Perfect Stranger (19 page)

She held her head as the flash of spiraling
heat crept back down and her vision un-blurred. Slowly her stomach
settled.

A fist pounded on her door again, and a
voice called her name from outside, startling her.

Chloe sat straight up. She knew that voice,
but she doubted herself. Still, she risked another peep over the
counter and sucked in a gasp.

He was there.

He was there!

Chloe blinked, not
believing she really saw
him
.

Jericho was looking in the long window
beside the door at her with a concerned expression. His mouth fell
open a little when he spotted her.

She gasped again as she cried out, covering
her mouth with her hands in disbelief.

Chloe took a step around the counter and
then another. She flew to the door and threw it open before she
realized she had even crossed the room.

She could not believe it, but he really was
there.

Dark, handsome, lethal Jericho stood on her
doorstep.

There was a line of five stitches on his
cheekbone where he had been struck with that metal rod the last day
she had seen him. As her eyes fell there, her heart clenched. The
wound had nearly healed, but a scar had formed to forever leave
behind the memory of that horrible day.

A little tick of anger resurfaced, although
the man who had inflicted the wound was well-dead.

"I'm sorry I'm a little late," Jericho said.
"I was kinda held up in an interrogation by the CIA after my
debriefing at Bragg." He rolled his eyes, smiling as he took a step
towards her. "How are you, Chloe?" he asked gently. His gaze fell
down her and then back up, leaving a trail of desire in Chloe,
though his look was one of concern. When he had assured himself she
was as she should be, he met her gaze.

Chloe dumbly blinked up at him. For the life
of her, she couldn’t find her tongue.

He slowly smiled and chuckled at her,
reaching out to brush her cheek with the back of his fingers. "I
missed you," he said quietly.

"I missed you, too," she breathed. She
shuddered inside at hearing him say the words she had dreamed he
would say, night after night on the occasions she did sleep. Those
words she had given up on hearing. "Did you find your missing man?"
she asked.

Jericho nodded. "MacKall was cleared of all
false charges. He's in bad shape though. I think he had worse luck
than we did."

Chloe's brows rose. "What about
Conyers?"

Jericho shook his head. "Nope. I will tell
you about all that later. Right now," he paused, looking at her
with uncertainty, "I'd like to talk about us."

"Us?" Chloe asked, hopefully. She took him
in, all of him. The strength of his jaw, the way his shirt
stretched for the muscles of his arms and torso, the lean taper of
his waist. She breathed in his scent. She felt safe again,
suddenly, and his presence alone made her smile. Her heart picked
up rhythm, and for the first time since she had last seen him, a
burst of happiness filled her.

"Us," he repeated. "I know I told you before
that my job doesn’t allow for much time for a relationship."
Jericho dropped his dark-green gaze to his hands as he steepled his
fingers. "So … I transferred from active status to a training job
at a base near here." He looked up at her hopefully, meeting her
stare with that boyish grin she had caught so few times but loved.
"I was hoping you would let me take you out sometime."

Chloe's grin spread until she beamed, and
tears sparkled in her eyes. She jumped on him then, kissing him,
but that kiss turned passionate, and a warmth she thought to never
feel again began to spread like wildfire.

Chloe dropped from his
embrace and began to pull Jericho inside, then laughed heartily as
Jericho turned and swooped her into his arms and took
her
inside instead,
setting her on her feet in the foyer.

Chloe's hands quickly found the hem of his
t-shirt and tugged it over his head as Jericho shut the door with
his foot. He kissed her ravenously as their clothing fell away in a
puddle around them.

"I never thought I would see you again,"
Chloe said between sighs of pleasure as Jericho broke from their
kiss to trail his mouth down her body, searing her with his
tongue.

"I never took you as the brightest color in
the box," he mumbled huskily, teasing, nipping at her hip as he
pushed her pink pajama pants to her ankles. "There was no chance I
wouldn’t come." He raked his hands back up her body as he
straightened to kiss her deeply. He circled her with his arms, his
hands skimming down her back and over her bottom.

She chuckled throatily and slapped him
playfully in the arm. He growled at her in return pulling her into
him.

It was a while before Chloe left her house
still, and the landlord did have to call once more—not for an
enquiry as to her health, but for a noise complaint.

Epilogue

One year later

Somewhere in the Maldives

Chloe stretched lazily in the sun on her
towel. The warmth on the sunny beach felt awesome as the
mid-morning breeze rolled over her skin. A bright-blue bikini
revealed her tanned skin nicely.

She raised a hand to shield her eyes when
she heard footsteps in the white sand and smiled warmly up at her
husband as she watched him approach and step over her, waves
crashing on the shoreline not far away.

"Enjoy the water?" she asked, turning to her
other side to follow him with her gaze as he sat in a chair near
her to take up a towel, rubbing it over his hair and face.

Jericho flashed a grin. "Yes, ma'am." He
stood back up and flipped the towel out beside Chloe to lie down,
too. On the ground, he leaned over to kiss her. "Mrs. Eden, how do
you like the Maldives?" he asked, lying back and folding his arms
behind his head.

Chloe grinned happily, but as always, she
began to admire her husband's body. "A lot better than Rio."

"Really?" He furrowed his brow in
mock-surprise. "'Cause I was thinking we could go there next year
for vacation, maybe revisit some of our favorite destinations."

"No thanks," Chloe said, laughing.

Jericho laughed, too, and then reached over
to caress Chloe's hair. The dark strands were long once again. He
leaned back over to kiss her again, and Chloe rolled to her back.
The kiss turned heated, but the sound of a baby gurgling suddenly
jolted the two apart.

Chloe gasped. "She's up from her nap
already."

"Dang it," Jericho said sarcastically before
pushing Chloe down to reach their daughter first. Chloe in turn
scrambled to catch Jericho's foot and crawled over him to peek into
the little basinet under the umbrella with a small battery operated
fan blowing on the baby, keeping her cool in the mild heat.

"How is my girl?" Chloe crinkled her nose at
the baby as she scooped her up.

Jericho took their daughter then, and Chloe
gave him a playful glare. Together, sitting on beach towels on the
white sandy Maldivian shore, they ogled their three-month-old.

"She will have an exciting life," Chloe
said, running her finger down the baby's soft cheek.

Jericho grinned at their daughter, crooning
to her. "Yes, she will. And those boys had better stay away." He
turned his attention to Chloe, but then his stare snagged on
something over her shoulder.

Chloe twisted around, shielding her eyes.
"Who is that?" she asked. The man in khaki shorts and an open
island shirt stared at them a moment. When he turned and walked on,
Chloe whipped around. "Who was that?"

"Logan," Jericho said darkly, watching the
man go. "Remember the guy who dropped the GPS in Valença for us?
But I can't imagine what he would be doing here."

Chloe took the baby, holding her close, and
looked pleadingly up at Jericho.

"Don’t worry. I won't ever risk my family,"
he said, smoothing a lock of her hair back and behind her ear.

Chloe looked away, feeling guilty. "He did
us a favor though. If it wasn’t for him we might not be here."
Chloe gestured to the baby. "She wouldn’t have been born."

Jericho sighed hard. "I'll see about it. But
first, I want you to know you are my number one priority." He
grabbed Chloe around the waist and hauled her into him, sealing his
lips against hers in a scorching brand.

Little fingers suddenly smacked at his chin,
opening and closing against the bristle on his jaw. Jericho laughed
against Chloe's mouth, and then laughed harder when the same little
hand smacked Chloe in the cheek.

"Oh, and you, too!" Jericho said, then
kissed at the baby and bent his head to blow on her little belly,
to which she gurgled happily and cooed.

When he looked back to Chloe, he ran his
thumb over her jaw and sighed. "You're so lovely," he said, pulling
her closer. "I want you so badly. Will I ever get to give you
another decent kiss?" he asked.

Chloe winked. "Maybe tonight, soldier."

The End

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Other Books by Kerri M. Patterson:

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