Janie Crouch - Armoured Attraction

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.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JANIE CROUCHhas 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.

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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

Cover

Introduction 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.

Title Page Armoured Attraction Janie Crouch www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author 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 .

Dedication 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.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

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 sand—in her toes renewed her. Helped her to remember that everything would be okay. Helped her to clear her mind and leave the problems she couldn’t solve somewhere else for a little while.

It was the beginning of October. The sun had set a few minutes ago, casting the beach in a purple hue. It was empty. With summer gone, most of the tourists had long since left the Outer Banks; they would’ve been on the ocean side anyway, rather than the more boring sound side. Most locals weren’t out, either, having made their way to their homes or wherever they spent their evenings. Everyone was settling in.

Vanessa would need to do the same soon, too. Tomorrow’s alarm at five thirty in the morning would come all too soon. She needed her sleep to fortify her for whatever the day would bring.

But since the beach was so quiet, the sand so nice and cool in her toes, the breeze so gentle in the ever-darkening sky, she decided to keep walking. She would just walk up to the beached log she could barely make out a couple hundred feet ahead, then turn around and go back to her car.

As with her family, she would categorically not think about other times she had walked along this very beach and whom she had walked along with. Thinking about it never led to anything but sadness anyway. Vanessa refused to be sad all the time. Life was too short.

Before she knew it she had made it to the log and was about to turn to walk back—until the log groaned and began to move.

Vanessa shrieked before she could help herself and jumped back. It was a person.

She looked around for any other people—aware after the past few years at her job that danger could be found in the most innocent-looking places—and grabbed her pepper spray from her bag. A gun would’ve been better—she was licensed to carry a concealed weapon in North Carolina—but hers was back at her car.

The log moaned again.