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“Not true. You kept to a pace would have made most guys drop.”

A smile tilted across her lips. “You mean it?”

“Damned right, I mean it.” He bent his head and brushed a kiss on her lips. “I should know, Salome. I do this for a living.”

“This?” Her eyes widened. “You mean, you risk your life all the time?”

“No. Well, I used to. Now, I just—I take on jobs nobody else wants. My brothers and I—”

“You have brothers?”

“Two. We’re close. Matt, Alex and I were in the service together. Then we—we worked for a government agency.”

She was right, he was a warrior. “The FBI?”

“Nothing that aboveboard. Nothing with initials you’d recognize.” His tone roughened. “I did things… We all did.”

“Dangerous things.”

“Yes, but—”

“For your country.”

“Well, sure, but—”

“Someone has to do those things,” she said softly. “For the rest of us, Cameron.”

He looked down into her eyes. She meant every word. It was what he had believed, too, at first. Hell, he still believed it; in his heart, he knew it was true.

It was just that you grew tired of it all. The deceit. The tricks. The house of cards you built and tried to live in until it fell down around your ears.

“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “But after a while, you start to forget that. We all did, Matt and Alex and me. That was when we knew it was time to get out. So we went home—”

“To Dallas.”

“Right. And we formed Knight, Knight and Knight. Risk Management Specialists.”

Leanna smiled. “Meaning, you’re still in love with excitement.”

He always had been. Now, all the excitement he’d ever need was right here, in his arms.

“My very own knight in shining armor,” she said, laughing up at him. She caught his face between her palms, stood on her toes and kissed him. “How did I get lucky enough to find you in Baslaam?”

Cam caught her hands and brought them to his chest. “Long story,” he said. “The bottom line is that I was there on business, for my father.”

“Then, why did Asaad want me to—to distract you? Why did he want to hurt you?”

“What he wanted was my signature on a contract, but he knew I wouldn’t sign. Maybe he figured if he grabbed me when I was—” He managed a quick smile. “When I was distracted, I’d have been easier to handle. His men would have worked me over, then made it clear they were going to—to do things to you, unless I cooperated.”

Leanna didn’t have to ask what things they’d have done. Instead she concentrated on what Cam had said about cooperation.

“And, once you did… He’d have killed you. And amused himself with me.”

Her voice trailed away. Cam shut his eyes, trying to block out the rage that swept through him, knowing she needed words of reassurance and not crazed vows to kill Asaad with his bare hands.

“Don’t be afraid,

Salome. He’ll never touch you. I swear it.”