A Question of Intent

by Merline Lovelace

  "That was a fast sixty minutes," she grumbled, not quite ready to abandon her boneless lethargy.

  "It was, wasn't it?"

  The smug pride in his reply stirred a giggle deep in her throat. Of all the reactions Jill had expected to experience after the most shattering climax of her life, laughter wasn't one of them. She would have let the giggle float free if a sudden, insistent prod at the inside of her thigh hadn't diverted her attention.

  "Cody?"

  "What?"

  "You may have regained your strength, but I haven't."

  "Not to worry." His voice was low and rough as he folded his body like a pretzel and reached for his wallet again. "I'll do all the work this time."

  Jill made some inarticulate protest, which, thankfully, he ignored. Mere minutes later she was spinning through another universe again.

  She woke to the sound of pelting water and a satisfied male singing decidedly off-key.

  Pulling her face from the depths of her pillow, she dragged up both sandpapery eyelids and crooked her head toward the bathroom. The door was shut, but the steam escaping from underneath confirmed he was in the shower.

  Her glance shifted to the digital clock on the night-stand—6:20 a.m. Groaning, Jill dropped her face back into the pillow.

  They'd migrated to the bedroom sometime during the night. She wasn't exactly certain when. She was pretty sure the relocation came after her second, mind-shattering climax and sometime before the third.

  The man was inexhaustible.

  Jill hugged the pillow, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. And here she'd shied away from big, athletic types all these years. There was definitely something to be said for strength, stamina and muscle control.

  But not when it came packaged in an individual she had to work with for the next few months. One she still couldn't quite get a handle on.

  Sighing, Jill rolled onto her back and let the clear, slicing light of morning cut through her sensual haze. She'd done some dumb things in her life. Not walking out on her drunken date back in college ranked right up there at the top of the list. She only hoped last night wouldn't take second position.

  By the time Cody strolled into the bedroom wearing only a smile and a towel wrapped low around his hips, she had the sheet tucked up under her arms and her back propped against the headboard. She was determined to play it cool, but the sight of the man fresh from the shower almost had her swallowing her tongue. His damp han stood up in gleaming black spikes. Missed droplets of water glistened on his shoulders. One rivulet trickled down to lose itself in the dark swirls of hair on his chest.

  Oooh, boy! Jill wasn't used to so much masculin-ily this early in the morning. Or any other time of the day, for that matter. Clearing her throat, she greeted him with what she hoped was casual nonchalance.

  "Good morning."

  He came across the room, planted one hand on the headboard and delivered a long kiss. Not having had the benefit of a toothbrush, Jill kept her lips locked together. Even close-mouthed, she felt the slow burn all the way to her tightly curled toes.

  "Now it's a good morning," he said in a satisfied tone.

  "Uh, Cody, I think we need to talk."

  "Yeah, I figured that was coming. How about we talk over breakfast? I'm starved." He straightened and gave her a crooked grin. "I don't know about you, but I worked up a hell of an appetite last night. I'll get dressed while you hit the bathroom."

  Still damp and sleek as a panther, he headed for the other room to find his clothes. Jill stayed pinned against the headboard, staring at the strip of untanned skin displayed just above his sagging towel.

  Well, that was interesting. We need to talk was usually a killer lead in. It certainly hadn't seemed to concern Cody. Or surprise him. Thrown off balance by his nonchalance, Jill trailed the sheet behind her and headed for the bathroom.

  They opted for breakfast at the Kirtland Officers' Club, situated only a short walk from the transient quarters. Jill slid her tray along the chrome rail and treated herself to a toasted bagel and orange juice. Cody once again demonstrated his ironclad stomach by choosing huevos rancheros and greasy fried potatoes.

  "How can you guzzle hot stuff for dinner and breakfast?" she muttered, eyeing the beans, minced onions and green chilies topping his eggs.

  "When in Rome..." he replied with a shrug. "How about that table over there by the window?"

  She navigated to the spot he indicated and caught her breath at the vista framed in the floor-to-ceiling windows. Peachy-brown and sharp-etched in the morning sunlight, the Sandias rose to form a jagged ridge against a cloudless sky.

  Cody emptied his tray, took hers, and placed them both on a handy nearby holder. They downed their first caffeine of the day in silence. Their systems jump-started, Jill munched on her bagel while he dug into his slithery, sloppy eggs.

  "Okay," he announced after a couple of healthy bites, "let's hear your list of reasons why last night wasn't a good idea. Or do you want me to do the honors?"

  "The floor's all yours," she replied, curious to hear what he had to say.

  "All right." He took another swig of coffee, set his cup aside. "One, it was an aberration, a case of getting carried away by the thrill of a scientific discovery."

  Jill had been earned away, all right, but not by the discovery of a new bug.

  "Two," he continued, "we let our glands overrule our good sense. Three, we'll be working together for the next few weeks and need to maintain a professional protocol that's hard to project when all we're thinking about is jumping each other's bones. Four, we hardly know each other. Five..."

  He paused and let his glance slide over her face.

  "Five?" Jill prompted.

  "You're still not sure about me."

  When she didn't deny it, he sat back and hooked a brow. "Did I miss any of the major issues?"

  "Nope, I think you hit them all."

  Except the fact that the insides of her thighs still tingled from whisker burn. She shoved aside the memory of Cody's face buried between her legs and met his sardonic gaze.

  "You know everything I just mentioned is bull, don't you?"

  "Pretty much," she admitted. "Whatever the heck is going on between us, it doesn't seem to respond to logic or lists."

  "So what's the plan?" he asked, lobbing the ball neatly into her court. "Where do you see us going from here?"

  Wishing she had an answer to that question, Jill pushed the remaining half of her bagel around the plate with the tip of a finger. She wasn't the coy type, wouldn't string Cody along if she wanted to, which she didn't. Neither could she deny that they'd kicked down some walls in the past eight hours that could prove hard to rebuild.

  "I don't know where we go from here," she answered, "except back to the site."

  "And forget what happened last night?"

  "No." Honesty compelled her to admit the truth. "Last night was... unforgettable."

  "Good. I'd hate to think I was the only one who thought it was the hottest sex this side of the planet Mars. You rocked me right off my heels, Bradshaw."

  If he was off balance, Jill sure couldn't tell it by the way he put away the rest of his eggs and fried potatoes. Two cups of coffee later, they were on their way back to their small, dusty corner of New Mexico.

  Jill was surprised by the long stretches of companionable silence they shared as the Lincoln cruised south on I-25. The Albuquerque skyline soon dropped out of sight, as did the Isleta pueblo with its mission church standing square against the morning sun. Then came the flatlands of Bosque Farms and the rich Belen valley, cut by the meandering Rio Grande. Soon the green fields gave way to the dusty brown of Soccoro and a bronze plaque announcing that they'd just entered the Jornada del Muerto.

  "The journey of the dead," Jill relayed when Cody pulled over for her to read the wayside sign. "The roughest and deadliest part of the Camino Real, which ran from Mexico City to Santa Fe. With no water, no grazing and no wood for cook fires, this was ninet
y miles of pure hell."

  Looking out over the immense empty desert, she could believe it.

  "Wonder why the Camino Real didn't just follow the river?" Cody mused.

  "It says here the Rio Grande changed course after almost every major storm, leaving behind high ridges, deep gullies, and treacherous bogs of quicksand. Despite the dangers and the constant threat from hostile Apache, travelers made better time on flat, dry land. Those who finished their journey, that is."

  Cody hooked a wrist over the leather-wrapped steering wheel. His eyes hooded, he surveyed the bleak terrain. "It's going to be interesting to see if Pegasus finds this land as unforgiving as the Spanish caravans did."

  Jill nodded, remembering that the northwestern tip of their secret site bordered the Jornada del Muerto. Pegasus would take his first swim at the south end of this deadly strip, in the deep, silent waters of Elephant Butte. First, though, he had to conquer the mountains spearing up out of the desert far to the east.

  "Considering the success of his initial run," she said, eyeing those rugged peaks, "my bet is Pegasus kicks butt."

  Cody flicked her a glance. "Let's hope so."

  "Yeah," she echoed softly. "Let's hope."

  Chapter 10

  Jill spent the next two days in a whirlwind of activity.

  As promised, the Kirtland cops sent the necessary equipment to modify her unit's Humvees. The genius in charge of the site's motor pool supervised the installation. Her MPs checked out the mods by making runs into the mountains to preview the route Pegasus would take.

  During one run, they stumbled across a car parked at the end of an almost inaccessible dirt road. The vehicle sat beside a trickling stream. The patrol approached cautiously, weapons drawn, and scared the hell out of the couple frolicking naked in a shady pool formed by a basin of rocks.

  The startled and highly indignant male was ID'ed as the son-in-law of the county sheriff. As it turned out, the overly well-endowed brunette who scrambled into her clothes was not the sheriffs daughter. Responding to the scene, Jill kept her expression neutral.

  "You realize this is a restricted area?"

  More worried now than indignant, the male half of the illicit twosome palmed a hand over his slightly balding crown. "Yes, I know but—"

  "But what?"

  "We've never seen any evidence of military activity in this area before."

  "Come up here often, do you?"

  "No, no! Not, uh, often."

  Nervously, he swatted at the gnats buzzing around his damp hair. At this elevation, the ecology of rugged rock and thick pines formed a sharp contrast to the seemingly barren desert at the base of the mountains. The air was cooler here—and populated with more annoying insects.

  Jill explained the sudden appearance of a heavily armed patrol with a vague allusion to military exercises being conducted in the area. The illicit lovers weren't interested in military activity, only in covering their tracks.

  "Look, you don't have to file a report or anything, do you?"

  "No."

  "So we can go?"

  She wasn't worried these two would spread the word about a beefed-up military presence in the area. "You can go."

  Naturally, the incident provided great fodder for jokes back at the compound. Jill closed her ears to the ribald comments she overheard her MPs tossing back and forth, but couldn't resist sharing a chuckle with Kate and Cari later that evening.

  "Wish I'd been there when my troops first arrived on the scene and ordered him out of the pool," she said when the three women congregated for a rare gathering. As busy as they all were, they'd seen each other only in passing since the impromptu party after Pegasus's first run.

  "According to the report, the man was buck naked," Jill related with a grin, "and hopping from one bare foot to the other on the scattered pine needles."

  "From what I hear," Cari drawled, "your troops barely spared him a glance. Word is his girlfriend's bra size was at least a 36-double-D. Or maybe that was her IQ. I've heard several different versions of her response when asked to explain what they were doing in the area."

  Jill sputtered with laughter. "She said they were just cooling off I won't tell you how my guys responded to that."

  Kate wasn't quite as amused by the episode as the other two. "I hope they both got pine needles stuck somewhere other than the soles of their feet. What is it about marriage that turns some men into complete jerks?"

  Too late Jill remembered Kate's philandering ex. She exchanged a look with Cari, who responded to the question with a shrug.

  "Beats me. Although I've met one or two who didn't require marriage to qualify for jerk status. I can think of one in particular right here."

  "Let me guess," Kate said, her scowl giving way to a grin. "He wouldn't happen to be a United States Marine, would he?"

  The usually placid Coast Guard officer rolled her eyes. "If I hear 'that's not how we do it in the corps' one more time..."

  Restored to her normal sunny self, Kate chuckled. "So now there are two of you striking sparks off your fellow cadre members. Although..." She turned her curious gaze on Jill. "I've noticed a definite lessening of hostilities between you and the doc in the past few days. Did something happen up in Albuquerque you want to tell us about?"

  "Nope."

  "Nope, nothing happened or nope, you don't want to tell us?"

  "No comment."

  "Come on, girl, give! You and Cody depart the site separately, not exactly on friendly terms, and return together the next day in noticeably more mellow moods. What's a roommate to think?"

  Jill would hardly describe her mood the past few days as mellow. The wild night in Cody's arms released the sexual tension that had built between them from their first kiss. Unfortunately, the mere thought of that night generated an entirely new batch. With some effort, she banished the memory of his bristly five-o'clock shadow scraping along the slopes of her breasts.

  "What a roommate should think," she told Kate firmly, "is that her colleague discovered a new strain of virus and was justifiably pleased by it."

  "Uh-uh. That won't work. I'm a scientist, too, remember? I was the first on our team to pick up evidence of a solar flare a few years back, but I don't recall that it put a hitch in my stride. Which," she added, throwing up a hand to forestall Jill's protest, "is exactly what happens whenever Cody walks into a room and spots you."

  Well, at least the aftereffects weren't all one-sided. Now if Jill could just decide what the heck she wanted to do about them.

  She was still trying to make up her mind when she stepped out into the predawn darkness the next morning. Anticipation bubbled and fizzed in her veins. Pegasus would tackle the mountains today. Jill wanted to go over the composition of the escort teams and dispatch two to the higher elevations well ahead of the test run.

  She had just rounded the corner of the prefab unit that served as the women officers' quarters when the door opened to the unit that was two over from hers. Jill's stomach did a quick roll when she recognized the khaki-clad figure silhouetted in the light spilling through the door. Deliberately she slowed her step. Cody wasn't the only one with a hitch in his stride, she thought ruefully.

  "'Morning, Doc."

  Coming out of the darkness, her greeting caught him by surprise. He spun in her direction and relaxed his taut shoulders only after spotting her in the shadows.

  When he came down the steps and closed the short distance between them, it was Jill's turn to go tight all over. She guessed from his smile what he intended before he curled his hands around her upper arms and dragged her against his chest. His head came down, his mouth closed over hers, and she forgot every prohibition against public displays of affection while in uniform.

  When he raised his head, her breath came in short, embarrassing pants. So did his, she noted thankfully.

  "I've been aching to do that since we got back from Albuquerque," he growled.

  She could hardly deny the truth when it had pretty well sl
apped them both in the face. "Me, too."

  "I saw the lights on in your quarters last night. You have no idea how close you came to getting a visitor."

  "I've got two roommates," she reminded him, refusing to think about what Kate would have made of a late-night visit from the doc.

  "So do I," he said ruefully, gliding his hands up and down the stretch of skin left bare under the rolled-up sleeves of her BDUs. "Helluva note when grown adults have to sneak out in the dark to neck."

  If she hadn't been so distracted by the river of goose bumps he was raising on her arms, Jill might have pointed out that neither of them had sneaked anywhere.

  "Speaking of the dark," she said instead, "what are you doing up so early?"

  "I was lying in bed thinking of you when I decided to do another search of the Center for Disease Control's database."

  "I suppose it's logical you've linked me to a database of diseases in your mind, but I have to admit it doesn't exactly do a whole lot for the ol' ego."

  "It should," he countered with a grin. "You've worked your way in my system, Bradshaw. Just like the bug that got to Ed Santos."

  "And you honestly believe that line will score you points with women?"

  "Make that singular," he said slowly, his grin fading. "You're the first woman—the only woman— I've tried to score with since my wife died."

  Whoa! She hadn't seen that coming.

  The quiet declaration added another layer to the tension simmering just under her skin. The attraction was still there, the shivery, sensual delight he generated with each touch, the whispered promise of pleasure to come. Suddenly that anticipation took on a deeper hue, a different heat.

  Thrown off balance, Jill struggled to come up with an appropriate response. Her confusion must have shown on her face. Cody's grin came back with a vengeance.

  "You don't have to look so surprised. I've pretty well spent the past three years in a lab. Your closest competitors have been germs."

  She seemed to recall Kate mentioning a media consultant back in Virginia who'd like to sink her hooks into the man but decided this wasn't the time to introduce a third party into the conversation. A fourth party, she amended, remembering his reference to his wife.