Last Virgin In California (Mills & Boon Desire) (9 page)

But she didn’t. So instead, she stood up, crossed to him and kissed his forehead. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad.”

As she left the room, she heard him say, “Have a good day, honey.”

When she glanced back at him though, she saw he’d already turned his attention back to the work in front of him.

O
ne week and he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. Request from the Colonel or not, Kevin had steered clear of the man’s daughter, figuring they both needed a cooling-off period. Not that it had worked. In his case, anyway.

Hell, for all he knew, Lilah Forrest hadn’t given him a second thought. But he didn’t believe it. After the way she’d come undone in his arms, he knew she too would be remembering those stolen moments in his apartment. She too would be hungering for more.

Which is exactly why he’d kept his distance.

Until now.

From the inside of the PX, he watched her walk
past. Chin up, that long hair of hers blowing in the same cold wind that whipped her sapphire-blue skirt around her short, shapely legs. A flash of sunlight dazzled off the silver stars in her ears and he could almost hear the tinkle of bells at her wrist.

How had this happened? he wondered. How had he allowed himself to become
attached
to her? She’d somehow sneaked up on him, like an attack at midnight. Blowing past his guards, infiltrating his inner circle, she’d slipped beneath his defenses and left him wide open for assault.

All with a smile and a toss of her head.

Dammit.

He was supposed to be immune to this sort of thing. Would have bet cold, hard cash that Alanna’s betrayal had wiped the ability to love right out of his soul.

Love?

That one little word brought him up short.

Did he love Lilah?

No. Even the possibility of such a thing was too hideous to contemplate. He wasn’t going back down that road. Not again. He wouldn’t give a woman everything he had just to watch her throw it in his face. He wouldn’t trust anyone again the way he’d trusted Alanna. Hell, maybe he learned the hard way—but he learned. He felt something for Lilah, but it wasn’t love. It was lust, pure and simple. He wanted her. No, needed her. And that was it.

For the first time since Alanna, Kevin had found a woman who interested him. One who challenged his mind even while tormenting his body. He could enjoy it, he told himself, without making more of it than it was. They were two consenting adults.

One of whom was the engaged daughter of his Commanding Officer, but that was a different story.

The point here is, he told himself as he walked closer to the window to get a better look at her as she went past, they both had itches that needed to be scratched. Now all he had to do was figure out if he was going to allow the scratching to pick up again.

Allow
. He chuckled to himself and walked to the shop entrance. Pushing through the door, he stepped into the bite of the wind and ducked his head slightly. As he started after her, he reminded himself that anyone trying to “allow” Lilah anything had better be girded for war.

Lilah heard him approaching. Well, she heard the heavy click of footsteps behind her. It could have been anyone. But the rush of her blood told her instinctively that it was Kevin.

Strange that just by being near, he could light up her insides and set a rumbling need rolling through her body. Instantly, memories came crashing back. She remembered lying across his lap, naked. She remembered vividly the feel of his hands on her. The
heat of his mouth on her nipples. The soft slide of his fingers as they entered her.

Her mouth went dry and a dull, throbbing ache settled between her legs.

“Lilah.”

She stopped and tried to work up enough saliva to make it possible to talk. Of course, when she turned around, all it took was one look at him and she was practically drooling. Problem solved.

“Hi, stranger,” she said and silently congratulated herself on her mature, adult behavior. Especially when all she really wanted to do was throw herself at him.

He squinted down at her and she wished she could read his emotions. But like all good Marines, he kept them hidden behind a mask of professionalism.

“Where you headed?”

“To the school.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

Avoid her for a week and then show up out of nowhere and offer to escort her to the school. If she wasn’t so glad to see him, she’d tell him to take a hike. But since he looked way too good to send on his way, she glanced around furtively as if searching for eavesdroppers, then tipped her head back and met his gaze. “Are you sure that’s safe?”

“What?”

“You know,” she said, beginning to enjoy herself. Really, the man’s sense of humor was buried so deep
it would probably be a full-time job to resuscitate it. Not a bad job, she thought as she continued, “Being alone with me. I mean, I might just throw you to the ground and have my way with you.”

One corner of his mouth tilted. “Good one.”

“Don’t think I could do it?” Nothing she liked better than a challenge.

He shook his head, took her elbow and turned her around, pointing her in the direction in which she had been walking a minute ago. “I wouldn’t put anything past you,” he admitted. “But I’m willing to take my chances.”

“Gee,” she said, concentrating on the warmth of his touch on her arm, “and they say there are no heroes anymore.”

He laughed and Lilah luxuriated in the sound. “You really ought to do that more often,” she said.

“What? Laugh?”

“Yeah,” she said, glancing up at him, “it does great things for your face.”

Instantly, the easy smile faded away to be replaced by a flicker of desire that shot across his features so fast, she would have missed it if she hadn’t been studying him so closely. And if she hadn’t been so affected by the hunger in his eyes, she probably wouldn’t have said, “I’ve missed you.”

His grip on her elbow tightened. “I thought it would be easier if we had a little space.”

“Easier for whom?”

He glanced down at her. “Damned if I know.”

Good. Then it hadn’t been easy for him to stay away from her. He’d missed her, too. Small consolation, but at this point, she’d take anything she could get. And somehow, it helped knowing that he’d been as affected by her as she had by him.

“So,” she asked, wanting to actually hear him admit it, “you missed me?”

His back teeth ground together and his squint narrowed so tightly, she would have thought he couldn’t see at all.

“Yeah,” he said on a grunt of sound. “I guess I did.”

“And you sound thrilled about that.”

He looked down at her briefly again and his green eyes shone like streetlights from beneath the shaded brim of his Smokey the Bear hat.

“It shouldn’t make either one of us happy.”

“Why the heck not?” she asked, waving her hand, making the bells at her wrist jangle noisily.

“Because we have nothing in common, for one,” he pointed out.

“Oh, I think we were doing pretty well a few days ago,” she said and instantly felt a renewed flush of heat swamping her.

“Yeah, too good.” His fingers tightened on her elbow until she squeaked in protest and he relaxed his grip. “Sorry.”

“No problem,” she said. “I bend, I don’t break.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“I probably shouldn’t ask,” she said, knowing she would anyway, because she needed to know, “but did you stay away because I mentioned your ex-wife?”

He actually went even stiffer than usual. She felt tension crowd him and spill over onto her. “No.”

“Hard to believe, judging by your reaction.”

He sighed, glanced at her, then shifted his gaze forward again. “Look, I don’t know what you heard, but—”

“I didn’t hear much.”

“Surprising,” he said, “since it was the talk of the base a year ago.”

“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to be gossiped about.”

He gave her a quick look and a half smile. “Yeah, I guess you do.” Then speaking quickly, he said, “The short version is, I met Alanna in Germany when I was doing embassy duty. She knocked me off my feet, I married her and as soon as we got back to the States, she split.”

“What?” Worlds of hurt were crouched behind his words and Lilah was almost sorry she’d brought it up. Almost.

“She wanted to get into the U.S. and couldn’t. So she married me and when we got back here, she disappeared.”

“So she’s here illegally.”

“Yeah. But that’s her problem.”

“And she’s yours,” Lilah said thoughtfully.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That she still haunts you.”

“No way.”

“Just talking about her makes you all snarly.”

“I’m
not
snarly.”

She laughed. Couldn’t help it.

He scowled at her, then gave her a grudging smile. “Okay, maybe I am a little,”

Lilah pulled her elbow free of his grasp, then linked her arm with his. “You’re allowed, I guess,” she said, looking up at him and holding his gaze with hers. “But you shouldn’t waste too much time and effort on such a stupid woman.”

“Stupid?”

“She left you, didn’t she?” A flicker of pleasure lit his eyes and one corner of his mouth lifted in a half grin. Lilah answered that grin with one of her own. “And look on the bright side. Maybe she’ll get caught and deported.”

“I like the way you think,” he said in a low, rumbling tone.

“Thanks,” she said as they turned into the school yard.

Crowds of kids played on the grass and blacktop. The noise level was incredible and Kevin told himself if they could only find a way to bottle the sound, the Marines would never have to invade another country. All they’d have to do was put these kids
on a loudspeaker and any enemy in their right mind would surrender.

Lilah though, didn’t seem to mind the cacophony a bit. She smiled at the kids, paused long enough to toss back a stray dodge ball, then headed right through the crowd of children toward the front door. She grabbed hold of the doorknob, then looked back at him over her shoulder. “You could wait for me out here.”

“Are you nuts?” he asked, appalled at the idea. “It’s got to be quieter inside.”

She thought about it for a moment, chewing at her bottom lip. “Okay, come on.”

Once inside, he removed his cover and tucked it beneath his left arm. Following behind Lilah, he couldn’t help noticing the sway of her hips or the way her hair moved with every toss of her head. The sounds of their heels on the floor were the only sounds and as she stepped into the principal’s office, Kevin took up a post just outside the open doorway.

While she did whatever it was she’d come here to do, Kevin let his gaze sweep down the length of the hallway. Bulletin boards were tacked up to the wall and crowded with notices of bake sales and movie nights and parents’ night and PTA meetings. Kevin shook his head and thought for the first time in a long while that if Alanna hadn’t betrayed him, then left him, he might have felt more at home here. In this school. He might have, one day, had a child himself enrolled in a base school.

As it stood now though, he’d forever be an outsider in halls like these.

Still, he thought, thanks to Lilah, the last of the cold, hard knot he’d been carrying around in his guts since Alanna’s betrayal was gone. He sucked in a gulp of air and enjoyed the sensation of freedom that coursed through his veins.

Meeting this woman had changed him in ways he hadn’t expected. Who would have thought that doing a favor for his Commanding Officer would lead to this? Shaking his head, he stepped across the threshold into the office in time to hear a woman saying, “Miss Forrest, it’s amazing.”

“It’s nothing,” Lilah assured her. “Honestly. I was happy to do it.”

“It’s much more than nothing,” the woman, whose picture hung on the wall and identified her as Katherine Murray, Principal, went on. “When Computer Planet called this morning and told me they would be donating three of last year’s models, well I—” the woman held up both hands in surrender, apparently unable to think of anything else to say.

Lilah smiled, reached across the wooden counter and took one of the woman’s hands in hers. “Trust me, Mrs. Murray, it’s a good deal for them. They get a write-off and get to make room for newer models they can sell for more money.”

The older woman shook her head. “I still don’t
know how you managed it, but I thank you for it. This will mean so much to the computer lab class.”

Kevin looked from one to the other of the women as they chatted, and he felt a swell of pride fill him. Lilah Forrest was really something. She continued to surprise him and that ability intrigued him. Too often, he was able to look at a person and pretty much sum up who and what they were. But Lilah…she was so much more than the flighty, flaky woman she appeared to be.

Hell, she wouldn’t even take credit for doing something incredibly generous. First, the jackets she’d had donated and now apparently she was playing computer fairy. But she seemed bent on brushing these things aside as if they were nothing. Yet how many people, he asked himself, went out of their way for others? Not many. Lilah, he was beginning to realize, was one in a million.

Mrs. Murray caught his eye and smiled before looking back to Lilah. “It seems you have someone waiting for you, so I’ll let you go. But I do want to thank you again.”

“Enjoy the computers,” Lilah said, looking at Kevin with twin spots of embarrassed color staining her cheeks. Amazing. Not only did she run around acting like Santa, she didn’t want anyone to know about it.

When she turned and left the office, Kevin was right behind her. Her soft leather boots barely made a
sound on the linoleum floor. Her spine was so stiff, it was a wonder it didn’t snap. And knowing her, Kevin was pretty sure this awkward silence between them wouldn’t last.

He was right.

She stopped suddenly and turned around. He was so close, she almost smashed her nose into his chest. She backed up a step, planted her fists on her hips and looked up at him. “Not one word, Kevin.”

“Not even if it’s a compliment?”

“Especially then,” she said and paused to take a long breath. “I didn’t arrange for those computers so people would thank me.”

That he believed, but it led to another question. “Why then? Why did you do it?”

She tried to shrug off the question, but he wouldn’t let her. She’d delved into his life, now it was his turn to ask the questions.