AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You,” he whispered.
Rusty sighed. He remembered. “Hello, Soldier Boy. Long time no see.”
“Oh my God. Angel. How did you find me?”
She extended her hand. “Special Agent Rusty Caldwell. I believe you’re expecting me?”
He shook his head in disbelief. “Is there someone waiting for you back home?”
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Rusty said.
He groaned, and then swung her off her feet and into his arms, remembering everything. How they’d laughed. And talked. And how she felt against his body, and the deep moan in her throat when she came.
Her lips were cold against his mouth, and then they were warm and soft and inviting. She was water to a dying man, and he didn’t know how thirsty he’d been.
All of a sudden, there was a bump against Cameron’s leg, and he remembered Ghost. He buried his face against Rusty’s neck and then put her down.
The moment Rusty felt solid ground beneath her, she looked down, saw the dog and the bandage on his paw, and gasped. “Cameron! Your dog is immense! He’s so beautiful, but what happened to his paw?”
“He cut it on something when we were running Biggers down,” Cameron said.
Rusty’s eyes widened. “Right! He helped you find your niece.”
Cameron nodded. “This is Ghost. He came back with me from Iraq.” Then he knelt beside the dog. “Hey, buddy, this is my Angel. She’s yours to protect, like you protect Rachel and Lili, okay?”
“What do I do?” Rusty said.
“Just hold out your hand palm down and let him get your scent. If he licks it, you’re in.”
“And what if he doesn’t?” Rusty asked as she knelt, then held out her hand.
Ghost sniffed it, smelling Cameron on her, and the human scent that belonged to her, then ever so gently licked her skin and bumped the bottom of her palm with his nose.
Cameron laughed. “Damn. I might have known. He loves who I love, so he’s already courting your attention. That’s your permission to pet him.”
Rusty looked up. “Loves who you love?” she said, then slid her hand over the top of the dog’s head, rubbing gently between his ears. “Hello, beautiful. You are magnificent. I’m so pleased to meet you.”
Cameron was as surprised by what he’d said as she seemed to be, but he also wasn’t going to explain or deny it because it had felt right when he’d said it. Instead, he pulled her to her feet. “Okay, fine. Ghost adores you, now back to me. Come inside out of the cold.”
Rusty threw back her head and laughed. This was the man she remembered. Witty, sexy, and unfiltered. She walked into the cabin with Cameron’s arm around her and Ghost leading the way. It was the safest she’d felt in years.
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” Cameron said, and pulled her down onto the sofa beside him, while Ghost moved back to his bed.
Rusty nodded. “You’resurprised? Imagine my shock when Agent Howard sent me your files and I saw your picture. The first two things that went through my mind nearly put me off this case. I was afraid you wouldn’t remember who I was. Then if you did, afraid you already had someone special in your life.”
Cameron reached for her hand.
“The only woman in my bed is the Angel I dream about. I never imagined I would see you again, and yet I couldn’t let go of the memory. Do you… Did you ever…?”
Rusty shook her head. “I knew when I woke up in that bed alone the next morning that you’d ruined me for wanting another man. Then my life got crazy and a little too risky for personal relationships.”
Cameron frowned. “Since you’ve read my file, you know a whole lot more about me than I do you. Is all of your work undercover?”
She shrugged. “I go where I’m ordered. I was sent here on the pretense of recovering from a car wreck so I can investigate without raising suspicions, and that’s what my family believes. Iamrecovering, but it wasn’t from a car wreck. I made a jump over the side of a really big yacht into a moored speedboat two decks below while being shot at. I escaped, but I’m still recovering from the hard landing.”
Cameron went still, looking at her again as the stranger she really was. “What the hell were you doing?”
“Getting the goods on pirates killing rich people for their yachts. They were using the boats for everything from gunrunning to smuggling to drug runs in and out of the Bahamas. Let’s just say backup arrived in the nick of time.”
