loved. And more important, that she’d been able to love.
They both emerged breathless, laughing. Her body zinged with the same rush that flushed his.
‘You asked me why I didn’t want to go back out into the field.’ He kissed her, slow and hard. ‘I’ve got too much to lose now. Too much to get home to.’ He kissed her again; she pressed herself to him. ‘And I don’t think I could stand to see that look on your face again.’
‘What look?’
‘When you thought you might not see me again. When I feared you were right. That’s not somewhere I want to put you ever again.’
‘You won’t. I won’t let you.’ She kissed him, pulling him down after her onto the couch and leaning into him. ‘I will never let you go.’
He smiled. ‘Hey, enough of the stalker talk. You’re creeping me out.’
She slapped him gently, then nestled in closer, looking at him steadily. ‘Any time you doubt your bravery, I’ll remind you how you risked your life for the people you loved.’
‘And right behind that, I’ll remind you of your blazing brilliance as you rescued your son.’ He kissed her soundly, then looked at her seriously. ‘And rescued me.’
‘You?’
‘You have no idea the darkness and sorrow of the place that I’ve been, Romy. The day you walked into my shop it was like a beacon went off, bright and unmissable in the sky, and I’ve been guided by it ever since.’
‘I wish I could give you a medal for what you did tonight. You deserve another flaming star.’
‘Romy Carvell, I would rather just one of those glorious, lusty looks from you than all the valour commendations in the country,’ he said.
‘This look?’ She threw her best movie-star come-on at him.
‘Nope.’ He kissed her until they were both breathless and then he slid his hand unapologetically up under her sweater. She flushed three kinds of hot and blazed back at him.
‘Oh, yeah,’ he murmured. ‘That’s the one.’
CLINT was respectful because the Colonel’s rank commanded it, but the effort nearly broke him. He gripped the telephone handset brutally. ‘Thank you, sir. Yes, I will. Goodbye.’
He spent a moment managing his pulse, composing himself, conscious of the grey stare blazing into his back. Then he turned to Romy, cleared his throat. ‘Your father wishes to extend his congratulations.’
It killed him that she was too frightened to make the call herself. Romy. The brazen, bolshie woman who took on wildlife smugglers head-on, who stood up to Clint as though he were a schoolteacher and not a trained killer. She sat on the edge of his bed, still dressed in the white slip of a wedding dress he’d married her in, waiting nervously. Yet she still found room in her heart to care. Maybe to worry a little bit.
‘How is he?’
‘He’s fine. He appreciated us letting him know about the wedding.’ He pulled her into the protective cocoon of his arms. She was going to need it. ‘He asked after Leighton.’
Romy stiffened perceptibly. He stroked her hair, whispered against her ear. Broke the news as gently as he could. ‘He knew where you were, Romy. Almost from the moment you moved here.’
Fire broiled in Clint’s gut. Not because the Colonel had tracked his daughter and grandson for the past six years but because of the impact that news had on his wife. She didn’t tremble or stiffen further, but her skin went icily cold.
‘The whole time?’
He kissed the delicate coils of her hair, lingering as though his lips alone could warm her back up. ‘I’d do the same, Rom, if you were taken from me. I’d have to know you were all right.’
She clung to the sharp creases of his dress uniform. ‘That’s because you love me.’
He let her think about that. She pulled back, looked up at him with anguished eyes, shaking her head. ‘No. He doesn’t love me.’
‘Not in any conventional way. I think maybe…in his own way…He just can’t show it.’ He let her digest the information for a moment. ‘He sounds broken, Rom.’
Broken, but still a hard man. Clint got that after three minutes on the phone. Romy endured it for twenty years.
Her eyes clouded over and she pressed her body hard against his. ‘I don’t want to talk about him tonight. Not tonight.’
His arms came up to stroke the bare flesh of her back, drifted blindly down to where the eagle stretched its wings over her hips. Where his code name branded her flesh beneath the softness of her dress. The shivers that Mexican-waved their way through her body suddenly had no relationship to thinking about her father. There was one sure way he could help undo the damage the Colonel had inflicted on Romy’s gentle soul.
Love. In all its forms. Unconditional. Passionate. Eternal.
The familiar high rushed through him. But it was adrenaline of a new kind, the kind only this woman could elicit. He smiled against her flower-braided hair.
‘Are you nervous, Mrs McLeish?’
She tipped her head back and lifted her chin, failing abysmally to be brave. Every Neanderthal instinct in him came surging forth, most of it mustering to his south. This was their first night together. Why wouldn’t she be nervous?
Look at how her last experience had ended up.
The desire to plant his seed deep inside the woman he loved was so immediate, so primal and raw, he had to force himself not to sweep her up into his arms and make her his on the spot. He sucked in a deep, shuddering breath.
‘I will never hurt you, Romy. As far as I’m concerned, this is your first time, as though you’ve never made love.’ She met his gaze with a molten one of her own and his heart lurched.
‘I have never made love,’ she said. ‘That’s one hundred percent true.’
Clint dipped his head and kissed her, his fingers going automatically to the polished buttons of his military dress coat, his lips keeping his woman close. As soon as the jacket hit the nearest chair, he yanked at the strangling tie, burning up with the taste of her.
His shirt was the next target. Given it was the last time he’d ever wear his dress uniform, donning it for his wedding seemed appropriate. A symbolic transition between his previous life and his new one. His CO had been surprised to hear from him, but not surprised to hear he was retiring from the force as soon as his contract expired. With an honourable discharge, his reputation and his belief in himself restored, in order to focus on his family.
His new family.
The beige shirt fluttered down to join the coat and his fingers brushed Romy’s trembling ones as they joined in removing his
