Her? “But you still didn’t tell her everything about what Brandon said, I hope.”
“Not over a cell phone, no. I can’t be sure of privacy until we’re in a secure room. Even talking out here could be risky, so why don’t we save the rest for when we get there.”
She looked sharply from the water to the man, headlights from oncoming cars streaking across his face, just as quickly gone, leaving him in shadows. The light and dark flashes reminded her of the two sides of Liam. At one moment he was the charmer who wowed her with his smile and wit. And in a flash he became the honed professional, a military man in charge of his universe.
She’d sought him out because of that professional side of him… not because she hadn’t been able to forget him for even one day over the past six months. Right? She fingered the tear in the Jeep’s ragtop. “Tell me more about your friend in OSI.”
Where had that question come from?
From the part of her that liked his smile and that almost quaint way he had of squeezing her hand.
“Not much to tell,” he said. “We’ve been stationed together a couple of times, deployed together once. She’s helped with intel on a few missions, always sharp, always right.” He shot a quick glance her way. “I answered your question, and now I have one of my own. Why did you choose Florida for your big move?”
Her heart flipped. Because she’d heard Florida and thought of him? “The rescue group in D.C. that works with pairing shelter pets with vets identified this area for expanding the concept. The timing was right for me to move. I accepted the challenge for a change.”
“That’s a pretty radical change just because you’re burned out on work. Most folks would opt for a vacation rather than another emotionally draining career field.”
“I’m following dreams I’m passionate about.” She shrugged, the wind lifting her damp hair and reminding her of the moment Liam burst into the bathroom. “I have no family entanglements. There’s nothing to stop me from picking up and relocating if I wish. I guess I’m a lot like a female version of you—without the trail of ex-spouses.”
“Fair enough. But why? You were damn good at your job.” His praise reached across as tangibly as any touch. “More than that, you seemed intense about your search and rescue work.”
“Too intense. I told you I burned out in the Bahamas and I meant it.” Her emotions had felt all the more close to the surface with Liam around. She’d hoped returning to D.C., staying away from him, would bring balance back to her life.
No such luck.
“So you decided to work with PTSD patients? Sounds like a real party.” He snorted.
“Okay,” she said, half smiling along with him. God, he was so wonderfully irreverent. “I can see why it wouldn’t seem the logical choice, but after so many failures in the Bahamas, so many dead people… dead children… I needed to do some saving.”
His smile faded. “I get that.”
Of course he would. She sometimes forgot how he’d once told her that he’d been an Army Ranger before shifting to the air force. Even now, there had to be unbelievable stress in his job, and somehow he’d managed to continue the grind for over a decade. “How do you hold tough through the ones you can’t rescue?”
“I can’t quit. There’s always another one who needs me,” he said simply, steering the Jeep steady on. “It’s the only way I know to be.”
Palm trees whipped past one after the other in perfectly spaced rhythm, leading toward a distant bridge like going from one rescue to another, week after week, month after month, until years passed. Lives were saved and still no life had been built.
How did a person go about building a life that wasn’t wrapped up in the calling to rescue people? A calling that consumed a person until there wasn’t time left for anything else. “What about retirement?”
“Are you calling me old?” He cocked an eyebrow.
A laugh burst free and even managed to deflate at least an ounce of tension with it. “Hardly. You’re so honed and in shape, you could take down anyone I know.”
And just that fast her admission of how very much she’d noticed his body was out there. Hanging in the air heavier than any salt-water-laden humidity. The attraction she’d felt for Liam hadn’t lessened one bit.
As his bottle green eyes held hers, she could see an answering call in his gaze. He’d made it clear before how much he wanted her, and apparently time hadn’t changed a thing between them.
If anything, the need had just increased. She’d been fooling herself that she could come here and keep it in check. Her whole body hummed with an awareness and fire that grew with each minute together, gathering force until she pressed her knees tightly together against the ache.
“Liam?” she whispered, and wondered at the husky, hungry sound that crawled from deep inside her.
He hauled his attention front toward a bridge only fifty yards ahead. “God, woman, you tear me up inside from wanting you. And you also have the strangest timing. Right now, we have somewhere to be. But let me be clear. Once we finish there, we’re not pretending we’re just work acquaintances anymore. You’re not going to just fall off the planet without warning again. Got it?”
Wow, he was really laying it all out there. No dancing around the subject or giving them time to sort through feelings. And on top if it all, she still had to deal with an exploded town house and a possible treasonous threat. “I hear you.”
Just these few hours together made her accept that the move to Florida hadn’t been coincidental. The attraction to Liam was magnetic, to say the least. His eyes locked with her only for a second, but this man packed more in an instant than most put into a lifetime.
Then his gaze slid away, his attention back on driving, checking the rearview mirror—