by Aliyah Burke
She blinked and seemed to realise he was still there. “Why are you here?”
“We have some unfinished business, you and I.”
“You’re soaking wet.”
He arched a brow. “It’s raining out.”
She nodded and continued like he’d never said a word. “You should get dry.”
“I have no other clothes—”
Jaydee walked off, pulling him behind. Dutifully, he followed her back to her bedroom. It wasn’t girly, it was…functional. Dark, natural colours, the area was spotless and gave no insight into who she was.
She opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of men’s warm-up pants. “These should fit you.” A pair of socks was next. “There are towels in there.” Then she walked away.
He didn’t know whose clothes they were, but he was really cold. So he went to her bathroom. Again spotless but nothing feminine. He stripped down, dried off with the large, white towel then threw on what she’d given him. Rubbing his short hair briskly, he hung the towel up over the opaque squares blocking the room from anywhere else. His soaked clothes he draped in the shower.
He emerged slowly and found her sliding something in the oven. The lights dimmed a bit when another rumble of thunder rolled through. Warm again, he approached. She went to the sink.
“Thank you.”
She looked up at him from where she washed some vegetables. “Why are you here? We work together so there can be no—”
“Stop.” He trailed his fingers along the countertop. Hearing those words from her would only annoy him. The hell with the rules, he wasn’t about to ignore the heat between them. Nor was he going to let her ignore it.
“I am merely—”
“Jaydee,” he said with force.
“Then what reason could you have for coming here?”
He could taste her confusion. “Is my being here a problem?”
If he only knew. Jaydee chewed on her lower lip briefly. Gio was a distraction she truly didn’t need. But she couldn’t ignore him, nor could she bring herself to let him leave looking all wet and soaked.
“Jaydee?”
“No,” she muttered. “It’s fine.”
When he stepped further into the kitchen, she retreated around the cooktop counter, trying to keep a bit of space between them. The gleam in his eyes told her he knew exactly what she was doing.
“Talk to me, Jaydee,” he said, drawing back one of her stools and settling his body upon it.
She gulped and did her best to take her eyes off him. It didn’t work. He sat there wearing those warm-up pants and socks. His hard, muscled chest taunted her with recollections of how it felt to be pressed against him. She itched to touch his smooth skin, lick it, and more.
“What do you want to know?”
“Tell me more about this”—he frowned and paused—“this EG.”
Her heart pounded and she did a quick scan of her place. She’d got this because of its size and inconspicuous location. It was cheaper than a regular apartment and offered her more privacy. Plus the view was amazing, especially on nights like this, when the rain and lightning sliced the sky.
“Jaydee.” Fingers snapped in her face.
“Huh?” Gio had moved and now stood right before her.
“EG, sweets. I think I lost you for a moment there.”
She blinked a few times. “Right. EG.”
With a glance back at the oven, she walked over to her corner where all her stuff was and drew a quick sketch on one of the whiteboards. She turned to face him only to discover he’d sneaked right up behind her, leaving her face to face with his gorgeous chest.
“I know most of the time when you fly, you use the jet engines, but, when you’re up in the stratosphere doing those long flights, we use electrogravitics.”
He backed off, grabbed the lone chair, and sat, his focus still on her. “Okay. This is why we can go for so long without fuel?”
She nodded and shoved her hands in her pockets. “Exactly. There are several relations which allow this. Gravitational mass is proportional to electric charge, is one. Gravitational mass density is proportional to electric charge density, is another.” She wrote out the symbol equations for both.
“These electrogravitic relations can be expressed in terms of field potentials. That would be—gravity potential is proportional to negative electric potential.” The symbol equation for this one went up on the board as well. “Consequently, an electric potential field gradient which extends between the positive and negative—”
“Oh my God, stop, please,” he interrupted. “I’m so lost. You have to dumb it down for me. Can you give this to me in words I will understand?”
She capped the marker and returned her hands to her pockets. Rolling her lower lip in her teeth, she sighed. “Jet engines get the planes up in the sky. When the antigravity propulsion is turned on—the flame jet generators which are fitted on each of the four engines—several million volts are produced.” Gesturing with one hand to the tail of the plane, she said, “The engine exhaust, along with the rear of the plane, houses a negative charge which creates a ‘hill’ behind the jet.” She moved to the front of her sketch. “All the jets have a leading edge ionizer which is positively charged. This, because of electrogravitics, produces a ‘well’ to fall into. With me so far?”
She paused and looked at him. His face had this slightly confused expression. But when he nodded, she continued. “So the plane—after the jet engines are off—will pretty much ‘fall’ towards the ‘well’, while the ‘hill’ from the back of the jet continually ‘pushes’. All of this keeps the jet moving with silence, and the only reason to refuel would be to keep the voltage up.”
She uncapped the marker and drew something else. “When all this is working, an ellipsoidal ion plasma sheath surrounds the B-2, which basically renders it undetectable.”
“Hence stealth bomber.”
Jaydee nodded with a smile. “Exactly. Even though it is not really invisible, and can be detected.”
“So, what are you doing here? Why go over all of this?” He shifted then pinned her with his gaze again. “How do you know so much about this stuff?”
She hesitated. There was much more to tell him about the jets but he seemed transfixed on her for the moment. Which might work in her favour. “I’m trying to figure out what went wrong with Commander Walker’s plane.”
The pain in his eyes made her feel lower than a snake. Something she had, or hadn’t, seen had been the reason for the jet going down.
“You’re hedging with your answers, sweets.” Gio moved in the chair and she found herself short of breath as she stared at him.
“I am not.”
A sex-infused grin lifted the corners of his all too kissable mouth. “You are. How do you know all of this…stuff?”
More hesitation. “It is my area of expertise.”
He stretched his long legs out in front of him and crossed his arms over his bare chest. “So how did you get your wings? I mean, I’m guessing this kind of thing took a while to learn.”
Her heart thundered in her own chest. “The Navy.”
Gio arched a brow. “And we’re back to the hedging. What aren’t you telling me, Jaydee?”
She breathed a huge sigh of relief when the timer dinged in the kitchen. Without a word, she picked up the eraser and cleaned off the whiteboard then made her way to the oven. Using the hot pads, she pulled out the enchiladas and placed the pan on a lattice bamboo trivet.
“Did you make this?” he asked as he leaned over her island and sniffed.
“I pulled it out of the box and slid it in the oven when it was at the required temperature.”
“That’s a long way of saying no, sweets.”
She lifted a shoulder languidly. “No. I don’t cook.”
“Really?”
Shutting off the oven, she peered at him. He waited for her, his eyes full of laughter. She shrugged and stacked the hot pads beside the dish. Then she moved
to the fridge and withdrew a pre-made salad.
“Really,” she said.
“You need a home-cooked meal, sweets,” he observed.
“I am home. And the meal is cooked.”
“I mean one made from scratch. Didn’t your mom ever cook meals like that?” Her walls began going up and, as if he sensed her retreat, his hand shot out and captured her chin. “Uh-uh, sweets. Talk to me.”
“I cannot recall any of them but the last time I saw her was…years ago.”
“I’m sorry. Is she dead?”
“I have no idea.”
“Your parents are divorced then?”
“No. I just don’t know.”
It had hurt years ago and it still did now. Needing something to do, she stepped from his intoxicating touch and grabbed some plates and silverware. She grabbed two glasses and looked at him again. “All I have to offer is water, I hope that’s okay.”
“Fine, thank you.”
She filled them from the fridge and watched him from beneath lowered lids as he dished up some of the food. He looked so comfortable there in her place. For a moment, she allowed herself to think of him as part of her life. Then, with a sharp mental shake, she shoved it from her thoughts.
Her table was small and his size dominated it. The meal was done in silence, as they both ate heartily. She didn’t finish all of hers, for he’d given her more than she would normally eat.
Gio helped her clean up and, as he snooped through her kitchen, she put the remaining food into containers. The storm outside had increased in fury, the black night occasionally shattered by the brilliant flashes of lightning.
After she snapped the lid on the final container, she felt him behind her. His arms landed on either side of her, boxing her in. The heat from him warmed her and called to her to lean back and soak it all up. Take what he had to offer.
“Thank you for sharing your meal with me.”
“You were here.”
“One day, I’ll cook for you, Jaydee.” His breath fanned along her ear and she trembled.
“It’s not necessary.” Inside she melted. It was extremely rare for someone to cook for her. Cafeteria food notwithstanding.
“It is.”
He turned her in his embrace so that they were face to face. His eyes were dark and smouldered with desire. Her heart pounded out of control—this was her weakness, this man here. Giovanni Cassano.
“We shouldn’t,” she murmured as his head closed the distance between them.
“Nope.” He kissed her lightly, dragging his tongue along her lips.
“We could get in trouble for it.”
“Big trouble,” he agreed, nibbling on the side of her neck as his hands lifted her shirt.
Her breaths were ragged as he removed her shirt and bra. Bare chest to bare chest, he gathered her close and stroked his fingers down the small of her back.
“Against regulations.”
“Agreed.” He lifted her and carried her to her bed, laying her there and tugging down her pants.
“It’s foolish.”
“Absolutely,” he agreed, shucking his own clothes and sliding on a condom.
“Really, really shouldn’t be doing this.”
Gio rose up over her and settled between her legs. “Career killer,” he mumbled before he sank home inside her with a single powerful stroke. Jaydee closed her eyes and forgot everything else.
Chapter Five
The clap of thunder woke him. Gio opened his eyes and glanced down at the woman in his arms. The light from her flameless candles allowed him to make out her form. Jaydee still slept, their legs intertwined. She had her face buried against his chest and one arm draped around his waist. Turning his head to the left, he saw the readout on the clock. Two-thirty in the morning.
The rain continued to sluice down the large windows and he moved closer, brushing a kiss along her forehead with a smile. He stroked one hand idly up and down her exposed upper arm as he listened to the power of the unrelenting storm.
Yes, so they were violating rules in the Uniformed Code of Military Justice but, for the life of him, he didn’t give a damn. He was a man who loved women but never had being with one felt so right, until he’d met Jaydee.
She mumbled and burrowed closer when the next crack and rumble rocked the building. He closed his eyes and listened to the storm. All the while, he thought about Jaydee. Two sides to the same coin.
Never had he met a woman who was so passionate and giving one minute, only to be so doggedly focused on stuff the next. He’d noticed it at the base. She tended to forget about other things when she worked on those damned equations. Why did she look so fearful when I first arrived?
Her curves pressed against him, pushing away all thoughts of electrogravitics and whatever the hell else she’d been trying to explain to him. A gentle chime broke the momentarily lull in the storm and she reacted immediately. She rolled away from him and lifted a phone to her ear.
“Yes?”
Gio opened his eyes and stared at the naked expanse of her back, which the flickering light of her candles added an air of sensuality to. His gaze drifted to the yellow fairy on the lower left side. Iridessa. One of Tinkerbell’s friends. He’d looked it up after seeing it painted on her motorcycle, where the name was below the fairy. The fairy loved order, order, and more order. Just like the woman who wore her.
“Yes, sir,” she said, her voice low. “I understand. No. I haven’t figured it out yet. I will. Yes, sir.” Jaydee pushed up from the bed and walked from the room, swinging a robe on as she went.
He waited all of a minute before he got to his feet, tugged on the pants she’d given him earlier and padded out after her. Who the fuck is calling her at oh-two-thirty? She’d clicked on a light over where the boards were and he stopped by the kitchen and just stared at her.
Her robe was tan and stopped mid-calf. It was the ugliest thing in the world and it turned him on more than he’d believed possible. Knowing she was naked beneath it made him harder than stone. She knelt on her chair as she spoke with the unknown man on the phone while her fingers flew along her computer’s keyboard.
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” She ended the call and continued to type at a devilish speed on the keys.
“Who was that?” he demanded, moving closer.
She looked up and jumped, a small squeak escaping from her throat. He narrowed his eyes. Why did she look so surprised to see him? Didn’t she know he’d been the one in bed with her?
“I thought you were still asleep,” she said.
Words that only marginally made him feel better. Even that vanished with her next statement.
“You should get going.”
“You’re kicking me out?” He stopped when the desk was the only thing between them.
“I’m on my way to the base, so…yes, I suppose I am.” She paused and looked around. “Unless you want to sleep and head in later from here.” Jaydee didn’t meet his gaze when she offered.
Lord help him, he wanted to stay and snoop around her place. He longed to find out what made her tick. “No, I’ll get ready.” More than that, though, he wanted her to tell him of her own volition about her.
“Okay.” She sighed heavily and walked away from the computer.
He swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bathroom where he set her down in the middle of her large shower. Moments later, her robe lay discarded on the floor along with his pants. Tossing his drying clothes away, he drew her into the shower with him and turned on the water.
“Gio, we don’t have—”
He didn’t let her finish her protest. Repositioning her so she faced the wall, he pressed into her as he used a hand to guide his shaft deep inside her. Her gasp was instantaneous. He nipped along her neck and she whimpered.
“There’s always time,” he promised as he found a rhythm he liked.
In and out he thrust into her, alternating his speed and lifting her up on her toes with each forward, driving strok
e. She clenched him tightly, her heated internal walls rippling around him as he tried to stave off his release until she found hers.
He moved her hands to reach above her head and held them there. Stretching her out. The water ran down them, plastering her hair to her skin, and he shoved it aside and continued his assault on her neck. Beneath him, she writhed and moaned as they moved as one. She came with a high cry, her slit tightening around him. He powered into her three more times before pulling out and coming on the small of her back in a rush that left him lightheaded. They remained like that as they caught their breath before he pressed a kiss to the spot behind her ear. The rest of the shower didn’t take too long for them to complete.
Once they’d dried off and dressed, he sat on the foot of her platform bed and watched her swiftly braid her hair. She looked efficient, put together, and…and he hated it. Gio longed to undo what she’d just done and lay her back on the bed. To hell with this shit of leaving at three in the morning to get into work. Officially, they had to be back by oh-seven-hundred. So what had happened for her to be called in so early? His pager hadn’t gone off.
He had put on the clothing he’d arrived in—it was now dry. And, as he sat there tying his boots and trying to behave himself, he realised that when he looked at Jaydee he saw something more than a fling. He saw a future with her.
Shit. He dropped his gaze, and, when he’d regained his composure and glanced back up, she was gone. Boots tied, he hurried after her and found her drinking a glass of water.
“Who was that on the phone?” he asked again.
Her gaze shuttered before she shrugged. “Someone I used to work with.”
“And he calls you whenever he wants?” His tone was low and dangerous.
“Of course.” She turned her glass over in the sink and met his gaze unflinchingly. “Ready?”
No. Not even close. “Sure.” He led the way to the door and stopped. “Do you have a car?”
“No. I have a motorcycle.”
“It’s raining.”
“Yes. Come on, I have to get to work.”
