Hot Pursuit: Hot Zone, Book 5 (7 page)

“That was…” What could she say? “Nothing’s ever happened to me quite like this.”

“A one-night stand?”

It dawned on her that she didn’t want this to be for one night, but they hadn’t agreed to more. They hadn’t said that after tonight they’d see each other again. “Never for this long. I mean….”

“You’ve never had sex this long or you’ve never had a one-night stand before?”

“Yes to both. Most men I know can’t…you know. Do it this many times in such a short time.”

“Like I told you, I’m not like any guy you’ve known.”

Humor laced his voice, and a soft, slight arrogance that surprised her. So maybe he wasn’t Mr. Perfect after all. “You know you’re good in bed?”

“A few women have said so.”

“So have you slept with a lot of women?”

He didn’t speak at first, but his body stiffened. He released her and propped up on one elbow. She turned to face him. In the low light he was a god, a rugged, rough god on par with any lover she’d imagined in her dreams.

“Depends on what you mean by a lot? Have you slept with a lot of men?”

Lucy hadn’t expected that comeback. “You answer the question first.”

He sighed, his mouth quirking up at the corners. “Six women.”

Her mouth opened and spoke before her brain engaged. “Six?”

Vic snorted. “Is there something wrong with the fact I’ve slept with six women?”

“No, of course not.”

“Uh-huh.” He didn’t sound quite like he believed her. “That’s not a lot of women considering the number of women who’ve asked me to sleep with them.”

Holy crap
. Her mouth popped open. Women
would
throw themselves at him.
Of course they would.
Vic had a charisma that lacked obnoxious arrogance but screamed double-digit confidence. A walk that said don’t-mess-with-me, a body sculpted by the gods, and rugged good looks that would make angels faint. She’d known other men with similar qualities, but none of them drew her like this man did. None of them made her warm, happy, feel protected and understood like Vic did. She still didn’t believe her good luck.

“How many have asked you to sleep with them?”

He made a small, exasperated noise. “Several. It started while I was at West Point. There were women throwing themselves at us like we might have some superpower sex or something. One guy called it the Warrior Syndrome. Women who get horny over men they consider heroes or someday heroes. It turns some women on. They smell testosterone and it switches on their ovaries.”

His blunt talk, so different from the seduction, from the hot but gentle persuasion, gave her pause.

Is that what she’d done? Wanting a sexual release but falling into the trap of being turned on by a lie? Did he think she was like those women? “You guys were being used as sex machines.”

“Yep.”

“What did you think of the women?”

“I didn’t pay much attention to it. I was too busy trying to study.”

“And you never had sex with any of them?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Oh.

In some ridiculous way she’d built him up in her mind on short acquaintance, made him less human, less real. Maybe she’d been looking for a hero that didn’t exist.

She pulled the covers up to her chin, suddenly cold. “Am I number six?”

He rolled onto his back and covered his eyes with his forearm. “Yes.”

They sank into quiet for a moment, awkwardness she suspected started when she’d begun questioning him. But why shouldn’t she ask questions and Vic answer? Didn’t she have a right to know if she was making another monumental mistake with a military man?

That tiny suspicion-o-meter went off in her head and started to wear away at her confidence in the situation.

“So how many men have you slept with?” he asked after the silence.

She drew in a breath, knowing she had to confess. “Three. You’re number three. Number one was my boyfriend in college. Two was the military guy who ran around with other women.”

“Not Danny?”

“No. We hadn’t gotten that far yet.”

“Yet you fell into bed with me after we’d known each other again for a short time.”

She looked at him sharply, but there wasn’t any coolness or condemnation in his tone. Just facts.

“Yes.”

Vic sat up, his gaze serious. “I feel a chill in here.”

She shivered. “It is cold, isn’t it?”

He sighed. “Do you want me to go?”

Startled by the question, she considered it. That’s all this was supposed to be, right? A hot pursuit of sex for one blazing night?

When she didn’t answer, doubt riding her hard, he made the decision for her. “I’ll head out.”

“But…”

He got off the bed and headed for the bathroom. When the door closed, her female brain asked the obvious question. What the hell had just happened? Didn’t she want him to stay? Was he insulted she hadn’t answered immediately? Or maybe she hadn’t answered right away because she wasn’t sure about him staying. She flopped back on the bed. Oh, God. Inside an ache started, one filled with confusion. What did she want now that the earth-shaking sex was over? The man was a stud and a half. She snapped on the bedside lamp. Yet he was far more than that. He was—

When the bathroom door opened, she’d already pulled the covers up around her chin again.

He searched the area for his clothes.

Say it, damn it. Before he gets away.
“Do you have to leave?”

Jeans back on, he stood bare-chested and hands on hips. A sad smile touched his mouth. “No, I don’t. But here’s the thing…you didn’t answer right away. You’re not sure about what we did. You need some time to think this whole thing over. You need to decide if the fact I’m in the military bothers you. Or if the fact that other women have come onto me bothers you. Maybe there’s a little part of you that believes the sexual harassment charge.”

Her mouth opened, but again nothing came out.

Lucy swallowed, her mind racing with questions. Only one would emerge. “Are you…what are you doing all this weekend?”

He shrugged. “I have a room over at the Beckworth Inn. Since my plans were changed last night, I’m kind of unsure what to do next. I planned on being here at least a week more, then back to Colorado Springs.”

“Oh.”
Oh? Is that all I can say?
“You hadn’t planned on seeing Marisa and Jake?”

“I planned to call them sometime this weekend. They knew I was coming in to town.”

When silence stretched, she slipped from the bed and rummaged in the closet for her robe. In the meantime, he pulled his sweater over that amazing chest. He returned to the utility room for his leather jacket and boots. She followed him to the door.

“Well, then,” she said when they stood at the door.

He smiled. “Yeah. Look, I’ll be at the inn, so you know where to find me.” Vic cupped her face. He kissed her softly, without any of the passion. “Wait. Got pen and paper? I’ll give you my cell number.”

She grabbed a notepad from a kitchen drawer and jotted down his cell number.

“Call me if you decide what you want,” he said.

He drew back and started to open the door. She clasped his forearm. “What do you want, Vic?”

His gaze searched her face. “To give you time. You’re confused, and hell, maybe I’m confused too. I thought Shelly cared about me and then she hosed up my life with lies, and you thought that jerk cared about you. One thing I do know. Last thing I want is to make you uncomfortable. Even if I’m in the military, I’m not like the ass wipe who didn’t have the brains to realize he was damned lucky you wrote him while he was at war. I know if you wrote me, I’d sure as hell fight tooth and nail to make sure I came back to you.” He shrugged. “But I’m through with women who aren’t sincere. Who don’t know what they want.” His eyes darkened. “I think I learned something about myself tonight. Maybe I don’t want one-night stands anymore.”

After he closed the door and left, she locked it and then slumped on the couch, her mind a bundle of contradictions. It had been a few hours of hot, incredible sex. Why did it have to become clouded with feelings? She felt connected to him at a level she wouldn’t have expected from such a short acquaintance, as if by letting him leave she’d lost a genuine chance for happiness. She wanted to be with a man who mattered. Who cared about people’s feelings, who had honor and integrity.

She headed back to bed a short time later and burrowed under the covers. Vic’s scent was on the sheets, and she loved it. She buried her face in the pillows, rolled from one side to the other as she experienced vivid recall of his body deep in hers, pounding out a bone-melting orgasm. She sighed. Confusion was a bitch. She hated confusion, and damned if she wasn’t baffled. Damn the man. He’d given her no ultimatums. He’d only asked for clarification and she couldn’t give him an answer. Perhaps he was right. Maybe the one-night stand needed to stay that way, a pleasant—hell, freaking fantastic memory to hold on to if her nights ever turned colder.

As she drifted into a restless sleep, a nightmare arose. Vic walked off into a sunset, never to be seen again, her opportunity to know something special blown to high hell.

Chapter Six

“Sounds like you had an interesting New Year’s Eve,” Neena said as she stood across from Lucy at Neena’s Breakfast Bar Sunday morning.

Lucy sighed as she slumped down on a barstool. She’d told Neena the whole story about Vic, including the part where his ex-girlfriend had dragged his name through the dirt. “I can’t believe that woman did that to him.”

Neena shook her head and took a sip of tomato juice, then rubbed her four-months-pregnant stomach. Her russet hair fell in a long, semi-wavy stream over her breasts. Her green eyes sparkled with genuine warmth and subtle amusement. Her oval face was never too made up. “Well, well. I never thought…” She shrugged. “Here I thought you and Danny would be all snuggled up somewhere for the weekend. Now you’re telling me that you did the two-backed beast with another military guy instead?”

Bleary eyed from not sleeping well Friday and Saturday night, Lucy stared at her half-full coffee cup. “Yup.”

“He’s good friends with Jake?”

“Well, he didn’t say friend. I guess they know each other.”

Neena laughed and stretched. Even pregnant and wearing a purple sweater hugging her rounding tummy, Neena had a glow about her, a kind of happiness Lucy feared she’d never know.

“Speaking of rascally men, where’s your husband?” Lucy asked.

“Dunno. He’s always tinkering with this place.” Neena glanced around the old house. “I have a hard time believing that this place is so pretty now. It took a lot of hard work.” The contentment on her face spoke volumes. “But I don’t regret a minute of it.”

“It’s beautiful. And you guys deserve it. You worked hard. Now you’ve got a little one on the way.”

Lucy tasted her coffee again, wishing she’d eaten more for breakfast. Her stomach grumbled and rolled a bit. Maybe it was punishment for New Year’s Eve’s sexual excess.

Neena shook her head again. “So Vic was this geek in high school.”

“A-number one. No glasses, but this big nose, big ears, gangly. Skinny. Dorky as hell. Yet he was the sweetest boy.”

Neena’s inquisitive expression widened to an evil grin. “Never underestimate a geek. Eve did that with Sean, and boy, did I underestimate Mitch.”

Eve had discovered when she saw Sean decked out in military uniform and packing a weapon, that the computer nerd was gorgeous as hell. Mitch had startled Neena by saving her skin during a robbery, while she saved his.

Lucy pushed her coffee away, confusion still twisting her up. “It was a mistake hooking up with Vic.”

Neena’s eyebrows lifted. “Honestly? Are you sure?”

“I’m not doing the military thing anymore.”

Neena nodded. “That’s what Marisa once said,”

True. Jake had come into Marisa’s life during a rescue in the Mexican jungle. Marisa had barely recovered from the death of her fiancé when Jake found a way into her reluctant heart.

“I’m not Marisa.”

Neena threw her a half-smile. “Your record with crappy military men is truly amazing.”

Lucy glanced around, not sure she wanted Mitch to hear this conversation. He’d been outside the isolated house shoveling snow when Lucy had arrived. While Lucy liked Mitch very much and had enjoyed photographing him for the Clarksville charity calendar two years ago, he had that something—whatever it was—that held him apart from other men. A watchfulness. She guessed being in a war could do that to a man. She’d seen it in Freddie’s husband, Keith Wallace, an Army Special Forces man, and fellow Special Ops soldier Jake Sullivan. They all possessed an extraordinary ingredient that made military men different from Joe Blow down the street. She didn’t want to like it, but seemed drawn to it every time. And her friends were very happily married to their big, tough military dudes. She couldn’t fault the guys for making her good buddies happy women.

“You ladies talking about me again?” Mitch sauntered from the utility room into the kitchen. A wide grin on his mouth said he found it amusing rather than irritating.

He was over six feet of tensile strength with piercing brown eyes that never missed anything. His collar-length dark hair and rugged features assured that he’d never be called a pretty boy.

“Of course we are.” Neena went into her husband’s arms and the two shared a short and yet tender kiss.

Mitch kept his arm around his wife’s waist. “Okay, since you weren’t really talking about me, who were you talking about?”

Keeping a straight face, Lucy said, “A friend of Jake’s. Well, a guy he knows anyway.”

“What’s this guy’s name?” Mitch released Neena and came around the counter.

His curiosity surprised her a little, but she answered after she finished a sip of coffee. “I ran into him on New Year’s Eve.”

Mitch threw her an even more curious look, his eyes narrowed. “So that’s where you were. We thought you were with Danny.”

Neena cleared his throat. “Mitch, that’s a long and personal story.”

“What did Danny do?” Mitch asked.

Lucy couldn’t hide her surprise as she swung toward Mitch. “How did you know he did something?”