Ripped!

by Jennifer Labrecque

  “How about I pick you up at your hotel at 1930 hours?”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  “It’s very casual,” he said. Eden had requested a nearby restaurant. First and foremost, she liked to think she was contributing to the local economy when she frequented neighborhood eateries, especially considering independent restaurant owners were showing big courage given the failure rate. Second, she liked to sample the local flavor of wherever she was.

  “I can do casual,” she said. She couldn’t imagine why he’d think otherwise unless he was seeing her as the daughter of a brigadier general rather than the person she was.

  “And the food can be a little messy, but you’ll never taste better ribs.”

  The look in his eyes set off a fluttering low in her belly. All she could think was hot, messy sex. And judging from that flash of a glimmer in his eyes, it had occurred to him, as well. The idea seemed to dance between them and she wet her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue. “I can definitely do messy.”

  His gaze tangled with hers and Eden found it suddenly very difficult to breathe.

  His jaw tightened, he nodded and the moment was gone…but it had been there. It had been there in spades. “I’ll see you then.”

  Eden climbed out, and he waited until she’d started her car and backed out behind her. Ten minutes later she was off base and he’d turned toward his office to cover some paperwork.

  Fifteen minutes after that, she was in her hotel room. Her hands not quite steady, she hit Patti’s speed-dial number.

  Patti answered on the second ring. “What’s up?”

  “You might want to sit down.”

  “Oh, boy. This is going to be good.”

  “I don’t know about good, but it’s got to be fast.”

  “Talk, girl. Talk.”

  Eden talked. She filled Patti in on the day, leaving nothing out. “And now we’re going to dinner.” And she knew with all the tension stretching between them, the awareness, the dampness between her thighs, it wouldn’t just be dinner. The idea both excited her and terrified her. “Patti, he’s so not the man I’m looking for. He’s in the wrong profession. And he’s intense. He loves all the things about the Army that make me crazy, but sweet mercy…there’s something about him.”

  “Have you lost your mind?”

  That was the entire point of the phone call. She thought she had. “I think so. But he’s so, well, beautiful, that when I kissed him this morning…”

  “No, you moron, I mean why are you even questioning what you should do? Go for it.”

  “What?”

  “Go for it. You’ve only got a few days. Think of it as the ultimate affair. You get to do Mercury in the flesh. Where’s the downside to that?”

  A three-day affair with Lieutenant Colonel Mitch Dugan…The idea slid over her with a deliciousness that left her tingling, aroused, wanting. “I don’t know. I just know I feel as if I’ve fallen into a river and I’m being swept along by a fast-moving current. This isn’t what I wanted…isn’t what I was looking for.”

  She paced to the hotel window and stared out at the sea of lights that was Fayetteville and Fort Bragg.

  “What were you looking for then?”

  Resting her forehead against the cool glass pane, Eden closed her eyes, trying to sort out her uncertainty, the turmoil inside her. “This is just so intense.” Just like Mitch.

  “So give yourself three days of intense sexual pleasure. Heck, considering that you only have three or four days there, intense is a good thing.”

  Patti didn’t understand. It was insane to ache for a man she’d just met, to long for a virtual stranger’s touch. “So you don’t think I’m crazy?”

  “Crazy is sitting around fantasizing about some stone statue in your courtyard and then passing up on the real deal.”

  Something clicked into place for Eden. How many signs did she need? Wasn’t she the queen of impulse? Hadn’t she been the one who’d kissed Mitch this morning in the first place? Then why the cold feet? She pushed aside the thought that maybe it was because Mitch Dugan was different from any other man she’d ever met.

  “I guess it would be quick in and quick out, wouldn’t it?”

  “I hope for your sake, it’s not too quick.”

  The very thought made her quiver. “Very funny.”

  “It was, wasn’t it?”

  A thought occurred to Eden and she laughed aloud, knowing her voice held a hint of hysteria.

  “What?” Patti asked.

  “We’re sitting here talking about quick ins and outs and he still calls me Ms. Walters.”

  On the other end, Patti chuckled. “Yeah, you might want to move to a first-name basis sooner than later.”

  She glanced at the digital clock beside the bed. She better hustle if she was going to shower and change before they went out to dinner. “Hey, I’ve got to go.”

  “Okay. Give me a call when you have time. I’ll need an update.”

  Ha. What Patti really meant was that she’d want details. “I’ll call…and thanks.”

  She tossed the phone to the bed and stripped, her body already tensing, anticipating Mitch’s touch.

  5

  “HOW WAS ROUND ONE OF photographer sitting?” Murdoch asked with a grin, propping his shoulder against Mitch’s doorjamb.

  “Wait one sec,” Mitch said. He finished the last of the reports, added it to the stack and leaned back in his chair, crossing his hands behind his head. “It was…interesting.”

  Murdoch dropped into the chair opposite Mitch. “No shit?”

  “Actually, yeah.”

  “If she gets a look at me, she’ll want me on her list for sure,” Murdoch said with a grin.

  “Arrogant bastard.”

  “Hey, have you made her list?”

  Mitch wasn’t about to relay that particular conversation to his friend. “You know, come to think of it…she seems to be looking for arrogant bastards, so you might stand a chance. She picked McElhaney.”

  Murdoch muttered a profanity that insulted both McElhaney and McElhaney’s mother.

  “I know. I tried to give her the heads-up.”

  “I wish you had something to nail him with,” Murdoch said.

  Mitch shrugged. “He’s doing that himself. He’s sloppy. It’s going to catch up with him, sooner or later.”

  “The sooner the better. Are you heading out to Louisiana Friday night or Saturday morning?”

  “I’m trying for Friday night. The old man’s get-together is on Saturday night, so I’ll get back sometime Sunday.” Mitch grinned, as excited about reuniting the former soldiers as he’d been about anything in a long time. “It’s going to be a damn good time. I’m glad I told him about it. He’s been looking forward to it for months now.”

  “How many are coming?”

  “Five. It was originally seven, but two guys died in the last six months.”

  “That’s what happens when you’re dealing with old dudes.”

  “Yep. So I’m checking the old man out and taking him to the VFW for the party.”

  “Reliving the glory days.”

  “That’s what old soldiers do.” Mitch grinned. “We’ll be just like them one day. Talking about remember when we went through jump training…that mission into northern Iraq.”

  “It’s cool that you’ve pulled this together for them.”

  “I used to go to his battalion reunions with him when I was a kid. The guys told the same stories over and over, but I never got tired of listening to them. And now there’s just a handful of his buddies left. I think I’m looking forward to seeing the old geezers as much as he is.” Mitch glanced at the clock on the wall. “Hey, I’ve got to get out of here.”

  “So you are going to dinner with Eden Walters. Tolliver told his wife—” Mitch remembered Tolliver being in the last group of five jumpers. He must’ve overheard the conversation between McElhaney, Mitch, and Eden. “Who in turn told my wife who promptly called me to tell
me I was holding information out on her,” Murdoch continued. “So, where are you taking her?”

  “She wanted something local so we’re going to—”

  “Wait,” Murdoch interrupted, throwing up a cautionary hand. “Don’t tell me unless you want us to show up. Because if you tell me, you know Tara’s going to want to check her out.”

  Mitch came close to telling Murdoch anyway. It’d certainly keep dinner from getting too intimate if Tara and Murdoch showed up. His better judgment told him to give Murdoch the name of the restaurant. But was that what he really wanted?

  Mitch’s entire body tightened when he remembered her scent, the brief feel of her body against his, the fleeting taste of her mouth…and the look in her dark blue eyes when she’d all but dared him to take her to dinner.

  Apparently, his better judgment had skipped town when it came to Eden Walters. He found himself shaking his head. “Just tell her you couldn’t pry it out of me.”

  “She’s going to kill me.”

  “Yeah, but I think you enjoy it, Murdoch.”

  Murdoch sobered. “Look man, you might want to proceed with caution considering her old man’s a brigadier general.”

  “We’re only going out to dinner.”

  “She kissed you this morning. It’s already all over the base. And you know as well as I do that facts get distorted with every retelling.”

  Mitch suspected Brigadier General Max Walters was fully aware of what his daughter was like. Otherwise he was pretty damn sure he’d have already been called on the carpet about it. “Okay. I hear you.”

  He had just enough time to shower, shave and put on fresh civvies before he headed her way.

  And it was kind of alarming just how much he was looking forward to doing just that.

  EDEN’S HEART RACED AS MITCH Dugan pulled up in front of her hotel. She walked out to meet him and paused as he opened the passenger door of his truck for her. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long, Ms. Walters.”

  She brushed past him to slide inside the Bronco. She didn’t actually touch him but she was unbearably aware of his nearness. He’d showered. She could smell the fresh mix of soap, shampoo, clean clothes and man. His body heat drew her like a warm fire on a cold night. The errant thought that she’d been waiting on him a lifetime chased through her head. It was as disconcerting as the man himself. “No. I wasn’t waiting long at all. You’re right on time Lieutenant Colonel…but then I knew you would be.”

  He paused in closing the passenger door, a gleam of humor in his moss-green eyes. “Predictable?”

  “Just military,” she said, reaching for her seat belt. He closed the door without comment and rounded the truck to climb in the driver’s seat.

  Eden plowed ahead as he pulled out of the parking lot. “Now’s probably a good time to tell you, you should just call me Eden. Ms. Walters has me looking over my shoulder for my mother.”

  He offered an abrupt nod. Well, not exactly abrupt. Economical. Everything about Mitch Dugan was together and efficient…well, except for when she’d kissed him this morning. “Roger that, Eden.” Wow. That sent a little shiver through her and notched up her temperature a couple of degrees. His underlying Southern drawl was a little more pronounced when he said her name and it rolled off his tongue like a sweet whisper of seduction. “Lieutenant Colonel Dugan’s a mouthful,” he said without cracking a smile. “Why don’t you just call me Lieutenant Colonel?”

  Talk about hard core…she was pretty sure her mouth gaped a bit and he grinned at her. “That was a joke. My name is Mitch.” His grin weakened her knees.

  She laughed. He’d had her from the moment she’d fallen at his feet, but throw in a sense of humor and she was an utter goner. “You got me with that.”

  A slow smile, steeped in sensuality, tugged at his lips, thickening the air between them. Three days. She had three days with this man and she knew simply falling into bed with him wouldn’t work for her. Some women could do stranger sex, one-night hookups—sometimes she envied them that ability, but it wasn’t in her makeup. While she could do a brief fling, she had to at least know more about him than his name and his rank.

  “So, Mitch.” Simply saying his name sent a little thrill coursing through her. “Why the military?”

  “My grandfather was career Army. An NCO.” She noted that while his grandfather had been a noncommissioned officer, an enlisted man, Mitch was not only an officer, but a high-ranking one at a very young age. Interesting. “I grew up on his stories. I just knew it was where I belonged and what I was supposed to do, to be. I can’t think of any greater honor than serving my country. And I like the structure, the order.”

  His hands on the steering wheel caught her attention. They were capable, masculine hands—well-shaped in that they weren’t too narrow nor too square, his fingers blunt-tipped, his wrists carrying a smattering of dark hair. She remembered the feel, the tingle of his hands against her back when he’d hauled her to her feet this morning.

  Her belly fluttered at the memory. And her people instincts zeroed in on what he’d not said as much as what he had. “What about your parents?”

  “We’re not close. I didn’t have much structure growing up. I almost failed third grade because I was absent so much. They couldn’t bother to get up in the morning and if they didn’t care, I didn’t care. I stayed up half the night playing video games.”

  He clamped his mouth shut and she knew he’d said way more than he’d ever intended. Now that particular topic was closed.

  “What about you?” he asked. “Why photography?”

  She was good at reading people and his question rang with genuine curiosity, although she could tell he was still quite happy to change the subject. “We moved all over the world and if you’ve seen one base, you’ve seen most all of them. And then, when we were living in Hawaii, on the big island, my aunt sent me a camera for Christmas. There was something about looking through that camera lens. Just a sense of ‘this is me.’ Does that sound crazy?”

  “Nope. Not a bit. That was exactly the way the military was for me. Do you mainly photograph people?”

  “Not just people. More like people in their element, when the backdrop tells their story, along with their face and their expression.”

  “How do you know when you find that?”

  “It’s an instinct. Photographer’s intuition. Sometimes you just know when something’s right. When it fits or clicks into place—even if you don’t want it to be right.”

  He stopped at a red light and turned toward her. He had a way of looking at her that left her feeling as if he was peering into her very soul. She connected with people all the time, but this was different. It was as if he had access to the very core of her being, which was crazy since she’d only just met him. Still, it was very real, nonetheless.

  “Is your instinct ever wrong?” he asked.

  “I can’t say it’s ever failed me. It’s only when I’m stubborn and ignore it because it’s not what I want to hear that I wind up in trouble.”

  “Does that happen often?” His eyes gleamed and his lips lingered on her lips. She knew he was recalling her kiss this morning. And just a look at her lips sent her thoughts scattering. What were they talking about? Oh, yeah.

  “What? That I wind up in trouble?” Quite suddenly his opinion mattered…a good deal. She was impulsive sometimes and she liked to consider herself a free spirit, however, she wasn’t a loose cannon by any means. “Less than you might think.”

  The light changed and they were on their way again. “So why would I think you get into trouble a lot? Wait.” His tone was teasing but there was an underlying note of seriousness. “Maybe because you go around kissing men you don’t know? Hmmm.”

  “It’s not a habit,” she said with a laugh.

  His grin was slightly lopsided, which was rather endearing in a man so structured and organized. “Do you realize you now have G.I.’s lining up to knock you down so you’ll kiss them?”

  S
he shrugged. “Occasionally my mouth does get me into trouble.”

  “Just curious, Eden, but why’d you kiss me this morning?”

  “I guess it does actually beg an explanation, but you may think it’s kind of strange.”

  “Baby, it can’t be any stranger than you laying one on me in battalion headquarters’ hallway.”

  Baby. Some men used the term and it struck her as demeaning or overly familiar. She was sure Mitch Dugan didn’t use the term often. And coming from him it was hot. During their entire conversation, there’d been an awareness, a tension stretching between them, wrapping around them. It jumped to the forefront now.

  “Okay,” she said. “Here goes. You reminded me of someone, really something—a statue in my garden. Hey, it’s not every day that a woman literally runs into a Roman god lookalike.”

  “You kissed me today in the hallway because I look like a garden statue. I’m not sure whether that would make or ruin my reputation.” He could say whatever he wanted to but he was flattered. “Which god?”

  “Mercury, messenger of the gods.”

  “So I look like this statue?”

  Three days and counting. If she was going to flirt, she was going to flirt boldly. Going for it, meant really going for it. Eden didn’t believe in half measures. “I can only vouch for the face because he’s naked and you aren’t. At least not yet.”

  “Baby,” he said as he pulled into the restaurant parking lot. “I can see where your mouth could get you in all kinds of trouble.”

  6

  MITCH LOOKED AT THE WOMAN sitting across from him sipping a sweet tea and looking around the restaurant in obvious appreciation.

  She had him tied up in knots like he’d never been tied up before. And the hell of it was, he kind of liked it. Mitch knew for certain he felt more energized and alive than he’d ever felt before, and he’d been in some combat situations where his adrenaline had definitely been flowing. Maybe her particular brand of crazy was catching.