Dating Outside Your DNA (8 page)

She wasn't sure she trusted him.

"But you'll need to change your clothes. Wear something a little

more rugged."

Now she knew she didn't trust him.

Roan almost felt sorry for her. The obstacle course was tough.  Even he could barely get  through it. Of course, his injury had slowed him down somewhat. He'd gone out a few days ago just to see how his endurance was and knew he was fit to go back on active duty. It was a tough course, though. This might be the last straw for Lyraka.

"I'll meet you back downstairs in fifteen minutes," he told her.

She didn't wait on him as she hurried from the room. Damn, he'd hate to see her leave. She was definitely a temptation, had been all week. But it was for her own good.

While she was changing, he went to the kitchen and had  Frances fix them a sack lunch. While she was doing that, he grabbed some bottled water out of the refrigerator, then took everything to the  Jeep.

There was a crisp bite in the air. A good day to go up the

mountain. He just wondered how long Lyraka would last. She might

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have speed, and could blend in with her surroundings, but the course  would test her mettle. That would tell her true worth, and he didn't  plan to take it easy on her. He set everything in the Jeep and went  back inside.

Twenty minutes after she'd first gone upstairs, Lyraka joined him back downstairs. She wore pretty much the same thing she'd worn that first night in the woods. He wondered if her bra was like the lacy one she'd been wearing that night.

"Is this okay? " she asked when she got to the bottom of the stairs.

He realized he'd been staring, but who could blame him. She was hot and sexy and it was hard not to let his gaze linger or to remember how it had felt to hold her in his arms. Keeping his distance all  week had not been easy.

"It'll do," he told her, then turned and headed toward the front door. "You're late, by the way."

"Only five minutes or so."

"Five minutes could mean whether your partner lives or dies.  Five minutes could make or break a mission. Five minutes "--

"Okay, okay. I won't let it happen again."

"Good, then let's go." He didn't wait to see if she followed. She  did, and as he climbed into the driver's side, she opened the door and  got in on the passenger side.

He noticed she didn't press herself against the door like she

had on the drive up. Good, if she did survive training, she had to learn  to trust him in all things. He would be her team leader. He couldn't  have her balking when he gave an order, and getting someone killed.  Today, he  would start her lesson in trust.

They traveled a few miles, going higher up the mountain. The  road they traveled wasn't much more than a dirt path cleared

between the trees--tall pines and oaks almost as old as time itself.

"You'd think the government could build a decent road up here,"  she yelled over the bouncing of the Jeep as she hung on to the door  with one hand and the dash with the other.

"You'd think." He agreed with her on that. Hell, it was almost an

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obstacle course just getting up the mountain. He always felt as  though a few of his teeth had been jarred loose. "We're almost there,"  he said.

He gave the Jeep a little more gas as he topped a small rise.

There was a clearing on the right. He pulled head - in and parked, setting the emergency break  before he killed the engine.

She wore a look of disappointment. "This is it?" She slowly climbed out of the Jeep, looking around. "I guess I expected it to look different.

He followed her gaze. "You can't see it from here. This is as far as we go by Jeep ."

She'd wish she'd never heard the word obstacle course by the end of the day. There were ditches to leap over, hills to climb. Trees to dodge, knotted ropes to swing from. Farther into the woods there was a thirty foot A-frame outfitted with a cargo net to climb up and over. And if all that didn't get her, there were pipes and beams to test her balance.

Those were just a few of the things he would have her doing. It usually took longer than a couple of days to go through the whole thing. Lyraka might ru n fast, but he had a feeling she wouldn't make it through half the course without calling a stop to the exercise.

"Where do we start?" she asked, breaking into his thoughts.

"Are you scared of heights?"

"I can climb a tree." She shrugged. "It's never bothered me before."

"Good."

"We're going to climb a tree?"

"Yeah. Then we'll fall out of it." He strolled over to one of the

tallest trees around. "See that metal cable?" He pointed up.

"The one way up there?" Some of her bravado slipped.

"That's the one. We're going to climb the tree. Once we get to

the cable, we'll clip on to it and glide through the trees for about a

quarter mile."

"You're sure about that?" She placed a hand above her eyes to

shield the sunlight and narrowed them as she tried to fol low the path

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of the cable.

"I'm positive." It would be the last time she had fun today. He  had to admit that he loved the metal cable. When he'd gone through  the academy, his instructor had brought a group of them to the  course. They'd all had their turn  on it. Roan had felt like a bird gliding  past the trees.

When his flight ended, he knew this was exactly what he  wanted to do. By the end of that first day, he hadn't been so sure.  Every muscle in his body had not only ached, they'd screamed in  protest.

"So how do we climb the tree?" she asked.

Roan walked to the other side and knelt down in front of a metal

box. "Everything we need is right here." He opened it and brought out  two sets of metal spikes, and the leather straps that would fit around  the tree as they climbed.

"It doesn't look very safe."

He caught the worried expression on her face when he glanced  up. "It's the same gear a lineman would use to check the telephone  lines. If you don't think you can handle this, we can always go back."

She arched an eyebrow. "I bet you'd like that."

He slowly stood. "Like I said, this isn't a game of checkers."

She picked up one of the spikes. "How does this work?"

Yeah, he liked that she acted tough. Not that acting would do  her any good. This was a dangerous line of work and she had no  business being here, but yeah, he had to admire her tenacity.

He knelt in front of her again. "It straps to your leg, the sharp  prong goes on the inside so you can jab it into the tree." He looked at  her once more, silently asking her if she was ready to do this.

She took a deep breath, then nodded. "I'm ready."

Yeah, she was like a puppy with a sock and she wasn't about to  let go. He fastened the lower strap, then took his time moving his  hands up her jean clad leg to fasten the other one. He felt her flinch,  then tremble. It was nice to know she wasn't immune to his touch.

It amazed Roan to know that with very little effort he could

probably get Lyraka into his bed, and could be making sweet love to

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her, but instead, he  was strapping metal spikes to her legs, and they  were about to climb a really tall tree. He needed his head examined.  Sometimes he wondered if this job was worth it. He strapped the  other spike on, then straightened.

"Now what?" Her words came out kind of husky, breathless.

That was almost enough to do him in. He had a blanket in his  Jeep and...

Joe would kill him. Probably wouldn't give him his release,  either. Damned if he wasn't tempted to keep teaching a bunch of

over-eager, trigger- happy rookies for just one day spent in Lyraka's

arms.

But she was wearing metal spikes and her feet were really fast.  Now might not be the time to push his luck by asking her if she wanted to have a quickie instead of flying through the trees, even if he did think he mig ht talk her into it. There was still that little percentage that he might make her mad instead. He'd rather not become shish kabob today.

Okay, she wanted to know what was next. Maybe it was better to concentrate on that. "We'll put on the harnesses, then I'll put on my spikes and we climb the tree." But man was he tempted.

The harnesses went over the shoulder, like a vest. They'd use them when they went down the cable. He put his on. Before he could help Lyraka with hers, she already had it fastened. A shame. He'd have liked to tighten her straps.

It only took him a few minutes to finish putting all the gear on.  "I'll show you first, then I'll let you go in front of me. If you fall, you'll land on me."

"What if you fall?"

"Then we're both screwed, so try not to fall." He stood next to

the tree, then hooked the strap on the belt. "The strap goes around

the tree and buckles to the other side of the belt. Next you jab the

spike into the tree, then you jab the other spike in, let the waist strap

help hold your weight." He demonstrated how to climb the tree by

moving the strap up and continuing to climb using the spikes. He

went up a few feet, then came back down. "Do you think you can do

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that?"

"Of course. It doesn't look that hard."

He could almost hear h er adding, if you can do it, so can I. He liked the competitive streak in her. It made his life more interesting.

He was curious to see how long it would last as the day progressed.

She positioned herself in front of the tree and leaned forward so she cou ld swing her strap around it.

"Be careful you don't get a splinter."

She frowned at him. He smiled.

She started up the tree just as he'd shown her, with only a wobble or two. She was a fast learner. He got his footing and started up after her. Nice view. He liked the way the material cupped her ass and...

Her spike dug into the tree an inch from his fingers.

"Jesus!" He jerked his hand away, lost his footing and hugged the tree, sliding down a couple of inches before he got another foothold.

She looked down at him. "Be careful you don't get a splinter," she said before continuing up the tree as though she'd been climbing with spikes all her life.

"You sure you haven't done this before?"

"Positive. Like I said, I'm a fast learner."

They made it up the rest of the tree without incident. At the top was a small platform barely big enough for two people to stand on. As he squeezed in next to her, Roan realized this was a hell of a lot nicer than when he'd been up here with his burly instructor. Lyraka smelled a lot better, and he liked being up close and personal with her curves.

"This is really high. I didn't realize we'd climbed up this far."

"Scared?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, I like being able to see this far. I feel as though I'm on top of the world. I almost don't want to leave."

She looked at him and he became lost in her eyes, her scent. If he wasn't afraid of falling out of the tree, he'd kiss her.

Instead, he grabbed the metal loop and strapped it to her harness, then removed her spikes, letting them fall to the ground

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below. "Ready?"

"Not exactly."

Roan hadn't thought she'd last very long, but he hadn't

expected her to give up this soon. He couldn't stop the flash of

disappointment that swept through him.

"Hey, it's okay. Some people are just not cut out for this kind of

life."

"No, it's not that. I know this is where we start, but exactly

where and how do we finish?"

He'd forgotten that detail. Man, Lyraka could make a man forget his own name when she stood this close, smelled t his sweet, and looked so incredibly hot.

He cleared his throat, then reached up and tugged on the cable. "It's not that tight. Your weight will slacken it some more.  Because it's a more gradual drop, rather than a sharper angle, you won't actually be going that fast. At the end of the cable, there's a big inflated mattress to land on. Just keep your feet straight out in front of you."

"You know it's inflated? I mean, someone could forget to take  off their spikes or something."

"Everything on the course is checked twice a day. Trust me."

She didn't. He could tell by the look in her eyes, but if she  lasted the next few days, he would make sure she didn't hesitate to  put her complete faith in him.