They hadnât been in love.
Theyâd been in lust, and she was all about lust in that moment. All about pleasure. For two weeks, he was here, the man whoâd been the best sex of her life. Sheâd be a fool to run. She would enjoy him, and then she would say goodbye.
Starting with this kiss. The instant Jenniferâs mouth touched Bobbyâs, he pulled her closer, taking her mouth, as if he feared she might change her mind. His mouth parted hers, intimately, full of demand. One of his hands tangled in her hair, the other slid up her back, pressing her close, molding her to all that delicious hard muscle. Her hands slid over his back as he pressed her against the car. Long, strong thighs entwined with hers.
Their kiss wasâ¦arousing. It made her thoughts spin and her heart race. Yet, still, he seemed unaffected, cool, confident, in control, with an edge that had always been Bobby and had only grown more frustratingly sexy with time and maturity.
âPeace offering,â he said, obviously offering so much moreâ¦.
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the HotzoneâThe Texas Hotzoneâwhere three ex-members of the Crazy Aces Special Forces team have opened a skydiving operation right outside of my hometown of Austin, Texas.
Jump Start is book one in the trilogy, and it is a story about finding what youâve lost. And no, Iâm not talking about your car keys, but rather the key to your heart. Which consequently, in Jump Zone, is going to require a whole lot of seduction by the hero, Bobby Evans, because this key is buried deep. Of course, he gets help in the form of a combination bachelor/bachelorette party and a game of truth-or-dare. Read onward to find out if his heroine, Jennifer Jones, chooses the truth or the dare, and just how hot things have to get to find that key.
I hope you enjoy Jump Start, and look for book two, High Octane, in March. Please visit me at www.lisareneejones.com.
Enjoy!
Lisa Renee Jones
Lisa spends her days writing the dreams playing in her head. Before becoming a writer, Lisa lived the life of a corporate executive, often taking the red-eye flight out of town and flying home for the excitement of a Little League baseball game. Visit Lisa at www.lisareneejones.com.
Special thanks to Casey and Ethan Maxwell for helping with my military research. Janice, once again, for proofing and proofing and proofing again while living the deadlines with me. And Diegoâfor driving the U-Haul from NY to Colorado so I could write this trilogy.
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
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
QUICKSAND. That was what you called a mission that went from bad to worse with every maneuver you made.
Sergeant Bobby Evans sat inside a C-130 Hercules awaiting takeoff from the U.S. aircraft carrier Vincent with four of the twelve soldiers in his Special Ops team, âCrazy Aces.â It was a name theyâd come by honestly, doing crazy things like todayâs HALO, a high-altitude low-opening jump from thirty thousand feet. The mission was to extract the ten-year-old son of the newly elected American ally, Iraqi president Aban Kaleb Sadr, from Al Qaeda hostiles.
Free-falling at high altitudes came with risks, from unconsciousness to frostbite, but was necessary to stay off enemy radar. A HALO was a death-defying act that could give even veterans like the Aces a sense of quicksand, he supposed. But in seven years of Special Ops duty, and more than his share of HALOs, Bobby had seen quicksand only three times while a mission played outâand every one of those three times had been a bloodbath heâd have nightmares about the rest of his life.
Sitting next to Bobby, Mike Reynolds, the youngest of the Aces at twenty-eight, pulled out a picture of his fiancée, Jennifer, from beneath his jump jacket. âThis is it, the last time Iâm going to watch out for your sorry Texan asses,â he scoffed, referring to the roots that Bobby shared with Caleb Martin and âCowboyâ Ryan Walker, the two other Aces along for this ride with them. âIâm going home to damn good New York pizza and a hot woman. Adios muchachos.â
Both Bobby and Mike were up for reenlistment, and Bobby had no idea why he hadnât signed, sealed and delivered his new contract. But Mike, lovesick puppy that he was, had already opted out. He was gone in two weeks and none of the Aces were complaining, but not because they didnât love the guy like a blood brotherâbecause they did. The Aces were tight. Family without the ancestry. But ever since Mike had met Jennifer six months ago on leave, heâd been operating with the wrong head in control.
And Bobby understood. He used to have his own Jennifer back home twisting his gut in knots. The irony of the shared name didnât sit well with Bobby one bit. Not when his Jennifer had been, and always would be, the love of his life. The woman he would never forget, could never completely let go. The fact that a mutual, close friendâs upcoming wedding was stirring old feelings only brought that fact closer to light. Heâd never stopped checking on his old flame, keeping up with her from a distance, but seeing her up-close and personal, facing what heâd left behind, wasnât going to be easy.