Would Patrick and Adam approve if she got involved with a fellow Marine?
Whoa. Who said anything about a relationship? You only met him a day ago.
“You seem lost in thought.”
She shrugged. No way did she intend to tell him her real thoughts. “Just thinking about my overprotective brothers.”
“Why didn’t you get to know Adam growing up?”
“Long story. He ran away at sixteen when…well, his dad died, and Mom married my dad and moved to Chicago from Minneapolis. Took decades for her and Adam to find each other again, in part because Adam changed his last name to her maiden name, Montague. Their reunion happened last Thanksgiving. But I had heard about my wonderful, missing older brother my whole life. He was larger than life to me.”
“He is larger than life. Best there is.”
She smiled. “Thanks. I’m kind of fond of him, too. What was he like to serve under?”
“Stern, but fair. I knew him before his wife died. He changed a lot after he lost her.”
“I don’t think he ever expected to find love again.”
“Most people aren’t so lucky.”
“Do you think you’ll ever marry again?”
“Hell, no. I’m not the marrying kind.”
“But you were married once.”
“That was before. I’m not that man any longer. Wouldn’t inflict myself on anyone, much less a wife.”
Talk about a gauntlet. “Women are stronger than you think. Don’t assume all of them will run at the first sign of a challenge.”
He continued to walk without responding. She hoped he would give her words some thought. Any woman would be proud to have such a brave hero as her partner.
If she were the marrying kind, she’d certainly have him on her short list.
They exited the first tunnel, and she heard the roar of the river down below them. Leading him to the guardrail, she peeked down the ravine while moving her camera into position.
After snapping a few shots of the river and the red-rock hills beyond the gorge, she reached for his hand. “Help me over and let’s go down for some closer shots.”
“That’s awfully steep.”
She flashed a smile at him. “You need to lighten up, Ryder. Play a little. Come on.”
She climbed to the other side of the guardrail, but he didn’t accept her help in return. He simply stepped over as if it was nothing. He didn’t appear to be taller than five-eleven, but seemed to have the legs of a man much taller. Funny that her walking pace was faster since his legs were considerably longer.
They found a bit of a path to follow. Probably one that animals used. She couldn’t imagine this being a popular hiking trail. Once at the bank of the river, she set her shutter speed slower and propped her elbows on a boulder to try and steady the camera as she took some frames of the water. The slow speed would show the movement of the water, giving it a white, flowing appearance in the photo.
After several more shots at varying speeds, she stood and looked around. “It’s gorgeous down here.”
He nodded, but seemed too lost in thought to speak.
“I haven’t been down here in decades. Carlos and I used to hike here when we came to stay with his grandmother.” He pointed toward the tunnels. “She lived on the other side of that hill on an old Indian service road.”
“That’s where you live now?”
“Yeah. She passed over long before I went on my last deployment. The house was vacant, and Carlos said I’d do him a favor by living there and keeping an eye on the place. I think he wants to use it as a vacation home or maybe retire there some day. But he knew I needed a hand up. I do maintenance on the place instead of paying rent.”
“I can see why you love it out here. And why it’s so hard for you to spend time in the city.”
“You like it out here. Why don’t you stay at my place? There’s a second bedroom, of course.”
Megan grinned as she stared down at his boots. Her face flushed warm at the thought of sharing his house out here.
“I’m sure you’d have lots of time to work on your photo editing. You might even build a new portfolio of nature shots.”
She was tempted, wondering what the morning light would be like up here and what flora and creatures she’d find on walks around his place.
“We’ll see.” She smiled at him, taking pleasure in giving him back a bit of his own non-commitment medicine. But the idea intrigued her. Since the break-in, the thought of getting away sounded better all of the time. But she didn’t know if it was a good idea.
“Hey, take off your boots and socks. Let’s go wading.” She placed her hand on his upper arm to steady herself as she shed her own shoes and socks. Rolling up her leather pants to her calves took a little more work, and she belatedly realized she’d given him a good view of her leather-encased butt while bent over at the waist to do so.
“Do you know how cold that water’s going to be this time of year?” His voice sounded a little husky.
“But it’s so warm in the sun.”
“Most of that water comes from snow runoff. It probably never is truly warm, but certainly not this early in the summer.”
“Oh, come on! Have a little fun!”
She found a safe place for her camera and waded into the water. “Oh my God! You’re right! It’s freezing!”
“Told you.”
A look of longing convinced her Ryder needed to let down his guard and play. Careful to miss the camera, she reached down and splashed a few drops of water on him. “I’m going to splash you until you come in with me. Might as well control how wet you get.”
He shook his head and unzipped his boots, sitting on a rock by the bank to remove them and tuck a sock inside each one. “I’ll be nicer than you were and be careful not to mess up your fancy leather outfit. I’d hate to see it ruined.”
Did he like seeing her in leather? She grinned.
When he hissed as he entered the cold water, she reached for his hand. “Come on. Let’s wade out a little bit.”
“The river’s not too high now, but promise me you won’t walk blindly into a river or arroyo without paying attention. Flash floods from storms many miles away are a problem here.”
She nodded but sensing no sudden wall of water about to descend on her, she stayed put and bent over to look for minnows. “Oh, look! A tadpole!”
She pointed it out to him, but when she glanced up, she caught him focused more on her butt until caught looking, and then he turned away. She grinned. Maybe the man was more interested than he let on.
When she could no longer feel her feet, she started for the bank. “Let’s head back up as soon as my feet dry a bit.” They sat together on the bank, and she pulled out her camera, taking more photos of the water, as well as their feet against the red rocks and dark green grass.
After they donned their shoes and socks, she stood and picked up the camera. Climbing the hill was tricky as she tried to keep her camera from banging against the ground. Ryder suggested she hold the camera with one hand while he pulled her up holding her free hand. The man was wicked strong. He must not be very idle. She wondered what he did for a living, but was too focused on hauling her ass up the hill to ask. Man, was she ever out of shape.
He gave her one last pull at the crest, and they stood side by side. She gasped for breath and felt sweat trickling down her neck. Man, leather was not the thing to wear when hiking up a hill.
When she could form a sentence again, she said, “Where to next, Ryder?”
Chapter Six
Ryder tried to ignore the breathiness of her voice and the way her chest heaved as she attempted to catch her breath the last few minutes. The last half hour had been a test of his self-control as he’d been treated to the sight of her leather-encased ass on a couple of occasions as she bent over. The way the outfit molded around her breasts, too, was equally distracting.
Stop looking at her breasts, asshole.
He needed to get
back on the bike and take her back home. But first, he’d promised to show her something on the other end of the second tunnel. “Ready?”
She nodded, and he took her hand. He told himself it was to help her over the guardrail, but he’d enjoyed walking through the tunnel holding her hand earlier. He hadn’t spent companionable time with a woman in…forever.
Megan was comfortable to be with. She didn’t act silly or play games. The real deal.
He liked her. A lot.
But not in that way. More like a sister.
Then why are you noticing her ass, breathy voice, and heaving chest?
The admonishing inner voice sounded a lot like Carlos.
Oh, shut the fuck up.
Sometimes being honorable and doing the right thing got in the way of his baser needs. All he had to do was remember who had sent him on this mission, though, and he’d stay on the straight and narrow.
The sunlight waned as they walked out of the second tunnel. The timber operation died in the first half of the last century. Now the road was popular with locals and adventurous tourists. Ryder avoided the area during July and August when the road became congested with too many people, but right now, it was just the two of them.
The wind picked up, and he heard the squawk of two or more Steller’s jays. He often hiked here during the winter months to just sit and listen to the birds and watch for other wildlife. Helped him some, especially when he’d had a rough night. Carlos’s Pueblo elders had taught both boys how to become one with the Universe.
“It’s so serene here.”
Megan felt it, too.
He smiled. “I still feel close to the Great Spirit here.”
“I can see why.”
Sherry had never wanted to spend time outside of Albuquerque. Megan was the first woman he’d brought out here. For some reason, that made him happy.
“Oh, look at these!”
Her eagle eye homed in on the rusty nails and bolts that had been pounded into posts at the side of the road to form representations of wildlife. The posts had been intended to keep cars from going over the embankment to the river below, but someone decided to decorate them with fanciful doodads.
Megan spent the next fifteen minutes photographing each one from every angle. Her excitement over the simplest things ignited a spark of life inside Ryder in places he thought long since dead. He hoped she’d show him the photos after she downloaded them off her camera. He wondered if she was any good at what she did, but if she had earned her master’s studying photography, then she must be.
“Do you ever put any of your pieces in galleries?”
She stood and smiled at him. “Not yet. I was thinking earlier this evening that I might have captured some that would make great gallery pieces.”
She scrutinized him a moment and lifted the camera to her face before snapping a couple photos of him.
“Careful. You don’t want to break your camera.”
She giggled. “You make a wonderful subject.”
“Not for a gallery, though.”
“Oh, no. Those are just for me.”
Without warning, she leaned toward him and pecked him on the cheek. His heart pounded hard before he convinced himself he wasn’t under attack. Not the kind that would warrant his fleeing anyway.
“Thanks for bringing me here, Ryder, and for sharing one of your special places with me.”
He cleared his throat after it tightened with emotion. “It’s nothing. You needed to get away as much as I did.”
The thought of returning to her place unsettled him and ruined the moment. “I guess we’d better head back. This isn’t a good road to be on after dark.”
She took his hand, and they started for the bike. He didn’t slow her down this time, because the sooner they re-entered her world, the better. He’d be able to keep up his defenses more easily there than out here. Maybe he’d adjust better tonight than he had over the last day.
They donned their helmets, and when she straddled the seat behind him, he leaned back into her body before catching himself and sitting up straighter. She wrapped her arms around him.
“Ready to ride when you are.”
Jesus, don’t think about riding her.
He rolled the throttle and sped off down the winding road heading back to hell on earth. Okay, he exaggerated. While he hated being in this or any over-populated city, the number of perils paled in comparison to the streets of Fallujah.
After he pulled into the garage and closed the door, he breathed a little easier. At least in here he only had one other person to worry about.
No doubt he would worry until he completed this mission.
“I’m going to try and get some more work done before I turn in. If you want anything in the kitchen, help yourself.”
“Don’t you want anything to eat?”
“Oh, I’ll grab something later.”
Well, at least now he knew what he needed to do. The woman didn’t know how to take care of herself. She’d sat at her computer for hours without even taking a bathroom break earlier today. She must love her work, but that couldn’t be healthy. Didn’t computer screens emit some kind of rays that could cause health problems over time?
Forty-five minutes later, he knocked on her office door.
“Yes?”
He cracked the door and peeked inside. “Time for a break. Dinner is about to be served.”
She turned to him with a puzzled expression on her face as if he’d just spoken Serbian to her, and then she gave him the sweetest smile.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know. That’s why I enjoyed doing it.”
He crossed the room to pull her chair away from the desk and held out his hand to her.
“My. What service.” She stood and stared into his eyes, seemingly as lost in the moment as he was, before glancing down. Was she blushing?
Back off, Ryder.
He took a step back before he noticed the photo on her computer screen. Him. His eyes had lines he didn’t remember, but he didn’t spend a lot of time staring in the mirror. And where had all that gray come from?
“I didn’t realize I’d gotten so old.”
“Men age gracefully. I love that shot. Your guard was down. There was almost a twinkle in your eyes.”
He looked closer before backing off. Twinkle, hell. He was probably turned on by the woman standing in front of him at the time. Of all the photos she’d taken, he hadn’t expected her to be looking at that one. She snapped the candids before he’d known what she intended to do. Before he could glance away. The man staring back at him looked lost more than anything.
Fucking lost.
“After you.” He indicated with his hand for her to precede him from the room. When she would have gone to the kitchen, he took her elbow gently and steered her into the dining room. Shit. He had set the lights a little too low and, using the dimmer switch on the wall, bumped up the brightness some. This wasn’t a romantic dinner for two. Last thing he wanted was for her to read anything into this other than having a meal together.
He pulled out her chair and seated her. “I’ll be right back with dinner.”
He had already set the table and poured a glass of red wine for each of them, giving it time to breathe. She or her brother had good taste in wine. He and Sherry used to drink wine at dinner, back before he left the Marine Corps. “Feel free to enjoy your wine.”
“You make me feel like a princess or something.”
Okay, now that wouldn’t do.
“I’m a Marine whose big sister taught him manners.”
A light dimmed in her eyes, and the smile left her face.
Fuck.
He hated that he came across sounding as though he didn’t care about her. He just didn’t want her to think he cared in that way.
“I’ll be right back.”
Time to retreat to the kitchen and move past this awkward moment. As he plated their dinner, he heard soft music begin playing i
n the dining room. Shit. He could have done without mood-setting music. What did she expect to happen tonight?
This was fucking dinner!
He placed a piece of freshly made fry bread on the corner of each plate and carried them into the dining room. “Here we go. Time to chow down.” There. Maybe that would help convey the point of this meal. He took his seat on her right side.
“It smells delicious. When did you make a food run?”
“I haven’t left the place. You know I wouldn’t leave you alone. I made it from what you had on hand.”
“From what you found in my brother’s kitchen? I haven’t had time to stock the pantry as well as I’d like yet, but his cooking skills are minimal. Worse than mine even.”
“Yeah. I took inventory and found cans of tomatoes with green chiles, corn, and black beans, not to mention frozen chicken and other meats in the freezer. I remembered eating lots of dishes like this when I stayed with Carlos’s grandmother. It won’t be as delicious as hers, but I’m sure it’ll be edible.”
She picked up the piece of bread. “You even made bread?”
“Fry bread. A lot simpler than yeast breads in the oven. I’ve made fry bread lots of times, so I had that recipe in my head.”
“Oh, I always see stands at the side of the road where they are selling fry bread. I just never stopped to try any.” She took a bite and closed her eyes as she chewed and swallowed. “Oh, my gosh. That’s incredible! I could get spoiled if you keep cooking for me. I’ve been staying here for weeks, but as you might have guessed, we don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Patrick and I tend to eat on the run.”
“I do think a trip to the grocery store might be overdue.”
“Ugh. I hate that even worse than cooking.” She picked up her fork and smiled before stabbing a piece of chicken. “But I love to eat.”
He was anxious to see what she thought of his meal. True, the kitchen didn’t boast a lot, but he’d found plenty he could use to make a simple New Mexican dish like this one.
She took a bite, and he waited. Again she closed her eyes and chewed slowly. The sensual way she enjoyed food turned him on. Okay, anything she did had that effect on him.
Nobody's Lost (Rescue Me Saga #5) Page 6
