Degree of Risk. Lindsay McKenna

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СКАЧАТЬ a big grin. “He told us to come on down. He and Emma will be gone during that time, but he said we can have the run of their villa and to make ourselves at home.”

      “God,” Sarah whispered, “this is like a dream come true, Ethan.” She clung to his heated gaze, his gray eyes going stormy with need. Her body clamored to be held by him, loved by him. “When I get done with this twenty-four-hour duty, we can take off for Bagram at 0800.”

      Rubbing his hands together, he gave her a feral look. “And what do you want to do with that time?” He could hardly stand the anticipation. Sure, he wanted to make love with Sarah, but equally, he hungered for time and space with her. Ethan so badly wanted that downtime; it was a part of exploring, getting to know one another on deeper levels.

      Sarah grinned between bites. “Let’s see? Sex? Sex and more sex?”

      Ethan chuckled. “That’s a start.” Seeing the lust in her eyes was such a turn-on for him. He suspected Sarah was becoming aware that she could look at him a certain way and make him run hot. She was discovering her power as a woman and it made him ache even more for her.

      “I haven’t really given it much thought,” Sarah murmured, buttering her whole wheat toast and then slathering it with blueberry jam.

      Ethan finished up his bacon and reached for his stack of six pieces of toast. “I wish we were in San Diego,” he murmured. “I’d take you down to walk on the beach. We’d scuba dive off the kelp beds of La Jolla. I’d find us some abalone on the ocean bottom, bring them up and we’d cook them and some corn wrapped in foil on a grate at the beach. Then we’d watch the sunset, listen to the waves and just be in one another’s arms.”

      “That sounds beautiful,” she whispered. “But no ocean here, Quinn. Just desert, mountains and rock.”

      “I’m a dreamer when I’m around you,” Ethan confided, his voice gritty as he held her warm blue gaze. “You inspire me, Sarah. Maybe, in those two days I can show you just how much.” God knew, he wanted desperately to be there for Sarah, to continue to show her a man’s positive side. He wanted to give her happiness for the rest of his life. And he still couldn’t believe that she’d agreed to marry him.

      Her body reacted to his growling, intimate words. “I’m in shock we’ll be together, Ethan.” Sarah shook her head.

      “When you got off that mission, I was upset,” he admitted. He saw her lift her chin, her brows moving down. “Dammit, Sarah, I don’t want you heaving your guts out. It hurts me. It makes me feel like I can’t protect you.”

      She heard the tightness in his voice. SEALs, she had discovered, were protectors in their own right. It was part of their ethos as warriors. They protected those they loved. Fiercely. Without apology. She’d already been on the receiving end of SEAL care via Ethan, his SEAL brothers and Master Chief Hunter. “Look,” she said, resisting the urge to reach out and touch his arm, “you can’t protect me all the time, Ethan.”

      “I can damn well try,” he said, lips thinning, unhappy.

      “I’m just overly sensitive to the smell of blood, that’s all.” Sarah shrugged. “Don’t you have something you’re sensitive about?”

      “Yes, a woman or child being hurt by a man.”

      His eyes went dark, his voice uneven. Sarah knew he was referring to her past when she was young and hadn’t been safeguarded by child protective services or the social workers. “I’ll be okay out there, Ethan.” Sarah knew how much he worried about her medevac missions. “I’ve managed nine years at this and so far, so good.”

      “I just don’t have a way to protect my feelings where you’re concerned, angel.” And it was true. This was new to Ethan. How did he not worry about the woman he loved? Not imagine her being shot at and killed while sitting in that cockpit? Or her Black Hawk being blown up by a Taliban RPG? He knew all too well it could happen in a heartbeat.

      “Oh, Ethan,” Sarah murmured softly, giving him an apologetic look. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I really didn’t. It’s just that our jobs are dangerous.”

      “Are you able to protect yourself when I’m out on a patrol?” Ethan asked.

      “Hell, no. If I’m not on duty, I go over to the ready room, listening to any transmissions you give to master chief. I get scared, Ethan. So damned scared that I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin sometimes because I know you and your team are in harm’s way.”

      “How do you deal with it? I’d sure like to know because I haven’t been able to very well with you,” Ethan groused.

      Sarah shared a pained look with him. “How can I protect myself against loving you, Ethan?” Right now she wished she was anywhere but here. To be alone with him. To hold him, to feel his strong arms holding her. He always made her feel safe and protected in his arms. “Maybe, these two days we have off, we’ll find some answers.” Maybe not. Love couldn’t be put into a box and shielded as much as he might want to do just that. Love was organic, it moved, it grew, it unfolded and it deepened between them. And there was no way Ethan had figured out yet how to protect Sarah because she held his heart and soul in her long, graceful flight hands.

      Chapter 3

      “We’re home,” Sarah whispered to Ethan as she stood in the living room of the villa. She watched him close and lock the front door. The housekeeper smiled, bowed and placed a note in her hand. She then left and went back to her room in another wing of the massive stone villa.

      Ethan came silently up behind Sarah, sliding his arms around her waist. Sarah sighed and leaned back against him, her head resting against his shoulder. “Home. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” he rasped, kissing her hair.

      “It does,” Sarah whispered, feeling a month’s worth of stress sloughing off her as Ethan pressed small kisses across her hair, her temple, and then began to nibble seductively at her ear. She lifted the note. “It’s from Emma and Khalid,” she whispered, her voice catching as his teeth caught and teased her earlobe. A zigzag of heat and sparks flew to her tightening breasts beneath her soft pink tank top. The man could turn her on like a light switch.

      “Mmm,” he growled, sliding his hands to her hips and turning her around. Her eyes were drowsy with lust, no question. And when he surveyed her features, her cheeks slightly flushed, her lips parted and that pouty lower lip calling to him, Ethan had to call on his patience. They had two days. He was damned if he was leaving the bed for very long in between bouts of loving Sarah, teaching her, allowing her to learn from him.

      “We should at least read the note,” Sarah chided him, giving him a bad-girl look. She held it between them and read it. “Dear Ethan and Sarah. Make yourselves at home. The housekeeper will make all your meals. Just enjoy and be. Love, Emma and Khalid.”

      “They are wonderful people,” Ethan said, taking the note and laying it on a sideboard in the huge dining room. “And we owe them plenty.”

      “I told Emma that I’d fly with her on my days off if she needed a copilot,” Sarah said, admiring the way his black T-shirt spanned his incredibly powerful chest and broad shoulders. “That’s the least I can do. They’ve given us safe haven.”

      Sarah allowed her fingers to trace his shoulders. Just watching the tightening of his mouth, the smoldering look burning in Ethan’s gray eyes, she СКАЧАТЬ