Hot on the Hunt. Melissa Cutler
This ex-agent has one last chance to mend a broken relationship—if he can protect her long enough
Burned black ops agent Alicia Troy spent years plotting the perfect revenge on the man who left her for dead…until her plan is foiled by her ex-teammate—and ex-lover—who taught her the meaning of betrayal. She can’t trust John Witter…so why can’t she stop wanting him?
For John, it’s a race to keep Alicia’s intended victim safe long enough for the man to prove John’s innocence, and it’s a struggle to steer clear of the woman who believes he deceived her. But when their former agency turns on them, labeling them “armed and dangerous,” John has a new mission: keep his woman alive.
“Don’t touch me.”
Her eyes were pure ice.
John pressed her against the wall. “There was a time you couldn’t get enough of me touching you.”
“Right up until you helped an agent try to kill me.”
It took every ounce of his self-control not to force her to look at him. “You believe him over me. After everything we were together.”
Alicia drew a ragged breath. Then he saw it—the passion in her eyes. It was the same torment that was tearing him up. She was no longer the refined femme fatale, but a real woman. His woman.
He touched her cheek with his hand, expecting her to demand he remove it. Instead, her eyes closed on another tremulous breath. “I hate you.”
“I know.”
He cradled her cheek in his palm. Pulse pounding, he ignored all the reasons he shouldn’t be doing what he was about to, then leaned down and pressed a kiss to her closed mouth.
I must confess: every time I write a book, I fall in love with the hero. And sometimes, when the hero and heroine are perfect soul mates, I feel a little guilty about crushing on him, as though that feeling betrays my friendship with the heroine. Isn’t that silly? Maybe not, because if you, as a reader, crush on the hero and think about the heroine as a friend, that means I’m doing my job as a storyteller. Trust me—you are definitely in danger of falling hard for John Witter in Hot on the Hunt.
When I started writing this story, I affectionately nicknamed John “Underdog Alpha.” He first appeared in Tempted into Danger as the funny friend, a wisecracking sniper with an affinity for Michael Jackson songs. But, typically, the funny friend never gets the girl, does he? In Hot on the Hunt, I tackled the question: How does a man like that reboot his life after he’s lost everything, including his homeland and the woman he loves?
John is an underdog in every way—underestimated, living under the radar and written off as a has-been. But from the ash of his former life emerges an alpha warrior…and I guarantee you’ll approve of John’s transformation. You might even feel a tad bit guilty for crushing on Alicia’s man, just as I did. Happy reading!
Melissa
Hot on the Hunt
Melissa Cutler
MELISSA CUTLER
is a flip-flop-wearing Southern California native living with her husband, two rambunctious kids and two suspicious cats in beautiful San Diego. She divides her time between her dual passions for writing sexy, small-town contemporary romances and edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense. Find out more about Melissa and her books at www.melissacutler.net, or drop her a line at [email protected].
To Eric—you are my everything
Contents
Chapter 1
There was no one on this island of partying rich kids and vagabonds who cared about the washed-up sniper taking practice shots at the buoy eleven hundred meters offshore. Most mornings, John hit his target without fail. Not today. The wind was all wrong, which should have been John’s first clue that his exile in the Virgin Islands had gotten too comfortable. One shift of the wind and he didn’t instinctually adjust.
It was about time. He’d been waiting to exercise this particular mental muscle. The one that guarded against complacency—the false sense of confidence in himself, in his environment and in the people surrounding him—which had been the root cause of the implosion of his former life.
The problem with confidence was that it led to trust. And trust led to assumptions like there’s no way a blood brother who he went to war with would betray him. Or that loving a woman with every cell of his being would earn her loyalty, if nothing else. Dangerously naive assumptions like those were why John Witter—former Green Beret sniper, former ICE black ops agent, former somebody—had spent the past twenty months waiting for complacency to set in so he could kick his own ass back into fighting shape.
It was a far cry from a do-over, but earning the status of persona non grata with the U.S. government and its world allies didn’t leave him a whole lot of viable options.
He lifted away from the rifle and peered through his scope at the buoy swaying in the waves and wind. He should have this shot. He’d adjusted for elevation given the tide, he’d lain in the exact same position he always did, with only a plain cotton T-shirt between his shoulder and the rifle butt, with a wad of gum sandwiched between his left-side