Willing

Chapter 5

Daniel stared down at Josie, trying to fathom the working of her mind and not getting very far. “Are you really that naïve?”

“I’m not naïve. I was raised around soldiers all my life. I heard things that would make most women cringe.”

He was beginning to wonder if she had understood any of those things, though. “You thought I got an erection to make our cover more believable?”

“I thought you were always…I mean…”

She’d thought it was his natural virility.

While her belief was better for his ego than her rejection, it staggered him. “Have you known many men who walk around with a constant boner?”

“Of course not?”

“Any?” He had to ask.

“Well…no, but some men do get excited when I don’t expect them to.”

He could just bet. “But none of them acted on their excitement, so you assumed it had nothing to do with you, right?”

She focused on something beyond his right shoulder, her expression a study in pretending to be somewhere else. “This conversation is getting uncomfortable.”

He’d spent hours in a state of uncomfortable arousal because of her; he didn’t have a lot of sympathy for her mental discomfort right now. Besides, he thought maybe she needed to be set straight on some things for her own benefit as much as his.

“From the time you started developing, your dad threatened to maim the soldiers who came through his school if they touched you. Knowing your dad, I think the men took it more as a promise.”

Her gaze jumped back to his face, her soft green eyes wide. “I didn’t know that.” She grimaced. “It sounds like something Dad would do, though. He was always pretty protective.”

Probably a lot more protective than other fathers, considering the man’s views of what it meant to raise a daughter who would not be at risk because of her femininity or size.

She pulled away and started walking again, her movements agitated. “By the time my dad thought I was old enough to date, I could beat any of the men I met in combat and knew more about weapons and explosives than they did, too.”

“None of the soldiers wanted to date a woman who could neutralize him.”

“No, and frankly, I wasn’t interested in connecting with a soldier. I’m still not.”

He ignored that. He could change her mind if she’d been honest about wanting him, but he thought it was interesting she had intimidated the soldiers as much as her father had. “You’re not that big.”

“You don’t have to be big or even all that strong to maim someone if you know where to hit and how to do it.”

That was true. There were blows that required a very light touch, but had a devastating effect on an aggressor. In order to use those techniques, a soldier had to be highly trained and disciplined. Tyler had made sure his daughter was the best.

“Dad taught me how to fight dirty, and I never hesitated to use that knowledge.”

“Good. You’ve been in a lot of dangerous places.”

“Yeah, I guess I have.”

She didn’t sound particularly bothered by that fact, and right now, it wasn’t the uppermost thought in his mind either.

“You said you wanted me, too.”

She stumbled, and he steadied her with his hand, then kept hold of her arm. She didn’t try to pull away, and he figured that was a major step forward for them.

“Yes.” She squared her shoulders as if she was preparing to face a major battle head-on. “I want you.”

An irresistible smile curved his mouth. “I’m not intimidated by your prowess as a soldier or by your dad.”

“You don’t think much of my soldiering abilities.”

“Not true.”

“But you said—”

“A lot of stuff born of frustration, not fact.”

“You said you never lie.”

“I don’t.”

“Then—”

“I’ve always seen you as more woman than soldier, no matter how good you are.”

She gasped, stopped, and turned to look up at him, her eyes glowing in a way that knocked the breath right out of his chest. “You did…You do?”

“Yes.”

Then her face fell. “Is it because I dressed up to look like Lise?”

“No. When I first met you, you were wearing combat fatigues and a machine gun, remember?” And he’d gotten the first boner he’d ever experienced in a battle.

“How could I forget? Your team saved my commander’s butt.”

“Hotwire was right.”

“About what?”

“Not swearing around you. You don’t do it yourself.”

“Mama told me ladies don’t swear. It’s one of the few things I remember about her. That and she was very soft.” The wistful quality in Josie’s tone made him frown.

“So are you.”

She shook her head. “I’m hard. I don’t know how to be any other way.”

“Sometime I’ll show you how wrong you are.”

“I’m a virgin. I don’t have any experience at all.” She blurted it out as if it were something he couldn’t possibly have figured out on his own.

Unlike her, he had no problem reading signs. “And you want orange blossoms and white roses to accompany the first time you make love?”

She shook her head, her expression resigned. “I’m not the type. That stuff is for the fairy-tale wedding, and I’m not anybody’s version of a princess. I’m a soldier.”

“You used to be a soldier. Now you’re a student.”

She shrugged. “Our circumstances don’t always dictate what we are.”

“Right. I met you in the middle of a battle and watched you fight better than most men, and I still saw you as an extremely desirable and feminine woman.”

“You wanted me then?”

What did she think he’d been saying? “Yeah. It’s become an obsession.”

“They say to get rid of an obsession, you have to starve it.”

He laughed, the sound harsh to his own ears. He didn’t know what Josie would make of it.

“It doesn’t work. We had our first mission together more than two years ago, and I still feel like an adolescent with my first major boner every time I’m around you. I can’t even get rid of it by going to bed with another woman.” He spelled it out in case she hadn’t gotten it the first time.

“You tried?”

“I tried.”

“It didn’t work?”

“I told you, I don’t want other women.”

“You don’t have to want a particular woman to have sex with her, do you?”

“Not always, no.”

“But…”

“But in this case, that’s not an option for me.”

She licked her lips, her gaze probing him as if he was some kind of alien being.

He felt like it. The level of physical need he had for Josie wasn’t something he was familiar with, and frankly, if he had been able to rid his body of the compulsion, he would have. The kind of reaction he had around Josie was a weakness, and he’d learned living with his parents just how destructive it could be to be that vulnerable to another person.

“Either I feed my obsession for you, or I keep sublimating my sex drive in work.”

“Is that why you’ve gone on back-to-back missions since we worked with Wolf and Hotwire on Lise’s mission?”

“Yes.”

An undecipherable expression crossed her face, but the frown that followed it was anything but. “It’s bad soldiering not to take leave between assignments.”

He shrugged. He’d been trying to starve the obsession like she said. It hadn’t worked.

The frown grew fiercer. “You’re saying if I don’t make love with you, you’re going to keep up that kind of activity?”

“That’s not your problem.” But one way or another, he was going to convince this woman to share his bed.

“But you do want to have sex with me?”

“That’s been well and truly established. The question is, will you let me?”

Oh, yeah. That had been real smooth. Ask a woman in the middle of a park path to have sex with him. And don’t bother to dress it up at all. Just call it an obsession you want to feed. Right. That should do the trick.

Every virgin dreamt of having her first experience with a guy who offered sex and no finer emotions.

If he could have reached his own ass, he would have kicked it into next Tuesday. He couldn’t have messed this up worse if he’d been trying.

She licked her lips again, her moss green eyes focused on his mouth. “I think I’d like you to kiss me again before I decide.” She peeked up at him like a child admitting to getting into the cookie jar. “The first time I was so busy trying to keep it professional that I missed out on a lot of the finer points of what I was feeling.”

He felt drunk, but he hadn’t had a drop of alcohol since breaking up a bar in Lubbock, Texas, after one too many beers and insults to his heritage. “You want me to kiss you?”

“If you don’t mind.”

He didn’t wait for her to change her mind, but pulled her body into immediate full-press contact. “Oh, I don’t mind, Josette. Not at all.”

Her expression turned wary at his predatory tone, but she didn’t pull away.

Smiling at that reality, he lowered his mouth to cover hers, and everything inside him went still. She tasted like Christmas, his birthday, and a successful mission all rolled into one. Sweet and delicious, warm and soft, her mouth was everything he remembered it being and more.

He ate at her lips as if he’d been starving to death and she was the only food available. She made a sexy little noise and pressed her body into his while encouraging him to keep feasting with lips that molded to his in total surrender.

He’d never worried about being overly gentle before, but he didn’t want to bruise Josie’s lips; he wanted to savor them.

And he did, carefully controlling the desire raging through him, so every nuance of the kiss was designed to give her pleasure and a lot of it.

Josie couldn’t believe the tenderness of Nitro’s mouth moving against hers. She hadn’t expected him to kiss her right then, not in full view of anyone going by the park. Even less had she anticipated the leashed force of his passion vibrating from his body to hers combined with a kiss so caring and gentle, she was ready to melt in a puddle of devastating emotion right there on the footpath.

Every nerve center in her body went on hyper alert, while her sense of time and space became hazy and indistinct. She rubbed her body against his, shocked at how tight and tingly her nipples grew. And things happened inside her, too, things that made her press her thighs together in shivery sensation.

His big hand moved down to cup her bottom, and she gasped from the pleasure of the unfamiliar contact. His tongue slid into her mouth, taking possession with unrelenting intimacy.

He tasted so intoxicating that if he were a bottle of wine, she would have been over the legal limit within seconds.

A growl sounded low in his throat as he explored every centimeter of her mouth, making it his.

She looped her arms around his neck, holding on tight and finally understanding why women kissed this way. They wouldn’t be able to stand otherwise.

Her knees had turned to rubber, and her insides were melting with lavalike heat. He lifted her, and she let her legs spread without thought, wanting him to do something about the shivery stuff happening between her legs.

Oh, yes…just like that. The hard-on he’d been so preoccupied with earlier was rubbing against the apex of her thighs, pleasuring and tormenting her at the same time. She wanted, no needed more, but she couldn’t make herself stop kissing him long enough to say so. She had to settle for making whimpering noises against his lips and trying to climb into his skin.

His other hand came up between them and cupped her small breast, rotating his palm over her tight nipple. Her tongue tangled with his, inviting him to higher levels of pleasure, and despite her lack of experience, he reacted to her efforts with extreme masculine enthusiasm.

The fact it was Nitro, the man she wanted and admired above all others, doing these things to her increased her sense of excitement and anticipation a hundredfold. For right now, his status as a soldier, his preoccupation with a life she wanted to leave behind, had no impact on her conscious mind.

He was giving her too much pleasure to think about anything else.

Pressing her rigid nipple between his thumb and forefinger, he tugged in a way that sent pleasure skyrocketing through her body. She locked her legs around his hips and pressed herself as intimately as possible against his erection.

And still it was not enough.

Tears seeped out of her eyes as her pleasure and frustration built in tandem.

His mouth broke from hers. “Josette? Josie, what’s wrong?”

She looked up at him, too dazed to really focus. “Hmm?”

“Why are you crying?”

“I never cry.”

His tongue traced the path of wetness up her cheek to the corner of her eye. “It sure tastes like tears to me.”

“Do that again.”

He tasted her other cheek in the same way, kissing her temple when he’d reached the source of her tears.

“I like that,” she said with a sigh as she melted farther into him.

“But why are you crying?”

“How should I know? I’ve never done this before. You’re the expert.” She was getting annoyed by the interruption. Who cared why her tear ducts were engaging? “It’s not because I’m sad, all right?”

She squeezed her thigh muscles, and his big body convulsed.

He frowned down at her. “Don’t do that.”

“Why not?” She liked it.

“I’m on the edge of taking you here and now.”

“Taking me where?” Then it clicked what he meant. “Oh, that. Okay.” She didn’t care where they made love; she just wanted to feel his body completely naked against hers.

His bark of laughter surprised her. “We’re in the middle of the park, Josette. I’m not into exhibitionism, and I’m pretty sure you aren’t either.”

She looked around her, her gaze focusing finally. A family of ducks waddled along the edge of the pond. Small children swung on the play equipment across the green expanse, and a jogger was on the path, headed their way.

“Oh, my gosh,” she choked, unlocking her legs from behind him and vainly reaching for the ground with her feet. “Um, Daniel…”

“What?” He was looking predatory again.

“You need to let me down.”

He did, and she took a quick step backward, needing distance from that Adonis-like body. But her muscles weren’t cooperating, and she fell flat on her bottom.

He laughed again, and this time, it made her mad.

This was all his fault. He was the one with all the experience. He’d seduced her into total wantonness with his lips and body and had the nerve to laugh about it.

She swept out with her foot and brought him down to the ground with her. Rather than abating, his laughter just increased, the amusement in his brown eyes immobilizing her. She’d never seen Nitro like this.

He rolled toward her, and she had to maneuver quickly to avoid letting him pin her like he had in her hallway. She was on to his tricks now and willing to try a few of her own.

With a two-step execution he clearly had not anticipated, she had him facedown under her in a position most men would have found impossible to get out of. Anticipation thrilled through her at the prospect he wasn’t one of them.

“Say uncle,” she demanded.

“I don’t think so.”

He tried to reverse positions, and while she was able to avoid landing underneath him, she wasn’t able to maintain her position of superiority either. She moved, and he counter-moved, never once letting her have the upper hand, but he didn’t go in for the kill like he could have. They ended up rolling around in the grass, their laughter mixed as she engaged in her first ever noncombative tussle with a man.

Finally, she was laughing so hard, she just gave up and lay on her back in surrender. It was a totally new experience for her, but she didn’t mind. She’d decided a nanosecond into the kiss that she wanted to try a lot of firsts with him.

He came over her, his mouth creased in that smile she so rarely saw. “I’m the better soldier. Admit it.”

Now, that was taking it a step too far.

“No way.”

“I’m on top.”

“Only because you sucked all my strength from my body with that devil’s kiss you plastered on my mouth.”

“Are you saying I fight dirty?”

She felt her own lips curved in a goofy grin. “Yes.”

“So do you; you said so. The fact you’re still under me must mean I’m the better fighter.”

“In your dreams.” Then, reaching up, she did something she’d never done before—she tickled his ribs, and Nitro’s body contorted as if she’d touched him with a live wire.

The tickling match that ensued could only have one outcome because she had absolutely no desire to hurt him. He ended up on top again, but this time he didn’t give her a whole bunch of victory machismo. Instead he leaned down and kissed her again.

He kept his mouth closed and the kiss short, but by the time he raised his head, she was panting with something more than exertion.

“Are you going to let me make love to you, Josette, my small warrior?”

As they walked back into the house, Daniel was still reeling from Josie’s yes. She hadn’t stalled for time, or given him a song and dance about not getting involved. She hadn’t even asked for any promises or declarations. She’d simply said, “Yes.”

A word he discovered he liked very much on her lips.

“Why don’t you read through your dad’s journals while I call Wolf and check in with Hotwire?”

“But I thought…”

“If I make love to you right now, nothing else is going to happen until tomorrow at the earliest. We’ve got too much to do today to let that happen.”

“You’re right.” She smiled shyly at him, looking about as feminine as a woman could look. “But I wish we didn’t.”

“Me, too.”

“I think I’ll read in my bedroom. Less distraction.”

“Good idea.”

As soon as he heard her door close, he picked up the phone and started making calls.

He began with a search in the Yellow Pages for a local florist. He discovered that for enough money, they delivered pretty much anywhere and anytime. The owner was also kind enough to suggest a shop that might deliver another item he wanted as well as a historic hotel in the city to deliver it to. Reservations made, he put a call through to the hotel concierge, who agreed to take care of the delicate matter of having a box of condoms available in the nightstand drawer beside the bed.

Once his preparations for the night ahead were completed, he went into the kitchen and made a pitcher of brewed iced tea. He put it and a glass on a tray for Josie and took it to her.

She was lying on her stomach on her bed, her ankles crossed and up in the air.

He put the tray on the small table beside the bed. “Drink something.”

She looked up, her expression endearingly vague from reading her dad’s most private thoughts. “You made me tea?”

She didn’t have to sound so shocked.

Daniel might not be the cook Wolf was, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take care of his woman. “I thought the caffeine might help. You didn’t get all that much sleep even with your nap.”

Her grin made his chest tighten. “Our exercise in the park did more for me than caffeine ever could.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I wouldn’t want you falling asleep on me tonight.”

“That’s not going to be a problem.”

He was still smiling when he dialed Hotwire’s private line, but he got off the phone more determined than ever to cement his claim on Josie that night.

Hotwire had insisted on flying out to help with the investigation. Knowing it would be best for Josie if he let his friend help, Daniel hadn’t even tried to talk Hotwire out of coming, but he hadn’t forgotten the fact that Josie had kept in touch with the other merc while keeping a wide berth around Daniel.

The doorbell rang as he dialed Wolf and Lise’s number. He disconnected and, figuring Josie was still engrossed in the journals, got up to answer it.

When he opened the door, there was a state policeman standing on the small porch, his expression serious. “I’m Officer Ryan Johnson. Is Miss Josette McCall available please?”

Daniel’s gaze flicked to the patrol car parked on the curb, then back to the officer.

“What’s this about?”

“I’ll have to speak to Miss McCall, if you don’t mind, sir.”

Daniel nodded. “I’ll get her. Wait here.”

He closed the door, locked it and went to Josie’s room.

“You’ve got a visitor, honey.”

She scrubbed at her cheeks and rolled over and came to her feet all in one graceful movement. “I do?”

She must have been “not crying” again. He only hoped the tears were good ones, not grief.

“It’s a state patrolman.”

Her pretty brow wrinkled. “I was expecting the Forest Service, but I hoped they’d take longer to find me than this. I suppose with Dad MIA, they want some answers.”

“Don’t give them any. There’s no way they could know you were up there when the bombs went off, and you have no more idea where your dad is than they do.”

She nodded and squared her shoulders. “You’re right.”

Josie followed Nitro to the door, glad she wasn’t alone. She’d been trained to be a heck of a soldier, but she didn’t lie worth beans.

He had to unlock the door before he opened it, and she looked at him askance. “You locked the officer out?”

“Of course. He’s not exactly a long lost relative.”

“You’re as paranoid as my dad.” She said it jokingly, but Nitro tensed.

He didn’t say anything else, though, but pulled the door open, his body language anything but welcoming.

The state policeman waiting on her porch stood at attention, his face set in unreadable lines. “Miss McCall?”

“Yes. How can I help you, Officer?”

“Are you Josette McCall, daughter of Tyler McCall?”

“Yes.”

He moved into the classic at-ease position, his feet eight inches apart, his hands clasped behind his back. “Miss McCall, we need some information if you have it.”

Her stomach clenched in anticipation of fielding a bunch of questions. “Yes?”

“Can you verify the whereabouts of your father last night?”

“Why?”

“There’s no easy way to say this, Miss McCall, but there’s been an accident.”

“Dad?” Josie could barely get the one word out.

“Apparently, he didn’t make it, Miss McCall. I’m sorry.”

Josie sagged, and Nitro grabbed her, pulling her against him. Her father had survived an explosion to die in a car accident, an accident he wouldn’t have been in if he’d stayed with her instead of disappearing. And she’d let him walk away, not even suspecting his intention to bolt.

Bile rose in her throat, and she gagged it back down, her muscles painfully tight with tension.

“What happened?” Daniel asked.