Jake (California Dreamy) - By Rian Kelley Page 0,27
would intimacy nurture the positive? And shouldn’t she have some control over where they went and how fast?
Ivy seemed to need that. She’d made it pretty clear—she resented his position and had sought to weaken it.
He let his gaze rest on Ivy’s face. She was beautiful—expressive eyes and full lips—but he saw more than surface qualities. Her inner strength made her gaze direct. It lifted her chin and created an air of challenge. It did crazy things to him—made him want to meet her on the mats, but hold her close and be her shield when needed. It was an intoxicating combination bottled in perfection. He had no chance against it. And very little fight left in him.
“Okay.” He nodded, glancing at his watch. “Let’s call it six hours. Which means we need to get through three more before we start taking off our clothes.”
His agreement caused her pause. She folded the menu and laid it on the table. “We’re having sex in three hours?”
“That’s right.”
“At twelve-thirty am,” she further clarified, glancing at her watch.
“Yes. August twenty-first,” he confirmed.
“Of this year?”
He laughed. “Getting cold feet?”
“Hardly. You just gave me a brain freeze for a moment. Why the change in plans?”
“A combination of things. But you’re right. I definitely don’t want my last breath to be full of regret.”
He watched emotions chase across her face. Anticipation dampened by a somber cast before her thoughts formed on her lips.
“I didn’t mean to call up bad memories for you,” she said. “I should have chosen my words more carefully.”
“No. You’re right. We should live with more urgency. I just want to make sure that the decisions we make today don’t lead to regret later.” He turned a fork over with his fingers and studied the tines as he sifted through words for the ones that felt right. “I told you I lost a man my last tour. He was married. Had a few kids. But you know what? He lived life. The guy was always smiling. He had only one greeting. ‘Seize the day.’ And he lived it.”
“Why were you ordered on R&R?”
Jake glanced toward the ocean. Only the whitecaps were visible, like sheets undulating in the wind. “I needed it. I went back for Arturo,” he confided. “The gunfire was close and they were using hand held missile launchers, too. It made hearing each other almost impossible—caused static on our radios and forget trying to shout to each other. But I heard him. For one clear moment, with artillery flying and the discharge from automatic weapons shattering the air, there was a moment of nothing. And that’s when I heard him.” He paused, caught a breath of air, and continued. “No words. He wasn’t capable of any. But his last breath.
“I couldn’t leave him there. His family needed closure, needed something to bury.” He shook his head. “And there was just no way I could leave his body out there, to become a symbol
of enemy taunting.
“I put him over my shoulder and ran a quarter mile to our transport. That was May eleventh. I’ve been in fast-forward ever since.” Until he saw her on the side of the road and then everything inside him came to a screeching halt. “My CO thought a break would do me good. The General agreed. I wasn’t happy about it. Not at first. But then I found you, half-naked on the side of the road, and realized that I’d struck gold.”
“I wasn’t half-naked,” she protested, but her voice was mild. “I’m sorry you lost Arturo. You’re a brave man, Jake. And honorable.” Her fingers pleated the cocktail napkin her wine glass rested on as she dipped into her thoughts. “I’m sorry I’ve been pushing.”
She lifted her eyes and met his gaze. Jake noticed the color in her cheeks and the way her teeth sawed her lower lip. It made him want to reach across the table and suck that lip into his mouth, kiss her deeply, make her cheeks flame with passion.
“Especially since I agreed to Saturday night.” She shrugged. “I’m impatient. I don’t remember being this way since, well ever. You don’t even have to touch me. Sometimes it’s the way you look at me, or its standing close enough I can feel your warmth, breathe in your scent, and I want you. We’ll wait until Saturday. And we’ll have a normal date. We’ll do that dinner cruise—“
“Whoa!” Jake pushed his menu aside and leaned across the table. “Hold up. You’ve got me where you