Forged in Fire Read Online Free PDF

asking.
    What the heck . “So, the kiss was about making us look real? As a couple, I mean?”
    He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Partly. But I wanted a taste of you, too.”
    Her insides melted. Crap, she didn’t need this complication.
    “I’m not interested in getting involved with anyone.” She winced at the primness in her tone.
    “That’s too bad.”
    No doubt his interest in her was based on convenience and availability. He was obviously horny. Likely, any woman would do in a pinch.
    “Look, I don’t do vacation flings.” Which made it sound like she was on vacation, which she wasn’t. She backed up and started again. “I mean, I’m not even on that plane.” Although, since she was listed on stand-by, technically she was booked as a passenger. “What I mean is I have no intention of actually taking that flight.” Her voice stumbled to a flustered halt.
    Good Lord, could she be any less clear? She blamed her uncustomary discomposure on the chills and goose bumps plaguing her right side, the side he rubbed against with each step.
    They were far enough from the terminal it should be safe to put some distance between them. Dropping her arm, she stepped off to the side until a good six inches separated them. Immediately, her composure returned.
    “What I meant,” she said very carefully, pleased to hear the words emerge with perfect clarity, “is that we need to focus on what’s important here, which is what’s going to happen on that plane.”
    He glanced down with a frown and shook his head, clearly warning her not to bring the subject up yet.
    “I’m good at multitasking.” His gaze lingered on her face like a caress, and then his arm tightened around her waist, dragging her back against him.
    Beth tried to force some distance between them, but his arm felt like a steel band around her waist. “Nobody’s watching now. There’s no need to be plastered against each other like this.”
    “Sure there is. I like the way you feel against me.”
    Just like that her brain went woozy, her stomach fluttered, her composure vanished and she reverted to kindergarten comebacks. “Well, I don’t.”
    His lips quirked. “Liar.” His gaze dropped to her chest. “Your nipples are hard.”
    Beth flushed; heat swept through her from head to toe. Unfortunately, he was right. Her nipples were hard, while various other parts of her anatomy were dissolving.
    Her body was in an epic battle with her brain. It craved everything he offered, wanted to press against those hard, hot muscles someplace cool and quiet. Her brain, however, knew the danger of such intimacy. Sizzling heat burned out as quickly as it flared, leaving nothing but ashes and regrets in its wake. She wasn’t cut out for a fleeting, albeit raging, affair. She wanted the slow, steady, lifelong burn. The kind that started as friendship, morphed into love and lasted forever. A true partnership.
    Nothing but chemistry fed these sparks, and sooner or later chemistry fizzled. In their case, the attraction flaring between them was bound to vanish quickly. Probably as soon as she told him what had brought her down to the airport and into his life. Zane Winters wasn’t the type of man to buy into premonitions or dreams. There was no way he’d believe her.

    * * *

    Across the terminal’s main passageway and two gates down, Russ Branson watched Zane Winters—Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters, SEAL Team 7, according to the bosses’ intel— escort Beth Brown down the tile corridor.
    Interesting. The lady’s name hadn’t appeared on the passenger manifest.
    While he’d been more interested in the first class passengers and the three SEALs booked on the flight, he’d pored over the coach listings as well. He would have remembered a Beth Brown. Add in her reaction to Zane Winters and the fact the pair had hooked up immediately, and his instincts were humming.
    Trouble, with a capital ‘T’ had just reared its ugly head. And unlike that fucking