Clamping her teeth shut against the sudden urge, she fought to regain control of her impulses.
His hands pressed to the back of her black leather chair, tipping her slightly and making her feel ten years old again and about to ride the Scream Machine roller coaster for the first time.
He smiled down at her, his blue eyes flashing fun once again and said, “Next time we’ll do more flirting,” right before his lips claimed hers in a short, powerful kiss.
She should have kicked him in the balls. If anyone had seen them kissing there would have been hell to pay. Commander Wright was a stickler for the rules—including no public displays of affection in uniform. Instead her body melted and she found herself nodding stupidly.
Damn it!
CHASE STARED down at the piece of paper in his hand.
You don’t deserve theDistinguished Flying Cross
That was all there was. Nothing more.The words made his blood run cold. Not because of any threat they implied—there really wasn’t one—but because they were true.
However, only a handful of people knew that. Actually, only a handful of people knew the factual events of that night. He and whoever had written this card were apparently the only two souls who realized the truth. He didn’t deserve the medal.
But no one was listening to him. He didn’t want the ceremony. Didn’t want the hoopla. Certainly hadn’t wanted to be interviewed by Matt Lauer and Oprah.
Hell, the President was coming to his ceremony, or at least that’s what he’d been told. The air force saw this as a way of capitalizing on some great media attention. And frankly, he couldn’t blame them. If it had been anyone else…he’d have told the guy to man up and take one for the team. Which was exactly what he was going to do.
It was one night out of his life in Mess Dress. At least, that’s how he was trying to view it.
He slapped the card back down onto the edge of his kitchen counter.
Whoever had sent it, he agreed. Not that he could tell the person. They hadn’t even included a return address. He had no idea what they wanted him to do or say.
He strode for the door, leaving the card balanced on the edge of the counter but stopped halfway there.
He’d been headed for Sabrina’s house. If there was anyone he’d like to talk to about the whole situation, it would be her. But considering she’d been assigned the task of making sure his medal ceremony and the apparent media circus they expected to surround it went smoothly, there was no way he could do that.
Instead Chase sank down into his dark brown leather chair. It didn’t quite feel like his, but it was. It had been in storage for the past year.
It wasn’t the same apartment he’d had before but it was in the same complex. His stuff was the same. And yet it didn’t seem like home.
Everything here had stayed the same. Only he had changed.
As a pilot he’d had it relatively easy compared to the other guys. It had still been tough, hotter than hell. But he hadn’t spent most days dodging bullets and praying a roadside bomb didn’t kill him. Air force jets weren’t being shot out of the sky on a daily basis. Of course, his would be the exception to the rule.
Being in a war zone changed you. More than he’d expected.
Somehow the extraneous existence that had been perfect for him before now held absolutely no excitement. Eleven months ago he would have been at one of the casinos or bars having a drink, soaking up the pulsing neon party atmosphere.
At the moment he wanted none of that.
He’d lived in Sin City for a while now. Only he no longer had the urge to sin. What he really wanted was to spend the evening teasing Sabrina into a fit for the simple pleasure of watching her anger and passion.
He loved how her green eyes sparked with temper. How her skin glowed warm with conviction. He seemed to be the only one to see beneath her calm, cool surface.
She’d shown him a side of herself no one else apparently knew existed. Sometimes he wondered if she even knew. And now, whenever he looked at her, he didn’t see the perfect uniform and pulled-back hair; he saw her lying on that hotel bed, champagne running across her breasts.
Until today, he’d had no idea how important the reaction he could pull from her could be. It gave him a sense of masculine power. A reminder that life went on and he was still alive. A reminder he hadn’t realized he’d needed.
Chase’s lips turned up into a grin and his fingers played at the arm of his chair.
Sabrina interested him. More than anything in the past eleven months had. More than anything in the last several years had. And whether she wanted to admit it or not she was attracted to him. Hell, they’d already proved how fantastic they could be in bed together.
He could not figure out why she was resisting so hard. She certainly hadn’t fought him before he’d left. Not that it mattered. He enjoyed a challenge.
And he could tell Sabrina McAllister was going to be that. But he’d convince her because the payoff in the end…well, that would be better than any G-force induced adrenaline rush. He wanted Sabrina McAllister in his life. More than he’d wanted anything in a very long time. And he had no problem fighting for her.
Hell, high-precision maneuvering was what he excelled at.
5
HE WAS DRIVING her crazy. Everywhere she looked, there he was. If she hadn’t known better, Rina would have thought he was stalking her.
But he wasn’t. He was just doing his job.Not that it was helping her much.
How hard could it be to ignore one man? One hot, gorgeous, dark-haired, blue-eyed, sexy-beyond-belief man?
Apparently it was impossible. For her at least.
Which was why she lurked inside the doorway to the hangar waiting for the team to return from practicing maneuvers. She couldn’t actually watch the practice. It was the irony of her life…she was deathly afraid to fly.
She’d never had any problems watching the team perform, though, as long as she was firmly on the ground. But for some reason she couldn’t stomach watching Chase, just as she’d never been able to watch her father.
The unbelievable scream as they flew overhead penetrated the walls. It scared the hell out of her. Not the sound but knowing he was up there, taking risks each time he rolled into a maneuver or dove for the ground.
The pilots in each four-man formation trusted the others blindly. In order to get such tight and perfect order none of the three following pilots used their instruments. They strictly flew off of their proximity to the lead pilot. That took guts and a blind faith she wasn’t sure she’d have.
There had been an incident years ago where all four pilots died in a crash—each following their lead straight into the ground. They’d been doing their job. And Chase would do his, confident in the abilities of the men and women he flew with. Rina didn’t have to ask him. She knew that’s exactly what he’d say.
It still set her on edge. Even more so after hearing about the heroic and idiotic stunt he’d pulled in Iraq. Yes, some part of her appreciated his selfless act. But another got so fiery mad at him for risking his own life for some stranger. If things hadn’t gone well…if he hadn’t come back…
It was something she wouldn’t let herself dwell on. At least not long enough to get past the complete mess his death would have caused. Trying to explain to everyone that they’d been married would not have been pretty.
Rina wasn’t sure she understood the kind of…conviction pilots showed in their abilities and those of the team around them. She didn’t think she’d ever felt that way about anything.
Maybe just pilots had the capacity. Her father had certainly felt that way about the air force—still did. She’d thought after the academy she would feel the same way. She didn’t.
It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy her job, or appreciate and respect the men and women serving with her. Because she did. She just didn’t think she had the same level of commitment that Chase and her father had.
But she wanted to feel it.
> Rina watched Chase walk into the hangar, flight helmet in hand, hair damp and curling at the edges. His flight suit hugged every damn curve of his body. He looked amazing as he joked and laughed with the other members of the team.
She really didn’t like the way he smiled down at Major Tracey Burhop, the number four pilot. Babe Magnet. She fought down the urge to drag him away from the pretty redhead.
What was wrong with her?
This was Burhop’s second year with the squadron and she’d never had any problems with the other woman, who happened to be happily married. But apparently that didn’t seem to matter to the green-eyed monster living inside her chest.
Of course, Chase’s reputation probably wasn’t helping that any. Neither was the seemingly unshakable urge to peel that flight suit off of his body inch by slow and sensual inch.
She should leave while they were occupied and before she made a huge mistake that blew their lie straight out of the water. But she couldn’t take her eyes off of him long enough to move.
“Sabrina.” And then it was too late.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Did you need something?”
Chase walked straight to her, giving her a smile of her own that made her heart go soft and melty at the edges.
“No. Yes.” You. What was wrong with her? “I came to ask you a few questions about the ceremony. Do you have a minute?”
“Sure. Fire away.”
“I need to get a list of anyone you’d like invited to the ceremony. Obviously, the President is attending along with several high-ranking government officials and Senator King. All the generals. Local officers. Are your mother and sister flying in?”
She looked up into his eyes and wished she’d thought to bring pen and paper to write with, something to occupy her hands and mind. Of course, that would have required forethought and not just an uncharacteristically wild impulse to find Chase for the simple pleasure of seeing him.
“Yes, they’re coming. I have a few friends here I’d like to add to the list.” He paused. It was a quick indrawn breath that told her whatever he was about to say next he wasn’t entirely happy about. “We lost several good soldiers that night. I was thinking about inviting their families, let the sacrifice that their loved ones made get the attention it deserves.”
“I think that’s a thoughtful idea, Chase.”
She could tell by the pinched pull of skin around his mouth and eyes it wasn’t something he liked to think about, remember. She could understand why.
“I’ll handle it.” She’d do some research and take care of this on her own. She didn’t want him dwelling on the negatives of that night any more than he probably already did.
While they’d been talking the group had drifted away, leaving them practically alone. She turned on her heel and headed abruptly for the door.
Chase fell into step beside her. As they reached the door, he snagged it, holding it open for her. “After you.”
She didn’t do it on purpose, at least she didn’t think she did, but as she walked past they touched. Her feet immediately stopped. She hadn’t told them to…they just did. Air jerked into her lungs, making a sharp whistling sound she really didn’t like.
Chase reached for her. The warmth of his hand settled at the base of her spine, giving her the jolt she needed to get the synapses in her brain firing again.
She shot forward as if he’d branded her instead of simply touched her. “I’ll see you around,” slipped out of her mouth, breathy as if she’d just run PT.
“Let me know if there’s anything else you need.” The melted honey in his voice told her he was perfectly aware of the effect he had on her body. And that he wasn’t talking about the ceremony. “Anything.”
Rina hurried down the hall, away from him and temptation. How could the damn man make her body sizzle and her brain turn to mush with a simple, completely nonsexual touch?
Her teeth ground together, the annoying sound echoing through her brain. Rina fought the urge to turn around, afraid to find him still standing there, that know-it-all smile and those dancing eyes staring back at her.
If she looked and he was laughing at her…she’d probably go ballistic.
But when she turned around, he was gone. And somehow that was worse.
NOTHING HAD HAPPENED.
They hadn’t canceled the ceremony. No one was even talking about his note. He knew. He’d asked around.His Amy might have chosen the army, but only because she’d wanted to be a trauma surgeon and they offered the best opportunities for training and practice. Otherwise, she’d have gone into the air force, “Like my old man,” she’d always said, with that saucy, cheeky grin.
Of course, maybe it was his fault that nothing had happened. He hadn’t been specific about what he wanted. Obviously, that would have to change.
SHE’D RUTHLESSLY avoided him for several days. And bought herself some much-needed breathing room. If she couldn’t control herself and her impulses when she was around him, she’d simply avoid him. At least that was her thinking. The only problem was that just because she hadn’t seen him in person didn’t mean he hadn’t invaded her thoughts, her nights, her dreams.
But now she had the annulment paperwork ready and it was time to tell him. The question was how and when.Why was this so difficult for her? Normally she tackled tricky situations head-on. She’d learned early in life that wishing something weren’t true or hard didn’t make it go away.
So why was she prolonging the moment that would take Chase out of her life?
Digging the heels of her palms into her eyes, she groaned and pushed the paperwork to the edge of her desk.
She had thirty minutes left in the day. She needed to put all thought of her farce of a marriage out of her mind and concentrate on finishing some actual work. She needed to approve the new Thunderbird Web site design, proof some press release copy and make a few phone calls for the first show in March.
Unfortunately, she managed to bury herself a little too well. Her first sign of trouble was when Chase plopped his tight ass onto the edge of her desk, sliding the annulment papers out of his way without even looking at them.
Her heart hit afterburners and kicked into overtime. Without thinking, she reached across and snatched them out from under his fingers.
“What’s that?”
Chase reached to take them back from her. Before he could, she opened a desk drawer, dropped them on top of the neatly labeled files and slammed it shut. The sound of crumpling papers made her grunt in distress.
“Nothing.”
With a shrug of his shoulders, he let it go. Rina sighed as she settled back into her chair, keeping a foot tight to the drawer just in case.
And then he reached for her, his finger wrapping around a stray wisp of hair that had escaped to curl about her face, sliding the pads of his thumb and finger down the strand.
She licked her lips, her eyes finding his and remembering the feel of them against her own, the sharp edge of that wall against her back as he’d let her go, hot and wanting.
“Don’t touch me,” she whispered through suddenly tingling lips.
“Why not? I like touching you.” He leaned toward her, his mouth moving closer, his body looming over her. “You like it when I touch you.”
She jerked, not because his hands, so close to her skin, stroked her, but because they didn’t. She wanted that sensation almost more than her next breath. She shouldn’t. She shouldn’t want this man to touch her. But whenever they shared the same space it was all she could think of. All she craved.
They were married. It was complicated. He was a pilot. They worked together. And if they lost the opportunity for the annulment then they’d lose the opportunity to keep this mess quiet and personal. And potentially lose their positions on the squadron and any forward momentum for their careers.
Still, she couldn’t stop her own eyes from traveling the length of his body. She couldn’t help herself, not with him perched so closely, the
hard curve of his thigh practically near enough for her to bury her head in his lap. A vision flashed in front of her eyes, the memory of doing just that, licking sweet white frosting from his body…
Blood whooshed in her ears, the sound of it rushing from her brain to her now-throbbing sex. Uncrossing and recrossing her legs, Rina tried in vain to relieve the worst of the ache. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going anywhere.
And apparently, neither was Chase. She was about to threaten to call someone to forcibly remove him if she had to when his body slid off the side of her desk. He stood tall, pretty damn even with her father actually. Her eyes moved from one wide shoulder to the other, down his arms…and straight to several papers he held in his hand.
“What’s this?”
Damn! She should have been paying more attention to what he was doing instead of ogling his body.
“Nothing, Chase.” She reached for the report she’d compiled about that night in Iraq, but he held it out of her range. She’d needed some details for the medal ceremony so she could invite the families he’d requested. But she’d hoped to keep the file away from him if for no other reason than to spare him having to think about it all again.
Just reading the reports from that night…it had made her sweat with delayed fear, her chest aching and her stomach turning sour. She couldn’t imagine actually living through the experience.
“Doesn’t look like nothing.”
Rina stared into his eyes for about half a second before she realized he was mad. His body was strung so tight she thought every muscle might snap. His eyes darkened…the same shade as when he was aroused. Why would she think about that now?
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
“Because I didn’t want to bother you, Chase.”
“Seems like a pretty stupid decision. Why not just ask the person who’d been there?”
Idiotic man. No one, not even the General, questioned her ability to do her job. And do it damn well.
Afterburn Page 6
