Free Back From Hell (Marine For You Book 2) (Contemporary Military Veteran Romance) by Marissa Dobson Page B

Earlier in the day he had called a fellow injured vet, who had some crazy skills when it came to computers, to have him see what he could find out about the Cline ranch. He remembered the old saying, no news is good news, but he wasn’t sure that was always the case.
    He closed the door behind him and glanced to where Staci stood by the window. She tugged the cardigan tight around her, hiding the way the tank top curved to her body. Her hair hung down around her shoulders in soft cascading curls. She was beautiful. “Are you okay?”
    “Fine.” She glanced at him and shot him a halfhearted smile.
    “Don’t lie to me.” He closed the distance to her. “Are you upset about Colin?”
    “No, that’s their business and they’ll work it out.” She turned away from the window to face him. “Am I imagining this?”
    Inches from her, he wanted to reach out and caress her. “Imagining what?”
    “This… us .” Her cheeks burned red.
    “Do you want to be imagining it?” He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before letting his fingers travel down her neck, teasing softly along the curve of it. “Or do you want this?”
    “I put you in a sensitive spot earlier with the fiancé comment, but we’re alone now. If this is an act…”
    “Is that what you want, for this to be an act?” He wanted her to say it. To say that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. He hated feeling vulnerable—an emotion he hadn’t experienced since he had come back from overseas in his current condition. All the time and work that had transpired since he woke up to find himself a cripple in the hospital, and now, in some ways, he felt like he had ended up back there. Only, this time, more vulnerable than ever.
    “Stop returning each question with one of your own. I just want to know where we stand. I mean…I don’t want there to be any confusion, any mixed signals.”
    “Mixed signals…” So it had all been an act for her. It might have been one for her but it sure hadn’t been for him. He had started to fall for her nearly from the beginning. She had been in his thoughts since she strolled into his hospital room with her whiskey brown eyes, and her sweet country accent. “I think I’ll go work out. You can think about your mixed signals and decide what you really want.”
    He went to the suitcase but stopped before grabbing workout clothes. What had he been thinking? He couldn’t use a hotel gym. People would stare and while normally that would bother him, right now it would be like shoving a second knife though his back. He left the clothes and headed for the door. He needed to get out of there, to get air.
    “Kyle…” she called to him as his good hand clenched the door handle and pulled it open.
    He didn’t stop, couldn’t stop. He had to give himself time to think. Damn it, he loved her. Stepping into the hallway, he headed for the elevator. No car keys meant wherever he was going would have to be local. He didn’t care where he ended up or how he got there; he just needed fresh air to clear his thoughts.
    Falling in love with her had been the stupidest thing he had done yet. How could he ever think a woman like her would ever return his feelings? She could do better than him. While, for him, she was a dream. Not because he was a cripple but because of who she was. She saw him for more than his former military career and looked past his defects. He loved her and he never thought he’d have a woman like her in his life. Now, before they even had a chance, the dream was being tugged out of his hands and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Love isn’t always enough…
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    I t had been nearly two hours since Kyle had left and Staci couldn’t stop pacing the small confines of the room. She had given him a few minutes to calm down and given herself the time to get her thoughts in order before she had tried to find him. She searched the hotel, the garden behind, even the couple of blocks