Eleven days, he thought miserably.
“And you were going to make a break for it once I showed up. I hadn’t even considered you were avoiding me. Do I make you nervous or something?” she asked.
“Whew,” he answered, shaking his head. “I haven’t been out of the army long enough to get over that rank thing. Your uncle—”
“Isn’t anywhere in sight,” she said, cutting him off. “Is it just my uncle?”
“You’re a pretty girl, Shelby,” he said. “And you’re just a girl. Puts me on edge, yeah.”
“Well then, we’re even,” she said. He gave her a perplexed look and she said, “You’re a good-looking guy, obviously been around a lot more than I have, and you’re older. Scary.”
He laughed at her candidness. “There you go—like water on a grease fire. Let’s play it safe, huh? Now tell me about your day.”
“Nothing to tell. Besides, this is interesting. I’d like to know what’s going on here. So, it’s pretty much that I’m a lot younger than you are. Or you just don’t like me.” And then she blushed, which made him squirm. It obviously took guts for her to push on this issue. But she wanted to know. So he decided to tell her.
“You know what it is, Shelby,” he said. “You’re young and tender. A sweet young thing. I’m hell on sweet young things.”
She laughed at him. “I bet anything you usually find a way to get past all that.”
Well, she didn’t scare easy, Luke realized with some admiration. And here was what had him screwed up—it wasn’t just that he had taken one look at her and felt that familiar tug of lust. Sounded like maybe the same thing had happened to her. Except that she had feelings deep enough to fall into and drown, and his feelings were all superficial, physical. Once his lust had been satisfied, he wouldn’t have much left for her. She’d end up sorry. He had always been able to avoid things like this, but this one, she was real tough on the nerves. It was going to be torture, just holding back. And it could be suicide, giving up the fight.
“I just wish your Uncle Walt was a retired master sergeant,” he said.
Luke usually confined his prowling to a town or two over so when the affair had run its course, he didn’t keep bumping into the woman again and again. Or her uncle. Before crawling between the sheets, he’d always give them “the talk”: he didn’t fall in love; wasn’t interested in long-term deals or commitment. He had his reasons, serious and personal reasons, for believing that a serious relationship wasn’t possible for him.
He wondered how Shelby would take to “the talk.” Given her age, she would probably cry.
He had been attempting to give not touching her a try, but just sitting next to her, having a beer, smelling her sweet scent and looking into those large hazel eyes, it was increasingly apparent he was destined to fail. It was just a matter of time; maybe a matter of hours.
“Well, I admit, you’re not exactly what I have in mind, either. I was thinking around twenty-six, more hair, polo shirt, or maybe a sharp, crisp, white button-down,” she said, and then she grinned at him.
He was totally shocked. He’d spent all this time fighting the attraction and she had something else in mind anyway? “I’m too old for you, plain and simple,” he pointed out.
“Probably, but there don’t seem to be many single men around. You kind of stand out.”
“You should throw your net wider,” he suggested.
“Until I do, let’s not get ridiculous. It’s a beer and some dinner. It doesn’t really matter how old we are or who my uncle is.”
He smiled. Sometimes she seemed a little older than twenty-five. She was awfully bright. Quick. Usually the problem with girls her age was they were dimwits. Not this one. She was honest and direct. Luke respected that. “You’ve been riding,” he said. “Your cheeks are sunburned.”
“Every day. Sometimes twice a day.”
“How long have you been riding?”
“Since I was real young. I’m Uncle Walt’s only sister’s only child, and my parents were divorced when I was just a baby, so my uncle kind of took me under his wing. He taught me—he thought it would build my confidence to learn to handle big animals. It turned out I only got more confident around big animals.” She shrugged and looked down. “I used to be real timid.”
The memory of seeing her on that big American paint came to mind. “You’re sure not timid on that horse,” he said. “And you’re not so timid with me.”
“I know. I’ve worked through a lot of that. I don’t know very much about you besides that you flew helicopters in the army. What about your family? All I know is you have a brother in Black Hawks in the Middle East.”
Luke’s dad had been a hardworking teamster, an electrician, and while he was a good provider, there hadn’t been a great deal left over for things like college educations. There were five boys to raise and educate. “I was the oldest and first one in. It wasn’t a hard decision for me—I always liked the idea of the army. It was a place for me to show my stuff—and I did fine. Loved the challenge. Colin followed me—into the army out of high school, into Warrant Officer School and the Black Hawks. Aiden upped it a notch—went into college ROTC and got a navy scholarship for med school. Don’t ask me how—but Sean scored an Air Force Academy slot and got into the U-2. Sean is the brother who went in on the cabins with me. Paddy—Patrick—got into the Naval Academy and F-18.” He smiled because her mouth had dropped open.
“Holy crap, there are five of you!”
“Yeah,” he said. He thought he was going to have to sit on his hand to keep from touching her hair. “Prolific Irish family. Sean and Patrick and their jets—they think faster is cooler. But they think that because they’ve never been in the Black Hawks.”
“Faster, higher and maybe safer,” she said.
“Possibly.” He laughed.
“How many times have you crashed?”
“I’ve never crashed,” he said, straightening proudly. “But I’ve been a damn good target three times. Mogadishu, Afghanistan and Iraq. I’m all done getting shot out of the sky. Right now, I want my most dangerous experience to be hammer versus thumb.”
They talked about building for a while, about the plans he had for the cabins. He would concentrate on the exteriors while the weather was still nice and when it cooled off and the Pacific winds brought the wet and cold, he could work inside. “Chapman left the house a wreck, but the structure seems sound. It’s going to take some doing to get it right. It’s small, but big enough for me. And if a brother or two shows up, there’s room. But this is temporary for me. By the time the work is done, I’ll be looking for a flying job—rescue or news chopper, or maybe even private industry. But chopper jobs are pretty tight, so it’s good I have something to keep me busy while I check out the job market.”
“Where will you go?” she asked.
“I’m flexible,” he said with a shrug.
She learned the brothers were close—when they were in the same part of the world, they got together. His father was deceased, but his mother was in Phoenix and they met there regularly. And each of them was willing to travel if there was a chance to meet. When she asked if he had a lot of nieces and nephews, he said, “All single. No kids anywhere.”
She didn’t tell him a whole lot about herself, just that she was finally ready to get on with her education, that she would be applying for degree programs. “I have my tuition money set aside from the house sale. I’d like to take a couple of trips first, maybe a cruise, since I can’t get back to full-time school till next fall anyway. I’m pretty nervous about that, it’s been a long time since I’ve been a student.”
“You’ll kick ass,” he said, taking curious pride in her ambition.
“For now, I’m just hanging out.”
“For how long?” he asked.
She answered with a shrug. “Till the first of the year, anyway, that’s the plan. There’s not too much for me to do except help everyone out, and I’m already getting a little bored.”
He made her laugh, put her at ease. She had a second beer and he had another. “You about ready for some dinner?” he finally asked her.
“I’m starving,” she said.
By the time Jack put stew in front of them, many of the locals were leaving, but there were still a few fishermen, so there was no hurry for Luke and Shelby to clear out.
They asked Jack for coffee and talked for another hour before Shelby looked at her watch and said, “Do you think I’ve given the lovebirds enough time alone?”
“By the look on Paul’s face, there isn’t enough time.”
“Tell me about it.” She stood up and slipped a hand into her jeans’ pocket.
“Nah, Shelby. Let me,” Luke said. He pulled out his wallet and put some bills on the bar.
“Careful, Luke,” she teased. “If you buy my dinner, I’ll think you like me.”
He put a hand on the small of her back. “That’s the problem,” he said. “I do.” He was past the jitters about her age, her uncle. He was moving on this. And when it was over, he was going to be shot, he was pretty sure. But he was into her; she had him. He hoped his death would be quick and painless.
An excited shiver ran through her as she preceded him out the door. When she got outside, she stopped on the porch and looked up at the clear, cool sky, peppered with a million stars. The wind through the pines made a whirring sound; an owl occasionally hooted.
Luke moved behind her and, with his arms around her waist, drew her back against him. She let her eyes softly close, enjoying the feeling of his sturdy body so close to hers. He nuzzled her hair and despite the noise of the wind through the pines, she heard his breath as he inhaled. Then she felt him move her hair aside; his lips and tongue were on her neck. “Hmm,” he said. “That’s nice. Real nice.” Then she felt him sucking and she tilted her head to one side to give him more of her neck.
That tilt of the head, that was more invitation than Luke usually required. He pulled her away from the bar’s front door to the edge of the porch, to a dark corner. He’d begun feeling light-headed just from the sensation of her neck against his lips. Her soft, sweet fragrance swirled around him and he wanted to take her somewhere, undress her, taste the rest of her body.
He faced her and looked down into her eyes. “I’m sure this is a huge mistake,” he said in a throaty whisper.
She rubbed her hands up and down his upper arms and just smiled that soft, sweet, beguiling smile.
“You’re pretty irresistible, Shelby. And I never did have much willpower.”
“I’m kind of new at this flirting with dangerous older men,” she said. “Is this where I apologize?”
“New at it?” he asked. “I think you might be a natural. It’s working.”
“Well, maybe I have more social skills than I thought,” she said with a laugh. There was no maybe about it—she had made a sudden and crazy decision. She wasn’t going to wait for the younger, more stylish man. The very thing he was warning her to be careful about, she decided, would work to her advantage. He was experienced. He knew what he was doing. She needed that. His arms around her and his lips on her neck felt wonderful. He would do nicely.
“Do you know what it means to get mixed up with someone like me?” he asked, his voice husky.
“Danger? Heartbreak?” She took a breath. “Adventure? You don’t scare me as much as I scare you, Luke.”
He slowly lowered his lips to hover over hers. “You sure about this?” he asked. “Because I think you know where all this flirting is headed. I’m no kid. This is headed someplace real naked.”
