Special Forces Rendezvous Read Free Page A

devastated, to say the least. Lost his entire family in less than a week.”
    Something hot and unwelcome squeezed Sebastian’s chest. He knew all about loss, didn’t he? Seemed like he’d been losing people his entire damn life.
    But now wasn’t the time to dwell on painful, unwanted memories. He’d come here to figure out if those malaria deaths were connected to the virus Harrison had been testing in Corazón, but it looked like this was nothing but a false alarm.
    Unless... Was Julia Davenport in cahoots with the people hunting him? Was she continuing Harrison’s secret project by killing her own patients?
    He let the possibility simmer for a moment, then dismissed it. Nah, he seriously doubted that. He prided himself on being a good judge of character, and it had taken only a few minutes in Julia’s company to decide that the woman didn’t have a malicious bone in her body.
    “I wish there was more we could do for these people,” she said, a wistful note entering her voice. “But it’s tough. The organization gets most of its funding from private donors, and with the recession, we’re not seeing as many donations as we used to. Less money means fewer supplies, fewer staff to hire, less everything.”
    “But it’s better than nothing,” he pointed out. “You’re doing what you can, Doc, which is more than what other people are doing.”
    “You’re doing something, too,” she said with a warm smile. “You’re shedding light on the issues, forcing the people back home to open their eyes to the conflicts and inequality and inferior health care others are struggling with.”
    An arrow of guilt pricked his chest, and for a moment he wished he was writing an article, just so he could put another one of those beautiful smiles on Julia’s face.
    This was damn perplexing. When it came to women, he didn’t have a type, per se, not unless temporary counted as a type. He didn’t do serious or long-term, and Julia Davenport had serious and long-term written all over her. She was a doctor, for chrissake. Doctors were notoriously serious.
    And why was he even thinking about this, anyway? He’d come here to interview the woman, not to sleep with her.
    His body, however, clearly hadn’t received the memo. His cock was semihard beneath the zipper of his cargo pants, and his palms tingled with the urge to undo Julia’s braid so his fingers could dive into all those silky brown tresses.
    “Sebastian?”
    Her amused voice jerked him out of his tasteless thoughts, and he nearly dropped his notebook on the linoleum floor. He made a mad grab for it, only to end up with a paper cut as the notepaper sliced into his thumb.
    “Damn,” he mumbled, lifting his thumb to his mouth and swiping his tongue over the line of blood forming there.
    Julia’s hazel eyes sparkled with amusement. “Paper cut?”
    Something about her teasing voice snapped him into flirt mode again. “Yup. Wanna patch me up?”
    She laughed, but he noticed a light flush rising on her cheeks. “Really? A big tough guy like you is worried about a measly little paper cut?”
    “Deathly worried.” He slanted his head. “So what do you say, Doc? Will you kiss it and make it better?”

Chapter 2
    J ulia’s heart actually did a somersault.
She’d thought that once you turned thirty, your heart didn’t do silly schoolgirl
things like somersaults, but sure enough, it was flipping around in her chest
like an excited dolphin.
    Of course, how could her heart not turn into a dolphin when the sexiest man she’d ever met was flashing that
gorgeous smile at her?
    Sebastian Stone was not at all what she’d expected him to be.
First of all, he was much more fit than she’d
pictured, his long, lean body clad in green cargo pants and a thin gray T-shirt
that couldn’t hide the tight six-pack of his abdomen. He wasn’t pretty-boy
attractive, but ruggedly handsome, hard lines and angles creating a stark,
masculine face that was more Marlboro Man than movie