Page 85 of Confessions

“Happy?”

In answer, he drew her into his arms and kissed her long and hard, but she pulled away, and giggling, offered him a scoop of lake water.

“Don’t be greedy,” she said, as he touched his lips to her palm and the water dripped through her fingers.

“Me?” His blue eyes sparked with an inner fire and his fingers twined in her hair, dragging her face to bare inches from his own. “There’s only one thing on this earth I can never get enough of, lady,” he vowed, his voice growing gruff with conviction, “and you may as well know that one thing is you.”

His lips found hers, and as an owl hooted softly in the trees, Nadine was certain she heard the ghosts of the lake whisper their blessing on the rich boy of Gold Creek.

* * * * *

He’s My Soldier Boy

Contents

Prologue

BOOK ONE

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

BOOK TWO

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Prologue

Whitefire Lake, California

The Present

CARLIE SURRETT!

That woman had been the bane of Ben Powell’s existence for over eleven years and he’d thought...no, he’d vowed he would never lay eyes on her again.

“Yeah, and you’re a damned fool,” he said to himself as he brushed off the snow that had collected around his collar. Still cursing his luck, he yanked open the door of his secondhand pickup and reached inside. A six-pack of beer was on the worn seat, and he slipped one of the longnecks from the carton. With a frown, he opened the bottle by placing the edge of the cap on a rusted fender and snapping down hard—a trick he’d learned ages ago when he’d first enlisted. The cap spun off into a snowbank and foam spewed over the lip of the bottle to run down his fingers as he lifted the beer to his mouth and took a satisfying pull.