Tempted by the Soldier

Chapter Four


Beyond the driver’s-side window, the cluttered city had disappeared, giving way to long stretches of wheat and tobacco fields. If Nate had been alone, he’d have taken the time to appreciate just how beautiful the state he’d called home for the past two years was. But focusing on anything other than the woman torturing him from the other side of the cab was damn near impossible. Only a half hour outside Charlotte, and Nate was already going crazy. Without Lilly even uttering one damn word.

Unfortunately, she had other weapons at her disposal…and she was using them. Any second now, his head was going to explode. Or possibly, other parts of his anatomy.

She’d ditched the high heels and now her bare feet were propped up on his freshly Armor All-waxed dash, her perfectly manicured pink toes tapping out the rhythm to a silent tune. The hem of her dress seemed to slide another inch up her thigh every time the truck rolled over a f*cking pebble in the road.

If only he could find a speed bump to fly over or a curb to check. Maybe then he’d finally get to see what color her panties were, and his cock would stop punishing him for wondering.

Half an hour in the car and he could already smell her on his clothes, bringing back memories that needed to stay buried if he wanted to have a chance in hell of keeping his dick in his pants on this trip.

He pushed his Ray-Bans up his nose and forced his attention back to the road.

He’d meant what he’d said. If she kept giving him shit, kept teasing him, he would retaliate with that kiss. His dick was literally begging for her to smart off, just to give him an excuse to taste her.

Would she taste the same? God, he hoped so. Her taste had ruined him. He still couldn’t eat a strawberry without sporting a damn hard-on. She might push him past his breaking point and irritate the hell out of him, but damned if he could fight back against the desire she sparked in him.

He needed to fight it, though. He really f*cking needed to, if he knew what was good for him…and for her. He had too many battles to fight in his life, and this was one he didn’t have the energy for. Or the will. Even now, the darkness and anger inside him were beating on his skull, demanding he allow his emotions to implode. They were always there—reminding him of the people he’d failed. And the mistakes he’d made.


Hale. Clemmons. Keller. Puckett. Rivera. Hanson. Lopez.

Nate gritted his teeth and rubbed his dog tags between his fingers, trying to focus on the road and not the ghosts fighting for space in his head.

But it was no use. As the only survivor of that hellish day, as the one who had brought that helo down, he owed it to the dead. What he wanted didn’t matter. They mattered—the men who had counted on him to save their lives. The men he’d failed. And making their deaths mean something by going back to continue what they no longer could. That mattered.

Getting caught in the tangle of emotions that Lilly stirred up would only distract him from his mission. Would only make him want something he couldn’t have. And put even more strain on the thin line of self-control he teetered on day to day.

He couldn’t go there with her. Which meant it was time to banish the ongoing film reel of fantasies in his head starring him, Lilly, and a year’s worth of sexual tension set free.

“Could you get your feet off of the dash?” He scrubbed his fingers through his hair with his free hand, forcing patience into his voice. “I just waxed it.”

“What a coincidence,” she innocently mused. “I just waxed, too.”

Kill me. Kill me now.

He clenched his jaw so tight it popped. He forced a mental block to beat back the images of smooth, pink skin hidden under her barely there panties. But his dick wasn’t taking no for an answer. It rose to attention, making him shift in his seat.

“Are you going to take your feet down or not?” he snapped.

“I’m quite comfortable like this. But thanks for your concern.”

She leaned over and flipped the radio on, severing the tense silence between them. She scanned the presets, then went rogue and landed on a pop station. She sank back into her seat with a smirk on her face and Nate cringed, losing his train of thought in the barrage of shitty music rattling his dash. Was that…Britney Spears?

Oh, hell no.

“I don’t think so.” He punched a preset and the twang of good country music filled the cab. He preferred silence, but anything was better than the teenybopper crap Lilly was trying to force on him.

“Hey! I was listening to that.” She switched the station again and cranked up the volume.

The pain throbbing behind his temple flared back to life and he gritted his teeth. Why the hell couldn’t anything with this woman be easy? Was she deliberately trying to make his life hell? As if he needed anyone to help him with that. He managed to find himself there every night all on his own.

He looked over at the smart-mouthed temptress taking up the other half of his bench seat. Of course she was. She wouldn’t be Lilly if she wasn’t being a colossal pain in his ass.

“My truck. My music.” He punched the preset again, reviving George Strait’s voice, and Lilly made a frustrated sound. When she reached out again he grabbed her wrist before her fingers could reach the button.

Immediately, he regretted the decision. After all her teasing, that little bit of skin-on-skin contact was all it took to send a hot shiver of desire down his spine, lighting a fire under his cock so hot, he didn’t think he could ever snuff it out.

“What are you going to do?” She smirked. “Retaliate?”

He could think of a hundred ways he’d like to retaliate for all of the torture she’d unleashed on him over the past year. Shaking her earth-shattering ass in those tiny dresses at the club while he was forced to stand behind the bar and watch. Twisting him up inside with her smart mouth until he didn’t know the difference between anger and lust. He released her wrist, ignoring the heat in her eyes, and returned his attention to where it belonged.

The road.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you,” he said like it wasn’t a question.

“Fine,” she shot back. “Listen to your honky-tonk torture. But if my ears start bleeding, I’m blaming you.”

“Can’t be any worse than the sound of your voice, Princess, and you live with that every day.”

“A*shole,” she muttered, dropping her feet back into the floorboard and folding her arms across her chest.

He frowned over at her. “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

Lilly stiffened and stared out the window. “My mother’s dead.”

Ah, hell. Nate flickered his gaze across the seat, wishing he could take the words back and make her forget he’d said them.

He knew what it was like to lose a parent. Hell, he’d lost both of his. That shit wasn’t something to be taken lightly. He and Lilly may take jabs at each other for a lot of things, but even he knew he’d crossed a line. The haunted look in her eyes told him he’d just dredged up a memory that cut deep.

Maybe they were more alike than he wanted to admit…

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That was a shitty thing to say.”

Her expression turned surprised a second before she answered. “Whatever. You didn’t know.”

He tapped his fingers against the wheel, knowing damn good and well the last thing he should do was dig deeper. Deeper with Lilly wasn’t going to lead to anything good. They were good at pissing each other off, right up to the point of wanting to tear each other’s clothes off. And they were experts at avoiding anything below the surface. They weren’t good at…deeper.

He stole another glance in her direction and caught the sadness in her reflection in the window. The sorrow in her eyes made him feel as though someone had punched him square in the chest. If she knew he’d seen that, she would hate it. She would hate him for getting even a tiny glimpse of the vulnerability she always kept locked up tight.

Before he could stop himself, he found himself asking, “How did she die?”

“She slit her wrists in our bathtub when I was fifteen,” Lilly said matter-of-factly. “How did your mom die?”

He swallowed the thick sensation coating his throat. “Cancer.”

Saying it out loud like that tore down the dam holding back the sea of guilt and grief inside him. Lilly’s mother may have given up, but not Maggie Jennings. She’d fought, and fought hard.

And what had he done? He’d run away. Put an ocean between himself and her life-and-death struggle. It had been too easy to forget that the woman he’d loved more than life was withering away when he was flying loads of bloodied, destroyed soldiers to safety every day. He’d almost been able to justify not being there to help Jace take care of her.

Almost.

Until the day he couldn’t even do that right. After the helicopter crash, and leaving his dead men behind, suddenly none of it felt worth it. He’d sacrificed his chance at saying good-bye to his mother, his chance to take care of her, all for nothing. Worse than nothing.

He swallowed hard and let the chain of his dog tags slide through his fingers, rubbing the thin slivers of metal between his fingers to ground himself.

“Still feel like sharing?” Lilly asked, watching him guardedly from across the seat.

“No.”

After a brief hesitation, she said, “Good,” then closed her eyes and rested her head against the seat back. “Neither do I.”