She poked him in the ribs. “Mom’s worried, huh? Tell her I’m … okay.” She couldn’t tell them how she really was: scared, angry, ashamed. “It’s been a rough week. I need to talk to the CO, the squadron or group, and I guess the lawyers before I can do anything. We’ll see how it goes. Tell mom I’ll call in a couple of days and maybe I can get away for a long weekend.”
He gave her another hug and then held her out to look at her. He gave her a little nod and smiled. “I have this friend who’s looking to hire—”
“No, thank you,” she said. “For now.”
It was the start of an old argument, one she didn’t have the energy, patience, or strength to fight. Plus, the man’s friend list ran a mile long. If it came down to that, if the fear that had been her constant companion all week won and she resigned… No, she shoved that thought away and smiled at her dad.
“When do you head home?” she asked.
“First thing in the morning.” He pointed a finger at her. “Dinner tonight, six sharp, at Olio. Now, I’m going to talk to Hutchinson and he better have a good reason for being in your room.”
She rolled her eyes at him and smiled. It wouldn’t have done any good to try to talk him out of grilling Kyle. Her dad didn’t miss much and the more effort she made to deter him, the more determined he’d be to question the poor guy. Instead she grabbed her sea bag, hefted it over her shoulder and headed out. If she left right then, she’d have time to check into the bachelor officer quarters—BOQ—get settled into her room and maybe even dress up. Look like Lily, the frilly girl her parents had wanted instead of Nic, the girl who liked to get dirty and keep up with the boys.
As she made her way up to the foreword hatch voices fell and gazes shifted away. Not really surprising considering she hadn’t spent much time out and around the crew during the cruise home. She stopped short behind a wide set of shoulders that were well above her head.
The line stood still. Not the norm for a return home. She peered around the guy in front of her to see what caused the hold-up. Her sea bag slipped from her hand and landed with a thunk on the steel floor. The grumbling from the men at the ladder ceased as they all turned to stare. She was met with a mix of emotions: animosity from Stone and Tarasov, remorse from Roberts and Smitty, and frustration from the two masters-at-arms escorting the men off the boat.
The guy in front of her shifted as he turned to block the others view of her.
“I thought you’d already left with the prisoners. Is there a problem, Chief Faraday?” It took every ounce of nerve she had to control the tremble in her voice.
“No, ma’am. Dealing with the usual paperwork shuffle. We’ll step aside and let you depart.” His striking hazel eyes, which were neither more blue nor green, held no trace of pity. Either he had an exceptional poker face or he didn’t know what crime the men had committed.
Right. She could only get so lucky.
“You’ll understand when I say I’d rather not have them at my back.”
“Understood. Give us a minute and we’ll have them up and out of here. Alright men, let’s get a move on it.”
Stone opened his mouth but before he could say anything Faraday got in his face. He had to be a good six or seven inches taller than his prisoner. “Petty Officer, unless you are directed to do so you will keep your trap shut and proceed foreword. Eyes on the man in front and you might want to watch your step. It’s a little slippery topside.”
At the man’s not-so-veiled threat the other men made double time up the ladder, followed by Stone, who surprisingly did exactly as he’d been told. Chief Faraday gave Nic a curt nod and disappeared up the hatch.
* * *
Kyle poured kibble into the bowl for his roommate’s cat and then popped the top on a Guinness. Precious wound around his ankles purring. Although a better name, which he used often was Princess PITA as she thought she was the first and he knew she was the second.
“Yeah, yeah. I missed you too. Now go eat.”
He powered up his laptop to check e-mail. He’d tried calling his mom and cousin when he’d gotten in earlier, but neither had answered. No surprise there. His mom firmly believed cell phones were for emergency use only and Stevie had probably forgotten to charge his again. Shit happened when you spent the majority of your time drunk.
The PITA ignored her food and jumped into his lap within seconds of his butt hitting the couch. The first claw struck gold. “Hey,” Kyle scolded. “What’s the rule on fluffing?”
The cat gave him a beady-eyed stare of boredom and lay down to purr on his lap.
“That’s better.” He grabbed the laptop and set it on the arm of the couch where he could reach the keys over the fluffball. As the page populated he stole a glance at his phone. No blinking lights. He couldn’t believe he was sitting around waiting for Nic to call or show like a love-struck teen. With her dad in town, they were probably having dinner, and it wasn’t like she could ditch him for Kyle.
The admiral had been everything Kyle expected and more. When he ordered Kyle to wait in the wardroom, Kyle figured he’d be asked about the video. He didn’t, but then again he’d read the SITREP from the CO and already knew the details. Kyle hadn’t been expecting to be grilled about his relationship with Nic or offered a job on the admiral’s staff. He wondered if the offer was to thank him or to keep him away from Nic.
Tempting.
The job, not staying away from Nic. Although working for her father would be more effective than a dunk in the deepest loch in the middle of the Scottish highlands in the dead of winter.
Handpicked for the admiral’s staff? Not something most officers saw, especially as a lieutenant, and most career men only dreamed of. He’d be a fool to say no.
So why didn’t he say yes?
Who told the admiral in charge of the Atlantic submarine force “I’ll think about it”?
He did, because apparently his mama raised a fool.
How else do you describe someone turning down a job like that? The thing was, Kyle had been handed very little in his life. If he had it, it came through busting his ass and doing the job better than the next guy. Accepting the job didn’t feel right, and he couldn’t even believe the thought was running through his head, but if felt like he was being paid off for sleeping with Nic.
“Or bought off to stay away,” he said to the cat.
He finally finished clearing his inbox of junk messages and came upon the one he wanted, the one from his cousin:
Yo dog. Twins owe Walt Woodrow $$$. Still digging.
Stevie
Thoughts of Nic and the job offered slipped away as the name from his own past came back to haunt him. Walt “Woody” Woodrow. Kyle didn’t know he was back in town. The last word had been that Woody was serving time in the big house. Should have known he’d get out and come crawling home.
Snakes like him always came out unscathed and resurfaced when you least expected them.
Kyle hadn’t seen the dude since they were in middle school. Woody had been a year ahead of him. One of the cool kids. They hung out for a bit. Swapped some BS stories, tested each other out. Then one night Woody fed Kyle a tale about how Old Man Tomlinson fired him for no reason at the mom and pop store Woody worked at. Together they broke in, busted up a bunch of merchandise, spray painted the usual crap that comes out of kids’ mouths. Someone spotted them, called the cops and both got arrested.
That was the last time Kyle saw Woody. His friend already had a record, no family that gave a damn, and a judge that was tired of seeing his face in court.
Kyle’s maternal grandfather showed up at the police station with Old Man Tomlinson. They’d struck a deal. If Kyle cleaned up the place, worked off the damage and kept out of trouble, Tomlinson wouldn’t press charges.
That was the first break Kyle had ever been given and he didn’t look that gift in the mouth and say no. It took him a year of free labor to pay for the damages, but at the end of that year
Tomlinson offered him a job. He accepted, kept out of trouble and kept his second promise to his grandfather, that he’d get out of that nowhere town and go to college.
Now Woody was back and the twins didn’t have their grandfather to bail them out like he did. They only had him—not that he’d been a great brother—and he was three thousand miles away.
He hit Reply and wrote back:
Cuz, find out how deep and dark. ~K
He closed out the program and shut down the computer. Not much else he could do for the night. A grumble from his stomach reminded him he hadn’t bothered to eat.
“Sorry to disturb you, your highness.” He lifted the cat and laid her on the couch.
The clock on the microwave read eight p.m. He got out the makings for Korean beef and noodles. “Looks like I’ve got lunch for tomorrow because I do believe the girl is blowing me off.”
The cat had joined him in the kitchen, probably hoping for a treat. Kyle sliced the beef into thin strips and looked down to meet the cat’s gaze. “Yeah, I know. You’ll happily help me eat this, but no can do. Your human has you on a diet. See that note on the fridge? Those are strict instructions that I not give you any people food and only one cat treat a day. Sorry, Princess.”
“Meow.”
“I know. Cruel and unjust punishment.” He washed his hands and reached into the cabinet next to the fridge to pull out the bag of cat treats. “Just one, got it?”
He tossed the fish-shaped cracker into the bowl and went back to work on his own food. On the way home he’d stopped off at the commissary and picked enough supplies for dinner and breakfast, confident Nic would take him up on his offer. He hadn’t been the only one feeling the heat that afternoon.
Of course that was before her dad showed up.
Had they been anywhere else, he was pretty sure Nic wouldn’t have tried to shove him out the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he had caught her reaction when her dad entered. It was slight, but the smirk was there, the one that told him Nic wasn’t afraid of her dad, but she did respect him. Hard not to when the man played hard, yet fair.
Did he say something to Nic about the two of them? He seemed to take Kyle at his word that they simply formed a platonic friendship underway. Had he seen through the lie? Technically they hadn’t done anything wrong.
The timing sucked.
But then when didn’t it when you were in the Navy?
“What do you think, cat?” Kyle plated up his food and dropped onto the couch. “Think I should forget the girl and carry on or convince her it’ll be worth the risk?”
“Meow.” Princess PITA jumped up on the back of the couch next to him to purr in his ear.
“You’re right, nine p.m. She’s already made the call and I’ll be out of here in five months anyway. Doesn’t really matter. So what are we watching?” He picked up the remote ready to spend the night with just him, the Princess and whatever he could catch on demand.
It was better this way, he told himself. He didn’t want to end up in a mess like Mace with a wife who didn’t trust him and ran home to mom every time life didn’t go the way she planned. Or like a few others he’d known whose wives found someone else to warm their beds the minute the boat pulled out or refused to transfer with them because their job came first.
Nope, better to be single, enjoy the ladies with no strings attached and no responsibilities. If he wanted the latter he’d just go home and deal with the twins in person. Speaking of, he made a mental note to call his mom in the morning and see if either dipshit one or dipshit two were around so he could find out just how big of a hole they’d dug this time.
Just as he settled on a movie and dug into his dinner the doorbell rang. He jumped up from the couch. “I had given up on you,” he said as he opened the door.
“Really?” Mace said. “Did you tell him we were coming over?”
“Nope, which means it wasn’t us he was expecting.” Bryant sniffed the plate and liberated it from Kyle’s hand.
“Ah hell, Hutch.” Mace scowled and dropped into the lone chair. “I thought you weren’t going to be stupid.”
Chapter Nine
Tuesday afternoon, the day after they returned to port, Nic exited the galley and headed to the wardroom. Technically, lunch ended an hour ago, but Chief Boone took pity on her and not only made her a double BLT but slid a giant chocolate chip cookie on her tray as she was getting ready to walk out. Guess he’d seen the stress lines and figured she’d need a pick-me-up. Or maybe it was the dark circles under her eyes that gave her away. She had just sat down at the empty table when Kyle walked in, coffee cup in hand.
He took his time, filling his cup and picked up a cookie from the tray on the sideboard before sitting across from her. He looked down at her plate, then to the cookie in his hand, and then finally to meet her gaze.
“How come your cookie is bigger?” Kyle asked.
“Chief likes me better.” She took a bit of her sandwich and pushed the pity thoughts away.
He took a deep breath.
“Smells like it just came out of the oven.”
She bit off a piece and groaned. Warm chocolate melted on her tongue sending waves of pleasure through her. Screw the BLT, life was short, she was having dessert first. Kyle’s eyes never left her mouth as she licked a crumb from the corner of her lips.
“Want some?” she asked.
Fire…such a dangerous and tempting element. It filled his eyes and her body and if she didn’t quit, one or both of them would end up burned.
Kyle’s gazed dropped one more time to her mouth before meeting her look. “Maybe another time. Why are you here anyway? The CO gave you time off.”
The casual rejection stung, although it shouldn’t have come as a surprise after she stood him up.
“Gave you time off too and you’re here, probably for the same reason. Work to do. Supplies to offload, new supplies to order. Besides, I had to talk with the squadron guy whose heading up the investigation this morning and this afternoon I have an another appointment.”
He reached out and squeezed her hand. “How did it go?”
Awful. Degrading. Nauseating. “Fine.”
“I would have gone with you, if you’d called.” His voice soothed and she blinked back the tears that wanted desperately to fall. As bad as the morning’s interview had gone, she knew it was only going to get worse with each new person she had to face who knew about or had seen the video.
They sat in silence as she finished her sandwich and he drank his coffee. There was so much going on in her mind. Work: getting the boat’s supplies restocked for port, reports, and all the usual tasks. The case: should she transfer, resign—her dad had suggested both— or stay and face the humiliation and fears. Then there was Kyle and this thing between them. What it was, she didn’t even know. Did she throw caution to the wind, follow her heart (or was that another part of her anatomy talking?) and explore what promised to be a torrid affair? Or walk away now?
Walk…no run away, her internal guardian angel yelled. Yet there was another voice in her head, that little devil, who whispered that she should run to him.
“Kyle, I’m sorry.”
“Because…?” The crooked smile gave her hope that she hadn’t killed their friendship. “Boone likes you better?”
“That’s to be expected after you dissed his lasagna underway. No, this is for not calling last night.”
“No big.” He shrugged and stole a piece of her cookie. “Your dad was in town. It’s only natural he’d want to spend the time with you.”
“More like play the guilt card to get me to come home and grill me about you.”
He choked on his coffee, but didn’t say anything until he’d gotten up to refill his mug and rest against the sideboard. She didn’t miss that he’d intentionally put distance between them.
“Me?”
“Yep. You impressed him and I’ll admit, that’s a rare feat given the Admira
l’s cynical mind.” She’d also been stunned when she found out Kyle hadn’t jumped at her dad’s job offer. She started to tell him but when she looked back up, he’d glanced away.
If she wasn’t mistaken he was blushing, but maybe the red in his cheeks was just from the steam of his coffee.
She walked over to the sideboard and took out a cup. As she went through the motions of making tea her body hummed with energy and awareness. Since they were in port they’d donned their aquaflage uniforms. They weren’t sexy like dress blues or whites and did absolutely nothing for her barely-there curves, but on Kyle they made her heart speed up and her blood pound hard. He had rolled up the sleeves, exposing tanned arms, toned biceps and leaving just a tip of his tribal band tat showing.
He was temptation on a stick.
She turned and leaned against the sideboard next to him, exhaling a soft sigh.
“Did you think I’d use your misfortune to my advantage?” His voice was soft and filled with disappointment like he expected her to say yes. Had he guessed how many people had tried to use her family connections for their gain? She’d lost count.
“Not at all, but you have to admit most wouldn’t have passed up on a golden opportunity.”
“Yeah, well in case you haven’t noticed… I’m not like most people. I’d prefer to make my way up the ladder on my own sweat and blood.” He turned to her and tucked a stray strand back into the knot. “Did you want me to say yes?”
Taking her free hand in his, he traced an intricate knot in the center of her palm. He should stop. She should tell him to or pull her hand back. Anyone could walk in at any moment. It felt…sensual, mesmerizing, enticing.
“It might have simplified things if you had,” she said.
“I’m not sure simple is how you’d describe dating someone who lives over three hundred miles away.” He tugged her closer until his mouth was a whisper away. “Frustrating is the word you’re looking for.”
Love Runs Deep Page 10