by Lucy Monroe
It felt funny putting her typical khaki shorts and boring olive green T-shirt on after spending so many hours exploring her female sexuality. She wished she had a skirt to wear, or something slightly more feminine than her mostly androgynous clothing. Even a less militaristic color for her T-shirt would be an improvement.
Her gaze slid to the beautiful silk gown she’d folded up and put in her duffel bag. She reached out and touched it, awed by the luxurious softness of the silk. She doubted she would ever wear it again, but she’d never get rid of it either. It was too special.
Daniel had wanted her to feel that way last night, to feel like a sensual, feminine woman. She had, but the nightgown wasn’t why. It was the way he treated her, the way he touched her as though she was the sexiest woman alive and could turn him on with a simple look. According to him, she could. She smiled to herself, but her expression soon slipped into a frown.
If he was so attracted to her, why wasn’t he even remotely interested in a future together?
Obviously he expected to grow bored with her after a time. In fact, he planned on it. He saw her as an obsession he had to cure himself of, and by his own admission, he’d tried starving the obsession to get rid of it before going with the opposite approach of giving in to it. Did he expect the obsession to last even as long as their investigation?
She couldn’t understand why he had insisted on her sleeping in his arms last night. She caught on fairly quickly that the issue had been as important to him as it had been to her, but what she didn’t understand was why. If it were only sex, why care if they shared intimacy in sleep?
Maybe it was the sex again. He’d certainly availed himself of her willingness both last night and this morning, but she’d allowed him to because he’d said he cared about her.
Looking around the room, seeing the roses, smelling their sweet fragrance, she had to admit that he hadn’t treated her like a substitute for his fist last night. Either he was a darn good actor, or she mattered to him. Her feelings mattered to him. He’d done everything but give her a ring to make last night the most exceptional one of her life.
It had to be about more than mere sex to him. If she were only an obsession, would he have tried so hard to make her first time making love one to remember for the rest of her life?
Then again, he was an honorable man. Maybe he saw his efforts as adequate exchange for what she was giving him…serious sexual release…and nothing more.
Chapter 9
Josie slid into the seat opposite Daniel, the smell of melting butter and waffles making her mouth water. He hadn’t bothered to put a shirt on, and she found his naked torso a lot more interesting than the food, no matter how hungry she was.
“Stop that, Josette, or we won’t make it out of the hotel room today.”
Her gaze skittered to his face. His jaw was clenched, and his brown eyes were melting her with their heat.
“Doing what?” she asked innocently.
“Looking at me like you’d rather pour your syrup on my chest than on your waffle.”
“Sounds sticky. I guess I’d have to lick it off then, huh?”
She watched in fascination as his male nipples hardened. “Yes.”
Heat zoomed into her most sensitive body parts at the image, and she licked her lips, tasting him in her mind. “Would you let me do that?”
He made a choked sound, half laugh, half groan. “Another time, but not this morning. We have to get back to your house.”
He was right. They had work to do, and Claire would be waiting for them. Josie had left a message for her at the nursing home, but things had been a little crazy, and she didn’t want her roommate worrying unnecessarily. For a computer geek, Claire had a pretty strong maternal instinct.
“I suppose, but don’t blame me if my mind wanders when you’re not wearing all your clothes. You’re a very sexy man fully dressed. Naked, you’re a killer.”
“To you.”
“You can’t tell me lots of women don’t find you about the sexiest thing they’ve ever seen. You’ve got rock-hard muscles on a physique most men would kill for, the looks of an ancient warrior and eyes women get lost in.” He’d certainly fueled her fantasies since she met him, but she had to admit, reality far exceeded her imagination.
He stared at her as if she was an alien species.
“What?” she demanded, frowning. “You aren’t blind. You can see yourself in a mirror.”
“My eyes aren’t as kind as yours. When I look in the mirror, I don’t see a man like the one you described.”
“What do you see?”
“My father.”
“You look a lot like your dad?”
“Yes.” There was no pleasure in his voice at the comparison.
She’d never heard him mention his parents. “Do you see him very often?”
“Never.”
“Is he still alive?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s eyes burned with rage for a brief moment, but then it was gone. Nonetheless, it had been too poignant to mistake.
“You don’t get along?” she fished.
“No.”
“Does he still live on the res?” Hotwire had told her once that Daniel had been raised on a reservation, but not why he’d left it.
“No.”
If he were anyone else, she’d be sure the short answers meant he didn’t want to talk about it, but Daniel was laconic at the best of times. He was also blunt enough to tell her to mind her own business if she asked him something he didn’t want to answer.
“Where is he?”
“In prison.”
No wonder Daniel didn’t like resembling his father.
“What about your mom?”
“She died before he went to prison.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I am, too. She was a gentle woman. Soft.”
She stretched, pulling her T-shirt taut across her braless breasts, the nipples of which were still reacting to the image of licking syrup from his naked torso. “Unlike me.”
Daniel’s grim expression turned sexual in a heartbeat, just as she’d hoped it would. She remembered what he’d said about her softness yesterday and wanted to refocus his mind and take the look of grief out of his eyes.
“You feel soft enough to me.”
She grinned, feeling soft in a place she couldn’t afford to tell him about. Her heart. “I’m glad you think so.”
“Hashkeh Naabah.”
“What?”
“It’s my true name among the Sioux.”
“What does it mean?”
“Angry Warrior.”
“Why?”
“I made no secret of the fact that as soon as I was old enough I would leave the reservation. The one way I knew I could do it was as a soldier, so I told everyone I was going to become one.”
“Why angry?”
“I have a hel—heck of a temper.”
She smiled at how he stopped himself from swearing. She liked that he tried to around her. It was like an ongoing reminder he saw her as more woman than soldier. Not that she was a soldier anymore…at least that’s what she kept telling herself. How well her attempt at transformation was working, she wasn’t entirely sure.
After all, she’d armed herself just like the old days when she took Daniel into her dad’s hidden underground room.
“I’ve never seen you lose your temper.”
“That’s because you didn’t meet me until after I was assigned under Master Sergeant Cordell.”
“He taught you to control your temper?”
“Yes. He knew about my dad and drilled self-control into me as an alternative to turning out like him.”
“Your dad has a bad temper?”
“Yes.”
She wondered if that was why he’d ended up in prison, but didn’t want to hurt Daniel by asking. “Master Sergeant Cordell must be a pretty good trainer.”
“He is. He’s the one that nicknamed me Nitro. I hated it at the ti
me. It was a constant reminder I was like my dad. He meant it to be. He pushed my temper every chance he got until I could control my anger in the most provoking circumstances he could imagine, and he had a pretty good imagination.”
Josie read between the lines to the torment Daniel must have endured to learn his immovable self-control and shuddered. “I’m not sure I’d like this master sergeant.”
“You will.”
“You expect me to meet him?”
“I want you to.”
“Why?”
“He’s a friend.”
“Where does he live?”
“He retired to Tillamook.”
“Is that why you wanted to buy in to my dad’s training school? So you could be near him more often?”
“That was one reason.”
She knew the other already. Daniel wasn’t ready to get out of the business, even though Wolf and Hotwire had been. He’d turned down their offer of partnership in the security consulting venture in order to go into soldier training with her dad.
Not wanting to dwell on his inability to move on from the paramilitary life, she said, “My mom used to call me Josie-bear.”
One corner of his mouth tilted, and his brown eyes warmed. “Is that your secret name?”
She nodded gravely. “I don’t bandy it about.”
“I can see why.”
“You think it’s too kidish, or that it doesn’t fit?” she asked archly, never having been flirtatious in her whole life. “Don’t you find me huggable?”
“The name fits you perfectly, but you’re safer not advertising how cuddly you are. Other men might get the wrong idea.”
“You mean that they can cuddle me?”
“They can’t.” He was back to looking fierce.
“You’re pretty possessive for a guy who sees me as nothing more than an obsession.”
“You’re my obsession.” But he didn’t deny that’s all she was to him.
“For now,” she taunted, unable to stifle the need to push him.
“For as long as you agree to share your body with mine.”
“You mean our arrangement is exclusive?”
“Damn right it is.”
“Watch it, Nitro, your temper is slipping.” And wasn’t it interesting she could impact it like she did, a mere obsession like her.
Her thoughts splintered as he stood up in a silent, feral rush. He came around the table with an unmistakable intent.
“I was just teasing you,” she screeched as he pulled her out of her chair and swung her up over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“Feeding my obsession.”
“Are you sure you’re not just trying to assert your male dominance?” she asked breathlessly as she fell back on the bed where he tossed her.
“No man could dominate you, little warrior.”
Maybe not, but her love for a man might make her submit to behavior she would normally crush beneath her size-seven combat boots. “I’m not a warrior. Not anymore.”
“You’re a warrior in here.” He pressed his forefinger against her left breast. “It doesn’t matter what you do with your life; underneath you’ll always be who you are.”
If someone else had said that, she would have felt despair, and a resurgence of her ongoing fear she would never have a normal life, but the way he said it made her feel as though being a warrior at heart was a good thing. His expression said that to him, she was anything but a freak, so she smiled and pulled his head down to hers.
Their lovemaking was elemental and fast and left her panting beneath Daniel in total shock at how quickly her body could find the ultimate pleasure in his.
“You’re really good at this,” she croaked.
“We’re good together.” He kissed her, hard and thoroughly, until she clung to him in renewed passion.
He pulled his lips away and looked down at her, his expression as fierce as any tribal chieftain. “Remember that. You wouldn’t feel this way with another man.” He kissed her again. “Only me.”
She knew he was right, but was afraid it was because her emotions were a lot more involved than she could afford them to be rather than a simple sexual chemistry thing.
There was a city police car parked in front of the house when Daniel pulled his SUV into Josie’s driveway.
“What in the world is going on?” Josie asked.
“Let’s go find out.”
Claire came out the front door as Daniel and Josie got out of the four-wheel drive. She looked even more disreputable than the first time he’d seen her, and her face was pinched with exhaustion.
She stopped in front of him and Josie, her expression bleak. “The house got broken into last night.”
“What?” Josie asked. “When you were here?”
“No. It happened before I got home this morning.”
Daniel put his arm around Josie’s shoulders and hugged her into his side. “What did they take?”
“The usual…our computers, the television, my grandmother’s l-locket…” Claire’s face crumpled.
Josie pulled away from Daniel to wrap her friend in her arms. “Oh, honey…I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. My laptop is gone. I can’t do my schoolwork. Yours is, too. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure something out, and it’s certainly not your fault.”
Claire nodded. “The police don’t think I’ll ever see Grandma’s locket again. It was the only thing I had of my family. It’s like I don’t exist anymore.”
Daniel could hear the pain in her voice, but he didn’t know how to comfort Josie’s roommate and was frankly glad it wasn’t his job.
Josie hugged Claire again. “Oh, sweetie…”
Daniel left Josie comforting Claire and went inside to talk to the police.
“It looks like a standard break-in and entry and burglary,” the officer in charge said.
“Did the neighbors see anything?” Daniel asked.
“Not that we’ve been able to ascertain.” The uniformed policeman referred to his pad. “The best we can do is narrow the break-in time to a six-hour window.”
Daniel’s instincts were screaming at him that this break-in had been anything but routine. It was linked to the explosion on the mountain; he could feel it. He’d wait to see if Josie drew the same conclusion before saying anything, though.
He went over the list of items missing with the police officer. “Your girlfriend will need to go through her things as well, so we can make sure the list is complete.”
“I’ll make sure Josie does that.”
The officer nodded. “Well, there’s not much more we can do here. I’ll file my report and get back to you if we find anything out.”
“Josie, are your CDs in their cabinet?”
Daniel looked up from the list he and Josie had been compiling of her missing property.
Claire stood in the doorway, her brows knit in a disturbed frown. No surprise there. According to Josie, her roommate was a long way from having the financial resources to replace her stolen computer equipment. Since her class load was weighted heavily toward computer studies, that was a major problem for her. He figured there had to be a way to help Claire without damaging her pride, but Josie would know best what it was.
They could talk about it later.
“I don’t know,” Josie said in reply to Claire’s question, getting up from her swivel chair.
She crossed to the small corner entertainment unit in the spare bedroom she used as a study. Popping open a door on the lower cabinet, she revealed a large selection of CDs in their jewel cases. She looked up at Claire and asked, “Did you want to borrow one?”
“No, but the DVDs are in the entertainment center, too. And my portable CD player is still in the drawer beside my bed along with my music.”
Josie smiled, her green eyes flickering with warmth. “I’m glad. I hate the fact they took as much as they did.”
“I
don’t think you’re getting the point your roommate is trying to make,” Daniel said, not happy to have confirming evidence the break-in hadn’t been a run-of-the-mill burglary.
He felt certain it had been orchestrated by the people responsible for the attempt on Tyler’s life. They had not balked at killing once. He could easily imagine what they would have done if either woman had been home last night. Josie could take care of herself, but even a seasoned soldier was at a disadvantage during a surprise attack, and her security measures were nonexistent.
Thinking about it made him ask, “Why don’t you have a security system?”
“Because this is my house, not my fortress.”
It was that normal life thing again. Her desire to leave her mercenary life behind was really starting to bite him in the ass. “Josette, normal people have security systems.”
“Which are useless if the perpetrator has any kind of specialized knowledge.” She closed the CD cabinet and came back over to her computer desk, where she’d been trying to identify what had been stolen.
“So go with something harder to circumvent.”
“But then I wouldn’t be living like a normal person, would I? I’d still be perpetrating the soldier mentality. Anyway, I don’t see what my lack of a security system has to do with the thieves leaving my CDs behind.”
“Whoever broke in last night is a lot more dangerous than a burglar looking for his next score.”
Claire pushed her black plastic-rimmed glasses up on the bridge of her nose. “I think he’s right, Josette. I read this article online a few months ago about petty theft and the used entertainment industry market. According to what I read, CDs and DVDs are popular items to steal because they’re so easy to get rid of. You don’t have to prove ownership, and a lot of used dealers will give cash on the dollar for them.”
“If the perps who broke into your house were petty thieves, why take the television, which is easier to trace and more conspicuous to carry, but leave behind the CDs and DVDs?”
“Maybe they were in a hurry.”
She wasn’t being a smart-ass; she was being a good soldier and presenting another alternative, but she knew he was right.
“All of my CD-ROMs are gone,” Claire said.