Hot & Bothered (A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 8) Read online

  He had to swallow the knot in his throat. “Wrong? Nothing’s wrong, honey. Everything’s right.”

  She smiled up at him and cupped his cheeks in her palms. “It is, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  It had begun in the desert sands of Qu’rim the night he’d met her. It wouldn’t end until the moment he died.

  ~

  THANK YOU!

  Thanks for reading Hot & Bothered! For news on upcoming stories in the Hostile Operations Team series, sign up for Lynn’s Newsletter by clicking here.

  Here are all the books available in Lynn Raye Harris’s Hostile Operations Team Series:

  HOT PURSUIT

  (Matt & Evie)

  HOT MESS

  (Sam & Georgie)

  HOT PACKAGE

  (Billy & Olivia)

  DANGEROUSLY HOT

  (Kev & Lucky)

  HOT SHOT

  (Jack & Gina)

  HOT REBEL

  (Nick & Victoria)

  HOT ICE

  (Garrett & Grace)

  HOT & BOTHERED

  (Ryan & Emily)

  Hot SEAL

  (Dane & Ivy)

  Click here to join the Hotties, my Facebook Readers and Fans Group

  For more information about all of my books, click here to visit my website.

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  If you want to find out where the Hostile Operations Team series began, keep reading for an excerpt from Hot Pursuit…

  Excerpt from Hot Pursuit

  © 2013 by Lynn Raye Harris

  THE LAST MAN SHE EVER WANTED TO SEE…

  Evie Baker’s luck just ran out. A trained chef, she’s now working in her mother’s salon as a shampoo girl after a disastrous affair with an embezzling accountant cost her her business. Her luck can’t possibly get any worse…

  Or can it? Her baby sister is suddenly missing, someone is shooting at her, and the only man big enough and bad enough to help is the high school heartthrob who stole her heart–and her virginity–before he joined the military and left her to pick up the pieces of her life.

  MIGHT BE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE HER…

  Special Operations Captain Matt “Richie Rich” Girard can’t afford to get involved. He’s on the verge of a court-martial after a Top Secret military operation gone wrong, and he’s been ordered to stay out of trouble while he’s home for his sister’s wedding.

  But when Evie’s ex-partner turns up dead, staying out of trouble is the last thing on Matt’s mind. If he’s going to protect her from a ruthless killer and find her sister before time runs out, he’ll have to risk his entire future–and both their lives–to do it.

  THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET HOT IN THE BAYOU!

  The music changed, the beat slowing. Evie took a step backward instinctively, but Matt caught her hand and held it tight. She tugged once, then stopped. They faced each other across a few feet of space. Around them, couples began to slide together, fitting into each other.

  Evie’s pulse beat harder. Her skin sizzled where they touched, his big hand engulfing hers, his palm calloused in a way that shocked her. He was a Girard—rich, entitled—and he had a workman’s hands.

  “One dance.”

  Her insides melted a little more. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

  But what she really wanted to do was say yes.

  His eyes were bright. “Why not? We’re adults now, Evie. No one’s getting hurt here.”

  He said it like it was so easy, but was it really? Wasn’t she still vulnerable on some level? She was down on her luck right now, feeling like a loser, and here he was, the same gorgeous, cocky, beautiful creature he’d always been.

  Except, no, he was more than that, wasn’t he? There was something behind his smile now. Something dark and sad. Pain flared in his gray eyes and then was gone so quickly she wondered if she’d imagined it.

  It shocked her. She suddenly wanted to know what had happened to him. She’d heard about him being held captive by terrorists. How could he not be affected by something like that? Of all the things she’d expected Matt Girard to do with his life, putting himself into danger had not even occurred to her. He had everything. Why would he want to risk his life that way?

  She remembered when his mother had died. He’d been twelve. Mama had taken her to the wake out at Reynier’s Retreat. There were so many people crowding the beautiful rooms of the mansion. The house was heavy with sadness and thick with grief, and it had scared her. She’d escaped to run down the wide lawn. She’d known where to find Matt. He’d been curled inside the hollow of a tree they’d found a few years before.

  He’d been dressed in a black suit, his dark hair slicked back carefully, his gray eyes wide and wounded as he looked up at her. Her heart had lifted into her throat then. She’d only been eleven, but she’d felt something in that moment that rocked her world—and would continue to rock her world until she was sixteen and shattered by his casual cruelty.

  But not that day. That day, she’d slid into the hollow and sat down beside him. When she’d put her arms around him, he’d turned his face into the crook of her neck and wept.

  Evie sucked in a breath. How could she walk away from him now, knowing there was something behind those eyes? He was hurting again, and she didn’t know why.

  “One dance, Evangeline,” he said softly when she hesitated. “Make a soldier’s night. I just got back from the desert a few days ago. I’d like to dance with a pretty woman and forget about that hellhole for a while.”

  Evie swallowed. “That’s not fair.”

  He grinned. “Because you can’t say no now?”

  She nodded.

  “Good for me then.”

  “Just one dance and we go our separate ways, got it?” Because she didn’t want to feel this tangle of emotions again. This tiny blossoming in her heart that said she was going to be in so much trouble if she didn’t shut it down quickly.

  “If that’s what you want.” His voice was rough.

  He took her other hand then, ran his palms up her arms to her shoulders. Little sparks of sensation swirled in her belly, lighting her up like the Fourth of July. He pulled her into his arms right there on the edge of the dance floor.

  Evie braced her hands against his chest, pressed back when he tried to bring her closer. It was already overwhelming to be so close to him. To feel his heat and hardness next to her body.

  To feel everything she’d once wanted so much.

  “I don’t bite,” he murmured. “Unless you want me to.”

  You can read this book for FREE right now: http://amzn.to/1M5qEkX

  COMPLETE LYNN RAYE HARRIS AMAZON BOOKLIST

  The Ho
stile Operations Team:

  Hot Pursuit

  Hot Mess

  Hot Package

  Dangerously Hot

  Hot Shot

  Hot Rebel

  Hot Ice

  Hot & Bothered

  Hot SEAL

  Heirs to the Throne of Kyr:

  Gambling with the Crown

  Carrying the Sheikh’s Heir

  A Royalty Duo:

  Cavelli’s Lost Heir

  The Prince’s Royal Concubine

  The Al Dhakir Brothers:

  Strangers in the Desert

  Marriage Behind the Façade

  The D’Angeli Family:

  Unnoticed and Untouched

  Revelations of the Night Before

  Stand Alone Novels:

  Heiress’s Defiance The Devil’s Heart The Change in Di Navarra’s Plan A Façade to Shatter A Game With One Winner The Girl Nobody Wanted Captive But Forbidden The Man With the Money Behind the Palace Walls Kept for the Sheikh’s Pleasure Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Lynn Raye Harris is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the HOSTILE OPERATIONS TEAM SERIES of military romances as well as 20 books for Harlequin Presents. A former finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Award and the National Readers Choice Award, Lynn lives in Alabama with her handsome former military husband and two crazy cats. Lynn’s books have been called “exceptional and emotional,” “intense,” and “sizzling.” Lynn’s books have sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

  Connect with me online:

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLynnRayeHarris

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/LynnRayeHarris

  Website: http://www.LynnRayeHarris.com

  COPYRIGHT

  Hot & Bothered

  Copyright © 2015 by Lynn Raye Harris

  Cover Design Copyright © 2015 Croco Designs

  ISBN: 978-1-941002-05-6

  All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.