Page 43 of Operation K-9 Brothers
“Okay, guys, bark once for taking a chance on Jack or twice for I’m crazy for even thinking of doing that.”
Dakota barked once.Nichole blinked.No way that dog understood the question.Rambo—apparently taking his cue from Dakota—barked.Once.
“That’s easy for you two to say.It’s not your heart on the line.”
When she’d climaxed, shattering in his arms, for a moment she’d thought they were having an earthquake.It had been that explosive, like nothing she’d ever experienced before.And when Jack had reverently whispered her name in her ear and held her close as his body trembled after his release, she’d felt cherished.That maybe he was letting her into his heart.She’d never been a gambling girl, but perhaps he was worth the risk.
“Burning up!”
At those shouted words, Dakota’s ears pointed straight up as she jerked her gaze to the hallway, then she raced away.Nichole followed, stopping at the door to Jack’s bedroom and taking in the scene illuminated by the moonlight shining through the window.He thrashed on the bed, his legs tangled in the covers.Dakota put her front paws on his chest, licked his face, then barked.
Jack sat straight up in bed, his chest heaving.He buried his face in the fur on Dakota’s neck with such familiarity that Nichole knew his nightmare wasn’t a one-time occurrence.Her heart was breaking like she had believed it would, but not for the reason she’d thought.
This man needed her.But she sensed that he wouldn’t want her seeing him like this, so she quietly slipped away, returning to the living room.Had he been dreaming that he was burning up?A nightmare of when he’d been hurt by the bomb?
Unsettled, she roamed around the room, stopping when she came to an end table she hadn’t noticed before.The table was next to a well-worn recliner that she guessed was Jack’s favorite seat when watching TV.She smiled at seeing the figurine he’d insisted on buying from her.Sitting behind it was a metal sculpture of a dog that she recognized as one of Forest Ellers’s.An image of a man in military camouflage kneeling in front of a dog formed in her mind, and she wished she was at her studio.
She brushed her fingers over the girl and dog figurine, then returned to the sofa, tucking her legs under her.Tomorrow she’d search online for a mold of a soldier and dog.If she could find one, she’d make it for Jack.
“Hey, you weren’t in bed.”
Holy hotness.The man standing a few feet from her blinking sleepy eyes, his hair tousled, and wearing only a pair of dark blue boxer briefs, would have been her deepest fantasy if only she’d known there was a man like him to fantasize about.No reason she couldn’t start now, though.
“Did you miss me?”She patted the sofa cushion.With those words, she realized she’d made her decision.She wasn’t walking away.If the result of that was a broken heart, so be it.
He settled next to her.“You weren’t there,” he said, sounding grouchy.
“My bad.”She didn’t want to tell him that she’d spent the past hour debating the wisdom of continuing to see him.She leaned her head against his shoulder.“Mmm.You’re as good as sitting next to a furnace.That’ll come in handy in the winter.”Not that it would do her any good.He’d probably be on the other side of the world somewhere.
Jack glanced down at her.“My heat is yours, baby.Did I wake you up?”He didn’t stay the night when he hooked up, but since this was his house he couldn’t leave, another reason he never brought women home.And he hadn’t seen Nichole as simply a hookup, even from the beginning.This woman had him breaking all his rules.
“You didn’t.”She grinned up at him.“I should be dead to the world after our little marathon, but I think you invigorated me instead.”
“Yeah?Need some more invigorating?”He picked up her hand and put it palm down on his leg.“And Nichole?There was nothing little about that.”
“Couldn’t resist pointing that out, could you?”
He snorted.“I’m a man.We’re sensitive about size.”He glanced around his living room.It looked better in the soft glow of the lamp she had turned on than it did in the light of day.“You said something about a person’s home telling you about them.What does mine tell you about me?”He really was curious to hear her answer.
Her gaze traveled around the room.“It’s not the typical bachelor pad I would have expected.”
“Probably because it was my parents’ house.”
“I see a mother’s hand here.Where are your parents?”
“Dead.”When she hissed a breath, he said, “Sorry.Didn’t mean to say it like that, but it’s still hard to think of them gone.They were hiking, something they loved to do, when a sudden storm came up.Lightning struck before they could get back to the car or find shelter.They both died instantly, so at least they didn’t suffer.”
If anything, he’d always thought it would be them being notified by the navy that he’d been killed, that they would be the ones to mourn.The only blessing was that they would never have to hurt the way he had when his commander gave him the news.
“Oh, Jack.I can’t imagine how hard that must have been to lose both at the same time.”She slipped her hand into his and squeezed.
“I’ll never stop missing them, but they’re together, so there’s comfort in that.”He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers.The sun was peeking over the mountains, and he wanted to crawl back into bed with Nichole, spend another hour buried in her sweet body, and then a little more sleep curled around her.But first they needed to talk about Gregory.
“Can we talk about your ex for a minute?”She wrinkled her nose but nodded.“Have you filed a restraining order on him yet?”
She sighed.“No, but I guess I need to do that.”
“Yeah, you do.His following us the way he did the other night, the way he’s watching you, that’s not good.”
