Page 14 of Delta Force Defender

When the truth of her was the delicate lines of her strong, sleek body. That dark hair she usually kept in a messy ponytail so no one would know it was this silky. Or that shampoo she used that made her smell like sweet drinks on a tropical night. That mouth that she was always curling into one sneer or another, so no one would notice how kissable it was. She was five nine and looked about 130 pounds, though he estimated she was a good ten to fifteen pounds heavier than that, all of it muscle. When she worked so hard to pretend she was lazy and soft and idle.

“I thought we were building up to a big, dramatic moment here.” She sounded jaded and sarcastic, her specialty. “But apparently you chased me across a continent to bore me to death.”

“I spend a lot of time thinking about that first night,” Isaac told her, not letting her goad him.

She batted her eyelashes at him, not something she normally did. Likely because it would force a man tonotice how thick and dark they were and how well they framed her eyes. “It’s cute that the super scary head commando is obsessed with me. Really. If it’s any consolation, I won’t tell anyone. You can go on back to your little fraternity with your big, bad reputation intact. Hopefully soon.”

“You were new in town,” Isaac continued, ignoring her. “And maybe you were looking for a fun night, but you got me instead.”

“I’m so glad to hear you say that. All this time it’s beensoawkward. I haven’t known how to tell you that you’re basically the opposite of fun. Always.”

He wouldn’t say he feltgoaded, exactly, but there was an edginess in him. “What word do you want to use? Intense? Life-altering?”

Caradine sighed. “It’s those puppy dog eyes of yours, Isaac. Every now and again, they’re just too much, and I take pity on you. Do you really not understand that?”

But he only laughed. “Nice try. But I can see your pulse going wild in your neck. And your skin is flushed. How many times have we played this game? Remember what happened the last time?”

He did. In vivid detail.

“You’re describing my uncontrollable physical reaction of complete disgust,” she said loftily.

“I see that you do. But let me remind you anyway.” He drifted even closer to her, almost entirely to see what she would do. Caradine didn’t disappoint him. She moved back instantly, but then caught herself. And stood firm, tilting her head up to keep her eyes on his as he stood over her.

But he could see that her hands were in fists.

“It was late,” he reminded her, remembering it himself. “You were in those hot springs you like to tell everybody you hate. You came out damp and hot and caught me on a patrol.”

“Is that what we’re calling episode 976,000 of you stalking me? ‘Patrol’?”

“We had this exact same conversation, as I recall. But it was a relatively warm night, and you weren’t wearing much. Just your bathing suit. So I figured I’d check to see if you were as disgusted as you claimed you were. To make sure we were still on the same page.”

He did the same now, reaching over to the waistband of her cargo pants. She swatted at him with one of her fists, but not hard. Not like she meant it.

And having been on the receiving end of a punch from Caradine that she did mean, he could tell the difference.

“You wanted me pretty desperately then, as I recall.”

“I’m never desperate,” she lied.

Isaac ran the backs of his fingers this way, then that, over the soft skin just below her navel. He didn’t have to point out that the jagged breath she let slip betrayed her completely. A lot like the way her nipples hardened beneath the fitted T-shirt she wore.

He knew. And she knew.

And this was one more way this same old game had always been played between them.

“You think I don’t know how you work, but I do,” he said, remembering that call again. Griffin’s voice, completely lacking the icy calm the other man was known for. That helicopter ride. The smoke and the flames and no sign of her. “You spent five years pretending you don’t feel anything. And it’s Alaska. People are prickly. It’s practically a requirement to cross the state border. But I know better. I’ve seen the real you.”

This time when she swung at him, it was hard. He let the punch land. He even let his mouth curve. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

There was murder in her eyes then. But she pushed herself away from him instead of hitting him again,which he could admit was disappointing. Because he liked her hands on him. However that happened.

Isaac waited to see if she would throw herself toward the door and try to make a break for it when he was staring right at her and would run her down in two seconds flat.

But she could do the same math he could.

Her mouth flattened into a line. She moved until the corner of the bed was between them, crossed her arms again, and glared at him. Harder this time. “If you hear nothing else I say to you tonight, I need you to hear this. You don’t know me. You don’t know the real me at all. And that’s not a challenge, Isaac. That’s a gift.”

“There’s nobody here but me and you, four thousand miles away from Grizzly Harbor. You’ll never have a better opportunity to tell me who you really are.”

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