Guardian (15 page)

Madison slumped back. She spent her days picking out marble statues and reinventing the Kama Sutra with her boy toy.

She thumbed a stack of papers, schedules, and charts alongside a legal pad with notes…

Out in the open.

For anyone in this house to see.

Even Caleb.

Her skin went icy as a horrible possibility whispered insidiously to life. Her affair with Caleb had started after the trial. He’d said he wanted to go public, but he’d never argued overlong when she insisted on keeping it private. Her eyes went back to all that information about the trial spread out in front of her.

Could Caleb have been tempted to look at Sophie’s notes? Had he been alone long enough to sift through?

And an even more insidious thought whispered through her mind. Could he have started this whole relationship to get an inside look at trial information her brother might have? It seemed crazy. David was on his side, after all. But she also knew David would never lie for Caleb. If something bad came up, he would reveal it to the prosecution…

Every other man she’d slept with had lied to her, used
her. She’d thought Caleb was different, that she was in control this time. Now, she wasn’t so sure.

*    *    *

Sophie strolled beside David as he finished the last of a smoked turkey leg. Content to lag behind the children, she watched Brice and Haley Rose sprint ahead to the log ride. Safely in sight, while giving her a breather.

Heat from the asphalt radiated up, warming her calves. The breeze mingled scents of sticky tar and sweat. The faceless crowd pressed around them. She and David walked side by side in an easy silence that offered a different kind of intimacy, no less compelling than the conversations they’d shared alone. Coming here with him hadn’t provided the emotional distance she’d expected, only expanded the ways she felt drawn to him.

Connected.

She twined around a couple pushing a baby stroller and closed back in beside David. His longer strides kept a slower pace to accommodate her shorter steps. Her arms swung by her sides, her hands empty and lonely.

He gripped her elbow to guide her as a teen on Rollerblades sped past. The warmth of his fingers lingered long after he dropped his hand away. This evening spent with David and the children had been everything she could have wanted and feared.

Too perfect.

How simple it would be to slide an arm around his waist, tuck her hand in his back pocket. Too easy.

Sophie looked away and stared up through the webbing of steel bonding the Ferris wheel. Her life seemed just as convoluted as the workings of the carnival ride.

David tossed his trash into a metal can. “Do you want to ride? We can make the kids get on, too.”

“I don’t do carnival rides.”

His eyebrows lifted in surprise. “You’re afraid?”

“Hey, I was top of my class in survival training,” she answered defensively. “I wear the uniform. I’ve pulled my time in a war zone overseas. I would rather not add any extra risks to my life, thank you very much.”

“Isn’t life all one big chance? We control what we can.”

Pulling her gaze away from the ride, she shivered. Her husband had said much the same thing too many times to count. “It doesn’t have to be all about the thrill of cheating death.”

His jaw clenched, his skin pulling tauter across his prominent cheekbones. “I don’t do my job for some sick adrenaline rush.”

“I know that. But it’s still such a part of who you are, being a part of the test world, taking just as many risks here as you do over there.” Her throat closed, and she swallowed. “Even on a simple day like today, you’re on alert. You keep your back to a wall most of the time. You scan the crowd as if looking for trouble.”

“Not looking
for
trouble. Watching
out
for it.” No humor shone in his eyes. “There’s a difference.”

Her father hadn’t sought danger as Lowell had, but the end result had been the same. She didn’t see the need to tell David, since it would only spoil the night. “Just forget about it. I’m being argumentative. Chalk it up to the lawyer side of me taking over, but I’ve got that reined back in again. Let’s not ruin a really wonderful evening.”

Nothing left to say, she turned away from the Ferris wheel and looked back at the log ride where the kids were
piling into one of the cars. While the children set off on their ride, Sophie struggled to think of some benign topic for conversation to reclaim the ease they’d felt minutes earlier.

David cleared his throat. “Are we back to juvenile arm punching to avoid admitting how much we want each other?”

His words stunned her silent—for a second.

“I think that constitutes a major break in the unwritten rule to keep things light.”

“By all means, keep me straight on the rules. That’s your job.”

Damn. There she went again, taking out her stress on him, fighting to cover up how much she wanted to jump his bones. He didn’t deserve her anger after all he’d done for her family.

She tapped a gentle punch against his arm, her fist comically small and unthreatening despite her kick-ass training. “Sorry for picking a fight. We’re not sitting in some war room with me spouting the laws of armed conflict from the Geneva convention. Although I have to think things would be simpler between us if we had a rule book.”

Sophie unfurled her fingers and trailed a path down to his wrist. The feel of him grew more familiar with each touch. She lost track of how long they stood there, just staring at each other.

David linked his hand with hers. “I’m not going to make any move you don’t want.”

“What I want and what’s smart don’t always match.”

He stepped closer. “Then I guess we’re in the same boat.”

Her body flamed to life, aching to explore the feel of
skin-on-skin contact with him. Would he bring that intensity and generosity into the bedroom? Into making love?

“Hey, Mom, David!” Brice shouted, racing toward them. “That was fun. Can we go again? And how about you get on the log ride with us this time? Please. Don’t be a chicken.”

Each child grabbed a parent’s hand and tugged them to the towering wooden structure, water sluicing over the sides.

“Dad, come on!”

“Hurry before the line gets longer.”

Sophie allowed her son to lead her, needing a breather from David. His shadow lengthened on the pavement ahead of her, bobbing and merging with hers. How easy it would be to blend hers with his. But then wouldn’t she lose her own defining shape?

She’d been so sure on the dock earlier that she was ready to embrace life again. To stop being afraid.

The challenge was here—not just some amusement-park ride—but the real thing. She could have an affair with David that might even turn into more if she dared.

And right now, she felt like she could dare just about anything.

Bang!

David watched Sophie down tin duck after duck, impressed as hell. She’d been damn near on fire since she’d surprised them all by climbing into the log ride.

Although there wasn’t much more he could do than watch, since she was so competent with the gun, she definitely didn’t need instruction from him. So here he stood, burning with the urge to step up behind her, wrap his arms around her, and enjoy her bottom wriggled up tight against him.

“Yes.” She pumped her fist as she won—again.

Her smile, her grit, reached out to him and his eyes held hers, about as much as they could risk out here with the kids around. But he wanted more from her, and he was sensing a green light from her.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. They could pursue this attraction without letting the kids know what was going on. Everyone would be safe.

And safety on all levels had to be his primary concern.

He’d worked every angle he could today, placing calls, then stuck waiting around for answers while he whacked golf balls and tortured himself with more tempting family time.

The mechanic’s report had been inconclusive. It appeared the accident had been caused by a blowout. There hadn’t been any foreign bodies puncturing the tire. His best guess had been low air. Which even though Sophie said she kept her car maintained, low air could happen at any time.

Or someone could
make
it happen and leave no trail leading back to the person responsible.

Frustration fired through him. A call to the new commander asking him to pull strings and get some extra manpower looking into all these accidents hadn’t netted him jack shit in the way of help. Since their previous commander, Colonel Rex Scanlon, had transferred, the unit had been, for all intents and purposes, rudderless. Each test ran on its own, with no cohesive leader. David hadn’t been able to decide if the new commander was spineless, lazy, or just so terrified of having anything going wrong on his watch that he did nothing.

Caleb had become distant as well. The enthusiasm that had made the young captain such an asset to the dark ops test world had been squashed. Even if he beat this rap, chances were Caleb would be so tentative in the cockpit he wouldn’t be effective.

The thought stopped David up short.

Hadn’t he become like that in his personal life? Letting the failure with Leslie hold him back from risking
anything else? He’d told himself he was keeping relationships uncomplicated for Haley Rose’s sake…

Now he wasn’t so sure.

For the moment, he couldn’t do anything more about the trial. But when it came to Sophie? He could follow this attraction, see where it led, be sure he was going into the affair with his eyes open and expectations in check.

He skimmed the back of his fingers down Sophie’s arm. “Time to choose your prize.”

A wry smile played with her lips. “I’m having trouble deciding what I want.”

“You seem like a woman who knows her own mind.” He ached to close the inches between them.

A shower of crushed ice sprayed them.

“Oops.” Haley Rose clutched her empty cup, her eyes wide with overplayed innocence. “Sorry, Dad. Sorry, Sophie.”

David brushed the ice chips from his shorts. “Don’t worry, runt. Accidents happen.”

“Hey, lady,” the duck-shoot vendor bellowed, chomping her chewing gum. “Are you gonna pick something or not?” Chomp, chomp. “You can have one from this row or two from that.”

“Why don’t we just let Brice and Haley Rose choose again?” Sophie dabbed the wet spots on her cotton top, only just dried from their dousing on the log ride.

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her back to the dangling prizes. “They both already have a prize, since you’ve kicked this game’s ass. Come on, Sophie. Be a kid for a minute. If you don’t decide on something, I’m going to get the five-foot alligator and put it in your office.”

Brice reached, stretching up on his toes to get a long stuffed toy snake. “Cool.”

Sophie stopped Brice’s arm midway and turned to David. “You’ve convinced me.”

She paced along the stall, taking her time, gently touching different dangling stuffed animals, a spotted dog, a long-necked flamingo. As she analyzed her choices, David wondered if she ever made impulsive decisions. Not likely, given her legal-eagle mind.

Sophie lingered in front of a plush brown bear, and he thought she’d made her logical choice. Suddenly, the smile that never failed to drive him to his knees melted over her face.

“That one.” She pointed to a two-foot-tall pink kangaroo. “I want that one.”

All three of the vendor’s golden nose rings glinted in the booth’s flashing lights as she unhooked the neon toy. Sophie had surprised him again, but he wasn’t going to argue. She’d probably settled because she couldn’t make up her mind, and they needed to go home.

Sophie stroked a finger over the tufted head of the tiny joey tucked in its mother’s pouch.

Seeing the gesture sucker punched him breathless. He understood why she’d chosen it. The mama with her baby.

This woman wasn’t an affair type.

David felt like someone had doused him with a cup of ice.

Brice stepped closer to him and mumbled softly, “My dad bought her a golden elephant necklace once after he went on safari.”

Sophie looked away, blanching.

David shook his head. “Come on, kids. Time to load up and head home.”

He cut a path straight for the concession stand, where he slapped down a ten for cotton candy, scooped up his change, and searched for the nearest exit. Brice and Haley Rose bolted ahead, bags of cotton candy sailing like kites from their hands as they left the park.

Instinctively, he scanned the thinning crowd in the dark lot. Small clusters of bathing-suit-clad tourists wandered in and out of the endless stretch of T-shirt shops. A handful of familiar faces from the base. Nelson, the old subcontractor with a chip on his shoulder, strolled past now like a jovial Santa with his wife and grandkids, arms loaded with prizes. Even one of his fellow testers, Vince Deluca, sat at a tattoo booth with his wife, both too far away to call out. He would have to remember to ask the hotshot pilot what ink he’d added to his tat collection.

Normal loitering. Enough to keep him alert, but nothing out of the ordinary. The kids’ school would undoubtedly be happy with the profits from this packed event.