Men of Courage II

by Lori Foster

  But as they skidded to a stop in front of the shelter entrance, grabbing each other around the waist for balance as they slid in the mud puddles and piled-up hail, he knew it was more than the danger making him feel so alive. Maybe it was the mix of danger and Marty McKenna that did strange things to him. God knows it had the last time he’d mixed himself up with that combination. And looking at the grin on her face, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was thinking the same thing.

  That might explain why they were laughing like lunatics as they disentangled themselves and began tugging open the flat double doors. They struggled against the wind to open the doors, barely getting them open enough to shove themselves inside, plunging headlong into the total darkness of the shelter, using gravity and the weight of their bodies to pull the doors closed behind them.

  But not before seeing the remainder of the barn roof fly overhead like it was nothing more than a child’s kite.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE WIND SCREAMED AND GROANED through the wooden doors of the shelter. Marty literally hung from the handles, feet dangling over the cement steps leading down into the shelter, barely managing to keep the doors shut as Cooper grappled with the metal beam that slid through the braces put on the doors to keep them from being ripped off. The ground above them shuddered as the barn roof landed somewhere close by.

  It wasn’t until Cooper gripped her by the waist and ordered her to let go that she realized she was no longer laughing. In fact, she was shaking. Hard.

  He tugged her down the stairs and turned her into his arms. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she clung to him. He pulled her farther into the shelter, away from the doors and they both stumbled over something on the floor, unable to see what it was in the pitch blackness. They managed to stay upright, barely, but didn’t let go of each other.

  “Are you okay?”

  Even though his mouth was near her ear, she could just hear him over the noise generated by the tornado. She managed a nod, though it was far from the truth. She was anything but okay. And she was afraid if she allowed herself to think on it for more than a moment, she’d realize it was more than the storm shaking her up.

  She’d known she was going to see Cooper again. Hell, she was going to be working for him if the interview went well. But even with the wedding looming, knowing he was going to be a guest there, too, she’d never imagined their reunion would be like this.

  She’d thought more than once of what it had been like to be in his arms, but never let herself dream she’d get that chance again. Okay, okay, so she’d spent maybe a night or two (or twenty) with sheets twisting around her feverish body, dreaming about that afternoon in the back of his truck. But hell, what red-blooded female wouldn’t?

  She could recall with crystal clarity how he’d taken her. How she’d given herself to him so completely. She’d been so in love with him by then, having fallen hard for the sexy grad student shortly after getting the chance to work with him. But his focus had been so exclusively on his work, he’d had no clue, never noticed her in any way but as a crew member. He hadn’t seemed to notice women, period, his focus was so intense. But that hadn’t cooled her desire for him. Hardly. She’d been young and hungry to learn and she’d so admired his dedication and his genius.

  She’d contented herself with working with him, being around him, telling herself it was enough. He hadn’t given her a single signal he’d even noticed her that way, and no way, at twenty-two, did she have enough moxie to come out and tell him how she felt. And then that fateful afternoon had happened. Hours away from graduating and leaving him forever to take a job back home in Kansas, the storm of the century had sprung to life. Even then she’d been thrilled just to spend her last day with him. Never in her wildest dreams could she have predicted what they were about to see. Much less what they were about to do.

  A large dose of fear and adrenaline had driven them into each other’s arms, a fantasy come true for her. Beyond a fantasy. It had been so much more than she could have ever hoped for. And, afterward, with her departure imminent, and knowing what had happened had been a matter of circumstance and couldn’t have meant anything to him, she’d made the decision to keep her feelings to herself. What purpose would it have served to blurt out she loved him? Other than to very possibly ruin what had been a stunningly perfect end to her first serious—if one-sided—love affair.

  So she’d chickened out—telling herself she was being mature—and pretended that it was nothing more to her than a spontaneous explosion of frenzied, raw sex.

  In the weeks, months and years that had followed, she’d thought of him often, wondered what might have changed if she’d laid her heart bare with the rest of her body. She’d told herself she’d done the right thing. She’d been an hour away from leaving, what purpose could it have served?

  As time had passed, she’d convinced herself it hadn’t been that perfect. That explosive. Couldn’t have been. Her wild infatuation with him had simply combined with the fury and power of Mother Nature at her most severe, so of course their coupling had felt cataclysmic.

  But here he was, miracle of miracles, in her arms once more. And it was as if nothing had changed. Including her heart beating a thousand times a minute…and a raging Mother Nature, venting her wrath above.

  She had to let him go, to regroup. Too much had happened to her today for her to be able to trust her judgment. But it sounded like the fury of hell was being unleashed over their heads, and his hands felt too damn good on her. Steadying her, calming her. His body was a welcome shield to her battered defenses, and she couldn’t seem to make her hands unfist themselves from their death grip on his shirt. It was much, much easier to stay right where she was, no matter that she sensed the bigger danger to her wasn’t the storm over her head, but the one stirring up right here between them.

  As if he sensed her thoughts, she felt his fingers digging into the flesh of her back. She should simply be grateful, comforted he was letting her know that she wouldn’t have to face this ordeal alone any longer, which was most likely his only intent. And she was grateful, she was comforted.

  But she was also aroused.

  It was impossible not to remember this wasn’t the first time she’d felt him tighten his grip on her. Impossible not to remember exactly what they’d been doing, the ferocity of his expression, which had matched the tension and strength of his arms around her.

  She swallowed against the moan rising in her throat and forced her eyes open, shoving away visions of the past. But the dark was absolute. Though she could hear the rain, dirt and debris trickling in through the slats of the wooden shelter doors as they rattled fiercely against the wind, no light penetrated the black depths of the shelter. She had no idea how big the place was, or what else might have been stored down here.

  “Are you okay?” he asked again, shifting his mouth next to her ear so his lips just brushed against the tender skin.

  She shuddered in pure pleasure, but he misread the reaction and loosened his hold. “I’m sorry, am I hurting you? What happened with your car? Are you sure you didn’t seriously injure yourself?”

  She shook her head, forgetting he couldn’t see her. “The only thing I banged up was my ego,” she assured him, fighting the need to do something foolish, like clutch him back against her. But she was the one who’d been in love, not him. God, he’d probably be mortified if he knew what she was thinking. “My tire blew and I hit the mud on the side of the road and couldn’t get it back on track. The car didn’t flip entirely until I pushed off the doorframe to leap clear of it.”

  He smoothed his hands up and down her arms, his touch gentle in a way he’d never been with her before. Of course the only time he’d ever touched her at all was when they’d been buck naked and going at each other like animals. Not a time that was exactly conducive to gentle caresses and soft whispers.

  And now was not a time to be reliving that moment, either. Had she been able to, she’d have laughed at herself,
at just how foolish she’d let herself become with her memories of him. If she got the job with NSWC, her career would definitely progress more smoothly if she could put their shared moment in history firmly in its place. Once and for all.

  But then he was tipping up her chin, making her heart trip anew as she wondered how he’d found her face so unerringly in the utter darkness.

  “I think you knocked a few years off my lifespan when I saw that rental car in the ditch,” he told her.

  “How did you even know it was me? How on earth did you find me?” She sounded breathless, and hoped he attributed it to the storm…and not the effect he was having on her.

  “It wasn’t easy,” he said, still stroking her arms.

  A fanciful woman would believe that he was just as incapable of not touching her as she was of him. But she was a practical, career-minded woman. The kind of woman who didn’t swoon. Not even when the proverbial man of her dreams ran his hands over her.

  Psh. Yeah. If only.

  She took a steadying breath, willed herself to step away from his touch. Because the fact of the matter was, she did want the job with NSWC. Badly. Maybe not as much as she wanted Cooper Harrison right at this very moment, but that was a fleeting need. The career move was long-term. And most assuredly, sleeping with the boss, while tantalizing personally, was a death wish professionally.

  She swallowed a sigh as she stepped out of the protective circle he’d created around them. “They might revoke my feminist membership card for saying so, but I’m glad you found me.” She rubbed her arms, and her knees trembled a little as she pictured the roof of the barn flipping away like it weighed nothing more than a pancake. “A few minutes later and—” She couldn’t finish.

  As a chaser she’d seen plenty of severe weather and the oftentimes massive destruction left in its wake. Smart chasers moved around storm cells, not through them. Even that afternoon she and Cooper had seen the supertwister, they’d never intended to put themselves in direct, life-threatening danger, as they had again today. She shook her head. “I could go a long time without ever being that close again.”

  “Why were you still in the barn? Didn’t you see it coming?”

  “It didn’t form until after I’d taken shelter. I thought I was pretty clear-headed, but I guess the accident rattled me more than I thought because I didn’t see any alternate shelter. And I didn’t realize the shift in the circulation and downdraft. I should have paid closer attention, but at the time I just wanted to get out of the drilling hail. I spotted it right before you stuck your head in that other opening. I owe you.” Which was the understatement of the century.

  Cooper surprised her by letting out a laugh. “I’d say we’re even. If you hadn’t found that drainage tube that last time, we wouldn’t be standing here right now. Maybe it’s our karma, coming full circle.”

  Marty smiled at that. “You were always the ultimate pragmatic scientist. Since when did you believe in spiritual things like karma?”

  There was a long pause. She thought maybe she’d just missed his response due to the clattering noise of the wind pummeling the shelter doors. But there was a sudden and distinct shift in the air around her. A moment later, he touched her face with the tips of his fingers, and she knew that was why. She stilled at his touch, every one of her senses already on high alert, but now in a different way.

  “You must have acute night vision,” she blurted, wanting almost desperately to keep this encounter in some kind of rational perspective. Which was difficult, even without them risking their lives, as the mere thought of him had always caused a reaction in her that was anything but rational.

  “I can just sense you,” he said, sounding almost awed. “All those months, almost a whole year, we were working together in the lab and on the road, and I have no idea how I missed it. How I tuned it out. But from the instant I locked on to you, I haven’t quite been able to figure out how to switch it back off.”

  She was either more injured than she realized and officially hallucinating now, or he was telling her he still thought about her. And not just the sex part. But what with the wind and noise, she couldn’t tell if he thought that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  “We haven’t seen each other in six years,” she responded carefully, when she wanted to be anything but careful. He did that to her, too. Still. Made her feel reckless. Made her want to do things that were uncivilized.

  She’d always thought it was the rather uncivilized nature of their studies that made her feel that way. Considering what was going on over their very heads at the moment, perhaps she’d never know the truth of her visceral attraction to him.

  “Surely you gave up wondering about that a long time ago.” She made it a statement, as if it didn’t matter whether or not he’d given her a second thought. But her heart was beating way too fast. And hope was rapidly moving in. Foolish, really. Even if he had thought about her over the years, it was highly unlikely that he held that afternoon they’d shared in the same sort of unmitigated, yearning awe that she did.

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” There was amusement now in that deep, gravelly voice of his. Self-deprecating rather than condescending. And endearing as all hell.

  The need to touch him as he’d touched her shivered along her skin, skittered down her spine. She curled her fingers inward to keep from reaching for him.

  He shifted closer then, ostensibly, she was sure, to make it easier for her to hear him. But his hand was still on her shoulder, the tips of his fingers lightly brushing the back of her neck. All he’d have to do was exert the slightest pressure with his fingertips, urge her the least bit closer, and she’d be full up against him. Their mouths would collide; their lips would connect.

  And, as if she’d willed it, she felt that sweet pressure, that blatant invitation to move closer. No longer clinging to one another in the adrenaline-charged aftermath of racing for their lives, if she moved now, it would be deliberate. And would put her directly in the path of a different sort of peril altogether. She should have been thinking about the job opening, about her career, about the professional chance of a lifetime.

  But it was a completely different chance of a lifetime she was focused on at the moment. A chance once and for all to put the fantasy to rest…or prove her memories weren’t romanticized after all. And she was shifting forward before she could think clearly about all the reasons why she shouldn’t.

  “Do you?” he asked, and she could feel his breath, the heat of him, warming the sensitive skin at the corner of her lips.

  “Do I what?” she asked, feeling as if she were standing on the brink of something very precarious.

  “Still think about it. That day. Us.” The amused tone was gone. In its place was a tension she couldn’t quite define.

  “Yes,” she said, the confession at once harder and easier than she thought it would be. “Yes, I do.”

  “Six years later?” he asked, tossing the same question back at her. There might have been a hint of amusement, a thread of challenge. But mostly she thought he sounded, well…sincere. Like he really needed to know.

  She turned her head then, looking to where she knew his eyes would be. “Yes.” Just the one word. Simply stated. And yet with so much more riding on it than either of them likely comprehended.

  “Well, that makes this decision much easier,” he told her.

  Her entire body quivered—hard—at the possibilities. “Which decision is that?”

  “This one.” And the gently urging pressure at the back of her neck vanished. His palm slid to cup her neck fully. He held her there, for an interminable breath of time before his mouth found hers. Found her, claimed her with the same unerring precision as before. The same precision that had guided Cooper Harrison to his prominent place in their profession. After all, no one was better than Cooper at being able to pinpoint, with absolute accuracy, the exact, most dangerous place to be.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THIS WASN’T LIKE LAST TIME. Yes,
they’d once again cheated death. Together. But everything else had changed. They weren’t reeling like adrenaline junkies, drunk on a prolonged rush, giddy from shooting history-making film footage. He wasn’t an idealist, still dreaming about making his mark. Marty wasn’t a bright-eyed coed, fresh diploma almost in hand.

  This time she was soaking wet, her skin damp and gritty. Her hair hung in ropes, snagging his fingers. She’d been battered and banged up, even before they’d come close to being sucked directly into the vortex of a twister. She still had a smart mouth and a sharp mind. He was older now, supposedly wiser. And yet he’d never felt so confused. Conflicted about his future, conflicted about taking what he wanted, instead of doing what he was supposed to. He’d learned to master his impulses, but she’d undone all that. He understood actions had consequences, which meant he had no business pushing her like this.

  But the body pressed up against his was all woman. And her lips were shockingly warm. The instant his mouth brushed hers, what common sense he possessed was ripped clean away, just like the roof off that barn. He’d often wondered if he’d idealized the way they fit together, if his reaction to her had simply been the adrenaline talking. But six years fell away in a blink when she returned his kiss. No more wondering. Bedraggled and muddy, yet she tasted even sweeter than he remembered. No more wasting time wishing he’d handled things differently. She was in his arms again, her lips so soft, pliant under his. Now was his chance to pursue what could be. He might not know what he wanted to do with his life, but he definitely knew what he wanted to do with Marty McKenna.

  She sighed against his mouth, her body sinking into his as she returned his kiss. She clutched at his shirt, her body trembling hard. He wasn’t sure if it was from the dank air, their wet clothes or the kiss. And he couldn’t manage to tear his mouth away from hers long enough to ask. Instead he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into the relative warmth of his body. But his hands refused to stay still. The tease of her curves as he slid his arms around her beckoned him to explore her body just as he was exploring her mouth. He smoothed wide palms up and down her back, making her shudder harder as she huddled even closer to him, her fists still full of his shirt.