Killer Countdown (Man on a Mission 6)

“She sounds like a woman after my own heart. I’d love to meet her.”

Carly wasn’t hinting—she rarely did that, Shane knew. She usually came right out and said what she meant—so he knew she was just expressing her true feelings. But he suddenly realized he’d been wanting to introduce Carly to his mother for weeks, and not just for the symbolism involved, although that was a big part of it. The biggest reason, though, was that he thought the two women would hit it off because they were so much alike—although Carly was a career woman and his mom had been a stay-at-home wife and mother. But they both shone like a beacon in the areas that truly mattered—courage, strength, determination. And love. When they loved, they loved wholeheartedly. They would risk everything for that.

But knowing all that still didn’t make it any easier for him. He’d been a protector for too long to change now, and try though he might, he couldn’t get the words out to ask Carly to marry him. Even though he wanted it fervently.

But Carly seemed to understand the gulf he couldn’t cross. “I love you, Shane. You’re worth the risk,” she said softly, her true-blue eyes holding his eyes captive...the way she held his heart captive. “Will you marry me?”

A wave of emotions swept through him, topmost being gratitude and humility. Gratitude that Carly had asked the question he couldn’t, and humility that he didn’t deserve her. Then another emotion surged to the fore—determination. Determination that he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to make Carly happy on the off chance that someday he’d break her heart through no intent of his own.

“Yes,” he whispered, forcing the word past the obstruction in his throat. He cleared his throat and repeated, firmly this time, “Yes. God, yes.”

“Good,” she replied with a decisive nod. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to hurt you to make you agree.”

He laughed again, because the idea of Carly physically overpowering him tickled his funny bone. She wasn’t a little bit of a thing, but she was no match for him, either, and they both knew it. But there was a touch of relief thrown in with the humor, because he knew without a doubt Carly wouldn’t have taken no for an answer. That her determination was as strong as his own. That she would do whatever she had to in order to convince him they belonged together, even if it meant fighting dirty.

“I love you, Carly.” The words seemed to say themselves. “I can’t promise forever—you know I can’t. But if you’ll take a chance on me, I’ll do my damnedest to make sure you never regret it.”

Those tears he’d seen in her eyes earlier returned, but she blinked rapidly to hold them firmly in check. “There’s only one promise I want from you,” she said now. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with forever.”

“What?”

“If we ever have children, I want your promise there’ll be no corporal punishment.”

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment because the thought of children with Carly touched something deep inside him. Something that had been locked away since his unborn son had died with his mother fifteen years ago. When Shane’s eyes opened again, they were damp. “You have my word.”

She let out the breath she was holding, and smiled at him. “No matter what happens, I’ll never regret loving you,” she said with rock-solid assurance. And he knew she meant it. Some women might not be able to make that promise and keep it, but not his Carly. She would love him through the good times and the bad, just as he would love her. And she would accept whatever happened with the same dauntless courage with which she faced the world.

A promise like that deserved a kiss, which he gave her. But one kiss turned into two, which turned into a whole slew of kisses that couldn’t begin to express the overflowing love in Shane’s heart. There were no words, either, to encompass something this overwhelming, but he tried. “Carly, I...You know...God knows...Oh hell.”

She nipped at his bottom lip. “Oorah, Marine,” she murmured. “Don’t tell me, show me.”

And he did. Tying his own record.