With Honor. Rhonda Lee Carver

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СКАЧАТЬ enough to wear that uniform with confidence and pride?” She dropped her gaze down his body as if to drag her words home. “The government must be getting desperate, to allow jerks to wear uniforms and carry guns.”

      “Very funny. This ‘low-down pathetic’ man, as you call him, should have left your ass to fend for yourself in the middle of an earthquake.” Anger was a hard emotion when her scent and warmth made him hungry, and not for food. What in the hell had come over him? Not only did she treat him like he was the devil’s best friend, but she accused him of being a womanizer. Well, she wasn’t exactly blaming him. Just his brother.

      That put Shawn between a rock and hard place.

      Shawn couldn’t allow anything to get in the way of the investigation into his brother’s disappearance. There were two sides to every story. He had to prove his brother’s plane going down wasn’t an accident. Although Shane’s body hadn’t been found, instinct warned him that his brother wasn’t alive. Shane would have contacted him by now, if he could. His brother had been an ace pilot in the Air Force and had given his life in the line of duty. That, Shawn knew as fact.

      Back to the problem at hand. Was Jasmine Sinclaire trustworthy? Why did he suspect the woman hadn’t come all this way just to rip his brother’s ass for bailing after sex? Or nixing an interview.

      “Are you having fun?” One slender eyebrow popped up as a cunning smile curved her pale pink lips.

      “Fun?”

      “The shaking has stopped. You can leave me to fend for myself now, unless your memory is coming back.” Her eyes lowered to his erection.

      Shit! His pants tented with a stiffy. With a growl, he pushed away from the wall and inhaled sharply. Might as well be a damn teenager, the way he was acting. Another knock came on the door. “Yeah?” he called out a little too roughly.

      “You okay in there, Conner?” Some of the roughness had left Johnson’s voice.

      “Everything’s just fine.” At least on some levels. He hadn’t had a hard-on since he left for Iraq. He’d come back when news came that Shane’s plane had crashed in Costa Rica. Why in Costa Rica, Shawn wasn’t sure. There were a lot of things Shane did that Shawn could never understand. On the aspect of being a red-blooded male, it was good to know some things still worked like a well-oiled machine.

      “Great…” A chuckle sounded from the other side of the door. “So do you think it would be okay if I use the shitter now? I know you like your privacy, but ain’t this taking it a bit too far?”

      Jasmine’s eyes widened and her cheeks reddened. “He can’t see me in here with you.”

      Scrubbing his chin, he hesitated. “Did he see you come in?”

      She shook her head. “He’ll think we, well…” Her cheeks turned the perfect shade of rose. “You know…”

      Did she think he would make this painless for her? “No, what do you mean?”

      “Your friends will think we were in here together. Intimately.”

      “Is that so bad? After all, we’ve been there and done that, remember?” He couldn’t deny he got pleasure from her mortification.

      Planting both hands on hips, she looked up at him with a smirk. “Interesting that when it’s in your favor, you’ll admit that you remember me.” Those words were said with a saucy toss of her hair.

      “Don’t get all cocky. You came in here of your own free will and locked the door behind you. What? Did you think we’d be the only two people in the whole place that’d need to use the restroom? It’s a bar. What do drunks have to do frequently when they get wasted?” Erection deflated, he could think clearer. He took her hand. Even when she tugged, he held on. Seeing question in her eyes, he explained, “Don’t worry, honey, it’s only for looks.”

      The action may have only been for appearance, but he felt a strange tug in his chest. He was fully aware of the softness of her palm against his calloused one. The way her fingers threaded between his, comfortably, even when she looked petrified. There would come a point when he’d really have to think long and hard on what was wrong with his libido.

      Throwing open the latch, he came face-to-face with Johnson. “All yours, buddy.”

      “’Bout time, Conn–” The words froze on Johnson’s lips. His eyes opened to the size of saucers as he looked at Jasmine.

      She buried her face into his shoulder as if she was the good schoolgirl caught with the bad boy doing naughty things.

      Johnson stood there like a dummy.

      Shawn sneered. The man needed to pick his tongue off the floor and reel in his senses. Hadn’t he seen a beautiful woman before? “Something wrong, Johnson?” Shawn met the man’s gaze head on.

      Sputtering, Johnson finally managed, “Uhh, nope, not a thing. Didn’t see nothing, either.” The other man rushed past Shawn into the stall and closed the door.

      “Coast is clear. You can pull yourself out of my ass now,” Shawn said to Jasmine.

      She backed up and darted a glance down the darkened hallway. Smoothing her hands down her waist, she sighed in what seemed like relief. “You and I have lots to talk about.”

      Dragging a hand across his buzz cut, he wondered if he could outrun her. Of course. So why didn’t he? The less he said to her, the less chance he had at revealing his true identity. On the other hand, he didn’t like the idea of taking blame for something he hadn’t done. “This isn’t the place to have that talk.”

      She wrapped her arms around her waist. “Then where?”

      “Are you staying in this area?” He didn’t know where the lady came from. Shane had called him the night before he left and said he had taken a bit of time off to play in the sand after he did an interview for a magazine. Well, apparently he meant play–literally. But he hadn’t mentioned a woman.

      A couple came barreling down the hallway, their drunken laughter vibrating the walls, and Shawn’s ears. He glanced at his surroundings and caught the exit sign over a back door. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” When they stepped into the alley behind the bar, the cool air felt good to his shaken senses.

      Jasmine didn’t look so good. Her pale color worried him.

      “Hey, you okay?”

      “I’m fine.”

      He wasn’t sure, but he wouldn’t argue. “I’ll meet you at your room tomorrow.”

      “Oh no, I get where this is heading.”

      “Huh?”

      “I tell you where I’m staying, you show up, and one thing leads to another. Before either of us knows what hit us, we’ll end up getting into something we shouldn’t have gotten into in the first place.” She breathed in deeply.

      His eyes were tired. He rubbed them, but it didn’t help. After an exhausting day, this was the last thing he needed. Coming into the bar hadn’t been his idea in the first place, but after a lot of coaxing from the men, he’d finally СКАЧАТЬ