Love Inspired Suspense April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Laura Scott (free e reader .TXT) 📕

Kissing was out. And if the whistle idea didn’t work, it wouldn’t matter.

They’d be dead.

EIGHT

Darkness had settled well over two hours ago. The brilliant whistle trick had worked and brought guides to shuffle them out of the maze. The sheriff’s office, his team and the medics had been called. Colt had been grazed and needed about four stitches, but ibuprofen had helped with the pain.

Georgia, however, hadn’t said more than two words after she found out he was okay and it was only a flesh wound. Right now, he sat at her farm table, thrumming his fingers while she pulled yet another apple pie from the oven. She’d been baking for half the evening. He thought swinging her by to check on her dogs would help her, and it had, but the minute she walked in the door, she went straight to the kitchen and shut down emotionally. She’d been so brave since her earlier attacks, but this one had put the nail in the coffin. What about it was different?

He’d been wounded.

“Georgia. I don’t know how many more times I can say it, but I’m fine. I’m going to be okay.”

She removed her oven mitts and shook her head. “You don’t know that. You go into the line of fire every day. You can’t say you’ll be okay when you don’t know the future.” She laid the mitts on the counter and leaned over the kitchen sink.

He rose from the table and casually entered her personal space, laying his hands on her shoulders. “Georgia, I know the risks involved. I’m trained. I can protect you. And I promise you I won’t stop fighting for you, to keep you safe and get you back to a normal life again.”

“I wish for a normal life, Colt. But mine is a far cry from that.”

He carefully turned her toward him, hurting with her. He framed her face. “I guess we can’t define normal, can we?”

“No,” she murmured. She slipped her arms around his waist, burrowing into him. Her fruity shampoo scent wafted into his nostrils as the cap of her hair tickled his neck. The way she leaned into him for support tempted him to stay on past his six weeks if necessary, and he only hoped Atlanta would wait until this last case was closed.

But Georgia...she wasn’t a case to be closed. She was much more than an assignment. More than a task. God, help me. I’m barely holding on to my resolve—to what I know is the safest path to keep my heart protected.

Georgia pulled back, and her eyes were watery. “I was going to tell you earlier before we got caught in the corn maze. I lied to you,” she whispered on shaky breath.

Lied? “About what?”

“When we broke up. You asked me if I ever loved you at all. I said I didn’t know. I lied. I loved you. I loved you with everything in me.” A tear slipped down her cheek, and every logical reason blew out the door of his mind like a gale of wind.

He brushed away a hair stuck to her tearstained cheek and met her lips with delicate anticipation. His fingers slid into the strands hanging from the messy knot on her head, and a velvety gasp escaped her, fueling him to lean into the kiss with more intensity. She met it with equal zeal, her hands sliding up his back, then her fingers curling into the hair at the nape of his neck. A familiar gesture, but it evoked new emotions. The desire to protect her, to meet her needs and expectations. A soaring in his chest expanded his lungs as if he could kiss her forever, without the need to inhale a single breath.

There was no height or depth he wouldn’t travel, no path he wouldn’t carve to ensure she was safe, secure and stable. He wanted it for her so badly he tasted it in this cinnamon-and-vanilla-flavored kiss. It consumed him in ways he never fathomed and gave him a confidence he’d never even experienced.

The words were there on the tip of his tongue touching hers begging to be spoken—to offer up his devotion to her—but a knock on the door jarred a dose of sense into him and he broke the kiss, focusing his attention on the noise from the porch.

“I’ll get it,” he said in a husky voice. As he approached the door, he still tasted her on his lips, but the courage he’d felt two seconds ago deflated like a weeks-old helium balloon.

She hadn’t said love—she’d said loved.

Their feelings were in the past, but there was undeniable chemistry and attraction. That, coupled with overwhelming emotion from the tense circumstances and nostalgia...a kiss was bound to happen at some point.

But he couldn’t shake it. He was like an intoxicated man needing the drunk tank to sober up. He tossed her a heady glance before opening the door. Georgia’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes glazed with the satisfaction of a good kiss.

But was that all it was for her? Was that all it was for him?

“McCoy! Open the door.”

He blinked out of his stupor to see Ryan Sedgwick. What was Chance’s alibi doing here? Warning bells rang. His gun was on his hip, so he cracked open the door. He wasn’t taking any chances. “Ryan.”

“Hey, Colt. I went by the station, and Sheriff told me you were staying out here at Georgia’s place. I need to talk to you while I have the courage.” Ryan’s shifty eyes and jittery stance revealed hesitation and a dose of nervousness. If Colt made him wait, he might lose the moxie.

“No offense, Ryan, but I’m gonna have to pat you down before you come in.”

“I understand.” He raised his arms. “I heard about the attacks on Georgia. Daisy told my wife y’all had been to the orchard today and someone shot you in the corn maze.”

“Yep.” Colt searched him, finding him clean. Surely