Blink of an Eye (4 page)

Her body ached in all the right places, but, even if she was more than a little sore this morning, it had been worth it.

Scott’s presence here, right in the middle of her early-evening rush hour, definitely threw her for a loop.

His smile, direct, hot and sexual, made it even worse. He settled onto the only empty bar stool and blatantly ignored the looks of interest directed at him by her regulars. He looked at her with an intent far from casual, even to the most uninterested observer.

Cassidy winced inwardly. As soon as he left, they’d all ask her who the one-eyed boy was, and how was she supposed to answer that? She never could lie very convincingly. The fact that she knew Scott on a decidedly personal level was probably already apparent to everyone in the café. She could just imagine the tongues wagging about how Cassidy had taken a young lover, how she was robbing the cradle.

Another thought struck her… What if someone here knew him? It had been six years, but what if? She glanced around the room quickly, but didn’t find any faces lighting with recognition. This was her business, her life, and there was no way she was going to sacrifice what she’d spent years working on over a one-nighter with a kid.

She had to at least try to salvage the situation. Walking calmly to him, she asked, in her most businesslike tone, “What’ll you have, stranger?”

He leaned over the counter and whispered, “You.”

Feeling the blood surge quickly to her face, then directly to her breasts and pussy, she tried to keep a straight face. “Not on the menu tonight, sorry. Try again.” Oh hell, where had that come from? While she certainly wouldn’t mind another go-round with the lusty hard body, this was her business, for God’s sake. Anyway, hadn’t she promised herself never to get too involved again after Brian? Losing someone in that way had killed a part of her, and it had taken her over two years to even begin dating casually.

Scott settled back on his stool looking nonplussed and answered the last part of her statement first. “I think I just might. I can wait. Guess I’ll have a cup of coffee.”

She swivelled and poured him a cup, feeling not only his intense stare, but also the eyes of the entire café on her. It wasn’t until she’d placed the mug in front of him that she realised she hadn’t even asked how he took it. She’d known, and from the stifled grins on several of the faces seated next to Scott, her regulars had noticed.

* * * *

This was never going to work, Cassidy thought. An hour later, the coffee shop had emptied and filled again and Scott just sat there, nursing his coffee, watching her with a hooded gaze. She could feel his stare straight down to her toes, had been able to for the last hour. It had her on edge more than she’d like to admit.

Erica, a woman much closer to his age, had tried to engage him in conversation and had been gently rebuffed. Now her sole waitress watched, amused, as they circled around each other.

“Why don’t you clear out early, Cass?” Erica suggested none too discreetly. “I can handle it from here.”

Cassidy looked around the coffee shop. Yeah, she could leave and the business wouldn’t suffer. The question was, did she want to?

Scott answered for her, “C’mon, Cassidy. We need to talk.”

She felt pissed off a bit even though he was probably right. “Not gonna wear you down, am I?” she whispered, trying and failing to make her voice sound cold. All she could think of was his body riding over hers, his head between her legs, that single, smouldering blue eye as he’d undressed her.

“Wear me out, maybe. Wear me down? Never.” His reply was cocky and oh so serious. Erica snorted from behind Cassidy.

With a sigh of feigned disgust, she pulled her apron off and hung it on a hook next to the walk-through.

Scott stood, threw a ten-spot down and sauntered behind the counter as if he had every right in being there.

This time Cassidy’s sigh was real. She’d never, ever hear the end of this from Erica and the resident busybody, Mrs Crane, who was watching the proceedings with hawk-like eyes over the rim of her mocha latte.

Scott moved in front of her, opening the door as if he were a gentleman and this was a fine restaurant. For a brief moment, Cassidy soaked in the feel of being treated like a lady, but pushed it back in favour of reality. They’d end up in bed in approximately one minute and he’d be gone in the morning. Again. And this time her feelings really would be hurt, because, while she could understand that behaviour once, twice was out of the question.

To say she was surprised when he escorted her to the couch and seated himself in the big, comfy chair opposite was a bit of an understatement.

“I meant it when I said we had to talk.” His voice was quiet, introspective.

“I guess I really didn’t believe you,” she answered candidly, her interest piqued.

He leant forward, forearms on his thighs. “I know we both thought last night was a fling, but I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“Oh,” she replied in a small voice. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him either and it bothered her slightly that she hadn’t admitted it to herself until now.

“We don’t know the first thing about each other,” he began, and smiled. “Okay, so we know more than a lot of people who met less than twenty-four hours ago… You get what I mean.”

Cassidy nodded, still not sure where he was going with this. It didn’t stop her heart from speeding up, though.

“I didn’t even catch your last name,” he finished and swiped a hand through his hair.

“I don’t know yours either and I’m not sure I want to.” Now was the time for truth, even if it pained her more than it should. “I don’t do this kind of thing very often, and when I do, it’s for a reason. I’m very attracted to you, Scott.” She buried her shaking hands in her lap. Why in the hell was this so hard? He was a one-nighter, not someone like Brian, whom she’d expected to grow old and grey with. “But I lost my fiancé in the Murrah bombing and that was enough heartache for me, thank you very much. I’ve got my coffee shop and my friends and family, and that’s all I need. It has to be.”

Surprisingly, for the first time since that fateful day, she didn’t feel the old, familiar ache in her heart when she mentioned Brian.

Instead of bolting as she’d expected, he settled back into the chair and studied her with a disconcerting expression. “The Murrah building, huh? The world changed that day for a lot of people, including me. My name is Scott Carnes and I’m in the Air Force.”

His profession didn’t surprise Cassidy, but his name did. She’d heard it on the radio just yesterday, that a war hero had come home, and was being honoured at the Governor’s mansion. How in the hell a bona fide hero had jumped from the ritziest digs in Oklahoma City and into her bed was a mystery.

“Cassidy Thompson.” After that, she didn’t know quite what to do. She’d been clear about what she expected—nothing—and still he sat there, just looking at her. “What else do you want?”

“I want you to say yes when I ask if you’ll go out to dinner with me.”

Cassidy spluttered and forced herself to be brutal. Deep down, in a part she didn’t want to acknowledge, she realised there was only one way to get out of this with her heart intact. “Listen, I thought I’d made myself pretty clear. Last night was it. Done. Finished.”

Scott stood, and she was mesmerised by the play of muscles beneath his jeans and T-shirt, remembering all too vividly the lean, muscled splendour lying beneath.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, and friends go to dinner, don’t they? Plus, it was my birthday yesterday and I’d like to celebrate it in a more traditional manner.” He grinned wryly.

There wasn’t a good answer that wouldn’t make her feel like more of a bitch than she already did.

She stood on shaky legs. This was not going the way she’d thought it would. Her body’s urges, shunted to the back burner for their conversation, let up a strident cry. She could have him now if she wanted, she was sure, but there was no way she was going to give into traitorous desire after her little speech. No way in hell.

“I’ll think about it,” she said, far more steadily than she felt. She needed to get him out of here so she could regroup and figure out if she could handle being ‘just friends’ with Scott Carnes. It wasn’t a bet she was taking at this point. Besides, they’d have little in common with the age difference.

He walked to the outer door and she followed him, prepared to lock up after he left. She wasn’t prepared for the kiss that swooped down and almost floored her.

After last night’s display, it was chaste, just the brush of his lips over hers, but it set her now-throbbing body on fire.

He pulled away with a rumble in his throat, like it was paining him to do so. “I’ll call you tomorrow about dinner.” He pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Cassidy Thompson.”

With that, he stepped out of the door, closing it quietly behind him, and was gone.

Chapter Six

Scott sat in the cab of his pickup, staring at the exterior door of Cassidy’s building. His shaft throbbed, telling him to walk back inside and sink into her warm, wet, willing body.

Instead, he forced himself to stay inside the cab, replaying the conversation over in his head, realising he’d done the right thing, even if he did feel like someone had tied his dick in a knot.

He’d been serious when he’d asked Cassidy out to dinner. The calls he’d made this afternoon, trying to find a way, any way, back into Pararescue, had deflated him. By five, the only thing he could think of to lift his mood was to see Cassidy. It had lifted him all right, in more ways than one.

He was sure he could have stayed the night with her, but that wasn’t what his heart told him was the right thing to do. Oh, it had been the first thing on his mind when he’d walked into the coffee shop, but watching her interact with the customers had changed his physical feelings of want into something more esoteric. Those people hadn’t reacted to his appearance with pity, but rather interest. They’d seemed more intrigued by his single-minded attention to Cassidy than they had been by who or what he was. That kindness, for want of a better word, was something he’d overlooked growing up, and it surprised him.

Shaking his head, he started up the truck and headed down the road feeling sorry for himself. Hearing that the career, hell, the lifestyle he’d poured a hundred and fifty per cent into for over six years was absolutely, utterly gone was more of a blow than the loss of his eye had been.

He wheeled into the driveway of his house, then took the stairs to the front porch two at a time. Standing in the empty living room, he felt the sudden, overwhelming urge to talk to someone, but who? The friends he had made in the Air Force were all PJs. They’d listen to him, sure, but they’d be uncomfortable with it, because it would make them face their own mortality. He understood, because he would have been exactly the same way two months ago.

He plopped down in the easy chair in the darkness-shrouded house, a hand on the receiver of the telephone, and in that moment he’d never felt more alone in his entire life.

* * * *

The ring of the phone jarred Cassidy out of her reverie. She smiled and picked up the receiver. Her family seemed to have an almost telepathic ability to know when she needed to talk, even her butt-head of a brother Jay.

The voice that met her ear was the very last one she expected.

“So, have you thought about it?”

“Scott,” she replied slowly, carefully. “It’s only been an hour.”

“Yeah.” His voice was muted, as introspective as it had been earlier this evening. It almost sounded as if he was melancholy. “Listen, I’m sorry for bothering you. I’ll talk to you later.” Melancholy was gone, replaced by a distance so great it felt like an ocean was separating them, not a few simple miles.

She should have let it go, let it all end right there. However, something inside compelled her to speak. “Wait…” Silence met her plea. “Scott, are you there?”

“Yeah.” More silence.

“What’s wrong?” And she knew something was. Something beyond the fact they weren’t testing her mattress springs right now.

He sighed in response. “I don’t know. I just needed someone to talk to.”

Didn’t he have family? Friends he could call? She was getting the serious impression that Scott Carnes was all alone in the world, maybe when he needed someone the most.

Normally, she would have been frightened by his sudden, intense interest. Instead, it warmed her from the inside in a way physical contact couldn’t. What was it about this wounded warrior that made her push aside her own self-imposed rules? The rules that said he was good for one night only and that they shouldn’t even be having this conversation.

She settled deeper into the couch. “So talk. I’m not going anywhere.”

“If I’d been smarter tonight, we could’ve gone places even I haven’t imagined.” His voice was wry, self-deprecating. It put her at ease more than it should have.

“Good try, soldier. Those evasion techniques won’t work with me. Remember, I’ve already sampled the goods. You wanted to be friends? Well, this is how it starts.”

“I dunno.” He breathed out a frustrated huff that had her smiling into the phone. “Oh hell, all right, here goes. I got some bad news today from the Air Force. Recruiting is the only real job they have for me now, maybe ever. There’s no way I can go back to my old job with one eye. Being stuffed into a cube with a bunch of other paper pushers isn’t why I signed up.”

“What did you do?” She spoke carefully. It had to have been very important to win him the accolades she’d heard on the radio.

“Pararescue.” His reply was short, clipped.

“No shit?” Cassidy drew in a breath. She had seen a three-hour documentary on the Discovery Channel about the indoctrination training only twenty per cent of enrollees finished. Now she knew where his innate sense of self came from, the self-confidence that belied his years. What did being medically removed from such a tight cadre do to a man’s self-worth? It was damned hard to be a medic, to look at blood and gore and still go home with a shred of sanity intact.