The Reunion Mission. Beth Cornelison

giddy sense of victory swirled through her when Daniel finally relented and followed her up the porch stairs. Her triumph was all the sweeter when she thought of the buffer Daniel would provide between her and her father’s tedious friends.

      Daniel offered her his arm as they crossed the porch. “Is this going to cause a problem with your father?”

      Nicole hiked up her chin, remembering the blind eye her father turned to his business associates’ behavior toward her. “Maybe. But I don’t care. It will teach him a lesson.”

      Daniel frowned as they stepped into the foyer. “I don’t want to get in the middle of some family thing.…”

      “Don’t worry.” She tugged his arm, pulling him into the ballrom, where the volume of music and voices made conversation difficult. “I’ve got this.”

      Daniel could feel Senator White’s dark glare following him as Nicole led him out onto the dance floor. When she’d explained why Daniel was at her side, the senator had clearly been unhappy with her stunt, and something in Nicole’s manner had rankled Daniel, as well. But once he had Nicole in his arms again, the senator faded from his thoughts. With Nicole pressed against his body, his hands on the silky skin of her back, the delicate scent of her surrounding him, he forgot anything beyond that moment, this woman. And the fire that consumed him.

      When she threaded her fingers through his short cropped hair or angled her head to flash him a smile with equal parts of sweetness and seduction, his blood ran hot, and his need wound tighter. Months of anticipation and longing coiled inside him.

      He’d spent the past five years thinking about Nicole and regretting the chance he’d let slip through his fingers the night he’d walked her home with her new kitten. His sense of honor and propriety, along with a belief that she was out of his reach, had lulled him into inaction when she was sixteen. Since that night, he’d sworn never to miss another opportunity, in any form, when it knocked. For a kid from the bayou, life didn’t offer many lucky breaks or second chances.

      As they moved together, she chatted amiably, filling him in on her years in nursing school, her mother’s illness and recent death, her dream of working overseas in one of the many poor communities where health care was so desperately needed. She quizzed him on his career plans with the Navy, his last tour in the Persian Gulf, his specialty in weapons and explosives.

      “Why weapons?” she asked with a frown.

      He shrugged. “Because … I’m a guy, and guys like guns and things that go boom.”

      Her frown turned to a scowling pout, and he was slammed with the urge to kiss her plump raspberry lips. He swallowed hard and determinedly refocused his thoughts. “Because …” he said, schooling his face. “It was where I was needed. It’s what I’m good at.”

      Her smile warmed. “I bet you’re good at a lot of things.”

      He grunted in acknowledgment and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Better at some things than others.”

      Her pale blue gaze heated, and she canted closer, tracing his ear with her finger. “Do tell.”

      Lust sent a scalding jolt through him, and as his desire-crazed brain scrambled, weighing discretion against temptation, a firm hand clapped him on the shoulder.

      “I’m cutting in,” her father said, effectively dousing the flames licking Daniel’s veins.

      Nicole stiffened. “Actually, I’d rather not.” She pulled away from her father’s grip and gave Daniel a confident smile. “Daniel was just about to take me home. These shoes are killing me, and my headache from earlier is back.”

      “Nonsense.” The senator took her elbow and guided his daughter off the dance floor. “If you’re ready to go home, I can leave now, or have Robert drive you back to the hotel.”

      “No, Dad, I—” Nicole turned, met Daniel’s gaze with a silent plea in her eyes.

      Firming his jaw, Daniel wedged through the crowd and cut the senator off at the edge of the dance floor. “The hotel is on my way, sir. It would be my pleasure to take Nicole home.”

      Nicole beamed, freeing her arm from her father’s grasp. “I’ll be fine. Good night, Dad.”

      Daniel seized the chance to pull Nicole toward the front door. He could feel her father’s glare burning holes in his back as he escorted Nicole outside and toward the parked cars.

      She looped her arm in his and leaned into him as they crossed the grassy lawn. “Thank you. If I’d had to dance with my left-footed father or one of his ass-grabbing friends again tonight, I think I’d—”

      Daniel stopped short. “Ass-grabbing?”

      She snorted derisively. “Oh, yeah. Right before I came out and found you, the sleazeball from the Chamber of Commerce copped himself a feel.”

      He tensed and fisted his hands, feeling the thrum of anger pounding at his temples. Performing a stiff about-face, he stalked back toward the mansion. “Show him to me.”

      Nicole slipped off her high heels and jogged to catch up to him. “Why? So you can defend my honor by punching him in the dentures?” She blocked his path, and when she met his gaze, her eyes sparkled with mirth. “I’m flattered by your chivalry, but save your energy.”

      He sucked in a deep breath, struggling to calm his raging pulse. “It’s just … when I think of some creep with his hands on your—”

      She laughed and ran her fingers up the front of his jacket. “You wish you’d thought of it?”

      He scoffed and caught her hands in his, tugging her closer. “Believe me, cher. I thought about it plenty.”

      She laced her fingers with his, her expression coy. “Then why didn’t you?” She tugged his hands behind her and planted them at the small of her back. “I think I’d like having your hands on me.”

      The coil of lust inside him yanked tighter. With a groan, he slid his hands down the silky fabric of her dress to palm her bottom. He curled his fingers, testing the supple flesh beneath her dress and tugging her closer.

      She sighed her pleasure, and when she tipped her head up, her eyes zeroing in on his mouth, he captured her lips with his. Moving one hand to cradle the base of her head, he held her in place while he explored the taste and texture of her kiss. She clutched at his back, returning his passion and meeting the thrust and parry of his tongue. A sound somewhere between a whimper and a purr rumbled in her throat, and the seductive mewl threw kindling on the fire already blazing in his blood. He wanted her so much he hurt.

      “Nicole,” he rasped, barely recognizing his own voice, “let me take you home.”

      “Only if you promise not to leave me at the door.” She nibbled her way down his jaw to his ear. “Last time, in high school, you left me … aching for you.” Nicole looped her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts against his chest. “I’m still aching for you.”

      He half moaned, half sighed. “The feeling is mutual.”

      When he slipped his hands under her dress and filled his hands with her bare bottom, she gasped. “Daniel …”

      He shifted his hand, delving a finger into the moist heat between her legs, before the slam of a car door reminded him they were in public. If not for her reputation, he’d take her there in the grassy lawn of the antebellum mansion. But he wouldn’t subject her to any scandal or scorn from her social set. Grasping her arms, he kissed her forehead and levered back. “Not here. Which hotel are you staying at?”

      She gave him the name of a posh hotel on Canal Street, and as he led her to his truck, he stooped to pick up the shoes she’d kicked off earlier. They seemed ridiculously small to him—size 6—with dangerously spiked heels. “How do you walk in these?”

      She grinned. “Very carefully.”

      He smacked