Spirit of Danger: Body of Danger, #2

By Sidney Bristol

Merida just wants to get through Christmas this year, but after a disastrous day at work and her house flooding, it's not shaping up to be a great holiday. At least until her neighbor, best friend, and totally-off-limits crush comes to her rescue.

Finley walks a fine line of respecting Merida's boundaries while lusting over her body. He should have never struck up a friendship with his sassy neighbor. He knew that the moment he first saw her. This Christmas he wants one thing he can't have: her.

A home disaster quickly spins out of control when Merida is called into work for a strange emergency. Finley can't shake the feeling that something isn't right. He'll stick close to her until the lines are blurred because her body is his to protect.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sidney Bristol
• Release date: Nov 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393590446

Book preview

Spirit of Danger

Body of Danger 2

An Aegis Group Novella

Sidney Bristol

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Inked Press

Spirit of Danger

Body of Danger #2

Merida just wants to get through Christmas this year, but after a disastrous day at work and her house flooding, it's not shaping up to be a great holiday. At least until her neighbor, best friend, and totally-off-limits crush comes to her rescue.

Finley walks a fine line of respecting Merida's boundaries while lusting over her body. He should have never struck up a friendship with his sassy neighbor. He knew that the moment he first saw her. This Christmas he wants one thing he can't have: her.

A home disaster quickly spins out of control when Merida is called into work for a strange emergency. Finley can't shake the feeling that something isn't right. He'll stick close to her until the lines are blurred because her body is his to protect.

Explore the whole Aegis world in these series...

It all began with the Aegis Group.

Dangerous Attraction

Dangerous in Training

Dangerous Games

Dangerous Assignment

Dangerous Protector

Dangerous Secrets

Dangerous Betrayal

Dangerous Heat

Dangerous Connections (2020)

Dangerous Exposure (2020)

More Coming Soon!

Within Aegis Group, special teams take on special jobs, beginning with the Alpha Team.

Dangerous in Love

Dangerous in Action

Dangerous in Transit

Dangerous in Motion

Dangerous in Charge

Other specialized teams exist under the Aegis Group umbrella, including Lepta Team.

Dangerously Taken

Dangerously Involved

Dangerously Deceived

Dangerously Broken

Dangerously Entwined

Troy Team has signed on to work an ultra-secret case in the Aegis Group Task Force series.

(prequel) First Risk: a newsletter exclusive serial

Stolen Risk

Forged Risk

Technical Risk (2020)

More soon!

In Dangerous Games it continued with the Gone Geek girls.

Beauty and the Geek

Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek

The Jock and the Geek

The Gamer and the Geek

The Adorkable Girl and the Geek

The Fake Boyfriend and the Geek

When the Seattle office of Aegis Group opened the Twisted Royals took the stage.

The Origin Story

Alpha Prince

Her Prince

Bad Boy Prince

Noble Prince

Stay tuned for the appearance of the Omega Team.

For short reads, tune in this December for the Body of Danger novella series kick-off.

Heart of Danger

Spirit of Danger

Soul for Danger (2020)

The other Smith brother takes us to the Texas SWAT series, a small town suspense series.

Fighting Redemption

Stolen Redemption

Forbidden Redemption

Reckless Redemption (coming soon)

Thanks to the SWAT team, Ransom, Texas enjoys a slower pace of life beginning in The Love Barn.

Give Me Back My Man

Summer of Love

Party out of Bounds

To my family, who make me remember the joy of the holiday every year when I lose it in crazy baking..

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.

―AGNES M. PAHRO

Table of Contents

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6.

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8.

9.

Epilogue.

1.

Wednesday. Merida’s Home, Seattle, Washington.

Merida Dominguez trudged down the steep sidewalk lit by festive Christmas lights hung along the street. Her neighbors took the holiday decorating very seriously each year. It was one of the things that made her duplex bearable. Only, tonight she didn’t feel much of that festive cheer. Weariness weighed down her every step. She couldn’t wait to get home and sit in the silence of her own home with no phone to answer and no one rushing to her for answers on whatever emergency was going on in some far-flung corner of the globe.

Playing the boss sucked.

Tiny snowflakes swirled around her. It wasn’t cold enough for the white stuff to stick. As soon as it came into contact with her or the ground it melted, which meant her clothes were damp and she was freezing cold. She wished the weather would make up its mind. Was it going to snow or rain?

Her phone vibrated with an incoming text. Under normal circumstances she’d ignore it until she got home, but until the first of the year she was running the show in the Seattle office. She didn’t get the luxury of not answering her phone.

Merida paused there on the sidewalk and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

The text was from her best friend, Melody, who also worked for Aegis Group.

Merida’s heart leaped into her throat. Her best friend had gotten involved in some seriously bad jobs over the last year. Merida did her best to play it cool, but every time Melody messaged Merida at odd hours she got scared. She never wanted to get word that Melody was being medically evacuated ever again.

The message opened up.

No text.

Just a picture.

Of Melody’s shocked face, her almond eyes open wide and her hand covering her mouth.

Her left hand.

And there on her ring finger was the rock Grant, Melody’s boyfriend and co-worker, had asked Merida to help pick out months ago.

Well, it had finally happened.

Mixed feelings of jealousy and happiness warred inside of her.

No part of her wanted Grant. If the man were a candy bar, he’d be the bitterest dark chocolate. An acquired taste, but not for Merida.

Since she’d already stopped her walk home to check the text she tapped out a congratulatory message full of exclamation marks and appropriate emojis. No doubt when the happy couple got back into down Merida would get the full story and she’d be happy to listen. She just wished things between her and Melody hadn’t changed as much as they had in the last few months since her relationship with Grant became public knowledge. Merida hadn’t exactly lost Melody as a friend, but Merida knew she didn’t rate as high as she used to.

It stung.

She shoved her phone and frozen hands into her pockets and started walking again.

Ahead of her, a truck lumbered into view.

Oh, no...

It turned into the cul-de-sac, the bright lights momentarily blinding her.

Watching the truck was her first mistake.

Her foot slid and she stuck out her arms, wobbling precariously all while mentally cursing her landlord’s name.

That was her second mistake.

Never spare a thought for something you can’t control while in a crisis.

Merida sat down hard there on the pavement, water soaking into her slacks and chilling her skin. Her tailbone ached and her pride stung.

Her best friend was getting romanced while here she was rolling around in the mud. Life was so fair.

This was a rotten week. The sooner Christmas was over the quicker her life could get back to normal. What had she been thinking to tell her boss she could hold down the fort while he got to take a real holiday?

Clearly she was crazy.

Merida picked herself up. She didn’t bother brushing the mud or leaves off herself. Instead she stood there and drew in a deep breath.

Things weren’t that bad. It had just been one of those days. The sooner she got home the sooner she could get out of these wet clothes and do something about her poor attitude. At least she hadn’t hurt anything except her pride in the fall.

Tonight called for fuzzy pajamas and a movie she could lose herself in. Something that had lots of explosions, no Christmas and no romance.

She cut through the grass rather than brave the sidewalk. Not that there was much grass. It was mostly mud and in her current condition a little more wasn’t going to hurt anything.

At the corner of the duplex she paused to peer at the driveway she shared with the other occupant.

Shit.

Of course she couldn’t catch a break today.

The headlights that had surprised her belonged to the one man she just didn’t have it in her to see today.

Finley MacLeod.

He made her think of milk chocolate and salted caramel. Sweet with a little surprise, not that many saw that sweet side of his. No, just stalker neighbors like her.

His dark brown hair still had some of the paler streaks from the summer sun in it, but not for much longer. His pale green eyes always made her think of the outdoors. He wasn’t a man who smiled often, but she’d received more of those than anyone else alive. At least she liked to think so.

When she’d first moved in, they hadn’t spoken much. Oh, she’d drooled over him. He was her favorite type of man. Gruff and rough around the edges, but under that she knew he was gold. Like caramel. That was something she knew courtesy of another Aegis Group friend who’d hooked her up with this rental in the first place. He’d told her one of his retired Marine friends had the other half of the duplex. Finley had transitioned into civilian life well enough and worked at an auto-body shop owned by another friend of the company.

Pretty much every connection she had in her civilian life went back to either the Navy or Aegis Group.

She’d been outside changing her own oil when Finley first spoke to her in something that wasn’t a grunt or monosyllabic. Oh, she’d watched him and fallen for him long before then, but it had taken the oil change for them to connect. And that was the day she’d had to stop drooling over him and treat him like a friend. Along the way he’d become one of her very best friends, something she both cherished and hated. How could she drool over her best friend?

It wasn’t fair.

He sat in the driver’s seat of his truck, the door open and looking at something. Probably his phone. He didn’t touch his phone during the day. She’d often laughed at him. During his off-hours he was glued to the damn thing. He had family spread all over the globe and he could spend hours just keeping tabs on all of them.

That rough exterior of his hid a sweet side. She cringed at the way her stomach flipped and flopped.

Why did one of the world’s hottest men have to be her next-door neighbor and best friend?

Most of the time Merida was able to shove her attraction down deep and just enjoy his company, but she was reveling in self-pity tonight. She couldn’t make small talk with him. Not when she was already having to pretend that she was excited Melody was getting engaged.

He hadn’t glanced up from his phone.

This was likely her best chance to make it inside without having to talk to him.

Merida stepped as quickly as she dared through the soggy lawn, focusing on her front door on the off chance Finley saw her.

Her feet swished and squished through the grass and mud.

The truck door shut.

Invisible fingers crept up her back.

He had to have seen her.

She shoved her key into her lock and twisted it.

If she got inside, she could shut the door, come up with a reason to blow him off. Tonight of all nights she just couldn’t share her sofa with him. Not even to hang out in silence. She just wanted a moment to recover.

Merida kicked her front door shut and sloshed a step before stopping.

Why were her feet wet inside her house?

She peered down at the water standing in the entry and her jaw dropped.

For a moment she could only stare. Her hand lifted to the light switch before stopping. She was standing in water wearing suede boots that wouldn’t protect her if she were electrocuted.

A wail bubbled up in her throat, but she swallowed it down. Now was not the time to have a moment. Her ship was taking on water, literally, and that had to be fixed.

Snap out of it, sailor.

She’d spent her adult life as the right hand to one of the most powerful men in the Navy. She knew how