Collateral Damage (18 page)

In the photos Jackson wore khakis and a white button down shirt, while Maya had on a white and blue Hawaiian print dress that showed off her beautiful golden skin, and a bunch of white orchids nestled in her pinned-up dark hair. They were standing in profile to the camera, hands clasped at waist level as they gazed into each other’s eyes. Maya might be tough as nails and the last woman on earth to ever be accused of being mushy, but the love and adoration she felt for Jackson was captured beautifully in those pictures. It warmed Honor’s heart to see it.

“That’s so romantic,” she said with a sigh. “How is Maya these days? I haven’t heard from her in about a month.”

“She’s doing good. Getting all her stuff ready to submit to the FBI.”

Hard core, considering what she’d gone through during her captivity. “And I heard she’s getting one hell of a letter of recommendation to go along with her application,” Honor added with a satisfied grin.

Jackson smiled as he swallowed a bite of chicken. “The Secretary of Defense has been true to his word about backing her application, yes.”

“Good,” Ace said with a nod. “Least he can do after you guys saved his life.”

Jackson shrugged, as though his harrowing escape from a terrorist prison with Maya and the SecDef wasn’t a big deal. “Just did my job.”

And that’s why PJs were so freaking heroic, Honor thought with a fond grin.

“Either of you guys seen Liam in the last day or two?” Ace asked suddenly.

Both men looked at Ace and got real quiet, which told Honor everything she needed to know. From their reaction she knew for certain they’d been on that mission with Liam. It was possible that Liam had even flown them to and from the crash site.

“I saw him as he got out of his bird the night of the CSAR mission,” Honor said. “I was standing on the tarmac. Just…do you know if he’s okay?” She felt awkward even asking, but she needed to know. It made her heart ache to think he was hurting from the loss of his SOAR brothers. He’d never tell anyone, just suffer in silence.

“He wasn’t injured,” Cam said, probably to put her mind at ease.

“I know, but I heard about the KIAs he knew and Ace just told me about the wounded pilot.”

Cam exchanged an unreadable look with Ace before looking back at her, his blue eyes full of empathy. “Maybe you should talk to him yourself before you leave.”

“Yeah.”
Not gonna happen.

Honor looked down at her plate, knowing there was no point in even trying to track him down and talk now. Best to just leave well enough alone and see if time and distance would help her move on this time. Even when they’d been at their closest Liam wasn’t one to talk about friends he’d lost in combat. There was no way he’d open up to her about it now.

“No, seriously, you should try and talk to him,” Ace said. “Tonight.” She had a tendency to be bossy, but in this case Honor sensed she was just trying to be helpful. Because she didn’t know what a mess Honor had made of things with Liam.

“Maybe, but I gotta go get some work finished up first,” she lied, pushing her chair out and standing. “I’ll see you guys later. And hopefully I’ll see you at the end of the aisle waiting for your gorgeous bride in a few months,” she said to Cam.

Breathing in deeply as she stepped outside, she walked back to her hut. Seeing Erin’s bunk stripped and all her stuff missing was freaking depressing. She grabbed her toiletries and headed across to the showers to get cleaned up.

Freshly showered and changed into her nightwear, she settled on her bunk to read a while. Footsteps outside alerted her that her solitude was about to be interrupted so she set down her e-reader and looked at the plywood door, expecting to see either Ace or their new roomie, Barb, come in.

The door slid open and she stared in shock as Liam walked in instead.

He shut it tight behind him, his green eyes locked on her. Honor stood slowly, aware of her heart pounding in the sudden silence. He looked tired but too sexy for words standing there in his desert camo pants and light tan T-shirt that hugged his muscular chest and upper arms. A slight shadow of stubble covered his jaw.

He raked that intense green gaze over her, taking in the Night Stalkers T-shirt he’d given her when they’d been together. Maybe she’d been stupid to keep it but when she wore it she felt less alone and it helped her remember all the good times when they’d been together.

Liam’s eyes stopped at her breasts, where the font read
Death Waits in the Dark
above the Night Stalker logo. Her nipples tightened instantly against the soft cotton as heat punched through her.

Crossing her arms over her breasts, she found her voice. “What are you doing here?”

His gaze shifted to hers. “Heard you’re going back stateside soon.”

“Yeah.”
And?
She felt vulnerable as hell standing there in nothing but his shirt and a pair of sleep shorts. Then realization dawned and she narrowed her eyes. “Did you set this up with Ace?”

Looking totally unapologetic, he nodded.

Honor didn’t understand. “Why?”

“Wanted to see you.”

Arms still clamped across her chest, she cocked her head, refusing to allow herself to feel hopeful. Didn’t matter how much she felt or how much she still wanted him, because she couldn’t have him. “Why’s that?”

He didn’t answer, only stared at her with those hungry green eyes.

Her belly flipped as she imagined them on her bunk, his hard body on top of hers as he pinned her to the bed. Irritated, she scowled at him and raised her chin. She didn’t have time for games. “Seriously, what do you want, Liam?” Why show up here, now, when there was nothing left to say and she was leaving in two days?

Rather than answer, he reached out one hand to snag a chair set against the wall and slid the top of its back beneath the door handle, barricading the door. She tore her gaze from the powerful muscles shifting in his arms and chest to find him watching her with that hot, piercing stare.

His expression was hungry. Predatory.

“Closure,” he rasped out.

Liam had no fucking idea what he was doing here.

He’d been lying in his bunk, trying to get some rest before the upcoming mission brief when he’d received the text from Ace saying Honor was heading to her hut. Alone, already feeling raw from the one-two punch of his fellow Night Stalkers’ deaths and Honor’s impending departure, he’d made a snap decision and headed over without stopping to think it through.

Now that he was standing twelve feet away from her, he still didn’t know exactly what he wanted. She’d hurt him too badly and he couldn’t trust her not to do it again, so for him there was no going back to the way things had been. All he knew was, he couldn’t go on this way. He couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t stop thinking about Honor, or the fact that she was leaving and he might never see her again. He’d already lost her once without the finality of a real goodbye. This time he needed one.

She stared back at him with those wide aqua eyes, arms crossed over the front of his old shirt, wearing a pair of shorts that hit her at upper thigh and left the length of her toned legs bare. Strong, sexy legs she’d wrapped around his back and shoulders as he buried himself inside her and made her come. “What kind of closure?” she murmured.

Fuck if he knew. “The definitive kind.” It was the only thing he could think of that would end his torment. A clean cut this time instead of the jagged, messy wound he’d endured before. He wanted to walk out of here knowing once and for all that they were done, so he could move forward again.

When she stood there stiffly he wondered how sore her shoulder still was. “So what do you want me to say?” she asked.

Liam resisted the urge to drag a hand through his hair. Christ, he was losing his mind being torn about her. Even now, part of him wanted to strip her naked and claim her in the most basic way possible. But the other wanted to hear her verbally acknowledge that they were
over
, so the decision would be made for him and he could finally put her behind him. He’d told himself on the way over that all he needed was to see her one last time. That once he did he’d be able to let go, on his terms.

Now he realized that was bullshit.

The connection between them was too strong, the pull too hard to resist, and there’d never be anyone else like Honor. The hell of it was, he still cared about her, still wanted her, even if he goddamn
knew
there was no future for them. At least he wasn’t the only one affected. Going by the way her eyes turned molten as she watched him, she still wanted him too.

At the moment that was more than enough.

His heart beat faster as he stared at her. He remembered exactly what her naked body felt like against his, what drove her crazy in bed and the sounds she made as she came undone for him. He wanted all of it again now.

The air grew heavy with anticipation as they continued to stare at each other across the small space between them. Liam was fighting a losing battle and he knew it. They were alone, no one but Ace knew he was here, and they had more than an hour until he had to be at the briefing. His heart thudded hard against his sternum, his body primed and ready to take.

Honor continued to watch him with a conflicting mix of wariness and heat that tied him in knots. Her gaze roamed over his face like a physical touch before settling on his mouth. Then her tongue darted out to slide across her lower lip. As if she wanted to taste him.

Liam’s control snapped.

He stalked toward her, his entire body strung taut with desire as he halted a foot away from her, close enough to catch her sharply indrawn breath and smell the scent of soap and shampoo on her hair and skin. The pulse point in her throat beat hard and fast. He was already hard and throbbing for her. His hands flexed with the need to touch, to claim.

“You kept my shirt,” he said, his voice low and raspy. Seeing it on her fired something primitive inside him. An instinct that insisted she was still his and always would be, no matter what. Had she had other lovers after him? Had she let another man kiss her, put his hands on her naked body? The thought made a growl of denial rise in his throat.

Honor held his gaze and didn’t say anything because the response was obvious.

He wanted her to admit the reason she wore it. “Why?”

“Because I like it.”

No. “Why?” he demanded, an edge of steel to his voice.

“It reminds me of you,” she said with a slight shrug.

He suppressed a triumphant sound. “You sleep in it.”

Her chin lifted, almost in defiance. “So? I like the feel of it against my skin.”

Because it reminded her of him. His touch. The feel of his body on hers. Him moving inside her, making her feel so good she cried out his name over and over.

The confirmation broke the last thread of caution holding him in check.

Reaching up to take her face between his hands, he brought his mouth down on hers. Hard.

Honor gasped as he pushed his tongue between her lips, needing to be inside her. The familiar taste of her flooded him with memories. Flashes of slow, heated make-out sessions, and lazy weekend mornings in bed exploring each other’s bodies.

She uncrossed her arms and grabbed hold of his shoulders, her fingers sinking into him as she surged up on tiptoe to deepen the kiss. Heat exploded in his gut. He groaned in approval and backed her up against the rough plywood wall, one hand sliding between it and her shoulder to protect her stitches, his other arm snaking around her waist to pull her flush to his body. She moaned at the contact and opened for the urgent stroke of his tongue, the softness of her breasts pressed against his chest and one leg hooking around the back of his.

He gripped the back of her head with one hand and cupped one of her ass cheeks with the other, lifting her into him. The moment his erection rubbed against the apex of her thighs she gasped and he felt a tremor rip through her. Raw, explosive need slammed into him.

More. Deeper.

Mine.

The kiss was wild and hungry, frantic. He took her mouth as he wanted to take her body, tangling his tongue with hers, nipping and licking at her lips and she was right there with him. Using his strength to hold her in place and recalling every secret he knew about her body, Liam mounted a full-out assault on her senses.

Honor whimpered into his mouth and rubbed herself against him, wrapping her legs around his hips in an attempt to get closer. He turned them and lowered her to her back on the bunk, then immediately covered her with his weight. The feel of her beneath him obliterated the ability to think. She gripped the back of his neck and arched upward, the needy little sounds coming from her throat making him even hotter.

Impatient, he reached one hand down, grasped the hem of the T-shirt and yanked it upward. He broke the kiss long enough to look down and take in the sight of her round breasts, heaving with each excited breath she took and topped with tight, candy pink nipples.

The sight of her naked and spread out beneath him for the first time in more than a year and a half made his hand shake as he brushed the hair back from her face. He’d missed her. Missed her so goddamn much it had been like walking around with a giant hole in the center of his chest for the past nineteen months.

He’d told himself it couldn’t possibly have been as good between them as he remembered, but it was. It was
better
. Their chemistry was as intense as ever, unlike anything he’d felt with anyone else. He’d imagined this moment so many times, he could hardly believe it was happening.

On a wordless groan he cupped her breasts, stroking his thumbs across the rigid peaks. Honor gasped and dug her fingers into his scalp, urging him closer. Lowering his head, he took a nipple into his mouth and sucked.

“Ah, God,” she cried, twisting in his grip.

Liam looked up into her face. A dark part of him thrilled at her expression of sensual ecstasy as he laved and sucked at her sensitive flesh. His cock was swollen to bursting against the front of his pants, pressing on her inner thigh. With her legs still wrapped around him she undulated, rubbing over his rigid flesh.