Behind Enemy Lines Read Online Free

pressed against his. Pleasure welled up in his gut. But then she looked up at him with dark, frightened eyes. He mentally cringed. The worst missions were the ones involving civilians. They never could be counted on to keep their wits about them. He’d learned that the hard way a long time ago.
    Although the smart thing to do was to drag her to the floor and clap his hand over her mouth without further ado, that would mean lying on top of her, belly to belly, with every inch of her pressed against him. He opted merely to smile reassuringly at her and to hope fervently that Annie recognized the delicacy of the moment.
    The hall remained empty during the eternity it took for the door to slide closed. Relief and chagrin warmed his skin.
    Dammit. He was going to get them both killed at this rate. And all because he was afraid of his reaction to a woman. This operation had disaster written all over it.
    Tom closed his eyes. He wasn’t a particularly religious man, but he offered up a rare prayer for help in getting him out of this one alive.
    When Tom finally relaxed, Annie closed her eyes and gave a deep, heartfelt sigh of relief. The elevator began its quiet descent.
    “Thank goodness that’s over! That was the hard part, Tom. Now we can just stroll right out the front door.”
    She’d spoken too soon. Two hundred pounds of bulky man abruptly sagged against her.
    Her arms came up around him. Good grief, he was big—rock solid underneath the cotton shirt. He was also trembling.
    “Hey. Are you gonna make it? My car’s right out front.”
    “Yeah. I’m just a little dizzy.” His voice was no more than a sigh. “I’ll make it. I gotta collect on that kiss you still owe me.”
    “If you walk out of here under your own steam, I’ll give you two kisses.”
    “Deal.”
    The elevator door opened. He dropped the shoes and slipped them on. Tom kept his word to her and resolutely walked out of the hospital. But he practically collapsed into the passenger seat of her car.
    She had to help him lift his legs inside, and his head lolled back against the headrest by the time she got around to her side of the car.
    “If you puke in here, you have to clean it up.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” His lips curved upward faintly but his eyes stayed tightly shut.
    She didn’t want to think about the kind of pain he must be suffering. “Hang on. It’s not a long drive to the place I’ve rented.”
    “What place?”
    “I got us an apartment. The owner of the building does a little work on the side for us.”
    “For Uncle Sam?”
    “Yup.”
    “Do you trust him?”
    “Yes, I do.”
    He shrugged. “That’s good enough for me.”
    Annie blinked. “Thanks.”
    “For what?”
    “For trusting me.”
    “You’re the attaché. You know this town better than I do.”
    That might be true, but it didn’t mean she’d ever done anything like this before. The enormity of having another person’s safety rest entirely on her shoulders stilled her tongue for the rest of the car ride across town.
    The next hour passed in a nightmare of anxiety and physical strain. Tom was grimly silent. He was obviously at the end of his strength, but he did what he could to help her. Somehow, she managed to half coax, half drag him up the stairs to the third-story apartment she’d rented.
    To her vast relief he fell into an exhausted slumber the second she got him horizontal on the bed in the flat’s single bedroom.
    Drained, she slumped on a chair beside him and watched him sleep, the way she had for the past seven weeks around the clock.
    By now she knew his features almost better than she knew her own. The smooth plane of his brow, the aggressive slash of his eyebrows, the sweep of his dark lashes against lean cheeks. She’d only seen his eyes on the rare occasions he was awake, but their smoky-blue color was unforgettable. Intelligence burned like a beacon in Air Force Major Tom Folly’s gaze.
    His personnel records verified her observation. Summa cum