THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL
By Kat Martin
When investigative journalist Jessie
Kegan’s father, a colonel in the army, is accused of treason, Jessie is
determined to clear his name.
Reluctantly, she turns to former Special Ops soldier, Brandon Garrett,
her late brother’s best friend--a true heartbreaker, according to her
brother.
With danger
coming from every angle, time is running out and the game being played is
deadly. Working together, Bran and
Jessie must risk everything to solve the riddle and confront the threat--before
it’s too late.
The Ultimate Betrayal
Excerpt #3
She
yawned as she closed the door, more exhausted than she had expected. She fell asleep quickly and slept far better
than she had the night before, then rose at the first gray light of dawn. She went in to shower and get ready for the
day, dressed in a conservative dark brown skirt suit and heeled pumps, then
quietly cracked open the door to the living room.
Bran
was already up, standing with his back to her, one hand on his hip, the other
pressing his cell phone against his ear.
A pair of white cotton briefs that hugged his round behind was all he
had on.
Jessie’s
mouth went dry. His suntanned back was
smooth, except for a jagged scar on one side, and ridged with solid
muscle. Bands of muscle defined his
shoulders and arms, and long sinewy legs tapered down to narrow feet.
She
told herself to close the door before Bran caught her staring at him like a
juicy piece of meat, but instead she just stood there, her heart pounding, her
breathing a little ragged.
She
was just pulling herself under control when he turned, the phone still pressed
to his ear. Jessie froze. Her gaze shot to the heavy bulge at the front
of his briefs and she felt a rush of heat so hot it made her dizzy. Muscular pecs and six-pack abs. A lean, hard-muscled chest and amazing
biceps. Desire hit her so hard she
swayed on her feet.
She
didn’t move till Bran jerked the blanket off his make-shift bed and wrapped it
around his waist, knocking her out of her self-imposed trance and flushing her
face with embarrassment.
“Sorry,”
she managed to breathlessly whisper, stepped back and slammed the door. Ohmygod, ohmygod. She hadn’t felt the least attraction to a man
for so long she’d forgotten what it was like.
Correction, she had never felt the jolt of desire she had felt looking
at Brandon Garrett. Ohmygod.
She
told herself he was probably used to that kind of reaction from a woman, or at
least the women who had seen him nearly naked.
Jessie sank down on the bed. What
could she possibly say to him? How could
she explain?
But
no words of explanation popped into her head.
Since
she couldn’t hide in the bedroom all day, and because Bran undoubtedly wanted
to take a shower, she inhaled a deep breath, opened the door, and walked out
into the living room.
“Sorry
about that,” she said.
He
had pulled on his jeans but the rest of him was still gloriously bare. “No problem.
I should have grabbed one of those terrycloth robes in the bathroom.”
She
just nodded. “Yeah.” Her fingers curled into the palms of her
hands as she walked past him toward the counter where he had brewed a pot of
coffee.
“Mind
if I use the shower?” he asked.
“Of
course not. You’re paying for the
room.” When he opened his mouth, she
held up a hand. “Sorry, no more talk
about money.”
“Exactly.”
She
took a mug down from the cabinet above the sink and filled it with coffee, her
hands still a bit unsteady.
“Why
don’t you order us something to eat?” Bran suggested as he crossed the room
toward the bedroom. “I won’t be too
long.”
“Bacon
and eggs?” she asked.
“Sounds
great.” As he disappeared through the
door and closed it behind him, Jessie sank down on one of the chairs at the
dining table, coffee mug gripped tightly in her hands. At least now she knew the abduction hadn’t
completely destroyed her desire for the opposite sex.
Or
at least one member of the opposite sex.
She grimaced. She just wished the
man who had rekindled her long-dead fire wasn’t Brandon Garrett.
Bran
turned on the shower, set the nozzle to cold, and climbed in beneath the icy
spray. He clenched his jaw, fighting to
block a memory of the look on Jessie’s pretty face when he had spotted her in
the bedroom doorway. Trying to block the
erection he got every time the image reappeared in his head.
Bran
knew women. He knew when a woman wanted
him. He swore softly, cursing the fate
that had brought the two of them together, putting them both in a situation
that could only get worse.
So
far he had managed to suppress the desire he’d felt from the moment Jessie had
walked into his office. With her
fire-touched blond hair and fine features, she was beautiful. He liked her body and admired her brain. In a softly feminine way, she was sexy as
hell, and he wanted her--no doubt about it.
But
aside from the erotic dream he’d had about her last night, he’d been doing an
admirable job of controlling his lust.
Until
this morning. When the flush in her
cheeks and the heat in her eyes had made it clear that the desire he felt was
returned. She wanted him. Which meant he had to be the strong one
because no way could he have her and just walk away.
Jessie
wasn’t the type he usually slept with, women who didn’t require exclusivity and
didn’t expect to give it in return.
He
was fairly sure Jessie hadn’t been with a man since she was abducted. He sure as hell didn’t want to be the first,
didn’t want to deal with whatever trauma she had experienced, maybe make it
worse.
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About Kat Martin
Bestselling author Kat
Martin, a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, currently resides
in Missoula, Montana with Western-author husband, L. J. Martin. More than seventeen million copies of Kat’s
books are in print, and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Fifteen of her recent novels have taken
top-ten spots on the New York Times Bestseller
List, and her novel, BEYOND REASON, was recently optioned for a feature
film. Kat’s latest novel, THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL, a Romantic Thriller, was released
in paperback December 29th.
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