Igniting the Flame (Firebrand Series) Read Online Free

waitress returned and placed the bill next to his plate. He glanced at it before he pulled out his wallet and tossed a handful of bills on top of it. Then he pushed back from the table and stood up. “Let’s go. We’ll talk at your house.”
    Neither of them spoke all the way to her house. When he pulled up to the curb, he turned off the motor, looped his arms over the steering wheel, and stared out the windshield for several minutes before he turned to her. The street light lit the interior of the car, and Lainey almost recoiled at the tormented look on his face.
    “Ash,” she murmured, “what has happened?”
    He bit down on his lip for a moment and took a deep breath. “The morning we met out on Moss Creek trail, I told you I’d been camping for a week up in the mountains, and you said that was a good place to get away and think. Do you remember that?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, you were right. That’s exactly what I was doing. At the time I’d been home about a month from the army. When I came back, my father assumed I was going to go to work at DeHan Enterprises like my brother did. The problem is that I have no interest in the family business and don’t want to work there.”
    “Have you told your father?”
    “Yeah, I told him, but it makes no difference to him. It’s what I’m expected to do, and he intends to make me, whether I like it or not.”
    Lainey smiled, reached over, and rubbed her fingers across his knuckles that were turning white from gripping the steering wheel so hard. “Is there something else you want to do? Is that why you’re so opposed to working for your father?”
    “Yes.” His dark eyes flashed as he leaned closer to her. “I was a good soldier, Lainey, and I was happy doing my job. Right before I left the army, a man from the CIA came to our camp and talked to Reese, Colt, and me about going to work for them. The government is in need of a covert group of operatives that could do undercover missions, and they singled us out to head it up. We’d be in charge of recruiting, training, and leading our men on missions that the government can’t sanction publicly.”
    Lainey swallowed the fear that rose in her throat. “That sounds dangerous.”
    “It’s the kind of work that makes me feel alive. Some men are cut out for the life of a soldier, and I’m one of them.”
    “So have they started the group?”
    “Yes. We’re calling the organization Firebrand, and Reese and Colt are recruiting right now. The fourteen month training program begins in September in South America.”
    Lainey blinked to keep tears from filling her eyes. She and Ash had only been seeing each other for three weeks, but she’d begun to think it might lead to a real relationship, that she might finally have someone in her life who cared for her. That hope had just died.
    She took a deep breath. “So when are you leaving?”
    He swiveled in his seat and grasped her shoulders. His fingers dug into her as he pulled her close. “That’s just it. Firebrand was all I could think about when I came home. I couldn’t wait to get out of St. Claire. I came down off that mountain the day we met, and I was ready to pack my bags and leave town the next day.” He trailed a finger down the side of her face. “And then I met you, and everything changed.”
    Her mouth opened, and she gave a small gasp. “How?”
    “All of a sudden, Firebrand didn’t seem so important. I wanted to know you better, and I knew I couldn’t leave when I’d found a woman who intrigued me more than anyone had before.”
    She tried to digest everything he’d just said. The job he’d described sounded well-suited for a man with no ties, and that’s what Ash had intended to be, until he met her. On the other hand,maybe this was his way of letting her down easy.
    She should have known her relationship with Ash DeHan was too good to be true. He’d had a reputation in high school for not dating a girl very long before moving on to