Seven Days To Forever

Seven Days To Forever
Ingrid Weaver

Dark. Predatory. Gorgeous. Those thoughts and more went through Abbie Locke's mind the first time she laid eyes on Delta Force Sergeant Flynn O'Toole. She'd mistakenly picked up a ransom, and now it was up to the courageous Eagle Squadron soldier to protect Abbie from terrorists.Though passion coursed through his veins, the commitment-phobic commando shielded his heart. But when Abbie fell into enemy hands Flynn suddenly saw his future without her–bleak, empty, devoid of her beautiful smile. Now that she was in the line of fire, he would do anything to save her life–including risking his own!

“Until this mission is over, consider me your shadow. Do you have a problem with that?” asked Flynn.

Abbie decided to clear this up right away—before it could go any further. “Not as long as you understand that our relationship isn’t personal. I don’t want to repeat what happened at my apartment the other night.”

“Check. No kissing or fooling around in bed. Got it.”

His blunt comment startled her into meeting his gaze.

Flynn watched her intently, his eyes gleaming. “Did I misunderstand what you were referring to?”

“No, you understood perfectly.”

“Too bad, Abbie. I enjoyed kissing you and being in your bed. I think you enjoyed it, too.”

Dear Reader,

This month we have something really special in store for you. We open with Letters to Kelly by award-winning author Suzanne Brockmann. In it, a couple of young lovers, separated for years, are suddenly reunited. But she has no idea that he’s spent many of their years apart in a Central American prison. And now that he’s home again, he’s determined to win back the girl whose memory kept him going all this time. What a wonderful treat from this bestselling author!

And the excitement doesn’t stop there. In The Impossible Alliance by Candace Irvin, the last of our three FAMILY SECRETS prequels, the search for missing agent Dr. Alex Morrow is finally over. And coming next month in the FAMILY SECRETS series: Broken Silence, our anthology, which will lead directly to a 12-book stand-alone FAMILY SECRETS continuity, beginning in June. In Virginia Kantra’s All a Man Can Be, TROUBLE IN EDEN continues as a rough-around-the-edges ex-military man inherits a surprise son—and seeks help in the daddy department from his beautiful boss. Ingrid Weaver continues her military miniseries, EAGLE SQUADRON, in Seven Days to Forever, in which an innocent schoolteacher seeks protection—for starters—from a handsome soldier when she mistakenly picks up a ransom on a school trip. In Clint’s Wild Ride by Linda Winstead Jones, a female FBI agent going undercover in the rodeo relies on a sinfully sexy cowboy as her teacher. And in The Quiet Storm by RaeAnne Thayne, a beautiful speech-disabled heiress has to force herself to speak up to seek help from a devastatingly attractive detective in order to solve a murder.

So enjoy, and of course we hope to see you next month, when Silhouette Intimate Moments once again brings you six of the best and most exciting romance novels around.

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Senior Editor

Seven Days to Forever

Ingrid Weaver

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

INGRID WEAVER

admits to being a sucker for old movies and books that can make her cry. A Romance Writers of America RITA

Award winner for Romantic Suspense, and a national bestselling author, she enjoys creating stories that reflect the adventure of falling in love. When she and her husband aren’t dealing with the debatable joys of living in an old farmhouse, you’ll probably find Ingrid going on a knitting binge, rattling the windows with heavy metal or rambling through the woods in the back forty with her cats.

To Mark.

The adventure continues….

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 1

Out of the hundreds of tourists who had passed by his post in the past hour, why should Flynn notice this one? Even if he wasn’t on duty, he shouldn’t have noticed her. Sure, she was attractive enough, in a compact, earth-mother type of way. Soft-brown hair, eyes the color of caramel, a hint of freckles on the tip of her small nose and a quick, coiled-spring energy to her movements. But she was the kind of woman who would want to meet a man’s parents. She had probably picked out a china pattern and two names for her firstborn. She was the kind of woman who usually made Sergeant First Class Flynn O’Toole of Eagle Squadron, Delta Force, break out in hives.

A spot just under his left shoulder blade developed a sudden itch. Flynn rubbed his back against the wooden bench. “I don’t think she’s our target.”

He barely moved his lips as he spoke. His words wouldn’t have been audible to a person sitting beside him, but the microphone under his collar had no problem picking up everything he said.

“She would be a good decoy.” The voice of Captain Sarah Fox, Eagle Squadron’s intelligence specialist, came through the pea-size receiver in his ear. “I wouldn’t underestimate her.”

Sarah had a point, Flynn thought. The brunette with the freckles would make an excellent decoy, since no one would suspect someone who looked that wholesome and innocent to be involved with a group of terrorists who were dedicated to the overthrow of the Ladavian government.

Then again, no one would expect a group like the Ladavian Liberation Army to be using the National Air and Space Museum for a ransom drop in the first place.

The woman hurried past the bench without giving Flynn a second glance. She headed straight for a pair of boys who were paused under the biplane that hung from the ceiling. For a moment all three of them craned their necks, gazing at the Wright Brothers’ 1903 Flyer with expressions of delighted awe. Then the woman herded the boys toward a group of more than a dozen chattering, fidgeting children.

Evidently, the woman hadn’t come to the museum alone, she had brought a classroom worth of kids with her. Unless the LLA had dropped their height requirements and were recruiting fresh-scrubbed seven-year-olds now, it was unlikely that the woman was involved. She was probably exactly what she seemed, a teacher on a field trip.

“Heads up. Vilyas just passed the front entrance.” The warning came from Flynn’s friend, Master Sergeant Rafe Marek. He was positioned outside where he could observe the approach to the building without attracting undue attention—Rafe’s scars tended to spook people who didn’t know him.

Although his posture didn’t change, Flynn’s senses went on high alert. Ambassador Vilyas was carrying the ransom himself, as the terrorists had demanded. The man was adamant. He would do anything for the safe return of his son.