by Lori Wilde
He shook his head. “She doesn’t love me.”
Jackie sighed and shook her head. “Men. You’re impossible.”
“In what way?”
“You told her you were coming here to stop my wedding, right?”
Mutely, he nodded.
“She thinks you’re madly in love with me. She thinks you’re making this grand romantic gesture.”
“I was going to—”
“But somewhere along the way you fell in love with her.”
“I did.”
“But you were afraid that if you let yourself show how you felt about her that it would mean I was right about you when I accused you of being a fickle playboy who only wanted what he couldn’t have.”
“Yeah.” He ducked his head, splayed his palm to the nape of his neck.
“Well, think about it from her point of view. If she’s in love with you, she’s certainly not going to admit it when she believes that you’re either in love with another woman or a fickle playboy.”
Jackie had a point.
“You think…” He paused, his heart pounding. Could it be true? Could Haley be in love with him? He was scared to hope.
“I think.”
“What should I do?”
“Tell her how you feel.”
Jeb clenched his jaw.
“Don’t let fear hold you back. I know you’ve had commitment issues in the past—”
“It’s not a commitment issue,” he said. “I want Haley more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I’m just trying to decide if I should drive to the airport before she takes off or if I should stay here for the wedding.”
Jackie pointed to the car. “Go.”
“And if she’s already gone?”
“You catch the next plane and go after her.”
He looked into his friend’s eyes. Jackie was truly a good friend. “You don’t mind?”
“I’ll bean you over the head if you don’t go. I had to learn the hard way, Jeb. When you find someone who loves you inside and out, for all your strengths and flaws, don’t ever let them go.”
14
Fetch—The distance of open water that waves have to grow
JEB RACED TO THE AIRFIELD in the rental car, pushing it past the limit and praying he didn’t get pulled over for speeding. Could he convince Haley to forgive him? He’d been so dumb. So blind to what was right in front of him.
He’d dumped her off at the airport so he could go off to chase after another woman. Fool. He’d treated her cruelly. After the way he’d acted, he didn’t deserve a second chance, didn’t deserve to even beg for her forgiveness.
But he had to try. He could not let her slip through his fingers.
What if the plane had already left? It had probably already left, even with the weather delay.
Well, if the plane had already left, he’d get another plane and fly to St. Michael’s after her, but he hoped it hadn’t left. He couldn’t wait to touch her again, even though it had only been a few hours. Kiss her again. Tell her that he loved her.
Because he loved her with a fierceness that took his breath away.
It would serve him right if she wouldn’t forgive him. His stomach clenched and his hands froze on the steering wheel. No. He could not afford to think like that. She would forgive him. He had to convince her. Winning her love was the most important mission of his life.
The only mission of his life that really mattered, because without Haley, he was only half the man he could be.
Pulse racing, he darted into the airport parking lot. Jeb jumped from the car, rushed through the building of the fixed-based operator. “The charter flight to St. Michael’s,” he hollered at the receptionist. “Is it still here?”
“They’re just about to take off.”
He raced for the ramp door marked Employees Only.
“Sir! Sir!” The receptionist jumped to her feet. “You can’t go out there. The plane is about to taxi out. Sir! If you go on the ramp, I’m calling security.”
*
“STOP THE PLANE!”
Haley raised her head and glanced out the window of the small charter jet.
Jeb came running up, waving his arms at the pilot in the cockpit. “Stop the plane!”
“Who the hell is this joker?” the pilot asked the copilot through the open door of the cockpit as they completed their flight checks.
Heart in her throat, Haley sprang to her feet. “He’s with me. Don’t take off.”
“Kill the engines,” the pilot told the copilot.
Haley ran to the door, fumbled for the latch. “How do you open this thing?”
“Hang on.” The copilot came to her rescue. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Haley said, but she hoped, oh, how she hoped, that this was her second chance.
The door opened, and with it, automatic stairs came down.
Haley flew down the steps just as Jeb scaled up them. They met in the middle and their eyes hooked on each other.
Could it be…? She had no clue why he’d come to stop her from taking off, but she couldn’t help hoping that he was here to grovel.
“What is it?” she asked. “Jackie turned you down so you came to claim second place with me?”
“No,” he said. “I came to apologize for being the world’s biggest idiot.”
Her heart pumped blood through her ears so loudly she wasn’t sure she heard him. Her chest squeezed and she felt faintly dizzy. “You can be pretty clueless,” she conceded.
“Not anymore,” he said.
“About Jackie?”
“About you.”
“About me?” she whispered.
“You’re the one that I want. The only one I need.”
“You expect me to take that to the bank?”
“Haley.” He looked miserable, threaded a hand through his hair. “It kills me to think I’ve hurt you.”
“The only way you’ll hurt me is if you don’t truly mean the stuff you’re saying.”
Jeb sank to his knees on the step below her, clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture. “Haley French, I’ve never in my life professed my love to another woman.”
Love! Her heart leaped. “Not even to your mother or your sisters?”
“You know what I mean. Pay attention.”
“Not even to Jackie?”
“No.”
“Not even when you got to the wedding?”
“No, because I realized that while I do love Jackie—”
Haley inhaled audibly, splayed a palm to her chest, felt her heart stumble.
“—I don’t love her, love her. I love her as a friend and nothing more. That’s where I kept getting tangled up. I had feelings for Jackie, but I didn’t understand that those were feelings of friendship, not romantic love.”
Haley folded her arms over her chest. “It sure took you a long time to figure that out.”
“Not really,” he said. “It just took me a long time to admit it. I’ve been falling for you since that sunset on Diver’s Beach. I was just too scared to admit it, too afraid I was simply falling into an old, familiar pattern of hopping from one woman to the next as soon as things got serious.”
“How do you know you’re not doing that now?”
“Because I’ve never met anyone like you. Never felt like this.”
“I’m not convinced,” she said, ignoring her wildly fluttering heart. How she wanted to believe him!
“I named my boat the Second Chance.”
“Because of another woman.”
“Jackie might have set me on my journey,” he said, “but the journey led me to you.”
“Uh-huh.” She was trying desperately to be cool when all she wanted to do was fling herself into his arms and kiss him until their lips were raw.
“Haley, I know I’m asking you to overlook a lot of things—”
“Like the fact that you’re a womanizer.”
“Was. That’s firmly in the past.”
“How do I know that you won’t change your mind?”
“I’ve never told a woman that I loved her before. Not in a romantic way. For all my faults, I’ve never thrown that word around to get someone into bed. Love means something to me.”
“Not even Jackie?”
“Not even Jackie. You’re it, Haley. My one and only. I love you.”
Haley moistened her lips. “Jeb.”
Fear flared in his eyes as if an incomprehensible thought had just speared his brain. “Oh,” he said, looking completely stricken, “you don’t love me.”
She couldn’t keep torturing him this way. “Silly man, of course I love you.”
“How’s a guy supposed to know that? Especially when you went out of your way to tell me how wrong I was for you.”
“I was trying to protect myself.”
“But you love me.” A grin kidnapped his entire face.
“I do.”
He pulled her into his arms right there on the steps of the airplane and kissed her soundly. He took his time, his tongue leisurely coaxing and teasing.
“Okay,” she said, breaking the kiss with a reluctant sigh, “we need to get something straight.”
“I’m all ears.”
She met sumptuous eyes the color of the sea. “I’m not the easiest person to get along with.”
“Uh-huh.” He leaned in to nibble her earlobe.
Haley’s pulse skittered. “I have strong convictions.”
“Don’t worry, I know how to get you to relax.”
He certainly did at that. He’d taught her that it was okay to enjoy herself once in awhile. That life didn’t have to be a grim proposition filled with responsibilities and expectations.
“I have a tendency to judge first and give second chances grudgingly.”
“I know.” His fingers kneaded her shoulders.
“I’d had a bad experience with a wealthy man. I lumped you in the same category, but you fooled me.”
“You’re admitting you were wrong?”
“Don’t get smug about it. You’ve got a few flaws yourself.”
“Who, me?” He kissed the tip of her nose.
“You are given to grand gestures, like running up and trying to stop a plane.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Not a smart thing to do.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” He tickled her lightly in the ribs and she chuckled. “But you were right about me. I was a cocky guy used to getting my way and being adored.”
“I didn’t think—”
“You did and you were right, but thanks to you—”
“And Jackie—she’s the one who gave you the shove you needed to come to St. Michael’s in the first place. I owe her a thank-you gift.”
“I’m just grateful that I recognized how I felt about you. Honestly, I think it happened the day you got hit by the boom.”
“And you kissed the breath back into me.”
He peered into her eyes, held her tightly in his arms. “And I want to keep doing it for the rest of our lives.”
What romantic words! They struck her heart like an arrow from a quiver. “For me,” she said, “that night we played I’ve Never and I told you about my secret shame and you didn’t judge or condemn me for it. In fact, you comforted me, held me in your arms. That was the night I knew it was more than sex or infatuation.”
“But the sex is good, right?” He wriggled his eyebrows.
“Not even close.”
“No?” He looked so crestfallen, she almost laughed out loud.
“It’s the most amazing sex I’ve ever had.”
“For me, too.” He winked. “And that’s saying something.”
Playfully, she swatted his upper arm.
“What say we let these pilots have their plane back and head back to the Second Chance?”
“Under one condition,” Haley said.
“What’s that?”
“We change the name of that boat.”
“Haven’t you heard? It’s bad luck to change the name of the boat.”
“You changed it before and very good luck came your way. You’re not superstitious, are you?”
“Not when I’m with you. What should we change the name to?”
“How about the Happily Ever After?”
“Exactly what I was thinking.”
He took her into his arms once more, kissed her hard and long and sweet until Haley knew in her heart that from here on out, everything between them would be smooth sailing.
*
Keep reading for an excerpt of His First Noelle by Rhonda Nelson!
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1
Six months later…
DRESSED IN A courier’s uniform, newly minted security agent Judd Willingham made the short walk up the cracked sidewalk to the small front porch of the nondescript brick house. Twinkling Christmas lights with more burnt-out bulbs than working ones sagged from the eaves and a sad-looking wreath hung from a door in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint. Dead weeds, their crispy skeletons all that remained from a robust summer, pushed up between the evergreen shrubs, crowding the flower beds on either side of the entrance, and a rusty mailbox hung drunkenly from a lone nail which was dangerously close to slipping from the mortar. Judd grimaced.
This was the safe house? Really?
Granted he hadn’t expected a mansion—the little town of Mossy Ridge, Mississippi, could barely afford its five-man police force, let alone a state-of-the-art safe house—but surely something a little more sound could have been made available. Considering this was the third time his target, Noelle Montgomery, had been evacuated due to another failed attempt on her life, no doubt their choices were dwindling.
Honestly, when he’d been briefed on his first assignment for Ranger Security, Judd had expected something a little less grave than protecting a key witness to a murder trial. After all, Jeb, his twin brother—older by two minutes and his exact mirror opposite—had merely had to find a jewel thief burgling a high-end retirement community. No life-or-death situation there. In fact, other than potentially getting run over by a motorized scooter, he hadn’t been in any danger at all. At least physically, anyway. Judd inwardly grinned. His heart was another matter altogether. Much to their equal astonishment, Jeb had found himself married at the end of his assignment.
Having always enjoyed an almost supernatural twin connection, making sense of his brother’s feelings had been a little disconcerting. He’d picked up on a lot of awe, wonder, confusion and frustration. It wasn’t until Jeb’s, er, physical release—orgasms had never been a secret, a fact that had been quite embarrassing in their teens—that Judd had realized that his brother had fallen head over heels in love. Though he didn’t experience the sensations as strongly as Jeb—more shadowed and less profound than the original—he’d found himself a little envious of his twin.
Not envious enough to want to permanently shackle himself to a member of the opposite sex though. He’d come damned close to that in his last year at West Point, a mistake he didn’t ever intend to make again. He smothered a dark chuckle.
Fool me once…was enough. Lesson learned.
Naturally he knew that all women weren’t faithless money-grubbing connivers, like the one who’d almost tricked him into an until-death-do-you-part, but knowing it and having it make a differenc
e were two different things.
Heather had studied him, understood his weaknesses and knew exactly what to say and do to appeal to his “hero” complex. In the end, his “damaged fragile flower in need of a protector” had been a two-time divorcée with multiple aliases and a rap sheet longer than the damned Declaration of Independence. And he’d nearly brought that viper into their family? His lips quirked.
They already had one of those, thank you very much—his grandmother.
The matriarch of the family and the formidable head of Anderson Enterprises, Twila Anderson was notoriously hard and could hold a grudge and her own opinion longer than anyone he’d ever known. She no longer had the ability to scare the hell out of him, but if he’d wanted to continue taking orders he would have stayed in the military. Though he could have gone to work for her, or any one of the company’s holdings, Judd had ultimately, once again, decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps.
Contrary to popular belief, he did have an original thought and they didn’t share a mind, but they were so closely tied to one another that living independently of the other was simply…unpleasant. They were more than brothers, they were best friends. And while Jeb had left the military after that horrible disaster in Mosul, Judd had actually been considering it before his brother had.
A sniper who couldn’t pull the trigger was essentially useless and, given that it had gotten increasingly more difficult with every target…
And the hell of it? He had no earthly idea why.
Judd had always prided himself on being able to do the hard job—making the conscious decision to end another person’s life was not easy, even if it was justified. Men who intentionally killed, mutilated and maimed innocent women and children were lower than pond scum and didn’t deserve to live, dammit. For every one of those people he finished off, he’d always congratulated himself with the lives he’d saved.
The end justified the means, the greater good and all of that. And he still believed it—he really did—but doing it… Putting a man in the crosshairs, making the kill shot. That was out of reach. He couldn’t do it anymore.
Not that he’d confided that to anyone—even Jeb. It was too galling, too shameful. Better that they thought he missed his twin than the truth.
Initially, he’d chalked his hesitation up to burn-out—it happened. He’d taken a short leave to Crete—he hadn’t had time to come home and wouldn’t have even if he could—but even the island paradise, lots of good sex, good food and good wine hadn’t made a difference.
