by Em Petrova
He laughed. “Not my type.”
“Who is then?” Okay, maybe the alcohol had loosened her lips just an itty bitty bit. She was conservative in everything she said—journalism had taught her words were power and could be used to uplift or destroy.
When he drew to a stop, he let her shoes drop to the ground. She looked down at them, and Lennon’s thumb came under her chin, lifting her face up to his.
The air she’d had too little of back inside the reception hall had disappeared again.
He slipped his hand along her jawline and back behind her ear, threading his hand into her hair. She shivered at the roughness of his hand moving through her silky hair.
Looking into his eyes was stealing her resolve too.
She wanted him. It had been too many months since she’d been touched like this. Come to think of it, even before then, Jake wasn’t very affectionate.
Before she knew what was in her mind, she went on tiptoe and moved in to kiss Lennon. The heated brush of their lips wasn’t nearly enough. He cupped her head and angled her to deepen the kiss. Swiping his tongue through her mouth with desperate passes that spoke of how much he wanted her too, even if she hadn’t felt the massive bulge at the front of his jeans.
She went for his shirt buttons. He found her dress zipper. In seconds, his warm hands were moving over the flesh of her spine, and she tore his shirt off his shoulders and then ripped the T-shirt out of his waistband to get her hands on what she suspected were washboard abs.
The man knew how to leave a woman wet and wanting.
She went still. His mouth continued to work along her neck to her collarbones.
“Wait. Lennon, stop.”
He lifted his head immediately, eyes clear. He was completely sober. Not surprising. A big man like him could easily handle a couple whiskeys.
Knowing he was lucid and wanted her this bad… it tugged an invisible string connected to her pussy.
She pressed her hands against his hard chest. Damn, it was much harder than she’d even thought.
“Lennon, I said no strings. I can’t.”
“We don’t need strings to enjoy each other.”
She looked up into his eyes. “I’m not that kind of girl.”
He searched her eyes for a moment before nodding. Slowly, he zipped her dress again and stepped back. His chest rose and fell as if he was breathing too fast. She was too.
“I think it’s time to go,” she said.
“I’ll drive.”
She nodded. He bent to swipe up his abandoned dress shirt—his poor momma would be shocked at the wrinkles put there—and then slung it over his shoulder. He grabbed her shoes too.
“Lennon…” she began.
He gave her the same smile he had every time before this, without an ounce of tension. “I had a good time with you, Edie.”
Her shoulders relaxed. The day had been a whirlwind for sure, with highs and lows, moments of worry that she was making all the stupidest decisions. But in the end, Lennon was a decent man and wasn’t demanding sex in payment for coming.
He held out a hand, and she took it. Together, they walked back up the slope to the parking lot. There, she stopped and he handed her the shoes, steadying her with a hand on her elbow while she put them on.
At her car, he stopped. “Sure you wanna go? You didn’t get a chance at catching the bouquet.”
She chuckled. “I’m not really in the market for marriage anyway. I’ll take a pass.”
He opened the door for her, and she got into the passenger’s seat. When he got behind the wheel, he turned to her. “I know you’ve said you’re not into dating. But I like you, Edie, and I’d like to see you again.”
She hesitated, unsure what to say.
He placed a hand over hers. “Call me if you ever need a wedding date.”
Shooting her a grin, he started the car. They didn’t make it halfway to the road before he was staring at her thighs again.
How easy it would be to give herself to this deliciously hot man, even just one time. But she wasn’t lying when she said she wasn’t that girl. She believed in monogamy—and her feelings got too entangled the minute she got naked with a man. She didn’t want to be distracted by thinking of Lennon for weeks after their intimate moment because her stupid heart couldn’t let things go.
She had goals. Not only with Notable News, either. Until today when the senator didn’t make an appearance, she hadn’t realized what she wanted out of seeing him. Now she did.
She wanted for Bradley Arthur to look at her and know what he had missed out on all these years. It was time to figure out another way to contact him. Maybe if she offered to do an article on him, she could kill two birds with one stone.
Lennon interrupted her thoughts when he reached across the console and settled a hand on hers. “No worries between us, okay? I had a good time, and it was unexpected. I’d just come from the cemetery and wasn’t thinking of life being that fun. You showed me a good time, and I’m grateful.”
Her gaze shot to his face. His mouth was solemn, and for the first time she saw how serious this man could be. In fact, the lines around his mouth and the corners of his eyes weren’t all from smiling, as she’d originally guessed.
“Who were you visiting, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“A buddy I worked with. Lost his life to a criminal.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She turned her hand up, and meshing their fingers felt like the most natural thing in the world.
“Thanks. I was headed home, back to another buddy.”
“Oh?”
“My dog. Ranger.” He smiled.
She found herself smiling too, some of her stress falling away again in common talk, allowing her to forget about her reason for going to the reception in the first place.
* * * * *
“Man, my love life’s in the shitter.” Lennon’s fellow Ranger Ops teammate Jess had a tendency toward the dramatic, but this time Lennon was pretty sure he was right. He love life was in the shitter.
He and their other buddy Cavanagh, or Cav, leaned over Jess’s shoulder to stare at his phone, where a break-up text stared back at them.
Lennon clapped a hand on Jess’s shoulder. “Tough break, man.”
“What is wrong with women? I think I’m a pretty good guy. I take them out for dates and buy them flowers and shit. I take the time to text these chicks, and still they all dump me. Why is that?” Jess stuffed his phone in his pocket.
“You know if you didn’t break the rules and have your phone on you that you never would have read that text till you got home,” Cav said.
“Don’t I have enough regrets without you shoving it down my throat, man?” Jess shot him a disgusted look. Even with all the black and green face paint coating his face, Jess’s eyes were expressive enough to show Cav how much he didn’t appreciate the observation.
“Jess, I’m kicking your ass when we get back to the city. Guys, get into position.” The order came from their leader, Nash Sullivan, or Sully as they called him, into their comms devices in their ears.
“Our fearsome leader speaks,” Lennon said.
“Your fearsome leader is gonna show you how fearsome he is if you assholes don’t focus. We’ve got tracks to find and some fugitives to recover. You three get your shit together and meet up with Linc.”
Lennon looked at Jess, who jerked his head to the right. Lennon and Cav fell into step behind him, each turning now and then to watch their six.
“Seriously, why would Amanda break up with me? I did everything right,” Jess continued.
“That’s the problem,” Cav said. “You gotta treat her like shit. Girls eat that shit up.”
“Why the hell would they want to be treated like shit?”
“Beats me, but I’ve seen it plenty. They leave good guys to chase after ones who don’t give a crap about them, and pretty soon they’re tied up in an awful marriage, at home doing loads of laundry for four kids while their man is
having an affair at the office. And it all starts with them being treated like shit.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Jess swung his head right and left, keeping close vigil on the surrounding area. They’d been told the fugitives had been seen on state lines only half an hour before. They couldn’t be far.
Lennon reached out and touched a leaf that was turned upside down, the bottom paler green compared to the others on the branch. “Went through here. Keep your eyes peeled.”
His twin Linc stepped silently into line with them, weapon at the ready. “You guys got this women stuff all wrong. They don’t want to be treated like shit. They want to be treated like a queen—just by the right man.”
Jess heaved a sigh. “Think I’ll turn gay instead of tryin’ to figure all this shit out.”
They all looked at Cav.
“Don’t look at me! I’m so straight my boner’s got a little black book of its own. And Jess, you couldn’t go gay if you wanted. I’ve seen you in action, my friend.”
For several minutes, Lennon listened to the quiet banter, no more than whispers between the men, as they moved in a swath across the forest in search of the fugitives.
The ops team didn’t even know exactly what the guys had done, only that they’d escaped after arrest and had been hunted in three counties for a week without much ground gained until recently, when a man on an ATV had spotted them in the woods near his home. Rather than rely on the state police to recover the men, Ranger Ops had been sent.
Guess the government was tired of fucking around and sent the best of the best to end this. A week of manpower had been wasted so far, and Lennon and his team would handle it in an hour tops.
Should be easy, since the men had been living rough for a week. Not having food or access to a shower was enough to make any man desperate.
He cocked his head, and so did Linc. “Hear that?” he asked.
Linc sliced a glance at him, his nod probably imperceptible to anyone but Lennon—they had that twin bond thing going on more often than not.
Lennon slowed, his footfalls soundless on the leafy underbrush they walked through.
“Knight Ops on our nine.” Sully’s voice filled their ears.
Lennon wasn’t going to blame that noise he’d heard on the Knight Ops team from Louisiana getting into position as backup. He concentrated on his surroundings, throwing out his senses.
Linc’s head snapped around.
“Yep, heard it too,” Lennon grated out. He lifted his weapon and peered through the scope. Darkness was rapidly falling, especially deep in this thick growth of woods, but his night vision scope gave him all he needed.
“Got one on the ground. Shit!” Lennon called out.
The guy jumped up and took off.
“Got him between us. Lennon, take your team and sweep around the side to avoid friendly fire!” Sully’s order wasn’t completely out of his mouth before Lennon was on the run. He, Linc, Cav and Jess circled fast, leaping over felled trees and sticks that might trip them.
Lennon threw a look to his side and spotted the swaying of ferns. “On the ground again. Or is that the other son of a bitch?”
“We’re moving in.” That came from Knight Ops.
“What are you assholes doin’ on our turf, anyway?” The teasing question came from Shaw, another Ranger Ops team member and second in command.
“Who the hell knows? We get a call, we come. Seems you Rangers don’t know what the hell you’re doin’ and OFFSUS thinks you require backup.”
Lennon raised a hand to halt his team’s forward progression. The flash of gunfire had them all crouching into position. “Get ready to rain hell on these fuckers,” he called out, and shots shattered the quiet around them.
Doing his duty to his country and team wasn’t something Lennon had to think twice about—he acted out of instinct. Actually, he rarely questioned his own decisions, but he couldn’t lie about where he’d gone wrong with one pretty little blonde.
Maybe he’d gone too fast with her at the wedding. He understood that—things had heated up fast. But when they’d parted ways, she had leaned in and kissed him on lips, then thanked him for being her date. He asked if he could see her again, and she had only given a noncommittal, “We’ll see.”
That wasn’t something that happened very often with Lennon. In fact, the only time he’d been turned down was in the ninth grade, when a girl thought he was his twin brother making a pass at her.
Lennon identified his target and took the shot. The man’s forward momentum sent him pitching headfirst, where he crumpled.
An explosion of shots rang out as their second fugitive held nothing back and kept the trigger pinned beneath his finger. He was cornered and had nothing to lose.
“Drop your weapon!” Lennon bellowed.
“You’ll have to kill me!” the man screamed in return.
Another spray of bullets peppered the forest, and Lennon pressed himself low in the dirt.
“Shaw, take his ass out.” Sully gave the order, and one more shot was fired. All went quiet.
Lennon picked himself up off the ground with extreme caution. There were only two threats, but he never took chances.
After the solemn work of recovering the bodies, talk slowly resumed to Jess getting dumped. Then to Cav’s latest score with his next door neighbor.
“Is she even legal?” Jess shot out.
“Yes. She’s nineteen.”
“Jesus. I don’t know why you like ’em so young.”
“Because they’re stupid enough to think he’s a hero,” Lennon said with a grin.
“I am a goddamn hero—aren’t we all?” Cav’s grin flashed white in his dark face paint.
“Yeah, but some of us are more humble.” Lennon started pulling gear off his body and stowing it in the back of the Ranger Ops SUV.
“I think it’s called not getting any, Lennon.”
Lennon could tell them about getting picked up at a gas pump by a beautiful and enticing woman, but he kept his mouth shut.
It wasn’t until after he’d gotten into the SUV that he realized how odd that was for him. He wasn’t one to kiss and tell, but he didn’t hold back when he met someone he liked. Except Edie was different.
Linc climbed in next to him, and the doors all slammed shut. The vehicle rolled out, and Lennon’s mind sank deep into thoughts of that wedding reception and touching Edie in all the right places. Her buttons had been pushed without a doubt, but she had put a stop to going further.
Then avoided him.
He’d texted her once since the wedding just to say hi and received no answer. He probably should call it quits and give up, but as soon as he got back home, he planned to give it one more go and call her.
From the front seat, Sully’s phone buzzed.
Shit. It could only mean one thing.
Their leader took the call and then the tires squealed as he whipped the SUV around and turned it back toward the border.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Linc asked.
“Fuuuck. I wasn’t in the mood for more tonight,” Shaw said. “I was up all night with the baby.”
“Well, get comfy, guys. We’ve got a compound to rush.”
“Particulars?” Shaw asked.
“Hostages and a man in a suicide vest.”
They all groaned.
“I brought the grenades,” Jess said from the back seat.
An hour later, instead of calling Edie, Lennon was blasting through a metal door, sweeping the area and coming out with one of the hostages.
He dumped her on the ground as gently as he could before running back in for the next while his men held off the asshole with enough explosives strapped to himself to become the first man on Mars.
As Lennon grabbed the second victim and ran with him, he was looking into the darkness lighting up with grenades his team launched at the building. But deep in his mind, what he saw was Edie’s sweet face and the look in her eyes after he’d kissed her.
It was a hell of a long night, but there was still time to make a phone call.
Chapter Three
Edie pushed away from the computer desk and walked over to look out the office window, down on the streets of Austin. The Notable News office was in a building that was high enough she could make out pedestrians but not see their faces. If the senator walked by right now, she wouldn’t recognize him.
Of course, he wouldn’t be out walking the streets as a free man—he probably required bodyguards just to walk to his bathroom and take a piss. The reports of him being terrorized were increasing by the week.
All of this confused the hell out of her. He was her father, but she had no love for the man. However, she had set the goal to meet him at last and didn’t want to see him killed by whatever terrorist group had him flagged.
Every law enforcement group in Texas was trying to uncover more about where the attacks stemmed from. The senator wanted better gun control laws—they wanted their guns. It was a simple tug-of-war that never should have gone this far.
But nobody seemed to be capable of protecting the senator or his family, which alarmed her. With all his money and connections, there must be someone who could help him.
Apparently, a package had shown up at his office the previous morning, but he was smart enough to have it assessed by the bomb unit, and sure enough, it was rigged.
He’d narrowly escaped with his life. The thing had been sitting right there on his desk. And how did something like that get put there in the first place? Her only answer was he worked with someone who delivered it, knowing what it was.
That had resulted in the senator dumping every person who worked for him—she wondered if Jake was included in that purge—and more bodyguards installed in his life. At this rate, she’d be lucky to ever meet him before he was assassinated.
She couldn’t do anything to help the senator even if he asked. She could only dig around, use her expertise to research and see what she could uncover about these terrorists.
It wouldn’t be some flagged group in the government systems. No, it had to be some second-amendment freak outfit, and she planned to find as many as possible. That meant breaching classified levels she had no access to as a lowly intern here in Notable News.
