''I Do''...Take Two! (13 page)

“How long have you been with the prince?”

“A little over three months.”

“Are you and your men military or civilian or what?”

“What.”

The reply was cool and unruffled, but an expression Kate couldn't quite define flitted across his face. Even more curious, she tried another probe.

“So where's home?”

He angled her a glance, his gray eyes as unreadable as smoke. “No place you've ever heard of.”

Oooo-kay. She could take a hint when it smacked her in the face. Might as well forget about asking if he was married, had kids, or preferred black-cherry gelato over her personal fave, limoncello and cream.

He escorted her into the reception area and signed her out of the building. Then Kate exited into the bright August afternoon. After the air-conditioned chill inside, the sunshine felt good on her skin. She leaned against the Ferrari's fender to absorb the warmth and the view of the mountains in the distance. Gradually her gaze dropped from the mountains to the hangars spaced at defensive intervals along the runway. She was wondering which of them housed the specially modified transport Travis and the prince were testing when two sleek, single-seat fighter jets taxied out for takeoff.

Once in position, the F-16s waited for clearance from the tower. Moments later their engines revved to a louder pitch. Suddenly the first jet shot down the runway. A second after takeoff, its afterburner kicked in with a thunderous boom and the jet went vertical. The second fighter followed, splitting the air with another thunderclap. Head tilted, eyes shaded against the sun with one hand, Kate watched them soar almost straight up.

The number cruncher in her couldn't help wondering how the latest accident stats for these high-flying, supersonic fighter jets compared to that of her husband's transport. Even with all its offensive and defensive systems, the Combat King too often went in low and slow. Exposed to deadly ground fire, it...

No! She wouldn't go there. Not anymore, dammit! Nor would Travis, thank God.

But the guilt she still hadn't been able to shake nagged at her as she slid into the Ferrari's driver seat and started the engine. She'd met so many other military spouses over the years, men and women who measured their loneliness and worry for their mates against a fierce pride in their service. Kate had felt that same pride. She still did!

Nor did she consider herself a self-centered bitch for wanting her husband to trade his military job for one with fewer absences and opportunities to get shot out of the sky. No, her guilt lay in the fact that she was forcing him to choose between her and a career she knew he loved.

She steered across the base, careful to keep to the twenty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit, as the questions tumbled through her head. Would Travis eventually resent being caught in that vise? Would this decision tarnish the years ahead? Was it worth the risk?

Yes!

That answer came fast and unequivocal. When measured against all the other uncertainties in life, that was one risk Kate could live with.

Feeling better after the stern inner pep talk, she followed the signs for the base exchange. Her military dependent ID gained her entrance into a mall containing a fast-food court, florist, optometrist, dry cleaner and barbershop, as well as the vast, Walmart-like main store. To her delight, the mall also contained a row of colorful kiosks that offered a selection of local products ranging from olive oil and cheeses to Venetian masks and blown-glass jewelry.

One kiosk in particular grabbed her attention. It featured Italian-themed toys and crafts for kids, including an assortment of plastic helmets, swords and shields. Kate shuddered at the thought of Tommy rigged out in the cape and red-plumed helmet of a Roman centurion, swishing a plastic sword in a hotel suite filled with expensive antiques. The fanged leopard helmet and gladiator's trident produced the same reaction.

Hoping a three-dimensional puzzle might engage both his attention and energy, she debated between a model of Rome's Coliseum, Pisa's famous leaning tower and a Venetian gondola. She decided on the leaning tower and had just handed over her Visa card when a trio of uniformed officers strolled toward the kiosk. Two men, one woman, all dressed in ABUs—the splotchy gray-green, slate-blue and brown air force version of battle uniform. It was worn with pant legs tucked into sage-green combat boots and subdued patches and rank insignia on the overblouse.

Kate's idle glance landed first on the man on the left. His rank indicated he was a major, and she was pretty sure the badge above his name tape was that of a communications officer. Then her gaze shifted to the woman walking beside him.

Without warning, everything seemed to fade away. The busy mall, the clatter of boots, the snick of her credit card being swiped. All she could hear, all she could feel, was her pounding heart. She recognized the captain instantly. She should. She'd stared at the picture the woman had posted on her Facebook page so long it was burned into her psyche.

“Sign here, please.”

Kate couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. The three officers were only a few feet away now, talking among themselves.

“Ma'am?”

Why hadn't Travis told her Captain Chamberlain was here, at Aviano? How could he keep something like that...?

“Ma'am? Are you all right?”

The vendor's anxious question snagged the attention of the officers. They slowed, angled toward the kiosk. The major started to say something but quickly realized his companion was the one caught in the crosshairs of Kate's unrelenting stare.

The captain picked up on the same thing. With a questioning look, the slender brunette stepped closer. “Can I help you?”

Kate found her breath and her balance. “No, thanks. You've already done enough.”

Confusion blanked the other woman's face. It was perfectly made up, Kate noted dispassionately. Delicately penciled brows, mascaraed lashes, a touch of blush to accent her high cheekbones. A distinctly feminine counterpoint to ABUs and combat boots.

“I'm sorry,” she said, frowning. “Do I know you?”

“I'm Kate Westbrook.”

The captain's nostrils flared as she drew in a swift breath. Hot color flooding her pink-tinted cheeks, she floundered for a response to that blunt statement.

“I...uh...”

Her embarrassment was so obvious and so complete that Kate actually took pity on her. “It's okay,” she said, astonished to discover she really meant it. “Travis told me what happened. He blames himself.”

Almost as much as I blamed you!

She kept the thought to herself while the young officer hesitated, still floundering. With a visible effort, she tried to pull herself together.

“Look, I'm sorry if... Well...” She bit her lip, then threw her two companions a quick look. “I'll catch up with you, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

They moved off, leaving Kate alone with the kiosk attendant and the woman who'd caused her so much heartache. Standing here, seeing the captain's acute embarrassment, the last shreds of that pain fell away.

“It's okay,” Kate said again, more gently this time. “Really. Travis and I have put that incident behind us.”

The captain nodded but couldn't quite disguise her thoughts when she asked, “He's here? At Aviano?”

“For a short time. You?”

“My unit's redeploying. We touched down a few hours ago. We'll RON here tonight and fly out in the morning.”

She didn't say where they were headed. For security reasons, she probably couldn't.

Kate's reply came straight from her heart. “Stay safe.”

Chapter Twelve

K
ate drove back across the base feeling like a felon released after a long, ugly incarceration. For reasons she hadn't yet had time to figure out, the encounter with the woman who'd caused her so much anguish seemed to have opened the cell doors. Every shred of anger and lingering resentment she'd had toward Captain Diane Chamberlain was gone. So were the doubts and the guilt Kate had struggled with less than an hour ago.

For the first time in longer than she could remember, excitement about the future bubbled through her veins. She savored the sizzle, the sheer joy of it as she parked the Ferrari outside the JSOC building and waited for Travis with her face turned to the sun.

He exited a few moments later. Although he slipped on his mirrored sunglasses against the bright afternoon sunlight, her first impression was that he looked and moved as if he was as jazzed as she felt.

“Good feedback?” she asked when he approached.

“Excellent! We may wrap this sucker up sooner than anticipated. No, you go ahead and drive,” he said when she started to open the car door. “The headquarters building is just a few blocks away.” He folded his long frame into the low-slung sports car and hooked his seat belt. “Turn left out of the parking lot.”

She followed the instructions, enjoying the muted growl of the thousand or so horses under the Ferrari's hood and the cool breeze lifting the ends of her hair.

“You look happy,” Travis commented. “What'd you do, buy out the BX?”

Kate considered telling him that she'd come face-to-face with the captain. Just as quickly, she tossed the idea. The encounter didn't matter. The
captain
didn't matter.

“Not quite, but I did buy a three-dimensional puzzle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa for Tommy. I thought it might engage his attention for a few hours.”

Travis snorted. “Thirty minutes, maybe. The kid has the attention span of a flea with ADD.”

“Ha! Your mom probably said the same thing about you when you were his age. She's told me the only thing that drained your energy and kept her sane was that you shot hoops for three or four hours a day,
every
day.”

Those sweat-soaked hours on the weed-grown asphalt court a few blocks from his home had done more than drain his energy. Kate's mother-in-law was convinced they'd saved Travis from the decaying mill town he'd grown up in. Without them, he wouldn't have won a basketball scholarship to UMass or escaped the gang he'd started to run with.

The scholarship had been his mother's salvation, too. All during high school and college, Travis had worked at least one part-time job. Two when the basketball season didn't curtail his extracurricular activities. After he'd graduated from UMass, reported to pilot training and asked Kate to marry him, she'd begun contributing to the kitty, too. Her mother-in-law was now happily ensconced in a two-bedroom condo in an upscale suburb. She'd made a slew of new friends and, until her son's marriage had stalled out, had been eagerly awaiting her first grandchild.

Which swung Kate's thoughts back to Tommy the Terrible. “How do you think Dawn's managing with Brian's son?”

“My bet is they're doing fine. They
both
have the attention span of a—”

“Watch it!”

“They must be doing okay, or Brian wouldn't have driven up here. And let's not forget Callie's there to help.”

Kate wanted to protest that Dawn was perfectly capable of looking after the boy without the assistance of an experienced child advocate. The memory of Tommy climbing onto the ledge of St. Mark's Cathedral killed that thought dead, though.

“Turn here.”

Following Travis's instruction, she took a right and spotted the sign for the Thirty-First Fighter Wing headquarters. The parking lot was almost a quarter full—another indication of the wing's around-the-clock operation, like the two F-16s Kate had watched take off earlier. She pulled into a slot close to the front entrance and killed the engine.

“Do you want me to go in with you?”

“You might as well sit here and enjoy the view. Since I called ahead, they'll have the paperwork ready. This should only take a few minutes.”

“Travis, wait.” She reached across the console and snagged his arm. His biceps was smooth and taut to the touch, his skin warmed by the sun. “Please! Tell me what's in your gut right now, this instant. Do you want to do this?”

“Yes.”

“Really, truly, honestly?”

“Really, truly, honestly.” He leaned closer and grazed her lips with his. “The last ten years have been all about me, Katydid. The next fifty or sixty will be about
us
.”

* * *

As predicted, he was in and out of the headquarters in less than twenty minutes.

Kate had exited the car and leaned her hips against the hood. Arms folded, she watched anxiously as he emerged and slipped on his sunglasses. She couldn't see his eyes, but the rest of him looked pretty relaxed. And so damned sexy!

Her avid gaze took in the broad shoulders under his black crewneck. The jeans molding his muscled thighs. The sure, confident stride. Excitement percolated through her veins again, and she muttered a distinctly unladylike curse that she had to wait for the hour-long drive back to Venice to get her hands on him.

Or longer. When Travis accepted the keys she held out and settled into the driver's seat, he suggested they host a predinner gathering at their suite at the Palazzo Alleghri.

“Carlo called while I was inside,” he said as he put the car in gear. “He wanted to confirm that he's heading down to Venice this evening and is hoping for an introduction to dazzling Dawn.”

Dazzling
was one of many adjectives Travis used to describe the more volatile of Kate's two friends. She didn't mistake it for a compliment, however.

“What did you tell him?”

“That we'd try to get everyone together at our place around seven.”

“Does everyone include Brian and Tommy?”

“Of course. Brian was still at the JSOC, so Carlo said he'd pass the word.”

“You don't think that might be a little awkward?”

“Nah. The kid's a handful, but he's basically okay.”

Kate hadn't been referring to Tommy. Nor could she articulate why the thought of putting Dawn in the same room with both Brian and the prince made her feel just a little uneasy. It could have been that flicker of pure male interest in Ellis's eyes when he'd first met Dawn, which she'd shown no signs of returning. Or Kate's own somewhat mixed reaction to Carlo after he'd planted that disconcertingly intimate kiss on her palm. Then there was Callie, who seemed to have been left completely out of the equation.

But Travis had already extended the invitation, so Kate dug out her phone. “I'll call Dawn and Callie and see if that works for them.”

It did, Dawn confirmed. “Brian called right before you did,” she reported breathlessly. “He's going to swing by the hospital on the way back.” She paused, sucked air. “He wants to check on Mrs. Wells, so he'll be a little late.”

“How's it going with you three? And why are you out of breath?”

“It's going great, and I'm out of breath because I had to scramble out from under the bed to catch the phone.”

“Why were you under the bed, or should I even ask?”

“We're playing hide-and-seek. You wouldn't
believe
the places that little stinker can squeeze into.”

“Is Callie playing, too?”

“She went back to our suite to... Hey! No fair, Thomas. You can't tag me. I had come out of hiding to answer the phone. No, it is
not
your turn.” Another laugh, this one of pure amusement. “You should see the faces this kid can make. Like the one he's showing me now. Oh, Tommy. That's gross! What if your eyelids get stuck like that?”

With hoots of childish glee sounding in the background, Dawn came back on the line. “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Brian's going to be late. So I'll feed the brat. Then Callie and I will put him in lockstep and escort him to your hotel.”

“Okay. See you around seven.”

Kate thumbed the off button and sat staring at the phone for a moment.

“Everything all right?” Travis asked.

“Sounds like it. It also sounds as though Dawn might be having more fun than Tommy.”

Her husband took the high ground and wisely refrained from commenting. Still bemused by the brief conversation, Kate shoved her phone in her purse and settled in to enjoy the drive back to Venice.

* * *

It was almost six by the time a vaporetto deposited them on the landing of Palazzo Alleghri. Wind whipped and sun chapped, Kate detoured on her way to the shower just long enough to consult the room service menu and choose a selection of munchies for their impromptu cocktail party. Fruit, cheese and antipasto for the adults. A fancy—and very expensive!—version of pizza rolls for Tommy.

While she called the order in, Travis iced down the bottles of sparkling prosecco they'd purchased on the drive up to Aviano.

“Better have them bring up some extra glasses,” he suggested.

She added the glasses and several varieties of fruit juice for Tommy, then made a dash for the bathroom, shedding her clothes as she went. She wouldn't have time to wash and blow-dry her hair, she decided as she twisted the knobs for the shower's ultramodern cross jets, but she could...

The press of a very warm, very hard body against her exposed bottom produced a reluctant protest. “We don't have time to play, Trav.”

“Who said anything about playing?” He pressed closer. “I just figured we could save time by scrubbing each other's backs.”

“And while you scrub, I'm supposed to ignore what's poking my rear?”

“Nothing says we can't make this an economy of effort.”

She gave a disbelieving snort, but the feel of him ready and eager killed any further protest.

So when Travis nudged her into the spray, she didn't make any noises about the time or the party or the need to keep her hair dry. She just leaned forward and planted her palms against the tiles. And as fast as that, she was ready.

Her belly went tight. Her vaginal muscles tightened. Anticipation combined with the dancing water to send eager thrills racing over every inch of her skin. Suddenly she was too impatient to wait even a few moments while Travis soaped her back.

“'Scuse me.” Wiggling her hips, she pushed against his groin. “I thought we were going to economize here.”

“So we were.”

The hand holding the soap and washcloth snaked around her waist. The other found her center. Blind pleasure shot through Kate as he parted her folds and applied an exquisite pressure. Then he was inside her, lifting her, filling her. She thrust back, grinding her bottom into his belly, squeezing him tight and hard.

Travis spread his legs for better balance on the terrazzo tile while his breath burned hot in his lungs. He was damned if he was going to rush this. He wanted to imprint the sight of water cascading over his wife's shoulders, running down her back, slicking her hips where they joined with his. She wasn't making it easy, though. With every wiggle, every backward thrust, he could feel the pressure building.

Gritting his teeth, he dropped the soap and put his hands on her hips to control the pace. She wasn't having any of that.

“We're not coming in low and slow this time.”

She jerked away, and the abrupt separation left Travis feeling pretty much the way he had the first time he'd crashed and burned in the simulator—as if his lungs had flattened and the rest of his insides had gone to rubber.

Thankfully, the hunger stamped on her face told him this ride wasn't over. Blinking the water out of her eyes, she stabbed a finger at the shower's built-in seat.

“Sit!”

The tiled ledge was wide enough to support him comfortably. And low enough for Kate to straddle his hips without resorting to serious contortions.

“This is better,” he admitted as she took him inside her again. Angling his head, he rasped his tongue over a stiff, hard nipple. “Much better!”

He got in only that one lick before she locked her mouth on his and picked up where they'd left off several gallons of water ago. Her hips pumped, her thighs squeezed and Travis gave up all attempts to control her
or
himself.

* * *

The shower jets hadn't been off for more than a few moments when the suite's doorbell chimed. Travis was still toweling himself down, but Kate had wrapped herself in one of the hotel's plush robes to attack her wet tangles with her hairbrush.

“I'll get it.”

She scurried out of the bedroom and crossed the sitting room, working the brush while hoping to heck that was room service at the door and not one of their guests.

Actually, it was neither. Or at least not one of the guests she'd been expecting. The brush stilled as she smiled a flustered greeting.

“Hi, Joe. Sorry, we're, uh, running a little late.” She peered around him at the empty hall. “Carlo's not with you?”

“He's taking care of some business downstairs. I came up to conduct a quick security sweep.”

“Huh?”

“Standard procedures.” Amused by her goggle-eyed surprise, he held up what looked like an ordinary cell phone with an extended antenna. “Just a check for hidden cameras, scoping out emergency exits, the usual stuff. Mind if I do a walk-through?”

“Oh. No, of course not. Come in.”

She trailed after him as he aimed the antenna in a slow arc over the sitting and dining areas. It occurred to Kate that if the suite
did
contain any hidden cameras, someone had sure got an eyeful the past few days.

Travis emerged at that point, fully dressed except for his bare feet, and nodded to Carlo's shadow. “Hey, Joe. The bedroom and bathroom are all yours.”