“I don’t know, sir,” Sean answered. “No imagination, I guess. Luke went first, right out of high school, but he scored a warrant officer promotion, flight school, and made it look fun. Big Irish-Catholic family like ours with a Da who’s an electrician, he wasn’t sending the lot of us to college, so we had to come up with alternate plans. ROTC, military scholarship, active duty—whatever. But it turns out I like the life.”
Then Shelby told Sean about merely being here for a visit, and for the first time Luke had a catastrophic thought—what if he wasn’t quite ready for her to leave when she decided to go? He’d spent so much mental energy on the disaster that would befall him when he was through with her, it hadn’t occurred to him it might just go the opposite way.
If Luke was quieter than usual, it could be explained by the fact that Sean never shut up. That, and the fear he was losing a major chance with Shelby to this upstart who would be gone in a few days. A few long days.
Tables were pushed together as those present collected for dinner, and Sean grabbed the chair next to Shelby’s, entertaining her, making her laugh. Luke didn’t make her laugh so much. He wasn’t the comedian Sean was to start with, plus he was sulking. Sean stole the show. So after the plates were picked up, Luke stepped outside into the cool fall night.
He wasn’t out there long before she joined him. She gave him a little smile and shook her head. “You’re so unhappy,” she said, humor in her voice.
“I hate him,” Luke said miserably.
“Come on,” she said. “You don’t have to be so cranky. I like your brother.” She got a little closer to him. “You’re the jealous type, I guess.”
“I guess,” he grumbled. Truthfully, he was feeling old. Feeling thirty-eight, soon to be thirty-nine. Feeling less educated than Sean, boring and retired.
“Seems a little ridiculous for you to be jealous when you keep telling me I’m making a big mistake flirting with you.”
“I was going to stop saying that pretty soon,” he told her.
“I wasn’t exactly fooled,” she said. “You tell me that and then rattle my bones with a kiss that goes all the way to my belly button. You’re kind of obvious, Luke.” Shelby did something that a year ago, even a month ago, she couldn’t envision. But she’d had a couple of glasses of wine and Sean had made her laugh the night away even if Luke had not. She walked right up to him and put her arms around his waist. His arms went instantly around her. “It’s been a while since you kissed me like that. Couple of days,” she reminded him.
Finally, after all this time, he smiled. “Believe me, I know.”
“And now you’re in a bad mood.”
“It has nothing to do with kissing you. Kissing you is good.”
“Why not try that again? See if it’s still good?”
His arms tightened around her. “What about the general?”
She laughed. “It would probably thrill him. He’s been awful worried about my arrested development. I’m sure he thinks I’m pathetic and manless.”
“You’re not.”
“Pathetic?”
“Or manless,” he said, covering her mouth in a powerful and deep kiss, a possessing kiss. He moved over her mouth and her lips opened for him. It briefly ran through his mind that he had to have her this minute, but first he should remind her, she couldn’t count on him for the long haul. At best, it would be a fling. A fabulous, satisfying fling. Instead of talking to her about that, he received her small tongue into his mouth and moaned his pleasure. He didn’t want it ever to end and he concentrated on making it the longest kiss in history, hoping to get caught, hoping everyone would go on notice—this was his girl. His woman. He could feel her firm breasts pressing against his chest and knew nothing would feel quite so good as to have one in his hand. At length, he released her lips. But didn’t let them get too far.
“Your brother is very cute,” she said against his lips.
“I’m going to take him home and beat the shit out of him.”
It made her giggle to hear that. “Would you two like to go for a ride tomorrow?” she asked. “We have another good riding horse. A beautiful Appaloosa named Shasta. All spotty and gentle.”
“I don’t want him to go anywhere with us.”
“Luke,” she scolded.
“Seriously. I want him out of here. I have things to do with you.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Riding and beers and dinner and…stuff.”