but instead she’d be blessed her children looked like their father.
“I pulled to the left,” I told him unnecessarily, seeing as I missed the target completely and debris plumed to the left of the metal disk.
“You did,” Luke confirmed. “And I’ll tell you why after you explain to me why you’re wondering if nuns diddle themselves.”
“Diddle?”
“I already have an iffy rapport with the man upstairs. No way in hell am I saying masturbate and nun in the same sentence. That’s asking to be sent to the dark place,” he told me.
“And you came up with diddle?”
“Shiloh!”
“Sunny,” I corrected. “No one calls me Shiloh.”
“Woman, just answer the question.” He smiled.
Good Lord Almighty, he was hotter than Hades when he smiled.
“I’d rather not.”
“Yeah, I bet you wouldn’t.” He stepped away from his spotting scope still smiling which led me to take an unsteady breath as he closed the distance between us.
I lost sight of his smile seeing as I was on my stomach and he was standing at my hip. Even with my neck craned, with his height it was no use.
“You’re leaning on your left hip,” he continued and went into a crouch before he grabbed my hips and twisted them the way he wanted.
I bit back a groan as my bruised right side made contact with the hard ground.
“Normally I prefer dinner before the groping commences,” I quipped.
“Sunny. Sunny. Sunny,” Luke clucked. “That breaks my heart.”
“What does? That you can’t cop a feel until we’ve shared a meal?”
I’d lost my mind. What the hell was I doing flirting with Luke? I was flirting, wasn’t I? It’d been so long I couldn’t remember if I was doing it right.
“No, babe, breaks my heart knowing you’ve never properly been groped.”
That didn’t cause a tingle—it sent a thrill straight between my legs, which was way more dangerous than a tingle.
“I’ve been properly groped,” I said haughtily.
“Right.”
“I have,” I continued to defend myself.
I belatedly realized he was teasing and I was protesting way too much. Likely because I had a feeling he was right and I’d never been properly groped. If I had, I doubted I would’ve been able to give up sex without much thought.
“Maybe you’re right,” I grumbled stupidly.
“I know I am.”
I felt my eye twitch and I rolled to my side in an effort to engage in a suitable staredown.
“You don’t have to be smug about it,” I snapped.
Luke’s gaze traveled down the length of my body then came back to meet mine. Something flashed in his eyes before it cleared, but not before he shook his head in what looked to be like an attempt to knock his thoughts from his head.
“Roll back, Shiloh, and make ready.”
Crisp.
Sharp.
No more taunting and teasing.
Playtime was over and Luke was making that clear. I shifted back to my stomach, bent my left arm, wrapped my left hand around the dropdown of the buttstock, and pulled my Tikka tight against my shoulder. I lowered my face to the cheek rest, and finally, I ejected the spent cartridge out of the chamber and slammed the bolt closed.
Once I had my rifle cradled I took a moment to slow my accelerated heartrate—courtesy of sexy-as-hell Luke The Spotter. With an exhale I made ready.
“Call it,” I told him.
“Hold at six-hundred yards. Red target.”
Looking downrange through my scope I found the target.
“Yellow dot center. Number two low right corner,” I returned.
“Correct.” There was a pause then, “Get your hips right.”
Momentarily my mind flashed back to how his big hands had fit nicely…
Down girl. Playtime’s over.
I was grateful Luke couldn’t read my mind or see the wince when I gently eased my hips into the correct position.
“Ready.”
“Hold one mil right for wind,” Luke instructed.
I adjusted my aim, slid my finger onto the trigger, and on an exhale pressed.
The crack of the projectile leaving the barrel. Then the snap of the bullet, and finally the faint ding of bullet meeting steel.
“Center,” I belatedly called the shot.
“Good hit. Do it again.”
That was how the next twenty minutes went. All business. Luke calling targets, me shooting. Just as I was feeling good and relaxed my pager beeped and that was all it took for tension to suffuse my body.
I cleared the chamber, dropped the magazine, and double-checked my rifle was safe before I rolled to my side then sat up.
“Sorry, I gotta run. Call out.”
Luke did another body sweep but this time there was no heat behind his gaze. And when his eyes settled on mine I knew he didn’t miss the exhaustion.