Stone Cold Heart Read Free Page A

for the FBI, furthering the agenda of the U.S. government at the expense of her own morals in ethically gray areas, she was finally going to do something good.
    Something worthy.
    No killing involved.
    Jess followed Niles, er, Colin.
    But the niggling doubt that wormed into her consciousness at the exact moment she'd recognized him wouldn't leave her alone. Uncertainty and apprehension rolled through her.
    What was he doing here? Did her brother know Colin used to be SAS? That was a stupid thought. Sure he did. She was the only employee who wasn't former military. And she was assuming that Niles...Colin was not still active duty.
    They moved quickly to the covered deck area, the grind of the ship's engines loud in the small enclosed space. "I'm Jess." She shoved out her hand and braced for the contact.
    "Colin." He nodded without touching her.
    "This is my first relief effort." She volunteered the information hoping for more from him. Skills and training kicked in as she assessed him calmly.
    "Brilliant," he clipped.
    She remembered him using that exact word when he slid inside her for the first time. Jess's gaze shot to his, and for a moment, heat and memory blazed, burning his cool gray gaze hot.
    But then the fire extinguished and she was left cold.
    She was even colder when she considered his presence on this boat. What were the odds that he too had grown tired of the increasingly complicated ethics of international politics and government machinations and decided to go humanitarian? At the exact time as she had?
    Pretty damn slim.
    When she'd been pouring out her heart between bouts of sweaty sex, she'd revealed her vulnerability and her uncertainty about her chosen profession. But Niles had done no such thing.
    So what did his presence mean?
    It was a well known fact that most intelligence agencies sent in operatives during relief efforts in order to get the lay of land of unstable countries. Could that be his angle? But then how did he get hooked up with GHR? And did her brother know?
    She had minimal facts about his former occupation. He'd calmly and efficiently defused the bomb in the Tube station when they met previously. He was British. And totally hot in bed. Beyond swooning over his accent while he went down on her, she didn't know any more details about him.
    They'd been in the right place at the wrong time and almost gotten themselves blown up, but luckily he'd been able to deactivate the explosives before the threatened deadline.
    Jess had been the lookout in the small supply room, rifle trained on the crowd, vigilantly searching for anyone who looked out of place as the British police tried to calmly evacuate the crowded terminal. They'd both known that if something went wrong, they were dead. It had been the most terrifying and the most exciting hours of her life.
    After cleaning up and several debrief interviews, including a mission post mortem, they'd both been nearly dead on their feet when they'd randomly met in the elevator of their hotel. Somehow the smoldering looks that had simmered throughout their time locked in a room with a ticking device had turned into a smoking hot encounter in his hotel room.
    They'd planned to go to dinner, but when Jess met him in the hallway, clad in her sexy LBD that weighed about one ounce and left lots of room for her rifle and ammunition in her suitcase, they had stumbled into his room and never come out. Dinner had been forgotten in a haze of scorching lust.
    Jess certainly couldn't ask any questions about how he'd gotten from that op to this place. Not until they were alone. No way in hell was she exposing herself, or his past, to perfect Keisha.
    Besides, Jess had no idea what or if Keisha had security clearance. Proper procedure would be to let it go. Their prior mission didn't have any bearing on this humanitarian one...unless he wasn't former SAS but had in some way insinuated into the GHR ranks in order to carry out a separate, subversive agenda.
    She wasn't