by Geri Krotow
He sped the bike past the fir tree-lined streets in Ro’s neighborhood and eased them onto the main highway that bisected Oak Harbor and the island. They were headed north to where Petty Officer Perez had lived with his wife and two young children.
Miles turned on the motorcycle’s communications system and filled Ro in on the brief meeting he’d managed with the CACO.
The Perezes lived off-base. Mrs. Perez was a nurse and had a good job at the base hospital, so they could afford to purchase their own home. This wasn’t the case for most navy sailors who, once they had families, had to live in base quarters just to make ends meet. Living on base meant no rent, no utilities other than telephone, cable and internet. Quarters were often cramped but very livable, especially on Whidbey Island with the abundant natural scenery. It was easy to enjoy most weekends outdoors year-round, which made up for the tiny homes.
The Perezes had done well for themselves.
He pulled the bike into a small cul-de-sac in the Perezes’ neighborhood, then took his helmet off and motioned for her to do the same.
They were still on the bike.
“Why didn’t you just pull up to the house?” Ro’s voice was low and he liked how he could feel the faint timbre of it.
“I could have—they’ll assume we’re here for a condolence visit either way. But I’d rather not run into anyone who knows us if we can help it. Discretion being the better part and all that, right? I thought it might be a good idea to walk around the neighborhood and get a feel for the area first. Plus we might get some information out of their neighbors.”
“I really hate that we have to do this like we’re creeping around.” In his peripheral vision he saw her raise and then lower her helmet onto her thigh.
“We aren’t ‘creeping around,’ Ro. We’re officially nonofficial, working for the commodore.”
“You never call him ‘boss’ or ‘Captain,’ either, I notice.”
“No, I don’t.” He wasn’t going to elaborate. It was rare for him to respect any leader as much as he did his EOD colleagues, but that wasn’t what was at issue here. The reality as he saw it was that Commodore Sanders was, plain and simple, out for himself and his promotion. Miles didn’t let his own opinion take up too much space in his head, though. The commodore stayed out of Miles’s business and always made it clear that he respected Miles’s weapons expertise.
“Can you slide off first, please? It’ll be easier for both of us.”
“Oh, I’m sorry—of course.” He regretted the loss of her body heat so near his the moment she broke contact with him and slid off the bike.
“Nothing to be sorry about.” He took off his helmet, then accepted hers and put both of them in the storage area under the seat. He pocketed his keys and looked around.
“I get it.” She sighed softly.
“Get what?” He saw her expression and held up a hand. “No, wait. I haven’t said anything about the commodore. My opinion is just that—mine, and it’s irrelevant. He’s our boss, we’re following his orders. Did I miss anything?”
She smiled at him.
“Nothing at all.”
Damn, her smile made him forget what she’d asked. Why they were here, his own freaking name...
“Let’s go.” He turned and headed up the street, away from the cul-de-sac. Perez’s family home was just around the bend, on the other side of the woods that separated the neighborhood streets.
“Aye-aye, Warrant.” Ro mock saluted him as she fell into step.
“Knock it off, Ro. We’re in this together.”
“Yes, we are, aren’t we?” She giggled. “I think it must be my nerves. There’s nothing funny about this.”
As they continued to walk together, he turned his head to watch her.
This was the closest he’d been to Ro in or out of the workplace. Her hair was a riot of spikes—the helmet hadn’t been able to squash it down. Her lashes were long and at this distance he saw that the tips were golden, so they were even longer than he’d realized. She filled out her jeans as though she were a lingerie cover model. He stopped himself from hanging back a pace—just to catch a glimpse of her ass as she walked.
It’s turned into your favorite hobby.
“What?” She’d caught him staring. She stopped and turned toward him, ready for a fight.
“It’s you. You distract me.” It was true. She’d caught him and he saw no reason to hide his interest. It had always been there and he’d told her as much when he’d asked her out.
She rolled her eyes.
“Knock it off, Warrant.” Was she purposely repeating the expression he’d used a minute before? “We’re on a mission, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
He studied her face for one more heartbeat before he looked over her shoulder and saw a group of wing staffers walking away from Perez’s home.
It wouldn’t matter if they recognized him and Ro, but his gut told him it was better to stay under the radar.
He didn’t need a reason to kiss Ro, but this was good enough for him.
* * *
IT SURPRISED HER that he didn’t try to come up with a lame-ass excuse as to why he’d been staring at her. But of course he didn’t—he was Miles. Over six feet of solid EOD and dedicated warrior. He wasn’t going to prance around any issue, especially his attraction to her.
And she was attracted to him, too. But he wasn’t the right guy for her to date casually. No way was she ready for anyone as intense as Miles. Besides, he wasn’t her type.
She worked with him.
“We have to stay on task, Miles. It could get dicey enough without you looking at me like this every time we’re together.”
“You’re right.”
Already, he was distracted. She saw his gaze wander and catch on something over her shoulder.
If egos made noises, she heard hers let out a huge protest.
“Ro, we need to—”
Before he finished his sentence, he grasped her shoulders and pulled her close. The shock of his body against hers sent crazy signals to her brain and then back to her most sensitive areas.
“Um, Miles?” Her voice came out in a whisper and she should have been perturbed that it didn’t sound more forceful.
“I’m going to kiss you. Relax and see where it goes, will you?”
CHAPTER SIX
HER MOUTH BELIED her thoughts. It opened to meet his lips as they covered hers. Warmth, excitement and curiosity collided and months of speculation came to an end.
This was what a kiss from Miles felt like.
Sparks of delight jumped across her tongue as his tongue flicked at hers.
Her hands uncurled from their fists and she raised them to his chest, his shoulders, his neck. She sighed into his mouth and reached around his neck, pressing her pelvis against his. She liked Miles’s idea of letting go.
He reacted to her enthusiasm by running his hands over her back, to the small curve of her spine, where he pressed her even closer to his body, his erection.
God, it had been too long for her. Way too long. His touch was like the most delicious chocolate bar, the first sip of rich red wine, the hot bath after a ten-kilometer run.
A groan deep in his throat was her only warning before he drove his fingers through her hair and cupped the back of her head, deepening the kiss to an all-out sexual campaign.
* * *
MILES HAD NO choice. Well, okay, he could have just pulled Ro into an embrace, no kiss included. But she was too close and he’d wanted to touch her, to kiss her, for too long.
Her lips didn’t hold back. They were soft and still but her mouth was open in her surprise.
He used her open mouth to his best tactical advantage. He tasted her with a confident lick, and then full
y engaged her tongue with his. Her sigh vibrated against his lips and whatever tactical reason he’d had for kissing her went out the window. He placed his hand on the small of her back and pulled her hips into him. It didn’t take much pressure at all. His other hand was on her nape, under her short waves that were much softer to the touch than he could have imagined.
His skin throbbed with the touch of her hands on his chest. When her hands reached up around his neck he couldn’t help groaning.
Focus.
Still kissing Ro, he opened one eye and looked behind her. The officers he’d recognized from the wing had gone. He heard the slam of doors and the revving of car engines as the group drove away from the neighborhood.
With that distraction gone, he should have ended the kiss. But Ro was at once soft and insistent beneath his lips. She quivered when he left her mouth and placed a well-targeted kiss on the side of her neck, then let go of a sexy sigh as he trailed his tongue on her throat.
Her mouth demanded satisfaction as she put her hands on either side of his head and guided his lips back to hers. He was gone—diving deep into the hot sensuality that was all Ro.
The sound of a screen door closing followed by a dog’s high-pitched barks brought him back.
He lifted his mouth from Ro’s hot lips and rested his forehead on hers.
Their breath came in light gasps and he found himself enthralled by the thought that the two of them were breathing the same air.
You’ve got it bad.
“That was a surprise,” Ro whispered.
He traced her cheek with his fingers. “I’m not sorry I had to kiss you.”
“You did it to keep the wing staff from seeing us, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
She sighed again, and her shoulders rose, then lowered. The arms around his neck fell and she took a step back. Reluctantly, he allowed his hands to leave the sweet curve of her lower back and drop to his sides.
“Is this how you usually run an explosive ordnance op, Warrant?”
“Out in the field the guys and I don’t do much kissing.”
He saw her lips twitch but no way in hell was she going to let him see her grin. Ro was so damned strong. He knew it killed her to let go of her professional demeanor, even in civvies. He’d heard some of the other staff joke that she had a stick up her ass but he knew they were as bemused as he was that she was able to stay so solid no matter what the circumstance.
Dealing with aviators on a daily basis was never easy, yet she made it look like a jog through City Beach Park.
“No wonder, since that would be distracting, to say the least. I hope you don’t plan a repeat maneuver, Warrant.”
“I do whatever duty requires, ma’am.”
She glared at him. She didn’t usually show this kind of heat, and it took all of his control not to haul her onto the bike and take off for his place.
“What we’re doing will not call for that kind of tactic again, get it?”
“Got it.” She’d enjoyed it as much as he had, he was sure of it. But this discussion was for another time, if at all.
He looked toward Perez’s house. It was modest and neat, at the end of the cul-de-sac one street over, easily visible through the grove of fir trees that separated the streets. Only the trunks of the tall, thin evergreens were visible at eye level as the trees towered over a hundred feet above the homes.
“It’s time to get to work, Commander.”
* * *
ROANNA STEPPED BACK and looked up at Miles. With the glare of the sun’s lingering rays behind him she couldn’t read his eyes the way she needed to. But she knew he could read hers and it pissed her off. What did he see—her pupils dilated from the intensity of it all?
Damn it.
“I didn’t want the group of wing sailors to see us. But if they did, they’ll just think we were a couple out for a walk.”
“And a grope to go with it?”
Miles winced.
Score.
“I didn’t grope you. And a kiss may not have been a great solution, either, but can you name a better one?”
She couldn’t. She was impressed, in fact, that he’d acted so quickly. She’d been all wrapped up in simply walking next to him, trying to keep her mind on the case. Who was behaving more like a resourceful naval officer at this point?
“No, it was quick thinking.” She shrugged. “You were smart to act.”
“Was it that bad?”
“Cool it, Warrant.”
His chuckle warmed her shoulders as if he’d reached out and put his arm around her.
She’d gone months—more like years—without reacting so strongly to a man. Now when she finally did, it was at the worst possible time.
With the worst match possible for her. She had enough difficulty keeping up her expert persona at work. If she ever dated a colleague, no matter how “legal” it was in navy terms, she risked losing the tenuous control she had over her emotions.
That control had slipped when she’d admitted to herself that her engagement was a sham. When she’d realized she’d created a fantasy to cling to as she gave her energy and life to the navy. Even though she’d been nothing short of relieved when she and Dick called it quits, he’d gone and married Krissy, her sister, for God’s sake.
Cool it. You know your real hurt is from Mom and Krissy lying about everything while you were gone.
At least it had all been out of sight of her navy colleagues.
“Don’t worry, I don’t think that necking with you is part of our investigative duties.” His tone was cool but the way he said “necking,” such an old-fashioned term, made her belly feel warm with anticipation.
Face it. Necking with Miles wouldn’t be the worst of your problems.
But it was still too much of a problem.
“Are you ready to go knock on the door?”
“Of course. The CACO’s already done the hard work. We’re just going to offer our condolences, see if we can help, right?” She looked at him and was gratified by his reassuring expression.
“Yes, he did.” Miles was silent for a moment. They both knew what the CACO’s duties entailed and understood that this had probably been the worst day in Mrs. Perez’s and her children’s lives. The knock at the door, the group of uniformed men and women on her porch, the terrible pronouncement that Petty Officer Perez was dead.
“All we’re trying to find out is whatever we can about their marriage, reasons he’d commit suicide and if there were any extra life insurance policies.” Miles ticked off the list they’d already agreed upon. It had made perfect sense after they’d visited the beach scene but seemed so insensitive in the hours after the Perez family had been devastated.
“Right. And we’re going in tonight, before she has too much time to think about it and decides to withhold information that we could use, or that the press could use against the wing.” Ro needed to voice her justifications for adding to the Perez family’s burden.
He nodded. His brusqueness irked her. She wanted to be detached from her emotions, too. It wasn’t happening for her.
Her usual manner of coping with stress at work by throwing herself into the situation wasn’t coming as naturally as it had before this morning.
“For the record, I think you’re watching too much NCIS. It doesn’t matter what we find out—if the press wants to slander the wing or the navy, they’re going to.” They walked up the last half block of the street and stood at the edge of the Perez driveway.
Miles groaned. “Please. I don’t watch anything military unless it’s a documentary. Do you?”
“No, but I had to yank your chain about something.”
“Whatever, Ro, but I disagree—I think the commodore’s right. We might be the only line of defense that keeps this
whole case as private as possible for the family and allows Perez to rest in peace.”
“You don’t think we’re out here to simply protect the wing, and by turn, the commodore, from bad press?”
He turned to her.
“The commodore’s motivations aren’t my problem, Ro. Giving a navy sailor the dignity he deserves in death is our job here. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes, of course. But it’s naive to think we’re not somehow looking out for the wing, too.”
They were at the front door. She glanced at Miles and he nodded. Ro pressed the doorbell.
Silence.
She looked at him again.
“Maybe they don’t want any more visitors.”
“Ring it once more.”
She did, and this time the door opened before the last dong sounded.
A tall, bronzed goddess of a woman swept her gaze over Miles before giving Ro a brief, cursory nod.
“What do you want?”
“Mrs. Perez?”
“Yes?”
“We’re from the wing. We worked with Petty Officer Perez and we’ve come to pay our respects.”
“Sure you have.” She eyed Miles with what Ro could only surmise was interest and shot a hard look at Ro.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Lieutenant Commander Roanna Brandywine. This is—”
“I’m Miles Mikowski, a warrant officer on the staff.”
Anita Perez’s attention was focused on Ro, and from the blank but intense look on her face, it wasn’t because she was interested in getting to know her.
“May we come in?” Miles kept things moving, bless him.
“Yes.” Anita took a step back. “You first.” She nodded at Miles. Miles didn’t hesitate and stepped over the threshold.
Ro knew from her CACO training that family members in grief and shock over the loss of a service member often behaved in a less-than-polite manner. Ro had faced discrimination while in the navy but never so blatantly from a civilian. She wasn’t going to take Anita Perez’s rudeness personally.
It didn’t make her initial gut reaction of mistrust and dislike of Mrs. Perez any less.
