We reached the safe house where the others were waiting as if they already knew the score. It felt like we'd been gone for quite a while, but all in all, it had been a little over three hours since we landed. I'm not sure any of us expected things to go as quickly or as smoothly as they did. "Looks like that nose of yours really works, huh kid." Lyon stood back from the door after letting us in.I didn't answer; I couldn't. My system was still short-circuiting from having her so close. "Any reason we can't head back to the island since we got what we came for?" He didn't even try to look at her, which I found odd. Doesn't the guy have any curiosity? The others were straining their necks, trying to see through me."With all that hair, that's definitely a female." Logan peered over my shoulder, and I caught myself holding her closer to my chest. At this rate, I'll probably smother her to death. "Did you ask Mancini about that? Maybe he can send the pilot back tonight." Law stretched

"Who the hell are you people anyway? And what do you want with me?" She finally turned back to the room, and I had to remind myself how to put two words together; the woman was unbelievably gorgeous. Like the kind of gorgeous, you only expect to see in the movies. Granted, Ash and her new friends are nothing to sneeze at, but who'd risk looking at any of them long enough to see just how beautiful they really are?I'm not a small guy, and I'm sure I can hold my own pretty much in any given situation. But from what little I'd gathered in the short time I've known them, their husbands aren't exactly the forgiving types when it comes to their women, and they seem very possessive. It took Lyon damn near ten minutes to say goodbye to his wife, and the two of them already have a whole damn football team and then some between them. The SEALs hadn't been any different, and Law looked like he was going to cry when he had to give his son up to leave to come here. And why am I thinking about

"Since we know the deal, we'll help him through, though none of our women can kick our ass. I think she can take him." The conversation grew light for a second after Connor's comment as we reminisced about the way she'd flung the doc across the room with one hand to the throat. Jason joined us not long after looking a bit sheepish at the way he'd gone wolfhound on our asses in the kitchen, and another round of teasing began."Where is she?""She's tired. I took her back up to bed. So, what's the plan?" I went with my gut since everyone was looking at me for the answer. "We'll follow your lead on this one kid, so what will it be?" He seemed surprised at my offer, but as a man, I know how that sh*t feels when it involves your woman. It doesn't matter how new that feeling of ownership is, that sh*t digs in deep from the get.If anyone had tried to stand in my way when I was going after Kat's fine ass, there'd have been bloodshed and missing body parts all over the place. I'm not f*c

I had a big stupid grin on my face as I followed her inside until I remembered her past, and it struck me hard in the gut that after all, she'd been through maybe it wasn't such a good idea to just grab her and kiss her like that. I felt sick to my stomach at the reminder, and my attitude took a nosedive. What the f*ck is wrong with me? That's not like me at all. But she was being so damn adorable with her combat sh*t , and I've wanted to since the moment we met. I've wanted to do a lot of things with her, to her since the moment we met, but for once, I'm at a loss as to how to proceed with a woman.This is something I'd usually talk to my brother about to get another perspective from the person I trust most in life, but he wasn't here, and I had a more pressing issue on my hands. It's as if that kiss had opened up a window in my mind, and I realized that I couldn't treat Roxana the way I would anyone else. As tough as she is, and I don't think for a second that she's pretending,

I closed my eyes as soon as the plane took off and pretended not to notice the way he'd positioned himself as if to stand between me and the others. The guy sure was trying hard, but I had more pressing things on my mind. Can it really be her? If so, what a monumental coincidence.I reached over to the bag in the seat next to me and patted it down, making sure I could feel the little lump made by the sheets of paper I had hidden in the lining. They would be hard to find unless you knew they were there in the first place, but of everything I kept there, including my weapons, those documents were the most important.I let my mind playback over the last few hours as the smoothness of the flight threatened to put me to sleep. Not that that was going to happen. It's been years since I've been able to sleep with anyone else in the vicinity. The first few years after I'd been taken, I'd spent each night in terror; in fact, from the time the sun started making its descent in the sky some e