by Zoe York
His tone twigged something deep in her heart. Something…familiar. “Miles, are you a soldier?”
He pulled his lower lip between his lips and narrowed his eyes, looking up at the dark sky.
“You can tell me,” she whispered. “I won’t tell anyone.”
She’d drifted closer still, and their bodies were almost touching as they stood in the shadow of the quiet building where she was staying.
He looked down at her and, with a groan, pulled her in tight for a hug. “I’m just a guy doing a job I’d rather you not think about, okay?”
It wasn’t okay at all. She’d been ten kinds of selfish, and all this guy had wanted was something to look forward to at the end of whatever he was going to do.
“I’ll email you,” she breathed. “I promise.”
He shook his head. “Don’t promise anything you don’t mean.”
“I mean it!”
“You didn’t a minute ago.” He dusted a kiss across her forehead. “I want you to find me again because you want to connect with me. No other reason.”
“But I don’t want you to—”
He cut her off again, this time with a hard kiss right on the mouth. She opened for him, instantly, and whimpered when he pulled back after just a brief, bittersweet slide of lips. “It’s my job. I don’t need care packages and empty promises. I need you to live the life you want to live and be happy, got it?”
“Got it.”
He kissed her forehead and stepped back, stopping a few feet away. “And if we ever end up in the same city, you owe me a date.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. He stood there, obviously not leaving until she was safely inside, but she couldn’t do it. So much for her stupid bravado about independence. One night of kisses with a stranger and her heart was leaping hard against her ribcage, desperate to be pressed against his broad, strong chest again. To feel his arms around her and his lips on hers.
Reluctantly, blindly, she stepped backwards up the steps, and opened the door. Be safe, she mouthed at him.
Lifting his hand, Miles waved—an acknowledgment and a goodbye wrapped in one.
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, he was gone.
— FIVE —
Piper tossed and turned all night, finally abandoning the effort at dawn. She pulled spandex shorts, a sports bra, a sweatshirt, and her running shoes out of her backpack. She wasn’t diligent enough to train for a race, but she liked that running could happen anytime and anywhere, and it was a healthy-ish way to work shit out.
And the way her head was still spinning over Miles—the kisses, the realization that he was in the military, the longing she already felt for him—she needed to do some major processing.
Heading away from the quaint and historic downtown, she settled into a good pace and the restless feeling fell away. Few people were out and about so early on a Sunday morning, although she could see many having breakfast or otherwise getting ready for the day through their front windows.
Ordinary people doing ordinary things.
She thought about her family on the other side of the ocean.
Her mother always said she was the dreamer in a family of doers, although saving for a trip and taking off on an adventure felt an awful lot like doing to Piper. Even if it didn’t have a larger goal than just seeing the world and coming back with a better understanding of herself.
Because Piper definitely didn’t understand herself. She didn’t get why she always felt slightly out-of-step.
Like falling for someone who she’d only known—and would only know—for just a few hours.
She needed to get over it.
Bad timing, that was all. Miles would be the hot military hero she’d tell her granddaughters about in fifty years—the one that got away.
A dull ache made her think that, if not broken, her heart was most definitely bruised. Reasonable aftereffect of being sucker punched.
She blinked back almost-tears and pumped her arms faster, driving her legs harder until her chest burned because of exertion and nothing else.
Keep telling yourself that, Harrington.
The sun was higher in the sky when she finally slowed to a walk, and the streets were getting busier, so she headed back to the hostel. As she cruised down the last block, she saw Sue step out of her row house—and then Miles was in the doorway, and Piper tripped over her feet as she jerked to a halt.
God, he was beautiful. He was wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt, but the sweats were low on his hips and the t-shirt stretched tight across his hard, chiseled chest. She could still feel the flat, strong planes of his torso under her fingers.
And more to the point, he was still there. Sue got into a waiting car. She was dressed quite formally, as if she was attending a wedding or church or something.
It only took her a split second to make up her mind. She needed to talk to him one more time. Touch him, hold him, never let him go. Just talk…say goodbye properly.
Her entire body tingled with adrenaline as she knocked on the bright blue door. When it swung open and Miles stepped into view, words caught in her throat. He was freshly showered, which made her all the more aware of the fact she’d just run five miles. His hair was damp, and she caught a whiff of a different soap than last night. This one was more expensive, slightly spicy, like it had a matching cologne and a designer price tag. It wouldn’t normally do much for her, but on Miles it was a pheromone. A smile slashed across his face, replacing his initial surprise with obvious delight.
“Hi.” Piper took a ragged breath.
“Hi.” Miles reached out and slid his hands around her upper arms, guiding her inside. “You’ve been running?”
“Yes. I was heading past, and I saw…” She waved her hand. “You’re not gone yet.”
“Not yet.” His hands tightened on her arms for a second, then he relaxed his grip, but he didn’t let her go. “Soon.”
He raked his gaze down her body, and when his eyes met hers again, they were… Dancing sounded like the wrong word. Alive. Interested.
“I wasn’t sure I’d see you again,” he said quietly. “And I don’t want to assume too much about you showing up this morning, but…”
“You can assume,” she whispered back. “Anything you want. I needed to see you.”
As she talked, a frantic rush of words, his eyelids slowly dropped, hooding his gaze. Not all the way, just to half-mast. Like he was thinking hard. Holding himself back from saying things.
She felt the same way.
“Miles,” she let his name whoosh out of her, half plea, half prayer. That was all it took.
Lowering his head, he slanted his mouth over hers, and she could feel the tension in his body as he held his hunger in check. She tasted his lips, his tongue—oh God, his tongue, so firm and insistent and probing—before he pulled back.
Tugging her past the foyer, he turned their bodies as one into the front sitting room, his hands sliding under her sweatshirt, hissing as he found the bare, damp skin underneath.
His mouth returned to hers, hot and demanding, and as he kissed her—although “kiss” didn’t really describe the way he was consuming her from the inside out—he levered them sideways, sinking onto a soft couch.
Their legs slid together, the soft fleece of his sweat pants rubbing against her bare skin, but under that fabric she could feel strong, heavy thighs, muscles bunching as he wrapped himself around her. And when he slid a hand down to her practically naked butt and pulled her in even tighter, she felt something else.
He was huge and hard. For her. All of a sudden, it felt like he was practically naked, too.
Hands shaking, she squeezed his shoulders, then stroked upward to his neck. Warm, clean skin stretched taut over tight muscles. She kissed her way down the bulging tendon, licking and tasting as she went.
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” he forced out, his voice strained.
“Wait, why?” She pulled back enough for his face to slide in
to focus. His lips were wet, shiny from kissing her, and she wanted them to be doing that again.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, then pushed up off the couch, leaving her bouncing on her back in his wake. He muttered something she couldn’t make out, then stalked into the hallway.
She wasn’t positive, because all the blood had rushed out of her head and there was a dull buzzing sound between her ears, but she was pretty sure she’d just been shot down. She squeezed shut her eyes a little tighter and willed the ground to open up beneath her. When that didn’t happen, and she hadn’t died of embarrassment, she took a breath and decided to back out gracefully.
“Right. Of course not. You need to go. And actually, I mean, it’s not… It’s just that I thought you might…”
Righting herself, she avoided looking up at Miles and stumbled to the door. As she turned the knob, Miles’s right hand closed over hers and his left wrapped around her waist, pulling her back into his chest. Into all of him, actually, and despite her pathetic attempt to throw herself at him followed by a complete meltdown, she could feel his erection pressing into her. He was still hard.
“Shit, I’m sorry. Don’t run away. Don’t run away and think for a second that I rejected you, Piper. There just isn’t time right now. I absolutely want to make love to you, more than you know.” His mouth pressed into her hair, his breath making the edge of her ear tingle.
She stilled inside his arms. Big, stupid man. “Who said anything about having sex? We were just making out and you put the brakes on.”
He huffed a frustrated laugh in her ear.
“I was ten seconds away from ripping your shorts off. Believe me, I needed to stop.”
Oh God. They could… She didn’t have anything on her, but maybe if he had a condom… “Maybe we didn’t need to stop.”
Miles groaned, his hands moving again, grasping her waist and turning her around. He pulled her hard against his body, then up, pressing her against the door.
“Do you have protection? I don’t, and we should be smart…” Miles silenced her with his mouth, kissing first her top lip, then the bottom, and harder in the middle, willing her to open for him again. As they kissed, slower and sweeter this time, he caressed her body from top to bottom, imprinting on her skin. It was goodbye all over again. She wanted to cry.
With a regretful sigh, he rocked into her pelvis, giving her a moment of bittersweet ecstasy before lowering her to the ground. “I’m sorry. God, humping you against my aunt’s door wasn’t what I wanted to do to you either, but I couldn’t help myself. You blow me away.”
Piper didn’t know how to take that. “Thanks, I guess.”
“Look, there’s probably a lot more we could say here, but there isn’t time to do this right.” He dragged a breath into his lungs, then stared at her, like he was trying to find the right balance of words.
She couldn’t find them, either. So she fell back to her promise. “I’ll email you.”
He started to say something, then cut himself off and started again. “Listen, I want you to think about something. Meeting up when I’m stateside. I’ll come to you.”
It was their conversation from the night before, but now she didn’t want to say no.
She wasn’t going to say no, but she couldn’t find the words to say yes, either. She just stared at him dumbly.
“A weekend? Whatever you want, if you still want to.” He reached for her hand and lifted her wrist to his mouth. “I know that I’ll still be hungry for you. I’ll always be hungry for you, Piper.”
— SIX —
Miles buried his head deeper in the dark green linen scarf he was using as pillow and blanket and sand net. As in, keep-the-fucking-sand-out net.
He needed a few hours of sleep, but the wind had picked up in a big way and the blown-out building they were sheltered in didn’t offer much protection. Plus the over-eager fire team they were attached to for this intelligence-gathering reconnaissance mission wouldn’t shut up.
From where Jared was standing watch near the window, Miles heard a muttered instruction for everyone to be quiet, and he closed his eyes again. His buddy had his back. As soon as dark fell, they’d head out again, get what they needed, and then ditch these motherfuckers back at the base.
He didn’t normally mind working with the regular troops, but ever since coming back from England, his nerves had been on edge. This was their first time off base since returning, and last night had been good. They’d gotten a lot of pictures, and Vince Nash—the fucking ninja recon freak of SEAL Team 9—had visually confirmed that the compound was full of women and children.
Which made their job that much more difficult, but better to know.
Stop thinking about it. But if he blanked his mind, Piper snuck in. Wide eyes and a confused, wobbly smile… So fucking innocent.
He knew what she imagined he was doing here—nothing like reality.
Or maybe he didn’t know, because she hadn’t sent an email yet.
— —
Piper sat on the edge of her bunk and stared at the folded piece of paper tucked between the pages of the paperback novel sitting beside her. She rolled her new cell phone back and forth between her hands. Kate had paid her first week’s wages in cash and Piper had gone straight to the mobile shop to pick up a prepaid phone. Her first text message was to her sister-in-law, who had promptly responded with love and demands for a longer email update. Now her thumb was rolling over the screen. She’d already added his name to her address book, but she’d still hung on to the paper. [email protected]. Every night for the last week, she had traced her fingers over the words and around the torn edges, reliving every detail of their few hours together. But as time slipped past, she worried that each day blurred her perception of what had really happened between them. Doubt started to creep in, making her second guess all the things she wanted to say to him.
And then there was the worry she needed to stay positive for him. Morale and all that.
She’d email him…soon. As soon as she found the right words.
Resolved, she slid her cell phone into her purse and tucked her novel under her pillow. Time to move forward. Her guide book flopped open to the pages about Paris. These words were also committed to memory, and Piper sank into them, only feeling slightly guilty at the relief that washed over her at the fantasy escape.
She’d only made it halfway through the guided walking tour of Sacre Coeur when her phone beeped. She leapt off her bed and scrambled for her purse, heart pounding, even though she knew it was ridiculous.
He doesn’t have your email address, remember? It was on her to make the first move.
Instead of Miles, it was Kate. Rugby at the park tomorrow. We need sausages and buns to grill. Can you pick them up before you come in?
That she could do. She tucked her book away, grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
At the store, Piper piled her basket high with buns, sausages, mustard and relish. She passed on the hot dogs because they didn’t look the same as at home.
All of a sudden, Miles’s aunt Sue popped out from the cereal aisle. “Hello there.” She cast an appraising look at the armful of meat. “Are you hungry?”
Piper laughed. “Actually, Kate invited me to a rugby game-slash-barbeque tomorrow—and tasked me with picking up some food.”
“That sounds lovely. You know, I used to play, with Kate’s parents, in fact. I think we’d all end up in the A&E if we tried now!”
“You’re pretty spry, Sue. I think you could take the White brothers.”
The older woman chuckled. “Of course. They’d never see it coming.”
“How about you? You don’t have a basket or a cart.”
“I’m actually just getting some anti-nausea medicine. I’m leaving for a cruise on Monday.”
“Oh, fun!”
“I’m looking forward to it, but I’m in a bit of a pickle, which is why I stopped you. I was hoping to ask a favor. Or maybe do you a favor? Normally my neighbor
pops over to water my plants, but she’s traveling to London soon because her first grandchild is due any day. I was wondering if maybe you’d like to stay at my place while I’m gone and take care of it for me. You could save the money that you’re spending at the hostel, and I wouldn’t come home to dead plants and missing valuables.”
Piper raised her eyebrows. “Really? We just met, are you sure you trust me? I mean, I’m totally trustworthy, and if it would help you, I’d love to do it.” She worried her bottom lip as a thought occurred to her. “How long will you be gone?”
“Two weeks. Is that a problem?”
“No, not at all.”
“Excellent. Thank you, dear. And hopefully it won’t be too quiet and boring at my place for you.”
Piper waved her hand. “Oh no, not at all. I get all the social time I need at the pub. Plus getting to read some of your books would be an added bonus.”
Sue cocked her head to the side and wrinkled her brow. “How did you know... Ah, right, my nephew. Of course.”
She carried on, blithely ignoring Piper’s rapidly pinking cheeks. “Okay then, well, you might as well move in tomorrow morning. Come round for breakfast? Excellent.”
And as quickly as she had appeared, the silver-haired elf was off again, leaving Piper alone between the freezer bins to wonder what she’d done to deserve such good luck.
— —
No sooner had dusk set than the shooting started. Every ten or fifteen minutes, a few shots cracked in the night. On the horizon, a distant glow told him a house or a car was on fire. So much for getting closer to the ISIS commander’s location tonight.
“We can’t get involved,” Jared muttered in his ear. Nothing he didn’t know. They were ghosts, just gathering intel at this point.
