When Lightning Strikes - Aimee Thurlo

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until he reached the narrow paved road that led through the foothills and piñon forest. Out of habit he checked his rearview mirror periodically and, before long, spotted a vehicle in the distance.

      Heeding the prickle at the base of his neck, he turned off the road at the next dirt path, then looped back. He’d either lose whoever it was, or end up behind them, if he was being followed.

      He waited, watching in both directions, but the highway appeared empty. Confident now that the vehicle he’d seen hadn’t been a tail, he continued on his way.

      Daniel kept turning off on side roads, looking for houses where Hannah Jones might have gone to ground, but he found no sign that anyone had passed that way recently. Eventually, he reached a place that had a new gate locking the access road and a fence that suggested there was a house or dwelling somewhere farther up the hill. The Private Property sign on the gate backed that idea up.

      There was only one way to find out if Hannah Jones had come this way. Daniel parked beside the padlocked gate and climbed out of his vehicle. Checking the ground he saw footprints.

      Retrieving the paper sack from the back of the SUV, Daniel came around to the passenger side and opened the door. He held up the cotton blouse the deacon had provided in front of the dog’s nose, allowing him to catch the scent.

      “Wolf, track!”

      Daniel opted not to leash the dog, knowing Wolf would work faster in this rough terrain without it, and in the event they met trouble, they’d both need room to maneuver.

      The dog walked down the road, sniffing the ground, then suddenly froze, pawing at the dirt. Wolf barked sharply, then dug beneath the fence and shot up the slope on the other side.

      Daniel climbed over the wire fence, and followed him. It didn’t take long to reach a modern-looking cabin hidden among a stand of tall Ponderosa pines. Wolf was near some waist-high brush, again pawing the ground. The sound of a stream was close by, somewhere to Daniel’s right.

      Below the cabin was a redwood deck jutting out over a deep pool fed by the stream. A woman was kneeling at the edge of the deck, washing something in the pond. Her glossy black hair cascaded down her back, caressing creamy white skin.

      She was wearing only a thin, light pink bra, and bikini panties with images of a popular cartoon mouse all over them.

      Though her whimsical choice of panties amused him, there was nothing funny about the way his body reacted to the sight of her.

      She stood up, holding the blouse that she’d just washed, and turned to look around, almost as if she’d sensed his presence. Her bra and panties, dampened from her efforts to clean her clothes, now clung to her like second skin, revealing clearly what lay beneath.

      Daniel reminded himself to breathe. Hannah Jones was innocence and raw sensuality all rolled up in one devastating package. The photo of her he had in his jacket pocket didn’t even come close to doing her justice. Her perfectly proportioned body cried out for a man’s touch.

      Miss Jones was a living, breathing temptation but, as tantalizing as she was, he had to push those thoughts aside and focus on the job he’d been sent to do. He wasn’t a teenager ruled by his hormones. He was a man, a professional investigator, with a job to do.

      As she draped the shirt over a nearby tree branch to dry, Wolf crashed through the brush and leaped onto the deck, landing less than five feet away from her.

      She gave a startled cry, and Daniel caught the look of stark terror on her face as Wolf moved closer.

      Holding her hands up to ward off the dog, Hannah Jones took a step back, then another. Daniel started to call out a warning, but it was already too late. The woman slipped on the wet deck, and tumbled backwards into the water.

      Chapter Two

      Normally, the absurdity of the situation might have made Daniel laugh, but the way Hannah Jones was flailing in the water warned Daniel that she didn’t know how to swim.

      Daniel shot forward, pausing only to yank off his boots as he reached the redwood deck. A heartbeat later, he was in the water.

      The pond was as cold as ice, but Daniel had swum all his life in ditches and rivers that were equally as cold. He reached Hannah in seconds but, as he tried to get a grip on her, she struggled wildly against him, gulping water and coughing, completely out of control. Her head went beneath the surface briefly, but he brought her back up, then tightened his hold on her to stop her efforts to escape. Wrapping his arms around her middle just beneath her breasts, he pulled her close, pinning her arms to her sides.

      “Don’t fight me, not if you want to live,” Daniel commanded, his voice hard.

      She stopped struggling, but he could still feel the tremors that passed through her body.

      “You’re going to be fine as soon as I get you back onto solid ground,” he said more gently now, trying to ease her fears.

      He could feel the delicate curve of her breasts resting on his forearm as he moved them both toward the edge of the pond with powerful kicks. Hannah was as soft as velvet in his arms, and she fit against him as if she’d been made to be his.

      He disciplined his thoughts, remembering where he was, who she was, and what he was doing there. As he reached shallow water, Daniel stood and carried her to dry land.

      Before putting her down, he gave in to temptation, and lowered his mouth over hers, taking a tender kiss from her lips. She didn’t fight. She simply melted into him with a sweetness that made his body grow impossibly hard.

      It became too hot, too quickly. Surprised by it all, he drew back, then set her down gently. The smoky, dazed look in her eyes, told him she’d felt the same fires coursing through her.

      She took a few uncertain steps away from him, then picked up a stout piece of a pine branch, and held it out before her like a sword. “That was your thank-you. And it was nice,” she said, her voice husky. “But now I’d like you to go.”

      Wet, her body glistening in the sun, Hannah Jones was magnificent. The thin cloth of her undergarments did little to shield her from his hungry gaze.

      “You have nothing to fear from me,” Daniel said, trying to reassure her. He could take the branch away from her in one swift move and pin her to the ground before she ever knew what happened. But he didn’t want to hurt or frighten her. As he continued to gaze at her, the thought of her beautiful body beneath his made him tense.

      Moving sideways slowly, he reached for her slacks, which were on the deck nearby. The shirt she’d been rinsing out was draped over a low branch a little farther away, and a quick look at the reddish brown stain still marring it suggested she’d tried to wash out somebody’s blood.

      Wolf crept up silently and took a position behind Hannah, blocking her escape, then barked once. Hearing him, she turned her head and gasped.

      “Don’t let him frighten you again. He’s harmless as long as you behave.” Daniel came toward her slowly, holding at arm’s length the clothes he’d retrieved for her. “Here. Get dressed. I have a feeling you’ll feel better that way.”

      “Who are you?” she said, glancing back at the dog as she dropped the stick, then slipped her slacks and wet shirt on.

      “A friend with a big dog—someone who didn’t want you to drown, obviously.”

      “That’s very chivalrous of you, considering it’s your fault that I fell in.” Watching them both, Hannah walked back onto the deck, picked up her shoes, and slipped them on. Glancing again at Wolf, she added, “Are you sure he’s just a dog? He looks like a German shepherd, but I’ve never seen one that big.”

      “He’s a dog, all right.”

      Wolf turned his head and curled his lips slightly.

      “He’s part wolf, I’m told,” Daniel added quickly.

      Daniel

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