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She laid her head on my shoulder after I released her mouth, waiting patiently.
There was only so much I could tell her, but I could do a lot better than my previous explanation. “I wish I had seen it coming for even a second or two, but I didn’t,” I disclosed. “One minute I had my head down discussing the operation and the next it was lights out. One of the RPGs slammed into a junk vehicle nearby where we were standing. My helmet, and the fact that I had my head down, probably saved my life. I didn’t even know the fate of my crew members until I finally woke up in Germany. Wyatt was there. I don’t know how in the hell he knew what happened or how he got there so fast. Torie was on a hiking trip in a remote location. She didn’t find out until I was actually able to talk to her on the phone a few weeks later, after multiple surgeries to try to remove all the shrapnel from my body. She wanted to come, but I asked her to just wait until I got back home. I never got to do another mission. I was discharged soon after I got out of the hospital and back to the States.”
She stroked a hand over my jaw. “I’m so sorry you lost a teammate.”
I swallowed hard. “Me, too. He was a good man with a couple of kids back home. I didn’t make it to the funeral, but I stopped to see his ex-wife and the children once I was back home to see if there was anything I could do to help. My co-pilot made out a little better than I did. He got back to his wife in relatively decent shape. We still talk once in a while.”
“So Torie doesn’t really know how bad it was? She mentioned that you were injured not long before you were discharged, but she didn’t sound like she knew the full extent of it,” she said contemplatively.
“Hell, no,” I balked. “What guy wants to tell his little sister about every scar on his body and how it affects his sex life? She knows I was injured in a blast, and I generally stick with long sleeves so no one asks a lot of questions. Do you remember how mortified you were to be afraid of the dark?”
She lifted her head and nodded.
“I feel the same way about having my younger sister seeing my shrapnel scars. She thinks I’m a goddamn hero, and I like to keep it that way.”
“I think you’re a hero, too,” she murmured as she ran her hands down my chest. “And I’ve seen all of your scars.”
Even though I loved to hear her say that, I knew it wasn’t true.
“For fuck’s sake, I wasn’t even engaged in the operation at the time. Like you said, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I grumbled.
“Wherever you were, you were there because you were getting ready to go fly a helicopter into a dangerous situation. Please don’t downplay what you did in special forces, Chase. Or the importance of what you do in Last Hope. I would have died out there in the jungle if you hadn’t come after me,” she said irritably. “And I’m sure you did it without a single thought to your own safety.”
“I’d come after you a thousand times if that’s what it takes to keep you safe, Vanna,” I answered hoarsely. “Knowing you were out there somewhere being held against your will made me half crazy. Once I knew the whole situation, I wasn’t even sure if you were still alive.”
“I was, and you saved me,” she said shortly. “So don’t try to tell me you’re not a hero. It’s bullshit. I’m also certain I was one of many people you saved.”
I grinned at her because she was getting adorably testy, and I knew it was because she was trying to defend me.
“I sure as hell hope I never fall off that pedestal you have me on, sweetheart. I’m really just a guy who went after a woman he cares about,” I drawled. “It was a gut instinct that would trigger most men into action.”
She punched my shoulder. “Only the ones who think they can save the world singlehandedly. I’m not sure if that’s arrogance, ego, or insanity, but I’m pretty glad you’ve got it, whatever it is. I can’t complain because it saved my life.”
My grin got even larger. “Hate to say this, but I don’t think it’s really cockiness. It’s confidence. We all just know what we’re capable of doing after intense training. Our limits are being tested almost constantly in special forces.”
“You’ve always been a little bit cocky,” she informed me. “You hate losing a debate when you think you’re right. But your kindness keeps you from being totally obnoxious. Honestly, maybe it was that effortless confidence that was one of the things that made me so attracted to you.”
“Damn!” I said with pseudo chagrin. “I thought it was my handsome face, hot body, and my status as one of the richest guys in the world.”
“Stop it,” she said with a delighted laugh. “I’ll admit, there was that, too. Well, not the billionaire thing. I’ve never really cared about your money. That’s not what made me flustered every time I saw you again.”
It was bizarre to have a woman say she didn’t care about my money, but in Vanna’s case, I knew it was true.
She’d been Torie’s best friend for a long time, and she was accustomed to being around people who had an obscene amount of money. Never once had she treated me any differently just because of my wealth, nor would she let me win an argument just to appease me.
“Tell me what else gets you flustered, and just how many times have you had that affliction when we met up in the past?” I asked, wondering exactly when she’d realized I was a guy she wanted to get naked.
Fuck knew she’d never sharedthatknowledge with me.
If she didn’t need or want my money, I wanted to figure out how to keep her happy.
She seemed to have no problem being blunt as she answered, “It’s been a while. Probably since the party your dad had for Torie when she finished her PhD. That’s probably when I noticed that my best friend had a brother who had grown up to be incredibly gorgeous. Back then, I didn’t have a lot of problem brushing it off. Youweremy best friend’s brother, a guy I’d known for most of my life, and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, or at least give me some kind of hint?” I questioned, wondering what I would have said to her back then if she had.
“Please,” she said drily. “I was still like your honorary little sister. You would have thought it was pathetic.”
I mulled that comment over for a moment before I replied. “Honestly, I’m not sure I would have. Maybe I wasn’t ready to admit that you were the most remarkable woman I’d ever met, but I probably would have with a little encouragement.”
