Luke’s large SUV careened down a winding snow-covered road an hour north of New York City, the last vehicle in the HERO Force caravan. T-ball and Mac were first, their van stocked with weapons and ammunition, then Razorback and Moto hauling their computers and tech equipment. The back of Luke’s vehicle was loaded with the rest of their gear and Summer’s suitcase.

She’d felt so good against him.

Stop it. Pay attention to the damn road.

He was trying, but she was sitting in the passenger seat and her nearness was not letting him put the memories out of his mind.

She was soft and strong, and he thought of how the curves of her body perfectly aligned with his. Her hair smelled like flowers, the scent of her skin just beneath it, heady and weighty with temptation.

Trees. Yellow lines. Asphalt.

Come on, dumb ass.

He loved how she didn’t wear any makeup, her easy style and grace. She was smart and funny and he enjoyed talking to her—which was funny since he didn’t like talking at all. They passed a clearing, the whipping wind pushing the SUV like a sailboat. His hands were steady on the wheel, driving in weather like this no big deal for a Boston boy like him, but he could tell Summer didn’t like it by the way she braced herself on the leather seats.

“I’ve got snow tires,” he offered.

“Do you have nine lives, too?”

He smirked. “Just the one.”

“I’m not going to watch.” She tightened her seat belt.

The morning had been awkward between them and he was fighting a headache. He’d stayed awake for more than an hour and a half after she left last night, guilt washing over him like water dousing a fire.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

This was Buckeye’s sister he was messing with, the one person most intimately connected to the greatest mistake of his life. There was a reason he hadn’t kept up their correspondence after her brother died, and it was that same reason that should have kept him on his own damn bed last night.

But she’d been so beautiful, laughing with her cheeks flushed, and his body’s response had been instantaneous. Or hell, maybe it had been building for years, from the very first email she’d sent him. Their connection had always been easy, coming at a time in his life when everything else was hard. But she’d become much more than a distraction from the realities of war.

She was a friend.

If she hadn’t been the sister of his SEAL buddy, he might have tried for more. He shook his head. He should tell her last night had been a mistake, but the words were stuck somewhere between his brain and his tongue, despite him knowing they were true.

“Why do you live so far away if you work in New York City?” she asked.

“I’m not a city person.” He pointed out the windshield. “Every day when I hit the top of that big hill up there, and all I can see are two farms and a handful of houses, I can finally breathe.”

“I always lived in New Jersey. Far enough away from the city that you get that suburban vibe, but close enough for all New York has to offer.”

“I thought you wanted to live in the city.”

“That’s right. I forget I told you that.” She was quiet for a beat. “Sometimes I forget I ever wanted it at all. By the time I started working for my dad, he was sick and we didn’t know why. I was worried about him so I got an apartment nearby.”

“Is he okay now?”

“Yes and no. He has a rare blood-clotting disorder. As long as he takes his medicine, it’s well controlled.”

“So, why don’t you move to the city now? It’s only, what, fifteen miles from Daniels Aerospace? You could commute and still keep your job.”

She winced. “I feel like I need to be closer.”

“Do you still get to Broadway shows?”

“Not really.”

He frowned. She used to love those. “Concerts?”

“Sometimes I go to the symphony.”

“Lincoln Center?”

“Newark.”

That didn’t seem quite the same. “You catch any Knicks games at the Garden?”

“Not in a long time.”

She was a diehard Knicks fan. If she wasn’t making time for that, was she making time for herself at all? “Well, that’s all right.”

She looked out her window. “Yeah.”

The sky was heavy and gray, tiny snowflakes sticking to his windshield. They drove in silence, Luke wishing he’d kept his damn mouth shut. Whatever she did with her life was her business, not his, and he sure as hell didn’t mean to make her feel bad about it.

Tell her now. Tell her last night was a mistake and it won’t happen again, before you wrap her up in your arms and try to make this better, too.

“Summer—”

The phone rang loudly on the stereo speakers.

Damn it.

It was Mac. “We’re going to stop at the diner and get some coffee while you grab the dog. You want anything?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll take a coffee,” he said, turning to her. “You want anything?”

“Coffee sounds good. Black.”

“Got it. See you in a few,” said Mac.

Luke hung up, driving over the hill before turning onto a dirt road that ran along a creek. This was his sanctuary, and while it felt strange to bring her here, it was stranger still that he wanted her to see where he lived. No one but Mac had been to the cabin in years, and even he hadn’t been invited.

“What were you going to say?” she asked.

“I forget.” His cabin came into view, the fist of tension that held his nervous system in its grasp finally releasing as he pulled into the unplowed drive. He turned to her. “You want to come in for a minute?”

“Sure.”

He opened the car door, getting hit in the face with a biting wind. The dog barked loudly as they made their way through the snow. “You like dogs?”

She bared her bottom teeth warily. “Cute little puppies? Yes. Ferocious beasts? Not so much.”

“Zeke is only ferocious to bad guys. He’s a sweet puppy dog to everybody else.” He unlocked the door.

“Zeke?”

“Yeah, I’ve had him since my SEAL days. He was in Afghanistan with our team.”

She was looking at him strangely and he cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“Is this my brother’s dog?”

Crap. How could you forget that?

Buckeye had been the dog’s handler. He’d even wanted Zeke to come back to the States with him after their tour was through, or whenever the navy was done with the animal. But Buckeye died and Zeke wouldn’t listen to anybody else. He was bordering on being a danger to their own men.

The large German shepherd had good instincts, bred and raised to be a fighter, but those days were done. Mac had pulled some strings and had Zeke transferred to Walter Reed to be with Luke under the pretense that he was some new kind of therapy dog.

The animal couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. It was his relationship with that dog that damn near saved his life. After what happened, Luke had struggled, barely alive. It was the angry dog without his handler that had given him a purpose, the slow battle for Zeke’s respect that had brought him back to life.

“That’s the one,” he said, his voice tight.

He opened the door, commanding the dog to heel. Zeke sat, his eyes locked onto Summer.

“Is it okay if I pet him? Edward said only the handler is allowed to touch him.”

“He’s retired. You can pet him all you like.”

She got down on the ground, taking his face in her hands and stroking his thick fur. “Hello, baby.”

The dog whimpered and licked her face, something Luke had never seen him do, then the dog rested his head on her shoulder as if he were giving her a hug.

“Yes, sweetie. It’s okay.” She wrapped her arms around the dog, saying soothing words as Zeke continued to whimper.

“It’s like he knows you.”

“I feel like I know him, too. My brother used to talk about him all the time. That’s all we ever heard about. Zeke, the weather”—she lifted her eyes—“and you.”

Goddamn, she’s beautiful.

He swallowed against the tightness in his throat.

What was this woman doing to him? She’d already cracked through the shell most women didn’t get through, ever. And while he knew her relationship to Buckeye would be his downfall, he also understood it was that relationship that had allowed her to break through that barrier.

Her voice was wistful. “Edward wanted to keep him when he got back to the States. I wondered what happened to him.”

“Been right here the whole time.”

She met his eyes, the look she gave him stirring something deep in his gut. “You have, haven’t you?” She smiled.

His throat was working, conflict churning in his gut.

This was his house, that was his dog, and right now Summer felt a hell of a lot like his woman. It was a good thing Mac was less than a mile away waiting for them to return, or else he’d be sorely tempted to make his second bad decision in as many days and take her into his bed.

Really? After what you did to Buckeye?

Luke turned away, moving to the kitchen and busying himself with Zeke’s food and supplies, throwing a small bulletproof vest emblazoned with K-9 ZEKE into his pack. He felt Summer walk up behind him. He’d always been able to feel people, their presence seeming to change the atmosphere in the room even before he could see them.

Summer made everything feel golden, sun-kissed, just like her name. She touched his arm, tingling pleasure shooting up his arm and down his spine. He wanted it to continue, wanted to turn around and touch her like she was touching him, and then some.

“This is so much more than I expected,” she said.

He was fighting for control, fighting to do the right thing when he desperately wanted to throw right and wrong over a goddamn cliff. He closed his eyes. “The dog?”

“Everything. HERO Force. You. I didn’t want to come to you guys for help, and already I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Her words stirred his blood. He wanted to kiss her sweet face again, touch his lips to the warm spot where her neck met her collarbone, and taste her skin with his tongue.

There was an answering awareness in her, too. He could feel it. She was grateful for his protection, sure. That she didn’t have to be alone in her vulnerable state. But those emotions were spilling over into lust, raining down on them both with an eager desire and a heady, raging need that was growing steadily between them.

Their time together stretched out before him, blank pages he longed to fill up with the explosive chemistry that threatened at the edge of his consciousness. It would be combustible, their coming together overwhelming, and he had to stop it.

“Especially you,” she said.

He turned to look at her. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

He counted to three, weighing his words carefully, aware of the tension in his arms, the hardening of his cock. “Don’t think of me that way.” The words were bitter acid on his tongue. He had to draw a line in the sand, needed to protect her, protect himself. If there was any chance he could keep the truth about her brother a secret, he needed more distance between them, not less.

He needed to push her away.

Hurt her.

“Don’t touch my arm.” He saw his words register in the slight opening of her mouth, the reddening of her cheeks, as if she’d been slapped. “Don’t tell me how I make you feel. It’s a mistake. Last night was a mistake.” He hated that he was doing this to her, hated the words as they came out of his mouth, hated himself for saying them.

For the briefest moment he considered hauling her against his body, telling her he was a liar and he was sorry, but he knew better. This was for her own good.

“I don’t…” she protested.

His arm twitched, wanting to reach for her, but he steadied it. He would not give in, knowing how much worse she’d be hurt in the long run if he did.

She lifted her chin. “I won’t.”

God, he was proud of her, the way she didn’t look away, confronting him, full of spunk and determination, almost asking for a fight.

The man who loved her would be one lucky bastard.

“We need to get going,” he said, watching as she turned on her heel and walked outside.

This is going to be hard as fuck.

Being around her. Being able to look but not touch. Having her hate him.

His eyes drifted closed for a beat, then he picked up the dog’s pack and left his sanctuary behind.