Free Unauthorized Obsession (Unauthorized Series Book 3) by Lisa Ladew Page A

sometimes I drove troops. And if I didn’t have my keys … if maybe they fell out of my pocket and I didn’t notice …”
    He didn’t finish, but he didn’t have to. Kara could finish the end of that sentence. If he didn’t have his keys, people died. No AAA in Iraq.
    Kara's squeezed his hand tightly. “I don't think you’re crazy. I think you’re brave, and strong, and talented.”
    Zane stopped walking. Kara’s momentum carried her two more steps, but his hand twined in hers pulled her back in an arc, until she was facing him. She looked up into his face, questioningly. His dark eyes fixed on hers and bore into her. Kara felt the night air shimmer around her body. Tension sprung up her spine again, but it was a pleasant tension, a coiled, delicious tension. She had time to think Is he going to kiss me? before his lips were on hers, soft, strong, tasting faintly of beer and peppermint. Kara pressed into him, her body a steel spring of sudden willing appeasement. Her free hand crept up to his shoulder and she felt the taut muscles there. She remembered how his bare chest had looked the first day she met him and desire filled her senses. Desire to touch, to be touched, to please and to seek fulfillment.
    Zane kissed her fiercely, with as much desire as she felt, until her world converged in a heady rush and she pulled backwards, suddenly remembering they were on the sidewalk in downtown Westwood Harbor.
    “Whoa,” she breathed, a smile on her face.
    “Whoa,” he agreed, returning her smile. “I think you’re really great too … and brave and … whatever else you said.”
    Kara laughed, the tinkling sound of it echoing off of the building next to them. “Strong and talented.”
    “Yeah that,” he said still holding her close. Kara could tell he was dangerously close to pulling her in for another go-round, so she extricated herself from his grip and pulled him down the sidewalk. The last thing she wanted was to find herself wrapped in the grip of passion so fiery that she found herself pushed up against the wall in an alley somewhere, her pants down around her ankles. She could tell his kiss had the power to make her think something like that was okay, at least momentarily.
    They walked for another two blocks, the cool night air cooling their cheeks.
    “We can turn around now,” Zane said. “I feel a little better. Not quite so … itchy to be doing something about finding my ex.”
    They turned around and Zane pulled his phone out of his pocket. A few swipes with his thumb later, he said, “I tweeted her to call me right away. If she doesn’t respond to that maybe I’ll go to her mom’s tomorrow.”
    His voice sounded sad again and Kara squeezed his hand, not sure what she wanted for him. If that child wasn’t his, she was going to feel horrible for putting him through this, but on the other hand, if she was, and that woman never intended to tell him ... She shuddered at the thought, then shook her head. This wasn’t about her anyway. This was one hundred percent about Zane and his life.
    They made it back to the bar and Zane stopped outside. “Do you want to go back in? We never did get to eat anything. Or I can take you somewhere else for dinner. Do you have to work tomorrow?”
    Kara shook her head. “I don't have to work tomorrow, but I do have an appointment with the groomer at 9 o’clock.”
    “So I shouldn’t keep you out too late then,” Zane said, his face falling almost comically.
    Kara tried not to giggle. “Yeah, I need to get home at a decent hour. I wouldn’t mind getting something to eat though. Anywhere you want to go.”
     
     
    ***
     
     
    Zane thought hard. He knew he should have had a backup plan. Wednesday's was nice, but once you passed about twenty-five years old, the constant loud music was hard to sit through for more than a few hours. He needed some place great, some place where they could have relative privacy but the food was still good. This woman was special,