Page 20 of Coming Undone

“Seriously?” She propped her head on her hand, balanced on one elbow. The red piece of licorice he’d tied around her wrist like a bracelet earlier slid down her arm and he looked forward to eating it off her soon. “You wouldn’t mind heading into a war zone?”

His gut tightened when he thought of her over there. “I’ve always thought it would be cool to serve. You know that old parable about to him much is given, much is expected?” He shrugged, not sure how to explain it any better than that. “I’ve been given a hell of a lot.”

Her blue eyes turned thoughtful. More serious than usual. “I just want to get away. Christina wanted volunteers and I jumped. I thought I’d never win the slot to film her interviews, but it turns out that most people at the news magazine where I intern have families. None of them wanted to go overseas. So the next thing I knew, the job was mine.”

He realized they’d have an interpreter. Understood that Christina was well-schooled in politics and journalism even if Stephanie was a young film student without a lot of experience. Still… the idea of her over there bothered him. Tough to say why when they’d only known each other briefly. All along she’d been open about the fact that she just wanted to have fun right up until she left on Friday.

“At least you’ll be conducting interviews from a well secured base, right?” He couldn’t ignore the creepy feeling crawling up his back, a spidery chill despite the warmth of his body from their sensual exertions.

“So I hear.” She smiled that wry, half-grin of hers that always made him feel like he was part of an inside joke. “But if you’d rather move in and be my sex toy for the year, maybe I can sell my plane ticket to someone else.”

She palmed his thigh and started a slow stroke upward, her gaze never leaving his. His body stirred automatically, no matter the dark thoughts stirring around his brain.

“Sex toy?” He traced her mouth with one finger, dipping between her lips until she closed her eyes and drew on the digit. “I wouldn’t give it up for a whole year without a commitment. I think you’d have to elope with me.”

Her eyes popped wide and she let go of his thigh to grip his wrist and squeeze the finger he’d been teasing her with.

“Oh really?” She nodded slowly. “A Vegas wedding. I can see it now – you in a tacky Hawaiian shirt and the free high-roller Ray-Bans from our motel. Me in a feathered show girl outfit with the big headdress instead of a veil.”

“We’d need an Elvis impersonator,” he added.

“That’d be the chaplain, of course.” She shimmied seductively beneath the sheet that covered her. “And afterward, I’d give you a VIP lap dance worthy of the show girl outfit.”

He clamped a hand on her hip and pinned her to the bed with his thigh over hers.

“We are going to seriously consider this plan…”

Blinking his way out of the memory and back to the private plane bound for Cape Cod, Danny wished they really had considered the long-ago plan. What might their lives have been like if they’d talked each other into one more crazy day together, capped by a trip to Vegas?

Instead, she’d risked her life and come home with scars she kept hidden- the kind on the inside that she hadn’t really shared with him yet. And he’d altered his path for good so that now he didn’t have the freedom that he used to, his years committed to the Navy. Should he even try to tell her how he felt about her? Make a bid for her even though he’d be on a ship for three quarters of every year for a couple more years until he moved up in rank?

Or just enjoy the moment like he had the first time they’d met, leaving her free to find a guy who wouldn’t be gone all the time?

The answers weren’t as obvious to him as they had been even two days ago. He just knew he couldn’t allow her to be hurt again, even if that meant letting her go at the end of his three-week stint at home.

While his head throbbed with the need for answers, the turbulence settled. Unfastening her seat belt, he got up to explore the plane and his iPhone chimed with the tone reserved for an incoming video.

He checked the ID and saw it was his younger brother, Kyle. Hitting the screen to answer, he watched as Kyle’s face filled the screen, a blur of blue, black, and white behind him. Danny recognized the Phantoms’ locker room from the din of guys shouting as much as the oversized logo on a wall in the background.

“Hey bro!” Kyle shouted into the phone, his voice loud to talk over the noise around him.

An NHL hockey star, Kyle had just started the new season with the Philadelphia Phantoms after leading them to the Stanley Cup the year before.

“Hey yourself.” Danny smiled over at Stephanie to let her know the call wasn’t private. “It’s just my kid brother,” he told her. “Want to say hi?”

She nodded, but she lowered her voice. “You’re allowed to use a cell phone on the plane?”

“One of many joys of a private plane.” He flipped his phone around to let her greet the family runt. Okay, the beast who was bigger than all of them except for Axel.

“Hi, Danny’s Brother,” she greeted him, waving at the device. “Nice to meet you.”

Danny gave his brother a second to say hello, then turned the screen around to continue the call.

Kyle pantomimed a silent “wow,” no doubt recognizing Stephanie as the woman Danny nearly lost his mind over five years ago. At least the rest of the family should have been warned since Danny had given his mother the green light to tell people that he’d be coming home with Stephanie.

“So what’s up? Still practicing this late in the day?” He knew the Phantoms usually did their team skate in the mornings during the pre-season, but the guys he glimpsed around him every now and then appeared to be in practice uniforms.

“Double practice today since coach says we all got soft over the summer.” Kyle shoved another player who was joking around, pretending to take his phone away. “Ax and I just finished up.”

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