Roberts, Sarah - Action Hero Junkie [Movieland] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (11 page)

I wonder if Mia knows how to drive—I mean, really drive.

Of course, the situation probably wouldn’t get that far out of control. Aiden saw a Mustang slowly cruise past behind the patrol soldier. He knew that the Mustang would shortly come back by from the opposite direction.

The light retreated, as though the soldier had lost interest in him. Aiden released his breath slowly.
It could just be a clever bluff—to throw me off guard.
He felt his fingers twitch, and he controlled his instinctive movement toward the hidden hand weapon.

The soldier still stood at the open window, his light trained back on Mia.

Mia had been rummaging in her purse. She pulled out a billfold, opened it, and extracted a small card. She handed it out to the soldier. “You’re not going to have to give me a ticket, are you? I’d never live it down with my friends. I work at the hospital.”

The soldier was shining his light down on the card. “Mia Haven.” He looked at her again, his hard face easing into a thin smile. “Sure, I know who you are! I thought you looked familiar. You took care of my sister-in-law’s father when he was sick – Martin Velasquez?”

“Oh, yeah, Mr. Velasquez! I heard he had to have some cardio rehab. How is he?”

Aiden listened to Mia and the soldier chatting away like old friends. He was blown away, especially when the soldier returned Mia’s identification to her, gave her a stern warning, and walked back to his vehicle. Aiden twisted his head to watch the man get back into the patrol vehicle. He still couldn’t believe it.
He never gave me a second glance!

Mia started the vehicle and eased it back onto the road. She didn’t say a word, which, considering how much and how fast she had just been talking, was odd.

Aiden looked over at her. He saw that her hands were clenched tight on the steering wheel. “You did real good, sweetheart,” he said softly. He secured his hand gun in its holster.

She turned her head slightly in his direction. Her eyes glinted in the green light reflecting from the dashboard. “How did you do that— with your gun, I mean?”

Aiden chuckled quietly. “I’ve had some training.” That training had required him to be able to tear down and put back together a weapon in a matter of seconds, blindfolded. He reached down for the parts of his weapon and expertly put it back together. He laid it across his knees.

“Um, are you sure you didn’t miss any pieces? I wouldn’t want you to forget something important, like maybe the trigger.”

Aiden nearly laughed out loud at her wit. She was always coming up with these quirky quips. Almost from the first time he had seen her, and had pointed a gun at her head, she had disarmed him with her swift, dry humor. With sentimental enjoyment, Aiden let his memory replay it.
“You didn’t kill me last night. So it will be a real bummer if you off me now.”

 
He kept a suitably grave expression on his face as he made her a solemn promise. “I will check for sure that I’ve got the trigger when we get to your place.”

Mia lifted her chin and sniffed. “Don’t be a jerk, Aiden.”

Aiden grinned widely. Mia’s ability to defuse a situation to comedic opera was priceless.

* * * *

Mia glimpsed Aiden’s easy grin in the dim light. The adrenaline and headiness from spent fear and relief were slamming through her veins. All of a sudden, she was blazing mad clear through. He seemed completely oblivious to the danger they had been in. Well, of course, danger was his profession, she fumed, but still he could at least have looked a little worried. Anything could have happened! That poor police officer, who had just been doing his job, could have been taken out by a fictional action hero! That would have been one for the books! It wasn’t something that could have been explained away, either, and since the cop had been standing there with her license in his hand, it would have been a good bet that questions would have come knocking on
her
door. Naturally, Aiden wouldn’t have taken that into consideration! All he had to do was climb back into the movie, along with Caesar, his trusty sidekick.

Mia was still steamed, but her mad was underpinned with anxiety. Being stopped by the cop had taken time. Aiden had said he and Caesar had just an hour’s window to get back to the theater. She wondered what happened after that magic hour was up—maybe the squad on the other side just melted into cinematic goo! Maybe being stopped by the cop had run them so off schedule that the feature would be over too soon, and Aiden and Caesar wouldn’t be able to get back. Then she would have both of them camped out at her place.
Oh, wouldn’t that be a swell party! Gun parts scattered all over the place and no privacy with Aiden!

Above all, Mia simply just didn’t want to go home. She hadn’t wanted to come back out of the movie at all. Now that she
was
back to the real world, she didn’t want Aiden to rush off. She desperately wanted to make love to him again, but with his fast-approaching deadline there wasn’t going to be time. He’d leave her, and she would be alone again, just her and…Mia ground her teeth.

* * * *

“I’m thinking about getting a cat!”

“What?” Aiden stared over at Mia. He was confused by the non-sequitur. He shook his head. She had never said anything about getting a pet before, and why she chose now of all times to talk about it, he didn’t understand.

“Yep, a nice…
cuddly…cat!”

Aiden started to ask, but then he changed his mind. The snappish quality in her voice warned him off. He carefully shifted in the seat, trying not to draw her attention. He’d learned to trust his finely-honed instincts. A wise man knew when to cut his losses. He’d just chalk the cat thing up to the mysterious workings of the female mind.

It didn’t take many minutes longer before they had reached Mia’s apartment building. In front of it there was a scattering of parked vehicles. Here and there, light glimmered from behind curtained windows. Mia parked the car, and as they got out of it, Aiden could hear the faint, muffled-sounding heavy beat of music from somewhere. It was all so familiar and almost like he was coming home. Despite the dismal reason for his assignment, Aiden felt something coiled inside of him relax.

Mia unlocked her apartment door. She flicked on the light switch and stepped back, so that he could go in first to do a sweep. “Déjà vu,” she said quietly.

Aiden stepped inside. He was aware when Mia followed him in and shut the door. The air had a slightly stale taste, as though the place hadn’t been opened up in a while. That was a good sign. The blackout curtains were still in place. He checked through the front end of the small apartment and moved down the hall. It didn’t appear to his experienced eyes that anything had been touched or tampered with.
Good. She probably hasn’t been compromised by her association with me, then.

It was hard to ignore the bittersweet feeling of homecoming. He lingered in the bathroom, running a finger down the pretty shower curtain. He caught the lingering scent of Mia’s shampoo. A nostalgic smile touched his face as he remembered that first night. Exhausted, hurting—Mia stitching him up. She hadn’t cut him any slack. She had impressed the hell out him.

He stopped again in the bedroom. He couldn’t tear his gaze from the neatly made bed as a kaleidoscope of impressions tumbled through his mind.
Mia’s face in the throes of orgasm…her laughter…the knowing feel of her hands on his heated body.

Aiden bit off a low curse. Shaking free of the erotic images, he abruptly turned on his booted heel and returned to the living room, where Mia had opted to wait for him. She was standing in front of the closed door, her arms crossed, which did nice things for her bosom. He thoroughly approved of how nicely her generous breasts were plumped up. However, the saddened expression in her big brown eyes tugged at his heart, so he didn’t dwell too long on her delectable rack. “Mia—”

He slung his weapon over his shoulder and reached up a hand to her face. He curved his fingers over her delicate skin.
My sweet, sweet woman.

She let him caress her soft cheek, before turning her head and pressing her lips into the center of his toughened palm. He felt the firm pillow-warmth, and it affected him clear down to his toes and back again and ended in his groin. His blood rushed through his veins. He felt as though he had been punched lightly in the stomach, and he sucked in an unsteady breath. Her words came to him on a thread of air. “It’s time to go, Aiden.”

“Yeah.” Aiden felt emotion threatening to clog him up. He was keenly aware of his semihard state. He knew there was no time. Yet as much as he wanted to make love to Mia, there was so much more he wanted—things he wanted to say to her. But it was like the words were tumbling around behind a huge dam. And he wasn’t able to break through it. Defeated, he cleared his throat. “You be safe.”

“Me?
Me?
You’re the crazy one! You and Caesar, the big dumb heroes!”

Mia started poking her finger in his chest, which always amused him.
Feisty little wench. God, I love the way her eyes sparkle!
Even now, when he felt like all kinds of low, she was lifting his spirits. He felt his lips twitch up.

She was scowling at him. She poked him again, harder. “I’m going to be listening to the news! I don’t want to hear anything about murder-and-mayhem or armed car chases or anything else, do you hear? And I
do not
want to see your sorry behinds in my hospital!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Aiden felt such a stir of tenderness toward her that he could scarcely bear it. His instinct was screaming at him to grab her into his arms. He was afraid if he did he wouldn’t be able to leave her. So instead, he leaned forward and, without touching her anywhere else, kissed her gently. Their lips clung together for an incredible moment, so packed with passion and sweetness.

Aiden forced himself to step back, trying to catch his breath. His heart was thundering so hard that he swore he could feel it banging against the underside of his ribs. It was like he had been running a five-minute mile with a fully loaded pack over mountainous territory and leaping over ravines.
A feather—that’s all it’d take, and I’d be on my ass!

Stunned, he stared down into her beautiful, dear face.

Mia stared back, seemingly just as stricken as he was. Her brightened eyes shone like stars. Her soft pink lips were half-parted, as though waiting for him. Her breasts rose quick and fast under her clothing. She fairly glowed with happiness.

Without even realizing he was doing it, Aiden eased closer.
“Mia.”

She suddenly deflated. Her lovely brown eyes filled, and large tears slowly started rolling down her face. Mia squeezed shut her eyes. “Go, Aiden! I’ll lock up.”

Aiden couldn’t speak. He stepped around her, opened the door, and slipped out. He waited until he heard the locks engage. Then he turned and walked swiftly away to the waiting vehicle, its engine running. He opened the door and folded himself inside, instinctively angling his weapon to the best position in the cramped space.

Without a word, his friend shifted gears, and the vehicle cruised smoothly away from the apartment building. Neither man said anything for several minutes. They alertly watched the night rushing past their windows. All seemed quiet. There were no new patrols to impede them.

“She was crying?”

“Yeah.” Aiden noted there weren’t many other civilian vehicles out. It had to be near curfew. The stop by the patrol had inevitably delayed them in their mission. Any later, and he and Caesar might not have been able to use the appropriated vehicle for their return after getting Mia back to her apartment.

“Sorry.” There was a short silence. Caesar shot a sideways look at him. “Was it worth it?”

Aiden gritted his teeth until the back ones ached. He already missed her. It was like a part of him had been amputated. His gut was churning with the pain.
“Every damn second!”

“Then you were one lucky bastard.” Caesar unerringly negotiated the darkened streets. He made a couple of turns. They flashed past the point where Mia had been stopped. Caesar revved the vehicle’s engine. In the dashboard’s greenish light, his hard face was calm. “I thought I was going to have to take out that patrol.”

“So did I. They wanted to see identification papers.”

Caesar glanced over at him. “You don’t have any papers.”

“Mia surrendered hers. She just kept talking. It turned out she had treated one of the man’s family members.” Aiden didn’t bother to explain further. The obvious outcome made it unnecessary.

“She’s quite a woman.”

Aiden didn’t reply to that. He simply grunted.

When they had returned the vehicle to its precise former place, Aiden and Caesar made short work of crossing the open ground toward the shadows that hid the gate in the wall. Their weapons were held steady in their hands. Aiden, and then Caesar, pressed up against the cold stone wall. Their breathing was even as they took stock of the night. There was no shout of discovery.

Aiden could sense more than see it when his friend shot a measuring glance at him. Caesar’s tone was casual. “You okay?”

“Yeah, sure.” Aiden packed as much confidence as he could into that. Neither man would ever discuss it further. Unless, of course, Aiden opened the topic himself or proved that he had lost his edge, in which case, Caesar would kick his ass back into shape. Aiden felt the warm, solid comfort behind that knowledge.