Page 15 (1/2)

Yet hadn’t she kissed him? Waited for hi with the taste of her when they’d kissed Progress? Maybe, but then he’d realized howWin or lose, no in between, in what proh-as-hell battle without

No trust either way He realized now that it hadn’t been there to start with or they would have told each other more

Easier to tell crap that didn ’tas a floodlight for a guy wearing NVGs, it hit him why she hadn’t told him about Yasmine Because it mattered It hurt too damned much

Exactly the same reason he hadn’t told her about Tina

He would have sworn he was over losing her God, it was fifteen years ago Yet right now he could al ripped fro had festered under the protective covering

Froot Loops Things froed a person no matter what He wasn’t over Tina’s death The cut-off-at-the-knees pain of it burned all over again fro him in need of somewhere to hide out alone to lick his wounds until he could put hiain

And in that one-second flash, his problems doubled to a pair of women in his head And no one in his bed

Chapter 9

Knowing she should be in bed didn’t stop Monica fro for Jack She’d met with Crusty about Yasmine, checked in with the command post about the drop, even watched Jack’s plane land He was fine, theless fro outside his roo around to tell him about Yasmine She knew better

She needed his level steadiness to settle her world after the conversation with her youngest sister While Jack’s I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude often drove her crazy, other tis off He didn’t dwell or let stuff out of his control bother hiing back a handful of cereal while acknowledging he didn’t like little planes No apologies or mad dash for a shrink to analyze for possible claustrophobia Adapt Move on

He kne to let go of his past

She needed that now Soto wonder if she needed Jack

And there he was, all wide shoulders and hard angles, with the sweaty swirl of dark hair along his brow Jack strode down the hall, Rodeo behind with a pensive frownhis normally suave, unflappable demeanor

Jack turned to his copilot "Go ahead without me and you can have first dibs on the shower"

Rodeo thumped him on the back "Take it easy, lance Monica’s way before circling past and into the two- Monica co hinet, she stepped closer, closer still until she stopped short Intensity radiated fro dark, alien, even a little mean and so unlike Jack His stand-back vibes created boundaries around hi suddenly shifted poles to propel her away

What the hell was going on? "Is everything all right?"

"Just fine" He swiped a hand through his sweaty hair creased fro out in the cos went"

"I already did that"

"Then why are you here?"

His abrupt tone acted like a cold splash over her Was the thrill of the chase gone? She’d started to weaken so now he didn’t care anymore? Damn but that possibility bit Even while she’d predicted it ht that the past seven months had meant that little to him

Still pride was difficult to subdue She refused to be like any of the ex-live-ins her father had gone through, red-eyed, weeping wo possessions into a suitcase once her father booted the wo around the halls after you left"

"Was she co out of the Colonel’s room?"

"God, no"

"Then I wouldn’t worry about it She can’t leave, and everything iht" He shuffled fro the hell away froht for five freaking seconds and answer her questions She wasn’t going to bolt off into her room next door like soht up?"

"She’s being watched There’s really not much more we can do than that except shunt her back into the Rubistanian coh Which of course could put us in sticky diplomatic waters because of herlike hell not to let " She mentally counted to cool her te her spare set of clothes"

"Anything else?"

She crossed her ar important"

His eyes fell to her chest Interest flickered "Okay, I’ll "

"Thank you"

He pivoted away Double dah that sounded ust, he turned back "What’s wrong?"

"Don’t put yourself out on

"Mon, I’m in a shitty ht So if you have so else to say, spill it now before I turn into a really surly son of a bitch"

Kind of felt like he was halfway there already

Her arrown-up tattletale?’’

He leaned so close she thought for a ht kiss her Instead his face blanked of emotion "It’s all about the Froot Loops, babe And how the past has a helluva way of coht back to cut us off at the knees e least expect it"