Page 25 of Special Ops Seduction

“We just wanted to say hi,” Bethan said, horrified that her voice was rising up a few octaves, the way it always didaround her family. Because they were the only combat arena on earth where she felt uncertain. Consistently. “It was a long flight, and we want to pull ourselves together a little bit before Dad gets here.”

Ellen sighed. “Good luck with that. He’s been on a roll. You would think it was his wedding, not mine.”

They talked for a few moments more. Then, finally, Ellen was pulled back inside by one of her friends. Family obligations attended to as much as possible so far, Bethan and Jonas could take their own little walk around the property, looking at the layout of the house and grounds from a far more tactical standpoint.

And the moment they did, Bethan felt better. Or more herself, maybe. Even if she was wearing a dress that swished when she walked.

“Some of the guests are here, and the rest will be coming in the next few days,” Bethan said when they’d done a full loop at a leisurely pace and were standing in the lush grass out back, far enough away from everything that no one could overhear them.

And she almost jumped out of her skin—again—when Jonas reached over and ran his hands up and down her bare shoulders above her crossed arms. Over and over.

Her heart stuttered, then stopped. Bethan thought maybe she’d died. It was on the tip of her tongue to say something undoubtably embarrassing—

But, of course, he wouldn’t touch her for the hell of it.

He wouldn’t touch you at all if he could avoid it, she reminded herself tartly.

“We wouldn’t want people to think that we were standing out here discussing strategy and tactics,” he said, his voice mild and amused and without the faintest trace of ice.

Bethan knew that her feet were planted on the ground, because she could feel them. The tickle of the grass above the straps of her sandals. The evenly distributed weight ofher body. Still, she felt as if she were tumbling, end over end, deep into those bottomless dark eyes of his.

And the abrasion, however faint, of his impossibly capable hands over her bare skin taught her all kinds of things about herself that she’d managed to lock away all this time.

Things she’d known before everything had blown up—literally—on that mission long ago. Things she’d long since decided she must have been imagining, all these years later, when there’d been not the faintest trace of them.

There were so manythingsthat she didn’t dare name, and it was as if he were rubbing them all back into existence. Or out of a deep sleep. One by one, right here on the vibrant green lawn that existed despite California’s pervasive water issues, possibly in full sight of at least two of her family members.

It was the grass that got to her, tickling her ankles. Because she knew that if she reached down and tugged on it, there would be no roots to hold it in place. It was sitting in the topsoil, something that had disconcerted her when they’d moved here from Virginia.

All grass in California was more or less fake in the same way, because it shouldn’t be here in the first place. It was fake, and Jonas was fake, and while the sensations that stormed around inside of her felt far too real for her liking, it didn’t matter. They weren’t a couple. Jonas had a head full of strategy, and she could be sure that if he was touching her, it had to do with that. Not sensation. And neverhim.

“Explain to me how you grew up here but ended up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in Alaska,” Jonas said, more command than conversation.

“That would be courtesy of the United States Army, of course. There wasn’t a lot of staff in the barracks.”

“You’re supposed to be a debutante. Like your sister.”

“You can only be a debutante before college, accordingto my mother. After that, a certain number of accomplishments are expected. Pedigrees are great, but it’s much better if they come with degrees from institutions with recognizable names.”

“Most people consider the army an institution.”

“Ranger School isn’t the same as Yale,” she replied. “It doesn’t have quite the same cachet at the country club.”

“Only one is useful.”

“Not in this world, Jonas.” His hands were still skimming over her upper arms, stirring her up... and she couldn’t have that. Not here. She stepped back, trying to look as if she were filled with delight, and then started for the house. “But if you don’t believe me, by all means. Bring up my accomplishments tonight. See what happens.”

She thought it was a measure of her personal growth that she didn’t even sound bitter when she said that. Because what was there to be bitter about? It was reality and this was a mission and it didn’t matter in the slightest that she couldn’t stop shivering deep inside.

Back in their suite, they took a few moments to sweep for listening devices. Then, when Jonas picked up his tablet and started sorting through all the pictures he’d taken of the house and grounds—all with Bethan smiling easily into the camera, as if he’d been taking pictures of her—she sat down, stared out at the sea, and asked herself why sweeping her parents’ house for listening devices hadn’t tripped a single wire in her. Was it because she wanted to believe that her family was capable of anything? Or was it that she knew they already were?

Not her entire family. That wasn’t fair. Birdie was a whole thing, and Ellen was a little like looking at the road not taken, but neither one of them was actively malicious. They were who they were, and they had relationships with her that were complicated because relationships were often complicated and because fundamentally, they didn’t understand her or her choices.

It was her father she wouldn’t turn her back on in a darkened room. Even if she’d had nothing but warm and tender thoughts about him, Henry Colin Wilcox was a four-star general of the air force. Of course he was capable of anything. That was his job.

Her job was to act like she was the highly trained individual she was. Not her father’s confronting elder daughter who had defied him at every turn.

“You seem tense,” Jonas said when they headed toward the patio right on time, because punctuality was considered a virtue in this house, and woe betide the fool who kept the general waiting.

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