“Fine,” she said. “So what’s the big grand plan?”
“I’m working on it,” Lance replied, an edge to his voice. The steel-gray eyes were equally sharp. “This isn’t the first time I’ve planned something like this, you know.”
“No, I don’t know,” she retorted. “Because you never tell any of us anything!”
All around the table everyone seemed to find something fascinating in the bottom of their drink glasses. Okay, so maybe she’d let a little bit too much slip with that last comment. But how the hell was she supposed to keep it together when they all seemed intent on sending Grayson right into the lion’s den?
Lance didn’t blink, though. “You’re probably right. But let’s just say I have some experience in these sorts of things. It’s not as if we’re just going to send him in there in a T-shirt with a sign that says ‘Kick Me’ pinned to the back.”
“So what are you going to do, precisely?”
He didn’t answer, but merely gazed at her with that stony expression she knew all too well, the one that hid everything except what he wanted to reveal. Which at the moment was basically nothing.
She got it, on some level — she couldn’t betray secrets if she didn’t even know what they were. Realizing that, however, didn’t make this any easier.
The weight of everyone’s watching gazes suddenly seemed too much. Kara stood, then bent to retrieve her purse from its resting place on the floor. “Then I guess I’m done here. You boys have fun storming the castle.”
And ignoring Grayson’s worried, “Kara,” and the other murmurs from around the table, she turned and strode out.
The heat hit her in a wave as soon as she opened the front door. Blinking, she dug in her purse for her sunglasses and then stuck them on her nose. And where were those damn car keys…
The voice that stopped her was not Lance’s, as she’d hoped, or even Grayson’s, but Kiki’s. “Kara — wait up!”
She really didn’t need to deal with this right now. “I’m leaving, Keeks. It’s pretty obvious that my opinion doesn’t count for much in there.”
“Well, I’m not sure that’s really what’s going on — ”
Kara pushed the button on the remote to unlock the car doors. “I can’t sit there and listen to them talking about sending Grayson into a situation like that.”
“Sounded more like he was volunteering.”
Oh, screw this. She yanked open the door and slid into the driver’s seat, only to see Kiki climb into the passenger seat. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Coming with you. It sounds like we have a lot to talk about.”
* * *
Lance supposed he should have expected a reaction like Kara’s, but it took a good deal of willpower for him to remain seated, to not get up and hurry after her. A display like that would only lead to questions he didn’t feel like answering, so instead he drained the rest of his iced tea and asked, “You still have what you were wearing when Kara found you?”
Grayson blinked at him, his thoughts obviously on the woman who had just fled the room. “What? I — I don’t know. You’d have to ask Kara.”
Who had just split the scene. Well, Lance knew he’d have to confront her sooner or later. Following up on Grayson’s jumpsuit at least gave him an excuse to go talk to her. “Okay, I’ll check on it. From what I could tell from my last viewing, the base hasn’t changed materially from the last time we were all in there. Only difference is, no humans.”
“None?” Persephone asked. Obviously she was recalling the support staff who’d hightailed it to the four winds after her psychic blast killed off everything in the place that wasn’t human.
“None,” he repeated. “And I saw aliens — true aliens, not just the ones who’ve taken over human bodies. They’re clearly not too worried about anyone with earth DNA finding out about their little operation. So that means none of us can go in with Grayson for a ride-along. He’s got to do it on his own.”
Everyone was silent then, and conspicously trying not to look too hard at Grayson…or at the empty seat next to him. Even though Lance knew Kara’s true feelings, knew she’d made her choice, it was obvious that she didn’t want anything bad to happen to Grayson…and that she just might hold Lance responsible if something did.
Great.
“Do we go in the same way we did last time?” Persephone asked. Her tone was too deliberately casual, as if she knew she was supposed to act as if it was no big deal even though she was actually scared shitless.
“I go,” Grayson corrected her. “Lance just told you that no one else can come along.”
She gave a defeated little shrug and exchanged a quick, uneasy glance with Paul. Lance thought the scientist might have a word or two to say on the subject if Persephone tried to push the issue.
“I’m not sure yet,” Lance said. “I’m going to talk to one of my buddies over at Arizona Helicopter Adventures, see if he can do a little reconnoitering for me. Those guys fly that area all the time, so it’s probably the best way of detecting any obvious activity. It probably won’t be that easy, but it’s someplace to start.”
They all nodded, even Jeff, who had a tendency to want to argue everything even if he knew deep down that you were right. Funny how everyone seemed to recognize the need to defer to Lance, the only one who had any combat experience. Well, Grayson had been bred to be a soldier, but who knows if he’d seen any real action — or remembered enough of his training for it to do any good. It was pretty obvious that lately he’d been in “lover, not a fighter” mode.
Not that Lance was doing much better himself. He rattled on, talking about what he’d seen in his last remote viewing session, discussing scenarios with Paul and Jeff, trying to pry what little knowledge he could out of Grayson, but only half his mind was on what he was doing. The rest of him was thinking about Kara and wondering what she and Kiki might be saying to one another.
* * *
It was amazing what a glass or two of pinot grigio could do to improve your mood. Kara and Kiki sat in the living room of the house they’d both grown up in, sandals kicked off, Gort twitching in ecstasy as Kiki rubbed his tummy with one bare foot.
“So,” Kiki said at length, “do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
Kiki withdrew her foot and sat up a little straighter. Gort whined and rolled over onto his stomach, looking wounded.
Despite everything, Kara couldn’t help smiling. There was nothing like a dog to keep you grounded.
“I mean,” Kiki went on, expression contemplative, “if I’d known the hybrids were that hot, I might have been a little more upset when I found out that Persephone had blasted them all to kingdom come.”
Kara shot her a warning look. “That’s not funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny.” She tucked her feet up under her legs so she was sitting Indian-style on the sofa, then sipped at her pinot grigio. “I’m just saying that no one is going to give you crap for falling for Grayson. Especially since you didn’t have any idea who he was.”
I could think of a few people. Then again, that wasn’t fair. Lance had been surprisingly gentle on the subject, for him. Especially when Kara considered his own feelings for her. She didn’t reply, though, but only stared across the room at the dark fireplace, wishing summer was over so she could feel the heat of a real fire again instead of all this ceaseless air conditioning.
Something made her shiver then, and she reached over to set her half-empty wine glass down on the coffee table.
“There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?” probed Kiki. For all her seemingly airy — some might say air-headed — ways, the girl could be amazingly perceptive. Then again, for some time Kara had thought a good deal of it was just an act. God knows the girl could whip a computer into shape like nobody’s business.
“I really don’t want to talk about it.”
Of course Kiki wouldn’t let her get off that easily. “I thought I saw
a few sparks flying with you and Lance back there. Smells like somebody’s jealous.”
Goaded, Kara replied, “I really wish you wouldn’t talk about Lance like that,” and then wished she’d kept her mouth shut.
Kiki didn’t say “a-ha!,” but the gleam in her eyes indicated that she knew she’d scored a point. “So Grayson isn’t the problem. It’s Lance.”
“I don’t want to see anything bad happen to Grayson, and they’re just going to let him walk in and — ”
“They’re not ‘letting’ him do anything. Sounds to me like he volunteered. So great, that’s very noble of him. ‘’Tis a far better thing I do now’ and all that. But what’s going on with you and Lance?”
That was a really good question. The kiss they’d shared the previous night had told her things should have been different between them — and yet today Lance was his usual hard-ass self, barely even looking at her. Or was he only trying to keep everyone else from guessing that something else had changed? Good luck with that. It was sort of hard to keep secrets when a good chunk of your personal circle just happened to be psychic.
“He kissed me last night,” she said absently, recalling the feeling of his mouth on hers, the taut strength of his body, even the warm, delicious scent of his skin. Remembering it just made her want it all that much more, and the cramping ache had returned, the need, the desire to be back in his arms. God, how could she want him so much and be so irritated with him at the same time?
Kiki’s eyes widened. “Shit, seriously? This is world-shaking. So how was it?”
“I am not going to discuss my love life with my little sister, thank you very much.”
A very indelicate snort. “You don’t have to. I can tell just by looking at you that you’ve got a bad case of what Stephen King described in one of his books as ‘hot thighs.’ I don’t really get it — Grayson is much hotter — but whatever.”
“Grayson is an alien. Or at least part alien.”
“Who cares, when he looks like that?”
Kara shook her head ruefully and said, “I missed you, Keeks. I’m glad you’re back in town.”
“Well, if I’d known things were going to be this crazy, I wouldn’t have left.”
“What, and miss out on shacking up with Jeff Makowski?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter. Jeff was a perfect gentleman.”
Okay, that was a little rich. “You know, there are a lot of words I can think of to describe Jeff Makowski, but ‘gentleman’ really isn’t one of them.”
Kiki flipped her hair back over her shoulders and shook her head. “You guys are all so down on Jeff, just because he isn’t pretty.”
“I really hope you don’t think I’m that shallow,” Kara replied, a little nettled. So Jeff wasn’t going to win any beauty contests. Big deal. It wasn’t that at all. Tone sharpening, she continued, “No, it’s more because he seems borderline Asperger’s to me, and I don’t want him to develop some weird crush on you that ends badly because he doesn’t know how to cope with his feelings.”
“I don’t think there’s much risk of that. Most of the time I’m not sure he even notices that I’m female. I think he just enjoys being Obi-Wan to my Anakin, programming-wise.”
“Well, that’s not a very good precedent, is it?”
Kiki stared at her blankly for a few seconds, then burst out laughing. “No, I guess it isn’t. So pour me another glass and tell me more about how Grayson showed up on your doorstep.”
* * *
Lance left the Olivers’ house several hours later, once it was pretty clear he couldn’t do much else until they had a better idea of the best way to insert Grayson into the Secret Canyon base. Right before he left Kiki had apparently texted Jeff to come pick her up at Kara’s place, so Lance figured the coast would be more or less clear.
And Grayson, surprisingly, had gone with Michael to crash at his house, the shaman explaining that his home’s proximity to Oak Creek provided a shielding effect, and that Grayson would be safer there. Whatever. Grayson hadn’t seemed too put off by the idea — maybe being around the Olivers’ domestic bliss was getting to him — so that all seemed to be settled for now.
Lance wished he could say the same about himself and Kara.
The driveway was empty when he pulled up into it. Jeff must have already retrieved Kiki so he could drive her back to her apartment. God knows where that was going…not that it was any of his business. One Swenson woman was enough for him to deal with at the moment.
He got out of the 4x4 and went up to the front door. It had to be the heat that started the sweat along his temples and down the back of his neck.
A rush of cool, welcome air greeted him as Kara opened the door. Surprisingly, she didn’t look at all hostile as she greeted him with an airy, “Oh, hi, Lance.”
Once he was inside, he discovered the reason for her current insouciance — an empty pinot grigio bottle sitting on the coffee table next to a pair of equally empty glasses. “You and Kiki get all caught up?”
“More or less.” She bent and scooped up the empty bottle and glasses, then headed into the kitchen. He heard a thunk as she dropped the wine bottle in the trash.
“You don’t recycle?”
“Oh, right.” She began to reach into the trash can to retrieve the empty bottle, but Lance reached out and caught her by the wrist.
“I think it’s okay if you let one go.”
A pause then, as she stood there looking up at him, his hand still wrapped around her wrist. Her skin was smooth and warm against his fingertips. She didn’t try to pull away. The dark blue eyes caught his, and held. “What do you want, Lance?”
Good question. What did he want? He wanted…
He wanted this to all be over, so it could just be him and her. No aliens, no conspiracies, no plans to try to save the world. Just a chance to come home and have it actually mean something more than an empty condo.
Without thinking, he pulled her toward him, pressed his mouth to hers, tasted the lingering sweet-sharp taste of the white wine on her lips, her tongue. Maybe in the back of his mind he’d worried that she’d try to pull away, but she didn’t. Instead she pressed into him, her breasts soft and full against his chest, her hair falling with a scent of warm peaches against his cheek.
“I want you,” he said roughly, after they finally came up for air. “That’s all I’ve wanted for a very long time.”
Her mouth curved into a smile. “You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
“Well, if you knew why — ”
“Then tell me.”
She was dead serious, he could tell. Maybe she’d been slightly tipsy when he first showed up, but she looked sober enough as she stared up into his face, as if trying to read his secrets there. He hesitated.
“I mean it, Lance. If you want to be with me, then you need to tell me the truth. About your past. About why we’ve been doing this stupid dance for the past six years. I need to know if you had a good reason for it.”
Oh, he’d had a very good reason. But he knew the time for evasion was past if he wanted to have a future with this woman. And he did. God, he wanted it.
“All right,” he said heavily. “But I think you may want to pour us both another drink first…”
* * *
“God, I’m so sorry,” Kara said at length, her neglected glass of pinot noir still clutched in one hand. “If I’d only known — ”
“It’s all right,” Lance said, his expression blank. Too blank.
All this time, his only thought had been of protecting her. Of making sure she didn’t meet the same fate as the woman he’d wanted to marry all those years ago. Her heart ached for him, but all the usual words of condolences sounded false and hollow. He’d suffered already. She shouldn’t drag him back through it now.
“Are they — ” She hesitated. “You don’t really think they’re still after you? Not after all this time.”
He lifted his shoulders. “They know where I am. I’m n
ot going to kid myself about that. But by now I’m guessing they think I’m harmless. Just some washed-up ex-operative spending his pension on booze, bullets, and the occasional lay.”
Kara blinked. “Spending on — you’re kidding, right?”
A smile lit his gray eyes, brought out the laugh lines. “Not that way. I meant more like buying drinks and the occasional dinner. I haven’t exactly been living like a monk.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that.” A pang went through her at the thought of all those casual liaisons. Here she’d been all alone, while Lance had hooked up with an alarming number of attractive tourists.
“They didn’t mean anything. You know that, right?”
She summoned a smile to answer his. “I do now.”
He bent to kiss her again, and she reached out to deposit her wine glass on the coffee table before she forgot herself completely, lost herself in the taste and feel of him. His weight pressed her into the sofa cushions, and she twined her legs around him, pulling him that much closer. Even through her jeans and the cargo pants he wore she could feel his arousal, knew he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.
It was crazy for them to be groping each other here on the couch like a couple of overheated teenagers. On the other hand, she didn’t want to take him into the bedroom, into the bed she’d so recently shared with Grayson. Sure, she’d changed the sheets, but —
Lance didn’t seem too worried about niceties such as location. His hands went under her tank top, found the clasp on her bra, unhooked it. And then his fingers were on her breasts, stroking, and she moaned and arched her back, pushing herself against him. The soft fabric slipped up and over her naked torso, and his mouth was on her, suckling, tongue teasing at her.
She needed to be able to feel him as well. Her eyes were half-closed, but she still found the buttons of his shirt, worked them open with feverish fingers. Then it was the warmth of his chest against hers, both bodies flaring with heat despite the room’s chilly A/C. Almost with a single thought they both reached for the other’s belt buckle, yanked down pants and underwear like the irritating barriers they were.
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