Code Name: Ghost (A Warrior's Challenge 1) (19 page)

Cobbs stuck his head into the room. “Is she
all right?”

He stepped to the edge of the bed. “Yeah,”
he said quietly, tearing his attention from her to see Cobbs
leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed and his brow raised.
“Don’t even say it, Pat.”

“Why shouldn’t I? You’re an idiot if you
don’t think we can see it.”

He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Maybe you
won’t
because you’re a
stubborn prick, but you’re walking away from what you need. I’ve
never seen you look at a woman like you do her. You’re in love with
her, Thane, and if you’re not, you’re one step away. She’s the one,
and you goddamned well know it.”

A hopeless laugh escaped him. “Since the day
I came home and saw her, everything is different,” He paused.
“Remember Libby?”

“Yeah, who the hell doesn’t? Gorgeous—and
always willing to give you a good roll, although what woman
hasn’t.”

“Three months, Pat. Not even Libby, believe
me I’ve tried. Every damn time I’m with a woman, I see Kayla’s
face. It doesn’t matter if I’m half drunk, dead tired—nothing. It’s
like she came right out of my rib to tempt me.”

“And you don’t think that means
something?”

Gently, he pulled the throw over her, and
wove his hands through her hair. It would be the last time, he
vowed. His heart cinched tight with the thought. “I can’t,” and
leaned over to bury his face gently in her hair. Grazing her arm
with a light touch, he lost himself in the feel of her skin as his
fingers slid down her taut thigh and circled her delicate knee. “I
won’t,” he whispered to her, the pad of his thumb following the
sensual swerve of her calf.

Mace’s words this morning landed on him like
a foot on an IED, and with the same result. He’d never fallen in
love. Allowing it would mean breaking his vow to protect and serve.
He wasn’t the kind of man who could split his devotions. A
ferocious emotion he hadn’t come face to face with often,
overwhelmed him hard in the plane—fear. With it came truth, and
excruciating clarity helped by Mace’s epiphany that life wasn’t a
life at all, unless you knew love at least once.

He wished he knew more about the beautiful
creature who consumed all his thoughts, her feminine a perfect
match to his masculine.

If there was any chance she could die or
he—and they were within each other’s grasp, he wanted her next to
his heart when they reached heaven. “God have mercy, I want her.”
He closed his eyes to break her spell.

“It’s God’s mercy that brought her to you,
Thane.”

It was agonizing to pull away from her. His
heart thundered in response to the lightning of her soul, and he
let himself feel it all for one instant. “My sweet mermaid, I have
to set you free.” He kissed the top of her head and raised his eyes
to his closest friend, whom he knew wouldn’t judge him. “I don’t
know how…but I know she’s already suffered enough in this lifetime.
There’s only so much luck and mercy God can offer, and I’ve used up
my fair share, Pat. I can see her standing by my coffin, and I
won’t do that to her.”

A month rolled by, and Kayla struggled every
day. When she’d pass his door, the Commander would either nod at
her or give her a quick, professional hello. He’d put his
admissions behind him, and set the tone for their future. She
didn’t waver, maintaining her professionalism, keeping her
concentration on her job, because when she did look at him, her
heart went from zero to sixty in the same time it took a short
range missile to strike its target, and the impact was the
same.

Today the exercises had them all bending
their minds with concentration.

“Commander Austen?” the Commander of SEAL
Team Seven, Todd Masters, drawled over the radio as she, Captain
Redding, and several other officers hovered about in the Command
center.

“Shit,” the Commander swore under his
breath. The pencil he held in his fingers snapping in two.

They’d been exercising all afternoon. Each
team led by their direct commander. Teams One, Three, Five and
Seven, maneuvered around the harbor in a naval type of chess game.
Each team had been broken into smaller squads who manned RHIBs and
gunships, each trying to corner the other.

Kayla was an observer, like most everyone
else present. She scanned the large screen in the dimly lit room,
monitoring the movement of all the teams as they made their
tactical choices.

“Looks like you’re finally going to buy me a
case of scotch this year, Ghost,” Masters laughed in an arrogant
way over the exercise channel on the radio.

She didn’t like Masters. He was an arrogant
bastard. What he lacked in brains he made up for in bravado and a
loud voice. He hadn’t stepped foot on a mission in years, always
keeping his ass out of the fire, but he had no problem shouting
orders.

“Like hell,” Commander Austen muttered, his
eyes darting across the screen.

Team One appeared to be cornered, the rest
of the teams had already been taken down. Redding leaned into her
shoulder. “Masters is going to rub this in. It’s the first time
anyone has beaten Thane at this. He’s never lost, and watch out for
the shit storm that’ll follow if he does.”

Her eyes widened. “Cornered?” she asked,
confused.

Redding nodded with his lips pursed. “I
don’t think there’s any way he’ll get out of this. He’s pinned, and
by the look on Ghost’s face, he can’t see a way out, either. ”

She shrugged. “They’re not cornered.” When
she said it, every head in the room turned toward her, and the
expressions weren’t friendly. She swallowed and took a step closer
to the Commander, more for reassurance. He glanced at her, then
narrowed his eyes. She was supposed to be keeping a record of the
movements and those who were taken out and when. The one thing
she’d learned working for the U.S. Navy, if you had a job you did
it, and then shut the hell up.

“Kayla, a moment, please,” the Commander
asked, sweeping the other men with a look.

Three more steps brought her to his side. He
plucked a second mic from the console and handed it to her.
Tentatively she took it, and stared at him. He gave her a quick
nod. She cleared her throat and stared up at the screen. “Fox still
have the line of explosives in L4?” she asked quietly, reviewing
the grid.

He barely nodded.

“Three minutes and counting, Commander
Austen,” Masters’ voice cracked over the radio, sounding very sure
of himself.

“I really dislike that man,” she whispered.
She saw the edges of the Commander’s lips curl upward. Darting a
look at the live cams, twenty-four of them in all, some mounted on
the Mark fives, some on the men’s helmets, she played the moves in
her mind like a chess game. “Fox, this is Snow White, over,” she
called, using the scrambled channel for their team ops.

A long pause returned. “Go ahead, Snow
White,” Fox answered.

She surveyed the monitors to be sure. “On
mark, activate Lima four line, Gunship One alpha, starboard full
attack, Zodiacs One Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, forward full three
seconds after detonation. Zodiacs One Delta, Echo and Foxtrot, port
long sweep…”

“Holy shit,” the Commander said, crossing
his arms and beginning to laugh.

She continued, “Gunship One Bravo,” She
paused, knowing they were the wild card. If Team Seven went into
preservation mode like she thought, Gunship One Bravo would be the
whale that would break their backs. She brought the mic up to her
mouth. “Gunship One Bravo, round ’em up from the stern. All units
acknowledge receipt, over.”

“Thirty seconds, Ghost,” Masters squawked on
the other channel.

He didn’t bother to respond. “May I?” he
asked, with a satisfied grin.

“Certainly,” and she handed the mic to
him.

“Team One—expedite,” he ordered.

Fox let the entire line of explosives go on
the L4 grid. A wall of water exploded into the sky forty feet high,
cutting Team Seven in half, they scrambled just liked she hoped.
Team One flew into action, following the plan. It was over before
it even began. When the wall of water retreated, Team Seven was
surrounded, with no exit.

“I’ll be expecting single malt, you son of a
bitch,” Commander Austen said into the other radio.

“Nice one, Ghost,” Master’s voice came back,
sounding more than dejected.

“And I’ll be sharing half of it with you,”
he whispered into her ear.

“No, thanks, don’t like scotch.”

“I think that just might be cheating,”
Lieutenant Law said as he walked up beside them. Geoffrey Law was
the lieutenant of Team Three. Prematurely grey, but with features
of a man barely in his forties, his hazel eyes reminded her of an
owl’s, large and aware. “You’ve got yourself a ringer.” He looked
down at her and gave her a friendly wink.

“Use everything and anything to win,” the
Commander said.

She didn’t like the sound of that, and
backed away feeling like a power tool in a workshop. “Excuse
me.”

“Nicely done, Kayla,” Captain Redding said,
when she picked up the file to finish the paperwork.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the
Commander’s jaw tighten before snapping his attention away from
her. “Thank you, Captain.”

* * * *

The little hand struck five as she stored
the communications and camera logs copied onto a USB into the safe,
in case they needed to be reviewed. Popping into the lunchroom, she
opened her locker and grabbed her pack.

“That came out wrong,” the Commander said,
his hand crossing her shoulder and resting against her locker,
trapping her with his body.

She jerked with surprise, but didn’t turn
around. Damn the man had a silent footstep. “No worries, sir.”

“It worries me,” he said, placing his hand
on her shoulder, prompting her to turn.

“I’ve got to get going. I’m going to miss my
bus.”

Dropping his other hand on the locker, he
closed off her exit. “I’m trying to apologize, and as you can see,
I’m not good at it.”

His face, within inches of hers, brought his
full, strong lips too near. Afternoon stubble covered his jaw, and
she wanted to feel it scratch her cheek. “There’s no need for an
apology, Commander. Good night, sir.”

“Please, for the love of God, stop calling
me sir,” he said, his expression morphing into a beseeching
one.

A searing heat ballooned in her when his
gaze dropped to her mouth as if all he wanted was to kiss her. But,
she saw a lot of things that were only a reflection of her own
desires when she looked at him, all of them illusions. “Right,” she
breathed. She averted her eyes. If she looked into his, she knew
he’d see every bloody thing she was thinking, and she didn’t need
to hear his “I can’t” as if she was some teenager with a crush on
someone out of her league. “I have to go, Commander.”

“You’re not going to get far, I’m
afraid.”

Her embarrassment mingled with irritation.
“Why?”

“The team is outside the building waiting
for you.”

“Why me?” The cool metal of the locker
seeped through her thin blouse, and made her shiver.

“Because I told them what happened this
afternoon was all you. I also told the other commanders. They’re
letting me get away with it, but during the debrief they started
fighting over whose team you’ll be on for the next exercise.”

A scoff of air escaped her throat. “Yeah,
right.”

He leaned forward, his cheek brushing hers,
and his warm breath poured liquid heat down her spine. “I told them
they could all go to hell. You’re mine, only mine,” he said
quietly.

His lips brushed across her cheek, stopping
only millimeters from the corner of her mouth. If she didn’t have
wet underwear before, she certainly did now. The skin on her arms
rippled with his touch as he slowly slipped his hand to her
shoulder.

“Tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do
with you, Kayla.”

It sounded like a plea for her to make the
next move and he’d accept it. The enticing smell of his aftershave
drifted like a heady haze, invading her senses. One slight tilt of
her head, and she could sink her teeth into his full lip. Her
entire body screamed for her to do it, but she smashed the thought
in her mind with a mighty fist. “Send me half a case of scotch,
sir.”

He pulled away quickly, and crossed his
arms, his gaze launching to the pale linoleum floor.

Distance broke part of the spell, but not
all of it. “I’ll take the back way out.”

“Don’t bother,” he said, backing up another
step. “They’ve got it covered. I think they’re onto your evasion
tactics, Ms. Banks.” He jerked his head. “Go with them, Kayla.
You’re part of the team today, and they want to celebrate. I have
paperwork to do, anyway,” he said, turning for the door.

“Commander—it’s not a team unless you’re
there, even in playtime.”

He turned slowly. “So, you want me to come?”
he asked, looking unsure, which was rare for him.

“Of course, who else is going to call a cab
when I’m drunk?” she said, flushing red with memories of him
standing like a God in front of her in Arizona. She picked up her
bag and flung it across her shoulder. “And you can keep the scotch.
I hate the crap.”

A laugh erupted from him, and he reached his
arm out, curling it around her shoulders when she joined him. One
finger tipped her chin. “I’m so sorry.” Without hesitation, he
kissed her gently, but there was passion there as well—deep, hungry
passion. Drawing her closer, he said, “Will you forgive me?”

“For kissing me or for being a hard-ass?”
Why did he have to be so overwhelmingly male? He snatched away her
resistance without even trying.

His finger traced her cheek. “Both.” His
gaze flashed across hers. “But, if I’m apologizing, I think I
should do it again,” he breathed, and this time his mouth came down
on hers with a primal need, and she caved in to her own. His hands
roamed across her back, making her feel delicate and desired. They
glided down to her ass and he seductively pressed her against his
hips. Her traitorous fingers snaked around his neck, wanting him
closer, and the Commander’s hands tightened with his own need.
“Whatever you want, it’s yours,” he said, barely moving his lips
from hers.