Heroes In Uniform (52 page)

Holding his gaze, she let out a slow breath. “Don’t have much choice, do I?”

No. They’d both been forced into this position of powerlessness. He hated it. Feeling helpless and powerless was not something he was accustomed to, and so far it fucking sucked. “Where are you off to? Want to grab something to eat?” He had no idea why he asked, since it was evident she wanted nothing to do with him. Still, part of him hoped she’d say yes. They needed to clear the air between them before they arrived at the safe house.

“Sorry, can’t. Gotta go call my family and make up some excuse as to why I won’t be home, then I have to meet with my CO about everything.”

“You’ll go home,” he told her firmly. As soon as Rahim was brought in, the threat would be over. Shouldn’t take long now, not with him wounded and half the U.S. intelligence services hunting for any sign of him. “I’ll see to it.” He’d make it happen, just as he intended to find out who the hell had set him up to die at that checkpoint, and to help nail Rahim. If The Company thought he’d stay on the sidelines of this investigation after everything he’d done for them the past three years, they were sorely mistaken.

She lowered her gaze. “Well. Guess I’ll see you on the transport in the morning.”

He nodded, but didn’t respond. He stood there watching her confident stride and the sway of her hips until she disappeared from view around the corner of a building.

Between being removed from the investigation to nail Rahim and living under the same roof with Erin for the foreseeable future, it would be a miracle if his head didn’t explode before this was all over.

Danger Close: Chapter Six

Erin stumbled around the corner into the kitchen of the safe house, only to stop dead at the sight of Wade standing next to the kitchen sink.

Whoa.

He was shirtless, checking something on the new cell phone he’d gotten a few hours before. Way fancier than anything he’d had over the past couple years. He looked up and met her gaze, and she couldn’t stop herself from running her gaze over the sculpted planes of his wide chest and shoulders, the scattering of dark hair that thinned into a line that bisected his delineated abs. The man was sheer masculine power, his lean build showing off all those mouth-watering muscles she’d only imagined before now.

Realizing she was staring, she jerked her gaze back to his face and was taken aback by the odd mix of heat and embarrassment in his eyes. He set the phone down on the counter and folded his arms across his chest, as though she’d made him feel self-conscious. Regretting that, she would have reassured him that he had
nothing
to be self-conscious about, except she sensed that would make him even more uncomfortable.

“You get any sleep?” he asked.

“Some.” She’d been so exhausted by the time the flight had landed and the CIA people had got them set up here, she’d crawled beneath the quilt of one of the upstairs bedrooms and crashed hard just after lunch.

He glanced away, cleared his throat. “Sorry, I uh, thought you’d sleep a lot longer once I finished my shower.”

“Don’t worry, it’s no problem. I’m a nurse, in case you forgot.” Yeah, and while she’d seen countless half-naked men in her day, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d responded to anyone the way she did to Wade. The magnetic pull he exerted was ten times more captivating because he seemed unaware of it. Since losing David she hadn’t dated much or been that interested in men as a whole, but Wade definitely interested her. An unsettling thought, as they had to live here together until the CIA let her leave.

Even more so because she’d sworn never to get involved with another military man again. After losing David she’d promised herself to find someone whose job didn’t threaten their life on a daily basis. Wade Sandberg was everything she wanted to avoid in a man.

Try remembering that the next time you devour him with your eyes
.

She crossed to the other side of the kitchen to grab some coffee—her favorite brand, which they’d bought along with some other groceries on the way here from the airport. The CIA had equipped and stocked the house ahead of time, but she’d wanted to pick up a few specific things and had received permission. The two-story white farmhouse with red trim sat in the middle of a gorgeous, six acre expanse of rolling farmland, with a thick stand of forest on the east side of the property. In the western sky the sun was already a glowing orange ball shining through the kitchen window above the sink that overlooked the gently curving terrain.

As she stood with her back to him, an awkward tension filled the room. She was acutely aware of him standing behind her in nothing but a pair of jeans that hugged his lean hips and muscled thighs, and of him not saying anything more. “So, what do you want to do about dinner?” She glanced back at him, had a hell of a time keeping her eyes on his face when half that gorgeous body was on display. It was weird, having to stay here with him when she knew hardly anything about him. “Do you cook?”

“Not really. You?”

“I’m decent, but it’s already dinner time and it’ll take me about an hour to get something on the table if I start from scratch now. Do you want to just do pizza or something? We could order in for tonight.” Or could they, considering the security situation?

Wade frowned a little. “I haven’t had pizza in years.”

Erin’s eyes widened. “Years?”

He nodded, rubbed a hand along his whiskered jaw. “Guess that would be okay. Be better if we ordered in, rather than go pick it up though. I’ll let the security guys know.”

This whole living under guard thing was totally new to her, so she’d follow his lead. “Okay, what kind do you want?”

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll eat whatever. You want me to order?”

“No, I’ll do it. You want some coffee?”

A slight smile curved his lips, softening his rugged features, and something low in her abdomen did a somersault. “Love some.”

She didn’t ask how long it’d been since he’d had any coffee, Afghanistan being a tea drinking nation, but his reaction made her glad she could offer him that simple comfort. After a few minutes of silence that wasn’t exactly tense but not completely comfortable either, the coffee machine finished brewing the pot and she filled two mugs with fragrant black liquid. “How do you take it?”

“I don’t care—” His face brightened with anticipation. “Do we have any cream?”

“We do.” She grabbed it from the fridge and poured some into both their mugs, then glanced back at him. “Sugar?”

His eyes lit up, and she knew he’d been deprived of that luxury for a long time too. “Sure, a little.”

She stirred a spoonful in for him and held out the mug. He walked over and took it from her, and just having him stand so close in the quiet kitchen sent a buzz of feminine awareness through her. When his woodsy scent wrapped around her and their fingers brushed, a wave of heat prickled over her skin. Her body didn’t give a damn that he was all wrong for her, it wanted him anyway. Badly.

Either oblivious of or not wanting to encourage the attraction between them, Wade looked down at his mug as though he wasn’t comfortable holding her gaze at such close range, and took a sip. As he swallowed, one side of his mouth curved up and he let out an appreciative groan that seemed to reverberate right through her, heating her blood. Startled, she drank in the almost dreamy expression on his angular face and imagined that same look right after he’d enjoyed an intensely satisfying orgasm. Erin couldn’t be positive, but if his reaction to a simple cup of coffee made him groan like that, she was pretty sure it had been a while since he’d had one of those, too. And man, the idea of being the one to end his dry spell was way too freaking hot for her own good.

Flushing slightly, she looked away and sipped at her own coffee as she tidied up and tried to think of something to say that would put him more at ease. “There’s lots more here if you want any.”

“Thanks. I’d forgotten how much I missed it.”

The almost wistful note in his voice tugged at her. Her body was pulsing with arousal and having him so close to her without a shirt on wasn’t helping matters any. “I’ll uh, go put our pizza order in.” She left the kitchen and pulled in the first deep breath since she’d stepped over the threshold. God, the man was pure walking sin and didn’t even realize it. Pulling out the specially encrypted phone Wade’s CIA handler had given her on the way from the airport, she found a pizza place that delivered on the list of acceptable takeout spots they’d been given and placed their order. “Food’ll be here in about half an hour,” she called out to Wade.

“Sounds good. I’ll let the security team know.” His footsteps retreated toward the back of the house where the stairs were and a minute later he entered the living room, dressed in a snug T-shirt and carrying his mug. A slight stab of disappointment hit her that he’d covered himself, but that shirt hugged every swell and curve of his muscular torso so she couldn’t complain.

Without looking at her he set his mug on the coffee table and began searching the room, checking behind the TV and the paintings, objects placed on the bookshelf. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Checking for bugs. I didn’t find any upstairs or in the kitchen when I checked earlier, but there’s probably at least a few in the house. Safe house or not, they’ll want to know what’s going on.”

Oh.
She sank onto the couch and watched him work, admiring the way he moved and the flex of muscle in his bare arms as he checked various things, shifting with each movement. The bugging thing didn’t seem to bother him, more like he took it as a matter of course. He paused a moment, pulled something off the back of a book on the shelf and held up something the size of a grain of rice for her to see. “Transmitter.”

She nodded and stayed where she was while he shoved it into his pocket and completed his sweep. Weird, to know someone might be listening to them right now, but she had nothing to hide, and if it kept her safer, she was all for it.

The two-way radio chirped from the kitchen. Wade went to answer it, spoke to the security guy on the other end, then called out to her. “Pizza guy’s on his way up the driveway.”

It was a long driveway, so she probably had another minute or two before he got to the door. She jumped up to grab her purse on the entry table by the front door, but Wade surprised her by taking her upper arm in one big hand to stop her. “Stay in the kitchen. I’ll get this.”

She did as he said, hating that her stomach was in knots over a pizza delivery. Even though she knew Wade was just being cautious, it was a grim reminder that her life wasn’t her own right now, and wouldn’t be for a long while yet. Once the pizza guy left, Wade called for her to come out. She brought the plates and napkins she’d gathered and set it all on the coffee table.

Wade placed the two large pizza boxes on top of a newspaper and raised a teasing eyebrow at her. “Hungry?”

“Starving, and I wasn’t sure how much you’d eat, so I decided to err on the safe side.”

“Back in a sec.” He strode past her to the powder room near the foot of the stairs and a moment later the toilet flushed. “They won’t hear anything from that one now,” he said as he came back out and joined her, sitting cross-legged on the floor across from her rather than on the couch. “Can’t guarantee I’ve found everything though, so just make sure you don’t say anything you don’t want overheard and recorded for analysis.”

“I won’t.” Feeling uncomfortable with being perched on the couch while he sat at her feet, she started to slide off it but he stayed her with an upraised hand and a shake of his head.

“No, stay up there. I’m just more comfortable on the floor.”

Okay, then.
She watched him as they ate. He had to be as hungry as she was, but he took his time chewing each bite, as though savoring the pizza. And she guessed he was, after not having any for that long. “Good?”

“Weird,” he replied, almost to himself, and when he didn’t elaborate, Erin got busy demolishing half of the Hawaiian she’d ordered. She was halfway through her fourth piece when she glanced up to find him watching her with a hint of amusement burning in that dark stare.

She flushed and swallowed her mouthful. “Told you I was starving.”

“Yeah, you did. Glad you’re enjoying it.” His lips twitched and she couldn’t help but notice how full and soft they looked in the midst of that hard face. What kind of a kisser would he be? Rough and urgent? Or slow and seductive? Both possibilities made her insides flutter. His mouth and those big strong hands were insanely sexy.

She would have enjoyed something else besides pizza much more, but knew if she made a move that Wade would either shoot her down or avoid her during the rest of their stay, so she settled for finishing off the slice of pizza instead. He’d only eaten one, she noticed, and half of another. The remnants of the second sat on his plate, untouched. “You don’t like it?” she asked with a frown. Surely he needed more than that to feel full.

He shrugged. “It was okay. I’m just not used to eating anything this heavy anymore, so I figure I’d better see how it settles first.”

She should have thought of that. “Oh. Sorry, I—”

He waved her apology away. “Don’t worry about it. There’s plenty of other stuff in the fridge I can eat if I get hungry later.”

She remembered the way he’d stopped and gazed around the grocery store when they’d first entered it. At first she’d been sure it was just his way of being vigilant, but then she’d realized he must be reacquainting himself with the overflowing cornucopia that was the American supermarket. He hadn’t seemed overwhelmed, more like he’d been seeing everything with fresh eyes. It was a reminder for her to be thankful for the little things, the everyday conveniences she and most people took for granted. This had to be a huge adjustment for him.

Swallowing the last bite of pizza, she wiped her hands and face on the paper napkin and tilted her head. “So…how long were you undercover?”

When he didn’t answer right away, instead lifting his mug for a sip of what had to be cold coffee by now, she thought he would ignore the question. But then he lowered his mug and responded. “Technically four years total.”