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  Rex was on guard, just in case an unforeseen circumstance tried to sneak its way past him.

  While she slept, they moved her to a room. Nurses and volunteers stopped by on a regular basis to check on her—and to sneak peeks at the woman who’d been shot by a Russian spy and the child who’d been kidnapped by one. Rumors were flying all over the hospital, all over the city, but so far the press had been kept away from him and Nadia.

  When she awoke again a couple of hours later, she seemed more alert. She refused pain medication, claimed she didn’t need it, though he could tell by the tightness around her mouth that she wasn’t entirely comfortable.

  “I thought you’d be in Tahiti by now,” she said.

  “I’ll get there.” He’d had that fantasy again, the one where he lay on the beach while a bikini-clad woman rubbed him with suntan oil. Only the woman had a face now.

  “Will you explain again why I can’t pay you?” Now sitting up in bed, she was able to hold Lily on her lap. Lily, who was exhausted from her ordeal, seemed content to doze there in her mother’s arms. Strictly speaking, she shouldn’t have even been allowed to visit. But Rex wasn’t about to let anyone separate Nadia from her baby, and no one dared cross him. “You said something about a family discount, but last time I checked, we weren’t related.”

  “We could fix that,” Rex said.

  Nadia blinked a couple of times. “Are you saying…”

  “I’m saying I want to marry you.”

  “But—”

  “I’ll give you time to think about it. But, honestly, you’re the first woman I ever met who was strong enough to put up with me. The first one who wasn’t scared of me. The first one to trust me.”

  “You’re an honorable man,” Nadia said. “Why wouldn’t anyone trust you?”

  “Maybe you see something others don’t,” he said. “That’s why I’m not going to walk away from you without a fight. It’s…it’s why I love you.”

  She stared at him a few moments, speechless, as her eyes swam with unshed tears. She seemed on the brink of admitting something, then abruptly broke eye contact. “Well, Lily likes you.” She sounded a bit breathless.

  “I like her, too. In fact, I’m feeling remarkably territorial about her. Every nurse in this whole hospital has volunteered to baby-sit, but I’ve told them all no. I want to take care of her. And what’s the big deal about changing diapers? I can do it in thirty seconds flat.”

  Nadia’s jaw dropped.

  “I know this has come out of left field, and you don’t have to answer right away. Just think about it.”

  “I don’t have to,” she said. “I do love you, Rex. But I love Lily, too, and look what happened to her. The ones I care about will always be in danger from people who might want to manipulate me—”

  “Do you honestly think that scares me? Anyway, it’s all the more reason to have me around. Who would dare try to wrangle secrets from you with me on watch?”

  “That is a good point.” He watched her face as she mulled over the possibilities. She didn’t reveal much. Even her tears didn’t tell him much. Tears of joy? Regret? Was she just overwhelmed with everything?

  Not content to merely watch, he came closer and brushed her tears away with his hand. “Only one thing truly scares me,” he said softly, “and that’s the idea of living the rest of my life without love. Without you.”

  Nadia blinked, and he realized she was getting sleepy again. She was still suffering from the aftereffects of anesthesia, and he felt guilty for confronting her at a time like this with his declarations of love and a marriage proposal out of nowhere.

  “Sweetheart, forget I said anything,” he said gently. “You just focus on getting well. We’ll talk another time.”

  “You know,” she said drowsily, “when I was a girl I used to dream about discovering a cure for cancer.” And with that startling non sequitur, she fell asleep again.

  Rex pondered her words for a full thirty seconds before he realized that she had, indeed, accepted his proposal.

  THEY WERE MARRIED two months later, just as spring flowers were starting to bloom, in the same rose garden where Beau and his wife, Aubrey, had married the previous year. Lily was too young to be a flower girl, but they let her be one anyway, and she spent most of the wedding trying to eat the rose petals in her basket.

  Nadia had healed quickly from her wound, and other than a twinge every now and then when she twisted the wrong way, she felt better than ever. When she returned to work, she immediately requested a transfer to a different sector at JanCo. She was still in nanotechnology, but now she was working on pharmaceutical applications—in particular, a nanodevice that would deliver drugs specifically targeted to cancer cells while leaving normal tissue unaffected. It was the most exciting work she’d ever done, and no foreign governments or terrorists were the slightest bit interested.

  Rex was still a bounty hunter, still working for First Strike, but he had scaled back his travel. No more tracking fugitives all over the country for weeks at a time. He didn’t need those more exciting cases to keep his blood pumping or remind him he was alive. He didn’t need to punish himself by pushing himself to the limits of physical endurance. He had found his peace, and he had all the excitement he needed with learning how to be a husband and father.

  Lily did not seem to suffer from the ordeal at all. After she caught up on her sleep and food, she regained her former sunny disposition.

  When it came time for a toast at the wedding reception, held in a gazebo festooned with so many flowers it was about to collapse, no one knew quite what to say. Ace, who was seldom short on words, took a stab at being humorous.

  “To Rex and Nadia, the cutest couple I ever saw. I mean, look, she practically has to stand on a box to kiss him.”

  Lori jabbed Ace in the ribs with her elbow.

  “Well,” Ace said, “you try it. Making a wedding toast is tricky business.”

  Rex sent Ace a nod of appreciation for trying. Then he picked Nadia up and set her on a bench, so he had to look up to her. He held his glass high. “To Nadia, who is not only the most beautiful woman in the world, but the strongest I’ve ever known.” And he truly meant that. He hadn’t known exactly how strong until, a day after Peter’s death, someone had discovered Nadia’s suicide note. Until then, he hadn’t known she’d planned to end her own life to save her daughter’s, and his love for her had swelled to even greater proportions.

  The crowd of wedding guests grew utterly silent, and the smart-ass toasts were forgotten as everyone could literally feel the love coursing between bride and groom. Married couples intertwined their fingers, remembering how it was to be transformed by love, and those who hadn’t yet experienced it were awed, silently vowing never to settle for less.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-2844-3

  BOUNTY HUNTER HONOR

  Copyright © 2005 by Karen Leabo

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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  † Code of the Cobra

  * How To Marry a Hardison

 
†† Blond Justice

  Table of Contents

  Letter to Reader

  About the Author

  Books by Kara Lennox

  Cast of Characters

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Copyright