Hot and Bothered by Lynn Raye Harris

He can never have her. Having her means the end of his career in the Hostile Operations Team. But when he learns she’s carrying his child, he’ll have to make a choice…

Ryan “Flash” Gordon has been drawn to Emily Royal bin Yusuf since the first moment he met her. But she’s a terrorist’s widow, which means she’s completely off-limits. A HOT special operator can never be with a woman whose name is on government watch lists the world over.

But when Emily begs him for just one night, he can’t refuse. The next morning, she’s gone. Not just from his bed, but from his life.

Emily can never clear her name—or can she? When a rogue CIA operative offers her a chance to put her past behind her and do something for her country, she leaps at the opportunity—even though it means leaving behind the man she’s fallen in love with. But not before she lets herself have one night with him.

One night with stunning consequences…

EMILY ROYAL BIN YUSUF WAS JOGGING along the path in Rock Creek Park, listening to Fall Out Boy on her iPod and thinking about the paper she had due in her psychology class next week, when a man fell in beside her. It was broad daylight and there were plenty of people in the park, but the sudden appearance of a man at her side unnerved her.

After the life she’d led in recent years, she was still working on responding like a normal adult and not someone with a paranoia complex. But she wasn’t there yet.

She told herself he was passing, that she was in his way, but he didn’t pull ahead. And she stubbornly kept her gaze on the path, refusing to look at him though her heart was beginning to pound harder and her endurance was failing as a result.

Finally she slowed her pace and stopped as he kept going. Thank God.

She checked her Fitbit for her heart rate and started to walk. She hadn’t gone as far as she wanted, but maybe it was time to head back to the apartment she shared with another student. That psych paper wasn’t writing itself after all.

The man slowed up ahead. Then he turned and started jogging back toward her. He was tall and dark, intense and muscular like the Special Ops soldiers she knew. He was barely sweating as he approached. He passed her, then turned and fell in beside her again.

Emily thought about running off the path and screaming, but she told herself that was an overreaction. There were plenty of people here. Plenty of witnesses. Possibly he just wanted to hit on her. He was handsome enough, though he did nothing for her.

“How are you, Emily?”

She stumbled to a halt and whirled to face him. “How do you know who I am?”

“A lot of people know who you are.”

Her heart thumped. “Did the colonel send you?”

Colonel Mendez was the leader of the Hostile Operations Team, a secretive black-ops group that had evacuated her from Qu’rim. Her sister worked for them. Victoria had done a lot to find her in Qu’rim, worked for some shady people, before she’d thrown her fate in with HOT. Emily didn’t know details, but she knew Victoria had cut a deal with Mendez to give Emily a normal life again.

Or as normal as could be for the widow of a known terrorist leader. She’d been naïve when she’d gone to Qu’rim with Zaran, but she wasn’t naïve any longer. Being married to Zaran would affect the rest of her life. It wasn’t the same as a drunken binge or a drug arrest as a juvenile. This was bigger. She was on no-fly lists the world over. She could never hold a government job. Never have a security clearance.

And she couldn’t, under any circumstances, confess her feelings to the one man who meant something to her. His career would be ruined if she did. Hell, he risked enough by talking to her, but she couldn’t cut that thread. It terrified her to think of cutting it. So long as she had him in her life, even peripherally, she could survive what the world threw at her.

The stranger snorted. “Mendez didn’t send me.”

He lifted his head and let his gaze slide over the brown grass and bare trees in the park as if he were searching for something. Definitely a Spec Ops guy. And yet that didn’t make her feel any better about him.

“Let’s walk before we draw attention.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Just walk with me, Emily. We’ll stay on the path. I promise that you want to hear what I have to say.”

She lifted her head. It was cold out, but she was warm from her jog—and from the adrenaline coursing through her. “And what could you possibly have to say that would interest me?”

“I’ll tell you when we’re walking.”

She dragged in a breath as she considered him. Yes, she was scared—and she was intrigued too. Still, she was cautious. She’d learned to be. “Tell me who you are first.”

The man grinned. “My name is Ian Black.”

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lynn Raye Harris burst onto the scene when she won a writing contest held by Harlequin. 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 writes about hot military heroes, sizzling international billionaires, and the women who dare to tame them. Her books have been called "exceptional and emotional," "intense," and "sizzling." To date, Lynn's books have sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

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