Twelve military heroes.

Twelve indomitable heroines.

One UNIFORMLY HOT! mini-series.

Don’t miss Mills & Boon® Blaze®’s first twelve-book

continuity series, featuring irresistible

soldiers from all branches of the armed forces.

Watch for:

A FEW GOOD MEN by Tori Carrington (Marines) January 2010

READY FOR ACTION by Karen Foley (Delta Force) February 2010

ALWAYS READY by Joanne Rock (The Coast Guard) March 2010

THE RIGHT STUFF by Lori Wilde (Medical Corps) April 2010

THE DAREDEVIL by Kira Sinclair (Air Force) May 2010

LETTERS FROM HOME by Rhonda Nelson (Army Rangers) June 2010

Uniformly Hot! The Few. The Proud. The Sexy as Hell.

Available in May 2010 from Mills & Boon® Blaze®

BLAZE 2-IN-1

The Mighty Quinns: Callum by Kate Hoffmann & She’s Got It Bad by Sarah Mayberry

The Daredevil by Kira Sinclair

Under the Influence by Nancy Warren

The Daredevil

By

Kira Sinclair

www.millsandboon.co.uk

When not working as an office manager for a project management firm or juggling plotlines, Kira Sinclair spends her time on a small farm in north Alabama shared with her wonderful husband, two amazing daughters and a menagerie of animals. It’s amazing to see how this self-proclaimed city girl has (or has not, depending on who you ask) adapted to country life. Over the past several years Kira has used her Thursday posts at The Writing Playground to vent about the exploits of the donkey, goats, geese and any other animals that wander home with her husband. However, those posts did not prepare her for the joy of seeing her books in print. Kira enjoys hearing from her readers at www.KiraSinclair.com. Or stop by www.writingplayground.blogspot.com and join in the fight to stop the acquisition of an alpaca.

I want to dedicate this book to the men and women

serving our country. Thank you for your service,

dedication and sacrifice.

Thanks to Lynn Raye Harris and her husband, Mike,

who assisted me with my Air Force information.

Any mistakes are solely my own.

Lastly, I want to thank my mother and father for

their support, guidance and love. They gave me

the confidence to believe in myself, the vision to

achieve my dreams and a healthy appreciation

for the value of hard work. I love you!

1
Eleven months ago

“HEY, MAGNET, what about her?”

Chase Carden cringed as his friend’s voice boomed through the Las Vegas casino bar. Jackson was an excellent pilot, a stand-up guy and a great friend but he had no concept of volume control. Or the fact that while Jackson was loudly trying to scout out a female candidate for the one-night stand Chase’s buddies were hell-bent on finding him, Chase was studiously ignoring their efforts.

Not that the redhead halfway across the bar wasn’t beautiful or amenable if her stare was anything to go by. But even as her lips twitched up in a seductive smile and her eyes narrowed with appraising interest, Chase just couldn’t work up the energy to care.

He wasn’t interested. Not in a one-night stand with a woman he’d never met. Six months ago he’d have pushed through the throng of people, leaned down into her space and turned on the charisma that had earned him his call sign in the first place. Lately, it wasn’t worth the effort. Sure as hell not three days before leaving for war. There was something about the looming experience that changed your perspective.

Yes, he was proud to go and serve his country. It’s what he’d signed up to do. Flying planes was what he excelled at. But knowing there was the possibility he might not come back…

“Why don’t you go close the deal, Jackhammer? All I want right now is a night out with the boys.”

“Shit. Anyone hearing you talk would think you’re pussy whooped. I know for a fact you haven’t been anywhere near a pussy for months. You need some action boy, before you spend the better part of a year looking at nothing more than sand.”

A loud wave of laughter erupted from the twelve guys around him. Part of him could appreciate the joke. Most of him didn’t. “Don’t make me knock some sense into that thick skull of yours, Jackhammer.”

The fact that Jackson was right didn’t help any.

“Next round’s on Jackson.”

Another rousing yell of approval shook the wall behind his back as Jackson threw him a nasty look. Chase just grinned at him. That’s what he got for opening his big mouth.

“You having a good time?” Mark leaned across their table and spoke above the noise of raised voices and slot machines filtering into the bar.

“Yeah. Sure.” As good a time as possible, he supposed.

“What about that little blonde down at the end of the bar?”

“Not you, too.”

Raising his hands, Mark chuckled. “Hey man, no hurt in looking.”

“What would Nicole think if she heard you say that?”

The sheepish grin on his face had Chase chuckling too, and looking down the bar.

“Holy shit.”

Twelve heads whipped around to stare at Chase, conversations silencing throughout the tables. He hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud, certainly not loud enough to stop his buddies in their tracks. Clamping his jaw shut, the reverberating shock spiked through his muscles down into his neck.

The one woman he’d never thought to see again, the one woman who’d dwelled in the back of his mind for the past six years, was sitting smack-dab at the end of the bar.

Three days before he was scheduled to fly halfway across the world to Iraq.

“WHAT IS UP with this place tonight?”

Another rousing boom of male voices erupted at Rina McAllister’s back.

“There’s a bunch of airmen in tonight.”

Rina watched as her longtime friend poured a whiskey for a guy four seats down the bar. It was nice to finally be in the same town again. It had been…oh, ten years, way too long, since they’d lived in the same state let alone the same city. Despite the years apart, with phone calls, e-mails and sporadic visits, they’d managed to maintain a strong bond. She’d only been here for a few weeks, and they’d already fallen straight back into their normal, easygoing routine. Sadie was the sister Rina never had. Hell, she was family. Her only family, besides the General.

Yelling over the noise, Rina said, “But they usually aren’t this loud.” Or rowdy. As the newly appointed public affairs officer for the Thunderbirds Squadron she was intimately familiar with airmen. Oh, they could get rowdy with the best of them, maybe down the street at one of the seedy, hole-in-the-wall joints you could find off the strip, but not here. Not at an upscale casino bar like the one Sadie managed.

“Yeah well, several of them are leaving for Iraq in a few days. I’m cutting them some slack.”

Sadie stepped away to fill a drink order. While she waited, Rina craned her neck against the Saturday night crowd, trying to see the cluster of men on the other side of the room. The curve of the bar and crush of people blocked her view for the most part, although she could see a few of them on the fringes.

Flyboys. She could smell them a mile away and they tended to group together. Living with one her entire life—her protocol-thumping air force general father—and fending off the cocky come-ons of more men than she cared to count…she knew one when she saw one. And preferred to avoid them.

Fighter pilots were the worst. A special breed of macho daredevils who weren’t satisfied with pulling Gs—they wanted to do it with their hair on fire just for show. They all exuded that same mix of swagger and charm, filled with the idiotic idea that they were bulletproof and unbreakable. Rina secretly thought they held special courses during their training—ego-inflating 101.

She supposed they needed that instinctive confidence along with nerves of steel in order to do their job. On the ground though, those qualities tended to rub her the wrong way. She’d spent years worrying about her father and whether or not he’d come back from the latest in a long line of missions. Once he’d reluctantly agreed to ride a desk—his body no longer able to take the torture that came with thumbing his nose at gravity—she’d finally learned to breathe easy again. She wasn’t willing to take back that mantle of dread…not for some flyboy.

Sadie slid back to her end of the bar for a few minutes. “Actually, you might remember one of th—”

Just then the solid wall of male moved out of her way and Rina got a great view into the center of the action. And about swallowed her tongue.

“Oh my God. Is that Chase Carden?”

“Yep.”

“And why didn’t you mention this thirty minutes ago?” Rina fought the urge to reach across the polished wood bar and shake Sadie. “Didn’t you think that was something I’d want to know?”

Her disgruntled tone of voice must have registered with her friend. She stopped halfway into pouring a drink and said, “Really, Rina, it’s been six years. You guys didn’t even sleep together—”

Oh, but she’d been sorely tempted. There was just something about the man that made her brain go haywire, made her body respond, made her lose her hard-won cool, calm and collected outer shell.

They’d met the summer after her graduation from the academy. She’d gone to visit the General while she was on leave. That’s where she met Chase. A fighter pilot. The worst possible man for her. At the worst possible time.

She’d known it and yet she hadn’t been able to ignore him…or the all-consuming sexual attraction that snapped between them. It was draining to fight against the urges pounding in her brain. Wanting him was a losing battle that thankfully had been interrupted when she’d received her orders to leave immediately.

Fate had stepped in to save her from a colossal mistake.

But even now she remembered the breathless, expectant way he’d made her crave something she couldn’t—shouldn’t—have. And she’d often wondered what might have happened if she’d stayed.

“I would have thought you’d gotten over him by now.”

Rina fought down the warm memory that flushed across her skin. “There was nothing to get over.” But there was sure a hell of a lot to remember.

He was laughing. She couldn’t hear the sound from this far away but she remembered the way it had rolled around inside, making her chest tighten.

He looked the same. Several years older but still the same. Dark, dark hair cut a little closer on the sides than she recalled but still long enough on the top to run her fingers through. Even from this far away she could see the stubble covering his cheeks, the dimple in the center of his chin.

A vivid memory exploded in her mind, of running her tongue up from that cleft to the seam of his full lips above. Closing her eyes against an unexpected spike of arousal, Rina turned away. It had been a completely out-of-character—and unwise—action for her at the time. Remembering it now wasn’t any smarter.

Forcing the words past the desire clogging her throat, she asked Sadie, “Has he been in before?”

“A few times, I suppose.”

“When? How long has he been in town?”

“I don’t know. About two years, I guess. He’s at Nellis. I guess I thought you would have known.”

Sure, like the place wasn’t huge. She might also now be stationed at Nellis, but she’d only been there for about a month. She wrote website copy, newspaper articles and press releases—her favorite part of the job. She handled external communications for the Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron, coordinating public relations efforts at each of their show locations throughout the year. She was the point of contact for all media inquiries about the program and keeper of the squadron’s public image. She did not study the attendance roster for the entire base.

“Sadie. How are you doing, beautiful?”

She’d been so lost in her own thoughts, Rina hadn’t noticed him walking up to the bar.

“I was wondering when you were going to come and say hello.”

“You looked a little busy when I first came in.”

Two feet away from her. It was the closest Chase Carden had been to her in six years. The immediate physical reaction that blew through her body was familiar and yet somehow different. She was no longer a fresh academy graduate just starting her career and life. She was a woman, successful, intelligent—and apparently sexually deprived for way longer than was safe.

Sadie reached up on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around his neck…his strong, thick, tan neck. He was taller than she remembered. Broader. More muscular.

“You weren’t gonna leave without saying goodbye, were you?”

“Not on your life. That’s why we’re here tonight. I couldn’t go away without seeing your beautiful face one more time.”

Rina sat in her chair and watched the exchange, remembering similar words he’d spoken to her years ago. Only that time she’d been the one leaving.

The slow-blooming smile and easy laugh made her gut turn with nerves. She wasn’t entirely sure whether she wanted him to see her or hoped he’d not even notice her. Their past was complicated…and he’d always had the ability to unsettle her, make her question things about her life and herself that were better just left alone.

“You remember Rina, don’t you?”

Sadie walked a couple steps toward her, forcing Chase to follow her down and around the other patrons sitting at the bar.

“Of course I remember Sabrina.” The force of his gaze slammed into her chest, making her forget to breathe. “How could I forget?”

Indeed. It was the only damn word her brain would form. Where was her normal quick wit? That unfailing facade of hard-assed competence she was universally known for? At the moment, the only thing she could concentrate on was the unforgiving throb of awareness pulsing at the base of her spine.

“Are you in town to visit Sadie?”

“No. I live here.”

“Really?” Chase cocked his head to the side and studied her for several seconds. She fought the urge to squirm under his gaze. He had the ability to make her feel naked and vulnerable without even trying.

She didn’t do vulnerable. She’d worked hard over the past six years to build a life and career that she was proud of—that her father could be proud of. She was smart, controlled, independent and she certainly didn’t care what this man thought of her…even if the hum in her blood called her a liar.

“Listen, I’d love to catch up with you. Would you like to have a drink?”

No. Yes. “I don’t want to interrupt. It looks like you’re here with your friends.”

Chase’s lips turned up in a self-deprecating smile, glancing over his shoulder at the group of men behind them. “They’ll get over it. Besides, the chance to spend time with a beautiful woman is more important.”

Rina had no idea where the word came from. The last thing she wanted to do was resurrect any part of the past with this man. But somehow “Sure” came out instead of No thanks.

SEVERAL HOURS and a few drinks later, Rina found herself walking down the strip next to Chase. They’d stopped at a couple of places. Played a few hands of blackjack.

She wasn’t drunk. Really. She never, ever allowed herself to drink too much. She was just pleasantly…pleasant.

If anything, she was intoxicated by the heat of Chase, the way her body tingled from the mere touch of his palm to her back as they strolled down the strip. She was drunk on the power of knowing he was as attracted to her now as he had been six years ago.

It had been that way from the start. Their connection. His effortless effect on her body and the automatic override he had on her brain. With Chase, she felt, acted, was a different person.

Oh, she knew—like she’d known six years ago—that nothing substantial could come of the sizzle between them. She wouldn’t risk that kind of attachment…not with Chase. Not now. Not when he was leaving for risk and death and macho feats of heroism.

But she could have this one night. This one chance to slake the physical ache thrumming low in the center of her body. In a few days he’d be gone and she’d never see him again.

The normal Rina, the perfect Rina, the live-by-the-code-of-military-conduct Rina wouldn’t approve. But she’d gotten lost somewhere tonight and the adventurous Rina wanted to feel the slide of Chase’s skin against her own.

He looked down at her with heat-glazed eyes full of appreciation and the center of her stomach seemed to disappear. She had to look away. Either that or go up in flames in the middle of the Las Vegas sidewalk.

A bright display of flashing colors caught Rina’s attention. Blinking neon wasn’t unusual, not on the strip, but the words in shiny pink were.

Fake Vegas Weddings

Punk Your Friends and Family

“Oh my God! How funny.”

Tugging on his elbow, she headed straight for the sign, pulling him behind her. It was attached to a strip of shops. One of them was a tacky, touristy place where you could dress in a costume and have your picture taken. It was attached to a low-rent version of the obligatory Las Vegas wedding chapel.

It was something she’d seen a thousand times. But this place was hocking a different angle. This place was for all the people who went on vacation with the ring of their family’s and friends’ warnings in their ears: Don’t you dare come back married.

Through the window she could see an array of costumes—Southern belle hoop skirts, Confederate solider uniforms, pirate outfits, kilts. Throughout the room there were several sets to correspond with the outfits—an old-timey portrait backdrop, the bow of a ship, the jagged edge of highland mountains.

And an arched white trellis covered with roses and a sign that read, Elvis Available Upon Request.

“That’s so tacky.” She swirled around to face him, a huge smile on her face.

“What? You don’t want Elvis at your wedding?”

Rina scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

Turning back, her hands splayed across the glass as she leaned in for a closer look. Chase bunched up behind her. She could feel the heat of him at her back, soaking through the satisfying haze of wine and her light cotton sweater.

“Let’s do it.” His words rumbled low against her ear.

“Do what?” She knew exactly what she wanted to do with him.

“The Elvis wedding.”

“What?” That wasn’t what she’d had in mind.

“Come on. Marry the soldier before he goes to war.” Chase leaned down over her body as she watched his reflection in the glass. His bigger-than-life smile. That mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He was so different than she was. So…daring.

She shouldn’t.

His arms tightened around her waist, dragging their bodies closer together. Rina fought the urge to let herself lean against him, the desire to have him kiss along the nape of her neck. Tonight she’d left her hair uncharacteristically down. She always seemed to be in uniform, but the upswept, severe style required by the air force did have its advantages. Unconsciously, she dipped her head to the side, making her hair fall away.

His breath caressed her exposed skin as his fingers brushed against the outside curve of her arm, sending a shudder down her spine.

“It might be fun.” Her words sounded fast and shallow. Right now she’d agree to anything, if only he’d move closer.

“Just promise me you won’t send the pictures to the General. I do not want to be responsible for his heart attack.”

She laughed as his reflection in the window pulled a grimace. She could understand. It probably wouldn’t be good for his career to piss off a major general, even if he was stationed half the country away at Tyndall.

“I promise.”

Chase backed away, and Rina ducked under his arm as he held open the door for her. A bell rang out through the space. Within a minute a woman materialized from the back.

“Can I help you?”

Chase answered, “We’d like the wedding package please, complete with Elvis.”

God, what was she doing? The thought of a wedding—even a joke wedding—was sending her heart rate skittering a little too fast.

Most girls grew up with the fantasy of their wedding in their heads—white dresses, fragrant flowers, flickering candles. Not her. She’d grown up with the memories of her parents screaming, the experience of her mother’s funeral, the idea that two people could make each other so miserable they self-destructed…and took their child’s sense of security with them.

“Just fill out these forms for me. Feel free to pick out a gown and tux from over there when you’re done.”

The woman placed several pieces of paper before them. Rina stared down at the tiny boxes. The little lines wavered for a moment before straightening out again.

Chase shifted closer, planting one foot between her own spread feet. The heat from his body fractured the thoughts racing through her head. He felt so good against her.

What was she thinking about? Oh, the wedding. But it was just a joke. Nothing more. Besides. She was being reckless, fearless Rina for once.

Looking down, she started to fill out the paperwork.

“Constance. I didn’t realize your middle name was Constance.” His chest brushed against the curve of her back, his hand snaking around the circle of her waist to hold her flat against him. Her throat went tight at the sensation.

“That’s because I don’t like it. My father picked it. It was my aunt’s name.” Her words were forced, breathy. She sounded like someone else, some seductive siren—someone she’d never been or could be.

“You’re right. I like Sabrina much better.”

“I don’t like Sabrina either…it was my mother’s middle name. No one calls me Sabrina.” Not since her mother had left when she was five. That’s when the General had begun to call her Rina.

He stared down at her with a heat that had her knees melting out from under her. “Maybe someone should.”

Thank God for the counter.

Maybe she should take a step back before she jumped him right on top of the glass. That was taking reckless too far.

“Done.” Smacking her pen on top of the papers, Rina turned and headed for the dresses hanging on the far wall. She needed to get away from him for a minute, to breathe some air that wasn’t permeated with Chase. What was wrong with her? She wasn’t the sort of woman to contemplate grabbing a man and devouring him in public.

Whipping through the rack, she picked the first one that was her size, headed for the dressing room and pulled it on.

Despite contorting herself into a pretzel, she could not get the zipper up. Yelling out, “Can you zip me,” she headed into the small room between the dressing areas, holding the strap-less number to her chest.

Chase walked out of the other side, dressed to kill from head to toe. The tux he wore might not have been designed specifically for him, but it came pretty damn close to fitting perfectly. Uniforms were great and all, but Rina had a thing for a man in a tux. For this man in a tux.

Presenting her back to him, she held her breath, hoping to slow the rhythm of her roaring heart. He just stood there for several moments. She could feel the weight of his gaze on her back, traveling the length of her naked spine. Goose bumps ghosted up her skin. Beneath her shielding arm her nipples tightened and swelled.

The soft tread of his feet on worn linoleum should have been a warning, but when his fingers touched the small of her back she jumped anyway. She gulped in a large lungful of air, too much, because it rushed straight to her head, making the room waver. A single finger trailed a featherlight line across the indentation at the base of her spine. It took her a minute to realize what he was doing, her brain having malfunctioned at the spike of electricity from his touch.

“Somehow I didn’t take you for the fairy type.”

Rina turned her head, knowing she couldn’t see the tiny picture tattooed on her lower back but trying anyway. Most of the time she forgot it was even there.

“Bout of rebellion the year I graduated high school. It is a little fanciful for me, which is probably why I got it in the first place.”

Chase took another step closer, the heat of his body warming her skin.

“Oh, I don’t know. You have a whimsical side. I’ve seen it.” His fingers trailed slowly up the curve of her spine. She felt the sting and sizzle at the apex of her thighs as his knuckles scraped over each bump and valley.

“How many men have you let see—” his fingers moved down again, lightly brushing across the picture on her skin before dipping down into the still-open dress to brush the upper swell of her bottom “—that side of yourself?”

Rina drew in a deep, ragged breath before answering, “Enough.”

The woman bustled in. “Elvis is here, if you’re…I’m sorry.”

“No. It’s fine. Just let me get this zipper.”

Chase zipped her up before moving away. She wasn’t sure if it was relief or regret that washed through her. Probably a combination of both.

2

FOR A JOKE, their Elvis was seriously into his role. He didn’t break character once as the photographer posed them for several shots. In fact, he even insisted on reciting the marriage vows. Both Chase and Sabrina tried to explain it wasn’t necessary but the man didn’t pay attention. Finally, they just shrugged and played along.

The whole thing was over in ten minutes. Sabrina giggled; it was a sound he hadn’t expected. It clashed with the polished exterior she showed the world. But after seeing the fanciful fairy on her back…maybe that carefree sound was more her than he’d ever realized. He’d always pictured her as studious, serious.

But he’d instinctively known there was something beneath, something she wouldn’t let out…something she didn’t let free. He’d wanted so badly to rumple her up, to ruffle her calm facade. To leave her mouth swollen from kisses and her eyes bleary with desire just to prove to them both that the passion was there, waiting.

He’d given in to the urge once. And it had been much more than he’d expected. Six years ago she’d taken things slowly—fighting the connection they both knew existed between them. And then she’d been gone.

If the way she flirted, touched and looked at him tonight with those smoldering green eyes was anything to go by, Sabrina McAllister had changed. And she wasn’t fighting anything now. Pure animal lust shot straight to his groin at the thought.

Elvis said, “You may kiss the bride, baby.” And Chase found himself indulging in a fantasy six years in the making—kissing Sabrina McAllister. The sensation was somewhere close to pulling a Split-S.

The woman behind the counter handed them an envelope with several photographs. Chase paid for them—the damn things cost two hundred dollars. He hadn’t realized a joke could be so expensive. Although, he’d have paid a hell of a lot more than that for a chance to kiss her again.

They walked back out into the night together as she looked at the pictures. They were hilarious. And she was beautiful. Sabrina laughed at the expression on Elvis’s face, flipping through them quickly. Until she reached the last one, the one of their kiss, and she seemed to still.

The photographer was good. He’d captured every last speck of desire that had coursed through Chase’s lips and into Sabrina. Her body arched into the strength of his hold. Her fingers dug into the shoulders of his tux, drawing him closer. Just looking at the image fired his blood all over again.

Rina stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, pulling him still beside her. The city bustled around them. Even at this late hour no one was ready to let the night go. He certainly wasn’t.

Neither was she. Turning to face him, she said, “Kiss me again.”

He didn’t need a second invitation. Wrapping his arms around her, Chase pulled their bodies close. The world moved on without them. People passed by, talking. Neon lights blinked on and off. And a blast of noise from a nightclub down the street burst into the silence that had surrounded them.

But nothing mattered. Nothing except the feel of Sabrina against him. The heat of her lips beneath his. The heady scent of her, more intoxicating than the alcohol he’d drunk hours before.

Her hands grabbed onto the nape of his neck and tugged, tugged harder, needing more.

He obliged, opening his mouth wider, taking her in.

After several moments Sabrina pulled back, staring up at him with passion-filled eyes. Her chest rose and fell against his own with each ragged breath. His arms tightened, wanting to hold her closer. Feel her closer.

“Do you want to come back to my place?”

Her words whispered against his skin, coaxing him to make the quick, easy decision. But there was nothing easy about Sabrina. And there had certainly never been anything easy about their…attraction. And the fact that he would be leaving in less than three days made this much more complicated than it should have been.

Why could they never seem to get it right?

“No.”

Her body stiffened and she tried to pull away. Chase kept a tight hold on her, not willing to let her go a second time.

“Since we’re playing at weddings I think maybe we should do it right. Wait here for me.”

Walking into the MGM Grand, the nearest hotel, Chase quickly registered for a room, arranged for a bottle of champagne and a small white wedding cake to be delivered and then returned for Sabrina.

He half expected her to be gone. But she wasn’t. In fact, he didn’t think she’d moved an inch from where he’d left her.

Grabbing her, he placed a quick kiss to her lips but ended it before they could get sucked back into the jet wash of desire.

“Come on.”

Chase watched her as she walked through the darkened, gilt-edged lobby heading for the elevator doors. The sway of her hips, the fall of her hair across her back. The way she glanced furtively behind her, those green-and-gold-shot eyes full of sensual mischief.

His body was taut, his hands curled into hard fists to keep from reaching for her in the middle of the packed lobby.

They stepped onto the elevator with a handful of other guests, far too crowded for his happiness. If they’d been alone…

His eyes roamed down the length of Sabrina’s body. His muscles tightened at the thought that in a few minutes she’d be his…after six long years of waiting.

His eyes met hers in the reflection of the polished gold doors; it was wavy and imperfect but he could still see the flare of awareness in the eyes that watched him back. Her skin flushed a delicate pink and her breasts lifted on an intake of breath.

A chime jolted him, the doors slid silently open and Chase realized they’d finally reached their floor. With a hushed sigh of thanks, he swooped in to grasp her waist and carried her along with him into the deserted hallway.

He couldn’t keep himself from touching her any longer. His mouth found the edge of her jaw and nibbled. His hands tightened on her hips, pulling her back into the cradle of his body. And the scent of her, innocent and yet somehow heady, took over his senses.

He opened their door, Sabrina eagerly pushing against it to get inside. The bed was twenty steps away but it might as well have been a football field. He’d waited long enough for her and he couldn’t wait anymore.

Grabbing her by the waist, he pressed her back against the nearest wall, kicked the door shut behind them and sank his teeth into the curve of her neck. She whimpered but didn’t draw away. Instead, she arched higher, silently asking for more.

Sabrina tore at his clothes, popping buttons and ripping at zippers. She was just as mindless and eager as he was. And that realization sent him over the edge of control.

Tearing at the shoulders of her sweater, he relished the give of material as fastenings gave way and the cotton fell to the edges of her elbows.

Her nails raked down the wall of his chest, sending his muscles dancing with pleasure. One of her legs wrapped around his hip as he trailed his mouth down the center of her body. She was soft and silky, feminine and perfect, a sharp contrast to the wild, burning urges coursing through his blood. He latched onto one erect nipple through the dark blue satin of her bra. He wanted to take it off, to feel her skin against his tongue and lips. But that would have required letting her go.

For now he contented himself with forcing the hem of her skirt up around her waist and finding the heat of her sex, hot, wet and swollen for him.

He groaned, a tortured sound in the back of his throat that died as her hand wrapped tight around his aching cock.

She squeezed and stroked, splintering his thoughts into mindless, numbing pieces. Her head rolled back against the wall as she arched into his own penetrating touches.

Her eyes glittered at him, jagged and deep, an earthy green. Knowledge and possession. She knew exactly what she was doing to his body as her fingers teased his rigid flesh. She pulled a condom from somewhere, ripped open the package and rolled it with agonizing slowness down his throbbing cock.

She was a witch. There was no denying it. He’d never been this hard, this delirious, this lost in his life.

But he had power of his own, a confidence that he could bring her to her knees with a single-minded assault on her senses. He’d seen her reaction to him, the way her eyes had watched him in the reflection of that elevator. He knew they’d had a connection six years ago…and it had only gotten stronger.

His thumb rolled against her clit as his fingers worked the sweet spot hidden inside her body. Her breath caught in her throat, finally releasing in a stuttered moan.

Her fist tightened around him and her caresses increased to a delirious rhythm.

“Not yet. Not yet.” He wanted this moment to last longer. He’d waited too long for it to be over in a frenzied rush.

“No. Now, Chase. Now.”

Her panted plea was his undoing. Without another thought, he thrust inside her, relishing the tight, wet feel of sliding home.

Her body tensed for half a breath before going liquid in his arms. She wrapped her ankles around his back, locking them both in place. Her heels dug into his thighs spurring him on to a quicker pace.

Her hips rocked against him, in perfect tune with his own rhythm and needs. Faster, stronger, harder, they both rode until finally he felt her inner walls begin to pulse and contract around him. A jagged cry fell from her parted lips.

That small miracle was all he needed to send him over the edge, the world graying to black on the guttural sound of his own release.

It was several minutes before he realized that his eyes were closed, before his body could draw in enough oxygen that his brain began to fire again. Opening his eyes, he looked down into Sabrina’s green gaze.

“That was sure as hell worth waiting for.”

The sound bubbled up from somewhere deep inside her. Laughter burst out with the same abandon he’d witnessed moments before. His chest tightened at the sound. He liked it.

Gathering her into his arms, he carried her over to the bed and carefully placed her in the center before slipping into the bathroom.

She was right where he’d left her when he returned a minute later. He couldn’t help but stare down at her. She looked amazing, honey-blond hair falling down around her face in a riot of curls. She usually kept it ruthlessly under control. Just like everything else in her life. At least she always had before. He supposed he really didn’t know her anymore…if he ever had. But somehow, she seemed different. Free. Happier than she had six years before.

She was absolutely lethal to his sanity this way.

Her clothes were a mess, half on and half off. It didn’t matter. Her eyes glowed with knowledge, sensuality, power. Her skin was still pink from his mouth and hands, and her lips curved ever so slightly into a knowing smile.

“What’s that?” She pointed across the room to a table in the corner. Turning, he spied the bottle of champagne and single tier of cake covered in delicate white frosting.

“Every wedding needs champagne and cake.”

Shedding the rest of his clothes, he walked across the room and poured them both a glass. Picking up the bottle, the cake and both champagne flutes, he headed back to her. Chase handed her a drink, clinking his own to hers. “To life.”

With an impish grin she countered, “To Elvis.”

In retaliation he let the cold bottle in his hand slip just far enough that the bottom rim connected with the upper swell of her breast. She drew a hiss through clenched teeth but didn’t move away from the contact.

Setting everything onto the dresser, he reached for her, removing what was left of her clothes before picking the bottle back up.

He started at her neck, pressing the cold glass there, rolling it against her nape for nothing more than the sheer pleasure of her response.

Her nipples were already puckered but as soon as the bottle touched their tips they drew into the tightest buds he’d ever seen. Reaching down, he touched the center with the tip of his tongue, enjoying the feel of her icy skin against his hot mouth.

He couldn’t resist the urge to suck her inside, to take the full swell of her breast into his mouth. She arched against him, jostling the chilled bottle into contact with his own skin and drawing a gasp at the sensation.

Pulling back, he tipped the neck above her body and let a stream of the bubbling wine pour onto her skin. The golden liquid rolled down a path between her breasts, a single drop pooling at the dip of her navel.

Letting more rain down, he bent toward it, lapping the drops as they collected. Only soon there was a rush, more than he could handle, a river of champagne that overflowed to trickle down into the curls at the juncture of her thighs.

Sabrina jerked as the first cool drops hit. With glittering eyes, she waited and watched as he trailed his tongue after them. Her thighs parted for him, opening wide so he could lap at the mingling tastes of champagne and her desire.

She reached for him, burying her hands in the strands of his hair. Her hips jerked as he licked at her sex, teasing her clit, playing at the opening of her body.

She pulsed beneath him. He could practically feel the hum of her blood pumping just beneath the surface of her skin. She writhed against him, her grip holding tighter.

Slipping a finger inside her sex, he relished the single whimper of need she let out as her body clenched hard against him.

“Let go.”

The simple words sent her into oblivion, the force of her orgasm sucking him in even deeper. She finally collapsed into a heap on the bed with a groaning sigh that made him smile.

Placing featherlight kisses to her sweat-glazed skin, he worked his way slowly back up her body. Taking his time, allowing her a moment to recover and collect herself, Chase contented himself with soft, exploring touches.

And he was rewarded a few minutes later when she reached for his shoulders and pushed him flat to the bed.

Sabrina was nothing like he’d expected…and yet, somehow, he wasn’t surprised at the sexy, passionate woman he’d discovered beneath her smooth surface. He’d known there were depths to her—even six years ago—that she simply didn’t show the world. And the fact that she was sharing them with him now…it was unbelievably arousing.

“I think we need some cake to go with the champagne.”

His erection was hard and throbbing. The last thing he wanted was a piece of cake. What he wanted was Sabrina, hot, wet and wrapped so tightly around him that he couldn’t tell where her body ended and his began.

He opened his mouth to tell her just that, but the words caught in his throat as she swiped her finger through the icing and smeared a large dollop down the length of his cock. It was cool and grainy, slightly rough. The sweet smell of butter cream reached him, mixed with the heady scent of Sabrina’s arousal.

She tortured him, using a light touch to cover him completely with the sticky stuff.

The tip of her tongue flicked across her lower lip. He watched and wanted. Staring down at him with gleaming eyes, she brought her finger to her mouth and painstakingly licked it clean.

“Sabrina.” He wasn’t sure whether the word was a warning or a plea, not that it mattered as long as she touched him.

With an impish half smile, she bent down over his body. Her hair fell across him, shielding her motions from his view. With a single hand he moved it away, locking his fingers into the silky cloud at the nape of her neck so he could watch her.

Her tongue laved him, lapping at his erection as if it were the best lollipop she’d ever tasted. Testing flicks, deep strokes—by the time the last speck of sugar was gone his control was about to snap with it.

With a rushed, “I’m sorry,” he flipped their positions and slammed home inside her. He couldn’t wait, hadn’t the strength to hold back for her this time. But as his body raced toward orgasm his mind registered the signs of her impending release.

He thrust into her, one, two, three more times before throwing his head back with abandon. His body emptied into hers with a force and completeness he’d never experienced before. It was mind-boggling how utterly consuming his need to possess this woman was.

Collapsing to the bed beside her, Chase rolled them both on their sides, tucked her into the curve of his body and wrapped his arms tight around her. His last thought before sleep stole over him was that he wished he didn’t have to leave her. Not now when he’d finally found her again.

LAST NIGHT she had not been herself. And it had felt utterly fantastic.

Rina had spent her entire life being the good girl, the “never do anything wrong” girl, the “never step out on a limb or take a chance or do something fun and spontaneous” girl. Her life was mapped out, every decision carefully made. At least every one before tonight.

She’d worked hard to fast-track her career. To be the best of the best in her field. To eventually achieve her goal of being in the Pentagon public affairs bureau. She’d worked hard to live down deficiencies—hers and her mother’s.

But last night…she’d felt amazing and…free.

Now she needed to go.

Chase was leaving in three—no two—days for Iraq anyway. It wasn’t like this was going anywhere. It had been fun. And amazing. And the best sexual experience she’d ever had.

But she couldn’t stay and watch him pack up and leave.

It was over. And she needed to get out of here.

Quietly gathering her clothes, Rina fought the fierce edge of a blush as her eyes landed on the dresser and the half-demolished wedding cake sitting on top of it.

What had possessed her?

She had no idea but Chase hadn’t seemed to mind. In fact, he’d seemed to like every last moment. A thrill shot through her body, a mix of remembered pleasure and awakened knowledge.

Rina ignored it, but she couldn’t ignore the urge to take one more look at him, sound asleep and sated in the bed they’d shared. The white sheet draped across his body, revealing the strong curve of his back and the tight indent at his hip. One long, muscled leg stuck out from the covers tangled into a knot around him. One arm was tucked beneath the pillow, bunching it to his cheek. The other was flung over the space she’d occupied just minutes before.

Six years ago she’d have killed for a single night with Chase Carden. It had lived up to every last fantasy she’d created in her mind. Surpassed them all, actually.

But now it was over.

Picking up her purse, she spied the pictures lying beneath. Reaching inside, she drew out the last one, the one of their kiss, and left it there.

In two days Chase would leave for Iraq. And as soon as she walked out that door she would go back to the perfect, ordered life she’d built for herself.

Last night had been a dream. But now it was over.

At least that’s what Rina thought. Until one week later when their marriage certificate arrived in the mail.

3
Present

DAMN. He was here. And she was not ready for him.

Not that she ever would have been. If eleven months wasn’t long enough, a couple more weeks probably wouldn’t have helped.

Rina had no idea what to say to him. Her husband. The word rolled around inside her brain, pinching at the corners. How was she going to tell him?

Her eyes followed Chase as he crossed the room. How had this happened?

Oh, she knew the answer. She’d been blinded by lust and intoxicated by alcohol and hadn’t paid attention. Some joke.

Eleven months had given her plenty of time to come to terms with the situation and formulate a plan to fix the problem…

She’d done research, had even begun to fill out the annulment paperwork, but something had stopped her. The memories had stopped her. And the fact that her attorney had advised her that things would go more smoothly with her husband’s cooperation.

Her husband, who had no idea they were married. Well, he was back in her life now. Home. In Las Vegas. Part of her squadron. Safe.

No thanks to his stupid heroics that had almost gotten him killed. Every time she thought of it the center of her chest started to ache.

So she wouldn’t think of it. He was here now. She had to figure out how—and when—to tell him he was married.

Somehow, telling him about this disaster in a letter hadn’t seemed right. Nor had calling him halfway around the world to drop a bomb of a whole different sort than he was used to. The kind of shock she had to deliver deserved face-to-face time.

Yes, she’d been slightly concerned that her husband might meet another woman in the eleven months he’d been gone but, considering he was in a foreign country fighting a war, Rina had figured that possibility was pretty slim.

She covertly watched as Chase met the other officers. He moved with a familiar, well-oiled grace—precision-timed movements he’d honed with hours in the sky. From a safe distance in the corner she let her eyes wander across his body. It was good to see him…whole.

Not that she’d ever tell him that.

The last year of her life was supposed to have been amazing. She’d landed one of the most coveted assignments in the air force. The competition was fierce for each position within the squadron. It had been the culmination of years of work. Her father had been so proud of her.

She should have been ecstatic. Instead she’d spent the past eleven months living in fear—that Chase would die, that someone would discover their marriage, that her entire world and the career she’d spent her life building would be snatched out from under her.

Their one stupid mistake could cost her everything. If anyone in the air force found out that she and Chase were married—and by Elvis!—and hadn’t informed their superior officers, hadn’t filed necessary paperwork…they could be accused of fraud, demoted, asked to resign their commissions.

Not to mention she’d look like a complete idiot. That would do wonders for the reputation she’d built as a level-headed, competent officer.

At the very least they’d receive a formal reprimand in their files which would kill any forward momentum their careers had. Being stationed in Timbuktu wasn’t her life’s dream.

Actually, she wasn’t entirely certain what her life’s dream was anymore. She simply couldn’t shake the sensation that something wasn’t right. That something was missing.

And she didn’t mean her husband. One night together did not make a relationship long enough to miss. No, the sensation had started long before he’d rematerialized in her life eleven months ago. It had just gotten stronger once he’d walked back out of it again.

Rina sighed silently, not knowing what to do about it. Easier to concentrate on the mess she’d managed to create in one shining, unforgettable, destructive night.

She’d had a plan.

A plan that had been exponentially complicated when Chase had been assigned to the Thunderbirds. It would have been one thing if she’d simply contacted him once he got home, presented him with the annulment paperwork and they took care of the problem with no one the wiser.

But now they had to work together. Not to mention that she was in charge of his medal ceremony. A ceremony she’d just learned the President of the United States was planning to attend.

Chase was taking over the third position, right wing, for the four-man formation within the squadron. In all the years they’d both served in the air force not once had they been stationed together…until now. It was sheer luck—or misfortune depending on how you looked at it—that Chase had become an overnight media sensation by saving the life of a visiting senator and his assistant while in Iraq.

The air force hadn’t wanted to miss out on that kind of publicity. The Air Demonstration Squadron was the public face of the air force. Who better to place on the team than someone who would gain media attention no matter where they performed?

“Captain Rina McAllister, let me introduce Major Chase Carden. Rina is our public affairs officer.”

His eyes settled on her. She could feel them, not by the weight of their study but by the tingling sensation at the nape of her neck. Her shoulder blades itched to roll the sensation away. A plastic smile, not unfriendly but not quite real, died halfway to formation on her lips as he took her in. Something wicked sparked at the back of his eyes right before he snagged her outstretched hand in his.

She’d meant to be professional, to handle meeting the newest pilot for the Thunderbirds squadron with nothing more than the calm indifference everyone would expect.

Yeah, right.

Her palm began to sweat where it rested against his. Her lungs suddenly felt as if she’d sucked a brick through her partially opened mouth instead of much-needed air. And someplace, deep between her thighs, she began to tremble with a muscle memory she’d tried hard to forget.

“Sabrina.”

She cleared the brick from her throat, firmly dislodged her hand from his and said, “No one calls me Sabrina.” Hadn’t she mentioned that to him before?

“I do.”

Some nasty urge she should have fought wanted to wipe the twinkle in his deep blue eyes away. He set her on edge. She didn’t like it. Especially not here. Here where she was perfect, efficient Rina.

“No. You don’t.”

Their commander looked at them, a puzzled frown puckering his eyebrows. “Do you two know each other? I didn’t think you’d been stationed together before.”

Chase opened his mouth. She had no idea what he might say and couldn’t take a chance. She cut him off before he could do damage they’d both regret.

“We haven’t. My father introduced us several years ago. It’s been a long time, though. Right after I finished the academy.”

She’d spent the past eleven months keeping the biggest mistake of her life a secret until she could make it disappear completely. She wasn’t about to let one slip of Chase’s tongue ruin everything.

Although she could remember Chase’s tongue doing other things…Clamping down hard on the thought, Rina tried to refocus her attention.

With a shrug, the commander walked away toward some of the enlisted waiting to meet the newest members of the squadron. Chase lingered a moment too long before leaning in closely to speak in a low, rumbling voice for her ears only, “I don’t remember you objecting to Sabrina when I was buried deep inside you, screaming your name.”

A bolt of heat shot straight through her, electrifying every nerve ending on its path to her curling toes. His words were unexpected. That was the only reason her body reacted.

It wasn’t because his lips were close enough to her skin that all she’d have to do was simply turn her head and they would connect with the sensitive side of her neck.

Her body was melting. She could feel each deserting cell as it went AWOL against her better judgment.

She’d had a speech prepared, had an idea in her head about what this first meeting of theirs would be like. None of the scenarios she’d run through had involved a complete and total sexual meltdown.

Laughter echoed off the wall down the hallway, dragging her mind back from the brink of insanity. Jerking away from him, Rina pulled her spine straight, yanked her shirt flat and raised completely blank eyes to Chase.

“This isn’t the place for that kind of discussion, Major. It was one night. A long time ago. And it doesn’t matter.”

WHAT A COOL LITTLE LIAR she was. It did matter. She might not want it to, but her body remembered every last second of their night together. Her stiff little nipples fighting against her standard-issue shirt proved that.

He sure as hell remembered every last second, in living, vivid, Technicolor detail. He also remembered waking up alone in a big, cold bed.

He had not been happy.

Chase had known she’d be here today. Her presence was the only bright spot in the events that had led up to his appointment to the squadron. Any pilot worth his salt wanted a chance to perform with the best of the best. And he did, too. He just wished his chance hadn’t come at the expense of several soldiers.

What he hadn’t known was how he’d react to seeing her. He’d expected to be angry, a little upset at the very least. He had not relished having the tables turned on him that morning. He was usually the one to back out gracefully after a one-night stand.

But perhaps that was the problem. For him, it hadn’t been a one-night stand. It had been the culmination of six years of wondering what they would have been like together if they’d gotten the chance. And the reality had shot his fantasies out of the sky in a blazing burst of orgasmic proportions.

Apparently, she hadn’t felt the same—if her behavior then and now was any indication. Instead of the warm, sexy, unbelievably amazing woman he’d held in his arms, Sabrina McAllister had reverted to the calm, cool exterior she clung wholeheartedly to. The urge to fluster her was strong.

It had bothered him that he’d thought of her—exclusively—for months. No woman had ever held that kind of control over his interest before. Plenty of beautiful, sexy, smart women had been part of his life through the years. But only Sabrina McAllister had stayed there long after she was gone.

Maybe it was being in Iraq, with a shortage of time, energy and availability for sexual conquests. But he doubted it. Something in his gut told him it was Sabrina herself. Which was a problem.

He didn’t know what to do with her—or his all-consuming desire to possess her again. He’d only talked to her for five minutes and he could barely concentrate on anything else.

He didn’t want a long-term relationship.

He traveled enough being a pilot. He was at the mercy of the air force whims. He had no control over where he went or when he’d be home.

But that made his attraction to Sabrina complicated. If they weren’t working together he would have simply indulged in a wild affair for as long as it lasted and then walked away when they were both done. But now walking away wasn’t an option.

The problem was he had no idea if he could keep his hands off of her. Or if he even wanted to try.

Shaking his head, he decided he didn’t need to solve the problem today. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he watched Sabrina stride away. The straight, knee-length skirt of her uniform played against the backs of her thighs. Each step stretched the material taut over the curve of her derriere. He’d had firsthand knowledge of the body she preferred to keep covered.

It was one hell of a juicy secret. One he didn’t mind keeping all to himself.

Shaking away the memories, Chase focused his attention back to where it belonged…his new assignment.

The past several months of his life hadn’t exactly been a picnic—and if that wasn’t the understatement of the year he didn’t know what was.

As if spending each and every day with the responsibility of protecting fighting men and women hadn’t been enough, he’d somehow become a very reluctant war hero. A simple action on his part had gotten him way more attention than he’d ever wanted. What had started out as the mistake of a lifetime, losing a multimillion-dollar plane to ground fire, had turned into the media sensation of the nation.

His job had been simple. Protect the convoy heading into the northern part of the country. And he’d failed. Miserably. He’d been unable to help himself, let alone the men and women he was supposed to protect.

He’d simply been doing his job when he’d found the New York senator and his assistant cowering behind a blazing pile of metal after ejecting from his totaled plane. The fact that the man was being groomed to run in the next presidential election hadn’t helped Chase any. Nor had the man’s undying and unending praise as he’d granted interviews to every damn news outlet in the country.

People had died. Because of his call they’d diverted a helicopter meant to pick up wounded from another part of the convoy half a mile away. Another chopper had been sent but it hadn’t gotten there fast enough for some. Soldiers had died—soldiers who might have made it if they’d gotten medical attention sooner. And that was his fault. The mission hadn’t been a success. And he sure as hell didn’t deserve a medal. But apparently, he was the only one who saw it that way.

The attention did not sit well.

Wanting something to drive out the ever-present visions of torn bodies, burning hunks of metal and agonizing screams, he found himself following Sabrina, reaching out for her. He grabbed onto her arm, stopping her before she could disappear again. “Have dinner with me.”

Chase fought the urge to pull her closer into his space. Something in the tilt of her head told him that would not be wise.

“I don’t date pilots.”

Unable to stop himself, he moved nearer, pulling in a breath of her. The fresh strawberry scent of some female bath product washed over him. It was sweet and innocent, feminine and pretty. It didn’t match the passionate woman of his memories. Somehow it didn’t match the polished exterior before him either.

“Who said anything about a date? I believe we have some unfinished business to discuss.”

The alarm that widened her eyes surprised him. He hadn’t expected that strong a response from her. Maybe he’d assumed the wrong thing when she’d snuck away from him in the middle of the night.

“Wh…what do we have to discuss?”

“Why you disappeared, for one. The picture you left was a nice touch.” He moved into her space, letting his fingers brush lightly against the cotton sleeve of her shirt. He couldn’t touch her more, even if she’d have let him, without drawing attention. “Did you know I took it with me? To Iraq?”

She shook her head, her eyes swimming with emotions too tangled for him to pull apart and name.

She moved away from him, leaving him with a cold and clammy feeling he wasn’t used to and didn’t like.

“There are things we need to talk about. Dinner tonight would be fine. After that, it’s strictly business, though.”

He laughed silently as she spun on her heel and walked away.

Yeah, right. There was nothing just business about the energy humming between them. It had been there from the moment he’d met her seven years ago and it wasn’t going anywhere just because Sabrina no longer wished it to exist.

She might have run away from him before. But this time she had nowhere to go.

SHE’D GONE HOME, looked in the mirror and decided to leave her uniform on. It was a layer. A wall between the competent, military woman she was and the whimsical, reckless side of her personality that only seemed to break free around Chase.

Did barriers work if the person you were trying to keep out—or rather in—was yourself?

Rina didn’t know, but she was damn sure going to try.

She looked across the small bar table at Chase.

He was different. She’d been too preoccupied to notice this afternoon, but now that she had nothing to distract her…There was still plenty of his normal swagger and charm to go around, but underneath there was a sadness she hadn’t seen before.

Something made her want to soothe it away. But she couldn’t. Not and keep herself whole. If she let Chase Carden in he had the ability to obliterate everything she’d built—her life, her career, everything that mattered.

Looking at him, she knew any woman in this bar—hell, the city—would jump at the chance to be Chase Carden’s wife. And a small part of her thought maybe she would, too.

If he had wanted a wife, a relationship. If being a daredevil hero, an aerial jockey hadn’t been the single-minded goal of his life.

If it were real.

But it wasn’t.

Besides, if they started anything that remotely resembled a relationship their chances for an annulment would disappear like a puff of smoke. And an annulment was the only way for them to keep this whole thing a secret. And keeping this whole thing a secret was the only way they were both going to prevent the possibility of being court-martialed for fraud.

With the simple act of not reporting their marriage they’d both broken several major air force rules. And the air force tended to frown on that.

Chase had broken more by not completing all the required paperwork for entry into the Thunderbirds. There was no way he could have gotten her consent to the assignment…not when he didn’t even know she was his wife. Would the air force consider it fraud if he hadn’t known about the marriage? Possibly not. But it wasn’t worth the risk for either of them.

A simple, quiet, quick annulment and their marriage never happened. If she could just figure out how to tell him they were married in the first place.

“Would you like a drink?”

“No!”

Chase and their waiter both turned startled eyes to stare at her. Rina dropped her gaze back down to the menu in front of her, concentrating on the words, and tried to ignore the blush she knew was creeping up her face.

She didn’t want to let him unsettle her. Unfortunately, he did. No man had ever had the ability to set her on edge with a single look the way Chase Carden seemed to do.

He made her feel things she didn’t want to feel. Want things she knew she couldn’t have. And question the course of her life that had been set since she was five.

Without even trying. That’s probably what upset her the most. He had no idea he knocked her off balance. From the moment he’d walked in today she’d felt a little off center, like a ball spinning five degrees off axis—not enough to see, just enough to feel.

“I’m still paying for the last time I overindulged.” She gave a halfhearted smile and ordered a Diet Coke. Taking a deep breath, she let oxygen flood her body, bringing with it a familiar sense of equilibrium.

“Better?”

Maybe he had noticed his effect on her. She wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

“Maybe.” She let her lips twist into a self-deprecating smile.

This was too much. She was wound tighter than a top, while he was sprawled in his chair, one hand resting comfortably around the ice-cold beer, the other slung over the back.

She should tell him.

“How’s the General?”

Rina cocked her head to the side, wondering where this was going, and answered slowly, “Great.”

He leaned forward, playing with the curling edge of the beer bottle label, his eyes staring straight and true into her own. Blue, deep, dark and dangerous.

“He still pulling your strings?”

The familiar anger welled up inside. She should be used to it by now, the automatic assumption that she’d gotten something—everything—simply because of who her father was.

She’d had to deal with it when she entered the academy, taking more shit than any of the other cadets just because of who she was. They’d wanted to break her. To have her go crying home to daddy. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. With each assignment, including the one to the Thunderbirds, she’d heard the whispers behind her back. “Oh, she’s the General’s daughter.”

Years of experience had hardened her to the reaction but, for some reason, coming from Chase…it hurt. But why should she expect more from him than everyone else? She could count the things she knew about him on one hand. His middle name was Edward and he could make her body hum with desire faster than should be legal.

“No one pulls my strings, least of all my father.”

“I think we both know that isn’t true. If it were we’d have had this conversation about seven years ago.”

Why was he baiting her? Why was he doing this? Pushing her chair back from the table, Rina grabbed her purse. “This was a mistake.”

“Sabrina.”

“Don’t call me that.” She bit the words out as she stalked from the bar.

His voice followed her from the restaurant, through the ever-present casino and into the falling darkness—or as dark as it could get with megawatt bulbs blaring from every direction.

She ignored him, melting into the crowd of people on the sidewalk, blending in to the ebb and flow around her.

That had not gone well. She walked through the throng for several moments, pushing unseeingly against the people and things in her way. After a couple minutes the anger finally peaked inside her and her steps slowed to something resembling normal. Then came the disappointment at losing control of her temper. She didn’t do it often, for not much pushed her to the edge, but Chase seemed to have a knack for stirring her emotions.

Of course, if she was honest with herself she’d admit that she’d used the anger as an escape. She wasn’t ready to tell him. Didn’t know how to tell him.

“Sabrina.” His voice was soft. And close. It touched her moments before his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her out of the flowing crowd.

One minute she’d been walking down the sidewalk, the next she was pressed against a cool stone building. How had that happened?

“I’m sorry.”

The heat of his hand seeped into the skin where it rested at her hip. “No, I,” she said, and swallowed hard, trying to tamp down the firestorm building inside her. “I’m touchy when it comes to my career and my father. I’m sorry.”

“I’ve been on edge lately, but that’s no excuse for purposely baiting you.” A sad smile pulled at the corners of his lips. His bright blue eyes flashed, but she couldn’t tell if it was from the lights around them or from some internal source she couldn’t understand. It only lasted for a moment before it was gone, and his normal cocky facade replaced the surprisingly unsettled expression.

“If I promise never to mention the General again, will you come back inside with me?”

Chase looked down into her eyes, his body holding her hostage against the unforgiving side of the building. She’d never known anyone else who, with a single look, could convince the people around him that he was all innocence and sincerity—all while hiding pure devilment underneath.

Normally she was immune to macho charisma and oozing flyboy sexuality. But she couldn’t seem to remain unaffected by Chase. Her nose wrinkled. No matter how much she wanted to.

His finger slid from the center of her forehead down between her eyes to the tip of her nose, smoothing the peaks and valleys as he went.

“That’s kinda cute. I don’t remember that from a year ago.”

“I don’t remember much reason to frown.”

“But you do remember.” He leaned closer into her space, his teasing smile fading away, along with the sounds of a city that never slept.

She could only nod, his eyes holding her hostage.

His hand lifted to her face again, only this time his touch was far from playful. The pad of his finger, ridged and rough, brushed the corner of her lips. He smoothed a path from edge to edge across the closed seam of her mouth. In the center he pushed gently against it, the tip of his finger slipping barely inside.

That simple sensation shouldn’t have mattered, sure as hell shouldn’t have sent her brain into overload. But Rina could feel her body responding in a way she hadn’t felt in eleven long months. The center of her sex grew damp and tingled. Her stomach turned over, wanting more. She pressed the tiny tip of her tongue against his finger and lost herself in a groan of pure pleasure.

His eyes darkened as he reached for her, crushing her between the weight of his body and the merciless wall at her back.

She could feel him, every breath, every muscle, every bone, every vibration. Her head dropped back, too heavy to hold up anymore. But she didn’t have to. He did it for her, snugging one palm to her nape, the other to the curve of her throat.

His mouth claimed her with a passion she’d convinced herself had been part of a fuzzy dream. It couldn’t have been real. The way she’d felt couldn’t be real. The woman she’d been with him couldn’t be real. Couldn’t be her.

Her back arched into him, seeking more, giving him everything he asked for without hesitation or thought. His tongue thrust inside, filling her up before his mouth moved lower.

Her eyes wanted to close, wanted to surrender to anything and everything Chase wanted to give her. But she wouldn’t let them, couldn’t, although for the life of her she could not remember why. She focused on the skyline above her and he nibbled at the delicate center of her throat.

A light revolved against the darkness, coming and going in a throbbing pulse that was echoed deep at her core.

No. No, this wasn’t right.

“Stop.” The word popped out of her mouth on a sigh that held not a wisp of conviction. But Chase immediately took a step away, opening a space between them that she desperately needed.

Rina looked up into his face, ruggedly handsome and stamped with an unmistakable hunger she recognized as the twin to the beast roaring inside her.

He wasn’t calm. He wasn’t collected. And he sure as hell wasn’t charming as his chest rose and fell with the same labored pattern as her own. Wild was what she’d have called him, if she’d had brain power enough to think of a label.

“Too fast.” The words whispered up from somewhere deep inside her.

“Not fast enough.”

“Slow down, cowboy. I have no intention of sleeping with you.”

“You may not intend to but you’re going to anyway.”

Now that was the cocky pilot she knew.

“I don’t think so. Unlike men, we women tend to think with our brains instead of our anatomy. I won’t deny that I’m still sexually attracted to you, flyboy, but trust me, I can resist.”

His eyelids lowered to half-mast, covering glittering sapphire eyes. His lips turned up at the corners in a mocking imitation of his full-blown smile.

“We’ll see about that.”

Rina watched as he turned and walked back out to the crowded sidewalk.

She let the wall take the weight of her body from her shaking, saggy knees. Her head hit the veined marble as she realized she’d just made a tactical error with one of America’s best aerial dogfighters. A tactical error that could mean the next few weeks of her life were going to be hell.

She’d just issued him a challenge.

4

“HOW’D IT GO?”

Rina looked across the tiny table in the back of the casino restaurant at her best friend.

“You really want to know?”

It was late. Later than she normally stayed out on a work night, but she’d needed time to decompress before going home and Sadie was the only person she knew in the city who’d be up and awake. Sadie enjoyed her job as night bar manager on the strip. She was tall enough, blond enough and certainly stacked enough to have a more high-paying job as a showgirl, but that wasn’t what she wanted—not that she hadn’t been asked by quite a few of the casting directors.

Rina had no idea how they’d become friends. Maybe it was because they were complete opposites in just about every way.

Not that it mattered. The moment she’d met Sadie her sophomore year of high school they’d clicked.

“Yes, I want to know. How did he take the news?”

Rina dropped her head onto crossed arms atop the corner table, the polished wood and cotton eating her muffled words. “I didn’t tell him.”

“What?”

She lifted her head but only far enough to see her friend over the safety of her arms. “I chickened out.”

“Rina.” The single word reminded her more of her father than she’d like to admit.

That man knew how to fill one word with more disappointment and censure than anyone she’d ever met. She’d spent her entire life trying to avoid provoking that tone of voice. Trying to be different from her mother, the woman he was constantly telling her she was the spitting image of. The woman who’d deserted them both before managing to kill herself and injure a father and his son while driving drunk.

The woman she never wanted to be. The woman she saw in the mirror every time she looked.

If the General ever found out about this mess, he’d be so disappointed.

He’d run their house like he’d run his men. He’d always held high standards, for himself and everyone around him. Sometimes the pressure to live up to those expectations had been heavy to bear. But she had. Because she was a McAllister.

Not that any of that mattered anymore. What did matter was the mess she’d gotten herself into. Which she had made infinitely worse by letting Chase kiss her. Where was her damn self-control when she needed it?

“You’re right. I wouldn’t have told him anyway. I was too busy letting him suck the skin off my neck.” She let out a groan and dropped her head back onto her arms. She really didn’t want to see the look on Sadie’s face.

“Sabrina McAllister.”

The shock in Sadie’s voice was exactly what she’d expected.

“It’s about time you had some fun. And I say who better to give you a little sexual satisfaction than your husband?”

“Sure. If I wanted to stay married, which I don’t. The minute I sleep with him any hope of an annulment goes out the damn window. Before, we didn’t know we were married. Now we do.”

“So what if the judge doesn’t find out?”

Rina cut her eyes over the top of her arms.

“Have you seen my life lately? He’d find out.”

“So what? Then you get a divorce.”

“Then the General finds out, along with my commanding officer, and all hell breaks loose. We’re breaking about a million regs right now. Frankly, I’ve spent most of my life avoiding disappointing the General. Somehow, I think causing an air-force-wide scandal would crash that effort.”

Sadie rolled her eyes in a familiar gesture that did little to help Rina feel better. “You need to stop worrying about what your father thinks.”

“Yeah. Easier said than done.”

“No. No it isn’t.”

Rina sighed. Her friend simply didn’t understand. She had no idea how to turn off twenty-nine years of pleasing the man. It was a firmly entrenched habit.

For most of those years they’d only had each other to rely on. She’d watched him dedicate his life to a career that had often taken him away from her for long stretches at a time. His job was dangerous. Even at five she’d realized she could lose the only person in her life, the only parent she had left, at any moment. It had instilled in her a need to make him happy whenever he had been there. A need to be different from the woman who’d yelled, complained and made their lives miserable before deserting them both. A need to be dutiful and strong and perfect where her mother had been flighty and vain and selfish.

“What I need is to figure out how to tell my husband we’re married.”

CHASE HEARD the knock on his front door. For about five seconds he entertained the hope that Sabrina would be there on the other side. He knew it was futile but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He hadn’t exactly handled things well tonight.

“There was a rumor you were back in town.” Nope, not Rina, but someone almost as good.

“Jackhammer.” Slapping his best friend on the back, Chase ushered the man into his new apartment. “You want a beer?”

“Hell, no. I’m not going to drink with you. I’m mad as hell at you.” Jackson stopped in the middle of Chase’s living room, arms crossed over his barrel of a chest, glaring across the space at him.

There was a reason he’d been chosen for the Basic Cadet Training Cadre as a second class during their years at the academy. The man could be damned intimidating.

“Mad? What the hell did I do?”

“You’re alive.”

“Of course I’m alive.”

“There’s no ‘of course’ about it. Almost a year in a combat zone and I didn’t hear from you more than two or three times. I had to learn that you were back in town from one of the newbies.”

Chase fought down a wave of guilt at that. It was true. He really hadn’t kept in touch with anyone back home while he was gone. He hadn’t wanted to. What could he tell them? How unbelievably appalling war conditions could be? How he’d made decisions that had cost men and women their lives?

He hadn’t written home because there was nothing worth telling.

“Don’t take it personally, man. I barely wrote to my mother and sister either.”

His mother and sister had e-mailed him on a regular basis but…it wasn’t like they’d exactly been a close-knit group before he’d left for Iraq. His mother and sister had always been close…closer still after his parents’ divorce. They’d had a mother-daughter bond he hadn’t ever been a part of. Chase had been left with no one when his father disappeared from their lives.

So, no, they weren’t close. They were simply family.

“Cut me some slack. I’m not even settled yet. I would have called you in a few days.”

“Yeah, right.”

Marching into his kitchen, Jackson pulled a beer out of the fridge, plopped down onto the sofa and dropped his feet onto the coffee table—the two lone pieces of furniture in the entire room.

“So, how was it?”

Hell. Chase stared across at the other man. “God, it’s good to see you.”

“Now you get all mushy. You aren’t gonna cry, are you?”

“No.” Grabbing a beer of his own, Chase sat down beside his buddy. “Look, I’m sorry. I really didn’t think it would matter. I never thought you’d expect weekly reports.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jackson pulled a face before brushing the subject aside. “It doesn’t matter. So, I hear you’re a war hero.”

“Not really.”

“The air force doesn’t award the Distinguished Flying Cross for nothing. I’m getting an invitation to the ceremony, right?”

Between coming home, joining the squadron and seeing Sabrina again, he’d almost forgotten about that mess. Or maybe it had been convenient selective memory.

He didn’t want the honor. He didn’t deserve the damn medal. Somewhere along the way the media had gotten and run with a skewed version of the events of that night that the world seemed to accept at face value. He had no idea where the misinformation had come from…not that it really mattered. People believed what they wanted to believe.

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