“Yeah, I know—the selfless heroine. But it’s okay, we’ve already discussed it. He’s going to make me six foot three so no one will recognize me.” She sighed. “Look, I know you guys seem to think I need looking after.”
“You do?”
“You may think you’re being subtle but…” She shook her head. “Anyway, I’ve let it go, but you’ve got to realize that I’m all grown up. I can fight my own battles.”
Gary opened his mouth, ready to continue the argument, and suddenly the fight went out of her. She held up a hand to stall him. After all, what was the point? No sense in arguing when there would be no repeat of this morning’s incident. Incident? It didn’t seem an adequate word for what had happened.
Maybe, once she had thought it all through, she’d come up with a rational explanation for her reactions. Like total insanity or hormones gone crazy. Yeah, hormones sounded good.
“It’s not going to happen again.”
Gary cast her a skeptical glance. “It’s not?”
“No. I’ll make you a deal—if I promise to do my best to avoid Zach, can we forget this ever happened?”
“Deal.”
…
The heat of the day had given way to the balmy warmth of early evening. Zach lay back in the hammock and realized he felt at peace. The smothering sense of restlessness that had plagued him since he’d arrived had abated. He’d curbed his initial urge to go confront Dani—she needed a little space—and spent the afternoon writing. The words had flowed from his fingers.
Now, he stared up at the blue sky and considered his next move.
She’d been so hot and sweet and welcoming once she’d accepted the inevitable. Underneath that prickly exterior lay a sensual woman. It made him curious about why the prickles existed. Why had she grown that protective layer? What was she defending herself from?
Strangely, he needed to know the answers. Though being blown up by a bomb was enough to make anyone a little defensive.
By now, she’d have come to terms with what they’d done and were going to do again in the very near future. They might as well enjoy each other for the duration of their sojourn here. Then he could go back to his real life and so could Dani. A shiver of misgiving ran through him. She couldn’t go back in the army, back into danger. Why the hell would she even want to?
Hopefully, Gary hadn’t given her a hard time. He would sort out Gary if he had to—get him off her back. Though Gary had her best interests at heart and was genuinely fond of her, he wanted to make sure she was okay.
But hell, Zach wasn’t going to hurt her. He might even help her. A little mind-blowing sex might bring her out of her shell. Make her realize there was more to life than the army.
He’d love to show her L.A. and New York.
Wait…where the hell did that come from?
His cell phone rang from the house. He’d been ignoring it all day while he wrote. Now, he rolled off the hammock and headed inside. He flicked on the phone and saw it was Jake and, by the looks of his missed calls, it wasn’t the first time he’d called.
“Hi,” he said. “You calling to say you’ve found the asshole who sent those threats, and I’m free to go?”
“No.”
He waited. “Well? You got me off a perfectly good hammock. Are you going to tell me what for?”
“How are you and Dani getting along?”
Zach strolled over to the doors and glanced out. Who the hell had been talking? Gary, he presumed. “We’re getting along okay. Any reason we shouldn’t?”
Jake obviously wasn’t buying it. “Look, I know she comes across as confident but she’s a mess. Leave her alone. The boys are hinting around that you might be interested in her, and that’s just a bad idea for everyone.”
“Maybe she needs something to take her mind off her leg and the physical.”
“Hell, she was screwed up before the bomb blast.”
“She was?”
“Yeah. I met her when she first joined the army, and she was as fucked up back then. She settled down great, but there’s something in her past. You know any other twenty-seven-year-old virgins?”
For a moment, Zach’s mind went blank. “Twenty-seven-year-old what?” Had Jake just said Dani was a virgin? He cast his mind back. She hadn’t seemed like a virgin. But then what did he know? He was pretty sure he’d never had a virgin before. He shook his head. And how the hell did Jake know, anyway?
“Look, forget it, but back off Dani,” Jake said, cutting into his thoughts. “I don’t want you screwing around with her then dumping her when you see something you like better. She’s a friend, and she doesn’t deserve that.”