Hide and Seek - Lara Adrian Page 0,30

about the protection he left behind in his room. He shook his head as she joined him on the veranda. “Look at you, solving problems like a boss.”

She laughed, then tore the packet open with her teeth.

Duarte reached for her, snagging her by the arm. He swallowed her quiet shriek with a long, unrushed kiss. Then he hauled her back into his embrace to make good on his threat.

11

The nightmare woke him before dawn.

Duarte sat on the edge of the bed, his heart hammering, a sheen of cold sweat coating his naked back. Breathe. In, out. In, out. Simple task, but it was always a struggle after the terror of the vision.

Feet planted on the cool floor tiles, head braced in his shaking palms, he blinked into the predawn darkness of the guest room, trying to purge the horrifying images from his brain. The stench of burning flesh. The shock of a searing, mass obliteration that engulfed everything in its path.

Just a dream. A vision, not reality. Not yet, anyway.

He worked to concentrate on reality. On the quiet tranquility of the here and now. Not the hellish premonition of fire and decimation that had been haunting him for most of the past three years.

Behind him on the bed, Lisa slept soundly. He glanced back at her, thankful that he hadn’t disturbed her. She rested so peacefully, so innocently. The urge to return to bed and gather her in his arms stirred inside him, but he tamped it down hard. He’d be damned before he’d put the terror and ugliness of his premonition anywhere near her.

Being with her last night had been a vision of its own kind, too. A far too pleasant one. It had coaxed him into believing there might be a future for them somehow. That he might actually be able to have a normal life.

With her.

Christ, with Lisa in his arms, he could almost believe anything was possible.

The nightmare vision had been a wakeup call in more than one way. His life would never be normal. And this vision only made him recall the other disturbing premonition he’d had—the one that had left him equally shaken.

Lisa at the business end of a SIG semi-auto held at the side of her pretty head.

A chill washed over him at the reminder. He’d die before he let her stand in harm’s way. And he would kill anyone to ensure her safety. Including her brother, if his actions had put Lisa in danger from Phoenix’s enemies.

Duarte stood up and got dressed in his jeans, careful not to wake Lisa as he stepped out onto the veranda. It was quiet, and it was early. The first pink hues of dawn were barely a glow on the watery horizon. He headed down toward the beach, in need of fresh air and space to think.

He wasn’t the only one up early. Alec stood outside the main house, talking casually on one of the decks with a couple of the island’s armed guards. All three men glanced in Duarte’s direction, Alec giving him a nod of greeting and a salute with the steaming mug in his hand.

If it was an invitation to join them, Duarte wasn’t taking it. He’d never been the most social person in the best of times. He sure as hell wasn’t up for the morning’s drug dealer coffee klatch, no matter how much he could use the caffeine.

He strode to the water’s edge and took a seat on the cool sand. It didn’t take long before Alec came over to meet him. He’d brought a second mug, and held it out to Duarte.

“Thanks.” Duarte closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as he drank, letting the black coffee aroma chase away the ghosts of the smoke and ruin that still lingered from the fiery premonition. It almost worked.

Alec dropped onto the beach beside him, elbows draped over his bent knees. “I don’t sleep for shit either. Too much time on deployments, grabbing shut-eye in twenty-minute increments between engagements, probably. Can’t remember the last night I slept all the way through. What about you?”

Duarte grunted, recalling much too vividly the deep sleep he’d been enjoying the past two nights with Lisa. Or rather, after Lisa. Amazing what sexual depletion could do for insomnia.

Alec took a drink of his coffee in the silence. “’Course, the nightmares don’t help either.”

“You, too?” No need to ask if his former Phoenix comrade was talking about combat terrors or something else. The grave look on Alec’s face said