Chapter Fourteen

Damian

I glanced in my rearview mirror at the white UN vehicle following closely behind our MRAP. This was a peaceful mission. The group we escorted was filming a documentary on women’s civil rights in Afghanistan, but the back of my neck itched. The IED team had cleared the roads just an hour before. There was no reason for this sensation.

I glanced over at Irish, who sat in the passenger’s seat. “Keep an eye out for dirt.”

He nodded. Dirt was anything that looked out of place along the side of the road. It could be as simple as a bush that looked like it’d recently died or a few misplaced rocks. Anything that might signal a buried IED, a bomb meant to blow us to smithereens, despite the fact we had the latest development in vehicle armor on our truck.

Ice glanced down at me from the gunner’s turret, located between Irish and me. “You have a feeling?”

“Yeah, keep an eye...”

The world exploded.

The vehicle rocked onto two wheels, and I tried to hold onto the steering as heat and noise and horrific screams bombarded me.

Then it exploded again. Heat and pressure careened into my right side.

The ghastly noise became muffled, but I knew that wasn’t real, just my eardrums blown to hell.

Everything was black. Hot. Smoke.

I tried to move, but Ice’s body pinned me to my seat, half his head gone. I didn’t have time to mourn him. Fire consumed the vehicle, which was filled with the screams I could hear despite my blown eardrums.

My friends.

Dead. Dying. Burning to death.

Pain.

Heat.

Melting.

I had to get out. I couldn’t move.

Pain.

Screams.

I awoke with a gasp.

Soft, plush lips pressed to mine. A soft, floral scent I recognized immediately replaced the smoke and dust and horror that had been filling my senses.

Alex.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close.

I was safe. In Colorado. With everything I wanted in my arms. I tightened my hold, deepened the kiss, and groaned at the pure goodness of this. My heart still raced, but now for another reason completely.

The taste of her was coffee and chocolate and all things decadent. Forbidden.

I wanted more. I wanted everything. Her hair felt like silk under my fingers as I threaded my hand through it to cup her scalp. My body throbbed with want. More. I wanted all she would give me. It had been so long.

Two and a half years...

Oh, shit.

I pulled back with a gasp. “What the hell are you doing in my room?”

The small light on the nightstand was on, so I could see her glazed expression as she licked at her wet, swollen lips. My dick pulsed. But that light meant she could see all of me, too. My fists clenched in the sheets as I fought the urge to hide the side of my face and exposed body like a virginal bride.

“You had a nightmare again. I heard you.”

I glared at the dark, open window. I’d debated closing it after what had happened last night. But there was no way I could sleep in the stifling heat. Even though the nights were plenty cool, we’d had a record high today that had made it hot in the house without central air. A light breeze blew in through the window, leaving a trail of goosebumps over my over-heated, sweaty skin.

“Then I couldn’t get you to wake up, so I tried another method.” Alex ducked her head as her skin flushed. The red extended from her cheeks down her neck and across her chest, all the way into the top of her tight tank top. The swells of her breasts tempted me. I wanted to see just how far that pink skin went.

I shook my head. She had a boyfriend, and I’d just tried to maul her. Even if she’d started it, that was no excuse. “I’m sorry. Tell your boyfriend I’ll close my windows from now on.” Maybe I could get someone out to do a rush air conditioning install.

Confusion marred her brow.

“His name was Victor, Vance, something like that.” How did she not remember her own boyfriend?

“Vincent.” She winced. “Yeah, he’s not at my place anymore.”

“Why not?”

“I sent him back to his hotel room. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a friend I hook up with when he’s in town.”

“But not tonight.”

She shook her head but wouldn’t meet my eyes. “No, not tonight. It didn’t feel right.”

I wanted to read between the lines of that so desperately. Did it not feel right because of me? Or was she worried that just like her hearing my nightmares, I would have heard them as they fucked, and she needed more privacy than that? I’d admit that had been a worry for me when I’d gotten home, but I hadn’t heard a thing.

Now I knew why. She’d sent him to his hotel room...alone. I wanted to jump out of bed and do a victory dance worthy of a receiver catching the final touchdown pass in the Superbowl.

But with my erection popping a tent in the sheet, that wasn’t the best idea.

She looked at me again, studiously ignoring the evidence of my desire. “Still have any of that popcorn left?” she asked.

I grinned at her. “Yeah, you up for another movie night?” More time with her? I wanted that more than I wanted my next breath.

“Yes!” She bounded off the bed. “I’ll be waiting in the living room.”

Fifteen minutes later, I carried a bowl of popcorn into the living room where Alex sat on the couch, wrapped in a lightweight quilt, looking so sleepy and gorgeous she took my breath away. As I approached, she lifted the blanket in an open invitation to join her.

I swallowed against my dry throat. Could I sit that close to her for the next two hours and not touch her? But it was the middle of the night, and my resistance was low after the combination of that horrific nightmare followed by the fantastic wakeup. I wanted—no needed—someone like her close, so I gave in and joined her.

Picking up the remote, I asked, “Any requests?”

She shook her head. “Let’s just see what’s on.”

I flipped to the movie section of the satellite, and we started scanning the choices. I immediately saw what I would watch if she wasn’t here, but I might lose my man card if I mentioned it as an option.

“Ooh, Bring It On is just starting.” She leaned forward in excitement. “Can we watch that?”

“Um...sure.”

She squinted at me. “What’s that funny look about? We don’t have to watch it if you don’t want, but I figured...lots of girls in short skirts. What guy doesn’t enjoy that?”

“No, it’s fine.” I laughed uncomfortably.

“Then what’s with the face?” She studied me for a moment.

My skin heated, leaving me feeling exposed. “It’s one of my favorite movies,” I mumbled.

She choked out a laugh. “You don’t have to make it sound like that’s a fate worse than death. I really like it, too. In fact, if you can promise to keep a secret, I’ll tell you exactly why I like it so much.”

She glanced around the room like someone waited in the corner with a tape recorder to catch whatever she planned to say.

I laughed at her theatrics, now really curious. “My lips are sealed.”

“I’m actually in this movie.”

“What? There’s no way. You’re not old enough.” But that didn’t stop me from going through the cast of characters trying to figure out which one she was.

She shrugged. “I was eight years old and just an extra. You can catch a glimpse of me a couple of times in the competition scenes.”

“That’s awesome. You’ll have to point yourself out when we get to those scenes.” I could just imagine her as a little girl, her hair up in pigtails with big bows, and those glorious freckles of hers standing out on her face like a beacon of happiness and excitement. “I bet you were a cheerleader in high school, too, weren’t you?”

“Oh, no.” She coughed out a mock horrified laugh. “My mother would have had a coronary. While it was fine for me to play one in the movies, I could never have truly been a cheerleader. Much higher things were expected of me. I had movie premieres and parties to attend. I was all part of the Hugh Nichols and Brittney Boone-Nichols PR machine. No normal middle-class, American-style, bourgeois activities for me because I was their kid. That wasn’t allowed until I made my escape to college in Texas.”

I swallowed a popcorn kernel wrong and began to choke. After a couple of minutes coughing, I finally could get my voice to work again. “Your parents are Hugh Nichols and Brittney Boone-Nichols?”

Holy fuck, how did I not know this? No wonder she was so gorgeous and always so put together. She was Hollywood royalty. Her father was one of the highest grossing movie directors of all time. And her mother had won at least three Oscars that I knew of.

She nodded but then distracted me by pointing at the movie. “One of my scenes is just about to come up.”

And then there she was, looking just as cute as I’d imagined, rocking out the cheerleading routine on the screen that was more hip hop dance than a cheer routine. I couldn’t stop the smile that broke over my face. “Do you still have moves like that?”

“Of course. There’s a great dance club out at the Edge. Do you dance?”

“I used to.” I could hear the longing in my voice. I missed dancing. Before my injury, going out to clubs had been one of my favorite things to do. Not for the girls, although that had certainly not been a deterrent, but because I loved to dance. I just hoped she didn’t notice. That part of my life was gone. I could just imagine how truly terrifying my face would look under nightclub lighting. There was no way I could go out and do it anymore.

“We should go sometime,” she said.

I didn’t answer, just pretended to be engrossed in the movie. I could feel her gaze on me, but I ignored it, ignored the buzzing under my skin at her nearness.

She was the daughter of two of the most beautiful, powerful people who lived their lives in the spotlight. I was a nightmare, trying to stay far, far away from everyone. I couldn’t give into the temptation of her or else I’d get burned. And I was pretty sure that was a scar I wouldn’t recover from.