Arms of Promise Read Online Free PDF

you’re gonna pull off moonlighting as her undercover bodyguard?”
    The guy never quit. “I don’t want to be in this situation any more than she would if she knew. But trust me. It’s better if she doesn’t.” Looking to him as a friend was better than how she’d see him if she knew the truth.
    “Better for who? Sure you’re not protecting your heart instead of hers?”
    The answer stung. He’d messed up the last five years being that selfish, staying on the periphery when he should’ve been by her side full-time. But with the Michelli case putting Anna in real danger, watching out for her from the sidelines wasn’t good enough anymore.
    “Better for both of us.”
    Evan grabbed his water bottle from the floor and chugged half of it down. The gym wasn’t helping. He needed a stress shoot out on the range.
    Murphy planted a solid grasp on Evan’s shoulder. “Just trying to watch my boy’s back.”
    “I know. You would’ve made a good Ranger.”
    “Our RI didn’t seem to think so.” Murphy scratched his jaw.
    “Yeah, well, he was a real . . .” The front door opened. A guy, five foot six, strode in carrying a duffel bag with two carabiners hanging from the handle. Probably a rock climber. Not a threat.
    “Earth to O’Riley.” Murphy waved a hand in front of him. “You good?”
    Evan shook it off and picked up his bag. “Yeah. I’m gonna hit the showers.” If he couldn’t sweat out his tension, maybe a hot shower would drain it instead.
    In a bathroom full of steam, he braced a hand against the shower wall as jets of water beat into his tight muscles. He rotated his neck and rubbed off the water cascading down his face, but thoughts kept pouring in.
    Murphy didn’t get it. Evan killed whatever remote chance there’d been of sharing a life with Anna the week her mom died. He wouldn’t risk jeopardizing what was left of her future. He’d keep his feelings off the table and get the job done without causing her any more pain.
    It wasn’t that complicated. Anna needed surveillance whether she liked it or not, and he owed her that much.
    Working the shampoo from his hair, Evan released a hard exhale. Images of her in those sweats with her bottom lip curled beneath her teeth washed over him without mercy. He turned the water all the way to cold but couldn’t shake the reality staring him in the face. After nineteen-hour days mastering the ability to operate under extreme physical and mental stress, it’d only taken one look at Anna to confirm he’d never mastered his heart.
    Who was he kidding? Complicated didn’t begin to cover it.
     

     
    Anna slid her leg warmers off and chucked them by her bag in the corner of the studio. Winding her braid into a bun, she crossed the floor to her iPod speaker dock to reset the song for the fifth time. If she didn’t start connecting with the choreography, she was going to scream.
    She wiped the sweat rolling into her camisole bra top. Why did Evan have to show up now, of all weeks? With the bind she was in, a shot at making the Chicago Dance Crash company was her only hope at continuing what she and Mom had started together.
    She couldn’t afford to repeat history. Couldn’t afford any distractions. Especially a gorgeous one who melted her insides just by calling her “Bells.”
    Focus . She tapped her fist to her forehead. Yet all it did was unleash images of Evan’s assuring eyes latching on to hers, as if the need to take care of her trumped any military op.
    If Anna didn’t know him as well as she did, she’d be tempted to wish that look was for her alone instead of for Marissa or anyone at all who needed help. The sting of rejection she’d worked so hard to bury threatened to burn right through her walls.
    Shaking it off, she spotted her focus in the mirror and restarted her audition piece from the top.
    She dropped to the studio floor, rolled a quarter turn, and faced stage left. An upper body roll brought a silhouette from the doorway into