Authors: Adrianne Byrd
“Truce, remember?”
“Sorry. Please continue.”
“Actually, that’s about it,” she concluded as their wine arrived at the table.
The waiter showcased the label.
Jett nodded and returned his attention to Sydney. “What do you mean that’s it?”
“I mean, that after the academy I went to flight school and then I was stationed at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas and the Moody in Georgia. A year later 9/11 happened and I was deployed to Afghanistan. My tour ended, I returned to Moody and then I was sent here.”
“You’ve seen action?”
“Who hasn’t?”
He nodded in agreement. “Interesting, but you left a lot of stuff out, didn’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
The waiter poured her a glass of champagne.
Jett rested his chin atop his steepled hands. “I mean, your dating experience. Your first love, your first kiss, and...so on.”
Sydney reached for her glass the moment it was set on the table and downed more than half its contents in one gulp.
Jett’s amusement lined every inch of his face. “Careful. You probably have a low tolerance for alcohol.”
After experiencing a sudden rush of blood to her head, she had to agree.
“Well?” he asked. “Tell me about your first love.”
She hedge a little longer weighing whether she wanted to travel down the lonely desperate road that was her love life. “Romeo Tillman.”
“Romeo? Really?” He chuckled with a measure of disbelief.
“The name made him all the more perfect.” Sydney teased him with a smile.
“Good point,” he conceded. “Continue.”
Drawing a deep breath, she leaned back in her chair while she strolled down memory lane. “Romeo O’ Romeo,” she sighed. “How much thou broke my heart.”
Jett sobered at her sad declaration.
“I was fourteen and at the Academy in Colorado Springs. I was a sophomore—and worse, a late bloomer, and he was a senior. Aw, man. He was like a military God in a uniform. All the girls were crazy about him. And he certainly had a reputation for being the best...
kisser
on campus.”
Jett’s brows lifted. “Just kissing, huh?”
“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
“Huh, so what happened?”
“He asked me to the Military Ball.”
“Ah, I a regular Cinderella story?” He took the sip of his champagne.
Sydney sighed sadly. “I thought so. Right up until I found out that he was trying to win a damn bet.”
Jett lowered his glass and met her sudden glossy glaze.
“I wasn’t very sociable in school and lot of kids thought since I was so stand-offish that I was a bitch. Turns out that there was pool on whether Romeo could get me to sleep him on the night of the ball.” She smiled though it completely missed her eyes.
“And the answer is ‘no.’ I didn’t.”
“How did you find out?”
“I overheard some girls talking in the ladies’ room at the Ball.”
“What did you do?”
Sydney shrugged. “What any girl would do in that situation. I kicked his ass.”
Chapter 16
By their main course, Sydney continued to dispense stories about her misadventures with the opposite sex, which included Bobby “Octopus Arms” Blalock at her senior Academy Ball. Quite a few of them were pretty funny—retrospectively, of course. But the one thing, he was dying to know: the first time she’d made love.
Why did men always want to know that?
Anyway, she decided to keep that tidbit to herself.
After all, it was the first date.
“So where did you learn that move today in the assimilator?” she asked, smoothly changing the subject and starting in on her third drink. “I thought you were crazy.”
Jett shrugged off the compliment, but his chest puffed up a couple of inches. “I don’t know. It just clicked in my head.
Go toward it.
A heat seeking missile can speed up or slow down; but once it slows down, it can’t speed up again.”
“Once you head towards it, the missile slows down to wait for you.”
He nodded along as she put the pieces together. “So at the right moment to execute a perfect glide and roll and say ‘adios’.”
“Brilliant.”
Jett stretched back in his seat. “Well, I don’t want to brag.”
“Of course not.” She laughed at his feigned modesty and took another bite of her heavenly dish. “What about you,” she asked. “Do we even have time tonight to discuss the women in your past?”
His modesty act continued as he flashed his pearly whites and averted her eyes. “There hasn’t been as many as you think.”
“Said the spider to the fly.”
He laughed. “No, no. I pretty much lived in the shadow of my older brother.”
“There are two of you?” She chuckled.
“Only Xavier is a much better version apparently.”
Pain rippled across his features again and Sydney felt that instinctual pang to take him into her arms and console him.
“Anyway, my brother was the Casanova of the family. Girls didn’t notice me until after he left home for college.”
Sydney’s gaze sank deep into his golden orbs and a smile tugged her lips. “Bullshit.”
His laugh was like a warm blanket on a chilly night and she basked in the wonderful feeling that it gave her—or was it the buzz from the wine? “You know, you can be quite charming when you want.”
“Shh.” He jiggled his brows. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“It doesn’t mean that you don’t get to answer the same questions.”
“What questions?”
“Nice try. Who was your first love?” She took another pull from her drink and felt positively lovely.
“My first love was Halle Berry.”
“C’mon,” She chastised with a pop to his hand. “You’re not being serious.”
“Yes, I am. Did you ever see ‘The Last Boy Scout’?”
Sydney folded her arms and smote him with a narrowed glare. “I told you the truth.”
“All right. All right.” His hands flew up in surrender. “Valerie Wexler—fourth grade—her brothers beat me up when they found out I kissed her behind the monkey bars during P.E.”
“Scandalous.”
“More like curiosity killed the cat.” Jett’s smile turned sly. “But we hooked back up in high school and were pretty serious through our junior and senior year. I thought I was going to marry her, spit out a couple of kids and drive a minivan.”
Jealousy knotted Sydney’s buzzing nerves as she watched how fondly he reflected over his childhood love. “What happened?”
“She went off to college, met my brother, and married him.”
“What?” Sydney dropped her folk and then jumped at the clatter it made. “Oh, I-I’m sorry.” Was that the appropriate thing to say?
“Don’t be.” He shrugged and fixed a strained smile on his face. “It’s all water under the bridge.”
“Bullshit.”
The smile turned genuine and he added a wink. “You know, I like you.”
Before she had a chance to respond, their waiter placed a slice of chocolate cake before her with a lone candle.
“Joyeux Anniversaire, mademoiselle,” said the waiter.
Jett lifted his glass in salute. “Happy birthday, Sydney. I hope you get everything you’ve ever wanted.”
Their eyes met and held while their glasses clinked together. How easy it would be to spend the rest of the night drowning in his eyes. Actually, there were a few things she could easily do for the rest of night.
The renegade thought startled her and she jumped in her seat.
“What? Is something wrong?” he asked.
Her fuzzy brain couldn’t process a lie so she could manage a deer-caught-in-headlight look.
Concern etched onto his fine features. “Syd?”
“Huh, I was just thinking this evening turned out pretty good. It might even be one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.”
“Might be?”
She hitched her shoulders. “It’s in the top ten.”
Jett puffed up his chest. “I think I can settle for that. Make a wish and blow out your candle.”
Giddy, Sydney twitched in her seat while she thought what to wish for. The first thing to cross her mind was to finish Top Gun in her Special Ops training; but when she glanced across the table, another wish bubbled to the surface.
She closed her eyes and blew out the candle.
“What did you wish for?”
“If I tell you, it won’t come true.” She took her fork and dipped into the very rich dessert.
“Fine. Don’t tell me.”
Sydney smiled and tasted the cake. Instantly, she released a long moan as she closed and rolled her eyes.
Jett shifted in his seat at the erotic sound and picture she posed. Hell, for the last hour he’d done little more than imagine her draped over a massive bed of red silk and her beautiful face a washed with passion. Would she submit or would she fight him for dominance? Something told him that it was the latter.
Then again, the fight might be as hot as the sex.
Okay, now he was over reacting. There was no way this date was going to end with the two of them in bed. This was technically their first real date and Sydney Garrett was not the kind of girl to sleep with a man on the first date. Right?
Right.
God, I hope I’m wrong.
“Here.” She lifted a forkful of the cake toward him. “Have a bite.”
He complied and emitted his own moan when the delicious moist dessert entered his mouth. When Sydney twitched in her chair, he was cocky enough to believe that he was having the same effect on her.
“Why don’t we get out of here?”
Chapter 17
Sydney and Jett returned to Rain at The Palm.
Loose as goose, Sydney blended seamlessly with the partying crowd. However, it wasn’t until she’d downed a couple of strong margaritas that she truly let her hair down.
It turned out Jett was just as impressive on the dance floor as he was in the sky. The feel of his body bumping and rubbing against her had worked her into a fevered pitch.
She wanted him. Bad.
As Jett danced he had a hard time keeping his hands and body parts from touching and moving across Sydney’s. Her every curve called his name—and he loved its sound.
When he suggested coming back to the dance club, he thought it was an easy way to exorcise his sexual frustration; unfortunately, it made it worse. It blew his wildest dreams seeing the usually stern and disciplined Captain Garrett so carefree-so erotic—so damn hot.
Then, out of the blue, Sydney grabbed the front of his shirt and jerked him forward for a mind-blowing kiss. Once the shock subsided, Jett wrapped his arms around her curvy figure and drew her closer.
The crowd and the music disappeared. All that existed; all that was good and important was locked in his arms. Soon, her lips became an addiction and he couldn’t imagine kicking.
Sydney was the first to break the kiss. When she looked up at him her chest heaved as though she’d complete a marathon.
The crowd and the music returned.
“What do you say we get a room?” she asked.
He blinked, certain he’d heard her wrong. He leaned toward her ear. “What did you say?”
She shouted back into his ear so there would be no misunderstanding. Even then, he still couldn’t believe it.
But Sydney mistook his hesitance and began to back peddle. “It’s all right,” she said, looking embarrassed. “I understand if you don’t want to.”
“No, no. I want to.” His smile broadened. “I just want to make sure that
you
want to do this.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to unwrap my birthday gift?”
Jett plunked down a credit card at the reservation desk and then smiled awkwardly at the front desk clerk while Sydney giggled and nibbled on his ear. To the clerk’s credit, she smiled and handled over their keys as if their behavior was normal.
“Enjoy your stay.”
“Oh, we will,” Sydney promised and took the keys before Jett had a chance to accept them.
It was a good thing the elevator was as quick as it was. Jett had a feeling they were just seconds away from giving the guys in surveillance quite a peep show.
They stumbled into their suite with their arms entwined and their lips locked.