Secret Assignment. Paula Graves

for easy retrieval. If she was tired from her earlier exertions, it didn’t show. Must be nice, he thought wearily, to be young.

      “That must have been loud, having it go off right by you.”

      “Scared the hell out of me,” she admitted with a sheepish grin. “And going out on that catwalk already had me on edge. Literally.”

      He followed her troubled gaze to the lighthouse, not sure whether he should feel angry that she and his boss had ventured out into the night against his express orders or glad that she’d managed, however accidentally, to sound the alarm just in time.

      “They knew the horn was a signal to Terrebonne Fire and Rescue,” he murmured. “They’ve done their homework.”

      Shannon moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around herself as if she were cold. He clenched his fists on the balcony railing, quelling the urge to pull her close and warm her with the fire burning low in his own belly. “I’m sorry about earlier,” he said.

      Her eyes flickered up to meet his. “In your house?”