Read Now or Forever for Free Online Page A

right now. Without notice. And with such strings attached.
    But Len was at the end of his rope. The length of his tether. All out of options. On his last nerve. The edge of disaster. The last bastion of defense. He wondered how many more clichés he could hit with the description. Last card in the deck. Final match in the pack. Hell. He didn’t even have enough rope left to hang himself.
    Len settled his head back against the head rest. Nice. Akron’s jets were that, though. If a body had to take an unplanned transcontinental flight, at least it was in luxury. In a well-equipped cabin. Clean. Dimly lit. These were comfortable seats, too. They had adjustable lumbar supports. The seats could easily accommodate a six foot two frame, if he moved the head rest up far enough and didn’t care how far his feet hung over. The seats even reclined. Stop right there, Len . Reclining was dangerous territory.
    He should be exhausted. He’d talked until he was hoarse. He could feel the scratch in his throat. He’d paced and ranted and tensed, and tossed things until his muscles complained. Every bit of him felt pretty abused, like he’d done a full day gym session, with a physical trainer. Being up forty-some odd hours straight was adding to the mix. But he wasn’t sleepy. He was too keyed-up.
    Because of her. Tassanee. His nemesis.
    She sure was beautiful. And extremely well-packaged. And sexy as hell. She sent vibes shooting at him with every passing moment in her company. Even as she just sat there. Opposite him. With a little table between them. In those cute, little harem pants. And that little square, backless bodice. Covered over in a cloak he’d stolen off some poor woman’s laundry line and given Tassanee to wear when he’d been scoping the area out just after dawn. It was a nice cloak, if a tad worn. And he wasn’t backing down. She was to wrap herself totally in it. That instruction came with more arguments that didn’t touch on the real reasons. Her little outfit was too explicit. Entirely too immodest.
    And way too frickin’ sexy.
    The cloak didn’t help. It only outlined and defined curves he’d practically memorized. Damn. She was gorgeous. Every inch. Starting with her striking, bottomless dark eyes, set in a singularly stunning face, surrounded by lush lashes...and then moving to that kissable mouth of hers. That lengthy, silken slide of dark hair she kept tossing over her shoulder. Oh, she was beautiful. And way too unsettling. No wonder he’d fantasized about her for years.
    She was still watching him. He didn’t have to look. He didn’t dare. It was enough he’d almost made her cry. Hell. He was ready to cry. Pitching items against walls and through the window was better than doing what every cell on his body craved and demanded and then fought him over. Grab her. Kiss her. Make her his. Take hours to make slow love to that perfect woman, and then follow that up with a hard, fast, and heavy pounding that would be guaranteed to make certain neither of them had this wakeful, primed problem.
    Stan had walked in, saving that disaster. His insertion into their stalemate had been pretty much heaven-sent. Tassanee hadn’t been crying, but her eyes sure looked glossy. Stan had brought the laptop for Tassanee to obliterate. A length of silence later, a chopper had arrived. Could have been minutes. Could have been hours. Len didn’t recall and he didn’t care. Nobody said anything during the ride. Len didn’t remember VAL having a base in Laos, but Akron had connections, and Len didn’t care about that, either. If he remembered right, Len had lifted a hand in farewell as Stan had boarded a different jet. But he didn’t remember or care about that, either.
    He was all out of remember and care.
    Len licked his lips. They were chapped. He should probably see if he’d stuffed lip balm into a pocket. But that would require moving. And that would alert her that he was still awake. Aware. And supremely