Last Virgin In California (Mills & Boon Desire) (2 page)

“From what?”

“From the usual.”

Just how many Marines had been “requested” to take charge of her over the years, anyway? Curious now, in spite of himself, he asked, “What exactly
is
the usual?”

She shot a quick glance at the empty doorway through which her father had disappeared, then looked back at him. “Oh, he’s been throwing you guys in my path ever since I hit puberty.”

“Us guys?”

“Marines,” she said, giving him a look that clearly said she didn’t think he’d been paying attention. “Dad’s been trying to marry me off to a Marine for—well,
forever
.”

“
Marry?
” Kevin repeated, then lowered his voice as he leaned over his now empty plate. “Who said
anything about
marriage?
” He hadn’t signed up for
that
. He didn’t mind showing her around and in general looking out for her interests while she was in town. But as to marriage…well, he’d been there and done that. And no thank you very much. He’d pass.

“Geez, Sergeant,” Lilah said, her big eyes going even wider. “Relax, will you? Nobody’s sneaking you off to Vegas.”

“I didn’t—”

“Your virtue’s safe with me,” she assured him.

“I’m not worried about my ‘virtue.’”

“I just said you shouldn’t be.”

“I’m not—” He stopped, inhaled and blew out the air in a rush of frustration. “Are we arguing in circles?”

“Probably.”

“Then how about we call a truce?”

“It’s all right with me,” she said, jumping out of her chair to pace the room. Her bare feet made almost no sound at all on the polished wood floor, but her bracelet jingled enough to keep time as she stalked. “But you might as well realize now, that my father won’t quit trying. He’s obviously chosen you.”

“As what?” he asked, even though he had a terrible idea of just what she was about to say.

“As a son-in-law,” she said, making a sharp about-face to pace in the opposite direction.

“No way,” he said, standing up, not really sure whether to fight or run.

“Yes, way,” she said, shooting him a look over her shoulder. “And apparently, the fact that I have a fiancé hasn’t changed Daddy’s plans any.”

“You’re engaged?”

“Daddy doesn’t like him.”

“Does it matter?”

“It does to him,” she pointed out all too reasonably. “He likes you, though.” The blonde who would soon be starring in his nightmares gave him a brilliant smile. “And in the Colonel Forrest rules of the Universe, who he likes is all that matters.”

“Lucky me,” Kevin said and wondered if it was too late to volunteer for overseas duty.

L
ilah watched her father’s latest attempt at finding himself a suitable son-in-law and couldn’t help at least admiring her dad’s taste.

Kevin Rogan was tall, broad shouldered and his uniform fit him as if designed with him in mind specifically. He looked like a recruiting poster. Perfect. Too perfect, she thought, glancing from his dark brown hair to his strong, square jaw, lips that were now just a grim slash across his face and narrowed green eyes.

She had to give her father points. At least this one was way better looking than the last few he’d thrown her way. But, she reminded herself, handsome
or not, he was still a Marine. And therefore out of the running, as far as she was concerned.

Of course, there was no one
in
the running, but that was a different story.

His hands fisted at his sides and she had the distinct feeling that what he wanted to do was bolt from the house and disappear into the fog—or maybe punch a wall. She couldn’t really blame him. After all, he was new to the Colonel’s husband hunt.

This was old hat for her.

“Really,” she said, shaking her head. “You ought to try to relax. All of that tension can’t be good for the spirit. Or the digestion.”

“Thanks,” he muttered, shoving both fists into his pockets, “but I like tension. Keeps me on my toes.”

Well then he should be happy to be around her. Because Lilah had the unenviable talent of making most everyone tense. It was her special gift.

Ever since she was a kid, she’d managed to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Still, no point in making him any more miserable than he already was. “Don’t take this so personal,” Lilah told him and was rewarded with a steely glare.

“I shouldn’t take it personal?” he asked, incredulous. “Your father, my C.O., sets me up and I shouldn’t take it personal?”

She waved her hand just to hear the sound of the silvery bells on her bracelet again. Very soothing.
“It’s not like you’re the first,” she said. “Or the last for that matter. Daddy’s been lining men up in front of me since I was seventeen.” Just saying it made her want to cringe, but she curbed the impulse. “You’re just the latest.”

“Some consolation.”

“It should be,” she argued.

“And why’s that?”

“Well,” she pointed out, “it’s not as though he isn’t picky when he’s looking for a man for me. He only chooses from the best. I am his daughter, after all.” Not the son he’d always wanted. Just a daughter with a penchant for crystals and toe rings rather than rule books and sensible shoes.

“So I ought to be flattered?”

“Sort of.”

“I’m not.”

“I’m getting that.” She leaned in and studied his fierce expression. “You know, your mirth chakra probably needs work.”

“My what?”

“Never mind.”

“I don’t get you.”

“Join the club.”

“Are you always this strange?”

“That depends,” she said. “How strange am I being right now?”

“Oh, man.”

“Sorry about the interruption,” the Colonel
announced as he walked back into the room. Both of them turned to face him, almost in relief. They certainly weren’t getting anywhere talking to each other.

He stopped just over the threshold and looked from one to the other of them. “Is there a problem?”

“Yes,” she said.

“No, sir,” he said at the same time.

Lilah turned and fixed the man opposite her with a hard look. The furious expression was gone, replaced now by the professional soldier’s blank, poker face. To see the man now, you’d never guess that only moments before he had looked angry enough to bite through a phone book. A thick one.

“Now’s your chance, Gunnery Sergeant,” she said, urging him to speak up and get them both out of this while there was still time. “Tell my father what you were just telling me.”

“Yes, Gunnery Sergeant,” the Colonel said, “what exactly were you saying?”

His gaze shot from her to her father and for one brief, shining moment, Lilah almost hoped that Kevin Rogan would stand up and say “no thanks.” Then he spoke and that hope died.

“I told your daughter it would be an honor to escort her around the base for the duration of her visit, sir.”

She sighed heavily, but neither man appeared to notice.

“Excellent,” the Colonel said, smiling. Then he walked across the room, gave her a kiss on the forehead and turned to face the other man. “I have some work to catch up on,” he said. “Lilah will see you out and you two can make some plans.”

When he left again, Lilah folded her arms across her chest, tapped one bare foot against the floor and cocked her head to one side. “Coward.”

He actually winced before he shrugged. “He’s my C.O.,” was his only explanation.

“But you don’t want this duty.”

“Nope.”

“So why—”

“I didn’t want to go to Bosnia, either,” he said tightly. “But I went.”

Well that stung.

Still and all, it was almost refreshing to talk honestly with one of her father’s hopefuls. Usually, the men he handpicked for her were so busy trying to win his approval that they were willing to tell Lilah outrageous lies just to score a brownie point or two. At least Kevin Rogan was honest.

He didn’t want to be with her any more than she wanted to be with him.

That was
almost
like having something in common, wasn’t it?

“So,” she asked, “I’m like Bosnia, huh? In what sense? A relief mission or a battle zone?”

A flicker of a smile curved his mouth and was
gone again before she could thoroughly appreciate just what the action did for his face.

And maybe, she thought as butterflies took wing in the pit of her stomach, that was for the best. She was only in town for a few weeks. Besides, she already knew that she did
not
fit in with the military types.

“Haven’t made up my mind yet,” he said. “But I’ll let you know.”

“I can’t wait.” Sarcasm dripped from her tone, letting him know in no uncertain terms that she knew exactly what his decision would be. She could see it in his eyes. He’d already come to the conclusion that this duty was going to be a pain in the rear.

And a few days alone with her would only underline that certainty.

“Look,” he said, crossing the room toward her so he could lower his voice and not be overheard. He stopped just short of her and Lilah caught a whiff of his cologne. Something earthy and musky and what it did to her insides, she refused to think about.

She blinked and tried to focus on the words coming
out
of his mouth, rather than the mouth itself.

“We’re going to be stuck with each other for the next month,” he said.

Okay, that helped. How charming. “And your point is?”

“Let’s try to make this as easy as possible on both of us.”

“I’m for that,” she said and inhaled deeply again, enjoying the woodsy fragrance that filled her senses and weakened her knees. She looked up into those green eyes of his and now that they weren’t scowling at her, she noticed the tiny flecks of gold in them.

Then promptly told herself she shouldn’t be noticing anything of the kind. Marine, she reminded herself. Handpicked by her father.

“You’re engaged,” he said, “whether your father likes the guy or not.”

An image of Ray filled her mind and she had to smile. “True,” she agreed and mentally crossed her fingers at the lie in a feeble attempt to ward off karmic backlash.

“And I’m not interested in changing that situation.”

“Good.” One fake fiancé was about all she could handle at any given time.

“So,” he was saying, “we strike a bargain.”

She stared at him for a long moment, trying to figure out just what he was up to. “What kind of bargain?”

He folded his muscular arms across a chest that looked broad enough to be a football field. “We play the roles the Colonel wants and at the end of the month, we say goodbye.”

Hmm.

“Sounds reasonable.”

“I’m always reasonable,” he said and darned if she didn’t believe him.

He looked so straight-arrow, gung ho Marine, he wouldn’t know a bend in the road if he fell on it. Completely the wrong kind of man for her. Exactly the kind of man she’d avoided most of her life.

In short, he was perfect.

They could get through this month and make her father happy and neither of them miserable. She smiled again as she considered it. For the first time, she and a Marine could be honest with each other. They could form a friendship based on mutual distaste.

This idea actually had merit.

“Well?” he prodded, apparently just as impatient as her father. “What do you say?”

“I say you’ve got a deal, Gunnery Sergeant,” Lilah told him and held out her right hand.

He enveloped it in his much bigger one and gave her a gentle squeeze and shake. Ripples of warmth ebbed through her, much like the surface of a lake after a stone’s been tossed into it. She blinked and held on to his hand a moment longer than was necessary, just to enjoy the sensation. Tipping her head back, she thought she noticed a like reaction glinting in his eyes, but she couldn’t be sure.

When he released her, she still felt the hum of his touch. And she was pretty sure that wasn’t a good thing at all.

Twenty minutes later, Kevin was gone and Lilah was sitting in the living room alone when her father walked into the room.

He moved straight for the bar and poured himself a short drink, then asked, “Would you like something, honey?”

“No, thanks,” Lilah said as she studied her father. A tall, handsome man, he had streaks of gray at his temples, smile lines at the corners of his eyes and the solid, muscled frame of a much younger man. Not for the first time, she wondered why he’d never remarried after her mother’s death so many years ago. But she’d never asked him. And now seemed like as good a time as any. “Dad, why have you stayed single all these years?”

He set the decanter down carefully, studied the amber liquid swirling in the bottom of his glass, then turned and walked to the couch. Sitting opposite her, he took a sip, then said, “I never met another woman like your mom.”

Her mother had died when she was eight years old, but Lilah still had a few memories. Snatches of images, really. A pretty woman with a lovely smile. A soft touch. A whiff of perfume. She remembered the comforting sound of her parents laughing together in the darkness and the warmth of knowing she was loved.

And then there were the lonelier years, when it
was just she and her father and he was too busy to notice that his daughter had lost as much as he had.

She shifted, curling up in a corner of the overstuffed love seat. “Did you try?”

Again, he looked for answers in his glass before saying, “Not really.” Another sip. “I just decided I’d rather be alone than be with the wrong person.”

“I can understand that,” she said, meaning every word. In fact, she thought that if they’d had this conversation a few years ago, she might have been able to avoid the series of matchmaking attempts he’d been foisting on her regularly. “But what I don’t understand is,” she added softly, “if it’s all right for you to be single, why is it so important to you that I get married?”

Her father sat up, leaned forward and set his unfinished drink on the table in front of him. Folding his arms atop his knees, he looked into her eyes and said quietly, “Because I want you to be settled. To find someone to—”

“Take care of me?” she finished for him and felt a spurt of frustration shoot through her veins. To him, she’d undoubtedly always be his slightly flaky daughter. But it might surprise him to know that in some circles, she was actually pretty well thought of. “Dad, I’m a grown-up. I can take care of myself.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” he said and stood up, looking down at her with a fond expression on his
face. “I want you to have what I had. What your mother and I had for too short a time.”

Hard to be angry at something like that. But it was his methods she objected to.

“If that’s what I want, I can find it myself,” she pointed out and gave herself points for not raising her voice. After all, he meant well.

“I’m not so sure.” He looked at her bare ring finger and Lilah curled her hands under the hem of her shirt. Blast, she should have bought herself a ring to wear. Lifting his gaze to hers, he said, “You picked Ray, didn’t you?”

“What’s wrong with Ray?”

“Probably nothing,” her father allowed. “But he’s the wrong man for you.”

In more ways than one, she thought, but only asked, “Why?”

Her father reached out and cupped her cheek. “Honey, you’d run him in circles inside a week. You need a man as strong as you are.”

“Like Kevin Rogan?”

“You could do worse.”

“I’m not interested, Dad,” she said, preferring not to think about the flicker of attraction that had licked at her insides when Kevin Rogan was too close. Rising, she stood up straight, though she was still nowhere close to being on eye level with him. “And neither is he.”

One of his eyebrows cocked up and then he played his ace in the hole.

“He’s a little down on women right now.”

“Gee, then thanks for setting him up with me.”

He smiled at her. “You’ll be good for him, honey. His ex-wife cut quite a swath through his life a couple of years ago.”

Instantly, Lilah felt a tug of sympathy she didn’t want to feel. And she knew darned well her father had been counting on her natural inclination to want to mend broken hearts. “How do you know?”

“Gossip travels on base as easily as it does in the civilian world.”

True. Hadn’t she been the subject of enough base gossip to know that for a fact?

“So take it easy on him, huh, honey?” he asked, and bent down to kiss her forehead.

Before she could answer, he left the room and she was alone. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she wandered over to the wide front window and stared out at the encroaching fog. Despite the fact that she didn’t want to care, Lilah couldn’t help wondering just what Kevin’s ex-wife had done. And what she, Lilah, could do to help.

Bright and early the next morning, Kevin reported for “daughter duty.” He parked his car in front of the Colonel’s house and turned off the engine. Silence
crowded him, as for a few minutes, he just stared at the place.