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“No, sir,” he said at the same time.
Lilah turned and fixed the man opposite her with a hard look. The furious expression was gone, replaced now by the professional soldier’s blank, poker face. To see the man now, you’d never guess that only moments before he had looked angry enough to bite through a phone book. A thick one.
“Now’s your chance, Gunnery Sergeant,” she said, urging him to speak up and get them both out of this while there was still time. “Tell my father what you were just telling me.”
“Yes, Gunnery Sergeant,” the Colonel said, “what exactly were you saying?”
His gaze shot from her to her father and for one brief, shining moment, Lilah almost hoped that Kevin Rogan would stand up and say “no thanks.” Then he spoke and that hope died.
“I told your daughter it would be an honor to escort her around the base for the duration of her visit, sir.”
She sighed heavily, but neither man appeared to notice.
“Excellent,” the Colonel said, smiling. Then he walked across the room, gave her a kiss on the forehead and turned to face the other man. “I have some work to catch up on,” he said. “Lilah will see you out and you two can make some plans.”
When he left again, Lilah folded her arms across her chest, tapped one bare foot against the floor and cocked her head to one side. “Coward.”
He actually winced before he shrugged. “He’s my C.O.,” was his only explanation.
“But you don’t want this duty.”
“Nope.”
“So why—”
“I didn’t want to go to Bosnia, either,” he said tightly. “But I went.”
Well that stung.
Still and all, it was almost refreshing to talk honestly with one of her father’s hopefuls. Usually, the men he handpicked for her were so busy trying to win his approval that they were willing to tell Lilah outrageous lies just to score a brownie point or two. At least Kevin Rogan was honest.
He didn’t want to be with her any more than she wanted to be with him.
That was almost like having something in common, wasn’t it?
“So,” she asked, “I’m like Bosnia, huh? In what sense? A relief mission or a battle zone?”
A flicker of a smile curved his mouth and was gone again before she could thoroughly appreciate just what the action did for his face.
And maybe, she thought as butterflies took wing in the pit of her stomach, that was for the best. She was only in town for a few weeks. Besides, she already knew that she did not fit in with the military types.
“Haven’t made up my mind yet,” he said. “But I’ll let you know.”
“I can’t wait.” Sarcasm dripped from her tone, letting him know in no uncertain terms that she knew exactly what his decision would be. She could see it in his eyes. He’d already come to the conclusion that this duty was going to be a pain in the rear.
And a few days alone with her would only underline that certainty.
“Look,” he said, crossing the room toward her so he could lower his voice and not be overheard. He stopped just short of her and Lilah caught a whiff of his cologne. Something earthy and musky and what it did to her insides, she refused to think about.
She blinked and tried to focus on the words coming out of his mouth, rather than the mouth itself.
“We’re going to be stuck with each other for the next month,” he said.
Okay, that helped. How charming. “And your point is?”
“Let’s try to make this as easy as possible on both of us.”
“I’m for that,” she said and inhaled deeply again, enjoying the woodsy fragrance that filled her senses and weakened her knees. She looked up into those green eyes of his and now that they weren’t scowling at her, she noticed the tiny flecks of gold in them.
Then promptly told herself she shouldn’t be noticing anything of the kind. Marine, she reminded herself. Handpicked by her father.
“You’re engaged,” he said, “whether your father likes the guy or not.”
An image of Ray filled her mind and she had to smile. “True,” she agreed and mentally crossed her fingers at the lie in a feeble attempt to ward off karmic backlash.
“And I’m not interested in changing that situation.”
“Good.” One fake fiancé was about all she could handle at any given time.
“So,” he was saying, “we strike a bargain.”
She stared at him for a long moment, trying to figure out just what he was up to. “What kind of bargain?”
He folded his muscular arms across a chest that looked broad enough to be a football field. “We play the roles the Colonel wants and at the end of the month, we say goodbye.”
Hmm.
“Sounds reasonable.”
“I’m always reasonable,” he said and darned if she didn’t believe him.
He looked so straight-arrow, gung ho Marine, he wouldn’t know a bend in the road if he fell on it. Completely the wrong kind of man for her. Exactly the kind of man she’d avoided most of her life.
In short, he was perfect.
They could get through this month and make her father happy and neither of them miserable. She smiled again as she considered it. For the first time, she and a Marine could be honest with each other. They could form a friendship based on mutual distaste.
This idea actually had merit.
“Well?” he prodded, apparently just as impatient as her father. “What do you say?”
“I say you’ve got a deal, Gunnery Sergeant,” Lilah told him and held out her right hand.
He enveloped it in his much bigger one and gave her a gentle squeeze and shake. Ripples of warmth ebbed through her, much like the surface of a lake after a stone’s been tossed into it. She blinked and held on to his hand a moment longer than was necessary, just to enjoy the sensation. Tipping her head back, she thought she noticed a like reaction glinting in his eyes, but she couldn’t be sure.
When he released her, she still felt the hum of his touch. And she was pretty sure that wasn’t a good thing at all.
Twenty minutes later, Kevin was gone and Lilah was sitting in the living room alone when her father walked into the room.
He moved straight for the bar and poured himself a short drink, then asked, “Would you like something, honey?”
“No, thanks,” Lilah said as she studied her father. A tall, handsome man, he had streaks of gray at his temples, smile lines at the corners of his eyes and the solid, muscled frame of a much younger man. Not for the first time, she wondered why he’d never remarried after her mother’s death so many years ago. But she’d never asked him. And now seemed like as good a time as any. “Dad, why have you stayed single all these years?”
He set the decanter down carefully, studied the amber liquid swirling in the bottom of his glass, then turned and walked to the couch. Sitting opposite her, he took a sip, then said, “I never met another woman like your mom.”
Her mother had died when she was eight years old, but Lilah still had a few memories. Snatches of images, really. A pretty woman with a lovely smile. A soft touch. A whiff of perfume. She remembered the comforting sound of her parents laughing together in the darkness and the warmth of knowing she was loved.
And then there were the lonelier years, when it was just she and her father and he was too busy to notice that his daughter had lost as much as he had.
She shifted, curling up in a corner of the overstuffed love seat. “Did you try?”
Again, he looked for answers in his glass before saying, “Not really.” Another sip. “I just decided I’d rather be alone than be with the wrong person.”
“I can understand that,” she said, meaning every word. In fact, she thought that if they’d had this conversation a few years ago, she might have been able to avoid the series of matchmaking attempts he’d been foisting on her regularly. “But what I don’t understand is,” she added softly, “if it’s all right for you to be single, why is it so important to you that I get married?”
Her father sat up, leaned forward and set his unfinished drink on the table in front of him. Folding his arms atop his knees, he looked into her eyes and said quietly, “Because I want you to be settled. To find someone to—”
“Take care of me?” she finished for him and felt a spurt of frustration shoot through her veins. To him, she’d undoubtedly always be his slightly flaky daughter. But it might surprise him to know that in some circles, she was actually pretty well thought of. “Dad, I’m a grown-up. I can take care of myself.”
“You didn’t let me finish,” he said and stood up, looking down at her with a fond expression on his face. “I want you to have what I had. What your mother and I had for too short a time.”
Hard to be angry at something like that. But it was his methods she objected to.
“If that’s what I want, I can find it myself,” she pointed out and gave herself points for not raising her voice. After all, he meant well.
“I’m not so sure.” He looked at her bare ring finger and Lilah curled her hands under the hem of her shirt. Blast, she should have bought herself a ring to wear. Lifting his gaze to hers, he said, “You picked Ray, didn’t you?”
“What’s wrong with Ray?”
“Probably nothing,” her father allowed. “But he’s the wrong man for you.”
In more ways than one, she thought, but only asked, “Why?”
Her father reached out and cupped her cheek. “Honey, you’d run him in circles inside a week. You need a man as strong as you are.”
“Like Kevin Rogan?”
“You could do worse.”
“I’m not interested, Dad,” she said, preferring not to think about the flicker of attraction that had licked at her insides when Kevin Rogan was too close. Rising, she stood up straight, though she was still nowhere close to being on eye level with him. “And neither is he.”
One of his eyebrows cocked up and then he played his ace in the hole.
“He’s a little down on women right now.”
“Gee, then thanks for setting him up with me.”
He smiled at her. “You’ll be good for him, honey. His ex-wife cut quite a swath through his life a couple of years ago.”
Instantly, Lilah felt a tug of sympathy she didn’t want to feel. And she knew darned well her father had been counting on her natural inclination to want to mend broken hearts. “How do you know?”
“Gossip travels on base as easily as it does in the civilian world.”
True. Hadn’t she been the subject of enough base gossip to know that for a fact?
“So take it easy on him, huh, honey?” he asked, and bent down to kiss her forehead.
Before she could answer, he left the room and she was alone. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she wandered over to the wide front window and stared out at the encroaching fog. Despite the fact that she didn’t want to care, Lilah couldn’t help wondering just what Kevin’s ex-wife had done. And what she, Lilah, could do to help.
Bright and early the next morning, Kevin reported for “daughter duty.” He parked his car in front of the Colonel’s house and turned off the engine. Silence crowded him, as for a few minutes, he just stared at the place.
Windowpanes gleamed in the morning sunshine. The lawn was neat, the house tidily painted. And inside, waited a woman who was, he knew, going to be the bane of his existence for the next few weeks.
There was just something about her, he thought, remembering that almost electrical charge he’d felt when he shook her hand the night before. He hadn’t been expecting it, and for sure hadn’t wanted it. But damned if he hadn’t felt something inside him tighten up and squeeze.
Hell. He’d been too long without a woman, that was all. Obviously. If one touch of a hippie’s hand could send his hormones into overdrive, he was due for some R and R. Fast.
But, for the next month, his personal life was officially on hold. Although, he admitted silently, his personal life wasn’t exactly jumping, anyway. Except for stopping by his sister’s house to visit his niece, Kevin pretty much centered his life around work.
Concentrating on his job and the recruits in his charge made for a nice, orderly life. He’d learned the hard way that he just wasn’t the “relationship” type. He liked his world to proceed in a precise, military fashion.
And a woman was the surest way he knew to blow that all to hell.
His back teeth ground together and he swallowed the bitter taste of bad memories. It was over and done, he told himself, his hands tightening on the steering wheel until he wouldn’t have been surprised to see it snap in two. Deliberately, he forced his grip to relax and reminded himself that ancient history had nothing to do with today. Except of course as a warning to not repeat it.
A flash of movement at one of the front windows caught his attention and as he watched, the curtains were pulled back. Lilah’s face appeared and she gave him a quick smile before dropping the curtains back into place and disappearing from sight.
He didn’t much care for the jolt of awareness that stabbed at his gut, so he ignored it. Taking the key from the ignition, he opened the car door and got out just as she stepped out onto the front porch.
Today, she was wearing a deep crimson shirt that hugged her curves, tucked into a brown suede skirt that hit just below her knees. A silver chain draped around her narrow waist and dangled about halfway down the front of that skirt. As she waved, the silver swayed and caught the sunlight, flashing in his eyes like a warning beacon.
Warning, he told himself. Good thing to keep in mind.
“So?” she called out, her voice carrying to him on the morning stillness, “do you want some coffee before we head off?”
“No thanks,” he answered. Hell, he didn’t need coffee. He needed a drink. Or his head examined. “You ready to go?”
She set both hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side as she watched him. That hair of hers fell like a golden curtain to one side of her body and drifted lazily in the soft wind. Kevin’s insides did a slow lurch before he had the chance to remind himself that this was the Colonel’s daughter for God’s sake.
Not only that, she was completely the wrong kind of woman for him even if he was interested.
And he wasn’t interested.
Dammit.
He kept telling himself that as he watched her walk across the lawn toward the car. That long skirt swayed around her legs and even though he knew damn well that he shouldn’t be thinking the things he was thinking, he couldn’t seem to stop. His gaze moved over her, from that incredible smile right down to the tips of her black, low heeled, slouchy boots.
Want dug into the pit of his stomach and he did his best to ignore it.
