Guardian Read Online Free

already hundred-plus-degree day.
    He shifted, his knee bent, his shoulders angling closer. “What if I meet you tomorrow for lunch?”
    The offer tempted her. Hell, the man tempted her. She tried to focus on his tie instead of the flecks of steel in his blue eyes.
    The rows and rows of tiny rectangular ribbons on his uniform jacket drew her eyes. An image of her father in his uniform came to mind, so vivid she could almost smell the flowers in the funeral parlor when she’d seen her father wearing it for the last time.
    Time to leave before she did something totally off the chain—like cry. “Your two minutes are up. Stop by my office after court tomorrow.”
    Sophie ducked under his arm in an attempt to escape his appeal.
    Two cracks sounded.
    David slammed into her, tackling her. Her briefcase flew from her grip.
    Another pop. A gunshot? No time to question. Her head smacked the rocky earth as David Berg’s body blanketed hers.

T WO

    Sparks flashed behind her eyelids, her head throbbing from smacking the ground. Sophie gripped David’s uniform jacket as if holding him tighter could make them both less of a target. Shots and sirens blasted through the air, rivaling the sound of her heart hammering in her ears. Or was that David’s pulse?
    Or even theirs combined, linked like their bodies tangled up together.
    Machine gun fire sounded, followed by an explosion that reverberated like a hand grenade. The acrid scent of shots and smoke stung her nose. Only a few months ago, an airman had opened fire on a hangar full of deploying troops. Could lightning be striking twice on this same base?
    Her world darkened by the press of him around her. David’s honed muscles tensed against her as she braced herself for another shot to rip through the air. To tear into her body. And at that moment, everything else faded but thoughts of her son. If something happened to her, hewould be orphaned, with no one but her elderly grandmother to care for him.
    She’d been all too aware of the possibility since the day Brice was born—she wore a military uniform, after all. She could protect herself. But she’d always thought if the worst happened, it would be in combat. She’d originally planned to make a career of the air force. But after her husband died, she’d put in her paper to get out once her commitment was up. Finally, she was only weeks away from being a civilian.
    Their mixed heartbeats seemed louder as her mind allowed her to close off the battle sounds in the distance, to rein in her fear. Her senses went on high alert, taking in David’s crisp scent that pushed away the sting of smoke. The heat of him blanketed her with total
man
. And how completely insane was it to be scared as hell and turned on all at once? Her hunger and fear feasted on the adrenaline surging through her.
    His warm, rangy body stayed pressed against her. Too easily, she could savor all those buried yearnings. Was it her imagination, or did David inch his face closer as if he might…
    She felt David shift over her. Looking? Assessing? She couldn’t see past the bulk of his shoulders.
    “Shit,” he hissed, levering upward. “They just started an exercise down the street.”
    An exercise?
    Of course it was. Security cops had stepped up practicing for unexpected attacks on a base, and it wasn’t as if such exercises only happened during nine-to-five timelines.
    Relief all but melted her into the sandy ground.
    Now that David had inched upward, she looked pasthis broad shoulders and saw the signs posted two blocks away announcing the exercise—what appeared to be practice storming a building. At least she wasn’t the only one who’d freaked out. At least a half dozen other people had run for cover and were now easing from around trees and back to their feet.
    Even knowing others had been surprised as well, she still wondered how she’d missed the alert signs when she was talking to David. Although he hadn’t noted them either, and that unsettled