Deadly Desire (Carrington-Hill Investigations Book 2) (17 page)

He pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips against hers
, kissing her with the same ferocity they’d shared that night in his room, with the same desire and passion only she brought out in him. Only when she sagged in his arms did he pull away. “Tell me that wasn’t real, Sara. Tell me you don’t still want me as much as I want you. That you don’t lie awake every night thinking about me like I do you.”

A tear trickled down her cheek
, and he swiped it away with the pad of his thumb. “Our lives are too different.”

“I like my life so much more with you in it. Please
, Sara, just say you’ll try.”

He’d left himself wide open, bared his heart and his soul and handed it to her on a silver platter. It seemed like an eternity ticked by
but it was probably more like mere seconds before she broke the silence that stretched between them.

“On one condition, Collin.”

He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his lips. He pulled her into his arms with relief. “Name it, and it’s yours.”

“If for some reason things don’t work out…I want shared custody of Spike.”

Collin chuckled as relief filled every fiber of his body. “Deal.”

Chapter
19

One Year Later

Sara settled against Collin’s broad chest and into the comfort of her lover’s arms as she watched the dancing red embers in the fireplace and listened to the crackle and pop of the wood, the only sounds breaching the serenity of the beach house. The serenity would be short-lived because, by morning, the beach house might seem a bit overcrowded when Lexi, Catherine, and their significant others started showing up. She stroked the dog’s fine black hairs as he snuggled against her legs. Never would she have thought for a second, even in her crazy life that she’d have such inner peace. Yes, she still chased the bad guys and cheating husbands, but every night, she now had Collin to come home to, and that changed everything.

Spike jumped down and
settled on to the rug sitting in front of the fire place.

Glancing up at Collin
, she smiled. “Thank you.”

He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “For what, baby?”

She turned in his arms, straddled his lap, and pressed a tender kiss to Collin’s lips. “For being the man I never knew I needed.”

T
he lines on his face softened. “I can’t imagine my life without you in it, Sara. I hope one day you’ll make an honest man out of me and finally accept my proposal.”

Sara smiled as her heart swelled. “I love you, Collin Martin
, and sometime very soon I’ll be the person responsible for removing you from the bachelor list. You can count on it.”

Spike barked three times in a row, even though he didn’t move from his nest by the fire.

Collin laughed. “He seems to like that idea. Why don’t we make him happy and set a date?”

She leaned in closer and kissed his neck. “Is tomorrow too soon?”

He cupped her butt, rose, and started walking back to the room. “I think I can keep you so worn out that, between now and then, you won’t change your mind.”

Collin kicked the door closed behind them and did just what he promised and the next day on the beach with her two best friends as her witness
es… so did she.    
 

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If you like a little Paranormal with your Suspense,
keep reading for a snippet of Chapter 1 in Reckless Abandon (Phantom Protectors Book 1)

RECKLESS ABANDON

Maxwell Briggs lifted the bottle
of ice-cold beer to his lips and sipped. He needed this beer, no he deserved this damn beer; keeping the Bennett women alive was hard work.

He glanced around the little establishment through the smoky haze that danced around the bar. He’d been in bars like this before. The only difference was the missing bikers and half-clad women wearing little else but leather. No, this place was different, calmer than most places he’d frequented back home. Three older men sat at the bar drinking
from frosted mugs and popping pretzels into their mouths. Their quiet banter gave them away as friends, or at least acquaintances. A slow country song wailed from the ancient jukebox with words that mocked him drowning his sorrows. He’d been in town for three months with no possibility of leaving anytime soon. Lydia Bennett, the oldest and most powerful of the Bennett sisters, had almost died twice on his watch. “My track record is going to hell.”

“You can say that again.” Brody Connors, the most annoying of the Connor twins, agreed as he walked up behind him.

Connors pulled out a chair and swung it around to straddle the weathered seat. “Is this a pity party for one or can anyone join?”

Connors lifted his hand toward the young waitress that looked barely legal enough to be serving alcohol in this joint. “Can I get a beer, darling?”

The twenty-something waitress gave a shy smile and lowered her lashes. “Sure.”

Connors was oblivious to the shy girl, but Briggs wasn’t. He noticed everything and everyone around him. Things like that made him good at his job, or at least he thought so.

Briggs picked at the label on the brown glass bottle in front of him. “Don’t you have someone else to go aggravate? I’m sure Thompson is missing you by now.”

The waitress returned with Connors’ beer. He winked as he handed her the bills. “Keep the change, sweetheart.”

A light pink traveled up the young girl’s neck and colored her cheeks.

Briggs shook his head. “Can’t you drink that somewhere else?”
He lifted his hand to his ear and pretended to listen. “I think I hear your brother calling you. Why don’t you run along now like a good boy?”

Brody laughed. “Dude, seriously? You think I actually listen to that stick-in-the-mud? Or you for that matter.”

The door to the bar flung open. The silhouette of a woman with lush curves stood in the doorway, her face hidden behind the veil of smoke. She waved her hand in front of her face before she stepped in, letting the door close behind her to block out the sun.
Jamie Bloom.

Jamie, another one of the powerful, elite supernatural soldiers, scanned the bar and spotted them in mere seconds. Her
light violet gaze held Briggs as she walked closer, closing in on his table. His gaze lowered. Her jeans hung loose on her hips. Her T-shirt did little to hide the six-pack abs he’d noticed during their last workout. The woman was sin with a dash of sugar and a secret past all rolled up in one.

Brody nudged Briggs in the arm. “You’re in trouble now.”

Jamie sauntered up between the two of them. She took the beer bottle from Briggs and pressed it against her lips. Tilting her head back, she drained the remainder of the beer he’d been enjoying.

She swiped at her lush pink lips with the back of her hand, catching the droplets that had escaped. “You’re up, big boy. She’s had another vision.” Jaime turned and left the same way she’d entered.

Brody and Briggs remained motionless, both of their eyes trained on the sway of Jamie’s hips until she was out of sight.

Brody stood and patted Briggs on the back. “Seems you’ve got some work to do.  Do I need to drive you back to the compound?”

Briggs pulled out his wallet and laid bills on the table to cover the tab he’d barely started. “I brought the bike. I’ll meet you there.”

Briggs pushed out the doors and into the blazing sunlight, such a contrast to where he’d planned to spend his entire day getting a good drunk. He secured his helmet and patted the black beast in front of him. “Let’s go, Bessie.”

He straddled the Harley he’d come to love and revved the engine. The motorcycle thrummed between his thighs. This was his type of enjoyment. He loved the open roads and the peace it afforded him. There wasn’t anything else in the world that could compare. Briggs turned out onto the open road. He could feel his lips turn up on a grin.
I need to do this more often.

A white van with black-tinted windows pulled out of a dirt road behind him, accelerating until it was almost kissing Bessie’s fender.

“Stupid people,” Briggs mumbled as he sped up, putting more distance between his beloved beast and the idiots behind him. The driver apparently didn’t understand the rules of the road either that or didn’t respect them. Keeping distance behind a motorcycle must have been a foreign concept.

The van accelerated, catching up again. Briggs strained unsuccessfully to see the face of the driver. Apprehension struck his gut, and when his gut gave him warnings, Briggs always listened. “Damn.”

It was time to ditch the jerk. He opened the throttle and left the van in his dust. There was no way the van was going to be able to keep up with him. He glanced back in his rearview mirror, and the van was gone, not even a tiny spec in the mirror to indicate that the van was still on the road.

Briggs slowed the bike and pulled over then glanced behind him to the empty road. He wasn’t imagining things. The damn van was gone, clear out of sight. He shook his head and headed back to the compound while still checking constantly to see if the van would reappear.

He rolled to a stop at the guard station, pulled off his helmet, and dug out his wallet, flashing his ID to the men standing guard. They should have been used to him by now, but with the heightened security, he wasn’t going to complain; Extra security was just one more way to keep the little visionary safe. They nodded and lifted the bars, allowing him entrance to the compound beyond.

Briggs laid his palm on the silver box and pushed through the doors of the compound, emerging in the Intel room.
Lydia stood with her coffee in hand next to Jaime as they spoke in hushed tones to Jonah, the computer whiz.

All of their gazes fell to Briggs.
Lydia grinned and walked over to him, entwining her arm with his. “I’ve been waiting on you.” Lydia leaned into his shirt. “You smell like a smoke factory. Where have you been?”

“The bar.” Briggs glanced around the command center. Personnel steadily punched at their keyboards. They seemed to have grown accustomed to him and his group that had shown up only months before.  “Where’s Romeo?”

She nodded toward the conference room. “In there, planning.”

Briggs nodded and escorted her to the room. “Planning what?”

“I think it’s best if I wait and tell you,” Lydia teased.

Briggs opened the door, and they all filed into the massive conference room. Everyone was in attendance, just as he knew they would be. General Lister, the man that ran this rodeo, sat at the head of the table. His presence was still a force to be reckoned with even for someone lacking gifts like the rest of the unit under his command. Nothing had changed in the conference room since the last time he’d been in it; plain white walls surrounded the room with a table for ten sitting in the middle. All of the major players sat at the table. Some he’d come to tolerate, and others he tried his best to avoid.
Lydia’s fiancé, Rick Thompson—or, as Brody liked to call him, Romeo—sat next to the general. Across from him on the other side of the table, the general’s right hand man and second-in-command, Ridge Connors sat patiently waiting, sitting as ridged as Brody had described his brother. Briggs held back his chuckle. The man really needed to get laid. A night on the town would do him some good.

Next to Ridge was Brody, the more annoying and spirited of the Connor twins. He was doodling on paper just like he did at every meeting called. Briggs pulled out a chair for
Lydia and then another for Jamie, who’d followed in behind him, before he sat himself. 

“Okay, now that everyone is here and accounted for, what’s going on?” Briggs asked. 

Lydia shook her head as Jamie whispered into her ear. His gut tightened into knots. The fact that Lydia wasn’t shouting from the rooftops like a woman overdosing on caffeine normally would wasn’t a good sign.

Lydia
cleared her throat. Her vibrant green gaze held his. “Did anything unusual happen on your way back to the base?”

Briggs leaned back in the plush leather chair. “A white van was riding my ass, but I lost it.”

Lydia placed her hands on the table. “I saw it in my vision. I saw you make it back to base without being harmed.” She turned toward the general. “It wasn’t just a dream; it was a vision.”

“What else happened?” the general asked with a bit of annoyance in his voice. His inability to understand
Lydia’s visions always set him on edge.

Lydia
glanced at Brody and then Briggs. “They’ll be coming for us, soon. I saw Brody and Briggs leaving the compound on a trip. They were searching for something, and they failed. Everyone sitting here dies.”

Briggs crossed his arms over his chest. The last thing he wanted to do was take a trip with the most annoying person he knew and cause the loss of those lives he’d been sent here to protect. 

Ridge leaned forward. “That’s impossible.” He lifted his hands. “With all of our combined skills and extra security, there’s no way that Floyd could beat us.”

Lydia
shrugged. “I don’t know how, but he does. That’s why it’s important that Brody and Briggs find whatever it is they’re looking for.”

Floyd was the psycho that had been after
Lydia. He was the only reason Lydia was still in the little town of Henderson. Her presence in Henderson was supposed to keep her safe. He might not understand what made her tick, but he’d learned to trust her the same way she’d trusted him.

Leaning forward in his chair, in a controlled voice, he asked, “What is it? Tell me what I’m after, and I’ll find it. I can find anything.”

Lydia lifted her coffee to her lips. Her gaze over the rim of her cup traveled to Jamie. She nodded once. “Jamie holds the key. Whatever that key unlocks is our only hope.” She met Jamie’s eyes. “It could potentially save us all.”

“What key?” Briggs asked, placing his elbows on the table. He held out his hand to Jamie. “Hand it over.”

Jamie pulled out the gold chain from beneath her shirt. Attached to the end hung a nondescript silver key. “This is the only key I’ve got, and to be honest, I’m not sure it goes to anything.”