Fully Engaged
They'd shared one wild weekend of passion, then she'd left without a word. Five years later, Nola Seabrook tracked down Captain Rick DeMassi to apologize for her hasty departure, not realizing this fresh encounter would lead to Rick moving in with her…as her bodyguard.Playing protector to his ex-lover had not been Rick's plan. But disturbing letters and a nearly fatal car bomb soon had him jumping into action. He fully intended to protect Nola with his life, find out why she'd been so quick to leave his bed…and do whatever was necessary to get her back in it.
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Praise for RITA>® Award-winning author Catherine Mann
âRiveting action, to-die-for heroesâthis must be another military romance by the fabulous Catherine Mann!â
âNew York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann
âCatherine Mann is one of the hottest rising stars around!â
âNew York Times bestselling author Lori Foster
âAs we say in the Air Force, get ready to roll in hot! From page one, Catherine Mannâs military romances launch you into a world chock-full of simmering passion and heart-pounding action. Donât miss âem!â
âUSA TODAY bestselling author Merline Lovelace
âHold out for a Catherine Mann hero! Her Air Force flyboys will wing their way straight to your heart.â
âBestselling author Joanne Rock
CATHERINE MANN
Five-time RITA>® Award finalist Catherine Mann pens contemporary military romances, a natural fit since sheâs married to her very own Air Force flyboy. Since June 2002 she has won the Romance Writers of Americaâs prestigious RITA>® Award and the Booksellers Best Award, as well as being a finalist for Romantic Times BOOKclubâs Reviewerâs Choice Award. A former theater-school director and university teacher, Catherine graduated from the College of Charleston with a B.A. in fine arts: theater and received her masterâs degree in theater from UNC Greensboro. Now, following her aviator husband around the world with four children, a beagle and two tabbies in tow offers endless inspiration for new stories. For more information, visit her Web site at www.catherinemann.com or write her at P.O. Box 6065, Navarre, FL 32566.
In memory of Jeri Houghton and Susan Jeglinski.
You are remembered.
And to Harlequin/Silhouette author Bonnie Gardner. I appreciate more than I can express your sharing details of your breast cancer recovery journey. Your strength and courage humble me. (Any mistakes about breast cancer treatment and recovery are my own. To learn more about breast cancer detection and treatment, I hope youâll visit the American Cancer Societyâs Web site at www.cancer.org.)
Acknowledgments:
Iâve long wanted to tell this story and always imagined myself digging in and immersing myself into the writing process. Well, my world didnât cooperate and the time to put this book to paper came at one of the most chaotic moments of my life. This story of my heart could not have happened without the critiquing, proofreading and hand-holding from five very dear people. My heartfelt thanks to my friends Joanne Rock, Stephanie Newton and Karen Tucker, to my sister Julie Morrison, and to my husband, Rob. I love you all!
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Prologue
Five Years Ago: Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
Lieutenant Nola Seabrook accepted that she could face death on Monday. But for the weekend, she intended to celebrate life to the fullest.
She gripped the door of the Officerâs Club bar, preparing herself to do something sheâd never even considered before. She intended to find a manâa strangerâfor a one-night stand.
Lucky for her, she was away from her home base, which gave her a wealth of unfamiliar faces to peruse. Country music and the clang of the bell over the bar swelled as she swung the door wider to reveal the Friday-night crowd.
No crying. No fear. She would forget herself with some stranger and lose herself in sensations she might never feel again.
Nola shouldered deeper into the press of bodies. The room reverberated with cheering. The place was packed, as she would expect on a Friday night, but the majority clustered in a circle to the side, was the source of the whoop, whoop, whoop. And âGo, Lurch! Go, Lurch!â
Lurch? Now there was a call sign for a guy worth investigating.
Curiosity nipped, sucking her feet sideways.
She angled toward the commotion. Sidestepping an amorous couple making tracks toward the door, she caught sight of a chalkboard mounted on an easel. A bartender stood beside with a stubby piece of chalk to scratch out numbers. Ah. Bets. But what for?
She sidled through to the inner circle. Her eyes homed in on the source of the noise. The focus of the cheering wasâ¦
A man.
Holy cow, what a man. On the floor pumping push-ups in BDU pants and a brown T-shirt, he clapped between countsâninety-five at the moment. The number hit a hundred and still he didnât stop or even hesitate. Must be his size that earned him the nickname âLurchâ because, holy cow, he was big.
Two men in similar uniforms split from the crowd carrying a fifty-some-odd-year-old waitress on their shoulders like Cleopatra. With ceremonial hoopla, they placed her on the manâs back. His arms strained against the T-shirt, muscles bulging, veins rippling along the stretch of tendons, but still he pushed.
Up. Down. Again and again.
Ohmigod, her own tummy did a flip of attraction. Arousal. And hadnât she come here for just this reason?
