The thought that he could have lost her today—had come so close to losing her— had him crushing her to him.
He wrapped one arm around her hips and threaded his other hand through her hair, bringing her lips to his.
The heat was instant, as always. It chased all traces of cold away.
“I thought I’d lost you tonight,” he murmured against her mouth.
“I had the same fear when I couldn’t get you to wake up in the car,” she responded, her lips never moving away from his.
There was no more talking. Neither of them wanted to think about death. Not right now. Liam didn’t want to even think about whether this was a good idea or not.
All he wanted to think about was her body pressed up against his.
Armoured
Attraction
Janie Crouch
JANIE CROUCH has loved to read romance her whole life. She cut her teeth on Mills & Boon Cherish novels as a preteen, then moved on to a passion for romantic suspense as an adult. Janie lives with her husband and four children overseas. Janie enjoys traveling, long-distance running, movie-watching, knitting and adventure/obstacle racing. You can find out more about her at www.janiecrouch.com.
To my parents, for being a constant example of God’s goodness, faith and love. Thank you for being a blessing not only to me but so many others.
Contents
A leisurely walk along the beach in the evening was a chance for many people to ponder the meaning of life. Not for Vanessa Epperson. She rarely had time to walk along the beach at all anymore, much less waste that valuable time pondering.
She was way too busy to ponder. But, ahh, how she loved the feel of the sand on her toes.
She should have as much time as anyone to walk along the beach: her career as a social worker for a private organization—The Bridgespan Team—was technically nine to five, Monday through Friday. But in reality it rarely worked out that way. A call from a woman needing housing immediately because she’d finally gotten the courage to leave her abusive husband didn’t always come during normal business hours. Nor did a call from someone who had his first critical job interview in weeks and needed a ride at 7:00 a.m. because his car had broken down.
Both of those scenarios had happened to Vanessa in the past forty-eight hours.
Her coworkers told her she got too involved, that she needed to keep more of a professional distance between herself and her clients. Vanessa just shrugged her colleagues off. Sometimes people needed help beyond what was required from the job. When she could help, she did. Because there were far too many times when there was just nothing she could do.
If they knew about it, she guessed most people would say she could dip into the five million dollars her parents had made readily available to her. But Vanessa couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t do that. She didn’t plan to ever touch that money.
She pushed all thoughts of her family away as she walked along the sands of the Roanoke Sound of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She wouldn’t let them intrude on her rare moments of solitude and quiet.
But this sand—this particular