by Aliyah Burke
“I don’t. She told me it wouldn’t work.”
“Jaydee likes rules. She follows them for the most part. And she compartmentalises. It is her coping mechanism. And I’ll tell you right now, if you don’t force her to face whatever is between y’all, she never will. By the end of her time here, she’ll look in that box that contains her feelings for you, sigh, and delete it. Then she’ll move on.”
He watched her slide off the rail. “Delete it. Like it was a file on a computer?”
Lexy’s expression was serious. Disturbingly so. “Exactly like that. It’s how she’s survived, she’s had to. Only problem, now she can’t stop doing it. It’s an ingrained habit.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
She stepped closer. “Because you get through her barriers. You brought her into the land of the living and I want her here with me.” Another step and their chests almost brushed. “Don’t think, though, that if you hurt her I won’t come after you, because trust me, handsome, I’ll be on your ass. Sure as shittin’, I will. And I’ll bury my five-inch stilettos right through your balls and heart without any hesitation.”
He flinched at the deadpan statement. He couldn’t help it. Lexy walked away and joined Jaydee on the loungers. He mulled over the stuff she’d told him about Jaydee. Yes, she was different, but he loved that about her.
Huh, would you look at that. He didn’t panic at the word love. He strolled down the steps and to the makeshift volleyball court.
“You playing, Casanova?”
“You got it.” He whipped off his shirt and shoes then joined them.
* * * *
Jaydee strode through the hallway, a particular destination in mind.
“Amos!”
Twisting around, she found Fentress bearing down on her. She waited. “Sir?” she asked when he halted.
He seemed drawn and tired. “I wanted a chance to speak to you privately.”
“What can I do for you?”
“I’m sending Beast up with Keel today. I know it’s not time for the switch yet and it’s not on the board but that’s what it is. The replacement for Dr Thompson arrived today and, since you two will be working together overseeing the final training of our guys, I wanted you to work with him today.”
“Very good, sir.” She isolated the pain and disappointment and locked it away.
“Speak freely, Dusti, if there is something you want to say.”
“No, sir. I understand. He’s your permanent pilot, he should be logging the hours. If there is nothing else, I will head over to the lab.”
“That’s all. You will be in the air tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.” She stood straight then walked away. There was no point in going to change into her flight suit so she made her way with her comfortable clothes and music to the lab. She entered the large room and glanced around. There were a few people there but not many.
“Good morning, Dr Amos,” one woman said as she went by, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand.
“Kelly,” she replied smoothly.
“You’re here, why?” Dr Thompson’s voice came from behind her.
“Orders. Captain Fentress wants me working with the one replacing you when you leave.”
He grunted. “Good idea. He’s in the cafeteria at the present. Come look at these equations on the board.”
She followed him without question to a whiteboard. Ignoring her belly’s demands for substance, she got directly to work. In the process of correcting the third equation, she halted when her name was called and a hand touched her shoulder.
Lifting her head, she rotated to see who needed her attention. As she realised who it was, a large smile crossed her lips. Tall and leanly muscular, with blond hair and startling blue eyes, Dr Ivan Vinokourov stood before her. Iceberg blue, she called his eye colour, for it reminded her of the pale tinting the icebergs picked up from the reflection of both sky and sea.
“Ivan!”
“Jaydee.” He wrapped his arms around her and held tight.
She closed her eyes and welcomed it. Ivan was her second truest friend after Lexy. After a moment, they drew apart. She stared into his eyes.
“You’re replacing Dr Thompson?”
“On his recommendation.”
Ivan sounded as surprised as she was by his announcement, although she knew she shouldn’t be. Ivan was at the top of his game. He’d been Dr Thompson’s protégé for a while.
“He picked well.” She sneaked a glance at her father to find him watching them with a calculated gleam in his eyes. Ignoring that puzzle for the moment, she focused back on Ivan. “I was told this morning to come here and meet you. So, have you had a tour or did you want to get right to work?”
“Let’s work, then we can chat after lunch.”
She agreed and went to her boards and got back to work. Time flew and, before she knew it, Ivan made his presence known. She capped her marker and gave her work on KVA a final perusal. KVA stood for kilovolt-amperes. In their field, the term had exclusive use in referring to power consumption by an AC power source. Part of their investigative use of time-varying electric fields for EG propulsion.
Rolling her shoulders, she set the marker down and walked beside Ivan. She pointed out things as they slowly made their way to the cafeteria.
“Where are you staying?” she asked, grabbing a tray.
“Same place as you. Dr T recommended it to me.”
“It is a very comfortable place.” She put down a cheeseburger and a fruit cup on the tray.
“I like it. Probably even more so once I unpack all of my things and make the place my own.”
She didn’t respond, she wasn’t required to. Ivan did that quite a bit, making lots of rhetorical statements. Questions, too, if she wanted to think about it. He reached around her and grabbed two waters, placing them on her tray. Then he grabbed himself a Coke and a water.
“You still drink two with lunch, I would assume,” he whispered in her ear.
The side of her mouth curved up. “I do.”
He always made her smile. Ivan was a man she felt comfortable with. That was how everything was between them. Nice and comfortable. Even the sex. It had sated an urge, but never would she say it had affected her like…
Don’t go there, she reprimanded herself.
They paid and made their way to a table. Thankfully, Ivan was a man who ate during lunch. He didn’t do chitchat when the time came to feed oneself. She didn’t mind—most of her meals were eaten alone.
She had just finished her fruit cup when a loud masculine laugh reached her ears. The fork wobbled a bit in her hand before she managed to pull herself back together. In her peripheral, she watched Gio and Lizard swagger in followed by Keel and Beast.
Ivan glanced up and scoffed. “Pilots.”
“Yes, the four who fly here.”
“Only two are staying. I heard they’re going to be competing for a final position in a combat squad.”
She blinked. “You know more than me.” A slight shrug and a subject change. “It’s a nice area, Ivan. We just got out of the rainy season. Some parks and a place to base jump.”
His burst of laughter made her chuckle. She’d been forever trying to get him to go with her. To feel how it was to fly.
“Not in this lifetime.”
She sighed dramatically. “I keep telling you, it’s science.”
“No way. You got me in a helicopter with you for ‘science’—no more of that for me.”
“Why are you complaining? We survived. In fact, I did very well, considering.”
His blue eyes narrowed. “I was fifteen and you…you were thirteen.”
She grinned. “It was an experiment on aerodynamics. I’m an awesome pilot now, Ivan. Not to mention base jumping. You’d be in charge of yourself.”
“No way,” he uttered in Russian. She knew he spoke it when he was being very adamant about something.
“If you change your mind…” Her offer was also given in
Russian.
“I won’t.”
Something caused her to look up and, when she did, she was met by hazel eyes. Gio watched her from his table, his expression an unreadable mask. His gaze flickered from her to Ivan and back to her. Suspicion narrowed her eyes but he merely broke the connection.
“Who’s he?”
“That’s Commander Cassano, the ace around here.”
“And the look he gave you?”
“He’s not wanted me here from the beginning. The one lost in the incident was his best friend. So I’m sure he’s just reminding me I don’t belong with the pilots.” She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
“A dick, then.”
She loved his immediate support of her. “Crudely put, perhaps, but yes, at times he has been.” Her phone rang. “Amos.”
“Sorry to bother you, ma’am, but I have something you should see. I’m sending it to your email. I wanted to let you know to expect it beforehand.”
“Thank you, Sedin.”
“My pleasure, ma’am.” He hung up.
She finished her second water and rose. “I have to go.”
Ivan stood as well. “Everything okay?”
“I think so. Just got some information I’ve been waiting on.”
“Let’s go.”
They cleared their table and left. Although she never looked directly at him, she could feel Gio’s gaze upon her until they were out of view. She reached the lab and made a beeline towards her area where she had left her tablet. Perhaps in some places people wouldn’t leave their things, but this group had worked for Dr Thompson. Stealing got you booted, no questions asked. So there’d never been a reason to lock things.
She sat and opened her email to scan what Sedin had sent to her. The news didn’t make her any happier. Concealing her reaction, she merely put her music in and got back to work after closing down the email.
The rest of the day she dealt with KVA, and double-checking another’s report on electrohydrodynamics. When they’d finished up, she gathered her stuff and trooped to the door. Ivan fell into step with her.
“How’d you like it?” she asked.
“This certainly is an impressive facility. I was shown my permanent lab and all things will be moved there by morning.”
“Terrific.”
“Dinner tonight?”
“Can’t. Lexy’s visiting.”
“No problem. I’ll swing by and say hi to her.”
“Bye, Ivan.”
She broke away and headed for her bike, more than ready to be home. A sigh of relief escaped her as she parked at her own building.
The music could be heard as she stepped from the elevator, the loud sound escaping from an open door. Her open door. She pushed it wide and saw Lexy speaking to a guy she didn’t know.
“Hey, Jaydee! This is Steven. He delivered some groceries for me.”
“Steven,” she said.
The young man replied but, even as he made his way to the door, Jaydee could tell he was doing everything in his power to remember Lexy. When the door had closed behind his exit, she tossed her bag down and sank onto the couch.
“Everything okay, hon?” Lexy turned the music down and sat next to her.
“I was grounded today. Ivan Vinokourov showed up as Dr Thompson’s replacement and he’s moved into this building.”
Lexy chuckled, tried to stop but couldn’t and soon it was a full laugh. Jaydee stared at her friend who was still laughing.
“How is this amusing?”
“It will make things interesting, don’t you think?”
“How so?”
“Your ex living in the same building as you, not to mention working with you and your current flame.” Her eyes twinkled. “Yeah, I’mma go with interestin’, hon.”
She shook her head. “Gio is not my current anything.”
Lexy punched her in the shoulder. “Good luck with that.”
“Luck with what? There is nothing needing luck.”
More laughter. Lexy stretched out one long brown leg adorned with a blue stiletto. “Babe, if you think that, you’re in for a big shock.”
“You’re not being logical.”
“Neither are you, Jay. Gio doesn’t strike me as a man who will let this go, let you go, without a fight.”
“We aren’t allowed to be together.”
“Didn’t stop y’all before,” she replied without missing a beat.
Jaydee stood. “Which was also a mistake.” She turned. “I’m showering.”
Lexy stared at her foot while she rotated it. “Letting yourself live life isn’t a mistake, Jaydee. You deserve to be happy as well.”
Lexy’s words stayed with her throughout her shower.
They shared a light dinner and spent the rest of the night competing against one another using the Kinect. When she rolled from bed, she tiptoed around so she didn’t wake Lexy. She swiped her keys and opened the door to find herself face to face with Ivan.
Chapter Fourteen
Gio stared out of the cockpit as they streaked through the sky. The rush that being up here usually gave him had abandoned him today. All he felt was sorrow. Today was the second to last day Jaydee had to be a part of the squad. Then, two weeks later, she’d be gone.
Lexy’s words echoed through him. He would force her to face it. Just as soon as they had a moment. But, hell, the way the clock was currently ticking down before her departure, if it had to be done in the women’s locker room, then that was where it would occur.
“You okay over there?”
He glanced at Lizard and gave him a small nod. He wasn’t really, but he didn’t want to hash it out with Lizard in the B-2. Besides, he didn’t need therapy, he needed Jaydee. He needed her in his life.
The memory of her walking around his place wearing one of his shirts made him smile. Made him hard too, but it didn’t set up anxiety in his gut. Other women he’d wanted gone, especially if they’d actually fallen asleep at his house, in his bed. Part of why he’d tended to go to them, so he would leave and not have them curved all over him come morning. Something else he didn’t mind with Jaydee, the feel of her pressed against him…one of the best experiences ever.
Somehow, he had to get her alone. It wasn’t as if she avoided him, they were just that busy.
“You’re sighing again, man. What gives?”
He ground his jaw and shook his head.
“It’s just us, Giovanni. You look like hell, what’s going on?” A brief pause. “God damn it, man. If you’re not on your A-game here, there’s a chance we don’t go home at the end of the day. And I for one have a lot more women to sleep with before I call it quits. So spill.”
“Just mulling over the upcoming completion for the combat unit.”
“Uh-huh. And I’m flying in my skivvies just looking for the chance to eject out of this perfectly sound bomber.”
Oh Geez, a bit of sarcasm.
He took a deep breath. “Fifteen days.”
“You lost me, Casanova. What’s happening in fifteen days?”
“She leaves.” More specifically, she would be leaving him.
“This is about Jaydee.”
He glanced briefly at his friend. “I can’t let her go.”
“Why? Because you feel pained she ended it with you lying naked in your bed?”
“No. Because somewhere along the line of her being here I fell in love with her. Totally. Head over fucking heels in love. And I can’t begin to imagine my life without her.”
Lizard didn’t laugh at him. He merely nodded.
“About damn time you admitted it. I know how you operate. I told you before, I knew this woman meant more to you than all those others. From the first day, I knew.”
“Whatever. Point is, I don’t know how to proceed.”
“You’re emotional and not thinking straight.”
He banked left and checked the position of Jaydee’s plane. Exactly where she should be. She always flew precisely where she
should.
Her voice flowed from the speaker and he ground his jaw as she chatted with the air traffic control officer. The woman was calm personified. Even during the troubles she’d had, her tone had been remarkably composed.
Sharing a look with Lizard, he followed the orders that came across the airwaves. As they shut off the flame-jet engines and ran on the electrogravitics, he thought again about Jaydee and how she’d tried to explain this to him.
“How stealthy are we really when flying like this?” he asked.
The question was meant for Jaydee—he wanted her to talk to him. Lizard just gave him a weird look.
Silence met his question and he knew she wouldn’t answer. Still a smile lifted his lips as he envisioned her eyes sparkling while she taught him something with her very descriptive explanations. He knew she’d heard him and would have responded in her head. She couldn’t help herself.
Lizard gave him yet another odd look and he merely lifted his shoulders in a brusque motion. He had no explanation for his comment. None at all.
“Fifty seconds to the line,” Lizard informed him.
Gio snapped to. All attention on the mission. This was the time to be professional. They were going in on a mock bombing run. He was actually flying second in this, so if Jaydee missed her target then it would be on him to complete the task.
Like that would happen. He was content to be backup for her. And only her.
“Alpha Two, you have a green light. The mission’s a go.” The voice crackled over the radio.
“Roger that, going in hot.”
“On your six, Dusti.”
“Always good to know, Casanova.”
The words were delivered in a professional way, yet it was like she stroked him. Damn, he wanted her. He watched her shoot forward towards the target.
Clouds rolled in but they didn’t slow. In fact, if anything, they went faster. Beside him, Lizard did a countdown until they hit the target. He flew a bit above and behind her to keep an eye out for any incoming bogies. Fentress always liked to throw something in, and on this mission they had no AWACS to watch out for them.