his hips forcefully pressed into hers.
The pillow muffled his hoarse shout of satisfaction, but she reveled in his uncontrolled reaction to her. He was rigid with orgasm for the longest time, his sex, big and oh so hard, inside her as he erupted in a series of convulsions that left them both limp and spent.
She was barely aware of him climbing off of her and leaving the bed and only registered in the periphery of her mind when he came back and pulled her into his arms for sleep.
Curled up on one end of the couch, Josie absently drank her coffee while reading one of her dad’s journals. He had some odd thoughts, that was for sure, but everything he wrote made sense if you looked at life from the perspective of a man who had seen too much brutality to trust in the goodness of human nature.
She felt uncomfortable at times reading his most personal thoughts because his emotions ran more deeply than she had ever thought they did. But he’d been the one to tell her to read the journals in the first place. Well, he’d said journal in the singular, but how was she to know which one had the information he wanted her to glean out of his writings?
“Josie…”
She looked up to find Claire standing over her, dressed for exercise in a pair of Lycra shorts and an oversized T-shirt that had been washed so many times the athletic logo on the front was barely discernable. However, her running shoes were one of the best brands on the market and almost new.
“Going jogging?”
“Uh-huh.” She pulled her hair up into a scrunchy, taming the wild curls in a slightly less wild ponytail. “I thought I’d ask if you wanted to come, but you look pretty engrossed. And come to think of it, Nitro would probably have a male mercenary’s version of a hissy fit if you tried to go outside without him anyway.”
Josie had to agree. “It’s weird. I mean, he knows I can take care of myself, but he still acts like a mother hen about some stuff.”
Claire smiled, tightening her ponytail. “Don’t knock it. It’s pretty great to have someone watching out for you.”
“Even if it’s a little confining?”
“So’s a seat belt, but given the option of going through life without one, I’d vote for safety first.”
Josie laughed, shaking her head at Claire’s analogy. “I won’t tell Daniel you think he’s an oversized seat belt. I don’t think he’d understand.”
Claire’s smile was rueful. “I appreciate that. Nitro is not a man I’d be comfortable offending.”
“I’d say he’s a pussycat under all that male bravado, but I’d be lying.” The iron in Daniel’s character ran bone deep, as if it had been forged early and tempered by life since.
“No kidding. Better you than me, is all I’ve got to say. Not only is the man as immovable as a stone wall, but he’s got a possessive streak a mile wide, too. He looked ready to kill somebody every time you smiled at Hotwire last night.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“Says you, but then you were busy looking at Hotwire and not your boyfriend.”
“I wasn’t flirting or anything.” Even if she’d wanted to, which she hadn’t, she didn’t know how.
Claire headed for the door, talking over her shoulder as she went. “You’re not the type to make eyes at one guy while being intimate with another, and Nitro will figure that out. Eventually. Until then, you might consider smiling less at Hotwire.”
Claire might have a point. Daniel had reacted with unexpected insecurity toward Josie’s friendship with Hotwire. It was probably one of those guy things she didn’t get. She might have spent most of her life surrounded by men, but she didn’t pretend to understand how they related to the women in their lives. It hadn’t been part of their soldier training, and her father had never had a girlfriend around.
She didn’t know how long she had been reading when the sound of slamming car doors caught her attention. Her mind more on what she’d been reading than what she was seeing, she looked out through the sheers covering the big picture window in her living room. It took a second for her unfocused brain to interpret what her eyes were telling her.
A news van and two cars were parked in front of her house. A woman had gotten out of the van, and the driver came around to open the back panel doors. The occupants of the cars got out, too. A couple of them had cameras. One was carrying a tape recorder with a microphone.
She scanned the scene, trying to make sense of it, and saw Claire approaching at a sprint, running in a direct line to the house across the grass. She didn’t slow as she crossed the street either. One of the men from the cars tried to stop her, but she brushed him aside and ran straight to the door. Josie rushed to open it and let her in.
“Claire?”
“There are more of them.” She bent over and panted, her hands on her thighs. “I was across the park, and I saw two more news vans headed this way.” She sucked in air and tried to catch her breath. “I was listening to the radio while I was running. It’s all over the news.”
“What’s all over the news?”
“The explosion at your dad’s compound.”
“For heaven’s sake, why?”
“They’re saying it was done by ecoterrorists. The FBI is involved as well as the State Police and National Forest Service.” She straightened, still breathing hard, which showed how fast she’d been running because Claire was in good shape. “It’s that Homeland Security Act thing. All the federal agencies are in an uproar, and the media is already speculating on who might be responsible for the destruction of the compound.”
The doorbell rang. Josie and Claire both turned to stare at the door as if it would spontaneously combust any second.
“Ms. McCall? This is Alison Spencer from KYTO News. I’d like you to answer a few questions.”
Claire sprang forward and pushed the door lock, then twisted the deadbolt into place with an audible click.
Someone started pounding on the window. Josie couldn’t believe it, but several reporters were trying to peer in through the sheers, and one had a camera up to the window. The utter audacity of the action astounded her. The doorbell rang again, and Josie gave up shock for anger.
She headed to the door, ready to blast the reporters and throw a few people off of her property, when her tank top was grabbed from behind. She was pulled up like a dog on a short leash.
“Hold on, sweetheart.”
Someone knocked on the door while the doorbell rang again.
She glared over her shoulder at Daniel. “Let me go. I’m going to tell them to get lost.”
“You’re not opening that door.” His voice held the implacability of command.
He was not the officer in charge on this mission, and she was more than ready to set him straight. “I’m not?” she asked with interest and no small amount of fury.
“No.”
“We don’t know who all is out that door,” Hotwire drawled in a more placating tone, but with no less firmness.
She turned her defiant stare on him. “A bunch of reporters who have no respect for my privacy, that’s who.”
“Maybe, and maybe one or two of them are involved with the guys who blew up your dad’s compound.”
Daniel hadn’t let go of her shirt yet and actually started reeling her in. “Opening the door and letting you stomp outside in a rage is too risky.” He pulled her around to face him. “We don’t know if the enemy wants to get rid of you and whatever you might know permanently.”
“Like they tried to with Dad?” she sneered. “We McCalls aren’t that easy to kill.”
His mouth quirked as if he enjoyed her feistiness. “I’m glad, Josette, but I’m not letting you risk it.”
“Letting? You’re not going to let me go outside? You’re not going to let me risk it?” she asked, transferring her outrage at the rudeness of the reporters to his autocratic behavior. “Who signed the order papers to make you Major General?”
“Josie, he’s right,” Claire said for the second time in two days, earning a frown from Josie. “Even if ecoterrorists weren’t involved, you can bet they’ll be trying to get some media coverage out of this. You don’t want
