IT'S ALWAYS BEEN YOU by Jessica
Scott (March 4, 2014; Forever E-Book; $2.99)
She plays by the rules . . .
Captain Ben Teague is many things:
a tough soldier, a loyal friend, and a bona fide smart-ass. He doesn't have
much tolerance for BS, which is why he's mad as hell when a trusted colleague
and mentor is brought up on charges that can't possibly be true. He's even more
frustrated with by-the-book lawyer Major Olivia Hale. But there's something
simmering beneath her icy reserve-and Ben just can't resist turning up the heat
. . .
. . . and he's determined to break
them
The only thing riskier than mixing
business with pleasure is enjoying it . . . and Olivia can't resist locking
horns-and lips-with Ben. He's got more compassion in his little finger than any
commander she's ever met, a fact that makes him a better leader than he realizes.
But when the case that brought them together awakens demons from Olivia's past,
she will have to choose between following orders-or her heart . . .
Excerpt from It's Always Been You:
“Hey,” she said quietly.
The memory of that kiss made him
crave another taste of her. He’d thought she was fire and passion and so damned
determined before. Now he knew that quiet energy she directed toward work was
merely a hint of the passion concealed beneath that cool exterior.
It was a passion he wanted to feel
beneath his fingertips. That he wanted to slide against.
“Hey.” He swallowed, about to cross
a line from professional to… something else.
And damned if he wasn’t afraid to
cross that line. That kiss earlier was nothing compared to what she’d just
given him.
She’d lied for him today. Ben had
been about to make something up that would get his battalion commander off his
back and Olivia had stepped in with a smooth story that had deflected Gilliad’s
attention with no one the wiser.
She’d agreed not to tell the boss.
He hadn’t expected her to all-out lie for him. And now that she had? He didn’t
quite know how to broach the subject with her. Not at all.
She straightened and leaned against
her desk. The broken scale tray swayed as she bumped it with her hip. He
grasped at it for a distraction from his racing thoughts. “You know one of
these is broken?”
She nodded. “It’s supposed to be.”
He studied her quietly. “What like
broken justice?
Ben paused, studying the soft bun
at the nape of her neck. Her skin was exposed. Her neck was long and lean. He
had the sudden image in his head of dragging his tongue down that tender flesh.
Would she gasp? Would she tip her head and grant him access to more of her secret
places?
He cleared his throat roughly. “You
lied for me today.”
She stilled, guilt flashing over
her face. “Yeah, about that…”
“Thank you,” he said quickly.
She lifted one brow. “For lying?”
“For giving me the benefit of the
doubt. That doesn’t happen very often,” he said quietly.
“Really? But you’re such a
charmer.”
Ben shifted until he stood a little
too close. Until he could see her eyes darken the way they had in the car when
he’d given in to the temptation to kiss her. “Are you teasing me? Because if
you are, I think I need to make a note on my calendar that yes, you do
officially have a sense of humor.”
A smile crossed her lips. It took
everything he had not to slide his thumb over that soft skin. He wanted to see
her lips close over the tip. To feel her warm mouth encircle him and… Jesus, he
still had to go back to work.
“I do have a sense of humor. I just
don’t get to break it out very often because the only thing I see at work is
the seedy underbelly of the army. There’s not much humor in what I do.”
“Maybe you need to relax a little
more.” Ben shifted until he could nudge the door shut behind him. He didn’t
want anyone to see. Didn’t want to give anyone a hint of something that was
private and intimate and deeply compelling. Were they flirting? This felt like
flirting. And with this woman, he had absolutely no basis to say either way
what this really was.
“I don’t know what this ‘relax’ is
that you speak of,” she said.
He felt a long-forgotten twinge
deep in his belly. It was something so foreign, he’d forgotten it was something
he was capable of. In all his casual encounters, he’d forgotten what real
attraction felt like.
He swallowed the dryness in his
mouth. He didn’t know what to do with this realization that Olivia Hale was
someone he wanted to… someone he wanted. It was one thing to flirt with someone
at a bar, to take them home for a few hours of mindless sex.
This? This was something entirely
different.
Something more than wanting a few
hours of sheets sliding over skin, of warm bodies slipping together. This was
something darker. Something warmer.
Something infinitely more valuable.
“Maybe I’ll ply you with alcohol
tonight at Stable Call. We’ll see if we can’t get you to unwind a little bit.”
His voice was low, grating on his ears.
“Good luck with that. I only drink
socially. There will be no drunken pictures of me immortalized on the
Internet.” She stepped toward him then, closing the last distance between them.
She reached up and slid her hand over his cheek. Ben went very still as her
palm slid over his skin. Her palm was cool against his face. Gentle. It took
everything he had to let her slip out of reach again.
He captured her palm before she
could slip away. Held it there against his cheek. “Thank you,” he whispered.
“For Zittoro.”
Her lips parted. He could feel the
slight huff of breath on his skin. “Thank you
for trusting me with the truth.” She slipped her fingers
from his, her eyes sparkling. “Just don’t make me come after you for that
packet.”
Ben caught her hand before he
thought about it. His hand closed over hers, her index finger captured in a
gentle loop between his thumb and forefinger.
He had the sudden wild idea to put her finger to his lips.
He pressed it gently to his mouth. Felt the pad of her finger on his bottom
lip. A single bolt of electricity snapped over his skin.
A simple touch. Nothing more.
They were at work. It was the
single stupidest thing he could have done.
He released her quickly, before
anyone could see. Before he could do something stupid like pull her close and
kiss her again. The want inside him was powerful. Raw and needy.
About Jessica Scott:
USA Today bestselling author Jessica Scott is a career army officer;
mother of two daughters, three cats and three dogs; wife to a career NCO and
wrangler of all things stuffed and fluffy. She is a terrible cook and even
worse housekeeper, but she's a pretty good shot with her assigned weapon and
someone liked some of the stuff she wrote. Somehow, her children are pretty
well-adjusted and her husband still loves her, despite burned water and a messy
house.
She's written for the New
York Times At War Blog, PBS Point of View: Regarding War Blog, and
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. She deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part
of Operation Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn and has served as a company commander at
Fort Hood, Texas.
She's pursuing a PhD in Sociology
in her spare time and most recently, she's been featured as one of Esquire
Magazine's Americans of the Year for 2012.
