Why that was, he didn’t want to explore.
“Fine,” he finally said. “Let’s just forget it, shall we?”
She gave him a slow, thoughtful nod.
“What are you doing here, anyway?”
“We have to talk about our living arrangements.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now.” She stood and crossed the room to him. “I’ve been on the phone with Base Housing most of the morning. They say there’s a house available but we can’t have it for another two or three days.”
Perfect. Just three days until he and Donna were actually living together. Well, he’d better find a way to control his hormones before then. “Fine. What’s the problem?”
“The problem is, you can’t stay at your apartment in the NCO barracks until then.”
No, he couldn’t. He’d known the night before that it would be his last night in the place. And frankly, he wasn’t going to miss it much. A small place, it wasn’t exactly anyone’s idea of home sweet home.
“Unless of course,” she said hesitantly. “I can stay there with you.”
“No. Bachelors only.”
She shrugged and nodded as if she’d been expecting that answer. “So we’re left with two options.”
“Yeah?” He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like either of them.
“We can go off base and stay in a motel, or we can stay with my father at his house.”
Faced with those two choices, he made the obvious call. “I vote motel.”
She smiled briefly. “Somehow, I thought you would. But then people would wonder why we weren’t staying with Dad.”
“So,” he said, “let them wonder.”
Cocking her head to one side, she looked up at him. “This marriage was your idea, Jack. To keep people from wondering. Talking. Remember?”
Yeah, he remembered. All too clearly. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time.
“Fine.” He knew when he was beaten. “The colonel’s house, it is.”
“Relax, Jack,” Donna told him. “Your virtue’s safe with me. It’s a four-bedroom house. We don’t have to share a room.”
He glanced at her and Donna tried to read the emotions glimmering in his gray eyes. But she couldn’t. Either he was a master at masking his feelings, or she just didn’t know him well enough yet. And what did that say about the situation? She didn’t know him well enough to tell what he was thinking, but she did know him well enough to marry?
Good God.
“That was the deal,” he reminded her. “A platonic marriage. Easier on both of us.”
Well, on one of us, anyway, she thought, letting her gaze skim down her new husband’s trim, muscular body. Speaking as a twenty-eight-year-old married virgin, sharing a bed might not be so bad.
Heat suddenly rushed to her cheeks. She could hardly believe what she was thinking. A few days ago she hadn’t known this man from Adam. Now not only was she married to him, she was entertaining fantasies of midnight romps in the hay.
Sucking in a deep breath, she nodded. “Yeah. Easier.”
“So is that all you wanted?” he asked.
Now there was a loaded question. But she ignored the opening and simply answered, “Yes. That’s all.”
“Okay, then,” Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck, “I guess I’ll—”
“Sure.” She cut him off neatly. “I’ll let you get back to work. Since you are the only one with a job.”
“Look,” he said. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know about your job.”
“What? You thought I was independently wealthy?” She shook her head. “Sorry to disappoint you, but you didn’t marry an heiress.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean, Jack?”
“Hell if I know.”
She inhaled slowly, deeply, needing a minute or two to steady herself. For heaven’s sake, why was she baiting the man? It wasn’t his fault that they were in this mess. The only reason they were married at all was that she was too much of a coward to face her father after the mess she’d created four years before.
Now, instead of trying to make the best of an impossible situation, she was doing her utmost to be as difficult as possible. Real smart.
“Donna—”
“Jack—”
They spoke at the same time, then looked at each other for a long moment in sheepish silence.
“You want me to walk you out?” he finally asked.
“No, thanks. I know the way.”
“Are you going to stop in and see your father?”
No way, she thought. She was not ready to walk past the desk where she’d once made a complete ass of herself.
She shook her head and dug her fingers into her purse. But neither did she want to explain her reasons to a husband who wouldn’t be around for more than a few months. The fewer people who knew of that little episode, the better.
“I’ll see him tonight,” she said. “He’s probably busy, anyway.” Then she turned and headed for the door. With every step she took, Donna felt his gaze burning into her back. Heat snaked through her bloodstream, warming her from the inside out. Her knees trembled. Her high heels suddenly felt precarious. Just before she left the room, his voice stopped her.
“Donna?”
“Yes?” She half turned to face him, hoping he couldn’t see the flush of heat no doubt staining her cheeks. That inscrutable look was on his face again and she wished heartily that she could read minds.
“This will all work out. All we have to do is settle in. We’ll get used to each other.”
Sure, she thought. All she had to do was train her heartbeat not to jump into double time when she saw him. And, if she could just keep reminding herself that sex hadn’t been part of their deal, that would be a big help, too. In this case, she wasn’t sure if being a virgin was a help or a hindrance. Never having been intimate with a man, she couldn’t miss what she’d never had. On the other hand, her fantasies weren’t based on reality, so her mind had free rein in coming up with wild imaginings designed to torture the lovelorn.
Lord, she was in trouble.
Donna gave him what she hoped was a carefree smile and lifted one hand in a brief wave. “Of course we’ll get used to each other, Jack. It’s just a matter of time.”
He would never get used to this, Jack told himself as he lay wide awake in one of the colonel’s guest bedrooms. Dinner had been a disaster, even though his superior officer had done everything to make him more comfortable. The colonel had made an issue of taking off his uniform blouse and telling Jack to do the same. Then, with both of them in plain white T-shirts, Colonel Candello had assured him that inside that house, there were no ranks.
Though Jack appreciated the gesture, he still hadn’t been able to get comfortable. Not with Donna sitting directly across the table from him. Damn it, even in an old T-shirt and cutoffs, she looked good enough to stop his heart.
Grumbling to himself, he sat up, punched his pillow into shape and lay down again. Wide awake, he turned his head toward the window where a silver strand of moonlight poured through the half-open drapes.
His brain wandered aimlessly, conjuring up image after image of Donna. What the hell had he gotten himself into? And how was he ever going to survive a platonic marriage that was already making him nuts?
From the next room he heard the soft, unmistakable sound of Donna humming in her sleep. Apparently she wasn’t having any problem at all adjusting to this frustrating situation.
Groaning, he yanked the pillow out from under his head, slammed it down over his face and prayed for sleep that wouldn’t come.
“It’s so small,” Donna said, and heard the whine in her voice. But the house was so dismal, she couldn’t help herself.
“It’s big enough for us,” Jack told her, strolling across the eight-foot-wide living room into the tiny kitchen.
Donna followed him, hesitantly poking her head around the corner to inspect a kit
chen almost too small for the appliances it held. “You’re kidding,” she muttered, her gaze landing on a refrigerator that looked to be an antique. “Does it require a block of ice to keep things cool?” she wondered out loud, only half kidding.
He slapped one palm against the short, scarred fridge. “It’s not that old.”
“It’s beyond old. Closing in on ‘archeological relic.’”
Jack slapped it again, as if to prove her wrong, and the machine groaned, gurgled and shook on its four metal feet.
“I think you killed it,” Donna whispered, half expecting the blasted thing to explode.
“It’s a marine refrigerator,” Jack told her, taking one step back from the still-shaking appliance. “It’s not dead. It’s regrouping.”
“Ooo-rah,” she muttered, and let her gaze slide away from the quivering fridge to the two long cupboards, a stove that told her she’d be doing a lot of barbecuing, and a sink that had more gouges and scars ripped into its porcelain surface than most tanks saw in a lifetime. Wonderful, she thought, and glanced at the faded, drooping curtains over the one tiny window. The blue-and-white-checked gingham hung limply, its starch long gone, along with most of its color.
As she watched, Jack reached up and pushed the curtains back, allowing a narrow shaft of sunlight to slide through the glass. An instant later the curtain rod dropped from its hardware and clattered into the sink.
Donna jumped.
Jack’s eyebrows lifted.
Stepping up behind him, she glanced down at the fallen curtains spilling over the rim of the sink, then up at Jack. “Nice,” she said. “And to think, it passed inspection.”
He frowned slightly, picked up the short rod and inspected it. “Not a problem. I can fix this.”
A full-time handyman wouldn’t be able to fix this place, she thought. Not without twenty years at his disposal.
“So, First Sergeant,” Donna said thoughtfully, “this is the house your rank has earned you.”
He slanted a look at her. “Actually, no. But this is all that was available, remember?”
True, Donna thought, her gaze sliding from his to roam over her temporary home. She suppressed a shudder. Every wall in the place was painted the same shade of eggshell white. Apparently, the corps painters lacked imagination. She reached out to touch one of the kitchen walls and wondered idly just how many layers of latex paint actually covered it.
And how many families had lived there? How many kids had scrawled their names on these walls in crayon only to have them painted over? A wistful smile crossed her face briefly as she recalled the years she’d spent growing up on military bases. It hadn’t been easy, she thought, but at the same time, there had always been a sense of community.
Glancing at Jack, she fought a twinge of regret that their marriage was nothing more than pretense. She’d wanted a family of her own for so long. And now that she finally had a husband, it was only temporary.
“I know it’s not much,” he was saying, “but we won’t need the place for long, anyway.”
She nodded and walked off, headed for the incredibly short hallway that led to two bedrooms and the bathroom. Jack’s footsteps sounded right behind her. But she hadn’t had to hear him to know he was near. She felt his presence in every cell of her body. Which was probably not a good thing.
“Look, Donna,” he said softly, and she half turned to face him. “I know this isn’t quite up to what you’re used to, but—”
“I know,” she interrupted, “it’s only temporary.” Shifting her gaze again, she inspected the place slowly. “But je-ezz, Jack, how can the marine corps expect people to live in shacks like this?”
He stiffened a bit at the slur on the corps, but to give him his due, he shrugged and nodded. “They don’t, really.” Lifting his gaze to the patched, water-stained ceiling, he went on. “All of these old places are scheduled for demolition in the next couple of years.”
An unexpected splinter of regret shot through her. Lord knew the house was in sad shape. Still, the little place had sheltered hundreds of families. Didn’t that count for something, too? Silly, but she felt the sting of tears tickle the backs of her eyes. To cover up her sudden twist of emotion, she said, “If they don’t fall down first.”
Jack’s features tightened briefly before relaxing. “Yeah, I guess. So, which room do you want?”
It didn’t matter, so Donna waved one hand to the room on the right. “This one will be fine.”
“Okay, then,” Jack said. “I’ll bring in my stuff, then we’ll go to your father’s house and pick up the rest.”
Until her things arrived from Maryland, Donna’s father was loaning them an extra bed and a few of his furnishings.
Leaning up against the wall, Donna asked, “So what do you think the neighbors will say when they watch us carry in two beds?”
He rubbed the back of his neck, a habit Donna had already noticed.
“Probably nothing. They’ll just assume one of the rooms is for a guest room.”
He was right, she thought. After all, who would ever guess that happily married newlyweds weren’t even sharing a bedroom?
Seven
Donna stood on the front porch of the colonel’s residence and watched Jack load furniture into the back of a borrowed pickup. Two of her father’s lamps, a box spring and mattress, a dresser, and one small coffee table filled the compact truck bed.
She inhaled sharply, blew all of the air out, and deliberately fixed her gaze on her husband. The pale blue T-shirt he’d tucked into faded blue jeans stretched and pulled across his muscular chest and shoulders. He placed a hand on the edge of the truck bed and in one fluid motion, jumped inside to secure their cargo.
Shaking her head, she told herself not to notice the curve of his behind as he bent to straighten something. He’d made it clear from the beginning that he wasn’t interested in pursuing anything other than a platonic relationship with her. The least she could do was stop drooling over him and save herself from any further embarrassment.
“You okay?” her father asked as he stepped up behind her on the porch.
“Sure,” she said, forcing a brightness she didn’t feel into her voice. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“The First Sergeant’s a good man, Donna.”
She half turned to look up at him, saw the gentleness in his eyes and looked away again, before she could cry. “I really screwed up big time, didn’t I?”
Easing one hip against the porch railing, he lifted a hand to smooth the hair back from her face. Donna risked a quick glance at him and saw the same love and understanding she’d always found in his eyes.
As she watched him, he smiled briefly. “Let’s just say, this was one of your more memorable achievements.”
Donna groaned quietly. “And to think all of this started because I was too embarrassed to face you.”
“Now, that,” he said, “I don’t understand. Why would you feel like that, Donna?”
Why? Because she could still see the look on his face when he had walked in on the most embarrassing moment of her life.
“I’ve missed seeing you,” he said softly.
Her heart twisted and the backs of her eyes stung as she walked into her father’s arms. She felt the warm, solid strength of him as he held her just as he had so many times during her adolescence. “Oh, Daddy, I’ve missed you, too. Three or four phone calls a week just isn’t enough, I guess.”
“Then why didn’t you ever come home?” He pulled back and looked down at her. “God knows, I begged for a visit often enough.”
“I just couldn’t bring myself to face you.” She sniffed and took a step back. “News flash. Big Strong Marine Has Coward For Daughter.”
“You’re not a coward, Donna.”
“What would you call it?”
“Impetuous?” he suggested with a grin.
She wiped her eyes and gave him a small smile.
“Don’t you know I love you?”
“Of course
I do,” she said, though silently she admitted that it was good to hear him confirm it. “But even Job had limits. Didn’t he?”
Tom Candello chuckled and shook his head. “No father has limits. Not where his little girl’s concerned.”
She took a deep breath and looked at him. Donna had missed seeing him. Visiting him. But in four years she’d never been able to work up the nerve to look him in the eye. “Not even when he walks into his office to find his daughter trying desperately to seduce a corporal, who in turn was trying desperately to escape?”
His smile faded, but the light in his eyes didn’t dim a fraction. “Not even then.”
Relief poured through her. She’d been so ashamed. So humiliated. Why hadn’t she gone to him that night at the ball instead of looking for courage at the bottom of a margarita pitcher? If only she’d used her brain, she wouldn’t have traded one mess for another, bigger one.
“God,” she muttered, disgusted with herself. “I’m an idiot.”
Her father laughed gently. “You do have some interesting moments.”
“Interesting. That’s one word for them.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, honey.”
“Why not?” she asked. “Not only did I screw things up for myself this time, but I dragged Jack along with me.”
The colonel turned his head to look at the other man. “Jack’s a big boy. He knew what he was doing.”
“Did he, Daddy?” Donna waited until her father’s gaze had shifted back to her. “The man married me, for God’s sake.”
“It was his idea.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “One I’m sure he’s regretted every moment since.”
Her father frowned slightly. “Has he said so?”
“No,” she said quickly, not wanting her father to think Jack was being anything less than damned nice about this whole thing. “Actually, he seems fine with the situation.” Except of course, she added silently, for the fact that he wants nothing physical to do with his temporary wife.
“Then why don’t you relax?” her father asked.
“How am I supposed to do that?” she demanded.
The Littlest Marine & The Oldest Living Married Virgin Page 19
