Line of Fire Read Online Free PDF

environment?”
    “Well now—” he crossed his arms in exaggerated consideration “—I just unzip my fly, whip it out, and water the nearest tree.”
    She clenched her fists until her fingernails dug painfully into her palms. Her whole face felt hot. “You, sir, are a boor. I would appreciate it,” she gritted out, “if you would show a little respect for my feminine sensibilities.”
    His eyebrows shot straight up and unholy amusement lit his gaze. “Feminine sensibilities, eh?” He chuckled. A little bit more politely he added, “I suppose women out here just go behind a bush and squat. You can drip dry, or there are plenty of leaves to wipe with.”
    Leaves? Oh, Lord. The way this day had been going, she’d pick poison ivy for the job. What did poison ivy look like, anyway? Why, oh why, had she dropped out of the Girl Scouts? What did it matter if the uniforms had been hideous?
    Somehow she got through the operation without dying of embarrassment. When she emerged red-faced from the bushes, Tex turned without comment and resumed walking.
    He marched on in front of her, setting a grueling pace. Not even the ongoing view of his outrageously sexy behind alleviated her suffering. She felt rotten in just about every way a person could feel rotten. And he just kept pushing deeper and deeper into the jungle.
    Dark thoughts swirled in her mind. Why stop her lobbying campaign at merely disbanding the Special Forces? She’d get all the Special Forces soldiers thrown out of the military. Heck, she’d push to have them institutionalized as menaces to society!
    Fueled by her fury, she stomped along behind him. She batted away the insects that swarmed around her head, but didn’t seem the least bit interested in him. He must be too big a jerk for even a fly to bite.
    Finally, blessedly, the dense underbrush thinned out into an easy walk on a carpet of dead leaves. God, that felt good to her aching feet.
    Tex abruptly veered to the right and headed for a steep, heavily overgrown slope. He started up the difficult, nearly vertical climb. She stopped in her tracks and stared in shock.
    She’d marched through thorns that had ruined her clothes, put up with swarms of biting bugs, and sweltered through hours of sticky jungle heat, but she’d be damned if she’d tromp up some hill just so G.I. Joe could prove his point about some damned gun.
    “What are you doing?” she demanded, outraged. “We can go this way with no hill and no wading through brambles!”
    He gave her an infuriatingly bland look. “That’s why we’re not doing it. The bad guys will choose that path because it’s easy. So, we’re going this way.” He pointed up the hill.
    Her patience snapped. She’d had it with this bozo pushing her around practically like he was the supposed kidnapper.
    “Look, mister. I’ve been a good sport about this little nature hike from hell, but I’m tired. I’m hungry and I’m thirsty, and I don’t do mountains. The trickiest terrain men lead me across is a polished marble floor when I’m wearing three-inch spikes.”
    Tex turned around slowly. He stared at her coldly.
    A reflexive shiver shot down her spine. Her father got that look in his eye when he was about to hit something. Or someone. Her insides quivered in abrupt trepidation.
    Tex stated with ominous calm, “I don’t recall asking for your opinion on our route.”
    She spluttered for several seconds, her intimidation rapidly transforming into indignation. Finally she found her voice. “I beg your pardon?”
    “I don’t give a tinker’s damn where you walk with your prissy toy-boys back home,” he said. “Right now, we’re going up this hill.”
    Her gaze narrowed. “Feel free to climb whatever cliff gives you a testosterone rush, Tarzan. But I’m going that way.” She pointed down the valley.
    He stalked back toward her, radiating a menace reminiscent of her father’s battle rages. Despite decades of experience with them, she still felt a rush