This ex-agent has one last chance to mend a broken relationshipâif he can protect her long enough
Burned black ops agent Alicia Troy spent years plotting the perfect revenge on the man who left her for deadâ¦until her plan is foiled by her ex-teammateâand ex-loverâwho taught her the meaning of betrayal. She canât trust John Witterâ¦so why canât she stop wanting him?
For John, itâs a race to keep Aliciaâs intended victim safe long enough for the man to prove Johnâs innocence, and itâs a struggle to steer clear of the woman who believes he deceived her. But when their former agency turns on them, labeling them âarmed and dangerous,â John has a new mission: keep his woman alive.
âDonât touch me.â
Her eyes were pure ice.
John pressed her against the wall. âThere was a time you couldnât get enough of me touching you.â
âRight up until you helped an agent try to kill me.â
It took every ounce of his self-control not to force her to look at him. âYou believe him over me. After everything we were together.â
Alicia drew a ragged breath. Then he saw itâthe passion in her eyes. It was the same torment that was tearing him up. She was no longer the refined femme fatale, but a real woman. His woman.
He touched her cheek with his hand, expecting her to demand he remove it. Instead, her eyes closed on another tremulous breath. âI hate you.â
âI know.â
He cradled her cheek in his palm. Pulse pounding, he ignored all the reasons he shouldnât be doing what he was about to, then leaned down and pressed a kiss to her closed mouth.
Dear Reader,
I must confess: every time I write a book, I fall in love with the hero. And sometimes, when the hero and heroine are perfect soul mates, I feel a little guilty about crushing on him, as though that feeling betrays my friendship with the heroine. Isnât that silly? Maybe not, because if you, as a reader, crush on the hero and think about the heroine as a friend, that means Iâm doing my job as a storyteller. Trust meâyou are definitely in danger of falling hard for John Witter in Hot on the Hunt.
When I started writing this story, I affectionately nicknamed John âUnderdog Alpha.â He first appeared in Tempted into Danger as the funny friend, a wisecracking sniper with an affinity for Michael Jackson songs. But, typically, the funny friend never gets the girl, does he? In Hot on the Hunt, I tackled the question: How does a man like that reboot his life after heâs lost everything, including his homeland and the woman he loves?
John is an underdog in every wayâunderestimated, living under the radar and written off as a has-been. But from the ash of his former life emerges an alpha warriorâ¦and I guarantee youâll approve of Johnâs transformation. You might even feel a tad bit guilty for crushing on Aliciaâs man, just as I did. Happy reading!
Melissa
MELISSA CUTLER
is a flip-flop-wearing Southern California native living with her husband, two rambunctious kids and two suspicious cats in beautiful San Diego. She divides her time between her dual passions for writing sexy, small-town contemporary romances and edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense. Find out more about Melissa and her books at www.melissacutler.net, or drop her a line at [email protected].
To Ericâyou are my everything
Chapter 1
There was no one on this island of partying rich kids and vagabonds who cared about the washed-up sniper taking practice shots at the buoy eleven hundred meters offshore. Most mornings, John hit his target without fail. Not today. The wind was all wrong, which should have been Johnâs first clue that his exile in the Virgin Islands had gotten too comfortable. One shift of the wind and he didnât instinctually adjust.
It was about time. Heâd been waiting to exercise this particular mental muscle. The one that guarded against complacencyâthe false sense of confidence in himself, in his environment and in the people surrounding himâwhich had been the root cause of the implosion of his former life.
The problem with confidence was that it led to trust. And trust led to assumptions like thereâs no way a blood brother who he went to war with would betray him. Or that loving a woman with every cell of his being would earn her loyalty, if nothing else. Dangerously naive assumptions like those were why John Witterâformer Green Beret sniper, former ICE black ops agent, former somebodyâhad spent the past twenty months waiting for complacency to set in so he could kick his own ass back into fighting shape.
It was a far cry from a do-over, but earning the status of persona non grata with the U.S. government and its world allies didnât leave him a whole lot of viable options.
He lifted away from the rifle and peered through his scope at the buoy swaying in the waves and wind. He should have this shot. Heâd adjusted for elevation given the tide, heâd lain in the exact same position he always did, with only a plain cotton T-shirt between his shoulder and the rifle butt, with a wad of gum sandwiched between his left-side molars. All the lame superstitions and habits heâd long ago forgiven himself for. Every sniper heâd trained with seemed to have them, or even nuttier ones than John, as symbols of control and consistency.