O Christmas Knight, page 12
part #6 of Knight Ops Series
“Tyler, I think we’re past all that holding back bullshit, aren’t we?”
She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I found out that you’d been called away and I left the party.”
He tensed, and she couldn’t gauge anything without seeing his expression. When she moved her head on his shoulder to see his face, she found him wearing a shit-eating grin.
She thumped him with her fist. “I can see that satisfies you.”
“Damn straight.”
“I don’t know if I could have been in the same room with you after the fitting room thing.”
His grin widened, and her heart skipped a beat. He was so gorgeous and she was content to stay with him in bed till next year.
If they did, though, her brothers would send out a search party and find them naked and entwined.
“The fitting room was fucking hot, baby.”
A small shiver ran over her skin. “It was.”
He folded her more tightly in his arms. “Maybe we can go in the closet and recreate it.” He shot a look toward the side of the room where the closet was located.
She laughed. “It’s stuffed with rafts and beach towels. We’d never fit.”
“Oh we fit.” His growled words fell across her lips, and he kissed her.
Dammit, her mind wouldn’t shut off right now and just give in to her body’s desires. Soon her leave would be up and her immediate orders were to return to base following New Year’s. It was down to days now and time was disappearing fast. She had to end things with Bo.
Or decide on a new path for her life.
He brushed his lips across hers one more time before looking deep into her eyes and smiling. He slapped her hip, making her jump. “Into the shower with you, temptress.”
“Then what?”
He arched a brow. “Breakfast. I’m starved. I hope you can cook an acceptable egg.”
“Depends on what you call acceptable. Why don’t you cook it?”
“All right, I will. I don’t mind taking care of my woman. Sausage or bacon rations in the fridge?”
“Both in the freezer. You’ll have to thaw them out.”
“Bacon then. Takes less time.” He pinched her ass and she squealed, leaping out of bed. He gave her an appreciative look as she sashayed to the bathroom, swinging her hips enticingly.
At the door, she tossed him a coy glance. “See ya in ten.”
As soon as she got into the shower and replayed all the events on the past night, she had no idea how to piece together answers. She and Bo might be fooling themselves and splitting was the best course of action in the long run. He had his life, she had hers.
It sure was sweeter together these past few weeks, though.
She sighed and lathered her hair, letting her mind wander. Too many times it rounded back to being here at the cabin with her family—and Bo at her side, as her lover, her friend, her everything.
Rinsing her hair, she murmured, “Happy holidays to me. Santa’s brought a big, fat dilemma.”
Chapter Ten
Out here in the middle of nowhere, the only phone that worked was a satellite phone, and Hawk carried one with him. But right at this moment, with the sound of the shower running and bacon sizzling on the stovetop, the last thing he wanted to hear was it ring.
“Hawkeye,” he answered in a rough voice.
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Darren. Colonel Jackson requests you in his office in an hour.”
Jesus.
“I can’t make it in an hour.”
“An hour and a half then. And I have it in my knowledge that Tyler Knight is with you.”
Fuck. What the hell was going on?
“Why do you need Ms. Knight?”
“The colonel wants to see her too.”
“What’s this about?” Hawkeye asked, casting a look at the bedroom door and praying Tyler didn’t step out until he knew exactly what was taking place and why they were both in on it.
“You know the rules, Hawk.” Darren let down his guard for a moment. “Just get your ass in here and bring Knight.”
Shit.
“We’ll be there.”
He stared blankly at the pan of sizzling bacon for a moment. Talk about bad timing. Just as he was breaking through Tyler’s tough exterior and getting her to open up to him—and dare he say the possibility of a relationship?—this shit happened. Would it always be this way? Making plans and breaking them for a mission?
Except this time Jackson wanted both of them in his office, and he couldn’t imagine why. It wasn’t against the rules for either Tyler as a Marine or him as an OFFSUS agent to date each other.
He heard the shower shut off and turned the bacon calmly with a fork. Inside, he was far from calm, though. They had to appear before Jackson but he wasn’t about to risk the bond he’d formed with Tyler, either.
Weighing his options came to no good decision, always ending in being court martialed. Finally, he turned off the burner and placed the bacon on a plate covered in paper towel. The scrambled eggs he’d already made remained warm under lid, and he’d been starving a moment ago but now had no appetite.
As soon as he told Tyler what was going down, she would refuse to eat too.
He had to tell her right now if they were to make it to Jackson’s on time.
He walked into the bedroom and found her naked.
He scrubbed a hand over his face to try to cut the shock of seeing her beautiful, nude body feet away, enticing him with perky nipples and that round ass he wanted to claim as his own in time.
Maybe on our honeymoon.
Damn, he was in deep, always had been when it came to this woman.
She turned and caught sight of him. “Are you just going to stand there staring at me, pervert?”
He pushed out a breath that held a bit of amusement at her insult. God, she was so lovely and all he wanted was to drag her back into bed with him and keep her there all week. But it wasn’t to be.
“Baby, I got a phone call.”
She went still, hands raised to button her top. “I didn’t hear it.”
“You were in the shower.”
“You have a mission?” She dropped her gaze to her buttons and began working them quickly, her nimble fingers moving up the row until her bare skin was all tucked out of sight.
He couldn’t stop himself from touching her and moved up behind her. Wrapping his arms around her, drawing her back against his chest. He kissed the side of her throat and then rested his head on her shoulder. “Jackson wants both of us.”
She yanked out of his hold and spun on him. “For what?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but they expect us in about an hour and twenty minutes, so we need to paddle our asses out of here with all haste.”
“Shit.” She spat the cuss and began jerking on her jeans and a pair of boots. She slanted a look at him. “You think they have a problem with us being together?”
“I don’t know how they could.”
“If Jackson knows, so do my brothers.”
He dragged in a breath. “I’m prepared to face that.” All at once, he had to make her know everything. He walked up to her and grabbed her hands, enfolding her fingers tight in his grasp. “Tyler…”
She searched his gaze. “Oh God, Hawk, don’t do this right now.”
“I have to. Now shut up.”
Her jaw dropped and he grinned as he used a forefinger to gently close her jaw. Looking into her eyes, he said, “You have me completely fucking mesmerized, you know that, Knight?”
“I—” She broke off. “Mesmerized?”
“You have no idea. I can’t stop thinking about you. I play out conversations I want to have with you when I’m sitting in the middle of a swamp with bullets zinging by my head.”
She fidgeted but he held her hands prisoner. Just as he opened his mouth to tell her exactly how important she was in his life and how deep she’d dug her hooks into his heart, the SAT phone rang again.
As if she’d been waiting for an excuse to escape him, Tyler lunged for the phone in his pocket. She snatched it out and brought it to her ear.
“Hawk, you’d better fucking present yourself to me and my four brothers right after you stand before Jackson.” Her brother Ben’s voice came over loud and clear.
Her face drained of color and she darted her tongue over her dry lower lip. “Ben?”
“Jesus, it’s true. Goddammit, Tyler, what are you doing with Hawk? I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Uh… Here’s Hawk.” Her wide eyes said it all as she shoved the phone at him.
He took it from her and held her gaze as he spoke. “Yeah, she’s with me.”
“For how fucking long have you been fucking our sister right under our noses?”
Tyler winced as her brother reverted to his love of the F word.
Hawk looked right into her eyes when he said, “Since Kandahar.”
“Fucking hell,” Ben bit off.
Tyler let out a girly growl of anger.
“You’re facing me—all of us Knights—as soon as you get her home.”
“She’s not coming home.”
“What?” Ben’s voice was deadly calm.
“Jackson wants her too. Don’t worry—she’s in good hands.”
At that, Tyler started to slap at his shoulders and biceps. Hawk would have laughed if it didn’t actually sting and she didn’t look about to drown him off the dock in the bayou. He fought off her anger by finally throwing her on the bed and pinning her down. Her eyes shot bullets at him, each little fleck in her eyes fiercer than the next.
“Dammit, I’m calling Jackson right now. Why the hell does he want Tyler?” Ben demanded.
“Hey!” She heard her brother’s words and snatched the phone from Hawk. “Why the hell wouldn’t he want me? You aren’t the only Knights who are sought out for your skill.”
“Tyler, I’m going to have a long talk with you too. I can’t believe you were hiding this thing with Hawk from us.”
With true amusement, Hawk watched her open her mouth in an attempt to speak, shut it again and then hit a button on the phone to end the call.
Taking the phone from her hand, he set it aside and swooped in to claim her lips. She struggled for half a heartbeat before giving in to him and slipping her arms around his neck.
It didn’t take two sweeps of his tongue to realize he couldn’t go on without taking it right to the end of the line. Tyler did that to a man.
He pushed back on his elbows and stared into her eyes. “They won’t be angry after I explain everything.”
“Oh no. You’re not doing the explaining. I’ll do it.”
“Not without me there.”
“Like hell.”
“Why not?” He nibbled along her delicate jaw, and she tipped her head back to give him access.
“Because you’re likely to tell them things that aren’t true.”
“Such as?”
“Such as it’s more than just sex.”
He locked her in his gaze. “It is more than sex.”
“To you maybe, which is the trouble. Hawk, we can’t—”
“Be late to see Jackson. Get up and grab your stuff. Meet me in the canoe.”
Without another word, he did a pushup off the mattress, picked up his phone and his bag and walked out, leaving her speechless and probably as pissed off as a gator on a fishhook.
And not kissed nearly enough.
* * * * *
Just great. Her brothers were on the warpath, ready to string up Hawk and leave him for dead for fucking around with her. She should have avoided all this drama by resisting the man in the first place.
As if I could.
He drew her in like fire to an arsonist, and each time he got near her, she felt like she was burning up.
She continued to shoot him looks out of the corner of her eye as he rowed them out of the bayou and then put her in his jeep and drove her back to New Orleans.
“I’m not presentable enough for Jackson.” At least she’d showered and didn’t still smell like sex and man.
Hawk threw her a glance. “You’re beautiful.”
“Jackson doesn’t want beautiful. He wants the Marine.”
He looked her over more carefully, taking his eyes off the road as he rolled through the gates of base. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” he mumbled.
With no response to that, she remained silent. She didn’t even know if she should be offended that Hawk was stifling the Marine side of her—if he was. She had no idea what he meant right now, and she was too nervous about meeting the colonel to think on it more.
When they walked in, she pushed her way in front of Hawk. But he eased around her and refused to let her past.
“Get out of my way.”
“I didn’t take you for one of those people who has to always be first. Being the sixth child and all.” His words dropped like moonshine syrup over her maman’s fresh homemade waffles, which she could go for right about now.
She was still full of bacon, though. Before leaving, she’d dropped it all into a bag and she and Hawk had shared a picnic of sorts as he rowed them back to the vehicle. Looking back, she realized eating bacon while rowing through the bayou might have been romantic under other circumstances.
Reaching out, she tried to shove Hawk out of the way so she could enter Jackson’s office first and look like she was the Marine who was raring to go. But he refused to let her by, blocking her as if to… protect her?
She narrowed her eyes at his broad back but couldn’t see inside his skull. Which was probably a good thing—it had to be thick with dirty things she could see running behind his eyes when he looked at her but he never said.
As they approached the door, one of the guards opened it for them. Hawk entered before her, but she moved up next to him and stood at attention before Colonel Jackson.
“Well, aren’t you two the pair?” Jackson mused.
Her stomach slithered with worry. The last thing she wanted in her vocation was to appear to have girlish desires. She had to be strong and immune to everything but doing her job and doing it well.
“At ease. You’re a minute late.”
That minute had been spent with Hawk pinning her to the bed back in the cabin. She couldn’t bring herself to regret it though.
“Traffic, sir.” Hawk spent a lot of time getting orders from Jackson, so he stood in a relaxed pose. But she felt like biting off all her nails. She didn’t even want to think of what her brothers had done over the years to piss off this man.
She stood waiting for the reason they’d been brought here. She tried not to look around his stark office. This hard man was also her brother Ben’s father-in-law, and while he clearly was warmer in his personal life, throwing barbecues and inviting the whole Knight Ops team, Jackson didn’t have so much as a picture of his baby granddaughter on his desk.
Not for the first time, she realized how odd it was that they all must compartmentalize their working life and personal life so the edges never brushed each other.
Jackson eyed her, and she went still, staring at the buttons of his uniform. She’d seen him when Ben and Dahlia married, of course, but he’d intimidated her even then.
Abruptly, he turned to Hawk. “There’s an issue that needs your attention in Kandahar, Hawkeye.”
“On it, sir.”
Jackson flicked his gaze to her. “And she’s going with you.”
“No.” It didn’t come out as anything but rude, and she stifled a gasp.
Jackson’s exterior was calm as he got in Hawk’s face. They glared at each other, and she wondered how Hawk had the balls to stand up to the colonel this way.
“Did you have something to say, Hawkeye?”
“She isn’t going, sir.”
“She damn well is. Meet your new civil affairs specialist.”
She jolted but tried not to show it.
Jackson pivoted to her. “You’ve struck a rapport with the authorities there, and there’s a situation where we could use your skills.”
“No,” Hawk said in a louder voice.
She turned to him. “Stop.”
He met her gaze, and she saw at last that yes, he was trying to protect her. And no wonder after what had happened to her in Kandahar last time, but this would be different.
It was her job to go.
Silent, Jackson observed them.
“I should have you stood against a wall and shot for insubordination, Hawkeye. But America needs you too much, so I will just have you stand down now while I speak to Knight here.”
She could hear his teeth grinding from several feet away, but Hawk said nothing more.
She looked to Jackson, her stomach a nervous pit of butterflies. “Sir?”
“OFFSUS just stopped a small ship coming from international waters full of refugees.”
Her gaze lifted to his and she held her breath.
“They’re all children. Two hundred and six of them, taken by land to the Arabian Sea.”
She let her breath trickle out, feeling her heart going out to that many children separated from their parents. Shipped away for what reason? To provide them with a chance at a better life?
“Where are the parents, sir?” Hawk asked from beside her.
Jackson pivoted his head to look at him, his steely gray brow arched. “That information is not known, but what we do know is there are over two hundred children in need of shelter and aid at Kandahar Air Base. We need your skills to speak with them, Knight, to get them to talk and give us the names of their parents who sent them away.”
She couldn’t help but ask. “But what happens when we find them?”
“The parents will be questioned to see if they’re fit. It’s a form of cruelty to send them to a new country without more than a few provisions and no adults to see them safe other than a shady ship captain.”
She nodded. It was terrible and yet, they must have reasons they were deeply passionate about to take such risks with their offspring.
“I’ll go, sir.”
“In the next hour, Knight.”
She nodded.
“Now both of you get out of your civilian clothes. Transport is at thirteen-thirty.”
