Anderson Gratney does odd jobs that usually involve a gun and covert ops for the CIA. His latest assignment? Kidnap a CIA analyst in order to keep her safe. Easy. Except there’s nothing simple about the beautiful, careful Carol Sark, who tempts him the more he learns about her.
Coming face to face with a masked man in her home is the most terrifying experience of Carol’s life—until he kidnaps her. He claims he’s there to keep her safe, but she doesn’t know who to trust. And until they can figure out who the threat is, she's forced to take him at his word.
Time is ticking, and even though she drives him nuts, Anderson very much wants to keep her alive. Unfortunately, the assassins have other ideas…
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“I have the strangest urge to kiss
you,” she said without embarrassment tightening her throat. Must still be a
little tipsy.
“Don’t.” Andy’s voice was sharp, his
reply immediate.
“Why not?”
“It wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“What constitutes a good idea?”
“Anything that doesn’t put you at risk
or would result in some form of positive gain.”
“But you aren’t a risk to me, are
you?”
“Carol, you should go back to bed.
It’s late.”
“You don’t want to answer the
question. You have that moral code, and I don’t fit in those boxes. That’s your
problem with me. You kill people and gather information. I’m a round peg when
you deal with square holes. Why is kissing you a bad idea? If it’s not good,
then it’s bad. What’s so wrong with kissing? If we’re analyzing good and bad—”
“Stop, Carol. I’m warning you.”
And yet, he didn’t move, he didn’t
flee; he remained right where he was.
“If we’re classifying good as no harm
and leads to gain, well, it seems like it would be more good than bad.
Fostering physical familiarity, building that trust. You know, you could have
probably continued to pretend to be Mark, whisk me away somewhere and keep
playing that role which would both endear me to you emotionally and create
greater trust, but you didn’t. You destroyed the persona of Mark—why? Because
it wasn’t a truth, because he was a lie, because it was a danger to you?”
“We’re all on the same side. I wasn’t
going to lie to you. Just—stop it.”
“Even if lying means everyone gets
what they want? You get the program, I get the fantasy, everyone gets
something?”
What had he said before? He liked
talking to her. He hadn’t expected to have to play the part of Mark that long.
Part of Andy was Mark.
Was it all a lie? Or was this the wine
still talking?
“You keep saying stop it, but you
don’t move, you don’t act. Are you telling me to stop it, or yourself? Is the
big truth here that it wasn’t all a lie, but you want it to be? Is that what’s
going on here? Is that why you’re doing all of this? Look at me and tell me to
stop talking, stop asking questions. Do it.”
She was playing with fire. Just
because she didn’t fit Andy’s system, because he thought of her as a good
person, it didn’t mean she was safe. She was facing a new reality outside the
CIA and country she’d grown up in. And that meant she had to be different. She
had to face her problems head on, and she was starting with Andy.
He turned his head so that he faced
her. His nose had been broken a time or two and little scars marred his face
here and there. Dark eyes stared at her, so hard and dark he might not even be
Andy right now.
Was she right? Was Mark in there?
It can never be said that NYT & USA Today Bestselling author Sidney Bristol has had a ‘normal’ life. She is a recovering roller derby queen, former missionary, tattoo addict and board game enthusiast. She grew up in a motor-home on the US highways (with an occasional jaunt into Canada and Mexico), traveling the rodeo circuit with her parents. Sidney has lived abroad in both Russia and Thailand, working with children and teenagers. She now lives in Texas where she spends her time writing, reading, hunting Pokemon, playing board games and catering to her furry overlords, aka the cats.
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