Firestorm Forever: A Dragonfire Novel Read Free

touched his mouth with her fingertip. “I’m hoping you’re not too much of a gentleman to do something about this,” she whispered, then bent closer and replaced her fingertip with her mouth.
    Her lips were soft and sweet, her kiss gentle, her scent beguiling him as little else could have done. Her mix of boldness and vulnerability kicked all of Sloane’s desires into overdrive. Before he could think twice—much less be cautious and responsible—she was in his arms and he was slanting his mouth over hers, deepening his kiss.
    That distant firestorm burned hotter, sending fire through Sloane’s veins.
    It wasn’t his firestorm.
    It might have been a thousand miles away.
    But the funny thing was, Sloane no longer cared.
    * * *

    Virginia

    She’d always known that he’d come.
    Yet when she turned and saw Drake watching her, Veronica Maitland couldn’t believe her eyes.
    It had been more than four years since she’d last seen Drake, more than four years since he’d brought her the news she’d dreaded but had needed to hear. A thousand times, she’d remembered the flicker of compassion in the depths of Drake’s dark eyes, felt the crinkle of the photograph he’d brought to her from Mark’s corpse, remembered the firmness of his cheek beneath her lips as she impulsively granted him a kiss of thanks.
    Drake had been both strong and gentle, tough and kind. He was a warrior, just as Mark had been, and she’d recognized that on sight. He had a family, she’d guessed that immediately, because he’d known just how to talk to Timmy. Drake had been a rock for her, when she’d most needed something to cling to.
    He had delivered the most devastating news with respect and understanding. Ronnie would never forget him, or that.
    Those first years without Mark had been challenging. She’d had to adjust to raising her son alone, which had never been part of her plan and was a change she deeply resented. It had been lonely, as well as difficult. She’d had to go back to school and finish the degree she’d abandoned when Timmy had been conceived, but do it when she was older and had more responsibilities. She’d started a new job and a new career, beginning at the bottom with more bills than her co-workers. She’d had to find a place for them to live and get Timmy settled in a new school, as well as figure out how to be a working mom on her own.
    She’d had to stop crying herself to sleep at night.
    There was something about triumphing against adversity that had made Ronnie feel strong again. She had built them a new life and Timmy was thriving. At eleven, he looked more like his father every day. He was hardworking and a good kid, the kind of son who would make any mother proud. She’d stopped worrying about him quite so obsessively and dared to think that there might be a future for her, as well.
    That had led her thoughts back to Drake. She’d known that she’d never be able to find him on her own, though she had asked both the embassy and Mark’s commanding officer about him four years before. It seemed that no one knew anything about him, but Ronnie was sure that was just proof that he was also in covert operations. She hoped that Drake’s fate was better than Mark’s and began to include him in her nightly prayers.
    It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise when Drake showed up in her dreams.
    It should have been less of one when he started to star in her fantasies. He was a ruggedly handsome man, unabashedly masculine, but it had been the gentleness that tempered his strength that captivated Ronnie.
    She’d added Drake’s family to her prayers, remembering her conviction that he was also a father, but also recalling the shadow that had touched his eyes when she’d asked him about it. Had he lost them? Was that why he’d understood her grief so well?
    It seemed Ronnie would never know.
    Until the evening she hefted a bag of groceries out of the trunk of her car, turned around, and Drake was