Page 6 of Some Like It Hot

He smelled of the sunshine on his skin, and she couldn’t help but touch that tempting beard.

A small groan escaped from deep in his chest, and suddenly he pulled away. Swallowed. Met her eyes.

She didn’t look away, letting him see her. Because maybe she’d found a guy who wouldn’t flinch, who wouldn’t run if he saw—

Oh. What was shedoing?

Sheknewthis type of man. Live hard, play hard. Run into danger and leave a woman with her heart in shreds. And sure, she knew she was playing with fire, knew from the very first glimpse of Riley that he’d be a guy who liked a relationship hot, intense, and over fast.

Had even told herself that’s all she wanted, too.

Except…well, maybe she wore panic on her face because a smile slid up one side of his breathtakingly, devastatingly handsome face. “Larke. Take a breath. We can just sit out here and watch the sunset if you want.”

Oh.

Uh.

He lay back in the grass and reached for her, pulling her down into the cradle of his embrace. And he was so warm and solid and accepting of whatever he’d seen in her eyes, she just might cry. Again.

Some easy one-night stand she’d turned out to be. Talk about bad choices. Poor Riley.

“Tell me about him,” Riley said quietly. “The someone that you lost.”

She put her hand on his chest, where his heart beat, and found it strong, solid.

“His name was Freeman. He was a PJ. A Pararescue trooper. Special Ops, medic. He’d bring us the injured SEALs and Rangers and other quiet warriors, and we…well, it was war, and frankly, in the middle of the chaos, with him I felt safe.”

Riley had his hand in her hair, running his fingers through her knots, gently untangling them.

“I was stationed at Bagram, and one night we were attacked. I was outside the fence, working on a specialist who’d been injured, when a rocket lit up my escape. I was trapped outside the fence, the soldier dead on the ground beside me, when suddenly, Freeman came running right through the fire to me. I can still see the look on his face—fury, determination.” She swallowed, turned onto her back, and watched the sun turn the dark clouds to striations of orange, crimson, Denali falling to black. Beside her, Riley said nothing, just the rise and fall of his chest.

“A bullet took him down about five steps from me. And he still dragged himself over to me, landed on top of me, and protected me with his body.” She closed her eyes, and a tear pooled in her ear. “He died like that, his body covering mine.”

Riley wove his fingers through hers, and she pulled his hand to her chest.

“I’m such a fun date,” she said, giving a terrible laugh.

He turned and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Yeah, well, I’m a jerk because up until a few minutes ago, I thought maybe I could capitalize on all those tears.”

She laughed, but he looked over at her, not smiling.

Oh.

But then he grinned and winked and oh, she liked him. Too much.

“When did you get back from Afghanistan?”

“A year ago. Dad needed help with the ranch, and my brothers are all still in the service, so it’s just me. I help him run the bush plane service and am the mobile medic for the area.”

“Mobile medic?”

“Yeah, for the homesteaders who can’t—or don’t want to—come in for medical treatment. Midwifery, first aid, that sort of thing.”

“So I guess I shouldn’t have played tough guy with the shoulder.”

“Nope.”

“It’s really injured. I need lots of TLC.”