Wilde Nights in Paradise (A Wilde Security Novel) (Entangled Brazen) by Tonya Burrows

himself. Just smile.
    Damn, she had a way of picking at him until he felt things he didn’t want to feel. Things he tried so very hard to block from his memory. Things like the feel of a buddy’s blood seeping onto his hands from mortal wounds, the fear that he’d never make it home in once piece, the knowledge that if he did, he was going back to an empty house because he’d ruined the one good thing he’d ever had…
    The past was the past, he reminded himself. No sense in dwelling on things that he couldn’t change. Bridges burned for a reason…and blah blah blah.
    Dragging his hands through his hair, he shoved away from the door and grabbed his basketball shorts from the floor. As he yanked them on, he made himself smile.
    But part of him in the deepest, darkest pit in his soul wondered how long he could keep smiling.

Chapter Ten
    A spatter of color against the kitchen counter caught Libby’s attention as she came inside from the pool the following morning, and she finally pulled her nose out of the book she’d found tucked away on the shelf in the living room. The light and fluffy romance wasn’t her usual reading preference, but since her other book had taken a swim during the lizard fiasco, she’d picked this one up out of desperation—and she hadn’t been able to put it down. The hero was just too…yummy. Not the perfect man, by any means, but close enough that she kind of wished he was real. She hadn’t realized how much time had passed since she started reading until the sun’s rays became brutal and she had to go inside or risk sunburn. Even so, she planned to get a glass of ice tea, curl up somewhere quiet, and finish the book.
    Except that flash of color was out of place on the dark granite counter top and Libby backtracked to get a better look.
    A flower.
    Surprised, she lifted it to her nose and scanned the house’s open floor plan for Jude. Why would he pick a flower? And then just leave it sitting here without water? Here, where she’d be sure to see it…
    She scowled at the book, which she’d laid on the counter when she picked up the flower. Its candy-colored cover showed a shirtless man in a pair of low-riding jeans, his very fine backside turned to the reader, with a rose in his hand, hidden behind his back for the unsuspecting heroine. The hero had spent most of the book trying to seduce his love with flowers, which made him charming.
    Not so much with Jude, who had hinted oh so casually this morning that Seth’s sister was a book addict and since this used to be the Harlan family’s vacation house before Seth moved in fulltime, Abby may have left something behind for her to read.
    That conniving…sweet…no, definitely conniving jerk!
    Incensed, she stepped on the trash can pedal to open the lid and dropped the perky pink flower in. She started to toss the book in after it, but hesitated. She knew the hero would get his woman in the end, and yet, she had to finish reading it. She could use a happily ever after in her life right now, so she let the lid drop and set the book aside on the counter. She’d come back to it later. Right now, she had to set a certain thick-skulled man straight about their relationship. Again.
    She thought he was in the garage, so she started when she marched into the living room and found him sprawled facedown on the couch, sound asleep. Should’ve figured as much—he was an early riser and afternoon-nap taker, after all. One arm hung limply off the side of the cushion, and his bare feet stuck out over the couch’s arm. His T-shirt had ridden up in his sleep, showing a glimpse of his deeply tanned skin and the ink of that back tattoo he was so protective of. Curiosity overrode her annoyance, and she drifted closer.
    What was that tattoo? It wasn’t “nothing” like he’d said. It meant something to him, and she couldn’t help it, she was dying to find out what. The dog tags, the ballet slippers, the intricate swirls of words… What did it all