by Cindy Dees
There was a quick motion to that effect made and seconded by other committee members, and the hearing was adjourned.
And just like that, it was over. Tex sat in his seat, stunned. He wouldn't have guessed in a million years that Kimberly would support him and Charlie Squad like that. And then a need to see her, to talk to her and touch her—hell, to thank her—propelled him to his feet.
People swarmed all around him as he searched for her. Over the heads of the crowd pressing in on him, he saw an equally large throng mobbing Kimberly. He tried to push through the press of people, but got nowhere fast.
He vaguely registered Colonel Folly slapping him on the shoulder and murmuring his congratulations. His lawyer steered him toward the chamber doors. Away from Kimberly. But he wanted to talk to her! To thank her, if nothing else. Hell, to get her phone number. But the lawyer was politely insistent that Tex go outside and give interviews to the media. Good P.R. for the Air Force, and all that.
The press had latched on to the whole Tarzan and Jane nature of their ordeal and had been hounding him ever since the story hit the wires, trying to make some sort of hero out of him. He'd made one official statement that he was just doing his job and he'd dodged the microphones and cameras since then.
He and his lawyer reached the doors leading into the main corridor, and there the crowd abruptly stopped. The tall, double doors didn't open on cue. A congressional page explained apologetically that there would be a bit of a holdup because the camera crews outside weren't set up yet. Nobody had anticipated such a quick recess in this closed session, apparently.
Tex cooled his jets while the reporters were tracked down and the lights turned on. Kimberly must be looking forward to this press conference. She'd been plastered all over the news ever since they'd come home, and rumors were flying that she'd announce her own bid to run for Congress any day. Riding the wave of being a hero had launched her father's career; it would no doubt work for her, too.
A hand touched his arm and he spun around. He'd know that light touch anywhere.
"Kimberly." Dammit, his heart leapt into his throat like he was some awkward teenager. He nodded politely, vividly aware of the staring eyes and straining ears around them, as they met for the first time since their return to civilization.
"How's your leg?" she asked equally politely.
He looked deeply into her eyes. His feisty, smart, passionate Kimberly was still there beneath all the varnish. He could see it in her eyes. God, he'd missed her. "Leg's good as new. Your pressure bandage really did the trick."
She stared back, her emerald gaze brimming with words unsaid between them. "I'm glad."
Someone jostled through the crowd, somehow managing to push through the crush of avid spectators to this little reunion.
"There you are, Captain." A huge bear of a man held out his hand to him and boomed, "William Stanton. I wanted to thank you in person for bringing my daughter home to me." He leaned close and slapped Tex's shoulder, adding in an undertone pitched for Tex's ears alone, "And I mean that in more ways than one, son. I owe you an enormous debt."
Tex blinked, careful to betray nothing in his expression. He glanced over at Kimberly, who smiled fondly at her father. Had they made up? Were the rumors true that the elder Stanton was going to endorse his daughter's bid for his old seat in the House of Representatives? A hundred more questions leapt into his mind.
"Three minutes till camera!" someone shouted.
Tex grimaced. Kimberly might love the limelight, but he wanted nothing to do with it. In some ways, hiding from the press had been harder than avoiding the rebels in the jungle.
Kimberly leaned close and murmured, "You don't look too thrilled about going out there and facing the media."
He rolled his eyes and murmured back, "I'd rather face a firing squad."
"I know a back way out of here," she breathed. "Wanna make a break for it?"
Kimberly Stanton skip out on all the bright lights and publicity? "Are you sure?" he asked in surprise. "Your career…the coverage…"
She rolled her eyes in turn. "There's plenty more of that where it came from. Besides, it'll probably make even more headlines if we sneak out of here together. What say we blow this Popsicle stand?"
"You're on."
He followed her as she unobtrusively elbowed her way through the crowd. He rolled his eyes as she murmured something about going to the rest rooms to make sure their makeup was right for the cameras. Their makeup? He wouldn't be caught dead wearing makeup. God, he'd never live it down with the rest of the guys.
However, the inane excuse had the desired effect. Everyone ignored them as they slipped to the back of the crowd waiting to leave the room.
"This way." She led him across the chamber and out a small door that led to a series of smaller caucus rooms.
"Are these the infamous back rooms of Congress where all the deals get made?" he asked as they whisked through the maze of doors and corridors.
She grinned over her shoulder. "The very same." She pushed open a door and they stepped outside onto a sidewalk. Alone.
Tex took his bearings quickly. "My car's right around the corner. Let's get out of here before anyone realizes we're gone."
"Lead the way, Tarzan."
He took her elbow and steered her across the street. "After you, Jane."
He helped her into the car and then slid behind the wheel. He breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled out into traffic. "Where to?"
She answered lightly, but he knew her well enough to hear the tension in her voice. "I seem to recall promising you the best seafood dinner on the East Coast if you'd clean a fish for me."
He glanced over at her. Why was she so wired? Worried about being seen with him, maybe? Would that be so bad for her image? Probably. If she ran for Congress, she'd be expected to date only East Coast blue bloods with last names that were household words. His jaw tightened and he replied casually, "I also recall promising you a greasy hamburger with all the trimmings. What's your preference?"
The moment stretched out, a microcosm of their two clashing worlds. A four-star restaurant versus a greasy spoon. It was a no-brainer which one she'd choose.
"I'd like a hamburger," she replied.
He about swerved into the curb and had to correct the car's course hastily. He hadn't seen that one coming.
He drove across town to Bud's Brew House, the darkest, roughest beer joint he knew. Might as well test Kimberly's resolve to go slumming. Not to mention Bud served up the best burgers this side of Jersey City.
Every biker in the place about threw their neck out of joint gawking at Kimberly when she walked in with him. He rested his hand lightly on the small of her back lest there be any question about whose woman she was. At the gesture, the regulars swiveled back to their beers. He'd busted up enough brawls here before for them to know he wasn't a man to tangle with.
Bud's was smoky and loud, and the vinyl seats in the booth were sticky. But Kimberly merely shed her suit coat, unbuttoned the top buttons of her blouse, and took out the clasp holding her hair up. The transformation was shocking as her golden hair cascaded down around her shoulders. She went from uptight politician to soft, sexy and all woman in the blink of an eye.
It almost hurt to look her, she was so beautiful. To think he'd ever dared to love her—who had he been kidding? He scowled into the mug of beer the waitress sloshed down in front of him.
An awkward silence fell between them after the waitress left with their orders for burgers with the works and fries. He cast about for a neutral topic of conversation and failed. He settled for, "How's your dad doing?"
"Good. We had a long talk. He told me about some of the stuff he did in Vietnam. We talked about why it messed up his head so bad."
Tex flinched. "I'm sorry, Princess."
She blinked in surprise. "For what?"
"I gave you enough nasty memories to mess up your head for a good long time to come."
She shrugged. "I'll live. I
talked to my dad about what happened in Gavarone, too. He helped me see that you didn't do anything that wasn't necessary."
"You mean I didn't kill anyone I didn't have to," he amended for her. "After all, I am a nearly unstoppable killing machine."
She frowned at her iced tea and fiddled with the lemon. Kimberly only fidgeted when she was nervous. He made her nervous? Damn. That was no way to win her back.
"It's an expression, Tex. A sound bite for the media. You're no more of a killer than I am."
His eyebrows shot up. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't I single-handedly reduce the population of Gavarone by a measurable amount a couple weeks back? I'd say that qualifies me as a killer."
She gazed at him, unperturbed. "Are you planning on wallowing in guilt until you crack up like my father, or are you going to face reality? You did what you had to."
He leaned back in the booth, nonplussed. She really hadn't reversed political positions on the military for the sake of winning votes. She'd meant it! It was almost too good to believe. He asked skeptically, "You're defending what I did? Since when?"
"Since I talked to Colonel Folly about the full capabilities of the RITA rifle, and since I talked to the other guys on your team about what you guys do."
"You talked to the other guys in Charlie Squad?"
"Yes. I needed more information for my report to the Senate Arms Committee, and my lawyers wouldn't let me call you. So I asked them. They were very helpful. Nice guys."
"They're all nearly unstoppable killing machines, too, you know."
She laughed. "Yes, I know." Her gaze went serious and she leaned forward to grasp his cold hands in her warm ones. "I also know that you're a sane, decent, honorable man. You're no psychopathic ax murderer. And neither are the guys you work with."
She was for real, all right. His jaw sagged.
"When I saw that mock-up of the White House, something snapped inside me. I realized there are a few things out there worth dying for. Once that clicked in my mind, the rest fell into place pretty fast. I believe in what you do, Tex. I believe in you."
He stared at her, not quite able to believe what he was hearing. "You're okay with what I do. With who and what I am."
She nodded readily. No hesitation. No doubts. "Yes."
She hadn't cut and run. The thought burned across his brain like a shooting star. She'd stood by him at that fork in the path in the jungle when she could've left. Again, during the big firefight when she could've slipped away in the chaos. And today, in front of Congress, for God's sake. His heart felt like it was actually getting bigger inside his chest as it expanded to embrace the reality of Kimberly's unswerving loyalty to him.
He jumped when a plate of hamburger and fries was thunked down on the table in front of him. He hadn't even heard the waitress coming.
"How about you, Tex? Are you okay with who I am?"
He stared at her in disbelief. "Of course!"
"Don't answer that so fast. I actually am considering running for my father's old seat in the House of Representatives."
So. The rumors were true. What were the implications of that to a long-term romantic relationship between them? His heart, so light a moment ago, plummeted to the ground like a brick. "You'll make a great congresswoman," he said quietly. He felt like she'd just dragged a machete across his body and spilled his guts out onto the floor.
"I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to run, yet."
He frowned. "Why not? It's exactly what you wanted. A chance to make a difference and be heard."
Her gaze skittered away from his and she chewed absently. Whatever was holding her back from running for Congress must be huge. She'd just chowed down a greasy French fry slathered in ketchup without a single word of complaint.
She continued to eat, oblivious to her food. She might as well have been popping termite grubs into her mouth for all the attention she was paying.
"What's up, darlin'?" he finally asked. "What's keeping you from running for Congress?"
She hesitated a long time and finally answered, "You."
A knife twisted in his gut, cutting his heart wide open. It felt like all his blood was draining out of him. Sonofabitch. Just when he'd started to believe in her…
He dragged a French fry through the pile of ketchup on his plate, drawing deep, slashing lines in it. He managed to grit out, "I gather I'm a skeleton you'd rather leave in your closet? I'll sign a legal release swearing never to say anything about it if that's what you want. I'd never stand in the way of your political career, Princess. And besides, what happened between us is in the past."
He risked a glance up and saw Kimberly's eyes fill with tears. Dammit. Now what was wrong? He'd given her what she wanted. Even if it was ripping his heart out.
* * *
Kimberly swiped at her cheeks, mad that she was giving away her feelings so blatantly. She closed her eyes against the searing pain cutting through her. He'd already moved on with his life. Like the straightforward, honest guy he was, he'd taken her at her word in that helicopter when she'd questioned the cost of their survival.
She'd been exhausted and scared out of her mind, and they'd just avoided dying by the narrowest of margins. Thinking about those last moments on the roof of that burning building still gave her the willies. She'd spoken out of fear in the helicopter. Babbled the first thing that came to her mind. And she'd driven Tex away for good with that one stupid question.
Yes, there'd been a cost to their escape. A high one. But it was a price that the United States government had been more than willing to pay to get the RITA rifle and its dangerous technology back. It hadn't been her fault or Tex's that all those rebels died. She'd finally seen that when she talked to her father about Vietnam.
Her dad wasn't responsible for being drafted and sent to Southeast Asia, where he'd dutifully carried out his orders. The men in charge, the men who gave the orders—the president, his cabinet, Congress—they were the ones responsible for what had gone on in Vietnam.
She and Tex had been tools in Gavarone, the warm bodies on the ground in the right place at the right time. Colonel Folly made it crystal clear in his talk with her that if she and Tex had failed or died trying to get the RITA rifle back, somebody else would have been sent in to take their place.
After witnessing the RITA rifle's deadly accuracy and the carnage it could wreak, she understood why the people in charge had sent Tex after it.
She was determined to become one of the people who gave the orders to the men and women like Tex. Level-headed people, who really knew the price of force, needed to be the ones with their fingers on the triggers of men like Tex and Charlie Squad. Hence, her run for Congress.
"Hey, you solving world hunger over there?" Tex's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Uh, no. I was thinking about what you said."
He threw up his hands in mock surrender. "Honest. You don't have to kill me to ensure my silence. I can keep a secret." A flash of remembered passion glinted in his gaze, belying the casual tone of his voice. "I'll take the memory of our time together in Gavarone to my grave."
"Is that what you want?" she barely managed to whisper past the constriction in her throat. She'd so hoped there was a way she could have both her career and the man she loved. "To leave what happened between us in the past?"
"Hell, no, it's not what I want," he answered savagely. His voice ripped into her, rending her flesh with its serrated edge.
Her gaze snapped to his. His eyes were as hard and brilliant as diamonds. "What do you want, Tex?" she choked out.
"I want you. All of you. To myself. Forever."
They were exactly the words she'd longed to hear for the past two, long, miserable weeks without him. Exactly the words she'd feared most.
Some of her inner conflict must have shown on her face, because Tex asked abruptly, "What the hell's going on in that purty li'l head of yours? Spit it out, darlin'."
She smiled reluctantly at his abruptly thick drawl
. "Tex, my feelings for you haven't changed one bit since we laid on that burning roof together."
Fierce light leapt in his sapphire gaze, as bright and hot as the inferno around them had been that night.
She continued doggedly. "But I don't know how you'd feel about being married to a politician."
He shoved back abruptly in the booth. He stared at her for a long time, his expression completely unreadable. It took all her self-control not to fidget under his intense scrutiny.
Finally he drawled, "Are you proposin' to me, Princess?"
She blinked in surprise. "I suppose I am."
"You'd better be sure, darlin'. It ain't fittin' to lead a guy on about something as momentous as that."
Was she sure? She looked inside her heart and found nothing but jubilance at the prospect of a lifetime with him. A slow smile spread across her face. "Yes, I'm sure. I'm definitely proposing to you, Tex Monroe."
Still, he showed no reaction whatsoever. No hint at all of his thoughts on the subject. She rushed onward, saying her piece before she lost her nerve. "The thing is, I'd really like to run for Congress. I think I could win, and I think I'd be a good representative of the people. But I don't want to lose you, either. If you don't think you can deal with all the media badgering, I need to know now, before I accept any nominations."
Tex leaned forward, his voice deadly serious. "Are you telling me you'd give up running for Congress if I asked you to, so we could be together?"
She nodded, her heart in her throat.
His gaze bored into her, looking straight into her soul. "I'll be damned," he breathed.
What did that mean? "Tex, help me out here. Throw me a bone, a scrap, anything. Tell me what you're thinking!"
"Well," he drawled slowly, "I'm thinking I'd better give you a bridle for a wedding present. Any woman with enough starch in her britches to propose to her man is going to need a little reining in, now and again."
Her heart skipped a beat and then kicked into overdrive. "Really?"
He moved so fast, she hardly saw him slip out of the booth and come around to her. She only knew she met him halfway and his arms were suddenly wrapped around her, hard and strong. And then his mouth was on hers, warm and possessive. Where he ended and she began, she stopped being able to tell. Their two loves swirled together and mingled into one, passionate and powerful enough to last a lifetime.
