Page 55 of Delta Force Defender

“Stop thinking at me,” he rumbled at her. “You’re fine. You’re safe. I promise.”

Caradine wanted that to be true more than she wanted her next breath. But she knew that wasn’t the deal. That wasn’t her life, no matter how tempting it was to imagine otherwise here in Fool’s Cove, wrapped up in Isaac’s arms. Because there wasn’t only her life to consider.

And even though she knew better, she thought there couldn’t be any harm in pretending. Just this once.

All these years of dire, endless pragmatism and punching herself in the face with reality, no matter how much it hurt. All the times she’d walked away from thisman when she’d wanted to run to him instead. All the times she’d made herself sharp when she wanted to melt. Every time she’d pushed him out her door, then ached. Every time she’d slammed her door in his face, then stood on the other side, hating herself.

Surely she’d earned one night.

Caradine burrowed closer instead of rolling away, and thought she felt him release a breath. And she couldn’t resist. She found her hands moving on his perfect chest, letting the last of the summer light lead her on a lazy exploration of every muscle, every indentation, every beautiful sinew. Every hour he spent maintaining his impressive physical condition translated to another fascinating inch on his body, and she tasted them all.

This time, she catapulted over the edge, sobbing the joy of it out into the crook of his neck. Isaac took his time following her, holding her there against him, locked in that embrace as if he felt all the same things she did.

The wonder of taking their time. The beauty of not having the inevitable limit of Caradine’s need to cut it off before it meant more.

It already meant too much.

Something else she didn’t want to look at straight on.

Caradine slept again. When she woke up, his heavy arm was draped over her. Her back was flush against the broad wall of his chest. He let off heat like a furnace, which made her wonder how she’d never taken advantage of that over the course of so many long Alaskan winters.

As she blinked the heavy sleep away, she realized she’d slept deeper than she could remember doing in at least ten years.

Outside, the sky was doing that deep blue thing it did to indicate it was a summer night. Farther north, there would still be daylight.

“Didn’t you say something about food?” Isaac asked in her ear.

She could feel him smile at the goose bumps that shivered their way down from that point of contact to her wrists.

“Don’t you ever sleep?”

“Everyone sleeps, Caradine.” Another smile. Another shiver. “But I don’t sleep much. And when I do I wake up instantly and fully alert.Semper Fi.”

She would ordinarily make a snide remark about the marines, or the armed forces, or whatever she thought would irritate him the most. But tonight felt like it belonged to someone else, someone safer and softer, so she didn’t. Caradine shifted around beneath the weight of his arm so she could face him.

Isaac Gentry, who had wedged his way into her life when she wasn’t looking.

She reached over, then traced her way over the line of his mouth and the beard she’d felt all over her skin. His lips curved as she went, showing her that rare smile of his.

Not the one he shared like candy. The one he saved. For few and far between moments, when no one else could see it. Or him.

Mine, she thought, though it was dangerous.

And she didn’t need light to see the way his gaze changed. Went from gray to silver in an instant and heated her up inside.

He pulled her closer and rested his forehead against hers, so they could breathe together. Until she thought she might cry.

If she were the sort of woman who cried, that was.

“Caradine...” he said, and she didn’t know if he was going to say something else. Or if he was just saying her name, the name she associated so strongly with him that it hurt a little. The name that felt like her, even though it shouldn’t.

But she couldn’t risk it.

She pressed her fingers against his mouth and heldthem there this time. “Come on,” she said quietly. “I’ll make you something to eat.”

This time, she didn’t wait for him to respond. She pulled out of his embrace and climbed out of the bed, grabbing her clothes as she went.

She dressed as she moved, ignoring the way her pulse pounded at her. And the choir of voices inside her she didn’t want to hear, all of them calling her a coward.

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