Explosive Alliance by Catherine Mann Read Free Book Online Page A

daughter.
    What could they want from her? Kurt had been in debt up to his lying eyeballs. She'd sold off everything for a fresh start in a place that had one of the lowest crime rates in the country, a great big plus for moving home to North Dakota.
    Kirstie straightened and sagged back against Paige's chest.
    "All done, punkin?"
    She nodded. Paige set her on her feet and rifled through her backpack for wet wipes, most everything in the distance a blur, but retrieving her glasses would have to wait. She swiped around the tiny pink mouth.
    Kirstie hiccupped. "How do you know it's not malaria?"
    "You don't have a fever." She smoothed a second wipe over her daughter's cool forehead then along her hands.
    "But I feel hot, really hot. How do you know for sure?"
    "I'm the mama." She wadded up the wipes and pitched them in the trash—aw, hell, where her glasses were. "I know everything."
    What a joke.
    "But you said yesterday you don't know how one kid can go through five outfits in a day. So see? You might not know this, neither," she whispered. "I'm gonna hafta go to the doctor."
    Patience, she reminded herself. As difficult as this was for her, it was worse for Kirstie. "I'll take your temperature when we get home. I promise."
    Hiccup. "'Kay."
    A lanky shadow stretched over them. Bo. Heat prickled up her neck until she longed to soothe a wet wipe over her skin, too.
    "Wanna pass me one of those for my boots?"
    She winced and gave him the whole travel container. "Oh, sure. I'm so sorry about this."
    "No problem." He knelt, swiping a clean sheen back to black leather. "It wasn't like she could help it.
    And this isn't the first time my boots have been thrown up on."
    "You're only saying that to make me feel better."
    "No way." He stood, tall, taller still until his shadow engulfed her. "I was in Guam a couple of years ago, and we had this great luau that left one of the flyers green the next morning."
    Kirstie looked up from Paige's leg. "Did he have malaria?"
    "No, Cupcake." He chucked her chin. "Bad swordfish."
    Bo leaned past into the trash can, presenting a blurry-but-dog-gone-well-clear-enough image of long legs, lean hips and a perfect butt. Must be the flight suit. It had to be the flight suit making him so appealing. Surely he wouldn't look as incredible out of it.
    Out of the flight suit? Now there was an image she did not need, since visions in her head were crystal clear.
    He straightened, her shattered glasses dangling from between his fingers. "I hope you have a spare set with you."
    She stared at her last pair of glasses. It would cost her a hundred bucks she couldn't afford to get new ones. "No spare set, here or at home."
    He looked from her to the useless lenses and back to her again. "How blind are you without them?"
    "As a bat." Even though she could see him close up, the rest of the flight-line activity faded to fuzzy until his face was all she could see. "I'll call my brother to come get us after he lands from his rounds—"
    "I'll drive you," he interrupted. "Your brother can give me a ride back to base at his convenience."
    An hour together in the truck? She could barely stem her starved hormones on a crowded flight line. An hour alone with him and she would be toast. "I thought you only had the afternoon off."
    "I can wrangle more time. The loadmaster and I are good friends. He'll trade shifts for me to give tours of the plane tomorrow."
    "Please, don't go to any more trouble." An unwelcome excitement stirred. She would just have to pray her daughter stayed awake in the truck. Fat chance. "I'm sure I'll find someone around here I know."
    "Do you really want to drag malaria-girl all around the flight line until you find a ride?"
    Did he have to be funny as well as drop-dead hot?
    But he had a point. She needed to get Kirstie home. Being a parent meant putting her child's needs first.
    And she couldn't shake the shivery fear of seeing her daughter talking with that stranger.
    Truth be told, standing next to Bo