Page 11 of Only Her (K2 Team)
Was it possible to fall for a man because of a few words he’d said? She wondered if he realized how much he had revealed about himself just then. Riley swallowed the lump in her throat, and not trusting her voice, she nodded. The bigger-than-life man standing in front of her with pain shining in those dark eyes had a bigger-than-life heart.
“Thank you.” He lifted his hand and trailed a finger down her cheek. “Another time, another place, Riley, you and I...” He trailed off, his gaze falling to her mouth.
Yes, kiss me.He didn’t, though. As he walked away, she said a prayer that he would stay safe, while wondering what was wrong with this time and this place.
CHAPTER FIVE
He’d come close to kissing her again. Almost wished he had. The vibes for this operation weren’t good. It was probably because of his state of mind and had nothing to do with any danger he would face tracking down two kids who thought they were in love. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that what seemed like a piece of cake was going to turn out to be far from it. He should have kissed her good-bye.
“You’ll be flying into Des Moines where I’ll have a car waiting for you. It’s about an hour and a half drive to Fort Dodge, the last place the couple was spotted,” Kincaid said, drawing Cody’s attention back to the briefing.
Cody eyed the digital map Kincaid had pulled up on the wall. “Who the hell runs away to Iowa?”
Ryan O’Connor, his teammate on this operation, smirked. “What, you don’t like potatoes and corn?”
“Corn and potatoes, I don’t have a problem with. It’s dumb kids I don’t like.” Cody sat back in his chair. “What’s the background on these two?”
Kincaid slid dossiers across the table, one to him and the other to Ryan. “Small problem. The boy’s father is an antique gun collector, and several of his pieces are missing.”
The bad vibes that had been doing a slow dance in his head decided it was time to do a jig. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d never had misgivings before about walking into any situation. For a millisecond, he considered telling Kincaid that he wasn’t ready to return to action, but then he’d probably be ordered to see a head doc. Besides, the mission was just to retrieve two kids, nothing he couldn’t handle.
At the Pensacola airport, a Learjet was waiting to fly them to Des Moines, arranged so that they wouldn’t have to go through airport security to board a commercial flight. Considering both he and Doc were carrying, and each had knives secreted on their bodies, they would have set off all kinds of alarms.
“When am I gonna get to meet your woman?” he asked, once the Learjet’s wheels lifted.
Ryan laughed. “Don’t let Charlie hear you call her my woman. She’ll punch you in the nose.”
“I’ll make a note of that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all my mates getting hitched. No way I’m drinking the water at K2.”
“Your turn will come, and it’ll have nothing to do with the water. It just takes the right woman.”
His friend sounded happy, not like the man who a year ago had mourned the death of his first wife. Cody had sensed that there was more to the story than a simple robbery gone wrong, but if so, Ryan had never shared the details. All of his teammates were disgustingly in love, their eyes lighting up at the slightest mention of their wives or fiancées. It was one of the things that made Cody uneasy coming to K2, like an outsider peering into the windows of their happy homes.
Although his parents had been baffled by their son’s love of all things military since the day he’d found a G.I.Joe in the toy box at day school, he couldn’t remember the last time they’d hugged him. They’d made it quite clear they didn’t approve of his life choices, and displays of affection weren’t in their DNA. All the love business going on around him unwillingly fascinated him, but no way was that a poke of envy he felt.
He had met Kincaid’s family, and the man they’d called Iceman during their SEAL days, the man he’d once suspected might live out his days alone, had gone all touchy-feely, unable to keep his hands off his wife and children.
Then there was Jake and Maria. Someday he would get Jake drunk enough to learn how he’d gotten up the nerve to go after the boss’s sister, risking life and limb. That had to be love, right? Not long after that, Jamie Turner had fallen into the trap with a woman named Sugar. Cody was pretty sure Jamie could entertain him for hours with that story. And now Ryan was about to marry a stunt plane pilot who would punch Cody in the nose if he said the wrong thing to her. Already he liked the woman.
It boggled the mind how each of his teammates had somehow found a woman who perfectly suited him.
“You’ll meet Charlie as soon as we get back. Kincaid’s having an engagement party at his beach house.” Ryan glanced at him. “You’re welcome to bring a date.”
Hell. Cody Roberts didn’t date. Not anymore. Yet, the way Riley’s eyes had darkened with desire when he’d kissed her popped into his mind. Since she was the only woman he knew in Pensacola, maybe he’d ask her. It wouldn’t mean anything, wouldn’t be a real date, just neighbors going somewhere together.
Liar.Not liking that voice in his head, Cody lowered his seat back and closed his eyes, pretending to go to sleep. Problem—behind his closed eyelids, there was Riley’s sweet mouth, parting open when he’d almost kissed her. He willed away the image of her leaning against the wall and how he’d wanted to push his body hard against hers and take her right then and there in the hallway of her animal clinic.
A woman who cried at the loss of someone else’s pet deserved better than he could ever give her, though. After he got home and picked up his dogs, maybe he’d look for someplace else to live so he wouldn’t see her every day.
“We’re on the ground,” Ryan said, punching Cody’s arm.
Cody blinked open his eyes, surprised he’d fallen asleep. Too afraid the nightmares would come, he never slept on planes or wherever someone might hear him call out. Since his teammate wasn’t looking at him as if he’d just stepped off a spaceship from Mars, it seemed he hadn’t yelled anything.
He’d nodded off thinking of Riley. Maybe she was the answer to keeping his demons at bay. If he could fill his mind with her before going to sleep, there might not be any room for whatever ghosts were haunting him.
“Let’s roll,” Ryan said, grabbing his bag from under his seat when the plane came to a stop. “I want to get this kindergarten operation over with so I can get home. Charlie has an air show Sunday I don’t wanna miss.”
And Cody only had his dogs to go home to. But that was the way he wanted it, right? “Yeah, let’s get it done.”
