Model Soldier (17 page)

She wasn’t sure if she was happy to get away from having to watch Hawk with that harpy or not since after this, she’d likely never see the man again.

“I told you before. You keep frowning like that and you’re gonna get wrinkles.”

His deep, achingly familiar voice suddenly filled the room. She cursed herself for leaving the door to the office open so he could sneak up on her.

Hawk swung that open door closed.

“I thought we’d never be alone,” Hawk growled, so near to Emily’s ear, she could feel the warm heat of his breath on her skin. His close proximity sent a shiver straight down her spine, which only made her frown deeper.

She glanced around the USO office she’d been allowed to use. Darn it. They were not only alone, but this late at night, there wasn’t much chance of that changing.

Hawk sidled up closer behind her until she felt the hard muscles of his thighs pressed against her back. Running his hands up both her arms, he bent and kissed her neck lightly.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She jumped up out of the chair and spun to face him. He let her turn in his hands, pushed her discarded chair aside and moved in again.

One large, warm, rough hand moved to cup her face. She had to swallow the lump forming in her throat as she ached to reach out and touch the man so close to her.

She watched his mouth move slowly toward her as he said, “I’m picking up where we left off in Germany.”

As much as her lips craved his, Emily’s eyes flew open wide at the nerve of that statement. “Oh, no you’re not!”

“Why not? You want me as much as I want you. I can see it written all over your face.”

“That’s not true.” Emily was one of the worst liars on earth, but she figured it was worth a shot.

Hawk grinned. “You’ve said that before, beautiful. Remember, back in Germany, right before you jumped me?”

The reminder of Germany fought back Emily’s raging hormones and brought her screeching to her senses. “You’re right. I did, and you never even emailed me afterwards. Oh, wait, sorry. Correction. You did email me. One damn word and then nothing! And now you’re all flirty with that Kerri London!”

She shoved him away hard, but a part of her immediately regretted the loss of his warmth.

Hawk’s eyes narrowed and for the first time during this encounter, he appeared unsure of himself. “No flirtier than you are with that Aussie cameraman.”

“I am not!”

“Bull shit.”

“It is not bull shit. I do not flirt with him.” Emily feared she might have actually stomped one foot like a child as she made that statement, but continued anyway. “You want to see flirting, take a look at Kerri London.
That
is flirting. I do not flirt!”

“Okay, maybe you don’t, but Crocodile Mel sure as hell does with you and you are all too ready to let him, aren’t you?”

“So what? I’m not involved with anyone. You have no claim on me, David Hawkins!”

Hawk drew in a long, slow, deep breath. “No, I don’t. You’re right.”

Impossibly, he looked almost sad about that.

Letting out a sigh, Hawk said, “I’m sorry I didn’t email you.”

An apology from Hawk, Emily had to wonder exactly how many woman could claim they’d received one of those. She guessed not many.

“Why didn’t you?”

He shrugged and released one, short, bitter laugh. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Emily crossed her arms firmly. “Yeah, well it wasn’t. In fact, I can tell you, it sucked.”

Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry
. Emily repeated the mantra silently, willing her misty eyes to listen up and follow orders as she stared unfocused at the stained ceiling.

Stepping close again, Hawk whispered, “I know. Let me make it up to you.”

With a lot less conviction than before, Emily spat, “Why are you bothering kissing up to me? Little Miss USO was all over you today. Why don’t you go be with her? I’m fairly certain you’ll get lucky.”
If you haven’t already
, she added to herself.

Hawk chuckled. “Little Miss USO. That’s funny. And I’m not interested in Kerri. I’m interested in you.”

Emily let out a huff of air. Hating the hope that was beginning to sprout in her chest, she held on to the memory of a smiling Hawk attached to Kerri London’s hip all day. She hated it about as much as she loathed that he called her Kerri when Emily had been everything from doll to Goldilocks to boss on this trip.

“If you’re not interested in her, you don’t show it very well.”

“I’ll show you now,” he whispered.

Hawk’s lips covered hers in an instant and she couldn’t fight it. Truth be told, she didn’t try.

As his mouth crushed hers, she let the tears escape until they wet her face and crept into their kiss.

“I’m so sorry, Emily.” Hawk’s hands wiped her face as he continued to kiss her and murmur, “So sorry.”

He picked her up like she weighed no more than a rag doll and set her on the desk’s edge, stepping between her legs as his kisses became more passion-filled and less apologetic.

Emily knew being with him again now would make leaving again in two days even harder than it had been the first time they parted in Germany. What she hated even more was that she didn’t care. She wanted to be with him, as painful as it would be later.

Hawk pulled back, grabbed her face in both of his hands and stared at her closely through eyes heavy with wanting. His voice husky, he said, “I’m gonna lock the door.”

With a tremor in her voice, Emily answered the question he hadn’t asked. “Okay.”

Drawing in a sharp breath, Hawk flipped the lock and was back in the blink of an eye. And then his hands were everywhere, followed by her clothes. Emily didn’t blame Hawk for his haste, she couldn’t get enough of him, either. Touching wasn’t enough. Even his hot skin pressed against hers wouldn’t satisfy her need.

Emily didn’t feel complete until, with a shudder and a groan Hawk said her name, her real name, and slid deeply inside her. Only then, on a cold metal desk in a strange office in the middle of Afghanistan did Emily feel like she’d truly come home.

The delicate wall she’d worked so hard to construct around her bruised heart over the last two months crumbled further with every thrust of Hawk’s body into hers.

Weeping and shuddering, Emily realized she was in big trouble when she found herself crying and coming at the same time.

More tenderly than a man his size and usual demeanor should have been capable of, Hawk cradled her in his arms, quieting her sobs while tenderly making love to her.

He loved her gently until they came together in one final, tremendous conclusion to what, to her chagrin, felt like a momentously huge event in her life.

“You alright?” he asked moments afterward, still covering her body with his.

“No,” she answered simply, truthfully.

Hawk brushed a stray hair out of her face and sighed. “I am sorry.”

“I know you are. But nothing’s changed. You’re going to do it again.”

“No, I won’t.”

Staring up at the ceiling, Emily laughed sadly. “Yes, you will. You’ll go away in two days and I’ll never hear from you.”

Hawk shook his head. “You will hear from me. You’ll see.”

With two muscular arms, Hawk levered himself off of both her and the desk and began to get dressed.

His eyes never left her as he watched while she did the same. With admiration in his voice, Hawk swore, “Damn. I wish I could take you back to my tent with me.”

Emily wished the same thing. If she was going to have a newly broken heart, she might as well enjoy a full night of sex first.

“My tent maybe?” she suggested hesitantly.

He shook his head with a sad smile and touched her face softly. “That would be very nice, but it’s not a good idea. I could get in big trouble.”

“Okay, I understand.” Not really, but…

Kissing her again deeply, he let out a sound of near pain when he pulled back from her. “You are very hard to leave.”

You should talk
, Emily thought as he moved away.

Looking them both over to make sure they were dressed and put back together enough to be seen in public, Hawk moved toward the door and paused with his hand on the lock. With a sweet smile in her direction, Hawk asked, “Ready to get back to the real world?”

Not even close.

Still trembling, Emily nodded. “Sure.”

Making love to Emily was easy. Trying to get some sleep afterwards, not so much.

Tired and yes, still wanting more of her, Hawk finally dragged his sorry ass out of his rack and hit the showers. The hot water striking his back felt good until…

“Hawk! Holy shit, you have to get out here now.”

Soap still in his eyes, Hawk switched off the shower and quickly wrapped a towel around his waist and glanced down to check his condition. His mind had wondered back to reliving his too short time with Emily with some pretty visible results. Luckily, Pettit’s voice so close on the other side of the shower curtain had deflated that situation pretty rapidly.

Now Hawk, ready for anything but really wishing he had his gun and some clothes on, flew out from behind the shower curtain to come face to face with a very flustered Pettit. “What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Wally.”

Oh no. When it came to attracting trouble, that kid was a life-sized magnet. “Where is he?” Hawk asked as he pulled his uniform t-shirt over his head, not taking the time to tuck the hem into the waistband of his pants.

“That’s the part you aren’t going to believe. He’s in Kerri’s tent.”

“Aw, fuck.” Hawk jumped on one foot as he shoved a sockless foot into his boot, grabbed his blouse in his fist and ran for the door.

He’d had a bad feeling about Wally’s ability to resist that woman’s overt flirting. What he’d been counting on was that Kerri was all show and she wouldn’t actually follow through.

Bad call on Hawk’s part because now Wally could get into huge trouble, and, looking down at his barely dressed, definitely non-regulation appearance, Hawk realized so could he if anyone saw him looking like this.

Hawk didn’t even feel the cold air against his still wet skin as they flung through the entrance to the tent used by Kerri’s entourage…only to be stopped by the steel wall that was her personal bodyguard.

He heard Kerri say, “Let them through, Tony. It’s okay.”

Looking around the brick’s chest, Hawk saw Kerri, fully clothed and wringing her hands. “I didn’t know who else to call. I’m pretty sure he can get into trouble for this and I didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t find you so I had Tony get Ryan.”

Hawk looked around the otherwise empty room and frowned. “I don’t understand. Where’s Wally and what happened?”

Kerri hooked a thumb at the door behind her. “In there.”

That didn’t explain much, but Hawk didn’t require words when he could just go find out for himself. He preferred that actually, seeing things for himself.

Striding to the next room, the picture awaiting him there truly was worth a thousand words.

“Jesus, Wally.” Seeing his newly promoted sergeant stretched out there, face down, naked and tangled up with an equally undressed female had him cursing even more colorfully beneath his breath. Judging by the woman’s uniform lying on the floor she was with the 455
^th
Air Expeditionary Wing of the USAF. Fraternization at its most blatant.

“Pettit, get in here. Kerri, can your guard keep everyone out of here until I clean up this mess? I mean everybody. I don’t care if it’s a five star general or the President of the United States, they cannot, I repeat
cannot
enter this room.”

“You got it, Hawk. Tony?” Kerri glanced back at her hired brute as he folded his arms and nodded, relieving Hawk’s worries somewhat on that front.

And now for Wally. The scene looked like a cross between a frat house party and a Roman orgy.

Hawk eyed an empty bottle of bourbon lying sideways on the floor. Another violation that was enough to get Wally court-marshaled and kicked out of the service.

Hawk picked up the glass bottle and handed it to Kerri. “Civilians can probably get away with drinking on base, but Wally...” He shook his head.

Kerri got his drift and nodded, eyeing the bottle. “Gotcha. I’ll be more careful with my empty Wild Turkey bottles in the future.”

Stashing it deep in the garbage bin already mostly filled with water bottles and Styrofoam plates, Kerri winked at him and Hawk said a silent thank you that she was being so cool about this. They might just get Wally out of this mess without a trip to the brig first.

“We’ve got to get him up, dressed and out of here,” he said mostly to himself, but Pettit stepped forward.

Stooping down, Pettit grabbed a fallen bottle of water off the floor and cracked the top. Standing over Wally, he looked a bit too pleased as he doused Wally’s head with the entire contents.

It took a bit of time to bring him around. Wally started out sputtering and then looked hazily around the room through squinted eyes. Hawk watched as the pieces began to fall into place in Wally’s addled brain, waiting for full realization to set in before he bothered yelling at him.