Sophie Oak - Lost in Bliss

“I hope you do,” she said.

Wolf seemed a little lost. He’d come home to recuperate at his mother’s house. He’d been working odd jobs in the months since he’d returned. Laura had met him through James Glen, a local rancher Wolf was friends with.

“It’ll happen,” Wolf said with confidence. “Now, I was also looking for you for another reason. Do you have any idea why feds would be looking for you?”

Laura sat straight up. Every nerve in her body came alive with suspicion. “What feds?”

“I went by your place, and there were a couple of feds knocking on your door. They asked if I knew where you were, but I said no. I said I hadn’t seen you in a couple of days, but that they should go up to Mountain and Valley because you spend a lot of time up there.” And they would believe Wolf, because he was an excellent liar.

Laura had sensed that about him. He wouldn’t do it if he didn’t have to, but if the occasion called for it, Wolf Meyer could lie and never bat an eye. He would have made an excellent CIA operative if he hadn’t been a SEAL. She couldn’t help it. Even five years after she’d been fired from her job, she still profiled everyone around her. “That should throw them off for a while.”

The Mountain and Valley was the local naturist community, a nudist colony on the mountain. Bill Hartman ran the place, and he didn’t like feds, either. Bliss was a very suspicious community. Bill would likely send them on a merry chase.

Wolf leaned forward in his chair, his dark eyes softening, drawing her in. He was also damn good at that. “I wanted to give you a little time if you needed to get out of here. I don’t have anything to do, Laura. If you want to, say, take a little trip, I can go with you, make sure you’re safe. I can take care of you.” Oh, yeah, she was a dumb shit for not falling for this guy, but it wouldn’t be fair to him. “I’m not on the run, Wolf. Well, not in the way you think. I’m not wanted for anything.”

“But you would prefer not to talk to the feds?” Oh, she would prefer to never see a federal agent for the rest of her life. When she’d walked out of DC, she’d done it for good. She’d known she would never go back. That was why she’d changed her name and hadn’t spoken to anyone she knew from there in five years.

Her parents were gone. She had a sister who lived in France. Laura talked to her once a year, but Michelle had promised not to tell anyone where Laura was. They had agreed that it was best for Laura to hide. Given the fact that she was certain the Marquis de Sade was involved in some sort of law enforcement, she didn’t particularly want them to know where she was hiding.

“No, I would rather not talk to them, but now I’m curious.” And a little scared. Had he caught up to her? “Are you sure they were FBI?”

“If they weren’t, then they were doing a damn fine impersonation.

And that’s the other thing I want to talk to you about. We need to get rid of those guys, whoever they are. Mel is out at my mom’s, but he’s going to come into town at some point in time today, and what’s he going to see? Two dudes in suits and sunglasses riding around in a dark SUV.”

Laura sighed. Mel wouldn’t see feds. Mel was a lovely man, but he was also insanely paranoid about aliens and all the things that went with them. “Men in black.”

Wolf pointed. “On the nose, love. My mom’s boyfriend is going to flip out, and then he’ll come and get my mom and they’ll end up in the bomb shelter plotting how to survive the invasion, and I’ll have to call my brother to talk her down. I don’t want to call my brother.

Every time I call my brother I get a lecture about moving on. I get some Zen-craptastic speech on how getting booted from the teams is the best thing in the world for me—or it would be if I would get a job.

Like he has a job. Do you know what he does? My sainted brother works in a BDSM club spanking subs. Maybe if some dude was willing to pay me a ton of money to spank pretty subs, I would be fine with my military career being over. So we need to figure out how to get the feds into something less conspicuous so my mom’s boyfriend doesn’t freak. You see the precarious house of cards I live in?” Wolf was talking, but his voice had faded to the background. Only one thing held Laura’s attention as a big, black SUV pulled up, and Laura realized her time was up.

It was really happening. Someone had found her.

Why had the FBI tracked her down? Had something happened with the de Sade case? Her heart fluttered at the thought of having to get involved in that again. She felt herself get a little faint. Best case scenario—this was unrelated and someone needed to talk to her about the Russian mob case. She’d stayed off the record, but someone might have mentioned her name. Worst case scenario? She’d been right. The Marquis de Sade had tracked her down because he wouldn’t want to leave loose ends.

“Laura? Are you all right?” Wolf stood and then knelt at her side, his hand grasping hers. “Maybe we should take you upstairs so you can lie down.”

The door to the SUV opened.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I should have dealt with them myself,” Wolf said in a deep, soothing tone. This was another reason Laura had known she and Wolf couldn’t work out. He was so much more interested in her when she needed help. Wolf was looking for a damsel in distress. Where the hell had he been five years earlier?

“I’m fine, Wolf. I’m just seeing ghosts, that’s all. I can handle them.” And if de Sade had come for her, then maybe she had some unfinished business with him, too. But it was more than likely about the mob trials. Alexei Markov had set off a firestorm when he’d decided to turn on his mob boss. Nate Wright, Bliss’s sheriff and Callie’s second husband, had already had his fill of Feds. He’d complained to Laura about it earlier in the day.

Except the minute the dark-haired man in the perfectly tailored suit slid gracefully from the SUV, Laura realized this had nothing to do with Alexei’s case.

She’d left out a scenario.

Armageddon. In that scenario, Rafael Kincaid showed up and her past finally, truly caught up with her. Laura closed her eyes and prayed it was just an illusion. That glorious man in the suit wasn’t Rafe. She opened her eyes.

Shit. It was Rafe, and he wasn’t alone. An enormous man walked behind him. His suit wasn’t perfectly tailored. He looked uncomfortable in it, like any moment his body was going to burst from its confines.

Cameron Briggs.

Rafe was an elegant bird of prey, while Cam was a huge tiger stalking his next meal.

What the hell were they doing here? When she’d left, she’d made damn sure that the two men who had broken her heart into tiny little pieces and then stomped on it in a public forum couldn’t find her. Oh sure, they’d been all tears and apologies after she’d been nearly murdered, but it was just guilt.

“Do you know those men?” Wolf asked.

She knew every inch of those men. She knew just how Rafe liked his cock sucked and that Cam could eat pussy all night long. She knew them intimately and far beyond the physical ways they liked to fuck. She’d spent a year with them just getting to know them. She’d spent a year working and drinking and talking. She knew Cam was ashamed of how he’d grown up and Rafe hated that people knew he came from wealth.

She knew they valued their placement in the FBI far more than they could ever love a woman.

Laura nodded.

“From the look on your face, it wasn’t a good thing. Do I need to kick some ass?”

“No,” she said quickly. Wolf would do it, and he would get in trouble.

Rafe and Cam were looking up and down the street, their mouths moving in short, clipped words. Finally, almost in slow motion to Laura’s mind, Cam turned and stopped. He stood looking at her in the window, as still as a statue. Rafe watched him for a moment, and then turned as well.

“Laura.” There was no mistaking the word Rafe’s mouth made.

Laura stood, utterly panicked at the thought of them walking in and realizing that after five years she still wasn’t over them. How pathetic was that?

Rafe moved first, followed by Cam. They stormed into the Trading Post, stalking through the tourist merchandise and the little candy aisle until they made it to the tea room.

“Laura.” Cam was the one who said her name now. “We found you.”

“No thanks to him,” Rafe said, eyeing Wolf, who stood beside her. “He sent us on a wild-goose chase. You look good, bella.” Bella. Beautiful. It was what he’d called her when they had made love. How dare he ever call her that again.

What if they had come after her? What if they had figured out what a mistake they had made? Rafe was eating her up with his eyes.

Cam was pulling his alpha male act, staring Wolf down. What if they had searched for her, longed for her the way she’d longed for them?

“You know what you did was illegal,” Cam was saying, his icy blue eyes laser-focused on Wolf. She stared at him for a long moment. His golden hair was cut short. She’d always wanted to see what it would look like longer, but Cam liked the simplicity. It highlighted his masculine face. Cam was all sharp angles with the exception of his sensual lips. God, she remembered what it felt like to have his mouth on her. “You impeded an investigation. You lied to duly appointed federal agents.”

Laura let her hope die. It hadn’t been a big hope anyway. They were here on a case. Of course. How silly to think they still gave a damn about her.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Cam asked Wolf.

Laura said the words without really thinking. It was instinct that caused her to protect herself. She slid her hand into Wolf’s and lied through her teeth.

“He’s my fiancé.”

Rafe’s face fell. Cam took a step back.

Wolf hauled her close. “You know how it goes, gentlemen. I’m not one to let a little thing like an investigation get in the way of true love.”

Yep. Wolf Meyer was cool as a cucumber under pressure.

And Laura Niles was definitely under pressure.

Cam Briggs felt like his gut had been kicked straight out of his body.

Engaged? How the hell could she be engaged? Cam had spent the last five years of his life thinking of nothing but Laura, and she had been getting engaged to some dickwad military guy.

He had to be military. Ex-military, Cam would bet. And that dude wasn’t afraid of a little PDA.

“Sorry, I had no idea why you were looking for her,” said the asshole who seemed to be trying to inhale Laura’s hand. He had brought her hand to his lips, and his other arm had snaked around her waist, drawing her close to his body. “When you have something this gorgeous, you have to take care of it.”

“She’s not an ‘it,’” Cam snarled.

Rafe put a hand out, a silent request that Cam stay calm. It was a familiar gesture to Cam. Rafe took over, all smooth professionalism.

“We understand,” Rafe said, gesturing to the table behind Laura.

“If I had a fiancée as beautiful as yours, I would protect her at all costs, too. Please, if you would sit with us, we do need to talk to your fiancée.”

Cam tried to get to that calm place that seemed to come so easily to Rafe.

As Laura and her affianced asshole sat down, Rafe leaned in and whispered in his ear.

“Watch them. There’s something wrong with this scenario,” Rafe said. “Look at her body language.”

Cam settled down. Rafe had always been good at getting him to think. It had been that way ever since the first day they had been partnered up. Rafe had just known how to deal with him. Rafe had made him comfortable.

He hadn’t been comfortable for five years. Maybe he’d missed more than Laura.

“Laura, it’s good to see you.” Rafe’s voice had taken on that soft, soothing tone he used on reluctant witnesses.

Cam looked at her. Really looked at her. When he’d seen her before, all he’d been able to see was the woman he loved, her golden blonde hair, her sky-blue eyes. She was curvier than she had been before. It looked damn good on her. She was wearing a form-fitting pinkish dress that hugged her new curves. And her breasts. Damn, they were bigger, too. Plump and round, they looked like they were about to pop out of her dress. They would fill his hands now.

She’d looked like a model before. She looked like a woman now, a delicious, luscious woman.

And she belonged to someone else.