“Still certain you want to go with me? It may be dangerous,” Colin warned.

“It’s definitely dangerous,” Isabella said.

“I’m talking about the life-or-death kind of danger.”

“I’m not afraid. Besides, you told me you thought it would be safe enough for a few more days.” She linked her arm with his.

Colin shook his head. “Isabella, you’re dangerous in too many ways to count.”

She laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a man consider me dangerous. Now you—I’ll bet every female you meet sees a streak of danger in you,” she replied.

“I wouldn’t hurt a woman. You should know that.”

“Ah, but you’re a threat to a woman’s heart.” Her voice was warm and sexy.

“Careful, Isabella,” Colin murmured, meeting her gaze with his own. “You’re asking for trouble.”

She smiled. “I’ll take my chances.”

MILLS & BOON

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

Dear Reader,

It’s fall and the kids are going back to school, which means more time for you to read. And you’ll need all of it, because you won’t want to miss a single one of this month’s Silhouette Intimate Moments, starting with In Broad Daylight. This latest CAVANAUGH JUSTICE title from award winner Marie Ferrarella matches a badge-on-his-sleeve detective with a heart-on-her-sleeve teacher as they search for a missing student, along with something even rarer: love.

Don’t Close Your Eyes as you read Sara Orwig’s newest. This latest in her STALLION PASS: TEXAS KNIGHT miniseries features the kind of page-turning suspense no reader will want to resist as Colin Garrick returns to town with danger on his tail—and romance in his future. FAMILY SECRETS: THE NEXT GENERATION continues with A Touch of the Beast, by Linda Winstead Jones. Hawk Donovan and Sheryl Eldanis need to solve the mystery of the past or they’ll have no shot at all at a future…together. Award-winning Justine Davis’s hero has the heroine In His Sights in her newest REDSTONE, INCORPORATED title. Suspicion brings this couple together, but it’s honesty and passion that will keep them there. A cursed pirate and a modern-day researcher are the unlikely—but perfect—lovers in Nina Bruhns’s Ghost of a Chance, a book as wonderful as it is unexpected. Finally, welcome new author Lauren Giordano, whose debut novel, For Her Protection, tells an opposites-attract story with humor, suspense and plenty of irresistible emotion.

Enjoy them all—then come back next month for more of the best and most exciting romance reading around, only in Silhouette Intimate Moments.

Yours,

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Editor

Don’t Close Your Eyes
Sara Orwig

www.millsandboon.co.uk

SARA ORWIG

lives in Oklahoma. She has a patient husband who will take her on research trips anywhere from big cities to old forts. She is an avid collector of Western history books. With a master’s degree in English, Sara has written historical romance, mainstream fiction and contemporary romance. Books are beloved treasures that take Sara to magical worlds, and she loves both reading and writing them.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Keeping to the shadows under the trees, the tall man dressed in black blended into the Texas night. Beneath the pale sliver of April moon he dashed across the manicured lawn while unerringly following the map he had memorized.

Under a leafy oak, he paused to check that the hunter was not the hunted. If he spotted anyone following him, he would abort his mission and try again some other way. He waited in the humid darkness before he ran again.

In an elegant, gated community of the small town of Stallion Pass, he went over fences with ease. As he crossed the lawn of a three-story, red-brick Georgian mansion he noted few lights in the upper-story windows and hurried to the back of the house.

With a knowledge of the yard and house gained from his surveillance he crept to the back wall where two wires came out of the ground and ran up to a small box.

Pulling out his pocketknife, he cut the phone lines to disengage the alarm.

Moving to the side of the house, he hid his backpack behind a spirea and removed a glass cutter from his pack.

There was a faint scrape when he cut away a circle of glass and then unlocked and opened the window. The man hoisted himself up, over the sill and into the darkened room.

The bright beam of the tiny penlight in his hand revealed oil paintings, antique guns, a glistening silver candelabra and elegant furniture. He whistled softly in appreciation. The furnishings in this one room were worth a small fortune, he knew.

With practiced stealth, the man eased into a dark hall and headed toward the sweeping staircase. As he dashed towards the stairs, a door opened. Light spilled out and a woman stepped into the hall, colliding with him.

Instantly, without thinking about it, his training kicked in. He caught her, spun her around and covered her mouth with his hand as he pinned her arms to her sides.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m—”

She stomped on his instep, sending a flash of pain through his leg. At the same time, she jabbed an elbow into his middle, knocking the wind from his lungs.

“You wildcat!” he snapped as he dodged knees aimed at parts he wanted to protect. He had never slugged a woman and he wasn’t going to start with the lady of the house, but in her defensive fury she was trying to gouge out his eyes.

“Ouch!” he exclaimed, a kick to his shin sending a flash of pain through him as she scraped her fingers across his cheek.

“Dammit!” he snarled, wading in to wrap his arms around her to crush her against his chest.

Another tactical error because, for one stunned second as she struggled against him, he forgot the fight, the danger and his mission.

He was conscious only of soft curves, enticing perfume, silky tendrils of hair and female hips gyrating against him, causing reactions entirely different from what the struggle they were having should elicit.

His guard was down, lost in the proximity of a warm, soft body. His only thought, Desirable female. Very desirable.

Too late, he felt his gun leave the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back only to be thrust into his ribs.

“Let me go!” she stormed.

Careful to avoid any sudden moves, he released her.

She had his pistol aimed at him. If she had been a man, he could disarm him. As it was, she stood too close to protect herself. He’d never been able to strike a woman and he wasn’t willing to take any chances now. He didn’t want to make this situation any worse.

“Careful,” he cautioned. “Are you Savannah Remington? I’m a friend of Mike’s. I’m here to see him.”

“Friends don’t break into houses. Get your hands on your head and don’t move,” she ordered, stepping away from him.

“Don’t call the police,” he urged. They stood in the unlit hallway, but his eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see that she was a beauty. She wore cutoffs and a T-shirt that hugged fantastic curves. “I was in the service with Mike,” he continued. “I’m a friend. I thought I might have someone following me so I needed to get into the house to see Mike under the cover of darkness.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said, edging away from him.

“I’m telling the truth.” He glanced beyond her and saw what she was trying to reach. A cell phone, plugged in to be recharged lay on a nearby table.

“Don’t call the police. I’m Colin Garrick. You can ask—”

“Colin Garrick is dead,” she said flatly and took another step. She was inching back, now definitely too far away for him to attempt to retrieve his pistol.

“I am Colin. Really. Everyone thought I was killed but I survived.”

“I’m calling the police and they can learn your identity.”

“Give me a minute and listen!” he exhorted. “Someone is after me, which is why I broke in—I’d hoped to find Mike. Where is he?”

“He’s not here,” she said, still cautiously easing away from him.

“I promise you, I’m who I say. I’ve known Mike since we were little kids,” he persisted, rushing his words in an effort to get out information that would convince her of his identity. “We grew up together, went to the service at the same time. If you’re his wife, you should know things about us when we were kids, where we lived—”

“I’m not his wife. I’m the baby-sitter.”

“Look, can we have this conversation without you holding a gun aimed at me?” She didn’t lower the gun.

“Who are Mike’s best friends?”

“Boone Devlin and Jonah Whitewolf were his best friends when he was in the service. I don’t know who his friends are now.”

“What was Jonah’s wife’s name?” she asked, still leveling the gun at him.

“Kate,” he answered, and the woman’s eyes narrowed.

“Did Boone Devlin have any brothers or sisters?” she asked.

“He had eight. Nine kids in his family counting him. Ken, Zach, Izzie—” As he talked, he saw her eyebrows arch. She blinked as if deeply surprised and he hoped he was getting through to her.

“If you’re Colin, you gave Zach Devlin a special present on his nineteenth birthday. What was it?”

For a moment Colin went blank and a sense of panic gripped him. Boone’s younger brother Zach’s twenty-first birthday had to have been years ago. Even at the time, the gift hadn’t been a big deal, Colin was certain.

If she went for the phone, he would have to stop her then get out and away without talking to Mike. He tried to remember the gift, thinking of Boone and his younger brother. Her eyebrows arched higher, and he could see his chances of convincing her slipping away.

“My first rifle,” he snapped the second he recalled the incident.

To his relief, her eyes widened and she stared at him openmouthed. “You’re Colin!” she whispered and he was surprised by her shock. They were total strangers. “No one else could know about the rifle except you and Boone,” she said.

“My pistol—” he reminded her.

“Oh!” She lowered his gun, turned it and held it out to him. “You’re really Colin Garrick,” she repeated, still sounding stunned.

“That’s right.” He tucked the pistol back into his jeans and got out a handkerchief to wipe blood from his cut lip. “You must take martial arts.”

“How did you get in?”

“I cut a windowpane. I’m sorry, but I need to be careful. I don’t want to bring any more danger to Mike than I already have. That’s why I slipped in this way. Will he be home soon?”

“Why didn’t the alarm go off? I had it set and switched on,” she said.

“I cut the wires. You don’t have a phone now. Sorry.”

“I should have known. You guys—” she said, shaking her head. “They think you’re dead,” she repeated.

He dabbed at his neck and saw more blood on his handkerchief.

“Come with me, and I’ll get something for your cuts,” she said and turned. He followed her, watching the sexy sway of her hips and remembering the feel of her pressed against him. He shook his head as if to clear it. It had been a long time since a female had stirred his desire and this was not the place or the time for that to happen.

When she switched on a hall light, he admired the oil paintings on the walls, the polished hardwood floor and the crystal chandelier. “It’s difficult to picture Mike in this house,” Colin remarked. As he looked around, his attention riveted on the woman.

In darkness she had been attractive. In light she was stunning. Her flawless peaches-and-cream skin was perfection. Lush curves and long, shapely legs made him remember exactly how it had felt to hold her close against him. Enormous, thickly lashed, luminous blue eyes gazed at him with a disturbing sharpness.

Her thick, lustrous brown braid didn’t look as if a hair of it had been ruffled; he knew he looked as though he had survived a dogfight. He had the beginnings of bruises, his shirtsleeve was torn and he was bleeding from various and multiple scratches.

He realized he was staring at her. She was looking just as intently at him, which surprised him. But then everything about her amazed him, including her swift resistance and his getting tossed onto his backside.

“They don’t know you survived,” she repeated, her gaze going over him intently, a furrow wrinkling her forehead.

“For a long time no one knew otherwise,” he said, still scrutinizing her. Standing only a few feet away from her, he could detect her enticing perfume.

“When will Mike get home?” Colin persisted, trying to pull information out of her and wondering why Mike would tell the baby-sitter about him or his days in service, much less about the gift of his old rifle to Zach.

“Tomorrow,” she answered, and Colin swore under his breath.

“You’re bleeding,” she said. “We were going to do something about your cuts.” She led him down the hall into a large yellow-and-white bathroom with chairs, potted plants and a sunken, black-marble tub with gold fixtures. Motioning him to a chair, she opened a cabinet to retrieve small bandages, ointment and gauze. As she did, his gaze roamed freely over her. She took his breath. The thick braid was dark brown and he could imagine her hair hanging free.

She walked back to him and as their gazes met, he could feel the tension snap between them. Startled, emotions tore at him. He hadn’t felt this electricity with a woman in years. Not since—Abruptly he yanked his memories from the past. He didn’t want to feel anything now. He couldn’t afford to.

“If you’ll turn around, I’ll clean the cut on the back of your neck for you.”

He stood. “I’ll shower and wash all these cuts, then you can help me with the ones on the back of my neck.”

“I didn’t know you were a friend,” she said, studying him as if he had dropped from another planet.

“That’s all right. You just defended yourself and did a damn fine job of it.”

She nodded and left, closing the door behind her. He let out a breath and wiped his sweaty brow because she sent his temperature soaring.

Feeling stings all over his neck, hands and face from scratches she had inflicted, he showered, relishing the hot water pouring over him. If she didn’t teach martial arts, she could. Someone had taught her well and she must practice. Her reactions had been as quick as his, if not quicker. He had surprised her when she’d stepped into the hall, but she had caught him off guard when she’d fought back. He had to give her credit, she had handled the unexpected confrontation better than he had.

Colin dried and dressed again in the same clothes. He opened the door to call to her and paused, realizing he didn’t know what to call her. She’d been waiting in the hall and as soon as he opened the door, she sauntered toward him, entering the large, steamy room.

He moved to sit in the chair to let her put antiseptic on the scratches on the back of his neck. “I don’t know your name.”

“Yes, you do,” she said.

Startled, he stared at her. While her blue eyes twinkled, she smiled at him, which was pure delight. He almost wanted to smile in return. Puzzled, he said, “You said you’re not Savannah Remington. Do I know you?”

“Yes. If you’re really Colin, you do.”

“I wouldn’t have forgotten you,” he said, the words out before he thought.

In the depths of her eyes desire flickered and the silence between them dragged out as their gazes locked and sparks danced between them. She was beautiful, mysterious and unpredictable, and he was certain he had never met her before in his life.

He rubbed his head. There were blanks—times when memory had failed him—but she couldn’t have been any part of that period in his life. If she had, she wouldn’t want to tell him about it now. Not with a smile.

As the silence lengthened, his gaze lowered to her full, red lips and he wondered what it would be like to kiss her. He shocked himself. She caused him to long for things he hadn’t wanted in aeons. He moved closer to her, his gaze traveling over her features while he searched his memory.

She was far too beautiful for him to have forgotten her. Perplexed, he shook his head. “I can’t possibly know you.”

She laughed, a merry sound that wound warm tendrils around his stone-cold heart. “Remember an afternoon when you and Boone were on leave and went to the state fair?”

Dimly he recalled the incident. They’d had to take Boone’s kid sister and a little brother along. He stared at her. “There’s no damn way—”

“Yes, there is,” she replied, amused. “I’m Isabella. And don’t you dare call me Izzie.”

“You can’t be little Izzie,” he said, remembering a skinny kid who was all arms and legs and big eyes with braces on her teeth. “You’re Isabella Devlin,” he said, suddenly feeling as if someone had punched him in the middle.

He hadn’t seen Mike or Boone or Jonah for years. Isabella, Boone’s little sister, had been part of that earlier life of his. Other than his parents and brother, this was his first contact with his past since that explosion in that faraway land. Five years—an eternity in which his life had changed totally.

Emotions that he thought were as dead as he was supposed to be and often felt, surfaced, catching him off guard and tightening in his chest.

“Isabella,” he said in amazement, grasping her shoulder. “Those guys are like family. In some ways closer than my family because of what we did together…” His voice faded as his fingers clutched her shoulder. “Isabella,” he repeated in amazement.

Impulsively she reached out, wrapped her arms around him and held him.

Colin embraced her, inhaling her perfume, feeling a tie to his past with his best friends. Emotions tore at him; hurt for losses, relief to be with someone he could trust. Isabella—little Izzie—part of the Devlin family. He realized how tightly he was holding her and released her, stepping back.

She smiled and gestured for him to sit in the chair. “You don’t look the same, either.”

“No, I guess I don’t,” he said, his back to her. “I’ve had a lot of reconstructive surgery to put me back together. Damnation, you’re Izz—Isabella. No wonder you were a handful. Boone taught you how to protect yourself, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did. And sometimes we still practice. I work out.”

“You’re baby-sitting Mike’s baby?”

“His regular nanny was ill, and Mike and Savannah had a trip planned, so I said I’d stay,” Isabella explained as she dabbed antiseptic on his scratches and put gauze and bandages over the deepest cuts. “Sorry, Colin,” she said when she knew his cuts stung from the medication.

“That’s okay.”

“There. I’m done,” she said briskly, putting gauze and antiseptic away. “We can go sit somewhere and you can tell me what’s going on. Would you like something to drink? Or to eat?”

“Oh, yeah. I can’t remember when I last ate,” he said, falling into step beside her. Her head only came to his shoulder. “For someone so small and dainty, you pack quite a wallop.”

“Thank you. I tried.”

He laughed wryly. “Evidently, I need practice.”

“You were very old-fashioned and gallant. You could have hit me at any time and ended the battle.”

He smiled at her and was caught again as an electrical current stirred every nerve in his body, a reaction he didn’t want in the first place and sure as hell didn’t want now that he knew who she was. “It’s hard to equate you with Boone’s kid sister,” he said in a husky voice.

“I grew up,” she said, her voice breathless, making his pulse skip. Their gazes were still locked and they had stopped walking and were simply standing, staring at each other.

“If you’d given me the rest of the year, I never would’ve guessed who you are.”

“I haven’t changed that much,” she answered, looking up at him with crystal-blue eyes that mesmerized and held him.

“Yes, you have.” He sighed. “I know I have, too. At least they fixed me up where I don’t scare little kids.”

“No, you’d never scare children.”

Silence ensued, a taut stretch in which his heart hammered and he felt himself come alive in ways he’d thought were impossible. “We were headed somewhere,” he reminded her.

Taking a deep breath, she turned, but not before he saw her cheeks flush. “The kitchen. It’s at the end of the hall here on the main floor.”

“Do you live with Boone instead of in Kansas?” he asked.

“The family home is gone. Mom died four years ago, and we’re all scattered now. I’ve lived in California, but Boone talked me into moving back here. I’m living in his guest house on his ranch while my house is built in Stallion Pass.”

“I heard the guys all inherited from that fella we rescued—Frates.”

“That’s right. You would have been in the inheritance, but they thought you were dead.”

“I was.”

When she looked at him sharply, he shrugged. “I might as well have been dead. For a long time I was near death. I had surgery after surgery, but they finally patched me up. It’s a long story.”

“Go ahead and tell me,” she said. “I’m interested and I know Boone will be.”

Colin couldn’t resist and caught her braid in his hand. “Isabella. I just can’t believe it’s you. Are you married?”

“No. There’s no man in my life. And you’re changing the subject.”

His gaze drifted over her features. “Must be your choice, then.”

“You were telling me about what happened to you. You said you had operations.”

“Yeah,” he said as they entered the kitchen. He paused, taking in the oak cabinets, earth-colored ceramic flooring, burnt-orange-tiled countertops and copper pans hanging from a pot rack above a tiled island.

“Sit down. I’ll get you something. What would you like to drink? Mike has everything—beer, milk, tea, coffee, soda.”

“I’ll get a beer and if you have sandwich fixings, that’ll do.”

“You can have a sandwich or what I had tonight—prime rib, baked potato—which will take no time in the microwave oven.”

“You twisted my arm,” he said, his mouth watering over the thought of prime rib. “I’ve been on the run and haven’t been visiting four-star restaurants. I haven’t eaten anything since about five this morning.” As he started toward the refrigerator, she walked toward the pantry and they brushed against each other.

Colin reached out to steady her and this time the tension that streaked between them sizzled. Inhaling, he turned away, clamping his jaw tightly closed as he yanked open the refrigerator door, took out a cold beer and uncapped it.

“You won’t join me?” he asked, pulling out a chair at the long, oak table. Watching Isabella bustle around the kitchen, he looked at her long, bare legs again, still surprised at the changes in her. Izzie.

“No, as I said, I ate earlier,” she said. “But I’ll have a glass of iced tea with you.”

She opened a cabinet and stood on tiptoe to try to reach a glass pitcher on a high shelf. When she did, her T-shirt pulled tightly across her full breasts and Colin inhaled, his temperature rising another notch. He stood and crossed the room, reaching up to get the pitcher and hand it to her, his fingers brushing hers when he did so.

Again something flickered in the depths of her eyes. He knew she felt that sparkling electricity, too.

He clenched his teeth and turned away. He didn’t want to feel sparks if she were a total stranger much less someone he had known for years. Years and another lifetime ago.

He sat and ran his fingers along the cold beer bottle, then raised it to hold against his hot temple. He tried to keep his gaze anywhere except on her.

Giving him a speculative look, she said, “I don’t suppose you’re checked into the Stallion Pass Grand.”

He shook his head. “I’ll get out of here. Stop worrying.”

“Where will you go?”

He thought about what he would do next. “I wanted to see your brother and Jonah while I’m here, but I want to see Mike first. I don’t have to, I just wanted to. We go back a long way.”

“You can stay here,” she said.

“After what I put you through, I figured you’d want me gone.”

“I know Mike and Jonah. You four guys were really close. They’d want you to stay,” she said, getting ice and pouring tea for herself. Having washed a potato and put it in the microwave oven for him, she put a thick piece of prime meat in the oven. “I don’t mind you being here.”

“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that offer. It’ll be paradise after where I’ve been.”

In minutes she had the prime rib, a steaming potato with butter and grated cheese ready for him, along with generous slices of French bread. She sat across from him.

“You said you were concerned about being followed. How likely is it that you were?”

“Not likely,” he answered. Then dug into his dinner with relish.

“I’ve got someone after me who wants me dead,” Colin explained, picking his words carefully. “If he had been following me that closely, I wouldn’t be here talking to you. He wouldn’t have waited until I got here. I’ve been damn careful—which you may not believe since you almost pulverized me.”

She smiled and shook her head. “I said before, I know that you could have stopped me. You just didn’t want to hit a woman. It sounds like you’re involved in some serious stuff, right up to your chin. Are you bringing trouble to my brother and Mike and Jonah?” she asked bluntly.

“That’s the last thing I want to do, which is why I went to so much trouble to keep my tracks covered and to slip into this house and contact Mike at night when no one else would see me. I don’t want to increase the danger to any of them.”

“’Increase the danger,’ she repeated with arched eyebrows. “So why did you come then? Why do you want to see them?” she asked with curiosity.

He knew she was worried about her brother. “I need to warn Mike, Jonah and Boone. I know I’m in danger. I think the three of them might be in danger, too.”

Chapter 2

“Why would they be in danger?” Isabella demanded, chilled enough to rub her arms. Colin’s smoke-colored eyes were as cold as marble. None of her brother’s and his Special Forces friends were prone to exaggeration and she might not have seen Colin in years, but she doubted the man would be here without a good reason.

“All of them have been out of the military, away from that life, for a long time now,” she commented while Colin ate his dinner. “They have their lives and have been in the spotlight with this inheritance. Their lives are open and if anyone wanted to find them, it would be an easy thing.”

“It’s something that goes back to the explosion when everyone thought I’d been killed.” Putting down his fork, he gazed beyond her, a distant look coming to his eyes as if he had forgotten her existence or even where he was. “I died then in many ways,” he said so quietly that she had to lean closer to hear him; she was certain he had forgotten her presence.

“For a long time, I didn’t want to live.” With each word his voice grew more harsh, increasing the coldness surrounding her. “I still don’t care if I live or not, but I’m concerned about my friends. I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

As he talked, she studied his rugged yet appealing features. She had seen all the scars on his chest and back, but he was lean and muscular and looked incredibly fit. She was responding to him physically in a way she shouldn’t be. For all she knew, the man was married. Yet he certainly was sexy, dressed in black from head to toe. Dangerous and tough. There was no denying what those smoke-colored eyes could do to her pulse….

“That last mission I was on was covert. The four of us were to rescue an agent who had been taken hostage by a criminal terrorist.”

She remained silent. Boone never talked about his missions, especially that one, and she had only a sketchy knowledge of what had happened five years ago.

“I was the first to get to the building where they held the hostage. The other guys were behind me. As I went in, someone detonated a bomb. The hostage and I were closest to it.”

“That’s dreadful!” she exclaimed, half not wanting to hear what had happened and half of her needing to know.

“Someone had tipped the guys off. If the bomb had blown seconds later, all of us would have been killed.”

“But why didn’t anyone know you were alive?”

“When the car bomb exploded, I was directly in its path. The others knew they had to run for it. Mike, Jonah and Boone probably would have looked for me, but they saw me take the blast. They had to run for it. From what I pieced together later, the news reports had listed five men killed in the explosion, one unidentified. So, they would have assumed I was dead.

“From what I learned later, when the local authorities found us,” Colin continued, “they thought I was dead, but then someone detected a heartbeat so they rushed me to a hospital.”

His attention returned to Isabella and he focused on her as if realizing her presence again. “I was told all that much later. I had amnesia and to this day do not remember one thing from the moment of explosion until long afterward. Long, long afterward.”

“Colin, I’m sorry,” she said, reaching across the table to squeeze his hand. Instantly his fingers closed over hers and he held her hand firmly, his gray eyes focusing intently on her. Electricity streaked from his touch over every cell in her body.

“You make me feel like I’m home even more than when I saw my family and really was at home.”

“I don’t know how that can be,” she answered, her pulse quickening. She had reached out in sympathetic gesture, but the instant his hand had closed over hers and he’d looked at her, the contact transformed into a fiery, physical awareness. She didn’t react this way to other men and she didn’t want such a response with a man who was danger personified. Besides, as she dimly recalled, Colin had a fiancée in his past.

He was not wearing a wedding ring, but she would not be surprised to hear that he was married by now.

“Why didn’t you let your family know you were alive?”

He dropped her hand. “It’s a long story,” he said in a tone so filled with bitterness she was sorry she had asked.

“So you got over the amnesia,” she prompted, wanting to hear the rest of his story and why her brother and his friends might be in danger.

“Somewhat,” he said, taking another bite of potato. “I remember most everything except the explosion and a couple of weeks afterward.”

“That was a long time ago. Why does it matter now?”

“The ringleader of the terrorists escaped the blast, but I’m sure he doesn’t want me to live—I’m the witness who can identify him if I can just remember what went down. My memory is gone. No one knows when it might fully return. If it does, I may also know enough to identify a double agent who was involved. Someone tipped the terrorists about our plan to rescue the hostage, who was a U.S. agent. There’s a good chance the spy was one of our own men and he wants me dead.”

“How do you know a double agent was involved?”

“Someone had that meeting set up to kill us and the hostage. If we had all gone in together as we’d originally planned, they would’ve succeeded. Someone arranged things a little too well—it had to be an inside job.”

She shivered. “That’s dreadful. Someone you worked with set all of you up?”

“Right. The CIA suspect they have a double agent high up in the ranks. Secrets are getting out that have hurt them. Men like us have been killed because their cover has been blown.”

“That’s dreadful, but if my brother and Mike and Jonah weren’t there with you and the hostage, why are they in danger?”

“For that, we need to go back to when I was injured. After the explosion, I was in a foreign hospital for over a year. It was a while before I knew who I was.”

“You were an American. Didn’t they try to contact someone about you?” she asked.

He stopped to take a long drink of beer, wiping his mouth and eating a bite of roast. After a moment he continued. “When I began to remember enough to know who I was, I contacted—” He stopped abruptly and looked away. A muscle worked in his jaw and she realized he still was emotionally entangled in the memories of his past.

She was uneasy, a chilling fear growing that even though he didn’t want to bring trouble to them, he had. But maybe, as he was trying to tell her, the trouble was already here and his news would help alert Boone, Jonah and Mike.

Colin was silent so long, she wondered if he had forgotten what he was saying. “You said you contacted—whom?” she prompted him. “The army?”

“No. Danielle, my fiancée. She was my first thought when I regained my memory. I thought if I could just reconnect with her, I’d be okay. But she had gotten married. The hostage exchange was to take place in one of those obscure Eastern European countries near Russia. I was brought into the hospital with no identification and no memory. Since I could speak fluent Russian and no authorities or military were looking for me, I was pretty unimportant. Those people had their own civil war going on and there was so much unrest and turmoil going on that I was hardly worth any interest at the time,” Colin said quietly between clenched teeth. He had stopped eating and was staring into space again. “After that I didn’t care then whether I lived or not. Nothing made sense. To most of the world, my family, my friends, the army, I was dead. So, as far as I was concerned, I was dead.”

“That’s terrible! Colin, your family was so hurt. They were at Mike’s wedding and they were still grieving.”

“I know and I regret their hurt. I was in and out of surgery, had to go to therapy, had setbacks. Then, because of the political situation, I was put into prison. I didn’t care and wanted to die.”

“Things went from bad to worse for you!” she exclaimed, knowing how tough all four men were and amazed that Colin had succumbed to grief. Then she realized how vulnerable he would have been with a memory loss and injuries and on medications and totally cut off from family and friends. “I’m sorry.”

“No need for you to be sorry. You had nothing to do with any of what happened. I finally managed to contact the military. They got me out of there and to a hospital on a U.S. base in Germany.”

“Why didn’t you contact your family at that time?”

“I hurt and didn’t care to live, and for a time, didn’t know whether or not I would survive. If I didn’t get well, I didn’t want my family to go through losing me twice. Maybe it was wrong, but my thinking was fuzzy. Half the time I was medicated too much to think clearly.”

“So what happened?”

“Once the military got into it, things changed. I got good medical care and had a lot of reconstructive surgery. Actually, they did a fair job on my face. They had to rebuild my cheekbones and my jaw and my nose.”

“They did a great job. You don’t have any visible scars on your face at all.” Isabella reached out and touched the tips of her fingers to his cheek. “Actually, you’re still a very good-looking guy,” she said lightly.

He focused on her to the extent that she wished she hadn’t admitted the last. That she hadn’t touched him.

“Thank you,” he replied. “I suspect you’re saying that because I’m Boone’s buddy and you’ve known me forever. But that’s all right.”

Isabella had been talking with him not quite an hour, yet she could see he had become bitter, cynical and hard. She was saddened by his words, because even in this brief time, she could tell that Colin was not the man she’d once known. She remembered that day at the fair. Boone had ridden the roller coaster with Vince while Colin had ridden with her. Colin had been a fun-loving, carefree, easygoing man who’d always laughed a lot and made the others with him laugh. Now he wouldn’t even smile.

“Go on, Colin. Finish your story,” she said, dropping her hand back to her lap and sipping her tea.

“The military wanted me to keep my survival quiet, even from my family. Special Forces started me working again on ferreting out the CIA double agent. I was flown to Langley and looked at pictures of everyone in the agency, studied their whereabouts at the time of the explosion, talked to psychiatrists. Doctors did all sorts of things to trigger my memory. Most of it gradually returned. Everything in my life except the explosion and about a month afterward. To this day I don’t remember the blast. When, and if, my memory does return, it might not help. On the other hand, I may have seen something that would help identify the spy.”

“So where do Boone, Mike and Jonah fit into this?”

Colin finished eating and pushed back his chair. She stood to remove his plate and clear the table.

“Sit down, Isabella. I’ll help in a minute.”

She sat again. “Go ahead with your story.”

“Not long ago, I was in Virginia. Someone tried to run me down. They came close enough to put me back into the hospital with bruises. Someone was trying to kill me, which meant whoever the double agent in the agency was, knew about me. That knowledge narrowed the possibilities. He knew I was still alive. We assume he was bound to know that my best buddies were Mike, Boone and Jonah.”

“So they think you might have let your friends know what you knew.”

“Possibly. They obviously don’t know enough to act on their knowledge or they would have already. As long as no one knew I was alive—including my family and friends—then they were safe. But now someone knows Mike, Boone and Jonah might have information that will help me trigger my memory. It’s a long shot, but not out of the question. And the person involved is desperate. To try to run me down when I was with an agent is the act of someone on the edge, determined to get rid of me. I was fine being dead, if it meant everyone else was safe. But now someone knows. And I’ve got to see if I can remember what happened before my family is put in danger.”

“So that’s why you’re here,” she said, thinking about the danger the men could be in. As well as their families just for being with them.

“I’m sorry if I’ve frightened you. You may want to pack and get out of your brother’s guest house for a time,” Colin said.

Isabella shook her head. “Don’t be silly, I’m not any more afraid than Boone will be. If there’s danger, I’ll be careful.”

“The men may not be in danger, but we don’t know. I want to warn them in case they are.”

“What about your family?”

“I’ve contacted my family twice since then. The first time was right after Mike’s wedding. But they were never involved in my work and seeing them didn’t help my memory lapse. I was with them only briefly.”

“They have to be overjoyed you’re alive.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to bring danger down on them needlessly. The last time I saw them, I slipped in and out the way I hoped to do here. I’m hoping my parents are in less danger because they weren’t part of my military life. But I can’t risk staying with them, risking my family. I’ve been away from home a long time. In my adult life, I’ve been with Boone, Mike and Jonah more than with my parents and being with them may trigger that last bit of lost memory.”

“I hope for your sake, seeing your friends does jog your memory.”

“The person after me is desperate. Agents have been killed because of this spy. I want to catch him.”

Once again a chill slithered down her middle. “I guess you need to see my brother and the others. I think I can safely say they’re in for a shock.”

“Thanks for letting me sleep here tonight,” Colin said.

She merely nodded, thinking about the gaps in his story. “It’s been five years. That’s a long time.”

“Little things trigger bits of memory. If I can recall what happened in that house and who I saw, I might be able to end this whole thing and stop running. Also, my enemies may suspect these guys here know more than they actually do.”

“So you avoid phones, a paper trail, all that stuff.”

“Every bit of ‘that stuff,”’ he agreed.

“Let me pick up a little,” she said, rising and gathering up dishes. “If you want, we can go sit in the other room to talk.”

“Sure. It’s good to see you again, Isabella,” he replied, standing and gathering the rest of the dishes to help her. “In fact, it was downright agreeable after the first ten minutes.”

“Well, what were you expecting when you broke into a house?”

“I expected to find Mike and to talk to him and leave. But then, life is always full of unexpected twists and turns.”

They cleaned together, restoring order to the kitchen, and then Isabella motioned toward a door. “Let’s sit in the family room.”

When he walked beside her, she was conscious of how tall he was. “So where do you go from here?”

“You don’t want to know. It’s better if no one knows.”

“Do you trust anyone?” she asked, wondering about his solitary life. He was ruggedly appealing with dark, brooding, craggy looks. What was it about him, she wondered, that attracted her? When they looked at each other or barely touched, sparks all but danced in the air. She couldn’t understand the unwanted, volatile chemistry between them. He was not the man to take home to the family.

Not in the next hundred years. He was solitary, dangerous, in trouble, cynical, brooding, hurt. Everything undesirable, yet when he had held her close in his arms to try to stop her attack, she had felt an electrifying charge that she couldn’t recall experiencing with a man before.

Now, as she strolled beside him, she tried to focus on what he was saying to her.

“I trust Mike, Boone and Jonah. For their own sakes, there are things I won’t tell them, because they’re better off not knowing.”

“Do the doctors ever think your memory will fully return?”

“They don’t know. But they didn’t know about some things that have already happened,” he said.

She gazed at his full lower lip, the slightly full upper lip, a sensuous mouth. Unbidden images of his mouth on hers had her pulse beating faster. She tried to stop unwanted thoughts and to concentrate on their conversation.

As she switched on a light in the family room, he paused to look at the room. Trying to see it through his eyes, she also glanced around at the cozy room with its leather furniture and huge fireplace, thick, patterned area rug and mahogany furniture.

“Mike’s mansion is elegant,” Colin said. “I’m pleased for him. I hope he’s happy.”

“He and Savannah seem blissful, and they love little Jessie.”

“I’m glad for him and the life he’s found here.” Colin sat in a winged chair and Isabella sat in a corner of the brown sofa, tucking her legs beneath her. When he stretched out his long legs, her gaze drifted down the length of him and then up again to find him watching her.

While a blush heated her cheeks, she was at a loss for conversation.

“Bring me up to date about my friends, Isabella,” Colin said. “I have only sketchy information.”

“Okay, Mike has a security business, and Savannah still practices law although she’s home a lot with Jessie. Jonah inherited a cattle ranch and he and Kate live there,” Isabella replied, but her thoughts were more on Colin.

“I heard Jonah has a son.”

“That’s right, Henry. And another baby on the way.”

“So he and Kate got back together. Miracles never cease. I suppose the bone of contention between them is gone since he’s out of the service. What about your brother?”

“Boone just married Erin, the manager of the horse ranch that he inherited.”

“All the guys are married,” Colin said, once more bitterness clearly filled his voice. “And you’re not. So what do you do, little sis?”

“I’m a photographer. I have a shop in Stallion Pass.”

“Do you enjoy it?”

“I love it. As a matter of fact, why don’t you let me photograph you, Colin. You have an interesting face.”

He shook his head. “If I didn’t know you were Isabella, I’d be highly suspect of your request.”

“You have an interesting face,” she protested.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been told that. I’m sorry, but no, I don’t let anyone take pictures of me. Too dangerous to have them around. I don’t want anyone who’s looking for me to pick up my trail.”

“What if I take a few pictures of you and keep them to myself until this is over?”

He locked his hands behind his head. “It may not be over for years.”

“Then I’ll keep your pictures hidden. Let me take them. You’ll be a grand subject.”

“Sorry, Isabella, but the answer remains no. Photograph Jonah or Mike.”

“I have pictures of all of them already.”

“My answer is still no.”

“Let me know if you change your mind,” she said, certain that he would.

“You’re a bit stubborn, aren’t you?”

“No more than you are,” she replied easily.

“Tell me about your life, Isabella,” he said. Every time he pronounced her name, it sounded different from when anyone else said it. Everything about Colin was unique. Sympathy created a strong tie to him. Also, was she empathetic just because she had known him for years and remembered who he had been?

She did know he held a dazzling appeal for her, and he must have felt something, too. She had glimpsed his reactions, heard his voice drop to a husky note. But Colin was the last man on earth she would want to find captivating. He was hard, cynical and cold. She was appalled and saddened that he hadn’t seen more of his family or let them know sooner that he was alive. Still, she could remember Colin as the happy person he had once been. His harshness was easier to understand when she considered the trauma he had experienced.

No matter what the reason, it was an incredible loss and waste for him to give up on life. She looked at his thickly lashed, smoky eyes. They were startlingly pale and intense against his dark looks. Locks of black hair fell over his forehead. He was thin, the hollows in his cheeks dark shadows beneath the prominent bones. He was ruggedly handsome and she knew he would photograph spectacularly. In a picture, the brooding look in his eyes would tell its own story.

“Remember when you rode the roller coaster with me?” she asked, wishing she could get a smile out of him.

One dark eyebrow climbed and he stared at her. “I sort of recall that day. Don’t be insulted, but that wasn’t high on my list of unforgettable moments. You were a skinny little girl. How old are you now, Isabella? Seems like you ought to be about nineteen, but I guess that’s not right.”

She laughed. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to ask a woman her age? But then, to you, I don’t qualify as a woman. You still see a skinny kid.”

“No,” he answered solemnly, giving her one of those somber looks that stole her breath, “you definitely qualify as a woman, Isabella.” He stood and moved to the sofa beside her and leaned forward to take her braid in his hand. “A very beautiful woman,” he said in a husky voice.

She couldn’t move or take her breath. How could he have such an effect on her when he neither intended it nor cared and it was unwanted on her part?

“I know you’re a hell of a lot younger than I am.” He began to unfasten her braid. “Your hair is long. Let’s see it out of that braid.”

She felt faint tugs against her scalp as she watched his hands at work. He had well-shaped fingers, thick wrists, strong-looking hands. Tiny scars spread across the backs of his hands and wrists and upper arms. He had pushed up the long, black sleeves of his knit shirt and his forearms were sprinkled with short black hairs.

He smelled soapy and clean. He glanced up at her and met her gaze and tension running between them jumped another notch.

“You shouldn’t have to run all your life,” she said.

“I don’t intend to,” he replied grimly, giving her a hard look. She wondered to what lengths he would go to stop the killer. “If I can’t get my memory back, there are places in the world where a person can go and live and never see another living soul.”

“You weren’t meant for that kind of life, Colin!” she exclaimed. “What a waste that would be! You can’t become a recluse.”

“Being a hermit isn’t a bad life.”

“To never love someone else, never have a family—”

“I don’t see you with a family. Are you in love with someone?”

Startled, she blinked at him and was mildly annoyed. “No, but I’m out in the world and I enjoy people, and someday in the future I might have a family. Even if I don’t, I have a full, active life. I’m not hiding from the world.”

“I’m not exactly going to hide from the world, just from a killer,” he said as if explaining the situation to a child. He shot her a dark look and she knew she had touched raw nerves and hurt him.

“Colin, I just remember how friendly you were. I’m prying and being as pesky as a little sister, I guess.” She smiled at him and he touched the corner of her mouth, a touch that sent fiery tingles to the center of her being.

“Your intentions are good, but you know the old saying about hell being paved with them. Watch out, Isabella. I’m not a lost cause you need to save. I know what I want.”

He finished unbraiding her hair and began to comb his fingers through the long locks that fell to her waist. Her straight hair now held slight waves from being plaited for hours. He caught up a handful and rubbed the strands across his cheek. “You have beautiful hair.”

“Thank you,” she whispered. He’d leaned close enough that she could see the faint dark stubble on his jaw. His short hair was thick, an unruly tangle above his forehead.

“So tell me about your life. What have you done since that roller coaster ride?”

“I went to the University of Southern California on a scholarship and got into photography and found my field. By my senior year I was making so much money with my photography that I dropped out of college.”

“You must be good at picture-taking.”

“Good enough,” she answered in amusement. “After another couple of years I had my own business, and it’s grown. Then when Boone settled here and liked it so much, he talked me into moving my business to Stallion Pass. Photography is something you can do anywhere, and a lot of people come into Stallion Pass for one reason or another. In a lot of ways it’s like a resort town.”

“So where is the romance in your life?”

“At the moment it’s nonexistent.”

“Which I find surprising. All right, who was there, and why is he gone?”

“There was someone a while back, but he wanted to get serious and I didn’t. I’m not ready for marriage.”

“Why not?”

“My business. Right now that’s more important. It won’t always be, but it is now.”

“Well, maybe you just haven’t met the right guy.”

If he weren’t so solemn, she would think he was teasing her, but he looked incapable of teasing anyone.

“Maybe I haven’t.”

“Any other guy, any other time?”

“In college—same deal. He wanted to get married and I didn’t. I have my plans for my business.”

“Sorry I won’t be around long enough to see some of your photographs.”

“Well, you can see at least one or two because I’ve taken some of Mike’s little girl, Jessie.” She was aware Colin still toyed with her hair, combing it through his fingers, letting it slip over his hand. “Colin, why didn’t you go into the witness protection program?” she asked. “You could have had a new life that would be almost like normal.”

“The killer is someone high up in the Agency. He would know where I am and who I was. I can handle a solitary life and I won’t have to worry about what’s behind the next tree or around the next bend. Or have government agents constantly after me to do something. I’ve served my time with the government and I want to end it soon.”

“Living in solitude for the rest of your life is like a prison sentence,” she argued, hating to see him give up on life.

“Solitude isn’t always bad. So what do you take pictures of?” he asked, turning the conversation away from himself.

“People, mostly. I do all sorts of portraits. A lot of babies and little children, newborns. I do weddings. I like it all. I had one assignment with a national magazine that took me to Patagonia and I loved it. I’ve had some showings of my photographs in galleries.”

“So, where are you building this house of yours?”

“Near this one. I’ll live close by. I bought an old house and had it torn down and I’m rebuilding what I want.”

“You wasted a house?”

“I didn’t want it, but I like the location and there aren’t any more lots available right around here.”

She heard the hall clock chime and then, an hour later, she heard it chime again. She liked talking to Colin, yet the whole time, she still felt an underlying sadness over the changes in him and the life he led. When the clock chimed three, she noticed the time.

“It’s getting late. Let’s go find you a bedroom. I need to go to bed. Jessie is up about seven in the morning. She won’t care what time I went to sleep.” Isabella stood. “So how safe are we tonight? We don’t have an alarm now, and one pane is out of one of the windows.”

“I’ll stay down here and guard you,” Colin decided. “I left a backpack outside behind the bush by the window. I’ll go out and get it.”

“Let me get it for you,” Isabella suggested. “You tell me where you put it, and that way you won’t be outside where anyone can see you.”

He nodded and led the way to the room where he’d entered the house. He pointed at the bush. “My backpack is there.”

“I’ll get it. I’ll have to call someone to come out and fix the alarm tomorrow.”

“Mike needs to get a different type of alarm. A lot of men can do exactly what I did. It was almost as easy as walking through the front door.”

“I wonder if that’s true at Boone’s and Jonah’s,” she mused.

“At least they’re out on ranches. That’s more challenging, but not impossible to break into. Wouldn’t hurt for all of them to take a close look at their security.”

“I’ll get your backpack.” She raised the window and put her leg over the sill.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Going out the way you came in. It’ll be easier.” She slipped outside and dropped to the ground, retrieving the backpack and turning to hand it to him through the open window. He reached down to lift her inside, his hands picking her up under her arms. She placed her hands on his forearms and felt the muscles knot.

He swung her inside with ease and set her on her feet, looking down at her. They stood in the darkened room. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark and she was certain his had, also.

“You’re as light as a feather,” he said.

She didn’t want to move away, her hands still resting on his arms. His hands slipped down to her waist. She wondered how long since he had kissed a woman. Was he going to kiss her now?

Chapter 3

He stepped back, inches farther from her. “You’ve got your life, Isabella, and I have mine. Don’t conjure up things that aren’t there.”

“You’re scared to let go and live again. Talk about waste—”

“I’m not complicating my life or yours anymore than I already have,” he said, and she knew she should leave him alone.

Wordlessly, she moved away and he picked up his backpack.

“You know where the bathroom is. I’ll show you one of the downstairs bedrooms. We should be safe.”

“I agree. But I’ll still sleep on the sofa. I’m a light sleeper.”

She led him to a bedroom and switched on a small lamp. The four-poster was covered in white eyelet and she couldn’t imagine Colin in the fancy bed. And she knew she shouldn’t try. She eyed the backpack. “Those are your things?”

“I travel lightly,” he said. “Clothes wash and I don’t need much to get along.”

“I think there are clothes here, and Mike probably has some that would fit you. You’re thinner, but about his height. There may be a robe in that closet.”

“I don’t need a robe,” he said. “I’m all right. Go to sleep and don’t worry. I’ll hear anything that’s amiss.”

“Well, if someone breaks in, don’t be so polite this time. You hit the intruder.”

“Now wouldn’t that have been terrible if I had hauled off and struck you?”

“Me, yes. Someone breaking in here, no.”

“Don’t worry. It won’t be anyone friendly coming after me, and I won’t hesitate,” he said, touching her hair. The light was a soft glow and they were standing close. Once again, her heart began a drumroll. His smoky eyes darkened as he stood looking at her.

She tilted her head to study him and touched his jaw lightly. “You should live where there are people who care about you, get back your old life.”

“Never.” He shook his head. “I won’t go through that pain twice in my life and I won’t ever trust a woman with my heart again, not after Danielle,” he said harshly, his gray eyes growing glacial.

“Half the world takes love lightly,” she said in exasperation, wishing she could reach him. “People marry and divorce with tears shed and short-term pain. You four guys fall in love with someone and it’s a forever deal. Jonah didn’t want to live without Kate. He didn’t date. He was bitter. Now you’re the same way, torn apart over your fiancée after all this time.”

“You’ve never been in love, Isabella, not really in love. Those guys who wanted to marry you and you didn’t want to, you weren’t in love. You don’t know what it’s like. And it is a forever thing. One love, always.”

“If it had been a ‘forever thing,’ for your sweetheart, she wouldn’t have married someone else. Get over Danielle, Colin. It was over for her a long time ago. Life is wonderful and people are marvelous and caring and exciting. Stop trying to be the walking dead and come back into life.” Isabella knew she should stop, but this was probably the last time she would be alone with Colin. Tomorrow morning she would be busy with Jessie. Then she expected Colin to be with Mike and the other guys and then gone forever.

“I’ll bet you’ve never been a coward about anything else in your life,” she said. “But you’re scared to live.”

“You’re scared to love!” he snapped back, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

She blinked and then stared hard at him. Slowly she shook her head. “No, I’m not,” she said. She stepped close, wrapped her arms around his neck, stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

Stunned, he was caught off guard as much as he had been the first few seconds he had accosted her in the dark hallway when he’d broken in. When her tongue slid over his, his insides clenched, his heart thudded and he came to life.

His arm banded her waist. Standing in the middle of an inferno could not heat him more. Holding her tightly in his embrace, he leaned over her while he kissed her in return. She wouldn’t call him scared again.

The desire was like an explosion. Something he hadn’t felt in so long, it shocked him. His body had been as numb as his heart. But he was coming back to life in a rush.

Passion raged like a roaring bonfire. His heart thudded and he ran his hand down her back, over her buttocks, pulling her up tightly against him as he kissed her long and thoroughly.

Anger, lust, a staggering hunger for her mouth rocked him and he poured himself into kisses that were the first real ones in too long to remember. Her kisses were hot and sweet and unbearable torment.

Then he remembered that he was holding Boone’s sister in his arms.

Colin raised his head, gazing down at her as she opened her eyes. Fire burned in depths of blue, accelerating his pulse. It was an effort to release her. Her lips were red, her long hair cascaded around her face and over her shoulders. Her nipples pushed against the tight T-shirt and her breathing was as ragged as his as they stared at each other.

“You’re off limits.” His voice grated. “I haven’t—” He broke off his words.

“I shouldn’t have pushed you, Colin,” she said. Her eyes were huge. “Just don’t let go of life. You are much too wonderful to do that.” She turned and left the room, and he watched her go. His pulse pounded. He had not kissed a woman since Danielle.

He hadn’t felt alive since that explosion, but he had drifted through pain and daily living, not caring if he was numb to everything, not caring if he was only half alive and in danger or about anything else that came his way. Only this past year had he decided he wanted out of Washington, away from the military and all authorities. He wanted peace and quiet, and a simple life. He didn’t want to hurt his family further or to bring danger to them.

The last thing he’d planned to do before going into his isolation was to warn his buddies of the danger they might be in.

Now he was on fire with longing he hadn’t felt in years. This kid sister of Boone’s had stormed into his body, making his heart pound harder, awakening him to needs that he thought were dead and over. Little Izzie. But she wasn’t “little” Izzie any longer. She was a beautiful, desirable, stubborn woman.

He didn’t want to be on fire with longing. He didn’t want to think about her kiss that had all but melted his insides.

But Colin suspected he wasn’t going to be able to forget her kiss anytime in the near future. He wiped a hand across his mouth, wishing he could erase her kiss, wishing they hadn’t goaded each other into such a heated confrontation.

She was like a miniature tiger. There should have been warning signs. Do Not Surprise Or Taunt. Big blue eyes and hair in a pigtail. Deal With At Your Own Risk. She should have been sweet and pleasant and afraid of him as most young women were.

Maybe that gutsy daredevil blood in Boone ran in his whole family. Boone. Isabella was his kid sister. “Just keep reminding yourself,” Colin whispered to himself. He needed to keep his hands off Boone’s sister. He would never have thought this would be a problem.

Instead it was a monumental dilemma—one that kept his pulse racing even now, long after she had sashayed out of the room with that sexy walk of hers.

He groaned, raked his fingers through his hair, then rubbed his knee. His old injuries were acting up after the earlier struggle with Isabella. But he also ached in places he hadn’t hurt in years. And the desire, hot and elemental, angered him.

She had brought him back into life like igniting a fire—Could he put out the flames? Could he go back as he had been, numb, unemotional, not caring? He swore under his breath and walked through the downstairs of Mike’s mansion.

Colin switched off lights until the entire lower floor was bathed in darkness. His eyes adjusted, and he strode to the window he had broken, gazing outside. But his mind was still on Isabella and her kiss.

She was the first woman since Danielle to get through to him. He didn’t want Isabella Devlin clouding his thinking or stirring him to yearnings he thought were long dead. He wouldn’t be here long. He was here to pass on a warning and to vanish once more.

From what she had told him, she didn’t know anything about love. She knew plenty about kissing. And fighting. And shocking him into awareness.

“Dammit, get out of my thoughts!” he whispered. Raking his fingers through his hair again, he remembered combing his hand through her long, silky hair. She had smelled delectable…tasted luscious…and he wanted to forget every second he’d spent with her tonight. He heard a thump overhead and looked up. Everything had to be all right.

Uneasy, he turned and went to the foot of the stairs. All was dark at the top and he climbed slowly, carefully, not making a sound. In seconds he could see the upstairs hall where one small wall lamp burned. Doors opened off the wide hallway in both directions. He knew there was a third floor to the mansion. He hadn’t asked Isabella where she was sleeping.

He climbed a couple more steps and saw a door open a crack, light spilling out. He moved to the top of the stairs.

“Isabella?” he called quietly.

The door opened wider and she stepped into the hall. She was wearing a pale pink cotton nightgown and he could see her figure outlined through the backlighting from the bedroom. He inhaled deeply.

“Are you all right?” he asked, unable to prevent the husky note in his voice.

“I’m fine,” she replied, sounding puzzled. “Did something disturb you?”

Before he could answer, a baby started crying and Isabella hurried to the room next to hers, opening a door. He walked down the hall, every step telling himself to turn around and go back downstairs, to keep distance between himself and Boone’s sister.

He paused in the open doorway. She was holding a little girl in her arms. The baby’s arm was around Isabella’s neck as she tried to comfort the crying child.

As she patted the little girl’s back, the child stopped crying and snuggled closer to Isabella. Isabella turned around and her eyes widened.

“Is she all right?” he asked.

“She’s fine. She’ll go back to sleep. This is Jessie. Jessie, love,” she said softly, “this is—What rank are you, Colin? The last I heard was Colonel Garrick.”

“Colin is enough for a baby to deal with. She doesn’t talk yet anyway, does she?”

“Yes, she talks,” Isabella replied with a smile. “She has a limited vocabulary, but she talks. She’s seventeen months old now.”

Isabella looked beautiful in the nightgown, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, the baby in her arms. He was staring and had momentarily forgotten they had been talking.

“Did something disturb you?” she asked.

“I heard a thump,” he replied, telling himself to leave her alone. Yet he could only stand and stare.

“We’re fine. I dropped my book. Maybe you heard that.” She looked down at Jessie who had gone back to sleep. “See, she’s fine.” She put the toddler back into the crib and turned to go. “She’s gone back to sleep.” She looked up at him. “Shall we go?”

The neck of the nightgown was high, but the top two buttons were unfastened and he couldn’t keep from staring, wanting to reach out and push open the gown. It was cotton and opaque, covering her, but he knew there was nothing under it and he wanted to pull her into his arms.

He turned abruptly and left. “Just wanted to see that you were all right.” He flung the words over his shoulder without looking back. He rushed down the stairs as if a demon were after him; he certainly felt as though one were. A devil of desire. Something he hadn’t had to deal with in so long and that he didn’t want to cope with now.

He stretched out on the sofa. While he had traveled across country for nights on end, he had been going with little sleep and catching it any way he could. Tonight, he had a plush, comfortable sofa and he should have been asleep immediately, but he knew that as long as images of Isabella tormented him, slumber would elude him.

He didn’t want back into the land of the living. He put his hands behind his head, stared at a fixture and blanked out his mind as he had learned to do in prison. He repeated passages committed to memory, going over them without thinking, but keeping his mind blank until sleep overtook him.

Upstairs, Isabella sat in her darkened bedroom, her thoughts stormy as she went back over every minute of the evening.

And Colin’s kiss. They had taunted each other. She shouldn’t have said the things to him that she had, but she was disappointed with the man he had become. If he had been antisocial and mean, she would have left him alone about his future. But he’d once been so alive, the change seemed like a betrayal of the old Colin.

His plans for the rest of his days were grim. Going into seclusion. Giving up love and friends and family.

She touched her lips lightly, remembering his kiss again. She shouldn’t have started that kiss, but what he had said had made her angry. And then after the first startled seconds, he had responded fully. As far as kisses went, his had been devastating. Just thinking about their kiss, she grew hot and ached to kiss him again. Something she couldn’t do—shouldn’t do—impossible.

He had come to life all right, kissing her senseless. Too vividly, she recalled each detail of his arms around her, holding her pressed tightly against him, his tongue stroking hers, his thick shaft pressing against her. And her heart pounding wildly, her breath gone, her pulse racing.

Tomorrow he would be gone forever. How long would she remember tonight?

She hurt for him and knew she shouldn’t. She should let go worrying about Boone’s friend. While she stared into the dark, all she could see were Colin’s gray eyes and somber expression and remember how he had been a brave, idealistic man filled with vitality and enthusiasm. All of that was gone, and she could understand why from what he told her. He had mended physically, now he needed to mend emotionally.

“Right, Isabella,” she said to herself. “Go save him from himself.” She gave a harsh laugh. He was sexy, appealing and lost. And she wanted to save him. What a project!

The man didn’t want to be saved and if she delved much deeper, she might find she had opened a Pandora’s box of problems. Let him go tomorrow. Don’t spend time with him. Leave him for Boone and Mike and Jonah to deal with. That’s what he wants anyway.

Yet—she thought about his kiss and how full of vitality he once was. She inhaled deeply. Did she want to save him or to seduce him?

She shook her head. When had a man tangled her thoughts or her life as Colin Garrick had tonight? Never. Never once had she lost sleep over a man or argued with herself or done anything she was going through now. Even when she’d gone with Drake a year and he had proposed, she had never been tied in knots, never wanted to marry.

Forget Colin, she told herself. Blank Colonel Garrick out of mind and let him go. He’s a wounded sparrow she was trying to save. Walk on by and ignore him. He doesn’t want to be saved. And it wasn’t “walk on by,” it was “run for your life.” He was a threat to her peace of mind.

She closed her eyes and gripped the arms of the chair and wished she could take back the best kiss of her life.

The very best. She inhaled deeply and wondered if she should go work out.

Reluctantly, she got up and dressed and went to the exercise room to pedal and jog, to banish the memory of Colin’s searing kiss.

It was almost dawn when she fell asleep. Jessie’s crying woke her and she went to pick up the baby and change her diaper. Then, slipping into a robe, she took Jessie to the kitchen to feed her.

When she entered the room, Colin was seated at the table. Seeing her, he stood with that lithe ease that indicated how strong and fit he was. Coffee was already brewing and he had made scrambled eggs and bacon. The orange juice was poured, toast buttered. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, he looked fit, tough and in prime condition. His black hair was combed back. Her heart thudded because all she could remember was standing in his embrace last night as he’d kissed her. And she realized she was only in her cotton gown and robe.

“I didn’t know you’d be awake,” she said, sounding ridiculous.

“I’m here and I can feed her while you eat, if you’d like.”

“You feed her and I’ll dress,” Isabella said impulsively thrusting the child into his arms.

His eyebrows shot up as he surveyed Jessie. “Isabella, I don’t know one thing about a baby. I’ll feed her, but you need to show me what to feed her and how to do it.”

“It’s easy. She loves oatmeal and milk and the oatmeal is in the cabinet,” Isabella instructed before she fled the room to get dressed. Let him cope with little Jessie. If he was a colonel, he was up to the task of getting breakfast for a baby. He needed a baby in his arms. Who could turn his back on life after dealing with Jessie?

She showered and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and took her time brushing her hair and pulling on boots, wondering how Colin was getting along with little Jessie. Isabella hadn’t heard any screams coming from the kitchen.

Finally she returned to the kitchen.

She had to smother a laugh. Jessie was in her high chair and she had oatmeal all over her face and in her fists and her hair. And Colin had oatmeal in his hair, too, on his shirt and face.

“How’s breakfast?” she asked, holding back laughter. Colin turned to look at her and narrowed his eyes.

“You come finish this. I told you I don’t know one damn thing about a baby. I think she’s had about two bites of oatmeal and you can see where the rest went. Dammit, I don’t have many changes of clothing.”

“There’s a washing machine and, as you said, clothes will wash,” she said blithely, getting a wet paper towel to clean Jessie. She turned around as Colin stood and pulled off his T-shirt. His muscled body was lean and fit, but scars covered his back and ran across his shoulders, chest and arms.

Her breath caught in her throat; the scars didn’t change his appeal one bit. They did remind her of what Colin had gone through, how the years had changed him.

“I told you they had to put me all back together,” he said when he turned around and caught her staring.

She looked up and met his gaze. “If you think I’m staring because you have scars, think again,” she whispered. The air crackled with searing heat as his eyes darkened and he inhaled deeply.

“I wouldn’t have admitted that to you except you have a very mistaken notion about your appearance,” she added.

Feeling as if her face were on fire from embarrassment over her admission, she moved to the chair to finish feeding Jessie. Colin stood in her peripheral vision and she knew he hadn’t moved, but she couldn’t face him.

“If I weren’t covered with oatmeal—” He broke off his sentence and left the room in long strides.

She closed her eyes and let out her breath. She fed Jessie, relieved the minute Jessie finished and she could clean the toddler’s face and hands and escape from the kitchen before Colin returned.

Isabella bathed and dressed Jessie in a pink jumper and shirt, carrying her to the nursery and sitting on the floor to play with her, leaving Colin to entertain himself. If she had just looked away, she wouldn’t have had to explain herself. But she hadn’t, and that was that.

“I wondered where you two had gone.”

She turned to see Colin in the doorway, dressed in clean jeans and a T-shirt, leaning one shoulder against the jamb. He held his oatmeal-covered clothing balled in his hand. “Where’s the washer?”

“Come join us,” she said while Jessie clapped her hands and held her arms out to him.

Isabella pointed. “Right through that door in the utility room. As soon as you put your clothes in to wash, come join us. Jessie likes you,” she said, and he shook his head.

“I don’t know why,” he said upon his return. “Unless she hopes to throw some more oatmeal my way.” He didn’t make a move to pick up Jessie and she lost interest in him, turning to play with a ball that was in front of her. He looked around the pink nursery and then back at Isabella.

“You look like you belong in here.”

“I should. I’ve been dealing with little brothers and sisters all my life.”

He crossed the room to pick up a picture of Mike, Savannah and Jessie. “I like this picture. Cute family.”

“Thank you for the first. I took the picture.”

His eyebrows arched and he looked back at the picture again. “You’re talented.”

“I wish you would reconsider and let me take your picture.”

He turned and shook his head. “Nope. I’d make a poor subject.”

She nodded because she could understand his reluctance. She raised her head when she heard a car. Instantly, Colin moved to the window. “What kind of car does Mike drive?”

“They’ve taken the sports car. It’s green.”

“That’s him,” Colin said.

“Want me to go break the news that you’re here? He’ll be a little shocked if you meet him at the door.”

“Mike can stand shock. You did without batting an eye.”

“Come on, sweetie,” she said to Jessie. “Mommy and Daddy are home. Let’s go see them.”

Jessie laughed, repeating Mama and Dada as Isabella carried her downstairs.

“It was interesting Isabella, seeing you again,” Colin said, falling into step beside her. “I won’t forget you.”

She glanced up at him. “I won’t forget you, either, Colin. I think I remembered you better anyway, than you did me.” His gaze lowered to her mouth and her pulse jumped. Was he remembering their fiery kiss? She was and she could barely get her breath. In just minutes he would be busy with Mike and then he’d be gone forever.

Another twinge of sadness gripped her because it seemed such a waste for him to go off to some remote corner of the world to live.

He made his own choices, she reminded herself. He was no part of her life and she shouldn’t worry or care what he did. He certainly wouldn’t give a thought to anything she was going to do with her future.

“You’re certain you don’t want me to tell him?” she asked again. “After all, everyone thinks you’re dead. And you are buddies.”

She gazed into his smoky eyes. They were so striking and unforgettable. Too much about him was unforgettable.

His lips firmed while he mulled over her question. “You may be right. Go ahead and break the news. I’ll wait in the living room.”

He turned and was gone. He moved with the silence and ease of a cat. She shifted Jessie in her arms and went to the kitchen to wait.

She could see the Remingtons heading toward the house and thought they were a striking-looking couple because Savannah was as blond as Mike was dark with his tanned skin and black hair. He was loaded down with bags and boxes and Savannah carried a few boxes, as well.

Isabella hurried to hold the door open, then followed them into the kitchen.

As they walked into the room, Jessie squealed with joy and held out her arms.

Dressed in yellow slacks and a matching yellow silk blouse, Savannah had her blond hair fastened behind her head. She looked beautiful and immaculate, too much so to have a baby in her arms. Regardless she caught up Jessie to hug her, eagerly fussing over her and laughing with the baby. Tall, black-haired Mike set down his armload of boxes and packages and bags. His brown-eyed gaze was friendly as he smiled at Isabella.

“We’re here to rescue you. Bet you were counting the minutes.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Isabella said. “Jessie’s a delight and no trouble at all. Did you have a pleasant trip?”

“We had a great time,” Mike said. He flung a broad-brimmed Western hat on a hook and shed a jacket. He wore jeans and a plaid shirt and radiated vitality. Smiling, he turned to take Jessie from Savannah to hug his little girl.

“How’s my baby?” he asked, nuzzling her and making her squeal with laughter as she grabbed fistfuls of his hair. “We brought you something,” he said, looking at the pile of luggage and bags and sacks and boxes he had carried inside and dropped by the door. He picked up a present wrapped in pink paper. “Just for you, Jessie, darlin’,” he said.

Jessie grabbed the present and began to eat the paper. Laughing, Savannah took the present from Jessie. “Set her down and show her how to open it.”

“And here’s something for you, Isabella,” Savannah said, handing a gift to Isabella.

“Thank you, but you shouldn’t have,” Isabella replied, taking a beautifully wrapped box of silver paper with pink roses and tied with silver ribbons. “Before I open this, there’s something you two should know.”

Both of them looked at her with curiosity in their gazes.

“Mike, you’re in for a big surprise,” Isabella said solemnly. “There’s an old friend here to see you. I thought I should tell you before you saw him.”

“This sounds interesting,” Mike said, glancing beyond Isabella and then looking back at her again with a curious expression. “So who is he and where is he and why the fanfare before I see him?”

“Because you don’t know he’s alive. Everyone thought he was dead,” Isabella said quietly, knowing from Mike’s expression that Colin had entered the room.

“Colin!” Mike blinked and his mouth dropped open and he paled. “Colin?” The two men crossed the room in long strides and hugged each other.

They stepped apart. “I can’t believe it!” Mike exclaimed, placing his hands on his hips. “You’re alive and well. Damn! What the hell happened? Why didn’t you let us know? Where have you been?”

“Mike!” Savannah exclaimed. “Give him a chance.”

“This calls for a celebration,” Mike said. “Damn, I can’t believe it,” he repeated, clasping Colin on the shoulder. “You’re real.”

“I’m very real,” Colin replied.

“I keep expecting you to disappear and just be a figment of my imagination.”

“No vanishing act here,” Colin said.

“Let’s celebrate!” Mike exclaimed, grinning broadly. “This is fantastic! Do the others know?”

“No. I wanted to see you first,” Colin replied solemnly.

“I’m glad you did.” Isabella could see Mike studying Colin and she could see some of the sparkle go out of Mike’s eyes and concern replace it. Then Mike smiled and brightened.

“We’re going to celebrate right now!”

“It’s early in the day,” Colin remarked. “We might wait—”

“Let’s break out the champagne now,” Mike decided. He looked at Savannah and put his arm around her. “Savannah, this is Colin Garrick. Colin meet Savannah.”

“I’m so happy to meet you,” Savannah said, extending her hand to shake hands with Colin. “Mike has told me a lot about you and about the times the two of you had together when you were growing up.”

“This is our baby, Jessie, whom you’ve already met,” Mike added.

“She’s cute, Mike, but I can’t imagine you a daddy.”

“I’ll get the champagne,” Savannah offered.

When she left the room, Mike looked at Colin again. Impulsively, Mike stepped close and hugged Colin. “Damn. What happened, Colin?” He stepped away and placed his hands on his hips. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you. I’m glad to see you alive—but when that bomb went off we thought you were done for. I want to hear all about it, but let’s get the champagne. Should I call the others now or later?”

“A little later. Let’s talk first, Mike.”

Mike seemed to remember Isabella and he glanced at her. “You remember Izzie. This is great! When did you get here?”

“Last night,” Colin answered.

Mike’s gaze ran over him. “What happened to you? You look like you were in a cat fight.”

“Sort of. I surprised Isabella.”

When Mike threw back his head and laughed, Colin merely shook his head and shrugged. Mike’s eyes twinkled. “So all those tricks Boone taught you really work?”

“They seemed to,” she said.

“Have you gotten out of practice!” Mike exclaimed.

“Don’t underestimate her. Boone taught her well.”

Mike laughed. “I know Boone did. I’ve watched the workouts.”

Savannah returned with a bottle of champagne and handed it to Mike to open. As Savannah picked up Jessie to hold her, Mike poured glasses of champagne and passed each person one. “Let’s take these drinks to the family room where we can sit and talk.”

As soon as they were in the family room, Mike turned and raised his glass in a toast. “Here’s to Colin. Our survivor,” he said.

“To Colin,” Savannah added.

“To Colin,” Isabella said quietly, and Colin looked at her before they all clinked their glasses together lightly.

“Thank you all,” Colin replied gruffly, a muscle working in his jaw.

Isabella could see that he was struggling with his emotions. She sipped the pale liquid, feeling bubbles tickle her nose.

“To life and Colin being back in the land of the living,” Mike said, giving another toast.

They all touched glasses again and everyone sipped the champagne before setting down glasses.

“Sit, so we can talk,” Mike suggested.

“I’ll be right back. We need a little change here,” Savannah said, taking Jessie and leaving the room.

“I’ll leave you two,” Isabella started to say, but Mike motioned to her.

“Sit down and join us. Savannah will be back. Come on, Izzie, we’re all family.”

She sat on a straight-backed chair as Mike sat on the sofa and Colin on a brown leather chair.

“Before you start, should I call the guys so you only have to tell this once?”

“No,” Colin replied solemnly. “I wanted to talk to you first, but whatever we do, you can’t phone them and tell them. These phones could be tapped and cell phones can be easily monitored. You’ll have to get them over here for another reason. Besides, your lines are cut. I disengaged the alarm system and came in through a window. I just wanted to make certain I wasn’t being followed and I could watch my back better by sneaking around late at night.”

“So that’s when you encountered Izzie.”

“Right. I’m in hiding, Mike. I’m on the run and there’s a killer after me,” Colin explained.

“Go ahead and tell me about it,” Mike said, crossing one long leg over the other.

Isabella listened again, watching Colin and still amazed that he was alive, just as shocked by her reaction to him. She wished she could go back and see him as she had that afternoon at the fair, just as one of her brother’s friends, pleasant to be with, but just another man—who looked old to her at the time. She couldn’t view him with that casual response now. He was ruggedly handsome and something in him made her want to try to reach him, to find the carefree man he once had been.

Every time she thought about him going into seclusion in some wilderness and shutting himself off from people and real living, it saddened her.

Forget it. He’s doing what he wants and you can’t save him, she told herself.

He glanced at her and then back to Mike. “The military asked five of us—and, with one exception, we don’t know each other’s identities—to work in a stealthy, covert group to try to catch the spy. I know one because at one point I worked with him. Brett Hamilton.”

Mike shook his head. “Not anyone I ever knew.”

“When I insisted on getting out of the military, my superior asked me to continue in the operation awhile longer,” Colin explained. “They gave me a contract,” Colin revealed, telling Mike something that he had not told her.

Isabella was shocked by this new information because she hadn’t expected to hear that the military had wanted to keep him on in that manner.

“There is someone in the military who knows where I am now.”

“Adam Kowalski?” Mike guessed.

Colin nodded. “Adam—you’re on the mark.”

“Kowalski is a reliable man. I can imagine either Adam or perhaps Mason VanDoren, one of the other officers we’ve worked with, on this case. What about Peter Fremont?”

“Our old friend with the agency,” Colin replied.

Isabella remembered meeting the friendly, tall blond Fremont when he had been in Special Forces with Boone. She also recalled meeting Mason VanDoren years ago.

“I report to Adam. And I’ve worked closely with Peter—he’s the one who pushed to get me to join the agency when I got out of the military. Even he doesn’t know that I’m going through Stallion Pass.”

Mike stood. “I think it’s time for the next step in this operation.”

Isabella watched him and wondered if another change was about to come into her life.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.