Cassidy was so frustrated she wanted to scream. Austin Dixon—what a blast from the past that name was—was screwing up the most important thing she’d ever done in her life. Julianne was alive. She knew it. She had to convince him to go back.

She thought of her parents and frowned. She never intended for them to find out. Since when were they in the habit of checking up on her? Since her father entered politics when she was ten years old, they’d seemingly lost interest in their only daughter. She knew they loved her, sure. But worry for her? Wonder where she was or doubt what she had told them? Never.

She was the responsible daughter of a responsible man. A reporter for one of the most well respected newspapers in the country. She was not a child and she didn’t appreciate being treated like one.

Especially by a man I just threw myself at, naked.

That was the rub. Despite what he’d done she was still painfully attracted to him, like her twenty-year-old self had taken over her thirty-year-old body. She was a walking hormone—angry as hell and hornier than she had any right to be.

Fuck him.

Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?

Breaking up with Austin had been incredibly difficult, and it had forever changed the relationship between her and her parents. He wasn’t suitable marriage material, said her mother—a dozen photos from a tabloid photographer in a neat pile between them. And what will people say?

Her father was up for re-election. The photographer was considerate enough to sell the photos to the senator instead of sullying his daughter’s good name with the pictures of her making love to a sailor on a speedboat in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.

They’d taken something beautiful and made it ugly, then they used it to blackmail her parents and control her actions.

When Austin had shown up outside her shower, something inside her snapped. Every pent-up emotion she’d been holding inside since he left her life came crashing into her present like a dam breaking loose. She’d shown Austin her lust, but what she’d really been feeling was the memory of overwhelming love.

Careful, Cassidy.

He didn’t love her. Never had. Hell, he didn’t even respect her enough to listen to her wishes and help her save Julianne. Her mouth turned down in a hard frown. God, was it possible he was right? Could Julianne and the baby be dead?

All the sadness she’d kept at bay rose up and overwhelmed her, every tear she’d forced to stay inside during her time with The Community now flowing out of her eyes and down her cheeks.

She must have cried herself to sleep, because the next thing she knew the zipper on the tent was opening and Austin was climbing in. “You’ve got to be kidding. Isn’t there another tent?” she asked, exasperated.

“Yep. It’s in Logan’s pack.”

“Let me guess. Logan’s one of the guys you got separated from.”

“That’s right. Scoot over. I’ll keep you warm.”

That did hold a certain appeal. The tent wasn’t cold exactly, but it was a far cry from warm. She moved over but barely managed to make room for him anyway.

Perfect.

Just what I need right now—another close encounter with Austin.

Her head ached dully from her crying and she didn’t feel equipped to defend herself against her feelings for this man right now. When he settled and opened his arm for her to cuddle against his side as he’d done so many times before, she froze.

“Come here,” he said so casually, she simply complied, her head resting on his t-shirt-covered chest and his arm sliding down her back. He stroked her gently, just as he used to do, and Cassidy was filled with emotion.

Better not examine that too closely.

Besides, she needed to be worrying about Julianne right now, not her unresolved feelings for Austin.

“Do you really think she’s dead?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, Cass.”

“She’s my best friend. We started at the Post together right out of college. We got all the shit assignments together, and we had to prove to our editor we could handle more, each of us on our own stories but seeming to mirror each other’s journey, you know?”

Austin kissed the top of her head and let her cry. He continued to stroke her back. It felt so good to be in his arms, so familiar and safe, and she reminded herself how angry she was with him for making her leave the compound.

It would be so easy to lift her head and kiss him, no one nearby to interrupt them this time. But she had to be smart. They couldn’t be far away from the ranch. Austin was strong, but she didn’t imagine he was strong enough to carry her forever. It wasn’t too late to convince him to go back. Sleeping with him and tapping into the feelings they’d once shared could only help her get her way, not hurt her chances.

Except the feelings had been hers, their relationship one-sided in that regard. Austin had been all-in for the sex, but she was the only one who’d fallen in love, and she knew if she slept with him now it would bring up all the old feelings. She would feel just as tethered to him emotionally as she had been all those years before.

No. I’m stronger now.

I’m not the same person I was then.

Maybe she could survive a tryst with him and keep right on going instead of crashing her love life into a tree. Her leg curled higher on his and he moaned softly.

Nobody to interrupt them.

Nothing to stop them.

If she responded to him, they would make love.

And my heart will be broken all over again.

No. He wasn’t the man for her. She knew that and couldn’t let herself forget. It wasn’t just the way he talked like a New York City cabby, or that he’d stand out at political functions like a sore thumb. The problem was so much deeper than that.

He could never be happy with a woman like her.

Austin wanted a wife who came with a crockpot in tow, not an investigative reporter who loved her job more than breathing and lived on takeout and microwave quesadillas. He wanted babies and homemade desserts. The one time he brought her to meet his family, his mother had all but chased her out of the house with a wooden spoon before locking the door and making the sign of the cross.

She was nice to you. You’re imagining things.

But she knew she was not. Mama Dixon could see what Cassidy herself was trying so hard to turn a blind eye to. She and Austin were not well-suited out of the sack.

But oh, when they were in it…

She curled her fingers before stroking her fingers down his abdomen. She longed to see if he was hard, but her embarrassment would be complete if he was not. She imagined what he would feel like inside of her again, the hard ground beneath her hips as they came together.

“I’m still mad at you,” she said.

“I know.” He lifted his head and kissed her, curling onto his side. Blood rushed between her legs, engorging her sex, making her even more desperate for his touch.

She pushed him backward and straddled his hips, glorying in the feel of his rock hard erection against her entrance. “I still want to go back. This doesn’t mean we’re done fighting.”

He lifted her shirt and she yanked it over her head. “I know.”

He pulled her down to him, taking a nipple in his mouth and lavishing it with his tongue before sucking her deeply. She bucked against his cock and offered him the other breast.

“Tell me you have a condom in these fucking Inspector Gadget pants somewhere.”

He chuckled, reaching down to a small pocket near his right knee and withdrawing a foil packet. “Survivalist training 101.”

She moved down his body until his belt buckle was in front of her face and unbuckled it, unzipping his pants and releasing his cock straight into her mouth. He cried out as she sucked him, deep throating him like she knew he liked.

“Jesus, Cassy, stop or I’m going to come.”

She lifted her head and he flipped her over with one strong movement, putting her firmly beneath him. She quickly pulled her panties down and his fingers nestled in the hair between her legs until he found her clitoris, gently stroking with one finger while another toyed with her entrance.

“Oh my God, I’ve forgotten how good this feels,” she whispered with an urgency that demanded he continue.

“Sex in general, or sex with me?”

He was torturing her, making her reveal her secrets under duress, and she fought against the admission.

“Answer me, Cassidy.”

She ground out on a moan. “You. The best sex was always with you.”

He sheathed himself and climbed on top of her, filling her completely with one hard thrust. Just like that she was flying, her body anchored to the ground by his fierce lovemaking and her soul soaring high above.

Then she was back in her body, digging her nails into the bunched muscles of his back, inhaling the musk of his overheated skin deep into her lungs. The unforgiving earth increased the power of his wild thrusts, pinioning her between his driving body and the bracing ground, and her climax ripped through her like wildfire on a dry summer field.

Then Austin was exploding too, his body emptying itself as he convulsed in the final throes of passion. They stayed together, intimately connected as her breathing slowed, Cassidy staring her feelings for Austin straight in the eye, unflinching.

I love him.

I never stopped loving him. Wishing he’d come back.

“Me too,” he whispered.

She stopped breathing. “What?”

“Sex was always best with you—for me, too.”

Disappointment was sharp and thorny. She pushed at him lightly and he moved off her, turning his back to deal with the condom before moving beside her once more.

She tried to settle anywhere but on top of him, but there simply wasn’t room in the tent. She gave up, frustrated, and leaned back next to him.

“What if I’m right, Austin? What if she’s alive?”

He sighed heavily. “I can’t take that chance. By morning they’ll know you’re gone, if they don’t already. They’re not going to let me in there with you to keep you safe. They’re going to harass you with questions, at the very least. God only knows what Kelleher will do to you if he doesn’t trust you anymore. It’s too late, Cassidy. It isn’t safe. I’m sorry.”

“Last night in the shower before you came along, I was thinking of her and wondering if she was still alive. She's not in the compound. She's not out of it and back to her old life. She's somewhere in between, like some sort of invisible limbo, and I’m the only one who knows she's there or is doing anything about it. I have to find her.”

“No. We need to get moving. It will be light soon.”

“I'm not going with you. So I hope you have lots of whatever the hell you stuck in my ass cheek last night, because you're going to need it if you think I'm going one more step away from my friend who needs me.”

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way. That’s up to you.”

“I'll press charges when we get back. Kidnapping. I don't think the military would look too favorably on that.”

“Probably not, but I’m retired. I work for HERO Force now, remember? And they just want you back. They don’t give a shit how I do it.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I told you, I'm not coming with you.”

“Suit yourself. Just remember it gets down below freezing here at night, and you won't have a tent or my body to keep you warm. You don't know which way to go to get back to the compound. And if you get lost in these woods, there's no one to search for you, much less find you. But by all means, if you want to go back to that wacko in the woods, be my guest.”

She rolled over, presenting him with her back. She would wake up before him, find his compass and leave before he had any idea she was gone.