Dangerously Exposed: Barefoot Bay: Dangerously, #3

By Angela Evans

Mari Reynolds sees the world through the filter of her camera's lens. Working as a high fashion photographer she's built her career on not giving in to the fashion industry's demands of creating unattainable images of beauty. When Mari finds herself at the center of a scandal around her photos she seeks refuge in Barefoot Bay. A lifetime of building a career she's proud of is threatened and she doesn't know by who or why. While hiding out and hoping the storm blows over she finds herself drawn to a sexy stranger and for the first time, she doesn't long to hide behind the safety of her camera.

Brett Williams, former Army Ranger, makes a living by never missing a detail so he can keep his high-profile security clients safe. That skill honed over years in the military and years in the security business is what alerted him to Mari standing on the beach, hiding behind her camera studying him through her telephoto lens. That keen attention to every detail is why he's determined to find out what's troubling Mari and keep her safe. 

Mari has spent a lifetime keeping the world and any potential relationships at lens-length, using her camera as a buffer between her and the world. Brett finds himself suddenly beginning to crave the family roots that he sees forming all around him, but when things get hot will he be able to choose Mari over the loyalty he feels to a fellow Army Ranger on the wrong side of the law?

This story is set in a world based on Roxanne St. Claire's Barefoot Bay Series; it is published with the permission of Roxanne St. Claire. Visit her website for links to her books and more information.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angela Evans
• Release date: Sep 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386752462

Angela Evans

As a child, Angela remembers her mother telling friends that Angela would read anything she could get her hands on, even the back of the cereal box. That changed when she discovered romance novels as a teenager, secretly reading her mother’s entire collection of Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and being amazed at how captivating the stories were. She knew that writing romance novels was what she wanted to do for a living. On her way to publishing her first book she took a slight detour to be a successful mom-blogger and was honored to be included in two parenting anthologies. That reignited the fire in her to be a published author, so she shifted her focus from blogging to fiction writing and never looked back. Angela lives in Southern Illinois (think St. Louis, not Chicago) where she is living her own happily ever after with her husband of over 20 years, their two teenage children, a very spoiled dog, and two equally spoiled cats. When she’s not writing she loves reading, cooking, and photography.

Book preview

Welcome to Barefoot Bay World

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Barefoot Bay World, a place for authors to write their own stories set in the tropical paradise that I created! For these books, I have only provided the setting of Mimosa Key and a cast of characters from my popular Barefoot Bay series. That’s it! I haven’t contributed to the plotting, writing, or editing of Dangerously Exposed. This book is entirely the work of Angela Evans, a talented writer I’m thrilled to welcome back to Barefoot Bay.

Angela brings us an Army Ranger hero who finds himself falling for a woman who is determined to hide behind the security of her camera lens. When the walls come down and the truth is exposed, this hero will have to make a choice between love and friendship...and the wrong choice could be deadly. With sizzle and suspense, Dangerously Exposed is a perfect beach read set on an equally perfect beach!

Roxanne St. Claire

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Barefoot Bay Series

www.roxannestclaire.com

This story is set in a world based on Roxanne St. Claire’s Barefoot Bay Series; it is published with the permission of Roxanne St. Claire, information about whose books are found at http://www.roxannestclaire.com/barefoot-bay-series/.

Table of Contents

Welcome to Barefoot Bay World

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Acknowledgements

Chapter One

Mari watched through her favorite telephoto lens as his muscular body sliced through the water with what seemed like no effort at all. He swam parallel to the beach, fighting the current both directions as he glided lap after lap. She tried to count how many times he swam back and forth, but she ended up hypnotized by the rhythm of his powerful arms rotating through the current. She couldn’t help but wonder what arms that strong would feel like wrapped around her body and holding her tight enough that all of her worries would slide off of her shoulders onto those broad, muscular ones instead.

With a sigh, she zoomed in a little closer, watching the muscles ripple with the effort as he swam. The sun was warm on her back, but the breeze cooled her skin. She looked up and down the beach and saw no sign that he’d left a towel or a bag waiting for him—the same as it had been each day she’d watched him from her spot on the beach. She was staying just down the beach in a small villa that was more luxurious than anything she’d ever experienced.

The trip to Casa Blanca Resort & Spa had been a splurge, a treat that was intended to be a balm to her wounded pride while helping her find her groove again. She’d been knocked off her stride when she had least expected it. She’d spent a lifetime building her career only to watch it go up in flames without explanation.

Shaking off her melancholy, she looked through the viewfinder again only to find her favorite subject missing from the frame. Scanning back and forth, she spotted him immediately and gasped out loud when she realized he was moving toward her, no longer in the water, but on the sand. He moved with purpose on land just like he had in the water. Everything about him screamed confidence. The way he stood with his shoulders square, chest out. When he moved his strides were long, eating up the distance between them quickly. She scrambled to her feet, holding her favorite camera and lens combination in her arm like an infant.

I’m sorry, she blurted out as soon as he was close enough to hear her and then immediately wanted to pull the words back.

He quirked one eyebrow up with a smirk. What for?

She wanted the beach to open up and swallow her right there. It was like that time the cute quarterback of her high school football team had asked her what time it was and she got so tongue-tied she’d blurted out the day of the week instead of the time. With courage she didn’t feel, she squared her shoulders and stuck out her hand in greeting. I’m Mari Reynolds, and you are?

Again she got a smirk for her trouble, but at least he took her hand in his much larger one and shook it. The handshake felt oddly formal considering he was almost naked, in swim trunks and nothing else, and she wore a tank top and shorts. Brett Williams, he answered and then glanced at the camera resting on her forearm. Get any good shots today?

Her cheeks got warm as she realized that he definitely knew she’d been watching him, but she was quickly distracted by a drop of water that dripped from his dark hair onto his shoulder, across his chest, past the dog tags that hung there, and down to his stomach. The scar that transected his bicep made her itch to touch it, both in comfort and in curiosity. But those abs...they looked good enough to eat.

Ahem. He cleared his throat, pointedly drawing her eyes immediately back up where they belonged.

Sorry. She apologized again and wanted to kick herself. Why was she acting like a giddy teenager around this man? Oh yeah, because he was freaking hot, and she was finally realizing how long it had been since she’d feasted her eyes on anything as distracting as Brett Williams. She lived in New York City and worked with some of the world’s most elite models, male and female, but she’d never fantasized about running her tongue along any of their collarbones the way she was just now.

That’s an impressive lens you’ve got there. Brett nodded, and Mari couldn’t help but wonder if they were still talking about the camera. The lens had cost more than her first car, so he wasn’t wrong. She grabbed onto the topic and ran with it.

Do you know about camera equipment? She asked.

A little, only as it relates to work. Are you a professional or ambitious amateur? Mari really wished he had a towel, or a T-shirt, or something. She considered running to her villa to grab him one but didn’t want to break the spell or give him an opportunity to walk away before she got back. She’d just have to suck it up and try to focus...on anything besides that beautiful torso of his. In her mind’s eye, she was already picturing how she’d pose him to capture him with her camera.

Professional, although if you checked my bank account, you might disagree. Nervously she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and them immediately pulled it back toward her face. Don’t fuss with your hair, Mari, it telegraphs your weakness. In her mind, she heard her mother’s admonishment as if she were here to remind her in person. Brett watched her intently, and she had the feeling he did everything with intensity. That thought alone was enough to send her toes curling into the soft powdery sand beneath her feet.

There’s more to being a professional than the income it generates. Lots of serious careers should pay better than they do.

Like being a soldier? Once again her mouth ran ahead of her brain and blurted out what she hadn’t intended to say out loud.

Brett laughed at her blunder and nodded his head. Yes, definitely, although that wasn’t the example I was thinking of.

But you are a soldier, right?

I was. Mari wondered if she imagined the flicker of sadness that seemed to disappear from his eyes as quickly as it had appeared. She wished she’d caught it with her camera so later she could analyze it in private.

I didn’t mean to pry, she said softly.

Pry or spy? He winked as he said it and Mari felt the coil in her stomach that had first appeared the moment she spotted him swimming just off the beach wind a little bit tighter.

I wasn’t spying really. I was just photographing the beach and noticed you. I couldn’t help but watch.

* * *

Brett rubbed his fingers together to keep from reaching up to tuck that strand of hair back behind her ear. There was something about her that kicked up his curiosity. She seemed like a contradiction in herself, bold one minute and shy the next. Hiding behind her camera to watch him and then standing toe-to-toe with him in the sand calling out his military service without even knowing a thing about him.

He could count on one hand the number of people on this sun-drenched island that he had met since following his boss here and calling this part of paradise his home. He kept to himself more often than not, socializing only when the job required it. He knew he’d remember if he’d met Mari before, even if it had happened before he relocated. Yet, there was something about her that felt familiar.

Normally if he caught some random person photographing him, he’d be annoyed or pissed off. He’d always hated having his picture taken, but his years in Special Forces had made it more than an annoyance—it had made it a safety risk for him and his entire team if he was recognized. Now as a security specialist he had just carried on the habit, finding that if he was security for a celebrity or politician having his photo not end up in the paper or a magazine made everyone’s life a whole lot easier.

He’d walked up the beach intending to tell her to knock it off before he took her memory card out of her fancy camera, but as soon as he got a good look at her, the idea had vanished. Probably because his brain had