitement as she rushed in the front door and flew up the stairs to her room in a mad dash to get ready. Cole had just called her and told her he had flown into town and was on his way to take her out to dinner. The last six months had been hard, even harder than when he was in the military because she had allowed herself to believe that somehow this time, it would be easier, but it hadn't been. There were distorted phone calls during which she could barely make out his voice over the sat phone he was using to call in, and all their conversations had been extremely short. They couldn't even Skype while he was out on this job. She hadn't known it was possible to miss him this much, and apparently, he felt the same way since he had come all the way home from wherever he was working without a moment’s notice.
She had just stepped into her pointed toe stilettos and checked her lipstick in the mirror, and since she could hear a vehicle approaching the house, she rushed from the room and back down the stairs. Her dad was walking in from the barn as she raced out the door, and he hollered out a greeting. "Where are you headed in such an all-fired hurry there, Firecracker?"
Instead of answering verbally, she stopped and smiled hugely at her father before gesturing to the drive, where Cole was pulling in, in an SUV that he must have rented at the airport.
"Well, lookee here! Cole, what are you doing in town, son?" Courtney's dad shouted across the field as he started to make his way over to where Cole was climbing out of the rig while Courtney had started dashing toward him again.
Something in Cole's posture had Courtney slowing drastically and not flinging herself into his arms the way she had planned. She could see that this wasn't C
ole coming home battle weary and battling his demons; this was something she had never seen before. Her man was standing there like he was defeated. Like he was waiting for a blow to land. She stopped dead five feet away from him and noticed that he wouldn't meet her eyes. Looking back at her father, she realized that he, too, had noticed that something was wrong and had changed his approach to his future son-in-law.
"Cole, you alright there, son?"
Cole looked at her dad and tried to force a smile, but it didn't meet his eyes. Instead, it looked more like a grimace. "Yeah, Pops. I'm alright. Just had a tough few days, and I'm beat." Cole seemed to loosen up just a little, and his eyes crinkled at the corner with a smile as he stepped forward and met her dad to give him the handshake, man hug, back clap thing that all the men in her acquaintance seemed to do.
The two men stepped away from each other and finally, Cole looked up at Courtney and smiled at her. A real smile. The one he saved for her and her alone. "Hey, Baby Girl. I came all this way, and you can't even come greet your man?" He winced when he said the last part, and for the life of her, Courtney couldn't make sense of what was going on with him. But she knew that he would let her in. He always did.
"Hey, darlin'. I've missed you." Finally, she let herself go and rushed her man like she had intended to do earlier.
She tried to ignore the way his grip was even tighter than normal, almost to the point of being painful. "Cole, we can stay in. There's no point in going out, especially with you so tired. Let me run and pack a change of clothes, and we can go to yours and throw something together for us to eat. We can go out to eat tomorrow or something."
Cole buried his face in her hair for a moment and breathed her in before he answered. "Can't do that, Court. I have a flight tomorrow morning, headed back out. I just had to get back here and see you right now. I couldn't stay away any longer with everything so fucked."
