Real heroes aren’t born, they’re made
K9 handler Arin Siri doesn’t like taking orders, and she works best when it’s just her and her dog King out in the field. But when she discovers a wounded soldier of fortune during a Search and Protect mission, she has no choice but to get him to safety. The last time she and the roguish, sexy Jason Landon tangled, they were on opposite sides of the conflict, but this time, he’s claiming to need her help.
When Jason wakes up in a hospital on Hawaii’s Big Island, he’s shocked to discover Arin guarding him. She’s the last person he expected to see, but she’s also the only person who can help him bring down a kidnapping ring. As they draw closer to danger-and to each other-they must race against the clock to discover who the kidnappers are working for, or risk becoming collateral damage themselves.
Exclusive Excerpt:
The water shut off and there was a rustle of fabric. She tried not to imagine what he’d look like all wet and toweling off. She failed. He stepped out of the bathroom a minute later, shirtless and in the process of tying off the waist of the kangkeng le she’d lent him.
Ohh. Say. Can. You. See…
He was glorious. She’d known he had an amazing build to begin with, but the muscle definition exposed by his current state of undress was mouth-watering. He was broad across the shoulders and heavily muscled through the back and lats with the kind of cut that made her want to run her hands all over him. And those abs…
There was a saying popular in the Thai dramas her mother liked to watch: “chocolate abs.” Arin always cautioned her mother not to use the term, especially not in the US where it had a different connotation, but in those Thai dramas the phrase was intended to compare a man’s abs to the subdivided sections of a chocolate bar. Very tempting. Personally, Arin liked the idea of chocolate abs much better than a six-pack. She was a lot more likely to nibble and lick a chocolate bar than the outside of a six-pack of tin cans.
He wore the kangkeng le low at his hips so she couldn’t help but appreciate her absolute favorite spot. He had the deep definition V, leading from high on his hips down below his waistband. The kangkeng le was very lightweight and if the extra fabric hadn’t been folded over where he’d tied the pants and lower, there wouldn’t have been much left to imagine.
Heat rose in her cheeks as she realized she hadn’t taken all of him in during her usual split-second assessment. No. Her gaze had lingered, and considering she’d denied him only a few minutes before, she was being rude as hell. She lifted her gaze to meet his. “I’m sorry.”
He crossed his arms. Not a positive sign as body language went. “For stopping us earlier? Have regrets?”
“No.” This time she was the one to lift her hands, palms open in a sign of peace. “I shouldn’t have been rude just now.”
His arms relaxed a bit, but remained crossed. “Appreciated. But you get that all the time, I’m betting.”
She shrugged. “Not so much. I’m…off-putting.”
It was true. She wore her attitude like dented plate armor and most didn’t dare look long enough for her to catch them at it.
He grunted. “Why don’t you find yourself a seat. We’ll start this debrief, then we can figure out who is sleeping where.”
Back to business and steadier ground.