Betrayal of the Dove - By Capri Montgomery Page 0,13

time he would find that he needed to escalate his attack in order to feel that euphoria again.

The moment he walked into Snowflakes in the Desert and saw her standing behind the counter, her long brown hair with strategically placed blond highlights and a hint of a full body loosely set spiral curls he felt an instant physical attraction. Then she looked at him with those striking blue eyes contrasting against her smooth brown skin and the attraction spread from his northern head to the southern one. And when she smiled and said, “I’ll be right with you, sir,” in that silky sultry voice he imagined that voice calling out his name while he was locked deep inside that hot little body of hers. He nearly came on the spot. He had to resist the attraction because he was there on a mission and he couldn’t get distracted—but he already had. Mission or not, he wanted this woman and he was going to be sure to make his move. He was highly trained, and very efficient. He could do his job and provide security for her store while he pursued something more than a working relationship with her. He could, and he would, do it.

His first priority was upgrading her security. At first, he couldn’t believe that a woman who had brothers that were deep in the military and government sector would have such archaic equipment, but then he thought about what Valencia had told him about Alyssa’s stubborn and independent streak. He had started to wonder if her brothers had even stepped foot inside her store and home. She probably made sure all of her family visits required her to travel to them instead of the other way around. She seemed like the type who valued her privacy. She liked to keep things separate; he could tell that from all the privacy divider screens in her flat. Most people would have just left it open, yet she had closed off each section the best she could, separating each part from the other until she was satisfied with the end result. Everything looked nice, mostly neat except for the hurricane that had gone through her bathroom leaving her underwear behind. But even that had been organized. The few pieces that weren’t on hangers, but were tossed over the shower curtain rod had been neatly placed too. She had pieces hanging on hangers with clothespins keeping the panties and bras anchored in place while they dried. He had to resist the laugh that threatened to erupt from within him the moment she started jerking down her underwear. She was drawing his attention to it more than the items just hanging there.

If she thought he hadn’t noticed the moment he stepped into the bathroom she was mistaken. He would have to be blind not to notice. He was just sensible enough to know he shouldn’t mention it. He realized from her frantic response to him going into her bathroom that she was embarrassed by his seeing her underwear. He didn’t feel a need to mention it. That is he didn’t mention it until he realized she was going to go back to the store with her panties in her hand, and then he felt obligated to say something. It was one thing for him to get a glimpse at what she wore under her clothes, but a completely different thing for anybody passing by to see.

She was a private, independent person. He couldn’t find fault in either trait. He was the same way. His reasons for buying property in Arizona and building his home there instead of going back to New Mexico where his family was had a lot to do with his need to get away, to be his own man and live his life without having his father control his every action. Alyssa’s brothers weren’t anything like his father, he was sure of that, but he still could understand wanting to find her own way. What he couldn’t understand was why she had gone for aesthetic improvements first over security improvements. She had clearly painted, decorated, and put a new floor in the store. He had seen her upstairs too and he could tell she had put in some work up there, not just with paint, but with new appliances as well. Maybe the appliances had been a necessity. She had bought the store and then made her home above it; maybe the previous owner hadn’t used the upstairs as