Wilde Nights in Paradise (A Wilde Security Novel) (Entangled Brazen) by Tonya Burrows

and unquenched desire making for a smothering blanket. He had to get out. Had to do…something.
    He glanced over his shoulder. Libby hadn’t moved, hadn’t acknowledged his presence in any way. She wouldn’t miss him if he stepped out for a few, and with this place wired up like the freakin’ Federal Reserve, he could set his phone to warn him at the slightest hint of trouble. He doubted there would be any. The twice-daily e-mails he got from his brothers said everything was mostly quiet on the home front. They had found the blue car that tried to run Libby down abandoned in a mall’s parking lot, but it gave no clues as to the identity of her stalker. It had been stolen from an apartment building three miles from her office complex, and the owner was a pregnant woman on round-the-clock bed rest. She hadn’t even known her car was missing until Camden showed up on her doorstep with the news.
    Dead end.
    Jude’s brothers were monitoring K-Bar and his gang, as well as remotely monitoring Libby’s home. So far, the gang hadn’t even acknowledged in passing that they knew where she lived, nor had they so much as congratulated each other on scaring her off with the notes and dolls.
    Something wasn’t adding up, but it was up to his brothers to do the math. He was just the glorified babysitter, which was exactly why he had to get out of the house for a bit. Being cooped up was bad enough. Cooped up with a woman he wanted and couldn’t touch?
    Total. Hell.
    Mind made up, he headed toward the front door. A walk on the beach. That’s all he needed. He’d be gone twenty minutes, tops.
    He’d never been one to sit still and relax. After his teachers had all but given up on him, the school shrink tried to convince his father that he needed medication. David Wilde had told the shrink to stuff those meds in a very uncomfortable place, and then dragged his ten-year-old son out of the school by the scruff of his neck. Jude had half expected punishment from his tough-as-nails, Army-bred father. Instead, he got a trip to the Smithsonian. David walked him through the museum, quizzing him ruthlessly on everything they saw. It had been an awesome day. Fun. Interesting. Nothing like sitting at a desk for hours at a time, reading out of a textbook.
    Finally, his father stopped walking and muttered under his breath, “Those effing teachers aren’t doing it right.” With a grin, he looped an arm around Jude’s shoulders. “Let’s go get some burgers, huh?”
    Christ. A surge of intense sadness made Jude’s stomach hurt, and he stopped short halfway across the front porch. He hadn’t thought about that day in years. Hadn’t let himself because barely a week after that, his parents were gone, and it had been his fault. His carelessness, his reckless disregard for everyone around him, had gotten them killed.
    He turned and studied the house’s brightly painted siding, imagined red splattered over the white front door, imagined coming back from the beach and finding a naked paper doll pinned to it. Worse, not red paint, but blood. Libby’s blood.
    No. No way. Not happening on his watch.
    Resigning himself to a fate of extreme boredom for the duration of this mission, he pulled open the door—
    Libby tumbled into his arms. The light coconut scent of sunscreen filled his head as her bare skin, still warm from the sun, pressed to his. Her breasts flattened against his chest, and her arms wrapped around his neck, holding on tight.
    Jude didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this sudden show of affection, but man, did it ever feel good. He dipped his head, sought her mouth with his, and some of the tension coiled up in him eased.
    This. This was what he needed, not a walk on the beach.
    For a moment, she not only allowed the kiss, but participated, her tongue meeting and mingling with his. Her nipples stiffened under the fabric of her bathing suit top, poked into his chest with unyielding urgency. She rubbed against him like a