05 Desperate Match Read Online Free PDF Page A

tissues and hid them in her lap.
    “Better?” he asked.
    She nodded, then thought of her situation. “Probably not. I may be worse off than ever.”
    “Nah. Today was your lucky day.”
    She glanced at him sideways. “What are you talking about? My husband is going to kill me.”
    “Your husband is never going to see or touch you again.” His voice was harsh and scary, and she shivered.
    “How are you going to stop him?”
    “I got nearly seventy–five genetically enhanced soldiers at my back, not to mention a ten– foot wall stopping him. You’re safe, Jill.”
    A watery smile found its way to her face. “Rowan, that’s unbelievably sweet, but we’re not a match. I can’t stay here.”
    “Who says we’re not a match?” he asked. “You’re not in an emotional state to start looking for husband number two. Maybe we are a match. Who knows? The lab junkies around here think we’re a match.”
    She stared at him trying to believe in his words, but after six years of disappointment, it was hard to believe in anything. “But the forms. All the paperwork I read and signed said I’d only be allowed to stay if I’m matched to an active soldier.”
    “So we’ll match.” He shrugged. “You’ll stay on as my match.”
    “But I’m legally married.”
    “Then we’ll legally unmarry you. We got lawyers. We’ll send that bastard husband of yours the paperwork.”
    “He’ll never sign them,” she said bitterly. “And I don’t have money to pay a lawyer.”
    “Jill, you’re not listening. You’re going to be my match. We’ve got lawyers.”
    She stared at him where he sat a foot away on the slightly itchy sofa. “Why would you do this? I’m a stranger to you.”
    He smiled wryly. “My mom would kill me if she ever found out I let a woman go back to an abusive husband. ‘Course I gotta help.”
    “Your mother must be an amazing woman. I hope I get to meet her to thank her,” she said, still disbelieving that this man would help her with no benefit to himself.
    “She’s dead,” he said. “But I do this in her memory.”
    “Oh. I’m sorry.” She sat straighter suddenly. Her own parents…they’d be worried. “I have to call mine. They’re going to freak out if Jack tells them I’m missing.”
    Rowan frowned. “If your parents are alive and the kind to worry, why didn’t they help you escape your husband?”
    The million–dollar question. “My father is ill. They moved to Florida a few years ago. I had no way of getting to them, and Jack—that’s my husband—would’ve come after me. I didn’t want them getting hurt because of me.”
    “Did they ever see your bruises?”
    She shook her head. “No. I hid them at first because I was embarrassed, and then my dad got sick and I hid them because there was nothing they could do.”
    “Are you sure? They wouldn’t have helped?”
    “They would’ve, but they never liked that I married Jack right after high school. I could’ve gone to college, but I thought I could be married and go to college also.” She snorted slightly. “Stupid teenager. I wish my parents had refused to let me marry Jack.”
    “Would you have listened?” Rowan asked. “You were eighteen, right? No doubt you woulda run off and done what you wanted. True?”
    “Probably,” she admitted. “But I can’t let you do this.” She put her hand on his arm and looked him in the eye. “It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me, but we’re strangers. It’s too much.”
    He glanced down at her hand still on his arm. “You were fine using me as your shield when I didn’t know I was being a shield, but now it’s not okay when I have all the facts?” He sounded angry. She removed her hand from his body. “Is this why my missing arm bothers you? You think I’m not strong enough to defend you from your husband?”
    Her lips tightened and she nodded. Her fingernails dug into the nubby beige material of the sofa. “I’m sorry.”
    “One arm or two