The Sergeant's Baby

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So Danny had done the one thing he’d wanted to do all along. He drew her closer, tipped her face up to his and kissed her. His intent had been simply to drop a kiss on her lips and leave, but he quickly discovered that one kiss was not enough.

Trying not to be too demanding, he went back for more. Her mouth, which at first had been so unyielding, softened beneath his lips. She returned the kiss, tentatively at first, then with more confidence. Her velvety lips parted to let him in, and he felt more than heard her moan of pleasure.

When she wrapped her arms around him and began to play with the hair at his nape, he knew he’d won, hollow victory that it was.

He also knew that if he kept at this, he’d want to take her to bed. As much as he ached for her, he had to stop this now. She was no longer his, and he had no right to her. Even if he planned to do everything he could to make her his again.

In the meantime, they had to think rationally. And he was well aware that when they were in bed together, they never did much thinking.

He jerked away from her, and was rewarded by the look of confusion in Ally’s eyes. “I just wanted to feel you in my arms again, Ally. I didn’t mean to force myself on you. I’ll go, but remember this. We’re not done.”

He yanked open the door and strode down the tidy little walk to his car. Danny knew he’d be lost if he looked back, so he kept his gaze trained forward. He climbed into the car, started the engine and drove away.

But not without regrets.

Lots of regrets.

ALLY STOOD INSIDE the door, her hand to her kiss-swollen lips, and wondered what had just happened. That Danny had kissed her like that wasn’t a surprise, not really. He’d always been a take-charge man, and he was used to getting what he wanted.

Except for her.

He was a wonderful kisser, and though she’d tried, Ally hadn’t been able to forget the way she’d always felt in his arms.

Still, the passion of her response had shocked her. They had been apart so long. Why wasn’t she over him? She had thought that she’d been so rational with her plan to raise the child alone. She had thought that she had it all figured out.

However, almost the minute she was alone with Danny, she’d fallen into his arms. She hadn’t wanted to show Danny how she still felt about him, but now she was pretty sure he did.

She might have been able to lie to him from across the room, she thought as she leaned against the door, but the moment he’d touched her, her body had given her away. Danny had always been able to read her, and she’d all but given him the encyclopedia.

It was a pretty darn big, wonderful kiss, and she’d enjoyed every moment of it. Until Danny had pushed her away.

Ally turned the lock on the front door and it snicked shut, then she wandered toward her bedroom, vaguely remembering to put out the lights as she went. She had too much to process, too much to work through, to consider details like shutting down the house for the night. Fortunately, her body worked on automatic and took care of the mundane tasks.

As much as she’d claimed to be an independent woman, the prospect of raising this child alone—Danny’s child, she reminded herself—terrified her. She might have claimed that she wanted to be thoroughly modern and thoroughly independent, but she didn’t. She wanted a home, a husband, a family and a career. And most of all, she wanted Danny to be part of her—no, their—child’s life.

Now she just had to figure out how to make it happen.

AS HE DROVE through the dark and unfamiliar streets, Danny Murphey had time to think. Time to work things out in his head—something that he usually didn’t do. He was, after all, a man of action, of impulse, and it was obvious that he would have to proceed with cool, calm deliberation.

He had to win Ally back. Had to convince her that he was willing to give a little if she would. If she would, he could take a lot. He wasn’t used to compromising, but he could if it meant that he and Ally would be together in the end.

Danny was pretty sure that just telling Ally that he might compromise wouldn’t do the trick. He’d have to show her.

Lucky for him, he had this time on temporary duty here to make his case.

A SHINY, RED APPLE SAT in a prominent position on her desk when she came into the classroom, and Ally didn’t need an FBI investigation to know who had left it there. Danny Murphey was already in his seat, head bent over his textbook, and he was acting just like a little boy who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

He looked up and smiled at her with the same angelic expression that had first attracted her to him over two years ago, and Ally couldn’t help smiling back.

Maybe they would be able to make it through the day without incident. If Danny behaved and didn’t start her heart racing. As if reading her mind, Danny winked at her.

“Good morning, Miss Carter,” he said in a childish singsong as a few more members of the class filed in.

Though she tried not to, Ally laughed, and it felt good. More surprising, she discovered that the little gesture had already brightened her day.

Allison cleared her throat, wiped her hands on the skirt of her business-appropriate suit and called the class to order. “Today’s lesson will focus on local traditions in some of the areas you will be serving,” she told them. “Although the women are no longer required to wear the tentlike burkhas you probably remember seeing on the television news, they are required by law to maintain a strict code of modesty, and many older women do still feel more comfortable being covered up.

“I guess old habits are hard to break,” she said with a smile, thinking about the handsome, redhaired man leaning back in his chair in the third row, apparently trying to be unobtrusive.

“Not only that,” she continued, “in many countries a woman is not permitted to go out alone or speak to a man who is not a member of her family if she is not properly chaperoned. Even something as innocent as a handshake with someone of the opposite sex is not permitted.”

She glanced around the classroom and waited for the information to sink in. Ally suspected that most of her students already knew this, but the next bit of information she would deliver would probably be new. “Moreover, it would be considered in our best interest to observe their customs, not try to inflict ours on them.”

An eager female lieutenant, blond and blue-eyed—and a service academy graduate, Ally knew from her paperwork—raised her hand. “Excuse me, Ms. Carter. Does that mean we should avoid speaking to the natives?”

“They’re not ‘natives,’ Lieutenant. You may call them locals or indigenous people, but let’s give them the same respect you would expect.

“In answer to your question, Lieutenant, yes. Especially refrain from man-woman exchanges. In fact, try to avoid contact with the locals unless absolutely necessary,” Ally added. “Let me also mention—and you need to remember this—that you must take care not to appear in public without a male escort.”

The lieutenant raised her hand again and, without waiting to be called on, blurted, “But we’re not members of their society, and I’m not about to start kow-towing to men and walking three steps behind.” She looked as though she wanted to say more, but Ally stopped her by holding up her hand.

“Relations with some of these countries are quite strained, Lieutenant Abernathy. We must be certain not to do anything that might jeopardize our mission there. Have you heard the expression ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’?”

Looking doubtful, her lips pursed, the lieutenant nodded.

“Then do it,” Danny Murphey interjected, staring pointedly at the woman.

Lieutenant Abernathy rolled her eyes. “Obviously, you didn’t spend four years at the Air Force Academy, Sergeant,” the woman retorted. “I didn’t work like a dog trying to prove I was as good as any man there, to be sent to Tamahlyastan on my first assignment and have to go around wearing a tent and trotting behind a man like a trained puppy.”

“I didn’t say you had to wear a burkha,” Allison interjected, knowing that Danny was sure to comment on that. He had never minced words when dealing with “overeducated” academy grads.

Danny held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Nobody said you had to act like a…dumb blonde, Lieutenant,” he said. “Just follow the rules. You can do that, can’t you? Isn’t that what you had to do at the Academy?” He appeared ready to say something else, but Ally shot him a quelling glance, and Danny had the good sense to quit while he was ahead.

“You can still use your brains and your education,” Ally explained, hoping to ease the situation. “You just have to respect the local customs when you are out in public. You’re there to act as ambassadors as well as to work. When you’re at your post, doing your job, you’re under no obligation to observe custom. It’s only when you’re outside. Don’t act like the Ugly Americans so many people in those societies perceive us to be.”

Clearly, the lieutenant didn’t want to leave it at that. “Well, I think it’s ridiculous.”

“Lieutenant Abernathy,” Danny said, and Ally held her breath, hoping that he wouldn’t say something stupid. “Do you stand at attention when the flag is raised?”

“Yes.”

“When you’re in civvies, do you put your hand over your heart and stand when they play the national anthem at ball games?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like it when a man holds the door open for you even when you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself?”

“Yes. What’s your point, Sergeant?” the lieutenant finally asked, obviously tiring of the exercise.

Ally, too, was curious about Danny’s point.

“All those—” he groped for the right word “—gestures are not required by law. They’re traditions—customs, if you want—not laws. We don’t have monitors making sure you do them, but you do them anyway.”

“Yes,” the lieutenant answered slowly, her brows knitted in puzzlement.

“Well, those are all customs that you observe that someone from another country might think are stupid. Am I right?”

Score one for Danny Murphey, Ally thought with approval. Maybe he had matured a little since they’d been together several years ago.

“I get your point,” the lieutenant said begrudgingly. She glanced up at Ally. “I’m sorry, Ms. Carter. Go on with your presentation.”

DANNY REMAINED SEATED until the rest of the class had left for lunch. Today, Ally hadn’t ducked out the rear door. That fact was enough to give him hope. He leaned back in his chair and watched as she deliberately gathered up her materials and stacked them neatly in a pile. She retrieved the disk for her PowerPoint presentation, then turned to him.

“Are you free for lunch, Sergeant?” she asked, surprising the hell out of him. He’d thought he’d have to make the first move.

“Thought you’d never ask, Teach,” he replied, sliding out of his seat. “Your place or mine?” He grinned, knowing she wouldn’t go for that one.

Ally’s mouth twitched as she tried to suppress a smile. “The club will be fine,” she said primly as she buttoned the jacket of the suit over her stomach. The buttons strained across her growing belly. “I’ll pay.”

Danny wouldn’t protest. It was an old argument between the two of them, and one he’d never once won. The best he’d been able to negotiate was Dutch treat.

Danny held the classroom door open and waited for Ally to step through. Even with her belly swelling with his child, she moved with fluid grace. Danny made no effort to disguise his appreciation of the view. For a small woman she had terrific legs, even if she had apparently given up wearing high, high heels in deference to her pregnancy.

“Still a leg man, I see,” Ally said as she brushed by him.

“Can’t get anything past you, can I.”

Ally chuckled. “Not when it’s that blatant. You could make an effort to be more discreet.”

“Oh, I can be when I need to,” Danny said, remembering his stealth campaign of the previous evening. He shrugged, then touched the small of Ally’s back and urged her forward. She seemed a little softer than he remembered, but then, he supposed that was to be expected. “Considering you’re pretty well checked out on all my moves, I figured I didn’t need to hide anything. You know what I want.”

“That I do, Danny,” she said, a lighthearted expression on her face. “That I do. However, you could have learned some new moves since…”

She didn’t continue, but Danny understood exactly what she meant. Since I left you. But, then she’d probably turn the argument around and say he’d left her by not being willing to see things her way.

Danny shook himself out of those morose thoughts. He’d succeeded in getting her to go to lunch with him—well, actually, she’d beaten him to the punch, and that was even better. Score one for his team.

He didn’t try to hide his satisfied smile.

“I saw it, Danny. You never could hide anything from me,” Ally said. “You don’t exactly have a poker face.”

“Only where you’re concerned,” Danny protested, but Ally shushed him with a gentle touch of a finger to his lips.

“Seriously, though. I appreciated the way you handled the lieutenant this morning. I was afraid she was going to be a real problem child.”

“I guess maybe this old dog has learned a few new tricks since we were…together.” Danny grinned. “I may not have been born with a generous helping of tact, but I’m not stupid. I can be taught.” He shrugged as he held open the door that led outside.

The lesson had been difficult and hard to take, but when he’d been angry at the world after Ally had taken off the first time, he’d entered into a real shouting match with the major and had barely escaped serious trouble. Fortunately, Lieutenant Marx, new to the squadron at the time, had taken him aside and given him a few pointers, a lesson he hadn’t been particularly interested in then, but one that had eventually sunk in.

“Good to know,” Ally replied. She stood at the edge of the parking lot and surveyed the scattering of cars still in the lot. “Do you want to walk to the club or drive? It isn’t far.”

The late-September sky was a clear Air-Force-blue; there wasn’t a cloud or even a hint of humidity. A breeze played with a loose strand of Ally’s hair and carried with it a hint of fall. It was a perfect day for a walk.

“Is it okay?” he asked. “With you being…?”

“Pregnant? It isn’t a dirty word, Danny. It’s a natural process. It happens to women all over the world every day.” She turned and began walking toward the club, a few blocks away.

“I know,” he said defensively. “But I’ve never been the…”

Chapter Four

“Father?”

Danny stopped. She’d said the word so easily, voicing the concept as though it was nothing. To him it was still something he had a hard time wrapping his brain around, even if Ally had finally confirmed it.

“Yeah,” he said huskily. “The father.”

“Come on. Both of us are hungry.” Ally tugged on his arm impatiently. “The exercise is good for us.”

“Okay,” Danny said. “Do you mean us, like you and me? Or you and the baby?” He paused, then added, “But I’m paying for my own.”

“Works for me,” Ally said, tossing him a dazzling smile. “And in answer to your question—both of the above.”

Danny laughed and raised an eyebrow. “What, no protest? After all, you invited me. I should expect you to pay.” In the old days, Ally would have argued until any man opposing her had no choice but to give in. She had always had to show that she could do things on her own. Maybe she was mellowing, too.