by Geri Krotow
“Yes!”
They ran into the rain—which was virtually horizontal—and didn’t speak until they were both inside Miles’s truck.
“Heat, now!” Ro shivered and hugged her arms. One thing she loved about Whidbey Island was how rapidly the weather changed. Some groused about it, but Ro enjoyed the constant sense of change and movement that the various weather systems visited on one of the longest islands in the continental United States.
“Aye-aye, ma’am.” Miles turned on the ignition and pressed the corresponding dashboard buttons for the heater and seat warmers. Ro couldn’t keep herself from staring at his long fingers as they accomplished the task. He had blondish hair on his knuckles, and the healthy amount of hair that sprinkled his wrists made her wonder if he had a lot of hair on his chest, too.
She stared at his fleece jacket next and the long-sleeved thermal under it. Her fingers itched to lift the hem of his shirt, to take a peek.
“Ro.”
She moved her gaze from his torso to his face. His eyes blazed in their intensity. Her shivers melted into a flush of heat that started in her midsection....
“What?” Her voice was steady but her heartbeat wasn’t—she swore he could hear it pounding erratically.
“I’m proud of you. You did great in there.”
He gave the compliment as one professional to another, but the way he stared at her mouth wasn’t the least bit professional.
She’d never felt such a pull of attraction, of downright longing, for another person. Not even on the most romantic dinner dates with Dick, or one of her “sexy” dates with men she never intended to have a long-term relationship with.
Yet here, in her wet clothes, after a gruesome morning, she was hotter for Miles than she’d ever been for any other man.
“Thanks.” She swallowed. If he kept looking at her like this she’d be a puddle of hormones in thirty seconds. “So, um, lunch? What are you in the mood for?”
“Ro.” He lifted his hand to her ear and stroked along its edge, down to her jaw. He tilted her chin. “You know what I’m in the mood for. What I’ve been hungry for since the day I met you.”
“Miles, this isn’t the best idea either of us has ever had.”
“Did my kisses last night bother you? Did you enjoy them as much as I did?”
Maybe if he hadn’t stroked her face so tenderly, if his voice wasn’t so sexy and needy, she’d have been able to keep the subject on a culinary menu.
Instead, she leaned forward.
“Last time I didn’t give you much of a choice, Ro.” His lips were next to hers, his breath redolent of coffee. “Can I kiss you this time, Ro? Do you want me to?”
He was teasing her and it was excruciatingly wonderful.
“Yes.”
She didn’t wait for him to lean in farther. Bridging the tiny gap between their mouths, she closed her eyes to fully appreciate the feel of his lips on hers. He waited for her to deepen the kiss until she was tugging at his lips with hers, before he opened his mouth wide and sucked her tongue against his.
She moaned with pleasure as the kiss developed into something more than a kiss. The only part of their bodies that touched was their mouths, yet Ro felt Miles’s imprint on every inch of her skin. Her breasts swelled and she thrust her chest forward, begging him to hold her, caress her nipples.
Miles anticipated her before she made any physical moves. His hands were stroking her nipples through her blouse, her bra, and the friction made her frenzied. She leaned into him, needing him to press against her, to fill the ache between her legs with a decisive touch.
Their tongues licked, their mouths sucked and their breath grew ragged and indistinguishable, one from the other. Ro heard gasps and moans but didn’t know and, more important, didn’t care if they were hers or Miles’s.
His hands grasped her hips, pulling her toward him, to straddle him. Ro was grateful she’d worn jeans to make the journey easy, but just as frustrated that there was still so much clothing between them. As she shifted and was about to allow her pelvis to rest completely against his rock-hard erection, her buttocks hit the steering wheel.
The blare of the truck’s horn made her jump and she banged her head on the sunroof.
Miles groaned.
Ro looked down. Miles’s head was between her breasts. He showed no indication of moving as she felt him breathe in her scent.
“Oh, Miles.” She swallowed a giggle. “This is...most inappropriate. Crap!” She wiggled off him and swung her legs around, over the dashboard, and sat back in the passenger seat.
“Shoot, woman.” Miles’s voice sounded like the gravel they’d walked over on the beach. She risked a peek at him. One arm rested on the steering wheel and the other was propped on the divide that should have kept them from making love in the front seat. As if he felt her gaze, he turned his head toward her.
Their eyes met and Ro was shocked at how naked his need for her was. It was all she could do not to throw herself at him again.
“This was, could have been—”
“A disaster if anyone had seen us.” Miles wiped the condensation off the driver’s side window and peered out. “No one’s around—we’re alone.” He turned back to her. “And anyone walking by wouldn’t have been able to tell who it was with the steam on the glass.”
“I’m sorry, Miles. I never want to put you—either of us—at risk. This is why I don’t date people I work with!” Her heated desire threatened to blow into full-fledged shame. What the hell had she been thinking? She’d never let her guard down like this before.
“Hang on, Ro. I can see you’re off to the races. First, we weren’t doing anything wrong. It’s our legal right to have a relationship. Making out in uniform in a public parking lot, well, that would’ve been very poor judgment. But we’re in civvies and I don’t regret a moment of this. I do think it’s time you took me up on my offer to go out together and do this properly—in civvies and at a place far away from our daily routine.”
She didn’t answer him. Her actions made it clear how badly she wanted to be with him, all common sense and self-drawn rules to the contrary.
She caught a peek at him as he got his clothes back in shape in the driver’s seat. Yeah, he wanted to be with her, too.
* * *
MILES DROVE ALMOST all the way back to the base before he pulled off into a residential area.
“I thought we were going to lunch.” She’d done her best to make her hair lie as neatly as possible in the humidity after being so thoroughly mussed just moments ago.
“We are. My place is here and I have food for us. I’ll take you back to base to get your car after that.”
“I don’t think we should be alone together now, do you?”
He shot her a wide, relaxed grin.
“You’re probably right. I promise I’ll keep my hands off you if you’ll do the same, okay? I have someone I want you to meet. We won’t be alone.”
He maneuvered the truck into the short driveway that ran alongside an A-frame home.
“This looks like something you’d see in the Swiss Alps.” White-splashed plaster was framed by dark wood beams. A porch encircled the entire building, at least from her vantage on the left side of the house. She got out of the truck.
Just across the street from the house was another row of homes, but beyond that, she caught glimpses of the sound and the Cascade Mountains.
“Can you see the Cascades from the upstairs windows?”
He’d walked around to stand next to her.
“Yes, and the balcony off my bedroom opens out to the best view in town.”
Heat ran up her face. “I wasn’t fishing for an invite.”
Miles laughed. “It’d be like fishing when the salmon are running, Ro. All you gotta do is reach down
and pluck up a big, pink juicy one.”
“Stick to dismantling bombs, Warrant. Your double entendre intention is an epic fail.”
“Fine.” He motioned to the steps leading to the front door. “Go ahead. I’ve got your six.”
“I never doubted that, Miles.” She smiled at him as he used the common navy vernacular to indicate he was guarding her backside, the six-o’clock position.
She walked ahead of him, fully aware that he was checking her out. She stepped aside at the top of the steps so he could unlock the solid red door. The black wrought iron detail work on the lock, handles and door knocker impressed her. Whether Miles had added these touches or simply maintained what had been here before, he’d done a wonderful job.
“Stand back.” He issued the warning just as he opened the door.
A huge brown dog launched itself toward Miles, and jumped high enough to give him a lick on his lips. Miles laughed and rubbed the dog on either side of its face before he stood back and raised his right hand.
“Sit, Lucky.”
The dog sat, and Ro was mesmerized by the complete adoration that radiated from Lucky’s eyes.
“You can pet her if you’d like.”
“I’d love to.” She bent over and held out her hand for Lucky to sniff. “You’re a pretty girl, aren’t you?”
Lucky replied with a thump-thump of her tail on the tile entryway and licked Ro’s palm. Ro was smitten and promptly gave the dog a good scratch behind each ear, which Lucky in turn responded to by immediately rolling over on her back to reveal her belly.
“She’s a sucker for attention.” Miles beamed and Ro bit back a giggle. If he could only see himself.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing—well, okay.” She stood back up and faced him. “Seeing you so tickled over a dog is a far cry from the big, bad EOD dude who struts around the hangar.”
His smile faded and his expression grew serious.
“Whoa, what did I say?”
He shook his head. “It’s not you, Ro, it’s me. I get the humor in what you’re saying, but you’ve got to understand that a dog saved my life. She took the mine explosion for me so I could stand here in front of you.”
“Miles, I’m so sorry.” What he’d shared with her about his bomb-sniffer dog last night came rushing back.
He absentmindedly rubbed the dog’s head. “She isn’t even mine—I’m watching her for a friend who’s downrange.” The wistful note in his voice told her he’d love to have a dog of his own again.
Crap.
“Miles, I feel like an idiot. I wasn’t belittling you or your love of dogs, honest.”
“I know you weren’t, sweetheart. Let’s go eat.”
Sweetheart?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“DO YOU WANT any more eggs, Ro?” Krissy looked like a Julia Child midget with Ro’s Hello Kitty apron wrapped around her slightly rounded tummy.
“No, thanks.” Ro drank her coffee and eyed Dick as he wolfed down Krissy’s breakfast feast. Even though it was Sunday she half expected a call from Miles or the wing to inform her that they had some work to do.
Until then, she longed to enjoy her usual Sunday morning routine. Sleep in, drink gallons of coffee or tea while she knitted a chemo cap, get in a run, maybe peruse the ceramics shops in La Connor, the artsy town just off the island.
But Dick and Krissy had thrown a big rusty wrench into her dreams. She knew she had to be an adult and deal, but she had no desire to.
Worse, Dick and Krissy seemed content to stay as long as they wanted at her place.
“Don’t you have a large caseload of patients who need you back at work?” She put her mug down on her oak table and waited for Dick to shovel more pancake into his mouth.
Had she ever really thought he was attractive?
“I have two weeks off.”
“You told me you came out here in a hurry after Krissy.” Ro turned toward her sister.
Krissy held up her spatula as though it were a crucifix and Ro was a vampire.
“He did come out here in a hurry. Right, Dick?”
“You two were fighting. You said you were leaving him.” Anger bubbled under Ro’s composure. “That was real, right? This isn’t one of Mom’s stupid ideas, is it?”
“Calm down, Ro.” Dick held up his hand in a wave befitting the queen of England. “That’s what’s wrong with this family. You women overreact to everything and none of you communicate effectively. We can work this out.”
Ro slammed her hand down on the table and winced, which made her bad eye start to throb again.
“I don’t believe this! You two planned this—you actually thought it was okay to come out here and bunk down in my house?” She focused her full energy on Dick. “Just for the record, you may never, ever tell me how to behave in my own home. And you may never, ever say things about my family, no matter how fractured or messed up it is, in front of me. Got it, bucko?”
Dick had the elegance to at least appear mollified. She suspected it was simple incredulity at her outburst.
“Ro, it’s okay. Do you need to talk about it?” Krissy slid into the chair across from Ro and put her spatula down. “You haven’t been yourself since we got here. Half the reason we came is because you haven’t returned any of Mom’s calls. My calls, I get why you didn’t answer them. But Mom—you know she’s fragile, Ro.”
“Mom is fragile when it’s convenient for her to be fragile, Krissy.” She drummed her fingers on the table.
“You may be right, Ro, but she’s still our mother.”
“I can’t get over her showing up here in an RV with her hair that awful shade of blue-gray. She had everyone who met her thinking she was some poor, pitiful widow.” Ro shuddered at the memory. Her mother had insisted on parking that RV in front of the house for nearly two weeks, and drove it almost daily down to City Beach to get a cup of coffee and go for a walk.
“To top it off, she brought that stupid cat with her and used him as her excuse for going into town every day with that house on wheels.” Ro’s allergy to cats had always been ignored by her family. They loved cats and her medical issue was an inconvenience in their eyes.
“Please let’s keep it real, Krissy. Mom wanted to find some of her old boyfriends along the way, maybe meet some new ones. She never made a trip in her life just to see me.” It was always about Mom’s need for a new man, the man who’d fulfill her every need and take care of her for the rest of her life. What Ro’s and Krissy’s respective dads hadn’t done.
“Ro, Mom loves you. She wanted to see where you live and she’s earned the right to travel however she wants to. Why shouldn’t she take an RV across country?”
“It’s not that she did it, it’s that she showed up, unannounced, just like you. When you all know I treasure my privacy and like to be able to plan for your visits.”
“You don’t know how to relax, Ro.”
“Your sister’s right,” Dick chimed in.
Ro grimaced. “Shut up, Dick.”
“Ro, you have to learn to accept Dick. He’s my husband and he’s the father of your future niece or nephew.”
“Oh, joy.” Ro flicked her finger against her ceramic mug.
Krissy reached her hand out to Ro.
“We’re worried about you. We just want things to be the way they used to be.”
“What do you mean?” Ro cocked her head to imply that she actually gave a crap what Krissy thought.
“It was so much nicer, before, when you lived closer and you’d come home at least once a month whenever you were in port. You were happy, Ro.”
“Was I?” She turned to Dick. “Was I happy, Dick? How about when you broke up with me in a Denny’s, for God’s sake? What about all the times I came home hoping we’d
have some nice, quality time alone and you never once got off your butt and made a reservation anywhere for us?”
She stood up. “It doesn’t matter at this point. You two are together. You’re having a baby. I wish you well, but you can’t possibly expect me to be overjoyed at your happiness.”
“Ro, wait.” Dick stood up. “I owe you an apology, probably a thousand apologies. But I can’t change the past. I’m sorry we didn’t work out but I’m also glad—now, you’re free to find your true love like I did.”
Ro bit the inside of her cheek. In the course of a few days she’d gone from a self-possessed woman who had decided to take control of her own life to feeling completely out of control about every aspect of it.
It had all gone wrong the minute Miles had spotted her on Deception Pass Bridge.
She shook her head.
“Do you know, Dick, I actually felt guilty when I tossed our engagement ring off Deception Pass Bridge?” She left out the part about when she’d done it—let him think it was as soon as she’d moved there.
“You shouldn’t feel guilty. It was a cubic zircon. Fake. You knew that, Ro.”
“Yeah, I did, but I forgot about that. It was all we could afford at the time, remember?” Another little fact she’d shoved down when she’d been willing to take less than she deserved.
“But you’re right,” she went on. “I shouldn’t have been so melancholy.” She looked at Krissy, then back at Dick. “You two really are happy, aren’t you?” She shook her head again. “At least some good did come out of all of this. Who knows, if I’d woken up to my delusion of a life with Dick sooner, he could have ended up with someone else.”
“No.” Dick’s immediate response shot across the kitchen. “Krissy is the one for me.”
Ro smiled and started to laugh as the pure warmth of good will flowed over her. It was going to be okay. All of this. Her family might always be crazy but she’d get through it—they all would.
“Yes, she is. I’m truly sorry I cut you off for so long, Krissy.”
“Ro, you’re too hard on yourself, as usual. We’ll talk about this later.”
