Model Soldier (10 page)

Chapter Nine

In the dimly-lit comfort of her hotel room, Emily stared into the haunting eyes of Staff Sergeant David “Hawk” Hawkins and realized her heart was not only beating faster, but parts lower were beginning to throb as well.

Darn it.

She reached out one finger and ran it down the side of his cheek, shaking her head. He was an idiot, a total jerk one moment, and then he came up with the perfect suggestion for their shoot the next moment and he actually cooperated during it.

The man was gorgeous to look at on the outside, and a male chauvinistic pig on the inside.

And she wanted him.

Emily leaned back from the laptop screen and the photo of Hawk, decked out in his dress uniform, chest covered in ribbons or medals or whatever they were called, face stern, as usual, his jaw firmly set, his eyes piercing straight through her.

There might be more inside this man that she’d only glimpsed. Of course, that something more could be either good or bad. There was no telling for sure, but she would never know.

Emily sighed. She left for New York tomorrow. She and Jai had tickets on a morning flight out of Germany. She was returning to work and to her boss a success with enough photos for a kick-butt ad campaign. She was also returning home without her Prince Charming, and in that respect, this assignment had been a failure.

A knock on the door made Emily jump nearly out of her desk chair.

She heard Jai’s voice follow the knock. “Em! You still awake in there?”

Happy she hadn’t taken the time to change into her flannel pajamas and knowing Jai would tease her relentlessly for certain if she had, Emily opened the door for him.

“No, I’m not asleep. And if I had been, you sure would have woken me up.”

He grinned. “But you weren’t sleeping, so it’s all good. And since you’re awake… There’s a Ratskeller right next door to the hotel. What do you say we go out and sample some of the local culture in the form of German beer and nightlife for our last night here?”

“I don’t know. I thought I’d work on some more print ad mock ups…”

“You can do that tomorrow during the flight while I sleep off a nice dark lager hangover.”

Emily laughed. No doubt that would be exactly how the flight would go. “Okay.” Then she looked down at her wool trousers and sweater, the same ones she’d worn all day. “Am I dressed alright for a Ratskeller? I don’t think I’ve ever been to one.”

“Em, it’s just a bar. You’re overdressed, I’m sure. Just come on.”

Trusting Jai’s fashion advice because one, she had no other choice and two, the rest of her wardrobe packed in her luggage looked pretty much like what she had on but in a different color, Emily grabbed her wallet out of her briefcase and headed out.

The minute Emily walked into the bar she felt it, eyes on her, lots of them, all male. And judging by the fact that Hawk stood in the center of the group of males watching her, she guessed they were all soldiers from the neighboring garrison. They weren’t in uniform, but they did all sport the signature military cropped hair, two of them even walked in sync when they crossed the bar to the jukebox together.

Hawk smiled and crossed the room himself, but he wasn’t following the other two, he was heading right for her. Emily took a deep breath and prepared for another verbal battle.

Nodded a greeting to Jai, Hawk turned to her. “Hey, Goldilocks. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Good evening, sergeant. Em. I’m going to get us two beers. Good with you?” Jai asked her, grinning in amusement at what was apparently her new name, at least as far as Hawk was concerned.

She scowled at her supposed friend but accepted his offer. “Yeah, fine. Thanks.” Glancing back at Hawk, she had a feeling a beer, or two, would be in order tonight.

As Jai left them alone, she raised her chin to confront Hawk as he towered over her. “Do you even know my name?”

He grinned wider. “Yeah.”

Emily crossed her arms and challenged him over the noise of the many bar patrons, “Okay. Then what is it?”

Leaning down toward her, Hawk breathed into her ear, “It’s Emily, Goldilocks.” Then he grinned wide.

She shivered involuntarily at the feel of his warm breath against her skin and swallowed hard, unsure what to say to what was basically a simple answer to her question, which she certainly never expected to bodily effect her as it had.

Deciding the safest course of action would be to change the subject, she did just that. “So, I looked over the shots from today. They look really great. I could email you the proofs if you wanted to see them.”

And then she would have not only his email address, but also an excuse to be in contact with him after she left Germany tomorrow. But why would she want that? He was a jerk, most of the time, anyway.

Like now as he shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Don’t you care about the ads?”

“I have to tell you, doll. I won’t waste one moment thinking about this modeling thing once the rounds start flying and the baddies start giving up.”

“Fine, I won’t bother you with them then.”

Looking actually sincere, Hawk shook his head. “I didn’t say you’d be bothering me. What I meant was I’ll have a few things on my mind. You know? Latest word from where we’ll be in Afghanistan is that it snowed over four feet overnight and more will be on its way. And that’s the good news, because at least with the snow mounds building up we actually have a perimeter defense. There’s only little barriers about knee high without the snow to keep the bad guys out.”

“Oh.” Emily didn’t know much about perimeter defense, but she did hate the snow and could empathize with him about that. The bad guys didn’t sound so good, either. “Hopefully they’ll get the snowplows to clean all that up before you guys get there.”

Hawk laughed gleefully.

“What?” Why was this guy always laughing at her expense?

Hawk could barely respond through his enjoyment. “Oh, Goldilocks. There aren’t going to be road crews cleaning up for us.”

“Isn’t it kind of like the set up here at Hohenfels where you’re going?”

Hawk tilted his head to one side and grinned. “No, it’s not.”

“Oh. I figured all bases were probably the same,” Emily shrugged.

“No, doll. They’re not, but I’m not going to a base anyway.” He smiled, shaking his head. “If I was going to be at Kandahar or Bagram, then yeah, maybe we’d have some services, but not where I’ll be. We literally have some dirt huts and a few rail boxes. Supplies will have to be choppered in and dropped to us. It’ll be like going caveman.”

Not appreciating his delight at her expense, Emily grumbled, “That should be easier for some of you than others, I suppose.”

One dark brow rose with amusement. “You calling me a caveman, doll?”

“Maybe.” Emily smiled, enjoying her own cleverness.

It was the strangest thing, bickering with Hawk kind of got her excited. Even his calling her doll was starting to sound sexy, and she hadn’t even drunk the beer that Jai was now carrying her way.

Hawk, looking like he got as much pleasure from the sparring as she, grinned wide as Jai joined them.

“Sergeant, did Emily tell you? The shots we took at the training village today are awesome.”

“Good, I’m glad.” Strangely, Hawk looked like he meant it.

Emily grasped the topic of work before she imagined running her fingers down Hawk’s massive forearm again.

“I agree with Jai. The SpecOp ads Katie shot with BB were all taken in a studio. They were good but nothing like ours. The ones we took outdoors today look really authentic, like we actually shot in the war zone. As great as BB was, I think our Army ads will be even more effective because they look so real, right down to our caveman model, here.” Emily grinned and sipped her beer.

Hawk raised his glass in a salute. “Thanks. I think that may be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Emily laughed. “You’re welcome.”

“Fucking Dalton.” Hawk shook his head and took another swallow from his own glass.

That got Emily’s defenses up. He could pick on her, but no one picked on her boss’ fiancé in front of her. “What’s wrong with BB? He’s practically perfect.”

Hawk laughed. “If
he’s
your perfect man, sweet thing, than I don’t know what the hell you’re doing hanging around with me.”

“I’m not hanging around with you. You are hanging around with me. Jai and I came here to absorb some local color before we leave tomorrow morning.”

Jai glanced from her to Hawk and back again with a strange look on his face. “Um, I see Sergeant Pettit over there. I think I’ll go ask him…something.”

Hawk grabbed Jai’s arm. “Pettit knows the truth about all this, and he also knows I will kill him if he spills the beans. But as far as the rest of them know,” he bobbed a head in the direction of the soldiers across the room standing with Pettit, “you and she were here for the last two days taking photos of the garrison,
not
of me. Let’s keep it that way, understood? As far as my squad is concerned, my assignment was to be your escort only. That’s all. Got it?”

Jai laughed. “Yeah, I got it. Don’t worry, sergeant.”

Hawk looked more than a bit concerned as he watched Jai cross the room.

“He’ll keep your secret,” Emily assured him, thinking all the secrecy was stupid since his face would soon be in ads pretty much everywhere.

His eyes still following Jai as he joined the group of soldiers, Hawk asked, “How long have you known him?”

“Jai? A few years, I guess. He’s discreet, I promise.”

Hawk raised a brow. “You two fucking?”

“What? No!” God, he could be so crude sometimes!

Hawk smiled and Emily continued to rant. “You are the rudest, biggest, nosiest…” She couldn’t figure out how to insult him more so she left the sentence open ended.

“And you hate that you find me attractive.”

That accusation had her sputtering. “You? Attractive? Ha!”

Okay, maybe she did think he was hot, but he didn’t have to know that. “Don’t flatter yourself. You are a job. Nothing more,” she finished.

Hawk smirked. “Keep telling yourself that, Goldie. Maybe you’ll start believing it. Although, I find that alcohol usually has the opposite effect on a woman’s libido.” He glanced at the beer in her hand which she had been nervously emptying without even knowing it.

“I see. So what you’re saying is that girls need to be drunk to find you attractive. That’s totally understandable.” Emily smirked.

Hawk shook his head and smiled into his own beer. “You are cute when you try and fight with me. The question is why are you fighting this so hard, doll?
I
know you’re attracted to me.
You
know you’re attracted to me. You’re leaving tomorrow. I’m leaving next week.” He let the facts hang in the air for her to absorb and draw her own conclusions.

“Are you suggesting…?” She could barely get the words out past the heart beating in her throat at the thought.

Could she do it? Have sex just for fun with a man she barely knew?

Although she did know him, didn’t she? They’d spent two days together. She knew some of his personal and probably all of his military history from his file. She knew that for some reason BB had chosen this man to represent the entire US Army. She could see that both Hawk’s superiors and his subordinates liked him. All of that had to count for something.

“You sure are doing a lot of thinking in there, Goldie.” Hawk ran one thick finger from her forehead, between her drawn brows and down her nose, tapping the tip playfully. “Stop frowning. You’ll get wrinkles.”

Emily fought the shiver that his touch sent down her spine and decided it wouldn’t hurt to play along, for a bit anyway. “Let’s say, under the influence of some sort of temporary insanity and German beer, that I did consider sleeping with you…”

“Oh, believe me. There would be no sleeping. Just good old-fashioned sex. Incredible, unforgettable sex. Lots of it.”

Emily swallowed hard. She didn’t know if she’d ever experienced sex that qualified as that before. Certainly not in recent memory. She forced herself to focus on her point again.

“Anyway. If this were to happen, hypothetically of course, what would it mean?”

“
What would it mean
?” Hawk repeated.

“Yes, what would it mean?”

He laughed and shook his head. “It would mean that you and I would both walk away satisfied, me to Afghanistan, you to wherever you come from. It would mean that you would never have to deal me and my brutish caveman ways again, however, you would have some damn nice memories to keep you warm at night. As would I and believe me, a year in Afghanistan with no sex, I’m going to need the memories.”

“A year? Really?” Okay, so she’d gone a good year herself without sex, but Hawk didn’t seem like the type to be celibate by choice.

He laughed. “Doll, even if sex while deployed weren’t against regulations, there aren’t going to be any females where I’ll be, just those ten ugly mugs over there, and I don’t go that way.” Hawk glanced at his fellow soldiers and shook his head.