“Yeah, I’m fine.”
He wasn’t sure about that.
She was putting on one hell of a brave front, but he knew she was battling her own demons.
He understood that perfectly.
“Okay.”
Giving him a tight smile, she set the chalk cube down and took up a position for a shot.
She wasn’t fooling him.
He knew damn well her mind was still working overtime about Nasrallah, because of all the hype about the threat level he and his followers posed.
And because they were the ones who’d killed Ty.
The truth was in the way her knuckles turned white around the pool cue.
“You want to go for a walk or something?”
She straightened.
“A walk?”
“Yeah.
We can find somewhere quiet to talk.” And once he did what he could to dispel her fears about Nasrallah, he might finally be able to get her to open up about the night Ty died.
He’d bet his life she’d never talked about it to anyone.
But she definitely needed to, and he was more than willing to listen.
Her black hair shone under the lights as she shook her head.
“Thanks, but maybe some other time.”
The shutdown was his fault.
Hell, the way their last conversation had gone, he was lucky she was speaking to him at all.
“You sure?” He wanted to ease her.
He could feel the stress she was trying hard to hide.
“I’m a good listener.”
She smiled at him, an unguarded charming smile that made him want to wrap her up in his arms and squeeze her.
“See?
You are a sweetheart.”
He cringed.
“Not so loud,” he admonished, looking around to see if anyone had overheard her.
Her husky laugh slid through him like silk.
She was so damn beautiful and proud and brave.
After what happened the night Ty died she could easily have made a case with her superiors for taking a stress leave.
But here she was, back at Bagram without complaint, facing doubts and fears that would cripple most people.
He could kiss her for that alone.
Walking around the table to get ready for his next shot, he stopped when Dev straightened to reposition, bumping her hip into his thigh.
Her eyes flew up to meet his, but she didn’t step away.
The hunger simmering inside him turned molten.
Cam’s fingers clenched around his cue as heat rocketed up his leg to his groin.
Blood pooled between his legs, swelled his growing erection.
He wanted to touch her.
Take her face between his hands and kiss her the way he’d dreamed of.
Feel her gasp into his mouth, then tremble and melt for him.
Devon stared up into his face as she finally stepped back, her cheeks stained a wild rose pink.
Cam broke eye contact and cleared his throat.
“Sorry about that.” He wasn’t, but he had to say something to break the tension.
“It’s okay.” She looked away and made a show of chalking her cue.
When she glanced up and smiled at him, his heart did a slow somersault.
“Come on,” she said with a wink, the familiar gesture erasing any trace of lingering awkwardness between them.
“You’re not getting out of this that easy.
Take your medicine like a man.”
His heart squeezed.
There she was.
The old Dev that loved to joke around and was comfortable hanging around with him.
The one he’d been teetering on the brink of falling in love with for months.
“Don’t let your mouth write checks your body can’t cash, sweetheart.”
She raised a pitch black brow.
“I resent that remark.
Want to put a friendly wager on this game?”
“Sounds good to me.” Because no way in hell was he losing this time.
Cam picked up the last of the bloody bandages off the Pave Hawk’s deck and stuffed them into a trash bag.
The three badly wounded Afghan Security Forces personnel they’d just brought in were already in surgery.
“Bring that hose over here, will you?” he said to Jackson.
He stepped aside when the other PJ came back with it and climbed into the belly of the helo.
Cam took one last look around to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, and his eyes caught on something near the back lying on the steel floor.
He crouched down and picked up the severed thumb.
“Oops.
That’s my guy’s,” Jackson said.
“Must have gotten lost in all the blankets.”
“Jesus, Thatcher, you’re never getting near me with a pair of scissors.”
Jackson grinned and turned on the hose as Cam hopped out of the aircraft.
Seconds later, a rush of bloodstained water cascaded out the open door.
Cam took the thumb to the hospital, then headed back to the PJ area in the control tower’s base to clean up.
He’d been thinking about Devon all day during the resupply runs to and from Kandahar before the rescue call had come in.
Now that he was done for the night, he could finally meet up with her to collect on their bet.
He thought he’d made good headway repairing any damage to their relationship last night, and couldn’t wait to see her.
He hoped she wanted to see him too.
After stowing his gear and grabbing a quick shower, he wolfed down a Power Bar instead of stopping at the chow hall and headed over to the Exchange.
There he found Devon methodically clearing the pool table while Liam shook his head in good natured disgust.
Cam shoved his hands into his pockets and watched her for a minute, admiring every beautiful line of her face.
When she sank another combo, he finally spoke up.
“You about finished embarrassing that pilot yet?”
Her pretty gray eyes flashed up to his, and her quick smile made his heart thud.
“Hey.”
“I believe I kicked your butt last night, so pay up.
You owe me a walk, lady.”
She hesitated then glanced over her shoulder at Liam.
“Are you sufficiently embarrassed?”
“Humiliated,” he deadpanned.
“Go ahead.
I’ll find someone less lethal with that cue to play.” He gave Cam a nod of acknowledgement, eyes brimming with amusement.
“Get out of here.
I’ll cover your sixes.”
“Thanks, man.” Devon might still be a bit leery, but Cam intended to get past the awkwardness he’d caused once and for all.
Since there were no superior officers around to worry about, he walked over and slid an arm around her shoulders, both as a friendly gesture and one meant to warn anyone watching that she was off limits as of now.
His own actions caught him off guard.
He’d had no idea he was that territorial.
Devon glanced up at him but didn’t say anything.
It didn’t surprise him that she scooted out from under his arm the moment they stepped outside, and he didn’t try to stop her.
He might want her so badly he could taste her, but he wasn’t going to cross the line into dominant asshole and send her running from him again.
The idea of taking control had its merits, though.
Many times he’d fantasized about backing her up against the nearest wall and kissing her, hands wrapped in her hair and his body pressed tight against hers with his hips wedged between her toned thighs until she trembled and moaned for more.
He knew exactly what she’d feel like, her body soft and firm at the same time, tense with anticipation and need.
He knew the way her pupils would expand until they all but swallowed the nimbus of gray ringing them, and the husky note of her soft cry of submission once she let herself trust that she was meant to be with him.
He hid a grimace as his dick hit the back of his zipper.
He shifted to discreetly relieve the pressure, but it didn’t help.
Beside him, Devon looked straight ahead, presumably to avoid eye contact with him, which was just as well.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold back his true feelings.
He was known for his patience, but she tested him to his limits.
If he hadn’t been absolutely sure she wanted him as badly as he wanted her…But he’d seen the answering hunger in her eyes when he’d held her in that hotel room.
He’d felt it in the taut lines of her body.
She’d been thinking about going to bed with him, fighting it.
“How long until you go out?”
Her voice brought him back to the present.
“Isolation starts at twenty-two hundred.”
She nodded, still avoiding his gaze.
“They keep you pretty busy, I guess.”
“Yeah.
There aren’t very many of us around, so we’re spread kind of thin.” That was something he was proud of, actually.
There were thousands of SEALs and Rangers, but less than three hundred active duty PJs in the military.
The Pipeline took care of that.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
In the field they all needed to be able to trust the man next to them.
“Erin said you fill in at the hospital sometimes.”
“Now and again.
All of us pitch in from time to time if they need us and we’re not on rotation.”
Her head turned, lips curving in a gentle smile.
She was fresh and beautiful, without a trace of makeup.
It made him ache.
“I love it that you’re trained to save lives instead of taking them.
I mean, I know you’re trained to kill when you have to, but I admire the fact you wanted to become a PJ instead of a SEAL.” She frowned up at him.
“Am I making sense?”
“Perfect sense.
And I accept your compliment with pleasure.” Pleasure.
The word made him think of her stretched out beneath him, head thrown back, eyes squeezed shut, her mouth open on a cry of ecstasy while he moved inside of her, giving her all she could handle and then some.
He swallowed.
“You settling in here okay?”
“Pretty well.
My internal clock’s a bit off, but not too bad.
I just can’t believe I’d forgotten how noisy it is here all the time.”
“It is that.” No matter what time of day or night, something was always happening at Bagram.
“Guess we won’t be seeing much of each other,” she said, her eyes fixed on an approaching C-130 coming in to land.
“You’ll be out for long stretches or working at night and I’ll be operating mostly during daylight hours.” Was he imagining that wistful note in her voice?
“We’ll still see each other.” He was going to make damned sure of that, just as he was going to ensure she knew what he wanted from her.
What she meant to him.
“It just means we’ll have to be a bit more creative.”
She raised a brow.
“Creative as in how?”
He shrugged.
“We’ll make it work.” He had plenty of ideas, and they kept him awake in the middle of the day when he should have been sleeping.
She fell silent and this time the lapse in conversation grew until it was uncomfortable.
He wouldn’t allow that.
“Any place you haven’t seen yet around here that you want to?”
“Actually, I’d kind of like to just find a spot to watch the aircraft land and take off.”
Of course she would.
“Right this way.” He put his arm back over her shoulders and turned her, and this time she didn’t move away.
She fit against him nicely.
Just the right height to fit under his arm without making him lean over.
The imprint of her body felt perfect, soft yet firm.
Torturing him.
He led her over to a bench at a somewhat quiet spot along the end of the main runway.
The whap of rotors rose near one of the hangars as an old Huey came to life, and blended with the roar of a C-130 tanker beginning its run for takeoff.
Careful not to crowd her, he settled back in a casual pose and laid his arm across the back of the bench.
Close enough that he could feel her warmth, but not quite touching her.
They watched the aircraft come and go for a few minutes, until he got tired of waiting for her to initiate the conversation.
“How you doing, Dev?
Really.”
“I’m good.
Looking forward to going out the first time.”
She meant on her bird, of course, not with him.
And probably because she needed to prove to herself she could do it again.
“That’s not what I meant.” And she knew it, because she wasn’t looking at him.
Devon stared down at her hands, fidgeting in her lap.
“I’m doing okay.
You?”
“Yeah.” Enough with the polite banter.
He didn’t want to scare her, but he needed to start moving this forward.
“Still miss him?”
She stiffened for a second, then relaxed.
“In some ways.
He had a great sense of humor.”
“He did.
And so do you.”
“I try.”
As the silence stretched between them, he was tempted to play with the ends of her hair sweeping against her jaw.
He searched for a neutral topic.
“I’ve been wondering about what you told me.
You said you wanted to learn to fly because you were afraid of crashing.”
She nodded, gazing out at the parked aircraft.
There was a story here.
He wanted to know what it was.
“Why’s that?”
Right away her fingers began toying with the bottom of her jacket zipper and her expression tightened.
He mentally cursed himself.
Making her uncomfortable was the last thing he wanted to do.
“You don’t have to tell me if—”
“No, it’s fine.” She shifted on the bench, still not looking at him.
He wished he could see her eyes.
“It was my dad.”
His guts knotted as a horrible suspicion formed.
“Your dad?”
“He’d been training to get his pilot’s license for his fortieth birthday.
Flying fixed wings.”
Cam waited in silence.
He could see the shadows of hurt in her eyes, remembered Ty saying something about this.
“He…he was doing his first solo in a Cessna.
We all came out to the airport to watch.” Her gaze remained fixed out on the tarmac.
“My mom and brothers and I were there to watch him take off.
We were excited for him, but later we got a call that the tower lost contact with him.” She fidgeted with her coat again, her throat working as she swallowed.
“Mom couldn’t find a babysitter for all of us so she took us to the crash site.”
“Jesus, Dev, I—”
“I still remember the smell of the jet fuel and the burnt metal.”
“I’m sorry.” And sorrier still that he’d brought up something so painful.
“It’s okay.
It was a long time ago.” She exhaled.
“Anyway, I couldn’t get on a plane after that.”
No fucking wonder.
“After some therapy in my late teens I made up my mind to get my own license after college.
The Army seemed like a good idea, plus they paid for the training.
Flying a helo instead of a fixed wing made me feel that much safer.” She shrugged.
“And here I am.”
If he’d admired her before, now he was in awe of her.
“That was incredibly brave of you.”
She ducked her head.
“Nah.
Just got tired of being afraid, that’s all.”
Cam let his hand move down to cradle her shoulder.
“I’m sorry about your dad.”
“Thanks.”
He curled his other hand into a fist to keep from touching her face.
“So what did your mom and brothers think of you signing up?”
“They thought I was crazy, of course,” she said with a laugh.
He smiled.
“Well you gotta admit, it is a little unorthodox.”
“That’s what you get when you’re the youngest of three and the only girl.”
“Is that how you wound up with the call sign Spike?
Was it a nickname?” He’d always gotten a kick out of it.
“Happened in flight school.
My classmates thought I needed something scary sounding to make up for my less than intimidating size and looks.”
He laughed, because she looked about as scary as a Labrador retriever.
“You close with your family?”
“Very.
My oldest brother kind of took over as man of the house after dad died.” She tossed him a rueful grin and settled back against the bench, seeming more comfortable now with his arm being around her.
“What about you?”
“I’ve got a sister that’s two years younger than me.
My parents divorced when I was in high school, and my mom’s remarried.” Without thinking he started sliding his hand up and down her shoulder.