Georgie fixed her own and then looked him directly in the eye. “Did Rick send you?”
He wasn’t surprised at her directness. “Of course he did. But I’m here because I want to be. It’s good to see you, Georgie.”
She sighed, her shoulders slumping just a little. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been under some strain lately. I’m glad to see you, Sam. Glad you’re looking well. Rick told me you were in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was worried about you.”
Her concern made a lump form in his throat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for thinking about me.”
She looked directly at him in a way he wasn’t quite accustomed to from her. “It’s been six years, Sam. I didn’t think I’d see you again after all this time.”
He shrugged. “I never doubted it. The military kinda does that to a guy.”
“You’ve been gone a long time.”
“It’s what I signed up for.”
She closed her eyes and tilted her head slowly to either side, stretching her muscles. He tried not to focus on the creamy skin of her neck while she moved so sensuously. He’d once had his mouth on that skin.
“So what did Rick say? Check up on Georgie because I think she’s gone off her rocker?”
Sam snorted a laugh. “Not quite. But yeah, he’s worried about you.”
She came around the island and headed for the family room. When she settled on the couch, tucking her knees beneath her, Sam didn’t miss the way she grimaced. He sank onto a chair opposite.
“I’m doing okay,” she said. “Tim and I just grew apart. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing I’ve ever been through, but the divorce was final almost a year ago now. I’ve moved on.”
He searched her face for signs of strain. “Rick thinks you should go home to Texas.”
She blinked at him. “And do what? Attend country club gatherings with my mother? Join the Junior League?” She shook her head. “I like DC. And I like what I do, so I’m staying. The last I checked, I was all grown up, and that’s one of the perks.”
Man, no wonder Rick had asked him to talk to her. Georgie wasn’t about to be pushed around. Unlike when they’d been kids. He was three years older than her and that made a huge difference at a young age. Now, not so much. “Didn’t peg you for a college professor.”
She shrugged. “I always wanted to be a writer, so the English degree was no stretch. Turns out I enjoy the teaching more than the writing, so here I am.”
“I’m sure you’re great at what you do. The kids must love you.”
She laughed. “They aren’t kids, Sam. Didn’t Rick tell you?” When he shook his head, she kept going. “I teach in the adult education program. My students are men and women like you. Right now, I’m at the Pentagon two nights a week, at Bolling AFB two nights, and Quantico some weekends.” She laughed again and took a sip of her coffee. “Enough about me. Tell me about you. What are you doing in DC?”
He couldn’t tell her about HOT. That wasn’t authorized. Now that he’d in-processed, he was pulling duty out at their smoking new training facility on a military base in Maryland. Getting to know the guys he’d be working with, the routines, everything. HOT had only moved to DC a few weeks ago now. Before that, they’d been down at Fort Bragg.
“Just got here for a new assignment. When I called Rick, he told me you were here.”
She sighed. “Tim took a job in DC about two years ago. I followed him, of course. Left a good job at the University of Texas, too.”
Sam leaned forward. He wanted to touch her, but he wisely refrained. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Georgie.”
She swallowed. And then she shrugged, as if it were nothing. “Sometimes it doesn’t. Lesson learned and all that.”
Sam set the coffee down on the end table. He knew about marriages that didn’t work out. He didn’t imagine Tim Cash screaming at Georgie the way his father had screamed at his mother though. Didn’t imagine Georgie crying and begging for another chance. The idea of her crying over that dickhead made him sick.
As if she’d just remembered why he’d spent so much time at her house as a kid, her expression changed into something that looked too much like pity for comfort. “Oh, Sam, I didn’t mean—”
He stood abruptly. The one thing he couldn’t stomach from anyone was pity. “I have to get to work, Georgie. I just wanted to stop by and see how you were.”
She looked up at him, her eyes bright. He hoped those weren’t tears. If they were, he was sunk. Georgie Hayes crying always brought out his protective instincts. She bit her lip and looked away again. “Of course. But can I ask you something first?”
A wave of tension rolled through him. He had no idea what the fuck she might ask. But he couldn’t refuse her when it seemed such an easy thing on the surface. “Anything, G. You can ask me anything.”
CHAPTER TWO
GEORGEANNE COULDN’T BELIEVE THAT Sam McKnight was standing in her house, looking so damn handsome and perfect and remote that she wanted to scream. When she’d been thirteen, he’d been everything she’d ever wanted in a boy. Three years older than she, he hadn’t been interested in the least. But he’d given her a lot of angsty nights dreaming about him.
He’d spent a lot of time at the Hayes’ house. His parents didn’t have much money, and they all lived in a rundown trailer in the middle of a field about six miles from town. She remembered one summer when Sam had stayed at their house from the day school let out until right before it started again. Her parents hadn’t minded. Rick was happy to have his best friend around, and Georgeanne was happy to gaze blissfully at Sam over the dinner table every night.
She remembered when his parents divorced, too. He’d been sixteen, and he’d grown tight-lipped and sullen. He and Rick spent hours playing their guitars and sneaking Dad’s beer from the pool house fridge. By then, she’d been a love-struck thirteen-year-old. She’d spent hours writing Mrs. Georgeanne McKnight in her diary. And she’d followed him around, asking questions, trying to get him to notice her.
He had, but never as anything more than Rick’s annoying little sister. He’d treated her exactly as Rick had treated her. Except for that one extremely memorable time when she’d been eighteen. Holy smokes, what a night that had almost been. She could still taste the disappointment and humiliation of him pushing her away as if it were yesterday.
She’d been burning up for him, wet and ready—and he’d stopped right before he’d gotten to the good part. Her fault. Shame still burned inside her when she thought of it. She only hoped it didn’t show on her face.
Right now, she’d blundered when she’d started talking about divorce and relationships not working out. Sometimes it wasn’t so simple. Sometimes people grew to hate each other, and sometimes they dragged their kids into the hell they created. Sam had been torn between parents who viciously despised each other, and who used him as a weapon in their war. He’d suffered, and she’d known it on some level, even as a thirteen-year-old.
Georgeanne swallowed the lump in her throat. She was on edge, emotional, and a big part of it was due to seeing him again. Six years, and he still had the ability to make her heart speed up. My God. She licked her lips.
“I… I was just wondering if you knew how I could find out if a soldier has been deployed. I’ve tried his unit orderly room, but they won’t tell me.”
Sam’s brows drew down and she knew he was thinking not only about what she’d asked him, but also about why she wanted to know. She didn’t know why she’d tossed it out there, except that Sam was in the Army and maybe he knew how these things worked. Clearly, she didn’t.
“Why do you need to know if someone has been deployed?”
That wasn’t what she’d expected. She shifted on the couch, her aching muscles protesting the movement. She’d nearly taken a dive onto the tracks last night, but a man standing near had caught her and yanked her backward. They’d both fallen, and she’d bruised her hip and side in the process.
She had no idea who’d bumped into
her, but she was eternally grateful for the man who’d seen it and grabbed her in time. She was never standing so close to the edge of the platform again. Even if she was last on the train, she was standing far back until that baby stopped.
Sam was still gazing at her with a look of bafflement on his face.
She shrugged. Her initial thought was to tell him it was none of his business, but they weren’t kids anymore and she had nothing to hide. Besides, she’d asked him for information and he had a right to ask questions in return. “I have a student who stopped coming to class. It’s unusual.”
Sam only stared at her. And then he shook his head. “Not for an active duty soldier, it isn’t. Things come up, sometimes at a moment’s notice.”
She could feel fresh heat creeping into her cheeks. Hadn’t she thought the same thing herself? “He worked admin in General Porter’s office.”
Sam frowned then. “Porter’s part of DARPA. Maybe the guy had to go somewhere for a test.”
She’d been working with the military for over a year now, and the acronyms still went over her head sometimes. “DARPA? What’s that?”
“It’s the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. They work on technological projects designed to advance military capabilities around the globe. Real cloak and dagger stuff.”
Georgeanne shivered. Jake worked on cloak and dagger projects? “Sounds very secretive.”
Sam shrugged. “It is. But what I just told you is the kind of thing you’d find on Wikipedia. The projects are classified, but not the existence of the agency or their basic mission.”
Georgeanne frowned as she studied the coffee in her hands. She was being silly. Jake had been sent somewhere, and it was far more important to him than the possibility of a less than perfect GPA. “So he could have just gone away at a moment’s notice.”
“Very possible.”
Yet she couldn’t forget that last night in the Metro, when he’d been talking to that man who’d given her a vaguely uneasy feeling. “I guess I can’t verify that in any way.”
“Probably not.” After a moment, Sam sighed, his rigid stance relaxing a hair. “Give me his name and I’ll see what I can find out. I’m not promising anything, but maybe if I ask the right people, I can find out when he’ll be back at least.”
“That would be amazing. Army Sergeant Jake Hamilton.”
Sam slapped the beret against his leg. “I really have to go, G. I have to get out to Maryland before the traffic gets too bad.”
Georgeanne dragged herself up, wincing as she put weight on her leg. “I appreciate you checking into this for me.”
Sam’s expression had turned hard, as if he wanted to punch something. It disconcerted her for a moment, but then she realized it was just his protective instincts coming out. No bully had ever bothered her for long with Sam and Rick around.
“You need to take a hot bath and relax.”
She smiled. “Did that last night. I imagine the bruising will only get worse before it gets better.”
Sam shoved a hand through his hair, which was sort of senseless since it was cropped so short. It was completely sexy on him. As were the muscles. Georgeanne forced herself to concentrate on his dark, glittering eyes. Put those muscles from your mind, girl.
“How did you fall?”
“Someone bumped into me in the Metro. I went down hard.” It was the truth, though she left out the part about nearly falling into a train’s path. Sam wouldn’t hesitate to call Rick about it, and then Rick would call their mother. Cynthia Tolliver Hayes would be on the next plane to DC. Georgeanne suppressed a shudder. She loved her mother, but the woman would suffocate her if she showed up.
Sam took a card from his pocket and wrote a number on it with the pen sitting on her coffee table. His tanned fingers were long and strong, and she found herself shivering involuntarily as she watched him write. Then he straightened again and she tried to force her mind away from his hands.
Hands that had once caressed her so sweetly she’d nearly cried. He’d slid a finger into her wet folds, stroked her until she’d sobbed his name. Her body clenched with the memory, even now. It had been far too long since she’d desired a man, far too long since she’d felt anything remotely like need flare deep inside her.
But, right now, if Sam McKnight asked her to strip naked and lie back on the sofa, she’d do it in a heartbeat.
“Call me if you need anything, Georgie.”
She tried not to swallow her tongue. If she needed anything. Gawd almighty.
She took the card, and then they stood there awkwardly for several moments while she wondered whether she should give him a friendly hug. How did you hug a man you’d once wanted with every ounce of desire in your body? A man who was currently making you zing with sparks you hadn’t felt in a damn long time?
“Goodbye, Georgie.”
Her heart turned over, but she managed to smile. “Bye, Sam. It was great seeing you.”
“You too.” He hesitated so long she thought he might say something else, but then he turned and walked back down the hallway. She listened to the door snick closed behind him, and then she cursed herself up one side and down the other.
Way to go, Georgie-girl.
*
Sam prowled around HOT headquarters like an angry lion. He didn’t know why he was so worked up over Georgie needing to know about a soldier. But he was. He could still hear the way she said the guy’s name, with such concern, until it twisted up inside his brain and made him want to dig it out by any means possible.
Jake Hamilton. She’d said he was just a good student she was concerned about, but she sounded almost fond of the guy. And that didn’t sit quite right with Sam, though God knew he didn’t have even the ghost of a reason to care. He’d given up that right a long time ago.
Georgie was off-limits to him. Always had been, even if he’d nearly fucked it up once.
He could still taste her sweet mouth, the nectar of her pussy on his fingers, the drumbeat of hot desire that had pounded in his brain until he’d been nearly mindless with the urge to slide into her body and give them both some sweet relief.
But then she’d whispered that she was still a virgin—that she’d saved herself for him—and he’d known he had to stop. How could he take what she offered with a clear conscience, knowing he could never give her more than a few stolen nights? Georgie had convinced herself she was in love with him when all he wanted was sex. If she’d been anybody else, he might not have cared. But she was Georgie, and he knew he couldn’t break her heart like that.
Aside from that one incident, she was like a sister to him. He’d spent long summers at her house, pretending not to notice her following him around like a lovesick puppy, and he’d grown to care about her. Hell, he cared about all the Hayeses. Rick, his mom and dad, and little Georgie. They’d given him shelter when he’d had none, given him a place to be a kid when his house was nothing but a battleground.
That was why he’d do whatever he could for any of them. So if Georgie was concerned about Sergeant Hamilton, then Sam would do his best. And he wouldn’t feel a pinch in his heart over the way she said the guy’s name, or the blatant concern on her face.
He walked back inside the offices where his new squad was located and plopped down at the desk he’d been assigned. There was nothing on it yet but a computer and some binders containing mission briefs.
“Yo, Knight Rider, you got everything you need?”
Sam looked up to find Kevin MacDonald standing over him. Big Mac was the second in command of their squad. No one else was around right now, except Billy “The Kid” Blake, who sat hunched over his computer, fingers flying as he worked to crack some kind of code or write a program. Or, hell, maybe he was hacking into China or something.
Sam had no idea since that wasn’t his thing. Weapons, that was his deal. Just give him some guns or explosives, and he was good to go.
It had definitely crossed his mind that the Kid could find Jake Hamilton. If
Sam could ever manage to ask him about it. Sam was still new enough that he wasn’t quite sure about these guys yet. He’d been training with them pretty hard, and he knew they were all brilliant at what they did. He had no doubt his ass would be safer than all the gold in Fort Knox when he was out on a mission with HOT.
But that didn’t mean he felt comfortable enough to ask for information he wanted for personal reasons.
“Yeah, man. Doing great,” he answered.
Kev sank into a chair opposite. “So, you go see your friend?”
“Before work.” He tapped his fingers on the desk. What the hell. If he didn’t at least float the idea, he’d never know. “She teaches college classes at the Pentagon. Says one of her students is missing. An active duty guy.”
Kev frowned. “Probably a short notice deployment.”
“That’s what I told her. She isn’t convinced, and no one will give her any information.” He leaned back in the seat, bouncing it a little bit. “The guy works for DARPA. Nothing unusual in a short notice assignment.”
Kev shrugged. “Ask the Kid. He could locate the record in half a minute. If it’s classified, that’s the end of it. But maybe he had emergency leave or something. At least then you could tell her not to worry.” Kev grinned. “Or maybe you want the guy to stay gone? Give you a chance, right? Is she pretty?”
Sam couldn’t find his voice. Was she pretty? Hell yeah. Pretty, and so fucking sexy he could grow hard thinking about her. But he wouldn’t. He had too much self-discipline for that.
Keep telling yourself that, ace.
He cleared his throat. “She’s like a sister to me, dude. I grew up with her and her brother.”
“Ah.” Kev stood. “Well then, different story. Hey, Kid, got something for you,” he called. Then he winked at Sam and strode out of the room.
Sam glanced over at Billy Blake. The guy was looking at him quizzically. “What you need?”
*
Georgeanne decided she needed to get out of the house. She had no classes today, but that still wasn’t an excuse to lie around and do nothing. Besides, sitting at home, all she could seem to think about was Sam standing in her living room and the mixed up tangle of emotions she’d felt from the moment she opened the door and saw him on her threshold.
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