by Marie Force
She ran a brush through her hair. Why would he lie to me? I wonder if it’s that ex-girlfriend he mentioned, the one who won’t leave him alone. If that’s the case, why doesn’t he just say so? Maybe I should ask him about her and let him know he can talk to me about it. No. If he wanted me to know, he would’ve told me. But I can’t stand that he lied to me! I know he was lying.
“Liv! What’re you doing in there? I miss you.”
“Coming.”
The reflection darting off one of the earrings caught her attention. He loves me. I know he does. I need to have faith that he’ll tell me what’s going on when he’s ready to. In the meantime, I have to try to be patient.
She opened the bathroom door to find him already in bed waiting for her.
“Everything all right?” he asked, holding out a hand to her.
“Yeah.” She took his hand and slid into bed.
He tipped his head to study her. “Are you sure?”
Nodding, she rested her head on his chest. “You sound a little better.”
“Drugs. It’s a bitch when they wear off.”
As her hand explored his chest and belly, she decided she had no patience where this was concerned. She needed to know. “Cole?”
“Hmm?”
She took a deep breath and tried to work up the courage.
“What is it, honey?”
“If there was something going on in your life, something upsetting or difficult or just annoying, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?”
His breathing slowed. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I get this feeling there’s something you’re not telling me—something big.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I had an issue,” he said after a long pause, during which Olivia had no idea what he was going to say. “I’ve worked it out, and it’s not something I want to spend two seconds of my precious time with you talking about.”
Olivia considered that for a minute. “Is it possible this person you had the ‘issue’ with was the one who called earlier?”
“I hope not, but yes, I suppose it’s possible.” He turned on his side so he could see her. “Honey, please believe me when I tell you it has nothing to do with you or us.”
“I don’t want you treating me like I’m fragile and can’t handle things. I’ve talked to you about my mother, my family, everything. You’ve helped me so much, and I’d like to do the same for you. I want you to feel like you can talk to me about anything.”
“I do.”
“But not this?”
He wanted to. She could see that.
“Not now, okay? Soon, though. I promise.”
“Pinky swear?”
With a smile, he linked his finger with hers. “You got it.”
Satisfied that he intended to tell her eventually, she decided to let go of the worries and enjoy being back in his arms.
“Hey.” He nudged at her cheek with his nose. “Are we okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, lacing her fingers through his.
“I hope so because I love you so damned much, Liv. I couldn’t wait to see you today.”
“I couldn’t wait to see you, either. I hate being away from you.”
He shifted so he was on top of her. “Any time you’re ready for a change of scenery…”
Smiling, she reached up with both hands to caress his smooth face. “You don’t give up, do you?”
“Not until you’re sleeping here with me every night.” Pushing her nightgown up to her waist, his eyes went dark with lust when he discovered she wore nothing underneath. He brought his lips down on hers for a kiss that reminded her of the many ways she loved him. And when he sank his fingers into her, he reminded her of the many ways she wanted him.
Gasping, she let her legs fall open in complete surrender to him.
“Liv, honey.” His face was tight with tension. “I want you so much.”
She curled her hand around his straining erection and guided him home to her.
“Wait,” he said, his voice hoarse from the cold and the emotion. “No condom?”
“We’re going for it, remember?”
“You’re sure?”
If he’d asked her that question thirty minutes ago, she would’ve said no, she wasn’t sure. But she had decided to trust him, to trust in the feelings they had shared from the first moment they’d laid eyes on each other. This was the real thing. Of that she had no doubt. “I’m sure.”
He slid into her and sighed with completion. “God, nothing in the world feels as good as this.”
Since he had succeeded in taking her breath away, she couldn’t reply with words. Instead, she ran her fingers through his hair while her other hand caressed his back. Everything moved in slow motion, almost as if time had decided to stand still just for them.
His lips were soft against her neck as he whispered words of love that went straight to her heart.
Olivia floated. Surely this was a dream from which she would awaken any second.
As he withdrew from her, her eyes fluttered open to find his dark and fixed on her face, watching her. He went deep again, and she moaned as a climax rippled through her in soft, gentle waves that touched her everywhere. “Cole.”
“Tell me, Liv,” he whispered. “Tell me.”
“I love you. Only you. Always.”
He filled her again and lost himself in her. When he had caught his breath, he raised his head off her shoulder and touched his lips to hers.
Their eyes met, filled with the awareness that something significant had occurred. They had made love many times before, but everything had been different this time, and they both knew it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
On Monday evening, Cole invited several of his closest friends over for pizza so they could meet Olivia.
Cole had warned her about Tucker’s effusiveness, but nothing could have prepared her for the bear hug he gave her when Cole introduced them.
“You’re a goddess,” Tucker declared when he put her back down. “Of course, I knew you had to be some sort of mystical figure to succeed in taking this guy off the market.”
Olivia glanced at Cole in time to catch the glare he directed at his friend. “Zip it, Tucker.”
“What?” Tucker asked with an innocent smile that made Olivia giggle. “I only speak the truth.” He put his arm around Olivia and guided her away from Cole. “Come, my sweet. Tell me all about how you did it. You cast some sort of spell on him, right?”
An hour later, Tucker cornered Cole in the kitchen. “Why did you get to meet her first?”
Once again, Cole glowered at his friend. “Hands off.”
“She’s amazing.” Tucker raised his beer bottle in tribute to Cole. “I can totally see how she’d turn a player like you into a one-woman man.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
“I can’t wait to dance at the wedding.”
Cole smiled at him. “Neither can I.”
Tucker shook his head in amusement. “Who’d a-thunk it, huh?”
“Not me. That’s for sure.”
Tucker’s smile faded into pensiveness.
“What?”
He looked up at Cole with an expression far more serious than Cole had come to expect from him. “Can I ask you something?”
“I suppose,” Cole said warily.
“It’s about Brenda.”
Taken aback, Cole said, “What about her?”
“Since you ended things with her, we’ve been, you know… talking. On the phone.” Tucker’s face flushed with color. “Almost every day.”
Cole had never seen his happy-go-lucky friend so flustered. “And?”
“She’s thinking about coming up. Maybe. For a visit.”
“With?”
“Me. Who do you think?”
“Just making sure it wasn’t with me,” Cole said, only half in jest.
Tucker’s mouth hardened. “Not everything is about you.”
“I n
ever said it was. I just hope she’s not, you know—”
“Using me to get to you?”
Cole wouldn’t have put it that way. Exactly.
Tucker released a disgusted snort. “It’s not possible for you to believe that she could actually be interested in me, is it?”
“You’re putting words in my mouth, Tucker. Why wouldn’t she be interested in you? I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“She’s not Natasha. That’s not how she is.”
“Of course, she isn’t.” Cole regretted his suspicion. His experiences with Natasha had made him paranoid. “I’d love to see you guys together.”
Tucker brightened. “Really? You would?”
“Sure I would. The long-distance thing really sucks, though. Trust me on that.”
“We’ve had some conversations about that. Depending on how things go, she might consider moving.”
“From Miami to Chicago?” Cole made a distasteful face. “It must be love.”
Tucker flushed again. “Could you try not to jinx me? Please?”
“I’ll do my best,” Cole said gravely, suppressing the urge to laugh.
“So you really wouldn’t mind if I went out with her?”
Cole glanced into the living room and met Olivia’s gaze. She smiled at him, and his heart skipped a beat. “I really wouldn’t mind.”
Cole had recovered enough from his cold by Tuesday to fly the Flight for Life to Houston. They packed an overnight bag and headed for O’Hare at ten that morning. Olivia had been amused to witness his preflight routine, which consisted of half an hour running on the treadmill, twenty minutes of free weights, and one hundred sit-ups followed by a shower, two scrambled eggs, two pieces of wheat toast, and two cups of coffee consumed exactly ninety minutes before takeoff.
“You do this every day?” she asked on the drive to the airport.
“When I fly in the morning.”
“You’re not right.”
“There’re a few other steps to it.”
“More?”
He looked adorable and embarrassed. “You know, left shoe on first, button left cuff first.”
“You’re superstitious!”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“You are! After all your speeches about how safe flying is. You’re a fraud.”
“I can’t help it,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Superstition is in my DNA. My mother was ridiculously superstitious.”
“What else are you superstitious about?” she asked, intrigued by this new, unexpectedly vulnerable side to him.
“If I tell you, you’ll never fly with me.”
Olivia turned in her seat to face him. “Now you have to tell me.”
“Pinky swear you’ll still go with me today?”
She studied him for a long moment before she extended her pinky.
He wrapped his finger around hers and sent her a shy gaze that went straight to her heart. “Things happen in threes.”
“Sometimes.”
“Most of the time. My mother believed that with every fiber of her being.”
“So?”
“So, I keep waiting for the third big thing. The blizzard, the punch in the face. That’s two.”
Olivia released his hand. “Now you’re just freaking me out.”
“You pinky swore! You can’t back out now.”
“I can’t believe you’d tell me this minutes before I’m supposed to fly with you.”
“Nothing’s going to happen.”
“I’m just filled with confidence.”
“Forget I said anything,” he said as he retrieved their overnight bag and locked the car. “I don’t know what I was thinking, telling you this today.”
Olivia shot him a dirty look and followed him into the bowels of the airport. They emerged on a tarmac and walked through a maze of planes to the PiperJet that awaited them. Olivia stopped short at the sight of the plane.
“What?” he asked.
“We’re going in that?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“It’s awfully small.”
He laughed as he hooked an arm around her neck and hugged her. “Don’t be a wimp. Wait here. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Sure.”
Kissing her forehead, he added, “No thinking, you got me?”
“Right.” She watched him go, focused on his cute denim-clad butt instead of the small plane she was leaning against—the small plane she was about to get into, the small plane he was going to fly with her in it. No thinking, she told herself.
Cole came back a few minutes later with a girl in a wheelchair. She was maybe ten, eleven at the most. With them were her parents and younger brother. Olivia’s heart ached at the sight of the sick child, who was clearly delighted to see Cole and talking to him with animated hand gestures as he pushed her to the plane.
“Grace,” he said, “this is Olivia. She’s going to come along with us today.”
“Is she your girlfriend?”
He looked down at the child. “Yeah, she is. Is that okay with you?”
“I guess. You’re kind of old for me anyway.”
“Hey!”
Grace’s hollowed-out eyes danced with glee. “Nice to meet you.” She extended a hand to Olivia.
“You, too. I love your earrings.”
“You’ve got some pretty nice rocks of your own there. Christmas present?”
Smiling, Olivia said, “Yep.”
Grace looked up at Cole. “Not bad.”
“Glad you approve.” He introduced Olivia to Grace’s family and got everyone loaded into the plane. The four passengers sat two abreast, facing each other. Cole stashed Grace’s wheelchair in the cargo bay beneath the plane.
From the co-pilot’s seat, Olivia watched him walk around the plane checking and poking and kicking various parts. When he had completed his inspection, he went through the same process inside before he fired up the engines, typed something into the keyboard in front of him, donned a headset, and requested permission for takeoff from the air traffic control tower.
While he waited for clearance, he glanced over at her. “Okay?”
She nodded even as her stomach did cartwheels. Things happen in threes. Stop!
He picked up another headset and handed it to her. “Want to listen in?”
“I’d love to.”
The plane rolled forward as he engaged a dizzying array of switches and dials and buttons while talking to the controllers.
Olivia couldn’t follow much of the rapid-fire exchange between Cole and the controllers, but she gathered they had assigned him to a runway.
They taxied for several minutes behind a Capital 737, which took off just ahead of them.
Cole held the mouthpiece to the side, tipped his head, and called to the passengers, “We’re cleared for takeoff. Ready?”
“Ready,” Grace replied.
Olivia found takeoff to be a whole different experience from the front seat. Lifting into the air, she couldn’t take her eyes off Cole as he guided the plane up and out of the busy air space around O’Hare. His handsome face was set with concentration, every movement deliberate and precise. She was full of admiration and respect, not only for the proficiency with which he flew the plane but for what he was doing for Grace and her family.
They were airborne for nearly thirty minutes before she heard his voice again and realized he was talking to her.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m doing great. I love the view from up here.” They had found a sunny, clear day above a light layer of clouds. “I forgot to ask how long the flight is.”
“Almost three hours.”
“Why aren’t you doing anything right now? Shouldn’t you be driving or something?”
“Autopilot.”
“And does this autopilot know what he’s doing?”
He snickered. “I sure as hell hope so.”
“So you get us off the ground and then turn things over to Mr. Autopil
ot. I see how this works.”
“You were impressed. Admit it.”
“For a minute or two, but I’m over it now that I know you don’t really do anything.”
“Then I’ll let you tell Mr. Autopilot how to get us back down.”
“Since you two seem to have a pretty good groove, I’ll leave that to you.”
He laughed and made an adjustment to one of the dials.
“Why did they call you Jackpot in the Navy?”
“How do you know about that?”
“The picture on the wall of your office.”
His expression sheepish, he said, “It was because I never missed.”
“Missed what?”
“My targets during training—landing, shooting, carrier landings.”
“Ever?”
“Not often.”
“Is that unusual?”
He shrugged. “I guess so.”
“It’s unheard of, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“I’ll bet you never missed with the women, either, Jackpot.”
“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes. “That had nothing to do with the nickname.”
“Sure, it didn’t.” Olivia laughed at his obvious discomfort with the conversation. “Were there a lot of them?”
“What? Targets?”
“Women. Before all the Captain Incredible business?”
He glanced over at her. “A few.”
“Are we talking a dozen, two dozen, three?”
“What does it matter?” he asked. “There’s only you now.”
Olivia nibbled on her thumbnail, wishing she had the nerve to ask her many questions.
“What?”
“How long ago did you break up with the last one?” When he didn’t answer, she looked over to find his jaw pulsing with tension.
“Recently.”
Alarmed, she gasped. “How recent?”
“Look, Liv, I told you—I used to be kind of a dog.” He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “But I’ve changed my ways since I met you.”
“There hasn’t been anyone else since we, you know—”