Dating Outside Your DNA

by Karen Kelley

  He opened his mouth, no words came out. Not a warrior? She was green? Just someone Joe had thought would work on a team because she had a few extraordinary abilities?

  “You okay? You’re turning red.”

  “Joe wouldn’t send me someone who didn’t have at least some training.”

  “I told him you wouldn’t be happy.”

  He dropped the clipboard to the floor. There was no way this was only going to take two weeks. More like months. “He lied to me.” When she started to say something, he glared at her. She snapped her mouth shut. “He lied by omission, same thing as an outright lie.”

  He reached in his pocket and opened his phone, then punched in a speed-dial number.

  “Mr. Beacon’s office,” Sally said.

  “Let me talk to Joe. This is Roan.”

  “Hello, Roan. Joe is in meetings all day.”

  “No, he isn’t.”

  Silence.

  Roan closed his eyes for a second and silently counted to five. He’d bet his last dollar Joe was in his office. “Tell him I know Lyraka isn’t a warrior, doesn’t have any training whatsoever, and that I think he’s a crazy son of a bitch!”

  “…and that he’s a crazy…Do you really want me to tell him all of that, Roan?”

  “Yes,” he growled then snapped his phone closed.

  “I am very good, you know,” Lyraka told him.

  “Yeah, right. You’ve lived a sheltered life at an artist colony. I read your file. How good can you be? I thought maybe you’d been trained along the way in combat maneuvers or something.” He eyed her. “You haven’t been trained in anything, have you?”

  She raised her chin. “I learn fast. That is, if someone has the—” She let her gaze slide down him, stopping just below his waist. “—that is if someone has the skill to train me.”

  “You can’t even fight, for Christ’s sake!”

  “I can, too.”

  He snorted. “Come on. Show me what you’ve got.” He watched, saw the anger building inside her.

  “You want me to hit you?” she asked, pursing her lips.

  “Yeah, come at me. Give me your best swing. Unless you’re afraid you’ll hurt yourself.”

  She reared back and swung. He stepped out of the way just in time. Damn, she threw a punch better than he’d thought she would, but rather than tell her that, he laughed. “Is that all you’ve got?”

  She growled and lunged again. He dodged and she slipped, going to the floor. Instinct had him moving toward her to help her up, but he quickly tamped down the urge.

  “Not very good, are you?”

  She got to her feet, anger practically oozing from her pores. She growled and came off the floor, hurling her body at him, but he was ready for her. He caught her to him, pinning her back against his body.

  Her sensual scent invaded his space, her soft feminine curves pressed against him and for a moment, all he could think about was the way she felt.

  “Let go of me!” she ground out.

  “Here’s a lesson for you,” he said close to her ear as he forced himself to concentrate on anything other than the way she felt, the sexy way she smelled. Not easy when all he thought about right now was the way she would feel if she were naked, and they were in bed together. “Think with your head and not your emotions.”

  Her body relaxed against him, the tension leaving her. “Are you going to train me?”

  His thoughts warred with what he should do, and what he wanted to do. If he walked away, Joe would only send someone else to train her. Roan knew he was the best. He wouldn’t let her get herself killed.

  “Yeah, I’ll train you,” he finally said.

  “I screwed up when I came at you, didn’t I?” she asked.

  He swallowed, forcing himself to rein in what he felt. Man, she was so damned addictive and like an addict, he wanted more. He forced himself to let go of her and step away from temptation.

  “Most people do fail in the beginning,” he said as she turned to face him. She looked genuinely worried, and for a moment he felt a little sorry he’d been so rough on her. “Sometimes it’s better to walk away from taunts and jabs that people throw your way. Your goal shouldn’t be to get even, but to get away if you’re ever caught between a rock and a hard place.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “You could’ve agreed with me and diffused the anger, but you chose to respond to it.”

  “You think it’s better to wimp out?”

  “If your life is threatened, yes. Control the situation to your advantage, and you still come out the victor.

  “Say you’re coming out of a mall and it’s later than you’d planned on leaving. You have packages in one hand and your keys in your other. Imagine a man comes at you. The parking lot is dark and no one else is around. Are you going to use the keys as a weapon and charge him like an angry bull? You’re better off dropping your packages and running. He’s probably bigger and stronger. All you’re going to do is piss him off if you try to gouge his eyes out or jab him in the arm.”

  “You goaded me into fighting back.”

  “And I overpowered you.”

  She raised a haughty eyebrow. “This time.”

  Had she not understood a word he’d said?

  “It was a good lesson, though. I’ll make sure I think before I act next time.”

  A slow grin curved his lips. “You think you’ll get good enough to beat me?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  He shook his head. “You’ll never be strong enough, sweetheart.”

  “I won’t use muscle, I’ll use my brain.”

  “Think you can ever win?”

  “Yes.”

  Damn, he loved her defiance. Not that defiance would get her very far when it came to beating him. He’d been a cop, then an agent, too long. He knew the ropes. But he liked that she might try.

  Damn it, this wasn’t a sport to win or lose. He had to remember that. What was he thinking? Hell, what was Joe thinking? Lyraka wasn’t agent material. She might be able to do more than some, but when it came down to the wire, her extra abilities might not be enough to keep her from getting killed. He didn’t want her death on his conscience.

  “This isn’t a game of checkers, little girl. Losing might cost you your life.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “I know exactly why Joe recruited me and the dangers involved. I’m willing to take that risk. And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a little girl.”

  His gaze slid seductively down her body before slowly returning to her face. “You’re right. I have noticed you’re not a little girl.” Her cheeks took on a rosy hue. He’d pushed another one of her buttons, but in a different way. He kind of liked the idea that he flustered her.

  You’re wading off in deep water, Roan. It was a good thing he knew how to swim.

  He glanced at his watch. “Let’s take a break and eat.” Without waiting for her, he walked out of the training area.

  Lyraka had done better than he thought she would, and then some. She must want this pretty badly. But there was no way he could have her ready in a few weeks. She’d never had any training. Unless Joe only planned to use her where she wouldn’t be in any danger. But with her skills, and one-on-one training, why wouldn’t Joe expect Lyraka to go straight into field work?

  Damn, with her stubbornness, she’d probably get killed the first day, and Roan would be partially responsible. He didn’t want to live with that kind of guilt for the rest of his life.

  That had happened to his instructor, John Williams. Man, he’d been good. The best of the best. There’d been a kid in John’s class who was one cocky bastard. No one cared that much for him. Hell, Roan hadn’t thought he’d make it through training. He was one of those rich kids who wanted to play at being a cop because he was bored, a real jerk-off.

  His money was probably what got him through the training. John let the powers that be send the boy out too soon, even though John had argued against it.r />
  The kid had been killed his first day. John had never been the same since. He’d started drinking and ended up taking an early retirement.

  Roan stepped into the dining room. The buffet was set up with covered serving dishes, plates and silverware at one end.

  Lyraka walked in behind him. “It smells good. I’m starved. I think I’ll just wash up first.”

  He looked at Lyraka, really looked at her. God, she was so young and innocent. Life hadn’t left its mark on her yet. As she walked out of the room, he knew he couldn’t let Joe send her into the field. Roan wouldn’t have her death on his conscience.

  It was time to push her training up a few notches, and it was time to take the gloves off. He had to make her see this wasn’t the life for her.

  If she could take what he dished out, then she might become an agent someday. He could at least make sure she didn’t get herself killed. That is, if she lasted long enough.

  Chapter 6

  Paperwork! Lyraka would rather go back to running on the treadmill than fill out another piece of paperwork. All week it had been paperwork and testing and she was sick of it. She might as well have stayed at the colony. At least she’d have been able to walk in the woods there. She’d been outside the first day she’d arrived for training and that was it. Roan had made sure she was busy the rest of the time.

  Enough was enough! She pushed the sheets of paper away from her and scooted her chair back from the desk before coming to her feet.

  “Finished?” Roan asked.

  “No.” She glanced at the clock. “I’ve been doing paperwork, and exercising, and tests all week and I’m sick of it. The questions on the tests are stupid.”

  “They are.”

  Was this another game he was playing? She eyed him with more than a little trepidation. “You’re agreeing with me?”

  He laid down the book he was reading. She’d seen the cover on the paperback. It was a suspense novel. He got to enjoy himself while she had to wade through mountains of paperwork. That figured.

  “Everyone in the elite force has had to do the same amount of paperwork, take the same stupid tests, and do all the physical agility crap that you’re having to do. The only difference is you’re getting preferential treatment, one-on-one training. The others, including me, weren’t that lucky. Do you think I wanted to be stuck in here every day this week?”

  That didn’t make her feel better. Now she felt like a whiner, and she wasn’t, not really. At least, not until she’d gotten around Roan.

  She sat back down. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “It’s just that I was expecting more. I’ve been cooped up all my life. I didn’t even get to go to public school. I was home schooled.” She shrugged as she leaned back in the chair. “I was hoping for more.”

  “You want to go out and kill bad guys?”

  It took her a second to realize he was teasing her. A teasing Roan could be just as dangerous as one who didn’t give an inch, maybe more so because there was just a bit of a twinkle in his eyes, and a slight upward curve to his lips. She couldn’t stop her own smile from forming.

  “No, I don’t want to go out and kill bad guys. At least, not in the next few days. But I hate being cooped up all the time.”

  “I do, too. Let’s hit the obstacle course.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “More physical agility?”

  His grin widened. “I think you’ll like this.”

  She wasn’t sure she trusted him.

  “But you’ll need to change your clothes. Wear something a little more rugged.”

  Now she knew she didn’t trust him.

  Roan almost felt sorry for her. The obstacle course was tough. Even he could barely get through it. Of course, his injury had slowed him down somewhat. He’d gone out a few days ago just to see how his endurance was and knew he was fit to go back on active duty. It was a tough course, though. This might be the last straw for Lyraka.

  “I’ll meet you back downstairs in fifteen minutes,” he told her.

  She didn’t wait on him as she hurried from the room. Damn, he’d hate to see her leave. She was definitely a temptation, had been all week. But it was for her own good.

  While she was changing, he went to the kitchen and had Frances fix them a sack lunch. While she was doing that, he grabbed some bottled water out of the refrigerator, then took everything to the Jeep.

  There was a crisp bite in the air. A good day to go up the mountain. He just wondered how long Lyraka would last. She might have speed, and could blend in with her surroundings, but the course would test her mettle. That would tell her true worth, and he didn’t plan to take it easy on her. He set everything in the Jeep and went back inside.

  Twenty minutes after she’d first gone upstairs, Lyraka joined him back downstairs. She wore pretty much the same thing she’d worn that first night in the woods. He wondered if her bra was like the lacy one she’d been wearing that night.

  “Is this okay?” she asked when she got to the bottom of the stairs.

  He realized he’d been staring, but who could blame him. She was hot and sexy and it was hard not to let his gaze linger or to remember how it had felt to hold her in his arms. Keeping his distance all week had not been easy.

  “It’ll do,” he told her, then turned and headed toward the front door. “You’re late, by the way.”

  “Only five minutes or so.”

  “Five minutes could mean whether your partner lives or dies. Five minutes could make or break a mission. Five minutes—”

  “Okay, okay. I won’t let it happen again.”

  “Good, then let’s go.” He didn’t wait to see if she followed. She did, and as he climbed into the driver’s side, she opened the door and got in on the passenger side.

  He noticed she didn’t press herself against the door like she had on the drive up. Good, if she did survive training, she had to learn to trust him in all things. He would be her team leader. He couldn’t have her balking when he gave an order, and getting someone killed. Today, he would start her lesson in trust.

  They traveled a few miles, going higher up the mountain. The road they traveled wasn’t much more than a dirt path cleared between the trees—tall pines and oaks almost as old as time itself.

  “You’d think the government could build a decent road up here,” she yelled over the bouncing of the Jeep as she hung on to the door with one hand and the dash with the other.

  “You’d think.” He agreed with her on that. Hell, it was almost an obstacle course just getting up the mountain. He always felt as though a few of his teeth had been jarred loose. “We’re almost there,” he said.

  He gave the Jeep a little more gas as he topped a small rise. There was a clearing on the right. He pulled head-in and parked, setting the emergency break before he killed the engine.

  She wore a look of disappointment. “This is it?” She slowly climbed out of the Jeep, looking around. “I guess I expected it to look different.

  He followed her gaze. “You can’t see it from here. This is as far as we go by Jeep.”

  She’d wish she’d never heard the word obstacle course by the end of the day. There were ditches to leap over, hills to climb. Trees to dodge, knotted ropes to swing from. Farther into the woods there was a thirty foot A-frame outfitted with a cargo net to climb up and over. And if all that didn’t get her, there were pipes and beams to test her balance.

  Those were just a few of the things he would have her doing. It usually took longer than a couple of days to go through the whole thing. Lyraka might run fast, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t make it through half the course without calling a stop to the exercise.

  “Where do we start?” she asked, breaking into his thoughts.

  “Are you scared of heights?”

  “I can climb a tree.” She shrugged. “It’s never bothered me before.”

  “Good.”

  “We’re going to climb a tree?”

  “Yeah. Then we’ll fall out of it.” He str
olled over to one of the tallest trees around. “See that metal cable?” He pointed up.

  “The one way up there?” Some of her bravado slipped.

  “That’s the one. We’re going to climb the tree. Once we get to the cable, we’ll clip on to it and glide through the trees for about a quarter mile.”

  “You’re sure about that?” She placed a hand above her eyes to shield the sunlight and narrowed them as she tried to follow the path of the cable.

  “I’m positive.” It would be the last time she had fun today. He had to admit that he loved the metal cable. When he’d gone through the academy, his instructor had brought a group of them to the course. They’d all had their turn on it. Roan had felt like a bird gliding past the trees.

  When his flight ended, he knew this was exactly what he wanted to do. By the end of that first day, he hadn’t been so sure. Every muscle in his body had not only ached, they’d screamed in protest.

  “So how do we climb the tree?” she asked.

  Roan walked to the other side and knelt down in front of a metal box. “Everything we need is right here.” He opened it and brought out two sets of metal spikes, and the leather straps that would fit around the tree as they climbed.

  “It doesn’t look very safe.”

  He caught the worried expression on her face when he glanced up. “It’s the same gear a lineman would use to check the telephone lines. If you don’t think you can handle this, we can always go back.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “I bet you’d like that.”

  He slowly stood. “Like I said, this isn’t a game of checkers.”

  She picked up one of the spikes. “How does this work?”

  Yeah, he liked that she acted tough. Not that acting would do her any good. This was a dangerous line of work and she had no business being here, but yeah, he had to admire her tenacity.

  He knelt in front of her again. “It straps to your leg, the sharp prong goes on the inside so you can jab it into the tree.” He looked at her once more, silently asking her if she was ready to do this.

  She took a deep breath, then nodded. “I’m ready.”

  Yeah, she was like a puppy with a sock and she wasn’t about to let go. He fastened the lower strap, then took his time moving his hands up her jean clad leg to fasten the other one. He felt her flinch, then tremble. It was nice to know she wasn’t immune to his touch.