A Risk Worth Taking by Brynn Kelly

Author:Brynn Kelly [Kelly, Brynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2018-03-28T15:46:19+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE COLD FOLDED around Jamie. His breath puffed out in front of him. The noise had come from the northeast, near their car. He stole across the wet grass of the front yard and crouched beside an unruly line of shrubs that’d once been a hedge. All was still, as if the fog were clamping everything in place.

He laid the fishing knife on the grass and opened the first-aid box, wincing at the click. He quickly loaded a sedative into a syringe. The quieter the weapon, the more chance of taking down any goons one by one, without gunshots to give him away or attract police—assuming they weren’t already here. The fog was perfect cover for a silent ambush.

Something stirred on the loch. Water swished and lapped at the stony beach. A bird? His shoulder hurt like fuck.

He began a creeping perimeter check. As he rounded the backyard, he caught movement and ducked into moon shadow beneath a tree canopy. Beside the car, a deer raised its head and froze. Its ears flicked.

A fucking deer. Merde.

He’d been a soldier too long, on edge too long. Hell, when had he not been on edge? The cold seeped from the grass into the bones of his feet. A duck called as it flew overhead, like a hyena’s squawking laugh. Eventually, the doe ambled off.

Jamie stayed hidden, though the deer would have bolted if there were people out here. He itched to reassure Samira. He forced himself to wait. A panic attack was recoverable. Failing to detect a threat was not.

Ah, Samira. The longer he spent with her the more he liked her, the more he wanted her, the harder it was to pull back. So much going on behind those deep brown eyes. Not a person you could know on first sight—or even after years—but the kind who revealed herself slowly, each layer more alluring than the last, until you were buried deep.

There was indeed a thing between them but he remembered all too well where acting on it had got them. If he hadn’t kissed her by the river, maybe he wouldn’t have scared her off, maybe he could have been there for her in the past year. And if he hadn’t been so eager to run when she’d pushed him away...?

Wait—if you had two one-night stands with the same woman, did they still count as one-night stands?

Just the kind of real-life dilemma he’d been merrily avoiding. He hadn’t allowed himself to miss normal life. He’d kept his body busy with work or training, his mind full of tactics and strategies and medicine. But Samira—she reminded him of that other dimension, of the magic of exploring a deeper connection with a woman who lit you up. She reminded him that you could truly bond with somebody only if you took the risk of laying your soul bare.

And no way was he doing that. Which only made him feel like he was deceiving her, all over again.

Far away a stag roared, a pained bleat that echoed around the bald hills above the tree line.

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