EMILY AND THE HOSTAGES WERE taken to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. When they’d reached the air base and the transport waiting to fly them out of the Middle East, Emily argued that she didn’t need to go. What she really wanted was to be with HOT, to fly where they flew, and to see Ryan.

But he wasn’t there. She didn’t know where he was as she got loaded onto the medevac flight. Then the doors closed and they were on their way. In Germany, she was thoroughly checked out. Her ankle was broken, she was almost twelve weeks pregnant—she didn’t understand pregnancy dating, but whatever—and the baby had a strong heartbeat. Relief flooded her as she heard it beat for the first time.

And then she promptly burst into tears. There was a miraculous little thing inside her, and it was alive and well. But Ryan wasn’t there to share the moment with her, and that made her cry harder. The technician simply handed her tissues and waited. Apparently women bursting into tears the first time they heard their baby’s heartbeat wasn’t all that unusual.

They kept her overnight for observation. Standard procedure, she was told. She was put into a room with Linda Cooper, which was nice, and they chatted from time to time. And then sometime during the middle of the night, she was awakened as a man came into the room.

Her heart thumped hard, but he wasn’t there for her. It was Major Cooper, and he went to his wife’s side and broke down. Emily tried not to cry, but it was impossible. She turned her head into her pillow and let the tears soak the fabric as Linda and her husband cried and laughed and hugged.

A nurse came in and told Major Cooper he had to leave and let his wife rest, but he begged to stay with her. The nurse finally relented, and he spent the night in a recliner beside her bed. Emily fell asleep eventually. When she woke again, she turned and saw Major Cooper’s boots in the recliner. She couldn’t see him or Linda because the nurse had pulled the curtain, but she smiled as a snore came from the other side of the barrier.

Then she turned the other way—and her heart leapt into her throat. There was a man in a chair. He was slumped over, arms crossed, his forehead on his arms. No comfy recliner for her Special Ops warrior.

“Ryan?”

His body stiffened—and then his head snapped up, his eyes red-rimmed with lack of sleep. He’d tried to wash off the greasepaint, but there were still traces of it here and there. He had a day’s growth of beard, his hair was shaggy, and his blue eyes bored into her.

She’d never seen a more handsome man in her life.

He was on his feet and by her side in an instant. “I’m here, Emily. I said I’d be here.”

His voice was scratchy and he smelled like the desert. If sand trickled from his clothes onto the floor, she wouldn’t be surprised.

He took her hand and kissed it. She lifted her other hand and ran it over that rough jaw. “You said you’d find me. You did.”

“That’s right.”

“I thought I wouldn’t see you until we were back in DC. I thought it would be days—maybe weeks.”

“No fucking way,” he growled.

“I didn’t want to go without you,” she whispered. “They wouldn’t let me stay and wait for you.”

He threaded his fingers through her hair. “No, we had to get you to safety. But here you are, and here I am. It worked out.”

“How are you?” Because she knew she’d hit hard when she’d landed on him.

He grinned. “Feel like I got hit by a truck, but otherwise I’m okay.”

“I’m so sorry. I panicked—if I hadn’t jumped… She would have killed me, Ry. She wanted information on HOT, and she would have killed me after she’d tortured it out of me.”

“I know, honey. I know you had to do it—but Jesus, you scared the shit out of me. It could have ended up so much worse, Emily.”

“But it didn’t. I’m here.”

He let his gaze slide down her body. “Yeah, with a broken ankle and probably a few bruises too.”

“But the baby’s fine.”

“I know, and I’m sorry I couldn’t be here with you. I know you must have been scared.”

She squeezed his hand. “I was. But you’re here now, and everything’s going to be okay.”

But then she remembered something Raja had said, and a current of fear snapped through her.

“What is it, honey?”

“Raja… she said they knew who I was and who I cared for. And she said we would pay.”

Ryan squeezed her hand. “You’re under HOT’s protection, Emily. The only one who’s going to pay is Raja and her Freedom Force. We’ll get them.”

She bit her lip. “What if she sends someone after me in DC? What then? We don’t really know what she’s capable of.”

His expression was fierce. “She’ll have to go through me—and that won’t be easy, I promise. Besides, she has far bigger things to worry about than a woman who got away.”

Emily sucked in a breath and let it out again slowly. “You’re right.” Because she knew what sort of people the Freedom Force attracted, and she knew they thrived on fomenting terror. In the scheme of things, she wasn’t important to them. If it was convenient to punish her, they would. But they wouldn’t waste resources to go after her when they had far more important battles—to them—to fight.

“You remember what she looks like?”

“Yes.”

“Good. When we get home, you can tell Mendez everything. He’ll do everything he can to find her.”

She frowned as she studied their linked hands. “I’m not sure my name will be cleared. I may still be the same Emily bin Yusuf I have been—on watch lists and no-fly lists, and with no hope of ever getting off those lists again. If you spend time with me, you’ll be tainted by association. Your career will be over.”

He put his fingers beneath her chin and forced her to look at him. What she saw in his eyes made her breath catch.

“Listen good, Emily, because I mean for you to understand this the first time I say it. I don’t give a good goddamn about anything but you and our baby. I love you, and if I have to be a civilian who never leaves the United States, then so be it. No one’s going to stop me from getting a job or taking care of our family. You’re all I need. All I want. If I have to plow fields to be with you, then I’d better go get some shit-kickers and a cowboy hat and figure out how to operate a tractor. Because if that’s what it takes, that’s what I’m doing. You got that?”

She tried not to burst into tears, but damn if the hormones raging through her body didn’t make that impossible. With every word he spoke, her eyes filled until the tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. When he finished, she launched herself at him and threw her arms around his neck. He bent over the bed, his arms going around her, pulling her as close as he could.

And then he kissed her, his mouth crushing down on hers, his tongue sliding inside to glide against hers in a delicious back-and-forth that made her breasts tingle and her pussy ache. If they were alone—oh God, if they were alone! The things she’d do to him. The things she’d ask for. It was dirty and hot and oh so thrilling to imagine.

She wanted more than to imagine, but that wasn’t going to happen in this room. He broke the kiss sooner than she would have liked and lowered her down to the bed.

“We have to stop,” he muttered. “I can’t take this.”

She laughed softly, her vision still blurry from happy tears. “Me neither. Oh Ryan, do you really love me? Is that possible after everything?”

He blinked. “You’re fucking kidding, right? Of course I love you. I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you.” He held up a hand when she would have protested, and she bit her tongue to keep from speaking and ruining the moment. “It’s true. I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my life or anyone I wanted more.”

“You’re crazy,” she whispered.

“Crazy for you. And it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way. I know you’ve been through a lot, and it takes time—”

She put her hand over his mouth. He really didn’t know? How was that possible? She’d been nothing but starry-eyed around him for months. And then there was the night she’d begged him to make love to her…

“For someone whose life pretty much relies on knowing what’s happening around him, your lack of observational skills worries me. Don’t you know, Ryan Gordon, that I’ve been in love with you for months? Maybe not from the first moment, but close. I think when I saw you at Jack and Gina’s place, right after Nick and Victoria got engaged, that’s the moment I knew I’d fallen for you. So yes, you gorgeous idiot, I love you. I’ve loved you for a long, long time.”

She drew her hand away from his mouth then. His mouth was open a little, his eyes wide. And then he swooped down and kissed her again, hard and long and deep, and she wrapped her arms around him as happiness burst inside her soul. Real happiness—and belonging. They belonged to each other, and she would be forever grateful for that fact.