Men of Courage II

by Lori Foster

  She smiled. “Let me guess. Springtime, Midwest?”

  He grinned. “If that’s the only way to keep a hand in, yes. It’s been a long time since I’ve storm chased without having to follow specific protocol. Who knows, I might stumble across something new. At best it will give me a chance to play with whatever toys the team has developed.”

  “And maybe offer a suggestion or two on improvements?”

  “You know me pretty well,” he said, grinning. “Would that bother you?”

  It took her a second to follow. “You mean, if I were part of the team? Of course not. Why would it?” She wasn’t sure where he was going with this and tried hard not to let her mind run too wild with hope. “I can’t imagine your team would, either,” she added cautiously. In case he was getting ready to explain that he wanted them to have the opportunity to work together at NSWC, and that was all he wanted. “It was your research and foresight that got them the funding they have now in the first place.”

  “You wouldn’t feel awkward? Uncomfortable?”

  “No,” she said, dread beginning to creep in. He was going to let her down easily, be a nice guy about it, make sure she was okay with it. “I’m a professional. When I’m working, the job is the focus. And, to be honest,” she added, speaking the truth despite the crushing disappointment beginning to fill her, “I’d enjoy the chance to work with you again. Even if it’s only occasionally.” Even if it rips my heart into pieces every time I see you, knowing you didn’t want me badly enough to fight to have both.

  Which was when she realized that she wasn’t exactly fighting here, either. She was taking his smooth dismissal, literally lying down. But, her little voice argued, is it worth fighting when only one side wants it?

  So why don’t you come out and ask him? Maybe he did want it, but was doing what he thought was best for her. If she didn’t put it out there, she’d never know. The truth might hurt, but the what-if would kill her. “Cooper…” she began, but he stopped her.

  “Let me finish getting this out. Before I lose my nerve.” He slid down a little then, so their faces were parallel, his gaze intent on hers.

  She frowned. “If you think you need to walk away to protect me, protect my job for me, I don’t need protecting, okay? But if you just don’t want me—”

  Before she knew what was happening, he’d rolled her onto her back amidst the pile of blankets. Looming over her, his expression as piercing as she’d ever seen it, he pushed his hands into her hair and framed her face so she couldn’t look away from him. “I wasn’t walking away. I was making sure you didn’t want to. I do want you. Or at least the chance with you.”

  Her heart stopped, then went into overdrive. “What was all that about the job, about working together?”

  “It might be awkward. The team is going to know we’re having a personal relationship. I wanted to make sure you could deal with that.”

  “I’ll do whatever I have to,” she said, shaking as the reality of what he was asking her began to sink in. “I’ll fight for the job, to get respect for my work.” She swallowed hard, and stepped out on that emotional ledge next to him. “And I’ll fight for you. If I’m going for it, I’m going for it all.”

  His grin was fierce, and his fingers tightened on her skin, but he didn’t kiss her. “One of the reasons I was so afraid of leaving the lab, of taking on this new job, was because at the end of the day, I wasn’t sure what was going to be waiting for me. I’ve been married to my work for a very long time, so the concept of having time to do whatever I wanted…well, in the past any answers I had to that were work related. Now, suddenly, I’m thinking that maybe having a life outside of work might not be such a bad thing.”

  Her heart wasn’t going to settle into any kind of regular rhythm anytime soon. But that didn’t matter. “No, not a bad thing at all,” she said, then laughed out loud at the absolute joy filling her, leaving her giddy and light-headed with relief.

  He blew out a long breath and laughed, too, sounding as relieved as she did. “Now why was that so damn hard for us?”

  “I don’t know. But it feels much, much better now.”

  She felt his body tighten on top of hers. “Does it now?” His eyes darkened and suddenly the light moment was over.

  She wondered if it would always be like that between them. She couldn’t wait to find out.

  He leaned down for a long, drugging kiss. There was urgency still, but it was different now. Banked. The curiosity and need to explore were greater than ever, but they had time now. To indulge, to play, to see where things would lead.

  “It’s not going to be easy,” she warned him between kisses.

  “Nothing worth having is.”

  It made her heart swell, hearing him say that. And it was then she understood fully the importance of not holding back, and vowed she never would again. It was going to be difficult, forging this relationship while so many other changes were happening for them both. But this was the time they’d been given, and she didn’t want it to pass her by.

  Thank God, neither did he.

  She wanted to let him just have his way with her, but there was one more thing she had to voice before they went any further. She pressed lightly against his chest, secretly pleased when he merely shifted his attentions from her mouth to the side of her neck. She liked the way he nuzzled her, the way he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of her. Yes, she could get used to that. “One thing,” she said, gasping briefly when he bit her earlobe.

  “Mmm-hmm,” he murmured, intent on driving her insane by alternately nipping her lobe, then pulling it between his lips and soothing it with his tongue.

  “If things don’t work out,” she whispered, “I want you to know I won’t make things difficult. At work. I want us to stay together because we want to, not because we’re worried about—”

  He paused, but didn’t lift his head. “What if we never make it out of this shelter?”

  She shifted her head to one side until he lifted his and looked at her. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that we both seem to have a penchant for letting the possible negative keep us from reaching out and grabbing the positive.”

  She thought about that for a second, then said, “Okay. You have a point. But—”

  He silenced her with a kiss. It wasn’t hard and fast like last time. No, this was quite different. From any kiss they’d shared. It was soft, tender. And when she relaxed and finally kissed him back, he didn’t end it, but let it spin out. Leisurely kisses, needy kisses, but confident and certain, too. He was showing her he wanted this, wanted her, that he wanted to uncover her secrets, explore every part of her. Body and, she was certain, soul.

  His eyes were dark, soft and filled with emotion she’d never before seen in him. “We can’t know what might happen. But I do know that I’ll forever regret not finding out. So if this is what I want, if you’re what I want, then I really don’t see any other option but to take the gamble and find out.” He framed her face. “And you’re what I want.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  HE MOVED BETWEEN HER THIGHS and she shifted to accept him, accommodating him as naturally as if they’d come together like this for years. As he pushed deep inside of her, the sound that rose from his chest was a deep, guttural groan of pleasure, matched only by her own soft sighs of satisfaction. It was a homecoming he’d never forget.

  Last time their coupling had been frenzied, wild. Primal. This time it was slow, purposeful, and yet every bit as visceral for the intimate new bond they were creating. Last time it had been an ending. This time it was a beginning. A foundation to build on.

  She lifted her legs to hold him tighter, deeper. Her nails raked his back, then sank in as she clung to him while he drove her—and himself—higher, then higher still. He took her mouth, swallowed her cries as she reached her climax, fiercely happy he could bring her such pleasure. Then the feel of her body, so warm and pliant beneath his, wrapped so tightly around him, hol
ding him so deeply as she quivered through her release, surprised him by immediately wringing a slow, shuddering climax from him, as well.

  With his face buried in the crook of her neck, he rolled to his side and gathered her in his arms. “You know,” he said eventually, his voice hoarse, rough with the emotions he’d yet to name, but which he no longer wished to deny, “at some point we’re going to have to do this on a bed.”

  She lifted her head and regarded him with those big blue eyes, for once looking drowsy and sated. “I’m hoping we won’t have to escape death every time, either.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he teased. “That.” He sighed and tucked her back against his side. “Do you think the team will get suspicious when I always request you as my navigator, then consistently opt for a different route than everyone else during a chase?”

  “Might raise an eyebrow or two.”

  He nudged her chin up so she looked at him. “Will you care?”

  Her smile, before she settled herself in his arms again, was perhaps a tad smug. “At the moment, the second cavalry could ride in and I wouldn’t care.”

  He laughed. “We might wish they had if there’s no ax down here to help us bust our way out.”

  Marty propped her chin on his chest. “They’re probably worrying about us. We really need to get up and figure out what we’re going to do.”

  Cooper smiled when she didn’t make even the smallest effort to get up. “I know.”

  “Do you think the wedding is still going on as planned?”

  Taking the initiative, he sat up and began gathering his clothes. “I hope so. If this was the worst of it, then it stayed to the west of town. But we can’t be sure what the hell that storm cell spawned.” He realized it was selfish, but part of him didn’t want to think about Ryan and the wedding, or anything else for that matter. Once again he’d made love to Marty McKenna, and once again it had been a turning point in his life. Was it so wrong to want to revel in that moment, at least for a little while?

  So maybe a tiny part of him still worried that when they were above ground and dealing with reality once more, Marty might come to her senses and decide not to risk her new career by trying to have a relationship with him at the same time.

  Both of them made sounds of disgust as they pulled on their damp and dirty clothes. Cooper’s thoughts were still on what would happen when they got back in his truck, and by the time he was all tucked and zipped, he realized Marty was dressed and rummaging around the tangled pile of farm tools cluttering the rear part of the storm shelter.

  “Aha!” she cried, then turned, triumphant with an ax in one hand and a scythe in the other. “Not sure what we’ll use this for,” she said, lifting the curved blade, “but it looks like we could do some serious damage with it.”

  She stood there grinning, dressed in mud-caked, wrinkled, wet clothes, her hair so stiff and spiky she could give the Wicked Witch of the West a run for her money, but her eyes so luminous, even in the faint glow of the lantern, that he felt his heart stumble inside his chest a little bit. She was doing serious damage all right. To his heart.

  Smiling, he stood and crossed the small space, took the tools from her hands and tossed them near the stairs behind him, then pulled her into his arms and soundly kissed her. Her surprise at the move lasted only seconds, and then she wrapped her arms around his waist and gave every bit as good as she got.

  And that, right there, was what he loved about Marty McKenna.

  “What was that for?” she asked, smiling and a little breathless when he finally lifted his head.

  He rested his forehead on hers, feeling poleaxed, but not minding it all that much. “I don’t want to screw this up,” he told her baldly.

  Her smile grew and her eyes were a little misty as she stroked the side of his face. “Me, either.”

  “Just don’t hide from me, okay? And if I’m being obtuse, tell me. I get sucked into work and the world ceases to exist. I won’t mean to hurt you, but I’m afraid—”

  She kissed him quiet. And now it was his heart pounding a bit faster when she pulled away. “Wasn’t it you who said moments ago that we worry too much about the negative?” She fisted her hands in his shirt and walked him backward until he came up hard against the shelves. She was grinning, looking cocky, and he thought maybe he’d met the one person who wouldn’t let him hide, either. “I get caught up, too. So we’ll just have to keep each other on our toes.”

  He laughed at her aggressive maneuvering. “Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for you.”

  “If you’re really nice to me,” she said, a wicked grin curving her lips, “I might let you come play in the lab with me after hours. I might even let you play with my equipment.”

  “Oh, really? This partnership is sounding better all the time.”

  She tugged his shirt, until their mouths almost met. “Worst case is we build a storm shelter of our own. And then we’ll both have a place to hide,” she murmured.

  “Deal. Except I want more than a dirty cement floor and a pile of blankets.”

  Marty laughed, then stopped abruptly and cocked her head. “Do you hear that?”

  Cooper leaned around her, straining to hear whatever it was she thought she’d heard. It took a second, and then he heard it himself. A buzzing sound that wasn’t much more than a distant hum. But it was still distinctive enough that he knew what it was. “Chain saw?”

  They both scrambled over to the stairs. Marty grabbed the ax, but Cooper climbed the stairs first. The doors were bowed in from the pressure of whatever lay on top of them. “I won’t be able to get the bar out,” he told her. “And I’m afraid if we start chopping, this whole thing is going to cave in on top of our—”

  He broke off when the buzzing stopped and what sounded like shouts came from outside.

  “We’re in here,” Marty started shouting.

  Cooper yelled, too.

  Then the buzzing started up again, only this time it sounded louder. Closer. There was no point in trying to yell over the sound, so they both moved back down the stairs and backed away in case the doors caved in.

  “Sounds like someone out there found us,” Cooper told her.

  The buzzing grew louder, and louder still, until it echoed through the doors so loudly they both covered their ears.

  After what seemed like an eternity—and still no light seeped in from above—the chain saw abruptly quit and someone yelled, “Cooper? Marty?”

  They both moved to the foot of the stairs. “We’re down here!” they both yelled, as loud as they could.

  Cooper looked at Marty. “I swear that sounded like Ryan. What the hell is he doing here on his wedding day?”

  “Back away from the doors,” another voice shouted.

  If Cooper wasn’t mistaken, it sounded like another member of his old chase crew, Scotty Turner. Cooper and Marty moved to the other side of the room as the chain saw ripped back to life.

  They could hear loud thumps and several muffled crashes. Then the chain saw died again and there were sounds of men shouting and lumber scraping, until finally something was lifted from one side of one door and a tiny sliver of light seeped through.

  “Ryan?” Cooper shouted. “Is that you up there?”

  “You two okay?” someone shouted back, he couldn’t make out who this time. “Marty’s there with you? Is she alright?”

  “I’m fine!” Marty called out.

  There was a pause as someone shouted something that was too muffled for them to make out, and then Ryan’s voice came down to them again. “Well, if you two are all done playing Dorothy and the Wizard, how about we get you out of there?”

  “That would be nice,” Cooper called, grinning. “We’re late for a wedding.”

  The only response was the buzzing starting up again.

  Another half hour went by as more wood was cut up and moved off the shelter doors. The shouts of the workers overhead grew clearer and clearer, and more light began to filter through
the slats of the doors, until finally, with an echoing groan, then a shuddering thud, the final section of wood was lifted off the door.

  “Is it clear?” Cooper called, edging closer to the stairs. “I’ll try and slide the beam out.”

  “Clear enough,” came the reply.

  Cooper climbed the stairs, but the beam wasn’t moving easily. “Pull up on the door handles,” he shouted through the doors. “It’s still a bit warped from the weight and water.”

  The doors lifted up, making the hinges squeak and groan.

  “Let me help,” Marty said, climbing the stairs next to him. “I’ll push and you pull. We only need to get one door free.”

  With a grinding squeal as the bar ground against the metal brackets holding it into place, they alternately dragged and shoved at it until it finally slid through the last bracket on the left-side door. Marty immediately shoved at it, and someone on the other side yanked it open.

  Even though the sky was still overcast, it was so much brighter than the shelter, both Cooper and Marty swung their arms across their faces. Then they stumbled through the doors and onto the mounds of cut and busted-up lumber.

  What they saw when their eyes adjusted, a round of cheers going up around them, was more than a little humbling. Clutching Marty’s hand, both of them stood and stared at the destruction around them. The huge weathered barn had been reduced to nothing more than a heaping pile of busted wood planks. A whole row of towering pine trees behind the barn had also been ripped up. Some were tossed nearby, like they’d been nothing more than plastic pickup sticks. Who knew where the rest had landed? The roof was nowhere to be seen. Or maybe it was part of the pile of lumber that had once been the barn.

  Marty moved in closer to Cooper’s side as they turned full circle. Ryan and most of their former college chase crew had been standing on various chunks of barn and piles of cut-up planks, but now gathered to come up and shake hands and dole out hugs.

  “What the hell are you doing here, man?” Cooper asked as Ryan moved in and gave him a one-armed hug and back slap. “How did you find us? And why the hell aren’t you drinking champagne right about now?”