06 Double Danger Read Online Free

fake, and the moaning and groaning more about theatrics than pain. A disaster drill. He’d seen a notice in the elevator on the way up. Judging from the chaos ensuing inside the room, he’d have to assume it wasn’t going all that well. Of course, if it been the real thing, the hysteria would have been much worse. But this was just play-acting, and thankfully, he didn’t have a role to play. With a rueful smile, he turned to go, thenstopped, his brain conjuring the picture of a blue-eyed blonde in green scrubs.
    Frowning, he turned around again, certain that image must be wrong, that his mind had merely superimposed a memory onto a stranger. He rubbed his leg absently as his gaze settled again on the woman. She had her back to him, her sun-streaked ponytail bobbing as she talked to another woman also wearing scrubs. She was waving her hands, her slim fingers giving additional meaning to her words.
    Even from behind, he knew that his instinct had been dead on. He knew the curve of her hips. The turn of her shoulders, the grace of her long, lithe legs. He recognized the way she stood, the way she moved. Hell, he’d have known her anywhere. And then she turned, as if somehow she’d felt his presence, her eyes widening in surprise and then shuttering as she recognized him.
    His mind screamed retreat, but his feet moved forward, taking him across the room until they were standing inches apart. Behind her, out the window, he could still see the river, the blue of the sky almost the same color as her eyes.
    “J.J.?” The words came out a gruff whisper, his mind and body still on overdrive as he tried to make sense of her being here in New York.
    “I go by Jillian now,” she said, her voice just as he’d remembered. Low and throaty. Sexy. “It’s easier.” There was a touch of bitterness in her words and a tightness around her mouth that he’d never seen before.
    He paused, not exactly sure what to say. It had been a long time. And he hadn’t thought he’d see her again. Memories flooded through him. The smell of her hair.The feel of her skin beneath his fingers. An image of her standing with Ryan in her wedding dress, eyes full of questions, Simon’s heart shriveling as he chose loyalty over everything else.
    J.J. was Ryan’s girl. She’d always been his. Since they were practically kids. And one drunken night couldn’t change that fact.
    Ryan was his best friend and he’d failed him—twice. Once an eon ago at a college party, and the second time, years later, in a compound in Somalia. He’d managed to avert disaster the first time, common sense and loyalty overriding his burgeoning libido. But in Somalia, he hadn’t been so lucky, and because of his decisions, Ryan was dead. J.J. had lost her husband. And there was nothing Simon could do to make it right.
    “I can’t believe you’re standing here,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s been a while since I saw you last.”
    “Four years,” she replied, the words a recrimination.
    “You look the same,” he said, wishing to hell he’d never seen her. He didn’t need this.
    Again she laughed, but this time with humor. “You always were a flatterer.”
    “Yeah, well, I guess some things never change,” he said, studying her face. There were faint lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. And her hair was longer and slightly darker than before. But over all, she looked like the girl he remembered. Except for the smile.
    J.J. had always been smiling. Or at least that’s the way he’d chosen to remember her. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been anything but happy. He’d never forget the pain etched across her face as she’d accepted the flag that had been draped across Ryan’s casket. Simon had promisedto come by later that day. But instead he’d left town. And never looked back.
    “You look good, too,” she said, her eyes moving across his face. “So what brings you to the hospital?”
    “Check-up,” he sighed, rubbing his leg.