Jodie Ellen Malpas Leave Me Breathless Read Online Free
From the #aneNew York Times bestselling author of the This Man series comes a sexy and emotional
follow upwards to her wildly popular standalone romanceThe Protector.
Ryan Willis has spent years in the protection business, a job that requires abiding vigilance and quick thinking. His only chance to truly relax is at his secluded cabin in a small town where there are never any surprises. Then when Ryan returns later on an assignment and encounters a cute stranger, he isn't only surprised, he's also instantly intrigued.
Hannah Bright is a breath of fresh air, and Ryan is before long completely consumed, unable to terminate from falling for her. Every bit the two abound closer, his instinct tells him something is awry. Yet nothing could set him for what he discovers when he starts digging into her past.
Hannah spends her days painting, running her arts and crafts store…and hiding too many secrets. Information technology's why she won't let the ruggedly handsome bodyguard get too close. Merely their chemistry is undeniable, and Hannah quickly finds herself caught upwardly in a whirlwind romance with Ryan. He is peace personified, a balm to her battered soul. Nonetheless the gorgeous, captivating homo who has swept Hannah off her feet doesn't fifty-fifty know who she actually is. And the moment he finds out, both their lives are at risk.
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What they're saying near Exit Me Breathless
Library Journal says:The characters are realistic and relatable; though much of the conflict is created past Hannah keeping secrets, her reasons for doing so experience more valid than contrived. In that location is a vague sense of dread woven throughout the narrative, just events are rather tranquil until the last quarter of the story, when the tension ratchets up toitsexplosive conclusion. VERDICT Fans of Malpas's previous book,The Protector, will appreciate seeing those characters playing minor roles here, but for anyone who enjoys Sleeping with the Enemy–manner stories,this is a perfect pick.
Booklist says: Equally Ryan and Hannah let their passion play out indeliciously sexy scenes, it becomes clear to the former M15 amanuensis that Hannah is hiding something. Her story comes out through a series of flashbacks as Hannah wrestles with her by.Readers will dearest this roller-coaster ride in which acknowledged Malpas (Gentleman Sinner, 2019) mixes small-town romance with suspense and an first-class supporting bandage.
Publishers Weekly says:Malpas ( This Man ) whips up a very satisfying mix of dizzying intrigue and steamy romance in this heart-pounding contemporary.Readers volition enjoy the multilayered primary and supporting characters (hilarious and precocious Alex deserves a book of her own when she'south of age),sizzling erotic scenes, and a taut plot loadedwith plenty of twists and turns.Malpas volition charm her electric current fans and win new ones with this strong romantic thriller, perfect for those who dear a good alpha male and a damsel in distress who doesn't wait for someone else to rescue her.
Chapter One
RYAN
Something isn't right. I left MI5 x years agone, but my 6th sense is still as strong as ever, a kind of danger detector, and I'k detecting danger right now. My skin is prickling. Adrenaline is starting to pump through my veins. I scan the vicinity outside our client'southward house, seeing zilch un- usual. There'due south been zippo unusual since our personal security bureau accepted the contract two weeks ago. Our client, a model from Canada with a devoted stalker, leaves for the drome any minute with her 6- year-former daughter. It would exist a fucking travesty at this bespeak to see a threat.
My partner, Jake, is tense, also, his big shoulders high equally he scrutinizes the street beyond the iron gate that separates this business firm from the residue of London. He'southward quiet. I'm placidity.
"Yo, Jake," I phone call, watching as the large guy leisurely takes backward steps away from the gate until he's at the door with me.
"In that location's a black Audi across the street." He goes to his phone. "Blacked-out windows. It's been in that location for over an hour and the driver hasn't gotten out."
I fucking knew it. "You checked with Lucinda?" I move to the gates to take a wait, seeing the RS vii parked upwards the route, the passenger window open a fraction.
"The plate's a clone." Jake confirms what I feared.
I check left and right casually. "And hither I was thinking how piece of cake this task had been." I back away, feeling the weight of my Heckler pushing into the base of my spine. Fucking hell, I oasis't had to describe my gun in years. Aye, this task has been wearisome equally shit, just similar every other in the ten years I've served at the bureau, but boring is safe. Boring means I go far domicile to Hampton.
Jake looks over his shoulder equally the forepart door opens and our customer emerges with her girl. "Miss Warren, we're going to have to ask you to step dorsum inside for a few minutes," my partner says coolly.
She blinks, surprised. "But my airplane leaves in ii hours." There's panic in her voice, and she scans the street beyond. "Is there a problem?"
"Permit's just become you lot back inside," Jake says softly, walking toward her and taking the little daughter's manus, leading her back into the house with her mother.
Miss Warren's eyes flick between mine and Jake'south, conspicuously trying to find an reply to her question. Then she opens her oral fissure to speak but quickly thinks ameliorate of information technology, turning to her girl and crouching. "Darling, I think I've left Paddington on the burrow. Why don't yous run forth and fetch him."
"Okay." The lilliputian girl dashes back to the living room, and Miss Warren stands, turning toward u.s.. "Please, tell me what's going on."
"There's an unidentified vehicle across the street that we need to check out," I explain.
Her eyes immediately widen, her inhale loud. "Oh my God, it'south him."
I await to Jake, wondering if he's sensing what I'm sensing. "Him, as in your stalker?" he asks, confirming he'south suspicious, as well.
She starts blinking quickly, her hands shaking as she tucks her hair behind her ear. "Yes." She looks away, and I tin can no longer keep my thoughts to myself.
"Miss Warren, is there something else we should know?"
"I don't have a stalker," she more or less whispers, her eyes clouded as she finds information technology in herself to await at us. "I take an ex-boyfriend who's a less-than-desirable graphic symbol and would do anything to hurt me."
I recoil. "Why?" "Because I left him."
"Name?" Jake demands, going directly to his phone. I watch as she breathes in, as if bracing herself to tell us. Zip nearly this is boding well.
"Corey Felton."
"What?" I blurt, hoping I heard her wrong. Jake curses nether his breath, smacking at his phone with his thumb. "The drug trafficker?"
She can only bring herself to nod, and I run across a one thousand thousand apologies in her eyes. Jesus Christ, Corey Felton is wanted in 10 countries for various crimes. Only he's elusive. Untouchable. And judging by the fearfulness I tin can see in Miss Warren'south eyes, he'southward simply equally nasty every bit the whispers suggest. "The police wouldn't assistance me unless I assisted with their inquiries," she rushes to explain. "I just need to get back to Canada, and I know he'll practice annihilation to stop me." Miss Warren peeks past us to the gates again.
"We'll become you and your girl to the airport safely, don't you lot worry." I give her my best reassuring smile, and she nods, backing up and shutting the door.
"What'south the deal?" I ask as Jake stares downward at his phone. "Backup's on the manner. If it's him, nosotros'll need it."
If it's him? "Of course it's him." My claret sizzles with adrenaline. "You ready to trip the light fantastic toe?" I inquire as we walk back toward the gate.
"If I don't brand it home to Cami and Charlotte in one slice, she'll be coming after your blood, y'all know that, right?"
"I know," I say quietly, my eyes set on the black Audi beyond the street. Jake and I get way back, though it's only been the past couple of years we've worked together on assignments. Jake taking a partner was a condition laid downwards by his wife if he wanted to remain in the business organisation. I was the perfect man for the job.
I slip out onto the pavement—merely as our backup truck skids into the street. "Subtle," I complain.
"He'southward been underground for years," Jake says, joining me. "Every police force strength from here to the States wants him."
Merely as I start striding toward the RS vii, reaching dorsum to pull my Heckler, the growl of the Audi engine starts up. A buzz of excitement that I haven't felt in years comes over me, no matter how hard I try to button it back. He'southward about to make his getaway.
But let backup bargain with it, I tell myself. No need to go all Jason Bourne in the heart of London. Only my legs move faster of their ain volition, my jog turning into a full-on run. I race beyond the street toward the Audi, hearing car horns blare and the screech of tires as information technology tries to pull away from the curb into oncoming traffic. Information technology doesn't get very far, wedging its front end in between a bus and a BMW. Merely the passenger vehicle starts to contrary to give the Audi space to pull out. To escape. Fuck no.
The damn fucking suit they insist I wear hindering me, I sprint into the road, spotting a black cab heading straight toward me. The commuter catapults dorsum in his seat, bracing for touch. "Shit, shit, shit."
"Ryan, what the fuck are you doing?" Jake booms behind me. I keep my eyes forrard, watching as the cab gets closer and closer and closer, the screeching of its tires deafening. "Ryan!"
At the terminal 2d, the commuter turns the wheel, and the loudest bang erupts when it slams into the Audi just as it breaks free through the line of traffic, blocking it in between the BMW and the bus again. Without even pausing to think nearly it, I pull open the back door of the cab and slide through to the other side, ignoring the stunned face up of a businessman in the dorsum with his phone to his ear.
The Audi begins to reverse, ramming the parked car behind it, but comes to a screeching end when the backup team pulls upward alongside us. "Going somewhere?" I yank the door open, grab the driver, and haul him out, my gun immediately wedged nether his mentum.
"Fuck," I hear Jake say from behind me, simply as I register that the man I have pinned to the side of the mangled Audi isn't Corey Felton.
Realization hits me like a brick. "Information technology's a decoy!" I yell, releasing him and throwing myself over the hood of the automobile. The 2nd I state on my anxiety, I break into a sprint, my focus gear up. The fucker.
I'grand back at the house in seconds, kicking the front door open, my artillery at total length before me, my gun steady in my grip.
Miss Warren runs into the hall, frantic. "What'due south going on?" She comes to a startled stop when she sees me. She'due south in ane piece. Nonetheless hither. So . . .
"Where'southward your daughter?" I enquire.
"Oh my God." Her hands go to her oral cavity, her eyes wide. "He'll have her. He'll use her to keep me."
My jaw tenses as Jake appears, and I requite him the nod, telling him to become Miss Warren out of here just as the sound of a door shutting sounds from the dorsum of the business firm. I'k flight down the hallway, and the moment I enter the kitchen I experience something push into my temple. I freeze.
"Drop the gun," he says calmly, and I immediately lower the weapon to my side, seeing the picayune daughter out the corner of my eye, held to his front. My brain works fast, noting her position, his position, his hold, her fear.
It'south now or never. Driblet the gun, Ryan! But I know the second my gun is out of my grasp, I'thousand out of the game, and that little girl will exist gone. I feel my muscles twitch. My heart charge per unit increases. My eyes refocus. Now or never.
My arm flies upward fast, hooking back and knocking the gun aside as I plow and catch his arm, freeing the daughter earlier I thrust him upward against the wall, slamming his paw into the plaster and so he drops the gun. God, there's nothing I'd love more to tear him a new arsehole . . . but the daughter. So I reluctantly kick his feet from nether him and take him downwardly to his front, immobilizing him with his arms up his back. He whimpers like a fucking baby equally I look up at the little girl, giving her my near dashing smile. "Baddies always get caught," I whisper, and she grins, filling me with relief every bit I glance to the door, willing fill-in to bustle the hell up. "Did he hurt y'all, sweetheart?"
Her picayune head shakes from side to side, and she presents me with a bear. "But he stomped on Paddington."
"He did?" I shudder for effect just as Jake bowls into the room, looking set to attack. He presently finds me on the flooring. "How-do-you-do," I say, grinning upwards at him. "Got any cuffs?"
He visibly relaxes and shouts down the corridor for fill-in, and we're rapidly joined by 6 more than men, all kitted out in armor, all armed. "What took yous so long?" I ask drily, letting them claim my prey. I get up, dust myself off, and slip my gun into the waistband of my trousers. "Come on, you." I scoop the piddling girl into my artillery. "Let's get yous and Paddington back to Mummy." I stride out the kitchen and hear Miss Warren before I run into her, crying her heart out.
"Oh, thank God!" She charges for me and grabs her girl, squeezing her tightly.
"She'due south fine."
She smiles up at me through glassy eyes. "Thank you lot."
"All in a day's work," I lie, heading through the crowds to discover some air. I make it outside, hearing the angry yells of Corey Felton as I go, and prop myself up against a fence, my heart still going ballistic in my chest.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" Jake bellows, stomping toward me, and just like that my adrenaline drains from my body and I blink a few times, checking myself over. "You should accept let backup deal with information technology, for fuck'south sake, Ryan."
"Yeah, yeah," I retort for the sake of it, not needing Jake to kick my arse. I'yard suddenly doing a damn fine chore of that myself. Fucking hell, what was I thinking?
Jake must notice my sudden shakiness, considering he wraps an arm around my shoulder on a sigh and starts walking us to the gates. "You're such a fucking bohemian."
He's right, I am. "Approximate information technology never leaves you lot, huh?" "And stupid. You could've gotten yourself killed." "I'k breathing, aren't I?"
"Yep. And now you're gonna become a severe headache from the top."
I snort. Coming from Jake Abrupt, that'south fucking rich. As well, it'due south not my damn fault we weren't furnished with the whole story. "I tin deal with a headache." What I'k struggling to deal with is how fucking stupid I've only been. Damn instinct. I need a drink.
"You of all people know that when you care about shit, you look after yourself," Jake reminds me.
"All right, you can stop lecturing me now."
He releases me when we become to the gates. "It'southward not only yourself you're putting in danger," he mutters moodily.
Guilt. More of it sweeps right on in and punches me in the gut. Jake'south married woman is heavily pregnant, and now she's worrying even more than every time he leaves for work. "How's Cami?"
"Prepare to pop." His cheeks inflate, and I express joy a petty. "Three weeks left."
"Excited?"
He's repose for a 2nd, and I know why. He was a lone wolf for so long, swamped by his demons. He'south had it tough. I've spent and so much time with Jake over the by couple of years, we've had no choice but to get along. He'south talked. I've listened. He deserves his happiness. "Yeah," he eventually says, looking beyond to me. "I'm looking forward to doing it correct this time."
And in that location's me putting us in unnecessary danger. I reach up and slap his shoulder, all manly, as I ever practice when things become a petty deep from time to time. "Beer later?" I ask, nodding to the pub over the route.
"I'm game."
We both slow to a terminate when we see Lucinda's car screech around the corner. Fuck me, that car sounds angry. I look at Jake as Jake looks at me. "Beer now?" I inquire, heading away from our fiery handler who is about to become fiery on my arse.
Jake's with me, both of us backing upwardly. No one wants to be around Lucinda when she's after blood, and she's currently later on mine. So I'g running scared.
* * *
We enter a quiet infinite, with only a few patrons scattered around. "Two Buds, cheers." I toss a note on the bar and pull up 2 stools. We're both silent as the barman gets our drinks, reflective, and we chink bottles and slurp together, releasing beholden gasps at the same time. I haven't even placed my bottle down before Lucinda stalks in and scans the bar. Oh boy. She finds us, and I recoil somewhat, her formidable glare making me compress.
"Should've known." She strides past us toward the back of the pub. "Come."
I expect at Jake, who's in the center of an epic eye whorl. "If I wasn't so fond of her, I'd tell her to fuck off at least ten times a day." He slips down from his stool, and I follow on a low-cal chuckle.
Taking a seat on the reverse side of a booth from her, nosotros sit down like good little boys and wait for her to rip our balls off. Afterwards all, nosotros deserve information technology. Or at to the lowest degree, I do. Jake'south got cypher to do with my momentary lapse in focus.
Two minutes after, our handler's still doing something on her phone, and Jake and I still have our balls. I expect at Jake. Jake looks at me. I shrug. "Beverage?" I ask her.
Lucinda fires me a filthy glare, and there get my balls. "Don't exam me, Ryan," she snaps. "You've already given me a fucking headache today."
I sit back, getting a safer distance away as I hear Jake laugh. "I only asked if you wanted a potable. Likewise, who knows where that girl would be now. I had to act fast."
"What?" Lucinda says with a laugh. "By going on a rampage in the streets of London brandishing your firearm?"
"I'one thousand sure the official big-bods volition exist like shooting fish in a barrel on you lot, since one of your men caught a man they've been tracking for years." I smile sweetly, and she rips her fire stare from my wilting six-foot-iii-inch form, holding her hand in the air for the attention of the barman.
"Flat white," she calls. And and so silence falls, neither Jake nor I willing to make full it, as I spin my bottle slowly on the tabular array.
Lucinda eventually pushes a file across the table, and I look down at it. "What's that?" I ask.
"Your next contract."
"Time off," I remind her. "I'm going home for a few weeks." "Abode? It'due south in the heart of nowhere." She laughs. "Tiresome every bit shit.
Two hundred residents, a few stores, a pub, and a school. Why the hell would you want to go back there? What volition you exercise?"
"That's none of your damn business," I spit, feeling Jake's optics fall onto my profile. He knows what I'll exercise. And he's the only one. That's what happens when you spend so much time with one person. You tell them shit. "I'thousand going home, and that's it," I say with fierce finality, and Lucinda slumps dorsum in her seat as her coffee lands on the table.
With no cheers to the waiter, she pours in a healthy dose of milk, picks it upwards, and downs it in one fell swoop, never in one case taking her lethal glare off me. She tin get to hell. I'yard going home to Hampton and that's it. She can find someone else to do the next contract. And at that very moment, she turns her optics onto Jake.
He immediately starts shaking his head. "Forget it. I take a babe due in a few weeks."
"It'due south a two-week contract."
"Nope." He swigs from his bottle of beer. "I promised Cami this was the last job."
"What if I told you I'll kick your stupid arse into shape?"
"You did that years agone. Now I'm more scared of Cami's wrath than yours, so become to hell, Luce." Jake toasts her on a sarcastic smile as she snorts her disgust. I notice myself grinning. Lucinda loves Cami. Jake's wife is the only woman on the planet our handler actually likes.
"Gauge you lot'll have to find someone else," I muse, clinking my bottle with Jake's. "We're out." I watch as she inhales, her eyes narrowing to scary slits and slowly dragging onto me. My grin drops as she easily me another file. "What's this?"
"You said you lot're going home for a few weeks. This is your job when you're back to London. A nice, boring, low-hazard ane-human being matter."
"You said Miss Warren was low-risk," I indicate out as I stare at the newspaper file, my mind replaying the past hour. I wince as my heart pounds a little bit faster. Wince harder when I run across Alexandra's face in my mind'southward eye. "I'm passing," I declare, looking up at Lucinda. As I expected, her face is a movie of shock. "I'm taking a career pause."
"What?"
I can feel Jake'due south stunned stare on me, also. "I'm done with this game," I tell her. It doesn't matter how careful I am. It'southward been proven today that danger has an uncanny ability of finding me, and conspicuously my instinct to dance with it hasn't left me. I'm aware this contract could have ended very differently.
Lucinda's nostrils flare as she withdraws the file. "I'll phone call yous when y'all're thinking directly." She gets up and stomps out of the bar, and I can still feel Jake'due south eyes on me. "What?" I ask without looking at him.
"Are you serious?"
"Deadly serious." I accept a swig of my beer. "What volition you do?"
"Piece of work on my house. Peradventure build a few more." I shrug to myself. I'one thousand good with my hands. Congenital my own place in the forest from scratch. I've always thought about ownership some land and building a portfolio of backdrop. Now'due south the fourth dimension to do information technology. I've worked in some form of protection for virtually twenty years. I'm done.
"Sounds kinda good," Jake says every bit his phone rings and he answers. "Hey." I can tell by the tone of his voice who it is, and I smile to myself. He's a mean bastard at piece of work, moody and hard to read for well-nigh, but he's mush when dealing with his wife and daughter. "No, you can't exist." Jake'southward arse is up from the chair fast. "Fuck, Cami, I'm on the other side of London. I'm having a beer. And it'due south too fucking soon! We're supposed to be going to the country identify."
"Deplorable." I hear her breathe. "I'll just tell this baby to hold off until Daddy's finished his pint, shall I?" A few rushed pants. "The midwife is five minutes away."
"Fuck," he curses, turning and running out of the pub.
"Jake!" I yell, going afterward him, abandoning the two beers we very nearly got to terminate. "Jake, await."
"Cami's in labor," he yells over his shoulder, breaking out in a sprint across the road. "I've got to go dwelling."
"I'll drive you. Yous'll become yourself killed the state yous're in." He throws me an indignant look. "I'm fine."
"Your forehead disagrees." I bespeak upwardly, and he reaches to wipe the sweat abroad. "Become in the truck. I'm a better commuter than y'all, anyway."
"Fuck you."
I chuckle, falling into the driver'due south seat. "Is someone with her?" I pull out of the infinite fast and zoom downward the street, weaving in and out of the traffic.
"A friend. Heather." He goes straight to his phone, and a few seconds later he's talking again. "I'thousand on my way. How is she?" Jake's quiet for a few moments, and my attention splits between him and the road. The guy has e'er been tense, but he's off the charts at the minute. "I should exist half an hour, depending on traffic. Can she wait that long?"
I take a sharp right and sail through a crimson light. "Make that 20 minutes." Jake adds. "Put her on."
Another sharp corner, and Jake motions upwardly alee to another ready of lights that are currently on amber. I accept his hint and swerve around a few mopeds in front end, putting my pes downward.
"Hey, angel," he breathes, and I smiling, the softness in his voice making my large torso melt a little. "Ryan's driving perfect sensibly," he assures her, turning his eyes onto me. "Yeah, I'll tell him. Just breathe like nosotros practiced, okay? You can do information technology. Where'south Charlotte?" His grin is epic as he listens to Cami. "Sounds similar you're in skillful hands." He jumps in his seat as the sound of a monster scream fills the truck, and I look his manner, eyes wide. "Focus on the road," he grunts, putting his phone on speaker. The sound of Cami's wail fades, and I hear her commencement panting.
"Ooh, that was a abrupt 1," she sighs.
"Dad!" A little daughter's voice comes beyond the phone, sounding excited as opposed to anxious.
"Hey, princess." Jake's tone has gone even softer, and his torso about dissolves into the seat beside me. "You lot taking care of Cami for me?"
"Yes. She's sweating really bad, though. And she's really crimson." "She'll be fine. I'll be in that location as quick as I tin, okay?"
"Y'all better hurry, Dad."
"I'm hurrying, princess." He falls into the door when I skid around a corner, cursing when he hits his caput on the glass. "Trust me, I'thousand hurrying. See you soon." Jake clicks off the call and rubs at his forehead, bracing his other manus on the dashboard. "Put your foot downwardly, Ryan," he mutters sarcastically but as I whiz past a fancy Ferrari, the driver flipping me the finger. I honk my horn in reply and focus on getting my mate to his wife before his baby arrives.
I can't merits Jake's not without his own trauma by the time I pull up outside their house in West London, but I do know he won't have missed the birth. Jake hops out after giving me his customary manly slap of appreciation on the shoulder. "Thank you, mate."
"Call me!" I yell as the door slams and he runs upward the path. "And good luck, buddy," I say to myself, watching him fall through his front door.
I sit there for a few moments, idle by the adjourn, just reflecting on a few things in my own life. Not that there's much to reflect on. Just ane thing. I smile and pull away, ready to get my arse out of the shitty apartment I've been crashing in for also long and go home.
On auction November fifth!
Source: https://jodiellenmalpas.co.uk/leave-me-breathless-chapter-one/