Burning Kiss Read online

  Text copyright ©2018 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Stoker Aces Production, LLC. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Special Forces: Operation Alpha remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Stoker Aces Production, LLC, or their affiliates or licensors.

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  Table of Contents

  Burning Kiss

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Books by Jen Talty

  About the Author

  Burning Kiss

  Special Forces: Operation Alpha Kindle World

  Air Force Fire Protection Specialists

  book 2

  by

  JEN TALTY

  Chapter 1

  The hot Florida sun beat down on the intercoastal waterway, dancing across the ripples conceived by a warm breeze rolling in off the salty ocean. Hunter Jackson wiped the perspiration beading across his forehead before he pulled back the throttles of his Absolute 50Fly luxury cabin cruiser, though others might consider it a yacht.

  Hunter called it home.

  There is nothing better than living on the water.

  “This has been an amazing day.” His buddy, Dude Cooper, a Navy SEAL, stretched out on the seat behind the console. Hunter had first met him when he’d volunteered for a special assignment with the Air Force Fire Protection Specialists in an undisclosed area. Dude was a bomb tech, and while deployed, there had been four bombs set off outside of a small town in the middle of a forest. It took almost 2 days to control the brush fires.

  But the strangest part had been when his current Crew Chief, Ace Enders, who had been on assignment with him, was good friends with one of Dude’s team members, Tex Keegan, who had been instrumental in helping Ace nail the bastards that had killed his high school sweetheart and her family.

  Hunter glanced over his shoulder. Ace had made himself comfortable on the stern bench, beer in hand. If Hunter ever needed anything, Ace would be at his side with the snap of a finger. Men didn’t come any better than him.

  “Cheyenne would have loved it here,” Dude said.

  “It would have been nice to meet her and your daughter.” While Hunter meant the words wholeheartedly, he didn’t really want it to happen. Not because he didn’t care. He didn’t begrudge either one of his buddy’s new-found relationship status, but he did miss always being Ace’s wingman. Before he got married, Ace had offered himself to every special assignment he could get his hands with Hunter. When other friends fell in love, changing their lives, Hunter and Ace continued the pack of bachelorhood.

  “I’ll have to plan a couple of vacation days and bring the family.”

  “You’re welcome anytime.” Hunter swallowed, hard. Once upon a time, he’d been madly in love. In fact, he’d been so far under the spell of a woman, he’d planned on getting married and having a half a dozen rug rats. But now? The idea of even being around children made his skin prickle with fear. Not to mention, the idea of giving his heart to any woman made him want to rip it from his chest and stomp on it himself.

  That would hurt less.

  There hadn’t been a woman in his life that hadn’t hurt him. All starting with his mother. She’d ruined everything in his life and now that she was as dying, she wanted to reconcile or some such nonsense.

  Well, too late for that, mom.

  Hunter navigated the cruiser through the docks at the marina owned by Ace’s mother-in-law. He put one engine in forward, the other in reverse and turned the boat so he could back into his spot.

  Ace’s wife, Lexi, stood at the center, waiting for Ace to toss her the stern line. He’d met Lexi when he pulled her from a burning car after witnessing a hit and run accident. It turned out that the same crime family that had killed his teenaged love had set their sights on using the marina to launder money. When Lexi and her mom refused to bring them in as partners, bad things started to happen, but Ace came to the rescue.

  Hunter tapped the throttles in gear, then brought them to neutral.

  Dude slapped Hunter on the back. “Thanks for this. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to kick back with the boys.”

  “My pleasure. Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?” Hunter often ended up a third wheel with Ace and Lexi, which hadn’t bothered him until recently. Seeing how happy Lexi made Ace, reminded Hunter of things past and for the first time in a long time, he felt a pang of loneliness.

  He’d lived alone since he walked out of his parent’s home ten years ago, the summer between his junior and senior year of college. He didn’t go back to school, and he hasn’t been home since.

  Not that he had a house to go home to since his father had sold it when his mother had left him.

  “I appreciate the offer, but I’m going to have to pass.”

  Hunter shut off the engines, snagging the keys and shoving them in the pocket of his jeans shorts. He made his way to the stern of the boat where Ace and Lexi had gathered, arms draped over each other, kissing. They were still in the newlywed stage of their relationship where every chance they got, they were groping each other. Hunter once made a comment about it and Ace replied something about making babies.

  Well, that wouldn’t happen in public, hopefully, so why did they have to touch and kiss all the time? Even when Hunter had been in love, he hadn’t participated in random public displays of affection very often.

  “How was it out there today?” Lexi asked, leaning into Ace, her hand resting on his side.

  Normally, this wouldn’t bother Hunter since he almost never paid attention to people and their love lives, but ever since he’d found out his mother had taken ill, old memories had crept into his head.

  “Didn’t catch much,” Ace said, kissing her cheek. “How was your day?”

  “Uneventful.”

  “I hate to break up the party, but I really should run,” Dude said.

  “We’re going to the Waterway for dinner. Would you both like to join us?” Lexi always had a sweet smile and a kind voice.

  Hunter could understand how any man would be mesmerized by her unique look with her tanned complexion, dark-inviting eyes, warm smile, and gentle personality. Deep down, Hunter knew not all women were like his mother.

  Or his ex.

  “I’ve got a date with a C-150 at three-thirty in the morning, so I really need to hit the sack soon,” Dude said.

  “What about you, Hunter? Will you join us?” Lexi never let anyone go uninvited, especially Hunter. And, she was constantly trying to fix him up, which was starting to drive him nuts.

  “Thanks, but I’m going to cook up the fish we caught today. Got to eat it while it’s fresh.”

  Lexi pursed her lips giving him a sad, disappointed look. She didn’t feel sorry for him, but she’d once told him she sensed an emptiness in him that could have only been created by heartache. He’d laughed it off, even though he knew Lexi was not only perceptive, but dead on right.

  She was always right.

  Hunter glanced toward the shore and his breath hitched. He lowered his sunglasses, peering over the rim. “No fucking way.”

  A tall, slender woman with long blond hair bouncing over her shoulders like in a shampoo commercial, strolled across the parking lot wearing what could only be described as pink, fuck me pumps and a floral sundress that hugged her body like a second skin.
She sported big white sunglasses and her plump, glossy lips attracted a ray of sunshine, lighting up her sultry face. She looked like an actress or model promenading across the red carpet.

  “Whoa. Who is that?” Lexi asked.

  “Claire Thompson.” The name rolled off his tongue, triggering a kaleidoscope of memories swirling in his mind, sending heat to all the wrong places.

  “You know her?” Ace asked.

  “Yeah,” he said with a dry, scratchy throat.

  “And? Who is she to you?” Dude asked.

  “My ex-girlfriend or my step-sister, depending on how you want to spin it.”

  ***

  When Claire Thompson had been given Hunter’s address, she expected a top-notch yacht club, not your average joe marina where she had to assume he had the nicest, most expensive boat. She paused for a second at the end of the dock, staring at a bare-chested Hunter on the back of what she guessed to be at least a fifty-foot Absolute. Nice boat, but a little small and not quite right for a man that was worth something like forty-two million dollars.

  Her body shivered, remembering how his fingers dug into her ass and how his lips sizzled against her skin. Every lover she’d had since Hunter had paled in comparison.

  She sucked in a deep breath, the salty air burning her lungs as she stepped with wobbly legs onto the dock. Wearing three-inch heels had been a dumb idea, but Hunter had always loved it when she wore sexy shoes and form fitting clothes. He worshiped her body and admired her brains.

  At one time, he loved her.

  And she still loved him.

  He lowered his head, looking over his designer sunglasses, mouth gaping open.

  At least she still had an effect on him ten years later. Though she wasn’t exactly sure if he was gawking, or glaring. Either way, she figured he wouldn’t be too happy she’d just shown up. The last time she’d seen him, he’d mentioned that living in a dumpster would be better than ever having to lay eyes on her again.

  The closer she got to the boat, the slower she walked. Hunter, and his friends, just stood on the stern, staring at her. She breathed slowly, trying to calm her racing pulse. Clutching her purse, she hoped her trembling hands didn’t give away her lack of confidence. She hated being vulnerable, but she’d made a promise.

  “Hello, Hunter,” she said, lifting her sunglasses up, letting them rest on the top of her head, keeping her recently styled hair from falling in her face.

  “What are you doing here?” He planted his hands on his hips, just over his low hanging shorts. He’d gotten a tattoo of some kind of compass with fire around it on his chest.

  She tilted her head, searching the side of his arm for the tattoo he’d gotten when they’d been dating. He must have sensed what she was searching for as he twisted his body, giving her a birds-eye view of the two-hearts she’d doodled on her notebooks in high school with the words: 2 hearts 1 love.

  Heat burned her cheeks.

  “I’ve come to talk some sense into you.”

  “You came on your own? Or did someone send you?” His accusatory tone smacked her skin like large water pellets slamming to the ground.

  “Does it matter?”

  “It always matters.” Hunter stepped back, ducking his head into a cooler. He lifted a long neck, twisting the top and chugging half the beer.

  “You’re not going to invite me aboard or introduce me to your friends?” She put one hand on her hip.

  “Nope. And I’m not going home either, so you can tell my mother I got the message.”

  “You’re being a childish asshole.”

  “I’m sorry. As much as I’d like to stick around and see how this show ends, I’ve got to go,” one of the men said as he hopped off the boat.

  “We should go too,” the woman said.

  The man with her helped her off the boat and the trio headed toward the parking lot, glancing over their shoulders a few times.

  Claire took a deep calming breath. “Help me on the boat,” she said.

  “Not with those shoes on. You’ll break something just climbing.”

  “Fine,” she said, leaning over, pulling one shoe off, then the other. Tucking her purse under her armpit, she dangled the shoes from one hand, holding out the other.

  “I still don’t want you on my boat.” He took a long draw from his beer, eyeing her with his golden eyes. “Go home, Claire. Tell my mother whatever you want, but I’m not rushing to her bedside.”

  “Your mother didn’t send me.” She tossed her shoes and purse on the boat before grabbing the railing and climbing aboard. “Your father did.”

  He gagged on his beer, spewing the liquid onto the deck.

  She breezed past him, lifting the lid on the outside cooler and grabbing a cold one for herself. Her entire life, she’d been called a contradiction. Raised a socialite, she had a flare for the finer things in life, like her three-hundred dollar shoes that lay on the back bench of the luxury cruiser. Her closet was filled with designer clothes, much like the one of a kind dress she had on which was created by an up and coming designer.

  Claire might have been homecoming queen and dabbled in modeling during high school, but she’d also been captain of her volleyball team, which got her a college scholarship to the same school Hunter had been recruited to play golf. She’d never been afraid of hard work and upon graduating, a year after Hunter had walked out of her life, she volunteered for the Peace Corps, spending over three years as a health advisor in a remote village in South America. She had survived living on about a dollar a day, with no running water, and no air-conditioning. Her bathroom was a shared outhouse and she had to take bucket baths.

  She continued to work for the Peace Corps in the recruitment office as well as occasionally taking short assignments when needed.

  Holding out the beer, she waited for Hunter to take it and be the gentleman she knew he could be. But when he just stared at her, she shrugged her shoulders and twisted off the top with ease. She’d developed a taste for beer in college and it had never left her, but it always reminded her of the only man she would ever love.

  “My father asked you to come? Why would he do that?”

  “Because he’s not a selfish prick, like his son.”

  “Swearing isn’t becoming of a lady.” Hunter snagged another beer before plopping himself down on the back bench.

  She laughed. “I’m not a docile little lady and you used to think it was cute when I uttered the unexpected obscenity.”

  “I’d be lying if you weren’t still, well… drop dead gorgeous, but that doesn’t change the past.” He stretched his legs out, resting his feet on the cushion. “I’ll call my dad later and tell him you came, asked me to come home, and that I said no.”

  “What is wrong with you?” She sat down on the chair across from him. The cruiser was more of a home than a boat, so it wasn’t surprising that Hunter had opted to live on it. He had always had a thing for the water. “Your mother is dying and all she wants is to see her youngest before she goes. Your sister misses you. Your brother is a dad now and would love to have you meet your nephew. I don’t think that is too much to ask for you to return, just to give a dying woman some peace, regardless of the past.”

  “You called me selfish, well, I must get that from my mother since all she thinks about is herself.” He didn’t look in her direction, keeping his head turned, facing the intercoastal. He waved to a boat that eased by.

  “I didn’t expect you to come home three years ago when my dad passed away unexpectedly, but Louisa is your mother and she’s been heartbroken ever since you left.”

  Hunter laughed. “So heartbroken she couldn’t tear herself away from her lover to save her family.” Every syllable was laced with the same angry tone he had the day he’d found out about the affair.

  “My parents were separated and you chose to ignore the fact that your parents fought all the time and barely shared the same bed anymore.”

  He snapped his attention to her, ripping off his sung
lasses. “You didn’t come home and find your mother sucking face with the man you expected to be your father-in-law, not your step-father.”

  “I can’t believe we’re having this same argument. What’s worse is that you’ve held on to this all these years. Your father and siblings have forgiven her. They are at your mother’s bedside every day. Your father and even his wife, Judy, were there for your mother when my dad died. If you had stuck around long enough to work through what happened, you’d see how much better off everyone was.”

  “That’s fucked up,” he said, dropping his feet to the floor and leaning forward. “My mother didn’t come to my matches because she was too busy screwing your dad. Your dad didn’t go to your games because he was holed up in some hotel with my mother. Have you forgotten those betrayals? Forgotten that their affair had been going on for years.” He stood and closed the gap, lifting her out of her chair, holding her gaze with fire in his honey eyes. “In the last ten years, I’ve heard from my mother only a handful of times and each time all she’s cared about is explaining why it happened and how happy she’d finally been with your dad. She didn’t once care about me or how I felt. Only that I’d accept what she’d done and act as if it were the best thing since sliced bread.”

  She swallowed. His fingers curled around her arms, burning their imprint into her skin like a cattle prod. They’d all been angry and upset when the truth came out. Claire had told her father that she hated him. She’d cried for hours, feeling humiliated. But the worst part was that her boyfriend couldn’t, or wouldn’t, give her any comfort.

  He tilted his head, leaning in, a scant few inches from her face. Licking his lips, he moved in for the kill, pressing his warm lips over hers, teasing her with his tongue.

  Her body stiffened for a moment, before turning into putty. Her chest rose, compressing her breasts against his hard body. Ten years ago, he’d been her world. Her rock. The only person who truly understood her. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders.

  He snapped his head back, breaking off the tumultuous kiss. “My mother made her choice and it wasn’t her family.”