Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (3 page)

Wolf looked more
closely at the woman as he got comfortable and buckled his seat belt in the
aisle seat. He was grateful for the extra room she’d just granted him by
allowing him to leave his bag at her feet, but he didn’t understand why she’d
do it.

The woman turned
away from Wolf to buckle her seatbelt. It didn’t seem like she was trying to
flirt with him or to get him to notice her. But the fact that she wasn’t, only
seemed to draw his attention to her more. Maybe that was her plan all along?

Wolf wasn’t a
man who was used to unselfish acts by other people. He lived in a world where
people were deceitful and underhanded and would do anything they could to get
ahead. Hell, in certain parts of the world they’d even kill someone if it meant
more power, more money, or even more food to eat. Granted, giving up a
comfortable seat on a plane wasn’t even in the same league as what Wolf had seen
people do to gain an advantage, but that was what made it so unusual.

Caroline could
feel the man’s eyes on her. It discomfited her. Shifting uneasily in her seat,
Caroline wasn’t used to men looking at her that closely. She was plain and
uninteresting. She knew it and so did everyone else. Caroline wasn’t the type
of person who got special favors because of her looks, and she wasn’t one to
draw the attention of any man. She’d long ago learned to accept it. Caroline had
a pretty healthy self-esteem, even with her plain looks. She’d had a tough time
growing up, what teenaged girl didn’t, but when all was said and done, Caroline
learned to actually like herself. She was smart, had a good personality, and
even if she didn’t have men lining up to take her out, she was mostly content
with herself and her life.

Thinking about
her childhood and her parents made Caroline smile. Her mom and dad always
encouraged her to be who she was. Remembering when she told her dad what she
wanted to do after she graduated from high school, Caroline’s smile grew wider.
Some dads would’ve been disappointed, but not hers. All he’d done was kiss her
on the forehead and say, “You can do anything you want to do Caroline. You’re
the smartest woman I know and I’m very proud of you.” Caroline held that memory
close to her heart and drew on it when she was feeling down.

Caroline snuck a
peek at the man who was now sitting in the aisle seat and blushed, yup, he was
still watching her.

Wolf watched as
the woman glanced at him and then blushed furiously seeing his eyes on her.
When was the last time he’d seen a woman blush? He couldn’t remember. It was
past time they introduced themselves. He held out his hand to her. “Matthew,”
he said softly. Wolf hadn’t been around a lot of people who didn’t have any
connections to the military. He usually used his nickname when introducing
himself, it was such an ingrained part of him, but he didn’t want to freak this
woman out. Wolf wasn’t exactly a normal name for someone to call themselves in
the civilian world.

Hoping she’d reciprocate
and shake his hand, he waited for her to give him her hand. Wolf learned a lot
about people by their handshake. Many women felt as if they shouldn’t squeeze a
man’s hand when they met, so they just let their hand lay limply in his as they
shook. He hated that. Wolf had no idea where that had come from, but if women
knew how much it turned men off, they’d certainly stop doing it.

Caroline
tentatively took his hand, but shook it with strength. She hoped he didn’t
squeeze her hand too hard in an effort to show off how strong he was. He could
easily crush her fingers. She’d had that happen in the past too, especially
since she worked with a lot of men. They’d exert what they thought was
dominance, by clenching her hand too tight. It didn’t exude dominance, only
assholed-ness.

“Caroline,” she reciprocated
softly.

Wolf squeezed
her hand and was pleasantly surprised at the softness interspersed with calluses
on her palm. She obviously wasn’t one to sit around; she worked with her hands
in some way.

Of course
thinking about the texture of her palm immediately made him think about how
it’d feel caressing his body. Wolf was immediately ashamed of himself. Jesus,
it’d obviously been way too long since he’d been with a woman if a simple
handshake made him hard. He shifted in his seat trying to hide his arousal from
the slight woman innocently sitting next to him.

Caroline was also
pleased at their handshake. The man didn’t squeeze her fingers too hard, and
seemed to lighten up a bit after they dropped their hands. She noticed he
shifted restlessly, but figured he was just trying to get comfortable in the
cramped airplane seat.

They smiled at
each other before directing their attention to the flight attendant at the
front of the plane.

Another flight
attendant came over the speaker and asked that all electronic devices be turned
off, or put in airplane mode, and to prepare for takeoff.

Caroline watched
as the attendant in the aisle went through the motions of showing the passengers
how to put on their seatbelt, how to use the lifejacket in case of a water
landing, and how to operate the flimsy oxygen thingies that would fall from the
ceiling of the plane in case of depressurization. Caroline didn’t want to think
of the panic that would ensue in the plane if any of those things actually
happened.

Caroline noticed
that the flight attendant seemed extra bored. She figured giving the same
demonstration to a plane full of people who were ignoring you could get old
really fast, but wasn’t it their job to at least
pretend
to have
enthusiasm while doing it? She’d seen the video clips online of flight
attendants who joked and danced, she’d never been on a flight with one who had
done that, but these guys actually looked annoyed and uninterested about the
entire pre-flight routine. It was weird.

Caroline
mentally shrugged, it wasn’t as if she could do anything about it, and turned
her attention to the
SkyMall
magazine in the seat pocket in front of
her. She idly flipped the pages, looking at the overpriced items as the plane
taxied to the runway and took off.

After safely
reaching cruising altitude, Caroline put the magazine back into the pocket in
front of her and rested her head on the seatback, much as Matthew had done when
he’d first sat down. She was tired, but the middle seat wasn’t conducive to
sleeping with nothing to rest her head against and there was no way she’d risk
falling asleep with her head tilted back on the seat. She’d probably snore like
an eighty year old man if she did. Even if the sexy man next to her wasn’t
interested, she still didn’t want to embarrass herself. She had
some
standards after all.

Caroline looked
over at Matthew and saw he also wasn’t sleeping. He had one leg stretched out
into the aisle and one under the seat in front of him. His eyes were closed and
his hands were intertwined, resting on his stomach. Every now and then he’d
shift in his seat, open his eyes, and close them again. She smiled. At least in
the aisle seat he was more comfortable than if he’d been scrunched in the
middle.

Wolf opened his
eyes with a sigh; there was no way he was sleeping. Airplane seats sucked,
another reason to not to fly commercial. Not knowing why he couldn’t keep his
eyes off of her, Wolf glanced over at the woman sitting next to him again, and caught
Caroline’s smile which lit up her whole face. Wolf thought that while she
wasn’t conventionally pretty, she was certainly interesting looking.

“So, you come
here often?” He couldn’t resist the cheesy pickup line. Something told him Caroline
would think it was funny and not take him seriously. Hearing her soft laugh,
Wolf knew he was right.

“Ha-ha. Actually,
I don’t fly too often, but I’m currently on my way to a new job in Norfolk.
Normally I’d drive, but my new company is paying all my moving expenses,
including shipping my car out to Virginia, so I figured instead of taking the
extra days to drive cross country, I’d just fly and take the extra time to get
to know Norfolk before I have to start work.”

“Sounds
sensible.” Wolf agreed, happy to hear she seemed like a reasonable woman. He’d
met too many women that were all about the money, or fame, or fashion, or
whatever.

“What are you doing
in Norfolk? Or is that just a stop-over to somewhere else?” Caroline asked
curiously. She wasn’t trying to pry, but since he was talking to her and seemed
interested in what she had to say, she wanted to keep the conversation going.

Wolf knew he had
to be careful about talking about his job, but he figured since they weren’t on
their way to a mission right now he could be mostly upfront. “I and two buddies
are headed for some leave in Virginia. We’re between missions…er…jobs right
now.”

“I figured you were
military.” Caroline told him matter-of-factly with no surprise or awe in her
voice.

“How’d you
guess?”

Caroline
couldn’t tell if he was being serious or just kidding with her. “I don’t know
if that was sarcasm or not, but I noticed you’re very much in shape, you have
combat boots on, and honestly, you just have the look of a military man.”

Wolf laughed. “I
was teasing you Caroline, but yeah, you’re right. I’m in the Navy. I’m a SEAL.”
Wolf was surprised at himself. He didn’t usually blurt out that he was a SEAL.
There was something about this woman that invited confidences. He wasn’t sure
what to expect from her with his revelation, but was honestly surprised when
she didn’t say anything about it and continued their conversation as if Wolf never
mentioned he was a member of one of the most revered and respected branches of
their country’s military.

“What are you
going to do on your leave?”

“We have a friend
who lives out there. He was medically retired after losing a leg in combat. We’re
just going to crash at his house and hang out. We’ll probably go to the base
and check it out, but we all decided we needed the down time and try to keep
the shop talk to a minimum.”

“Oh geez, that
sucks about your friend. I’m so sorry. I’m so glad people today recognize what
you guys do for our country. I knew someone in high school that told me when
her dad came home from Vietnam he was spit on and generally treated like crap.
It’s such a shame and I love seeing the support all our country’s soldiers get
today. I think it’s a good idea for you and your friends to take some time off
and for you to try to keep talk about your job out of it,” Caroline agreed. “It
can be tough to really relax if all you do on a vacation is talk shop.”

Enjoying the
conversation more than he’d thought he would, Wolf asked, “So, what is this new
job you’re flying across the country for?”

Pleased he was
showing interest in her, Caroline told him, hoping it wouldn’t turn him off—some
men didn’t like smart women. “I’m a chemist. I decided I needed a change of
scenery since my parents passed away. I researched where I wanted to work and
applied for, and was hired, by a great company out east. I’m pretty excited to
get started actually.”

“So what does a
chemist do exactly?” Wolf was impressed with what he’d heard so far.

Caroline laughed
lightly. She wasn’t exactly surprised at the question. It seemed like most
people had no idea what she did most of the time, even when she explained it
she could see their eyes glaze over. Well, he’d asked, so she decided to tell
him. She was enjoying talking to him and he seemed pretty smart. She had high
hopes he’d understand.

“There are two
basic “worlds” when it comes to chemists. A macroscopic world in chemistry is the
one that you’d probably think of when thinking of a chemist. It involves a lab
and white coats and experimenting with different compounds and materials. You
can actually see, hear, and touch things in the macroscopic world. On the other
hand is the microscopic world. This involves things you can’t actually touch or
hear or see. It basically deals with models and theories mostly.”

“Which do you
work in?” Wolf asked, seemingly following her conversation without any issues.

“I’m a card
carrying, lab coat wearing, chemist geek,” Caroline answered laughing at
herself.

Wolf didn’t
think, but reached over and took her hand in his. “You’re not a geek sweetheart;
you’re a scholar in a lab coat that does magic with her hands.”

Holy crap. This
man was lethal. Caroline’s stomach clenched at his words. Had any man, ever,
said anything nicer to her than that? She didn’t think so. She tried to blow
off his words and airily joked, “Actually I have a wand that does the magic.”

“Tell me more
about your job. It sounds really interesting.” Sensing Caroline’s reluctance, Wolf
begged, “Please?”

Embarrassed, but
not sure why, Caroline hesitantly told him more. “I’m in applied chemistry; I
work for a company and do short term research on whatever is on my plate at the
time. It could be product development or improvement to something that’s already
out there. There are also pure chemists that do more long term research on
whatever they want or can get funded and there’s no real practical application
in the short term with them.”

“So what do you
do all day at work?” Wolf found Caroline fascinating. He’d never met a chemist
before. Oh sure, Wolf met people who were good at chemistry and had a knack for
things like making bombs for the military, as well as defusing them, like Dude.
But being a bomb ordinance technician wasn’t the same thing as being a chemist.
It wasn’t like Wolf came in contact with someone like Caroline in his regular
world.