Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Rescuing Pandora (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Kori David Page B

Cam couldn’t fathom the man not wanting to tie Pandora to him in any way possible.
    “He knew I didn’t love him, not like that. I grew to care for him very much, but I didn’t have the ability to love him like I—”
    “Loved me.”
    She fluttered her fingers lightly over the puckered wound on his shoulder. The frown that turned her mouth down in worry caused his stomach to tighten. Jesus, even frowning she was beautiful. Pandora was as perfect to him today, having gone through all she had, as the first day he’d seen her—still in college and excited about everything.
    “What about your parents?” he asked. “Why didn’t you ever let them know you were alive?”
    “Mohammed had contacts with the American Embassy and found out that not only the ambassadors and liaisons were in danger, but that threats had been made against our families. I wouldn’t let him contact my parents in case they were being watched.” Her voice stopped and stuttered, “So much time had passed by then and I couldn’t face my old life.” She pulled back and looked at him. “I was a coward, but I couldn’t even think of the possibility that some sleeper ISIS cell would kill my parents. I just couldn’t. Some days I held onto my sanity by my fingertips, and that would have pushed me over the edge. It was safer if I stayed dead, hiding away as Mohammed Al’Hadir’s quiet wife.”
    “Your parents seem to have taken your resurrection in stride.”
    “It almost gave my mother a heart attack. I would’ve never understood it before Sammy, but if he were to come home the way I did, I wouldn’t have blinked either. I would have been so thankful that he was alive that I wouldn’t have cared about the how or the whys. They still haven’t asked too many details about the missing five years.”
    “Was he good to you?”
    She reached out and stroked his hair, and he leaned into her palm, loving the feel of her hands on him. “Does it bother you?”
    “That another man held you, loved you?” When she nodded, he said, “Yes. It should have been me. But does it eat me up?” He shook his head. “No. He took care of you and my son when I couldn’t.”
    Pulling her hand away, Pandora looked toward the back door. “I should get back.”
    Cam wanted her to stay, wanted to hold her close for the rest of the night. He wanted more, but that might take some time, and he was patient. He wanted his wife back. And he wanted his son to know who his father was. Cam had already missed so much of his life.
    But he had a plan.
    And neither Delta nor the CIA had taught him anything about failure. It wasn’t an option.

8
    “ T hese are just beautiful ,” her mother said, sighing over the long stemmed yellow roses that had been delivered an hour before. “Your father hasn’t brought home flowers for me in,” she paused, “well, I can’t even remember when.”
    Pandora smiled and touched a velvet soft petal. “They are pretty.”
    “Read the note.”
    Her mom fussed with the vase, moving the roses around to make them look full and rearranging the small Baby’s Breath flowers that completed the bouquet. Pandora wondered if Cam bought them because they matched her mother’s cheery butter yellow kitchen or if it was because she was a Texas girl and he was calling her his “yellow rose.”
    “He wants to have a picnic by the falls with me.”
    “Sounds romantic. He’s wooing you, sweetheart. And if you ask me, he’s doing it right.”
    Pandora shook her head, but a glance around the house showed her the truth of the statement. Each room had a bouquet of fresh flowers in it. Her mom kept threatening to kill them off just to avoid using another vase, but secretly she loved it, because some of them were for her. Cam wasn’t just wooing her—he was dating her whole family. He’d taken her dad and Sammy to a football game. He took her mom out shopping and then treated her to a spa day. He spent hours in the barn with her dad, asking