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He looked up and caught her watching him, and he grinned in that boyish way she’d come to love. He didn’t say anything, just continued smiling as he sat on the bed to pull on his socks. When he picked up his boots and removed something from one of them, Keira saw it was a knife sheath.
“You do wear it everywhere,” she said. “Not just on an op. I wondered.”
He stopped short. “You wondered?” he asked. “Since when?”
“Since that first night,” she confessed. She took a deep breath and admitted, “And like you, I asked Trace about you in the truck driving up to Wyoming.”
The smile on Cody’s face spread at her revelation. “I’m glad,” he said, holding her gaze before turning his attention back to his boots. He tugged them on and slid the knife sheath neatly in place before he answered her original question. “Doesn’t do me any good if I’m not wearing it when I need it,” he explained, and she knew he was remembering that first night, and the use he’d put the knife to in their escape.
“Doesn’t it bother you, though, wearing it in your boot?”
He shook his head. “I’m used to it. If I didn’t wear boots it might be difficult, but as it is...” He shrugged.
“How...?” She wasn’t quite sure what she was asking, but he seemed to know.
“I’ve been fascinated with knives ever since I was a kid,” he said. “My father gave me a shotgun for my twelfth birthday, but long before that I was teaching myself to throw knives. I know it’s an arcane skill, like archery, but there’s something satisfying about it I can’t explain, so I don’t even try.”
He smiled faintly, and—not bragging, just stating a fact—said, “It might even be that I saved Mandy’s life that way six years ago, and Callahan’s, too. No way to know for sure—Callahan’s pretty sharp with his .45, and he fired almost at the same time I threw my knife. But a knife has one thing a gun can’t match, even with a silencer—it’s whisper-quiet. And just as deadly.”
“In the right hands,” Keira qualified.
“Yeah,” he agreed, and Keira knew even without him saying it that his hands were the right ones...and she wasn’t just talking about knives.
He leaned over and kissed her, a long, lingering kiss that made her heart kick into overdrive. He gently tugged the sheet down, his gaze sliding down, too, and Keira’s nipples tightened automatically. His lips brushed first one nipple, then the other, and he said, “No bruises. Good.” His hand followed his lips, and as she watched, his expression changed from possessive satisfaction to intense desire.
Keira felt herself flushing, hating the way her complexion betrayed her at times. But she didn’t try to tug the sheet back into place. What would be the point? And besides, a very female part of her reveled in the enjoyment he derived from her body. It was a powerful feeling, even if it took her by surprise. She knew she was softening, melting, her womanhood responding to the firm, masculine hand caressing her. And she loved the way Cody made her feel almost as much as she loved him.
“I have to go,” he said finally, regret coloring his words; she knew they were aimed at himself even more than they were aimed at her.
“I wish...” she began, but then stopped herself.
“Me, too.” He smiled at her, a soft, intimate, and very male smile that held more than a touch of possessiveness. “But not tonight.” He pulled himself away and stood up. He slid his shoulder holster in place and buckled it before shrugging on his jacket to cover it. “Come, lock the door behind me,” he said.
Keira slipped out of the bed and snagged the khaki-colored T-shirt she always wore in place of a nightgown from where it hung on a hook in her closet. The U.S. Marine Corps logo was on the back, and Semper Fi was emblazoned across the front. She scrambled into it as Cody watched.
“Not bad,” he teased, tracing the lettering across her chest with one finger. “I like the way you think.”
“Once a Marine, always a Marine,” she answered promptly.
“Yeah, but none of my marine buddies looked like this in a T-shirt.” His hands slid beneath the hem, curving around her bare bottom and pulling her closer. “Damn!” he whispered before his mouth descended for a long, drugging kiss.
