Navy Seal's Deadly Secret. Cindy Dees

to challenge me.” He hadn’t been a forward operator in the U.S. Army Rangers for nothing. Hell, he’d gone hand to hand against Taliban fighters who were whipcord hard and fighting for their lives. Now they were a challenge.

      “Glad to hear it,” she murmured. Yet another awkward silence fell between them, and he wasn’t inclined in the least to help out his visitor. The sooner she caught a clue and went away, the better.

      “My name’s Anna, by the way. Anna Larkin.”

      The name was familiar. She’d been a year behind him in high school. Hadn’t she run away from home right after graduation senior year to pursue an acting career in Hollywood or something? “Did you ever go to California?” he shocked himself by asking.

      The strangest thing happened. Her entire demeanor changed, and she folded in on herself, literally hugging her waist with her arms and doubling over a little as if he’d kicked her in the gut. All the light went out of her eyes, and lines of grief etched themselves around her eyes. Geez oh Pete! What did he say?

      “Yeah,” she mumbled. “I made it to California.”

      But she was back here, now. From that, he assumed the Hollywood dream hadn’t gone as she’d hoped. Too bad. She seemed like a nice person. He asked, “Didn’t Eddie Billingham go with you?” Eddie had been in his class in high school, and Brett had always found him arrogant and self-centered. Of course, it hadn’t helped keep Eddie’s ego in check that every girl in school seemed willing to sleep with him at the snap of his fingers.

      Anna shook her head, not as if to say no, but as if to ward off the question. Huh. Bad blood between her and Eddie, maybe?

      “Well, thanks for fixing my necklace and coming all the way out here to return it,” he tried, hoping she would catch the hint and vamoose.

      She nodded and took a step back from him. She backed away from him quickly, her hands up defensively. What in the hell had he said to flip her out like that?

      “Watch out!” he cried hoarsely. But too late. She stepped backward off the edge of the porch, missing the step with her foot and tumbling backward, arms flailing.

      He lunged forward and made a grab at her, but missed. She went down, rolling heels over head and landing in a crumpled heap at the foot of the porch steps. He raced after her, dropping to his knees beside her.

       Explosion. Screaming. Blood. His guys. Oh, God. His guys. Death. Loss. Agony.

      He fought to breathe, fought the panic. Clawed his way back from the abyss inch by black, painful inch. He didn’t know how long it took, but he finally blinked his eyes hard, clearing the last remnants of hell from his mind’s eye, replacing them with a pretty young woman sprawled, unconscious on the ground.

      Crap. Anna was out cold. He reached quickly for her throat, relieved beyond belief to feel a strong, steady pulse beating beneath her fragile, transparent skin. His fingers trailed down the slender column of her neck, reveling in the silken softness, so foreign to his hard-edged world.

      He jerked his fingertips away from her neck and swore luridly. What the hell was he doing? He was damaged goods. Worthless to any woman.

      Carefully, he slipped his hand under her head and felt her scalp for bumps or blood. Nothing. His palm slid ever so gently down the back of her neck, counting vertebrae and checking for any protrusions or swelling to indicate a neck injury. Nothing.

      Very gently, he ran his thumbs outward from the hollow of her throat, tracing the line of her collarbones. So delicate. So feminine. And thankfully, intact. He swept his hands down her rib cage next, shocked at how much of them his hands spanned. She really was a tiny little thing. Her T-shirt was soft and worn beneath his hands and felt like…home.

      He could tell by looking that her legs were lying at the correct angles. She might have wrenched a knee or ankle, but nothing was obviously broken. He sat back on his heels, frowning. She was going to get cold fast lying on the ground like this, though.

      He slipped his arms underneath her shoulders and knees, and awkwardly climbed to his feet. Aw, hell. His ribs protested violently, and he gritted his teeth against the fiery agony shooting through his side. He staggered up the front steps with her and laid her down on the dry wood porch.

      She started to stir and he jumped back from her as if she would bite him, hating himself for the impulse. Since when had he become afraid of small, unconscious women who meant him no harm? Was he that screwed up in the head? He was a warrior, for crying out loud. He’d stared down death and laughed in its face more times than he cared to count.

      And yet, here he was, hiding from humanity. Hiding from himself. From his own memories. He backed another step away from Anna as she reached for her head and felt it gingerly. She opened her eyes, frowning faintly until she caught sight of him.

      “Oh dear,” she sighed. “I am a bit of a klutz, aren’t I?”

      He felt no need to restate the obvious. Of course she was a klutz. A rather adorable one, in fact.

      She sat up and reached for the porch post. He offered his hand down to her. She looked startled, nervous even. But she laid her hand in his. It was soft. Fine boned. As delicate as the rest of her. And cold, too. He gave a gentle tug and she popped up to her feet. He watched, his gut turbulent as she dusted off her rear end. Her very nice rear end. Cupped temptingly in those skinny jeans. Off-limits. Dangerous.

      “You’d best come inside,” he said gruffly. “Warm up and make sure you don’t have a concussion or something.”

      She stared up at him as if she didn’t comprehend his words. She mumbled, “Feels like weather moving in. I’d better get off the mountain before it hits.”

      “Are you sure? You hit your head hard enough to knock you out. You should stay a little while. Just to be safe—”

      She cut him off. “Thanks. But I’ll be okay.”

      One part of his mind chanted silently to her, Go away. Go away. Go away. But another part of it whispered, Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go. He wasn’t going to beg. And it was her life, after all. Still, he wished she would stay long enough to make sure she wasn’t seriously hurt.

      She’d gotten that look in her eyes again. The haunted one that screamed of mistreatment and abuse at the hands of a man.

      He crossed his arms over his chest, anchoring his hands to stop them from reaching out and forcing her to stay. He wasn’t about to force any woman to do anything she didn’t want to. Especially when it put that awful hurt look in her eyes.

      He watched helplessly as she turned and navigated the porch steps facing forward this time, with better success than before.

      She glanced over her shoulder at him as she opened her car door, her eyes wide with fear. As much as he hated the idea of a woman being afraid of him, maybe if she was scared of him, she would leave him the hell alone.

      Except something painful twisted deep in his gut as he stood there, unmoving, and watched her drive away. Lonely. He was lonely.

      Which was no less than he’d earned.

      It was better this way. He didn’t deserve to be part of the human race.

       Chapter 3

      She’d made it back to the sprawling stone-and-log mansion that had literally stolen her breath when she’d passed it on her way up to Brett Morgan’s place when it started to sleet. She barely spared a glance for the massive dwelling now. She had to get down to a lower altitude and warmer temperatures that would turn this wintry precipitation back into relatively harmless rain. Her lightweight car wasn’t the least bit suited for the high Rockies.

      She couldn’t stop picturing the man she’d left behind, brooding on his mountain. There was something…wounded…about him.