“I’ll bet he was proud of you.”
Neil remembered the photo of him in full uniform. It sat on his dad’s fireplace mantel. “Yeah. He was.” He sparked a match over dry moss and urged the brush to ignite.
Gwen sighed. “He never remarried?”
“Dated a little. But none stuck.” Little by little, the branches caught and Neil piled more on.
By the time the sun was low on the horizon, the fire was large enough to warm them and the food they planned on eating.
They’d pulled on their sweatshirts and sat next to the fire roasting marshmallows after they shared a meal. Gwen did the roasting and leaned against him. She asked questions about life in the military and skimmed over his MIA mother. Now there was a person Neil didn’t bother thinking about. He never knew her outside what his father had told him growing up. According to his dad, they were too young to marry and she wasn’t ready for kids and a life of moving around. Neil was sure there was more to it, but his father didn’t go on about her, therefore Neil didn’t ask.
“I never would have thought I’d be here, like this, with you,” Gwen said as she swirled the stick over the fire.
“It wasn’t planned.”
“I can’t say I’m happy about how we got here, but it’s not possible for me to hate it.”
She leaned her back against his chest and he traced her arm with the tips of his fingers.
He hoped she felt that way later…when the new Raven was gone.
Gwen peeled off another marshmallow, twisted toward him, and fed it to him. He opened his mouth and accepted the treat. Her seductive smile grew bigger when he licked her fingers.
“I’m beginning to believe that you’re like these roasted bits of sugar. A little hard and burned on the outside and all soft and gooey on the inside.”
He finished chewing and grinned. He wasn’t sure he had a gooey inside. But it if made Gwen look at him with such trust, he’d let her believe it.
“You’re the one made of pure sugar, Gwen.”
She relaxed against him once again, this time dropping the stick. “Would you like to know a secret?” When she dropped her head against his chest, he indulged in a sniff of her hair.
“What secret?”
She laced her fingers with his as she spoke. “I always wanted to be a bad girl. You know, the kind who wears leather and drinks whiskey straight from the bottle.”
He couldn’t picture it. “Back of a motorcycle with a tattoo of some guy’s name on your arm?”
“Not sure about the name, but perhaps something. Maybe a belly button piercing.”
Now that he could picture, and the image made him hard. “We can have you pierced in Colorado Springs.”
She giggled. He loved her laugh. “I’d chicken out.”
“I can get you drunk and you’d wake up with it.”
She laughed harder. “Count on you to find the idea appealing.”
“You started it. Belly button piercings are hot.” And when was the last time he’d told a woman anything like this? Never.
“What of you, Neil? Any secrets?”
“You’ve seen my ink.”
“Yes, I have. And I’ll say it is very hot, indeed.” Her accent made it all so clean and proper. “Anything else you didn’t have the nerve to do?”
He squeezed her hand in his and waited for her to look up at him. When she did he leaned down and placed his lips on hers. He twisted her across his lap and continued their kiss. Her taste exploded on his tongue and heated him thoroughly. When he pulled away, her hooded gaze found his.
“I’ve always wanted you,” he confessed.
“You had to know I wanted the same. What stopped you?”
He pushed away a lock of hair from her eyes. “I’m hard inside and out, Gwen. And you’re a princess who deserves a prince.” Not someone like him. Someone who couldn’t sleep at night because his past wouldn’t let him.
She cupped his face in the palm of her hand and her smile dropped. “The princess wants the knight and not the prince. She wants someone who knows what he wants and takes risks to get it.”
“There are no guarantees with me. I’m a risky gamble.”
She kissed him briefly. “I’ve already rolled the dice, Neil. You can’t talk me out of you.”
“Is that what I’m doing?” He knew he was.
She nodded. “Besides, if I wanted guaranteed boredom I would have dated someone in my father’s polo club.”
“Motorcycles versus ponies?”
“You do drive one, right?”
Not in years but he wasn’t about to ruin her fantasy. “At least now I know where you got the leather fetish.”
“Oh, no. That stems from all the adult films I’ve watched.”
“Not a proper princess after all,” he said laughing.
“Certainly not.” Her hand ran down his chest and moved between his legs. “Would you like to see how improper I can be?”
His smile fell and desire shot through him. “Tent. Now.”
She scrambled off his lap and he kicked dirt on their fire before joining her to light hers.
Chapter Twenty-One
Everything moved slowly. Boomer, Robb, and Linden followed Billy through the dark heat. They approached each guard from behind, took them out without a gunfight, and slid their bodies to the ground. Their silent deaths robbed the terrorists of the glory they wanted and for that, Neil was grateful.