Hot & Bothered (A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 8) (28 page)

Knight Rider and Georgie Hayes were wrapped in each other’s arms on the dance floor. Matt and Evie sat with heads together and private smiles on their faces. Evie fed a piece of cake to Matt with her fingers, and the look he gave her was so intense that Ryan quickly looked away.

Ice and Grace were holding hands and laughing at something Billy the Kid was saying while his wife Olivia shook her head and pretended to be exasperated with him. Hawk was holding the baby while Gina chased after little Eli and the frog he’d picked up from the grass.

Everyone else was dancing, talking, laughing, eating, and having a good time. Ryan sat up a little straighter as he realized what that meant.

“They’re not paying attention to us anymore. Think we’ve been here long enough?” he asked in an aside to Emily.

“God, I hope so.”

He took her hand and stood. No one seemed to care as they snuck out of the tent.

A shape loomed ahead of them. Ryan had started to shove Emily behind him when that shape passed under a light and became Colonel Mendez. Ryan didn’t want to think about the verbal lashing he’d endured from the colonel once his involvement with Emily became known, but it was kind of hard not to remember the exact moment a full-bird called you on the carpet and threatened to remove your balls through your throat.
 

Thankfully, he’d survived the encounter. And the colonel had agreed to give Emily away as soon as she asked him, which had to be a good sign. Still, Ryan was slightly bitter that he’d had his ass reamed while Emily got the sweet teddy bear colonel. Why couldn’t he have gotten the sweet teddy bear colonel?

Uh, on second thought…

“Sir,” Ryan said, snapping a salute since they were in uniform and outdoors.

The colonel returned the salute. “Sergeant. Emily.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope that he held out to Emily. “Ian Black wanted you to have this.”

She took it and looked up at Ryan. “Open it,” he told her because he wanted to get whatever it was out of the way. He didn’t think Black was going to ruin their wedding or anything, but he wanted to know what it was so they could get on with the rest of their lives.

She stuck her thumbnail under the flap and lifted. Then she pulled out a piece of cream paper and unfolded it. Her hand slapped over her mouth.

“He did it,” she said after a long moment. “He kept his promise. Emily bin Yusuf never existed. There’s Emily Royal and Emily Gordon. No one else—and no more restrictions.”

“That’s right,” Mendez said. “I don’t know how he managed it, but Ian has… methods… that aren’t necessarily available to the rest of us.”

That was a polite way of saying Ian Black was a rogue and a son of a bitch who operated outside the strictures of the law. But damn, he’d just delivered on his promise to Emily, and that was enough to make Ryan feel a few warm fuzzies toward him. Temporarily, anyway.

Emily’s eyes were wide as she turned to him. “Ryan, we can go to the Caribbean if we want. Or Europe. We can go anywhere!” She whirled to the colonel. “He won’t have to leave HOT now, right? It’s okay if he stays?”

Colonel Mendez smiled for at least the second time that day. Ian Black keeping a promise and now this? What was the world coming to?

“Emily, he wasn’t ever leaving. I wouldn’t let that happen… And speaking of HOT, think you might want to help us out a bit?”

“I… doing what?”

“You know things about the Freedom Force, and you’ve seen Raja. Already the sketches from your description are helping us narrow down who she might be. You can keep helping us—with intel, with advice on language and tactics. Use your expertise.”

Ryan could tell that she was stunned by this offer. Hell, so was he. But it wasn’t fieldwork. He reminded himself of that. Mendez wasn’t sending a pregnant woman into the field no matter what.

“I’d like that,” she said. And then she squeezed Ryan’s hand. “But only if my husband doesn’t have a problem with my doing it.”

Her answer shocked him. And humbled him. He’d given her such a hard time in Acamar. He’d been scared senseless for her, and he was happier than hell she was out of there—but she’d accomplished things no one else could have done. How could he tell her she couldn’t help when she’d been so worried about
his
career with HOT and how it would affect him to give it up?

“Emily, I want you to do whatever makes you happy. If you want to work for HOT, I think you’d be a great asset.”

Her smile was like sunshine to him. “Thank you for saying that.” She turned to Mendez. “I’d be happy to consult, Colonel. I want to help my country in any way I can.”

“Excellent. We’ll see you at HQ soon then.”

“Yes, soon.”

The colonel left them, and they hurried to the front of the house and found Ryan’s car, giggling like children sneaking around. Soon they were at the hotel, and Ryan came around to get her out of the car. He carried her to the front desk and then up the stairs and over the threshold.

When he had her naked, when he’d worshiped every inch of her body with his hands and mouth and made her come half a dozen times, he positioned himself over top of her and thrust into her willing body with one smooth move.

And then he stilled, his heart pounding and his throat aching with emotion. This was home. Being inside Emily and feeling her lovely body wrapping around his. Knowing she was his forever. Knowing life with her would only get better and better.
 

“What’s wrong?” she asked when he didn’t move.

He had to swallow the knot in his throat. “Wrong? Nothing’s wrong, honey. Everything’s right.”

She smiled up at him and cupped his cheeks in her palms. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.”

It had begun in the desert sands of Qu’rim the night he’d met her. It wouldn’t end until the moment he died.
 

~

THANK YOU!

Thanks for reading
Hot & Bothered
! For news on upcoming stories in the Hostile Operations Team series,
sign up for Lynn’s Newsletter by clicking here
.

Here are all the books available in Lynn Raye Harris’s Hostile Operations Team Series:

HOT PURSUIT

(Matt & Evie)

HOT MESS

(Sam & Georgie)

HOT PACKAGE

(Billy & Olivia)

DANGEROUSLY HOT

(Kev & Lucky)

HOT SHOT

(Jack & Gina)

HOT REBEL

(Nick & Victoria)

HOT ICE

(Garrett & Grace)

HOT & BOTHERED

(Ryan & Emily)

Hot SEAL

(Dane & Ivy)

Click here to join the Hotties, my Facebook Readers and Fans Group

For more information about all of my books, click here to visit my website
.

YOU COULD WIN $50!

The best way to keep up with the news from me, including when there will be even more Hostile Operations Team books available, is to
sign up for my spam-free newsletter by clicking here
.

Because I enjoy sharing things with my readers, I give away one $50 book retailer gift card per month to a random subscriber. So sign up today and you could win $50! This drawing is open internationally. The only catch is that you must be able to take e-mail delivery of your gift card. (Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary.) To find out who the winners are, you must read your newsletter.

Did you enjoy this book? If so, please consider helping others to enjoy it by:

Recommending!
Please help others find this book by recommending it to friends, readers’ groups, and discussion boards.

Reviewing!
Please tell other readers why you like this book by reviewing it at Amazon.com or on sites like Goodreads. When the “Share You’ve Finished” screen pops up on your e-reader, please consider leaving a short review. YOU are the key to this book’s success. Your opinion matters. If you write a review and you’d like to share it with me, please send me an email at
[email protected]
so I can thank you personally. You can always visit me at
http://www.lynnrayeharris.com
.
 

Lending!
This book is lending enabled. Please lend it to a friend!

If you want to find out where the Hostile Operations Team series began, keep reading for an excerpt from
Hot Pursuit
…

Excerpt from Hot Pursuit

      
© 2013 by Lynn Raye Harris

THE LAST MAN SHE EVER WANTED TO SEE... 

Evie Baker's luck just ran out. A trained chef, she's now working in her mother's salon as a shampoo girl after a disastrous affair with an embezzling accountant cost her her business. Her luck can't possibly get any worse...

Or can it? Her baby sister is suddenly missing, someone is shooting at her, and the only man big enough and bad enough to help is the high school heartthrob who stole her heart–and her virginity–before he joined the military and left her to pick up the pieces of her life. 

MIGHT BE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE HER... 

Special Operations Captain Matt "Richie Rich" Girard can't afford to get involved. He's on the verge of a court-martial after a Top Secret military operation gone wrong, and he's been ordered to stay out of trouble while he's home for his sister's wedding. 

But when Evie's ex-partner turns up dead, staying out of trouble is the last thing on Matt's mind. If he's going to protect her from a ruthless killer and find her sister before time runs out, he'll have to risk his entire future–and both their lives–to do it. 

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET HOT IN THE BAYOU!

The music changed, the beat slowing. Evie took a step backward instinctively, but Matt caught her hand and held it tight. She tugged once, then stopped. They faced each other across a few feet of space. Around them, couples began to slide together, fitting into each other.

Evie’s pulse beat harder. Her skin sizzled where they touched, his big hand engulfing hers, his palm calloused in a way that shocked her. He was a Girard—rich, entitled—and he had a workman’s hands.

“One dance.”
 

Her insides melted a little more. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”
 

But what she really wanted to do was say yes.

 
His eyes were bright. “Why not? We’re adults now, Evie. No one’s getting hurt here.”

He said it like it was so easy, but was it really? Wasn’t she still vulnerable on some level? She was down on her luck right now, feeling like a loser, and here he was, the same gorgeous, cocky, beautiful creature he’d always been.

Except, no, he was more than that, wasn’t he? There was something behind his smile now. Something dark and sad. Pain flared in his gray eyes and then was gone so quickly she wondered if she’d imagined it.

It shocked her. She suddenly wanted to know what had happened to him. She’d heard about him being held captive by terrorists. How could he not be affected by something like that? Of all the things she’d expected Matt Girard to do with his life, putting himself into danger had not even occurred to her. He had everything. Why would he want to risk his life that way?
 

She remembered when his mother had died. He’d been twelve. Mama had taken her to the wake out at Reynier’s Retreat. There were so many people crowding the beautiful rooms of the mansion. The house was heavy with sadness and thick with grief, and it had scared her. She’d escaped to run down the wide lawn. She’d known where to find Matt. He’d been curled inside the hollow of a tree they’d found a few years before.

He’d been dressed in a black suit, his dark hair slicked back carefully, his gray eyes wide and wounded as he looked up at her. Her heart had lifted into her throat then. She’d only been eleven, but she’d felt something in that moment that rocked her world—and would continue to rock her world until she was sixteen and shattered by his casual cruelty.

But not that day. That day, she’d slid into the hollow and sat down beside him. When she’d put her arms around him, he’d turned his face into the crook of her neck and wept.

Evie sucked in a breath. How could she walk away from him now, knowing there was something behind those eyes? He was hurting again, and she didn’t know why.

“One dance, Evangeline,” he said softly when she hesitated. “Make a soldier’s night. I just got back from the desert a few days ago. I’d like to dance with a pretty woman and forget about that hellhole for a while.”

Evie swallowed. “That’s not fair.”
 

He grinned. “Because you can’t say no now?”

She nodded.
 

“Good for me then.”

“Just one dance and we go our separate ways, got it?” Because she didn’t want to feel this tangle of emotions again. This tiny blossoming in her heart that said she was going to be in so much trouble if she didn’t shut it down quickly.