The SEAL's Temptation (Wounded Hearts Book) Romantic Suspense by Jacquie Biggar ➱ Release Tour with Giveaway
Dawn was little more
than a blush on the horizon when Frank, Jared and Adam set out on their ride
the next morning. It was both strange and bittersweet to have his friends on
his six again. Frank grinned, the tension easing from between his shoulder blades.
Just like old times.
He kicked Sadie into a
fast trot and glanced over his shoulder. “You girls think you can keep up?”
Jared shot him a one
finger salute. “Maybe if you’d given me a horse instead of this old nag.” The nag
in question—a handsome Quarter Horse Frank had trained himself—tossed his head,
fighting the tight grip on the reins.
Adam leaned over and
gave the bay a slap on the rump with his Red Sox ball cap, a rare smile erasing
the grim lines of his face. “What’s the matter, Martin? Married life turning
you into a pansy?” He took one glance at his buddy’s expression as he wrestled
to bring the startled horse under control and decided to catch up to Frank. “Be
one with the horse,” he advised with a laugh.
“I knew you were an
a-hole,” Jared shouted.
Frank shook his head at
their antics. “You two are worse than a couple of kids.” He kept an eye on
Jared until he caught up, then guided Sadie toward the hills, turning up the
collar on his shearling jacket against the early morning chill.
Spencer stepped out the
door of the foreman’s cottage as they rode by and doffed his stained cowboy
hat. “Have a good ride,” he called.
Frank tipped his Stetson
in reply but kept going. Spence had managed this ranch for upwards of thirty
years—he didn’t need Frank telling him what to do.
“He doesn’t spend the
night up at the main house?” Jared asked, his butt bouncing in the saddle.
“No, he does not
sleep with my mother.” Tempted to let him suffer, Frank warned, “Loosen your
back. Roll with the motion and it’ll go easier on you.”
Adam whistled through
his teeth. “I’m sensing some tension, Chief. You do realize your mother is a
grown woman, right?” His puppy-dog eyes twinkled with mirth.
Frank snorted. “If you
yahoos are done, can we get back to business?”
“Ah,” Jared said, his
teeth clacking together with every bounce. “I figured there had to be an
ulterior motive to this invite.”
Frank frowned. It was
true he’d asked his friends to join them at the ranch after their return from
Mexico, but he didn’t mean for it to come with a price tag.
“Listen—” he began.
Jared held up a
leather-gloved hand, then just as quickly latched onto the pommel as the bay
climbed a steep rise. “Hey, it’s all good. Annie and I have been meaning to
come down for a visit anyway. Things have been slightly crazy back home, what
with the new baby and setting up the new business and all, or we would have
been here sooner.” He gave Adam the stink-eye. “Especially, if you’d let me
know you were in trouble.”
Adam shrugged. “Don’t
look at me, bro, I was following orders. Besides, we had to move fast once we
knew where that bastard had Mags.”
They topped the rise and
stopped for a moment to take in the vista. Cows grazed in the field below,
their sleek brown and white coats a contrast to the verdant green grass.
Bluebonnets flirted with the breeze blowing down from the north, keeping the
temperature balmy—at least for the moment. Fluffy Cumulous clouds scattered
across the sky like the petticoats under a woman’s skirt; not that many wore
them these days except for weddings and such. And why the heck was he thinking
about a woman’s underdrawers anyway? Frank scowled.
Desperate to break
what felt like an awkward silence, she gestured toward the sparkling
constellations over their heads. “Do you study the stars, Mr. Stein? You have
quite the view out here.” Maybe not as reach-out-and-touch them as she’d felt
on that mesa in Mexico, but a hell of a lot safer. The melancholy that was
never very far away filled her chest, a black cloud covering the silvery moon. Her
best friend was buried on that hill, a victim of the monster who’d ruined the
lives of countless women.
“Not really. My
brother and I got into it some as kids but then he… disappeared and I kind of
lost heart.” Frank’s voice flowed over her like a warm breeze, dispersing the
darkness of her thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” she
murmured. “I think I remember reading something about that in your file—the
part that wasn’t confidential anyway.” She smiled.
He nodded. “It
happened a long time ago. We’ve accepted it, though that’s not to say we’ve
stopped looking. Hope lives on, you know?”
Yeah, she did.
The only thing that
kept her alive through those hellish months with Chenglei and his band of
assholes was hope.
Well, that and a
craving for revenge.
“I imagine you’ve
exhausted official channels. Have you looked into private investigators?”
He shifted, stretching
long jean-clad legs and crossing his ankles, revealing scuffed cowboy boots.
The old chair creaked, protesting his movements.
“We tried every avenue
there was, but it did no good. He’d vanished.” Frank’s voice was
matter-of-fact, but his tone revealed how much the loss of his brother still
affected him.
The sad truth was
there were thousands just like Cameron Stein—young men and women dissatisfied
with their lives who think the grass will be greener on the other side and
instead learn, more often than not and sometimes with fatal consequences, that
running away is not the answer.
There probably wasn’t
a lot she could do, but Maggie wanted to help this family to at least find some
closure. Maybe she could pull a few strings within the agency and see what
popped. Off the record, of course.
She glanced through
the window into the soft vignette-like lighting of the kitchen. Frank’s mom had
risen to clear the table, her hands grasping the platter of decimated turkey as
she laughed at something the ranch foreman had said, affection apparent on both
their faces. Emily leaned down to give him a kiss and he took advantage of the
moment to pull her onto his lap. Maggie looked away, her heart pinching.
That kind of
relationship was as far away as the moon for her. Even before her captivity,
Maggie’s main focus had been career-orientated. Adam blamed himself for their
break-up, but truthfully, she just wasn’t a good bet.
“I’m not promising anything, but I can check a couple of things when I
get back to work. Sometimes, time can uncover secrets from the past.”
As the Arabian kicked
his heels and galloped away, Maggie folded onto the ground at his feet, her arm
twisted awkwardly where he held her wrist. Long, black silk hair flowed over
her shoulder and breast, hiding her face from his view. He let go, grimacing at
the red marks he'd left on her delicate skin.
Dropping to a knee so
he could better see her expression, Frank frowned. She was pale, fragile
looking. He didn’t think the horse had a chance to hurt her, but with the way
he’d yanked on her arm, maybe he had. “Are you injured?” he asked,
roughly.
She lifted her head at
the sound of his voice, but her eyes looked through him and, suddenly, he
realized why.
“Maggie, look at me.”
He carefully tucked her hair behind the shell of her ear. “Come back to me,
sweetheart. I’ve got you.” He rubbed her shoulder and was relieved to see her
eyes lose that vacant, faraway expression. “That’s it, take it easy. You’re
safe.” And she would remain that way if he had any say.
Tears formed and she
blinked them away. “I… I must have tripped,” she said, her voice gaining
strength as she raised her armor, blocking him out.
Much as he wanted to
confront her with the truth and force her to talk to him, Frank understood the
need to hide the flashbacks away—pretend they didn’t exist.
He rose and held out
his hand. “It’s the stallion’s fault, he startled you.”
She accepted the offer
and stood with less than her normal grace. “Thanks, I’m not usually so jumpy.”
She avoided eye contact while carefully brushing non-existent dust from her
slacks. “I guess I was expecting more manners after we gave him an apple and
all.” Her wobbly smile begged him not to make a big deal out of her breakdown.
“It was my fault. I
should have warned you about Desert Dancer. He’s new to the ranch and still
learning his boundaries. He’s a showoff for the ladies—kind of reminds me of
O’Connor.”
Maggie lifted a brow.
“Does Adam know how you feel?”
He grinned, pleased
the sparkle had returned to her beautiful topaz eyes. “He’d be the first to
agree. Back on the team we called him our secret weapon because he always
managed to get intel for our ops when no one else could.”
“Well, can’t say I’m
surprised. He made use of those… talents in the DEA, as well.” She started
walking and Frank fell in alongside. “It’s kind of strange being here, with
you. Adam used to talk about the great Frank Stein all the time. You’re a
legend, you know.” She slipped him an intimate, sideways smile that set
lightning bugs buzzing in his chest.
The cover is nice
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