Holding Out For A Hero: SEALs, Soldiers, Spies, Cops, FBI Agents and Rangers

by Piñeiro, Caridad

Her little rental car wouldn’t have been able to reach the place over a month ago. Now, although the ride was bumpy, she could drive all the way in. She stared at the house as she emerged from the car, not knowing what to expect.

  The sound of an airgun riveted her attention to the roof. When there was a pause between the noise, she yelled up to the unseen man.

  “Hello!” Damn. In her hurry to get here, she had forgotten to ask his name. “Umm, can you hear me up there? I’m Bob’s daughter, Jay.”

  She heard some answer she couldn’t make out from the back side of the roof and moments later, the familiar sound of someone getting down a ladder. She walked around the cleared up shrubs, taking quick notice of the new coat of paint on the siding before turning the corner to meet...looking up at the descending man, she almost tripped.

  Her eyes must be playing tricks on her. Her mouth opened and then closed, as she stared into intense blue-gray eyes.

  Nick slowly approached Jaymee, his eyes devouring her. Not seeing her had been torturous, and not even knowing where she was the last six weeks had almost driven him crazy with worry. He should have known to expect the unexpected where Jaymee was concerned. No wallowing in misery for her. No work as usual. The woman had packed up and taken a vacation in Europe! He could only shake his head in disbelief when he’d shown up at her doorstep with flowers in hand, only to be informed by Bob Barrows nobody knew where she was or when she would be back.

  As the weeks went by with still no word from her, he’d wondered whether she would come back after all. In fact, he’d been near breaking point when her phone call came, telling her father she was returning home. He knew she would come looking for the stranger meddling with her house as soon as Bob told her. This was her private place, her sanctuary, and she wouldn’t want anyone to make any changes without her say so.

  He paused, unable to say anything just yet. She looked so beautiful. His eyes hungrily took in every inch of her, from the shiny auburn mane to the sophisticated ensemble she wore, down to the elegant leather shoes. It dawned on him he’d been so blind, thinking she’d never leave her safe little world. This woman could fit anywhere, would go anywhere, if she wanted to.

  “Hello, Jaymee.” Nick broke the silence between them. “You look...sensational.”

  She had gained some weight, adding a softness to her face. She was the picture of feminine allure, standing there with the setting sun illuminating her glorious curls and haunting eyes. In short, she was the most desirable thing in his life.

  “It...is you.” Her voice was incredulous.

  “Yes,” he said, simply.

  “Why?”

  Jaymee couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her. This must be a mirage. If she moved, he would disappear back into her dreams. Her heart ached at the sight of his familiar face, with those incredibly-lashed eyes. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to push aside that roguish lock of hair.

  She wanted to, but she didn’t dare. Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe moving would wake her up.

  “Because I love you, Jaymee.”

  She began to shake. Her hand came up to cover her trembling mouth.

  Nick’s eyes never left her face as he took the last few steps toward her. His voice was pitched low, almost a mutter. “I missed you. These last few months have been hell on earth. Jaymee, I need you.”

  She didn’t care whether this was a hallucination. It was killing her. She pressed her hand harder against her mouth, trying to contain the loud gasps coming from inside her, and she blindly backed away from him. Her sobs were heartbreaking, uncontrollable.

  “Oh, God. Don’t. Don’t cry, baby, please.”

  In one swift moment, Nick lifted, gathering her pliant body high against his heart. Catching her scent, he closed his eyes for a moment, letting it fill his lungs, his whole being. God, he’d missed her. He could feel her trembling as he carried her indoors, and he wanted to kick himself for hurting this woman so much.

  He sat down on the old sofa, with her on his lap, and held her against him, letting her cry. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to love her. But her tears had him helpless and unsure. He didn’t know how to deal with such grief.

  “Please stop crying,” he finally pleaded, stroking her hair. “I don’t want you to be sad. I never wanted you to be sad. All I ever wanted was for you to live a safe, happy life.”

  “I tried, Nick,” Jaymee whispered, looking up at him, her eyes red from crying. “But I’m dead inside. There’s a void in me that gets bigger every day. And it hurts. It hurts so much.”

  He’d felt the same. This was the first time in months he felt truly alive, and it was because she was in his arms again.

  “I’m not leaving you, Jaymee,” he told her softly. Seeing her wide, questioning eyes, he explained, “The Programmer is dead, killed by an explosion on board his sailboat. If you will have me...?”

  He left the question dangling, his eyes searching. As she digested the news, a slow smile lit her face up. Nick caught his breath. He’d never forget the look in her eyes. Sheer joy. Love. The sunlight to his heart. He smiled back.

  “What do you intend to be, a kept man?” she asked.

  Nick’s smile became wolfish. “The idea does have some appeal. Remind me to inform Jed and my unit when they bother me.” He ran a gentle finger over her frown, as he went on, “I won’t ever be entirely free from my job, Jaymee, but Jed has given me some choices. I owe him, if he ever needs me.”

  She understood, and would never ask him to relinquish something he so wanted to do. As long as he was hers, she didn’t care. The happiness bubbling inside could conquer anything.

  “OK,” she simply said. “Now, being a kept man, I order you to kiss me.”

  His lips were at first gentle, as if he was afraid his passion would crush her, but at her eager response, his kiss became deeper, hungrier. His tongue danced across hers, teasing and loving, telling her without words everything he was feeling. This, she thought in a fiery haze, was what had been missing in Europe, this feeling of belonging, of being alive.

  “I want to show you the house, what I’ve done.” He rained kisses on her eyes, her nose, the corners of her lips. “I did it all by myself, you know.”

  “Are you looking to hire some help?” Jaymee asked, her hands busy tugging at his tee-shirt to get at the muscled body underneath. “I’m a pretty good roofer.”

  Nick pulled back and arched a brow down at her. Casting a leer down the length of her designer-clad body, he drawled, “Don’t look like a construction worker to me at all, miss.” He pulled off one of her heels, examining it with a mocking smile. “Wrong shoes.” He threw it over his shoulder, and grabbed her manicured hand. Kissing the tips of pink-tipped nails, he said, “Clean nails, and,” he ran a finger up her arm, “no tattoos.”

  It was so good to laugh again. So good to be alive again. She raked her nails down his chest, and grinned at the sharp intake of breath. “Let me show you how good I am at finding leaks,” she invited.

  Nick didn’t need further encouragement.

  ***

  Someone turned on the light. Jaymee groaned and turned over.

  “I’ve something to show you, sweetheart. Wake up.”

  Nick pulled the covers off her nude body, his hand lingering intimately for a moment before determinedly shaking her awake. She groped for a pillow and covered her head with it.

  “Tomorrow,” she mumbled.

  Her tormenter was unrelenting. “It is tomorrow. It’s past midnight.”

  “Go mow the lawn. Or finish laying the roof.”

  Nick laughed. He’d forgotten about her jet lag, but he pulled the pillow away mercilessly anyway. “Come on, sleepyhead. You can’t see this in the daylight.”

  Jaymee opened her eyes, meaning to glare at him, but he looked so damned glorious sitting there, so at ease without a stitch on, that she could only smile happily back. She still couldn’t believe he was real, that this was happening.

  “You need a fig
leaf,” she murmured.

  “A fig leaf,” he repeated, puzzled.

  “David had a tiny fig leave, but he looked really sexy with it,” she informed him, then giggled at the look on his face.

  “Who the hell is David?” Nick demanded, imagining some Romeo posing as...oh, that David. He glared down at the grinning woman. “What else did you learn from your European travels, besides admiring nude statues?”

  “That those cathedrals need a leak expert,” Jaymee replied, her eyes filled with laughter. “You’d be amazed at how many of them leak.”

  Nick grinned ruefully. How he loved her. Only she would check famous centuries-old buildings for leaks. He held out his hand and after a moment, she fitted hers in his, letting him pull her off the bed. Flipping off the light switch and plunging the room back into darkness, he led her to the back balcony, the one facing the lake. The full moon lit everything brightly.

  Jaymee gasped.

  The backyard had been cleared while she was gone. A path meandered all the way to the shimmering lake, the dark waters mirrored the star-filled sky above. Moonlight reflected off the white gravel along the way, like twinkling stars in the Milky Way. Never in her farthest imagination had she thought the overgrown bushes of the unkempt yard could hide such beauty. She turned to look at Nick, her heart in her eyes.

  In the moonlit night, he no longer seemed secretive or remote. His crooked smile was tender as he lifted her hand to place a kiss on the knuckles. In that wonderful, gravelly voice, he said solemnly, echoing her words from the day when she’d confided in him.

  “I hereby give you this path, strewn with flowers and covered with stars that you’ll never get lost. I promise to walk with you by your side, Jaymee, all the way to our paradise. I know I’ve been the cause of much heartache and more trouble than you wanted, and probably more in the future. But I love you. You’re my sunshine, my life. My path to the stars. Will you marry me?”

  He was in his element, the cover of shadow and moonlight, but his wolf eyes glittered with love and Jaymee felt the swell of emotion beating in her own breast. He’d taken her painful past and given her hope and love in return. He was her future, the only thing that mattered.

  “Yes,” she replied, her eyes glowing with happiness. “You, Killian Nicholas Langley, are no trouble at all.”

  —The End—

  About the Author

  Gennita Low

  Gennita Low writes sexy military and techno spy-fi romance. She also co-owns a roof construction business and knows 600 ways to kill with roofing tools as well as yell at her workers in five languages. A three-time Golden Heart finalist, her first book, Into Danger, about a SEAL out-of-water, won the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Romantic Intrigue. Besides her love for SEALs, she works with an Airborne Ranger who taught her all about mental toughness and physical endurance. Gennita lives in Florida with her mutant poms and one chubby squirrel.

  To learn more about Gennita, visit www.Gennita-Low.com, www.rooferauthor.blogspot.com and www.facebook.com/gennita

  Subscribe to Gennita’s newsletter: write an email with NEWSLETTER in the subject line to Jenn@Gennita-Low.com

  Additional Books by Gennita Low

  WARRIOR

  TEMPTING TROUBLE

  IMPOSTER: The Protectors Series – Book One

  by Karen Fenech

  Imposter: Chapter One

  “Richard! Slow down!”

  Heart pounding, Eve took her gaze from the road and cut a glance to the driver, Richard, her business partner.

  Richard didn’t respond. The CD player was blaring. Unlikely he could hear her above the scream of the heavy metal band.

  Richard had picked up his new Porsche just yesterday. He’d wanted to see what the car could do, he’d said with a smirk when they started on this road, and hit the gas. Now the road began to slope and the car gained additional speed. Eve’s gaze went to the speedometer and her breath hitched. Ninety and climbing. Outside the passenger window, a view of trees and rock-face streaked by in a blur. Her mouth went dry.

  Eve took her gaze from the road and cut a glance to Richard. His focus was trained on the rearview mirror.

  It wasn’t the first time in the last few minutes she’d spotted him looking into the rearview. She looked around herself but couldn’t see anything but the trail of dust the Porsche was kicking up in its wake. As she faced front again, again, Richard’s focus lifted to the view behind them.

  What was going on?

  She reached out to lower the volume on the CD to ask him that question when the car swerved sharply, throwing her toward the passenger door. The seatbelt held firm, preventing what could have been a nasty impact.

  She returned her attention to Richard. Tension was now coming off him in waves. A fine sheen of sweat glistened on his brow. In his eyes, she saw terror.

  Eve looked back. A dark sedan was now visible, moving fast and closing the distance between them.

  “Richard, what’s going on? Are we being followed?”

  Richard didn’t reply, but the Porsche shot forward with a sudden burst of speed. The sedan fell back but was picking up speed. It should have been no match for the Porsche but it continued to gain ground. Just what kind of engine was under the hood of that plain sedan? No ordinary sedan and Eve’s nerves jumped.

  Why were they being followed? Who would want to follow them?

  The Porsche skidded. Richard steered into the skid. When the tires gained traction, he floored the gas pedal.

  This was insane. If Richard and whoever was following them didn’t slow down—

  The road curved like a hair pin. Richard made a sound, but without breaking speed, drove into it. The rear fishtailed. Eve’s breath caught. Richard cried out. Both his face and his grip on the steering wheel went white as he struggled to get the car under control. Eve’s heart hammered. Each wild beat thundered in her ears.

  “Richard!”

  She turned to him. He was now slumped across the dashboard.

  The speedometer read one-hundred-ten. The car raced out of control. Gravel pinged against the car’s underside as the right front tire slid off the narrow strip of asphalt. The edge dropped off in a sheer cliff Eve couldn’t see the bottom of.

  Another instant and the car would go over.

  Eve stared wide-eyed as the car continued to lose purchase. As the tires continued to slide away from the pavement. Was this how her life would end? In a car crash that would not right the wrong committed five years earlier when she had lived while the most precious thing in her world had died?

  Tears filled her eyes. She thought back over the last five years to all of the times she’d wished she could go back to that moment and exchange her life for the one that was taken.

  But she couldn’t. She could not change the past. Not then and not now . . .

  The tires slid. The cliff loomed. The dark abyss drew closer.

  Eve grabbed the steering wheel. Her hands were sweating. She latched on and jerked sharply to the right. The car veered away from the edge.

  She shoved Richard toward the driver’s door. He was a small, wiry man, but inert, his body was heavy. She grunted, heaved again, and he struck the driver’s door hard. His blond head lolled against the window. He didn’t protest her rough handling of him, not even a moan. Eve would have welcomed a moan. At the least he was unconscious. At the most . . .

  She fought off her fears for Richard. If she didn’t stop the car, his condition would cease to matter—to both of them.

  She grappled with her seat belt, releasing the catch, then slid onto the console and swung her leg over Richard’s. She kicked his foot off the accelerator and stomped on the brake. The tires screeched as the car skidded, then went into a spin. The landscape of trees and rock face swirled by, then Eve didn’t know if the car was again at the edge about to go over. She couldn’t determine up or down. She’d lost her bearings.

  She maintained her grip on the steering wheel and on the brake, the skin
stretched taut over her knuckles, her teeth gritted as she fought to ride out the spin and regain control of the car.

  The Porsche rocked to a stop. She was flung forward. Her instinctive grab of the dashboard twisted her wrist but saved her face. Laying her head on her arms, she closed her eyes and gave in to the weakness that had come over her now that the initial adrenaline rush was spent. Her ears were ringing. The car engine was now off and in the silence she could hear herself breathing. Shallow, panting gasps for air that hurt to inhale and exhale. Other than those complaints, she felt fine. Alive.

  Richard . . .

  She turned to him and shook his shoulder. He didn’t respond. She pressed her fingertips to his neck. Her hands were shaking so badly she wasn’t sure she’d detect any other movement, but she felt a thready pulse.

  She’d bought a bottle of water at the last gas station they’d stopped at. It was in the cup holder. She uncapped it and upended it onto Richard’s face. Water flowed down his shaved cheeks.

  Eve tapped the back of her hand against his skin. “Richard.”

  He didn’t respond. She struck him harder. His cheek reddened. She’d hit him hard enough to mark him, but apparently not enough to rouse him.

  “Hang on, Richard,” she murmured.

  She turned the key, but the engine didn’t start. Her purse . . . where was her purse? She spotted the little envelope bag on the floor board. She fumbled with the snap and yanked out her cell phone. She had to get help.

  Where were they? She glanced around the deserted stretch of road. A meadow lay beyond the two lanes of asphalt. Trees and scraggly bushes grew on the grass, amid patches of white and yellow wildflowers. She and Richard had left Manhattan bound for Rowland, a county in Pennsylvania, about an hour ago. They were chemists and they were on their way to a chemist’s conference in Pittsburgh. Richard had kept to back roads like this one to avoid traffic. Other than the sedan that was no longer in sight, she couldn’t remember the last time they came across another car. None were in sight now. The sun was lowering behind a cluster of oaks. Nightfall was imminent. If this road was rarely traveled in daylight, what was the likelihood of another car coming along at night? With Richard in his present condition, they could not pass the night here. She pushed dark hair back from her face and flipped open the phone.