Fatal Heat: A Navy SEAL Novella Read Online Free PDF Page A

friend, and because she had a file-restoration app a lovesick nerd had once designed for her in grad school, in the hope of luring Paige into his bed. The ruse hadn’t worked but the aplaid but tp did.
    It looked like the file had been degraded by a pro, but NerdApp had restored bits and pieces. One sentence had leaped out at her, chilling her to the core.
    Strong evidence of a human carcino—
    The sentence was incomplete, but the only word in the English language that began with those letters was “carcinogen.”
    Something in what Silvia was studying was giving humans cancer. And Silvia was nowhere to be found.
    There was absolutely nothing Paige could do, not at the moment. The head of her department, Dr. Warren Beaverton, was in Estonia for a conference. And though Dr. Beaverton was excellent at what he did, outside generating lab data he was a useless human being with barely enough backbone to stand up straight.
    And right above him was Vice President for Research Dean Hyland, who, on a scale of humanity, one to ten, ranked minus-five. And who, being corporate, knew less than her cleaning lady about genetics. She had no idea how he’d gotten his degree. Bought it, probably, from some online company based in Montenegro.
    Instinctively, Paige knew she couldn’t involve either one.
    Something was really wrong. At times, when Paige lifted her extension, there was a slight humming sound before the click of connection.
    She didn’t have to read thrillers to know what that meant. Her phone and undoubtedly her office computer were being watched. It would take nothing to tempest her keyboard so they could follow stroke by stroke what she wrote.
    Silvia was smart and so was she. If they could just communicate briefly, they could figure out a way to talk without being overheard. They could set up a message board, they could invent new Skype names, they could communicate via throwaway cells.
    But first, Paige had to be able to talk to Silvia.
    And Silvia was nowhere to be found.
    At least she had the two Maxes tonight to take her mind off her worries.

 
    Chapter Three
     
    M ax stood on the doorstep, trying to keep his jaw from dropping, drinking in the sight of Paige in the open doorway. This was the third version of Paige Waring he’d seen, and if the first two bowled him over, this one took his breath away. Kapow! Dead man standing.
    The laughing beachcomber and staid businesswoman were gone. In their place was this sexy knockout.
    That shiny, light brown hair—enough for about six women—shimmered around her shoulders, reflecting the light with every move she made.
    She’d put makeup on that highlighted her large blue-green eyes and made that lush mouth a work of art. She had on a simple, elegant, sexy, frothy turquoise summer dress, white and turquoise bangles, and open-toed sandals showing bright pink toenails. Even her fucking toes were sexy.
    A stronger version of the perfume he’d smelled this morning mixed with warm skin would have brought him to his knees—if he were able to bend both knees.
    She was a wet dream come to life, she lived right next door, and she was about to feed him.
    Max leaned down to unleash the dog and to give him time to hide his reaction, because staring slack-jawed at a woman was definitely uncool.
    The instant the snap of the leash was undone, the dog bounded forward. He was crazy-eager to get to his mistress, though Max had learned today that crazy-eager was the dog’s default setting. He’d been crazy-eager to chase squirrels in the small, dog-friendly park at the far end of the beach, he’d been crazy-eager to play Frisbee on the sand, he’d been crazy-eager to play fetch with a stick in the surf.
    He was crazy-eager about everything, and keeping him out of trouble had kept Max on the move and in a good mood all day.
    Max jumped his mistress, trying to reach her face and lick it. Paige stepped back, almost falling under the dog’s weight.
    Max snapped out of his