Conard County Marine
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Lee comes a story of one woman's survival and her protector's promise to find answersThe arrival of a single black rose signals danger to come for Kylie Brewer. Recovering from a brutal attack that claimed three years of her memory and her chance at a promising career, Kylie just wants to pick up the remaining fragments of her life. She returns to her hometown of Conard City to live with her sister but soon learns that putting the past in its place won’t be easy.Marine Sergeant Evan Cooper—a trusted family friend who agrees to help Kylie—can't ignore his protective instincts. Or the steadily growing desire he feels for a woman who has overcome so much. He vows to help keep Kylie’s demons at bay…but someone else has plans to finish what they started.
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From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Lee comes a story of one womanâs survival and her protectorâs promise to find answers
The arrival of a single black rose signals danger to come for Kylie Brewer. Recovering from a brutal attack that claimed three years of her memory and her chance at a promising career, Kylie just wants to pick up the remaining fragments of her life. She returns to her hometown of Conard City to live with her sister but soon learns that putting the past in its place wonât be easy.
Marine sergeant Evan Cooperâa trusted family friend who agrees to help Kylieâcanât ignore his protective instincts. Or the steadily growing desire he feels for a woman who has overcome so much. He vows to help keep Kylieâs demons at bayâ¦but someone else has plans to finish what they started.
âYouâre a good man, Coop.â
âSometimes.â
Kylie wanted to argue with him about that, but figured she couldnât. He had memories heâd never share with her, memories that clearly troubled him. She just hoped that someday he would once again believe that he was a good man. Because he was.
He ran his palm lightly up and down her arm, from shoulder to elbow. Tingles of pleasure began to run through her, warming cold and hollow places inside her. Because of her amnesia, she didnât know how long it had been for her, but she knew how desperately she needed this feeling now. Good, normal feelings. Nice feelings. As naturally as breathing, she turned into him and smiled up at him. âI like that.â
His gaze jumped to her upturned face, then a slow smile was born. âDangerous words, lady. And a dangerous time to have them.â
But despite his warning, he bent his head a bit so he could brush a kiss on her lips. Sparklers ignited inside her. Just that light, soft touch and she was sizzling.
âWrong time,â he murmured.
âIs there ever a right one?â
* * *
Be sure to check out the rest of the
Conard County: The Next Generation series!
I have always been fascinated by the way memory works. Or perhaps the way it doesnât. Who among us has not had a conversation with someone we know, only to discover they remember an event quite differently than we do? Absent videotape, no one can say who is right.
I have some selective amnesia myself, periods of my life that I absolutely cannot remember. I could so identify with Kylie and her sense of having lost something she should remember. In her case, it was all her studies, and with it the future she had planned. With me, it was more personal, but itâs troubling sometimes to have people discussing something I was involved in and simply canât remember.
However, in Kylieâs case, that amnesia proves to be dangerous. If she canât remember the man who attacked her, how can she know that he is close? Coop, a marine on leave, is all that stands between her and more horror.
Enjoy!
RACHEL LEE was hooked on writing by the age of twelve and practiced her craft as she moved from place to place all over the United States. This New York Times bestselling author now resides in Florida and has the joy of writing full-time.
Contents
The talk in town said Kylie Brewer was returning to Conard City with no memory of what had happened to her. That should have made the man who had tried to kill her feel good, knowing she couldnât identify him, but he didnât trust her amnesia. He was going to have to keep an eye on her in case she started remembering. The possibility terrified him.
And then there was the fact that she was still alive. That bugged him. She was supposed to have died, vanishing forever from his life. Instead she still breathed and walked and talked.
And she might remember.
He was galled by the fact that he had a score to settle with her. He thought heâd done it when he left her in that alley. Apparently not. Or maybe he had. He couldnât quite make up his mind about that.
Regardless, the need to take her out hadnât been satisfied, not completely, and it still nagged at him, made him itch. Kylie Brewer should be dead as physically as her memory had become.
He pushed ideas around in his head, trying to square his needs with reality. She had survived, but sheâd lost all her plans and a chunk of her life. Kylie was now damaged goods. Surely he could leave it at that. But part of him wasnât pleased and probably never would be. An unfinished job.
As long as she didnât remember, maybe he could live with that. Much as he didnât like to soil his own nest, if she started remembering, heâd have to act even though it would be harder to cover himself in such a small town.
But heâd deal with that if it became necessary. In the meantime, he just had to remain one of her friends. He had to find ways to be around her, to listen to her, to make her trust him.
