Safe and Sound (The Safe House Series Book 3) by Leslie North Page B

time and time again. Was it possible that Nona had been right? That some men desire more than skin wrapped around bone? Lola had always thought Nona’s idea of beauty had been antiquated—fashioned in a decade of fuller-figured pinups and a healthier body image. Was it possible Max honestly found her beautiful?
    The heady thought warmed her far more than anything Max could scavenge in the storage room. She lifted her face to the exposed metal roof, let the rain’s steady cadence wash over her senses, and inhaled the earthy, fragrant air.
    “I found a blanket between the...” Max reentered the space. His ambitious pace stalled in a devastatingly handsome grin. “Your next adventure? First skydiving, now boating?”
    She answered his smile with one of her own. “The cement was cold and wet.”
    “May I join you?”
    “That depends. Do you have any nautical training?”
    “Just basic training, slogging through mud. Oh, and a jet ski on leave in Florida once.”
    “Hmm…” She pretended to consider, squeezing him in her sight before her body staged a mutiny at the possibility of her turning Max and his body heat away. “I’ll allow it. But just this once.”
    Lola thought he might claim one of the two higher bench seats. Instead, Max climbed behind her and settled low in the boat’s hull, her back to his front. He stretched his long legs on either side of hers. His blanket-draped arms looped around her raised knees, completely enveloping her in his warmth.
    “Better?”
    She didn’t trust herself to speak so she nodded. By inches, he shifted forward, presumably to settle his back against the boat’s seat—an almost imperceptible recline had his groin not pressed firm against the thin fabric tucked beneath her bare buttocks. She needed a topic to distract her from the gathering wetness in the dry dock between her legs.
    “You never told me what you would do.” Lola rested her head against his shoulder to relieve the pressure in her neck of imposing space between them. “One day, anything you want.”
    “What I want is impossible.”
    “ Nothing is impossible.”
    “I want the people back I’ve lost. My parents, my sister, my brothers in combat who never made it home. One day, all together.”
    She wanted to bite back the impossible comment. Sometimes her optimism sounded juvenile, even to her ears.
    “I’m sorry, Max. I didn’t realize. Do you have any family?”
    “Some extended in Seattle. I haven’t seen them since I was a kid.”
    “Your fellow soldiers must be very important to you, then.”
    “What makes you say that?”
    “The photos in your bedroom.”
    “Too many years ago to count.”
    “What about childhood friends?”
    “We didn’t exactly take the same path. My parents threw me in basic. My friends ended up in jail or dead.”
    The landscape of Max’s life came into sharper relief. With no family or friends, with colleagues spread all over the country on individual security detail, men like Baudin became his only companionship. Inside her chest, a storm of sadness drizzled gray, heavy. Still, a part of the picture remained fuzzy.
    “What about girlfriends? Lovers?”
    “A few here and there. None for a long time. My duty doesn’t mix well with a social life. It’s dangerous, and I don’t want anyone to hurt for me the way I feel loss.”
    Max’s full picture emerged with startling clarity. He hid behind his duty, kept his emotional distance, cleared himself from every responsibility but the one person under his watch in his pursuit of justice. But where was the justice in being alone?
    She turned her head toward the hollow space between his jaw and collarbone. He hadn’t shaved since their escape from the safe house. The onset of his auburn beard begged for her touch. She resisted. He believed he was nothing without his word. She wouldn’t be the one to breech that barrier again.
    “Everybody needs someone, Max.” She lifted her chin to meet his eyes. “Even if it’s