Tessa’s life is upended when her mother’s sudden marriage drags her into a new home and into the path of Caleb, a guarded ex-Marine battling his past. Drawn to her despite the rules, he keeps his distance until danger targets Tessa. Forced to protect her, will he resist or risk everything for love?
‘I um, well . . I bought Caleb lunch’ I mutter, my cheeks flaming at the cocky smirk that brightens his face. ‘Well, lets take you into his office so you can give it to him’ he replies jovially, taking my elbow and starting to steer me toward Caleb’s office. ‘Mr Hawthorne! Cale . .…
‘Nuh uh, Iris saw it too, didn’t you Iris? How grumpy is Mr untouchable usually? Have you ever seen the man speak nicely to anyone? The man has stay away from me tattooed on his ass.’ I glance at the receptionist who is biting on her nail nervously, obviously uncomfortable to be asked to talk…
‘Ratchet?’ I repeat in confusion. ‘Callan’ the reclusive man mutters, ‘we called him Ratchet in the squad.’ I tap my fingers on my desk, that’s one of the downsides of joining up away from my brother and best friend, I don’t know what their teammates called them. None of us have ever been forthcoming about…
Releasing a loud, agitated sigh, I drop my gaze back to the blueprints, carefully crosschecking them with our security plan, forgetting all about everyone else in the office. Once I’m done, I find that it’s already nearly three o’clock and I have yet to eat anything, no wonder I’m starving. Pulling the lunch Tessa brought…
Muscles tries to get me into a headlock, but I dodge him easily, my fist connecting with his lip, splitting it open followed by a second fist to his right eye socket. Two arms wrap around me from behind just as two security guards grab my opponent and restrain him. ‘Let me go, f*cker needs…
‘make your call’ he grunts before stepping back to give me some privacy. I pick up the receiver, holding it to my ear as my finger hovers near the push buttons, ready to ring the office and get my brother or Callan to come and collect me. As I go to push the first button,…
It’s seems I’m in the clear as Gage takes a seat across from me, his gaze meeting mine as I give him a small smile. We eat in silence, and I stamp down hard on the moans that want to escape me, I’m so damn hungry and the mouthwatering steak of the night before seems…
The soldier sighs, shaking his head, ‘even if we could’ he replies, ‘the track leading back to the highway is going to be impossible to navigate. It’s narrow and full of holes, plus it weaves, it would only take one slight error for us to go over the edge and into a tree.’ Gage takes…
I pull open the drawer beside me, rummaging through the suspended files until I find what I’m looking for, lifting it out of the space and handing it to my friend who takes it from me, flipping through the pages. ‘What are you doing with it?’ he asks gruffly, pausing on one of the pages…
I fake shock, ‘please! Mateo? He’s nice and all but he’s not best friend nice, not like you.’ The jock’s face splits into a smile as he nods, ‘yeah, you’re right, I am irreplaceable.’ ‘And so modest’ I agree, laughing. Reaching out, I open my driver’s side door, climbing in behind the wheel as Noah…