Chapter 6
What the hell?
He was doing it. Again.
He’d just finished giving himself a ration of shit for the first time he’d touched Jett, and here he was, diving in for seconds.
It seemed he just couldn’t help himself, but in his defense, she was stunning, and…
…he had to admit he felt a little bit smug catching her off guard long enough to stop her sassy mouth.
And what a mouth it was.
The damned thing was made for kissing.
A bonus to their current lip-lock? The frustrating woman wasn’t currently goading him.
Of course, to Trask’s utter chagrin, she was also feasting on him as hungrily as he was on her, and he didn’t feel like stopping anytime soon, so he guessed she didn’t, either.
Her body fit snugly against his as she wriggled; connecting in all the right places.
Trask couldn’t help but wonder if those sensations would continue if they were both minus clothes.
He imagined they would, and that was dangerous.
He didn’t want to feel this attraction to a troublesome woman like Jett.
He didn’t want her messiness in his life. But…
…he sure as hell wanted her.
Which was bonkers.
He didn’t lose control like this.
It was time to put a stop to this madness and get back to the business of feeding her, then see her on her way.
Once she was out of sight, he could jettison her from his head for good.
Plague-be-gone.
Trask pulled away, but much to his chagrin, Jett didn’t move. She continued to sit astride him, eyes closed, lips wet and swollen, breathing shallowly like she’d just run a marathon as she clearly waited for more.
He’d never seen anything so erotic in his life, and his inclination was to give her what she wanted. Or, he could drive to the nearest motel and find out if she was willing to go for broke, but where would that get him?
In serious trouble.
Jett hit him as the kind of woman who, once fucked, would immediately assume she was in a relationship.
And that was a hard, no.
As intrigued as he was with the success his brothers had achieved in finding the loves of their lives, if he ever did locate someone with whom he could share the rest of his life, it sure as hell wouldn’t be a scatterbrain like Jett.
Although, maybe, scatterbrain wasn’t the right word.
After all, she’d managed to become a successful PJ for the Air Force, and a pilot to boot.
Which stymied him. So maybe a…chaotic rebel?
He certainly couldn’t imagine her buckling under to authority or following rules, even though she’d said that’s what enabled her to function.
Maybe she’d hidden her propensity for mayhem well for much of the time she’d been enlisted, but when she hadn’t…
she’d probably spent a lot of time being given extra duties as punishment.
Trask groaned. Punishment. Just his luck, she’d probably like that, too.
And now that she was out of the military? He’d easily peg her as a free spirited, throw-back hippy who danced naked in the moonlight,…and who needed a firm hand.
Now there was a picture.
An unsettling one that had him thinking about that motel again.
Enough.
Trask placed his hands on Jett’s slim waist, picked her up and deposited her back in her seat without fanfare.
Jett’s eyes opened.
She sighed.
“Second thoughts, huh? Or is it regrets?” she asked, poking the tip of her tongue out and making small swipes as if trying to savor the final taste of him.
Eyes off her tongue.
Trask forced his gaze up to hers.
“I apologize. I shouldn’t have done that,” he returned gruffly.
She blinked. Twice.
“I didn’t ask for an apology,” she told him in a schoolmarm-ish voice. “I asked if you regretted kissing me.”
Trask couldn’t lie. It wasn’t something he ever did easily.
“No. I don’t regret it.” He gave a long-suffering sigh and lifted a finger to wag it close to her face. “But hear this. It will not happen again.”
Jett’s lips turned up into a smug, angelic smile. “Of course not. Clearly it was all a big mistake,” she answered impishly. “And besides, we’ve already provided more than enough of a spectacle for the locals. Which means we should just go in and take our bows.”
“Wha—?”
He followed to where she pointed, and groaned.
Behind the big, plate-glass windows of the diner, at least four tables of people were watching them, all wearing pie-eating grins. And it wasn’t because of the diner’s dessert. It was due to the impromptu make-out session to which they’d just been witness.
“Dammit. We can go someplace else if I embarrassed you,” Trask offered, hoping she’d take him up on it, because he was mortified.
“No need,” she responded sassily, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. “I’m hungry, so if it’s okay with you, here is good.”
“Fine.” Trask gave a disgruntled huff, opened his door, and got out. Before he could go around to her side and reach hers to be a gentleman, her feet had already hit the parking lot pavement.
She widened her eyes at seeing his hand raised toward the door handle. “Oh. Were you going to do that thing where you help me out of the truck?” She beamed crazily. “That’s so cool. I’ve never seen that done in real life before.”
“Then you’ve been hanging around with the wrong kind of men,” Trask snapped back, trying not to be amused. Was every single thing about her, damned cute?
“No,” she corrected pragmatically. “I’ve been in the military where females and males are expected to be equals and pull their own weight.
” She grinned. “But I’m not averse to a little chivalry in my life now that I’m a civilian.
Should I get back in?” She turned, as if that’s exactly what she was going to do.
Trask bit back a chuckle that came from…somewhere inside him, and grabbed her arm, barely able to maintain his appearance of dourness. “No. It’s too late now. The moment’s been lost.”
He let go of her abruptly, because touching Jett made him want to kiss her all over again.
“We’ll just appear more like idiots than we already have.” He’d noticed that they were still the best show in town for the diners up front.
“Not idiots,” Jett told him succinctly. “Entertainment. There’s a difference. I’m almost imagining a cheer going up as we walk through the door, or maybe just a bunch of high-fives as we find a seat.”
Jett actually looked pleased at the prospect.
Trask was fit to be tied. He hated any kind of public displays, and he could tell that to his cock all day long, it seemed.
The frigging thing was still semi-hard from their impromptu make-out session.
Since when did that appendage have a mind of its own?
Trask had been able to control it quite nicely ever since he’d made it through his teens, and it had never once before led him anyplace…
inappropriate. Now, at forty-seven, his dick was going to become unruly?
“I’ll let you accept the praise,” he gruffed, willing his cock into submission. “I don’t do cheerful interactions with strangers.”
Jett turned her eyes to his and examined him closely. “Yeah. About that. There’s got to be a story there. I’ve spoken at length with two of your brothers, Spence and Buck, and both of them are funny, jolly sorts. I’d love to know what, exactly, happened to you to make you so…buttoned up.”
The answer was easy. Sort of. He hadn’t always been a hard-ass.
“The military,” he told her, grunting. “That’s all.” There was no way he was sharing with Jett the latest thing he’d undergone that had soured his outlook on life. He took her elbow and steered her toward the restaurant.
“I’m not buying that, Trask. Because it certainly wasn’t my experience in the Air Force, and I’ve also seen some stuff.”
He sent her a warning look, but the woman just wouldn’t quit. “None of the guys in my AFSOC unit were against having a little fun, no matter how tense things got.”
AFSOC stood for Air Force Special Operations Command.
Trask had previously wondered if she’d been part of the special tactics squadron or if she’d been active in the ACC, the Air Combat Command.
Now he knew, and it confused him even more.
The flighty woman before him had to have nerves of steel for the kinds of assignments she would have been given.
How she’d come out of that, after twenty years of service, with her irreverent humor and over-the-top flakiness still intact, was a mystery he’d like to solve.
“None of the people under my command were as free-spirited as you,” he countered grumpily. “If you’d been in my regiment, you’d be taking life much more seriously.” Or would she? Maybe her giddiness was so deeply ingrained, no superior officer had ever been able to get her to behave.
Behave…
And just like that, his stiffy was back, imagining the orders he could give her. Ones that she’d clearly disobey, making way for—
“Uh, we’re going in, right?” Jett asked cheekily, as if she knew exactly where his brain had gone.
“Of course,” he answered curtly, taking her elbow and once again willing his prick to calm the hell down.
He huffed and pushed through the door to the diner.
Holding it open for her with his free hand, Trask almost lost his mind. True to Jett’s speculation, they were met with a hearty dose of applause.
That killed his hard-on from hell.
A mixed blessing.
“So, back to your assertion of taking life seriously,” Jett snickered, clearly enjoying her moment of notoriety. “Where would the fun be in that?”
She got a spark in her eye that had him tensing. What was she—?
Turning adroitly, Jett reached up, grabbed his clean-shaven chin, pulled his head down, and planted a firm kiss on his lips.
Whistles and catcalls erupted amongst the diners.
Trask floundered.
What the hell…?
An order for everyone to cease and desist was just about to spring to his tongue, when Jett interceded.
Before he got himself in hot water, she executed an impromptu pirouette, followed by a deep curtsy.
She then grabbed his hand, making a shushing noise under her breath as if she knew exactly what he was going to say, and like a reigning queen, gave that palm forward wave to everyone as they wended their way down the central aisle and found a table.
Trask slid into one side of the booth with a scowl, which deepened even further with Jett’s continued grin as she sat.
“Don’t you just love these local places?” she gushed. “I missed New England so much when I was away.”
This change of subject, Trask could deal with. “Where were you stationed?” he asked, moodily picking up the menu to peruse the offerings.
“Oh, here and there,” she answered vaguely. “Florida for a while, like I said. But I finished out my final assignment doing two years in Texas.”
“Lackland,” Trask responded knowledgably. He was feeling as if he’d reached safer grounds. “So, you were there to train a new batch of PJs.”
“Smart man,” Jett smiled.
Huh. So, not only was she bright enough to be in special forces, once she’d hung up her deployment-parachute, so to speak, she’d gone on to teach the best of the best.
If Trask’s brain had been confused before by this enigmatic woman, it was scrambled eggs, now.
Speaking of which…
“I’m going to have a late day breakfast,” Trask revealed, deciding not to probe any further. Her life was hers. It was none of his business. And she’d be out of his, very soon. “Fried eggs, bacon, toast, and home-fries. What about you?”
“Midafternoon breakfast sounds perfect,” she agreed. “Except mine will be dropped eggs, a double-high stack of pancakes, and two orders of sausage.”
Trask barely managed to keep his mouth from dropping open.
Jett continued to surprised him.
Where the hell did she put that kind of food? That was a hearty-man’s meal, and if he ate like that regularly? At his age and at twice her weight, he’d be taking naps, and gaining a middle-aged spread.
“Good metabolism,” she told him, easily reading his face, which was becoming a bit…annoying. How was it that she could always tell what he was thinking?
The waitress approached and asked if they wanted coffee, to which they both readily said yes.
After their dark brews were poured, the woman took their orders and left.
“Now we seem to be at a bit of an impasse,” Jett declared, blowing across the top of her cup, which made Trask fixate on her mouth again, and what it was capable of…
Wood alert.
“How so?” he responded brusquely, shifting to make room for the bad boy who wouldn’t behave.
This should be good.
“Well,” she speculated, “you won’t tell me why you’re so uptight. So what do you want to talk about?”
Something safe, he wanted to say.
Right.
More to the point, something that would get his mind off what an unpredictable wildcat this woman would be in bed.