Pushed to the Edge (SEAL Team 14) (8 page)

Yeah right
.  Will just couldn’t stand the
thought of another man with his hands on her. 

The young pilot got the warning message loud and
clear.  He turned around almost as quickly as he came, heading back to the
table with his friends.  “Hey, you about ready to go home, sweetheart?”

“Why?  Do you need to leave with your date?”

“What?”  Will asked, his eyebrows furrowing
together in a frown as he tried to understand what she was talking about. 

“Your date, the girl you were dancing
with—Michelle.” 

Well, whaddya know
. . . she
had
been paying attention earlier.  “Oh, no, I’m your bonafide chauffeur tonight. 
Totally at your service, babe.  Your wish is my command
Doctor Lewis
,”
Will grinned and then winked at her. 

He helped her down from the barstool, took her
hand, and then navigated her around the other bar patrons and toward the exit. 
“Come on, hun, it’s almost four in the morning.  Being a workaholic and all I’m
sure you probably have to go to work later on today.”

“Yeah, I do actually.  I have to go in for a late shift
this evening,” Olivia answered, her hand clinging on to Will’s.  He led her out
to a black jeep that was parked at a space in the back parking lot of the bar. 

The parking lot was dimly lit, with only one
parking lot light present in the far right corner.  The anemic glow from the
lamp did serve, however, to illuminate a few broken beer bottles that Will
steered Olivia around.  Will’s panoramic gaze checked to make sure that there
wasn’t anyone lurking around who would pose a threat to them.  When he opened
the passenger side door for her, her slender fingers were still entwined with
his strong ones. 

Will hated to break the intimate contact with
her.  But he did just that as he assisted her inside the vehicle.  He then
fastened her seat belt for her before securely shutting the passenger door. 

“So where exactly is this carriage taking you,
sweetheart?” Will said, closing the driver’s side door and glancing over at
Olivia before starting up the vehicle.

“Huh?”

Will laughed at her confusion.  He really couldn’t
help himself.  She looked at him with those big round eyes of hers, and he had
to admit it was adorable.  Not that he’d actually call Olivia “adorable” to her
face of course.  He’d probably encounter her mighty wrath for that type of
comment, and get some sort of spiel about the feminist movement and this not
being the 1940s.  “Where do you live Ms. Lewis?”

“Ramstein Air Base,” she replied huskily.

“Yeah, I have got that part, Olivia.  I meant
which apartment?”

Olivia rattled off her apartment number and leaned
her head against the window.  She briefly closed her eyes while Will drove.

“We’re here,” Will announced.  Putting the car
into park, he opened the door and waited for Olivia to respond.  After she
opened her eyes, Olivia took in that they were indeed in front of apartment
Building 3 at Ramstein Air Base.

He helped Olivia out of the jeep.  “You’re up on
the third floor right?”
“Right,” Olivia confirmed.  They walked up three flights of stairs and then
they were standing in front of Olivia’s apartment door.

Olivia fumbled for a second with her keys.  They
slipped from her fingers and dropped to the ground. 

Will bent down to scoop them up at the same time
that she leaned down to pick up the keys.  They ended up bumping their heads
together with a hard
crack
.

“Ow,” Olivia said softly, stumbling back against
the door while she tried to reach out behind herself to break her fall.

“Damn, I’m sorry.  Are you okay?”  Will
instinctively reached out to grab Olivia around the arm to prevent her from tumbling
all the way to the ground.

“It’s fine.  Yeah, I’m okay.” 

Will picked up the keys with his right hand and
then unlocked and opened the door for her.  It wasn’t dark inside; a soft glow
of light greeted them as soon as the door swung open.  Olivia had left the
hallway light on. 

Her small living room contained a white leather
loveseat, a small flat-screen TV that was mounted on the wall, a white antique
desk with a computer, and a small table with a fresh bouquet a flowers.  A
stack of green medical scrubs sat on the kitchen table, as if she had been
interrupted while folding them and later forgot to return them to her bedroom
dresser.  In one of the corners of the living room sat an electronic keyboard
complete with a stand and seat.  The whole apartment smelled of a slight floral
scent.  Like Olivia’s hair.

She stepped inside of her apartment and then
turned to stare at him.  He watched, completely transfixed, as Olivia leaned
over to step down out of her heels.  She was wearing jeans that showed off her
long, slender legs and toned calves.

“Hey Prince, do you want to come in for a drink?” 
She looked up at him again and smiled.  He could almost swear that she winked
at him.  Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on his part.

Regardless, Will’s heart still did an aerobic flip
in his chest.  His heart sped up a little bit and he tried to ignore the
uncomfortable tightening in his groin.  “Are you sure about this, babe?  You
did turn me down earlier you know . . . and gave me the middle finger. . .” his
voice trailed off.

Olivia considered him silently for a moment. 
“Come in.  And my name is Olivia or Liv, try to remember that,” she told him
saucily and turned toward the kitchen.

“Oh yeah?”  Will followed her into the apartment
and shut the door behind him.  “Liv, huh?  I like that.”  He couldn’t believe
where things were heading.  All right, inviting him into her apartment didn’t
necessarily mean that things were heading anywhere.  But Will had thought that
she completely hated him.  The fact that she invited him inside
must
have meant that she liked him—at least a little bit, right?  Or maybe she was
just being friendlier because she was a little tipsy.  He was hoping that the
former was true and not the latter.

Olivia walked over to her refrigerator and got out
two beers.  “All I have are Corona Lights.” 

“That works for me.”

Will walked around Olivia’s living room.  He noticed
a few framed photographs that she had placed on a side table.  In one of the
photographs, Olivia was sitting beside her twin sister at a booth in a
restaurant.  Both were smiling and wearing Mexican sombreros. 

It was very difficult to tell the two women apart
as far as their facial features were concerned—which really
were
identical.  However, Will was guessing that Olivia was on the left in the
photograph because the other woman had her honey brown hair cut in a short chin
length style. 

In another photo, Olivia was standing at her
graduation ceremony with her sister and an elderly black man who had to be her
father.  Olivia, smiling from ear-to-ear in her sky blue graduation robes, was
standing in the middle with her arms around both of them.  In the last
photograph, Olivia was sitting in the lap of a young man on old-fashioned porch
swing.  She had her arms wrapped around his neck and both of them were smiling
up at the camera.  She looked very happy.

Will cleared his throat.  “So uh, is this like
your boyfriend back home in this photograph?”  Will picked up the photo and
tilted it toward Olivia so that she could see the picture. 

Olivia glanced up from where she stood behind the
kitchen counter.  She had just managed to pop the caps off two of the Corona
Lights.  A shadow of some sort of emotion crossed her face when she looked up
and saw the photograph that he was holding.  It was a haunting look of profound
sadness, but it was only on her face for a few seconds. 

“No.  That’s one of my best friends, Jason.  Was
one of my best friends, rather.  He passed away from cancer four years ago,”
Olivia softly replied.

Damn
.  “I am very sorry, Olivia.” 
Obviously, those five measly words were inadequate, but Will didn’t know what
else to say.

“Thank you.  He was one of my very best friends
from grade school.  He helped me get through a lot of . . .  difficulties.  It
was very hard for me when he died.  He was here one day and then gone the
next.”

Will wanted to ask her more questions, but he
didn’t want to push her.  Obviously, this Jason guy had been very important to
her. 

He watched as Olivia grabbed the two beers, one in
each hand, and walked over to where he was standing.  She handed him a beer and
then she sat down on her loveseat.  Will lowered his long legs and took up the
spot beside her.

“You were amazing tonight you know.  I mean on the
piano, really great.”

Wow
.  Olivia gave him another one of her
dazzling smiles.  And yes, he checked to be sure, no middle finger attached.

“Thank you.  That’s a very nice thing for you to
say,” Olivia beamed.

“It’s the truth.  How long have you been playing?”

“I started really young, around the age of five.  I
don’t play nearly as much as I used to anymore, but it still has a way of
relaxing me sometimes.”

“Oh, okay.  It’s good to have an outlet for
stress.”

“So you have a thick accent.  What part of the
South are you from?”

“I’m from West, Texas.  Andrews to be exact.  Why
did you decide to go to medical school?”

Olivia blinked for a couple of seconds, as if she
wasn’t really expecting Will to ask that question.  “My father is a family
medicine practitioner in Tennessee.  That’s where I’m originally from.  He
still runs a small-sized medical facility.  I’d always been around medicine.”

“Did you always want to be a doctor?”

“No, not always.  I had thought that I would go to
Julliard and then join an orchestra.  But during my senior year of high school,
I decided to attend UNC-Chapel Hill at the last minute.  I had always enjoyed science
and math, but I didn’t decide to pursue medicine until my sophomore year of
college when I volunteered in Nicaragua for a medical research team.”

“Wow, that’s cool,” Will replied, taking another
sip of his beer and then setting it down on Olivia’s coffee table.

“Yeah it was,” Olivia said, turning her body to
face him.

“So how did you get into the Air Force?”  He was
asking her a ton of questions.  He knew that he probably sounded like he was
interviewing her.  But now that she was actually saying more than a few words
to him at a time, he wanted to seize on it. 

She didn’t seem to mind that he was asking her so
many questions, though.  “I joined the Air Force Reserves while in college.  My
father was going through a hard time with finances in his medical practice.  So
I thought that joining the Reserves would help.  He wouldn’t have to worry so
much about me.  Why did you join the Navy?” she asked.

“An unyielding sense of public duty and following
footsteps, I guess.  My older brother Damien is currently serving in the Navy
like me.  He’s a pararescue jumper.  My grandfather, on my mother’s side, also
served in the Navy.”

“I see.  Well, that’s very honorable.  You come
from a family of warriors.”  She was staring at him now, looking right into his
eyes.  Will watched Olivia take a sip of her beer before she asked him, “So why
didn’t you go back home with that girl at the bar?”

“You
were
that girl at the bar,” Will said. 
He leaned toward her, gently nudging her shoulder with his.  He was teasing
her.  He was actually relaxed enough in her presence to joke with her.  That
had to classify as a minor miracle.

“No, I’m serious.”  Will watched Olivia place her
beer down on the coffee table and lean in closer to him.  Will’s right arm was
resting on the top of the couch, slightly touching Olivia’s back as she moved
in closer.

Will shrugged.  “I promised Joshua that I would
make sure that you got back home in pristine condition.”

“Is that the only reason?”

Laughing, Will looked away for a few brief seconds
before saying, “No.  No it’s definitely not the only reason.”

“What’s the other reason?”

“I like you,” Will answered, being completely
honest and cutting out the bullshit answer that he would have usually used to avert
that kind of question.

“Have you ever dated a black woman before?” Olivia
twisted a strand of her wavy long hair around her index finger.  She was
fidgeting.  Was she actually nervous asking him that question? 
Nah, she
couldn’t be, not the fearless doctor.

“No, I haven’t.”  Will locked his eyes with hers. 
“Not that I wouldn’t be interested.  It’s just never worked out to where that
has happened before.”

“Oh I see,” Olivia responded back.  She didn’t say
it, but he could tell that it wasn’t the answer she was hoping to hear.

“How about you?  Have you ever dated a white man?”

“Yes, I have.”

“How did that go?”

“It just didn’t work out,” Olivia said.  She was
looking away from him now, staring down at the floor.  Apparently, there was
something very interesting happening there on the carpet that Will couldn’t
see.

“Why didn’t it work out?”

“It’s complicated.”

All right
.  Will decided to change the
subject.  “So Ms. Liv, why the change of heart?  It’s not just Johnnie Walker whispering
in your ear is it?” Will asked, smiling down at her, regaining her attention.

“Would you care?” Olivia asked.

“Would I care?”

Instead of responding, Olivia took a sip of liquid
courage and then straddled Will’s lap.  Leaning forward, her long hair falling
over her shoulders, she planted her hands on either side of Will’s broad
shoulders and gave him a deep kiss with those amazing lips of hers.  She
practically inhaled him. 

God
.  He was going to die.  He was either
dreaming or hallucinating.  Either way, he didn’t want it to stop.  Pulling her
tighter to his chest, Will kissed Olivia back.  His strong hands traveled down
her body to cup her firm ass.