Tempted by the Soldier

Chapter Eight


“Dirty Dick’s Brew and Grub?”

Lilly hesitantly stepped out of the rain and walked past the steel door Nate was holding open for her.

Oh. Now he decided to be a gentleman. After he’d spanked her, and carried her over his shoulder caveman-style all the way to Fox Creek Road.

She could still feel his damn handprint on her ass. If he thought he was getting away with that, he was sadly mistaken. She wasn’t blind, or stupid. He wanted her. Maybe not all of her, but he wanted her in his bed again. That kiss they’d shared hadn’t lied.


She was done with being on the receiving end of his mood swings every time he got a damn hard-on. If this was how he wanted to play it, then game f*cking on.

“It’s dry inside, and they must have a phone we can use,” he said. “This isn’t the time to be picky.”

She shivered as a breeze from the air-conditioning swept over her sopping-wet dress. He shook the excess water out of his hair and guided her toward the surprisingly busy bar. A jukebox played a twangy tune in one corner and a few couples were actually dancing. Laughter and the clank of beer bottles echoed through the room. There were only a few barstools open, and Lilly slid onto one while Nate remained standing beside her, his eyes scanning the place as if he were casing it.

“Holy hell, what happened to you two?” a perky bartender asked as she propped her elbows on the bar, giving her girls a boost. The move seemed practiced, and had probably earned her enough tips to buy a new car. She tossed her long black hair over one shoulder and her eyes skidded over Lilly before eating up the sight of a dripping wet Nate Jennings. Lilly had to give him credit. He didn’t seem to notice the woman’s blatant perusal, or if he did, he chose to ignore it.

“We broke down a couple of miles back,” Nate said.

“And you walked here?” The bartender hiked a perfectly manicured brow. “In that mess?” She jerked a thumb toward the entry door where rain sprayed inside every time it opened. Thunder rumbled, adding another layer of sound over the music, and the lights flickered.

“Unfortunately, yes. Do you have a phone we could use? I need to get a tow and find us a place to bunk for the night.”

The woman’s lips slid into a slow smile that said she had just the place for Nate to bunk down tonight. She called over her shoulder for someone named Hank to take over.

“Sure thing, sugar. Right this way.” She motioned for Nate to follow her around behind the bar.

“Hang on.” His gaze slid over Lilly and he hesitated, looking torn. His jaw tensed as he scanned the crowd. “Think you can stay put?”

She crossed her legs, allowing her wet dress to slide up her thighs, and leaned forward on her elbows putting her girls on display. She knew she was creating the desired effect when Nate’s eyes darkened as they drank her in, inch by soaking inch.

“What if I don’t?” she asked innocently. “Are you going to spank me again?”

Without another word, he stalked away toward a dark-haired woman on the dance floor. Surprised, Lilly watched him, trying to quell the unreasonable jealousy that burned her up inside at the sight of the friendly smile he flashed the other female.

What the hell? Surely, he wasn’t trying to score a hookup now. Not after he’d just kissed her—and rejected her—on the side of the road.

She scowled as she watched him pull out his wallet and hand the woman two hundred-dollar bills. The brunette smiled brightly and slid off her denim jacket and handed it over. What was he up to?

He strode back to Lilly and draped the jacket over her shoulders, a frown making lines between his eyebrows that she wanted to reach up and smooth away. “Put your arms in,” he ordered.

She obeyed—but only because she was freezing. “Did you just…buy that woman’s jacket?”

“Yes.” He tugged the material closed over her chest and took a step back.

“Why?”

He planted his hands on her knees, the touch like flames compared to the clammy temperature of her skin, and leaned in until his lips brushed her ear.

“Because you’re giving every man in here a hard-on, including me,” he growled. “And I’m too f*cking tired to get in a fight tonight. So do me a favor and keep yourself covered with the damn jacket.”

She gasped as the heat from his hands and his words slowly heated her to the point of blushing. He then turned without another word and disappeared behind the bar with Lady McBoobs, leaving her speechless. She looked down at her dress and groaned.

Of course she would be wearing a white dress the day she was forced to walk through a torrential downpour. Or rather, to be carried through one. She’d be willing to bet that anyone who’d looked would be able to identify her bra and panties in a lingerie lineup.

She swiveled on her bar stool, feeling the weight of the day wearing her down, and waited for Hank the bartender to come back and put her out of her misery. She needed a drink. Or four.

She didn’t notice the young man who had sat down next to her until he spoke. “Excuse me, miss?”

She turned her head to face him and was met with an infectiously crooked smile. Brown curls were tamed by a Virginia Tech baseball cap and red flannel shirtsleeves were pushed up past his elbows. Cute. Not in the smoldering panty-dropping way that Nate was…but cute. Paige would have liked him.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could help me out? I seem to be having a problem with my phone.” He slid his cell phone across the bar in front of her. “It doesn’t have your number in it.”

She chuckled and slid it back to him. “I don’t think that’s your problem.”

“Oh, really?” He grinned. “Then what is my problem, beautiful?”

“That pickup line.”

Hank approached the bar, looking quite a bit more gray and worn than the woman Nate had sauntered off with. Lilly once again shoved aside a stab of irrational jealousy and ordered a club soda. As much as she wanted to drown her sorrows in something fruity and mind-numbing, that probably wasn’t the best idea. Drinking herself into oblivion would have to wait until she made it to Vermont.

If she ever made it to Vermont. At this rate she didn’t know if they ever would.

She turned back to Virginia Tech who was watching her with amused interest. “So tell me,” she said. “How many times has that line worked?”

He shrugged confidently, taking a sip of his beer. “Enough to keep me busy.”

The bartender came back and slid her club soda across the bar. She stirred her drink and took a sip, wondering what was taking Nate so long. Really, how long did it take to call a tow truck? She hadn’t seen Lady McBoobs return either. Hmmm…

“So, the guy you came in with. Boyfriend?”

“No. Just a friend.”

A friend she desperately wanted to get naked with. Or choke the life out of. She still wasn’t quite sure which would be more satisfying.

“Uh-huh.” He sipped his beer, watching her.

“What?”

“He looked a little possessive, that’s all.” He set his beer down. “Not many men would drop two hundred bucks to cover up something unless they considered it theirs.”

She flushed, and squirmed under the jacket that smelled faintly of cigarette smoke and something floral. “How did you know he did that?”

VT nodded to the girl on the dance floor, who was now just wearing a white T-shirt and skinny jeans. “My cousin.”

“Well, you’ll have to give your cousin my thanks,” Lilly said. “Normally I wouldn’t have accepted something like this, but as you can see, we’ve had a little bit of bad luck tonight.”

He sat back, flashing her a lazy smile. “Why don’t you tell me how I can make it better?”

She refrained from rolling her eyes, and glanced down at his cell phone. She smiled sweetly. “You could let me use your phone.”


“And what do I get in return?” he asked, his voice dipping low.

“You get my eternal friendship,” she said, leaning forward. “And if you’re really nice, I might even leave my best friend’s number in your phone. She’d like you.”

He looked at her, considering, then leaned in conspiratorially. “Your friend, is she as hot as you?”

Lilly leaned back and laughed. “She’s a yoga instructor. What do you think?”

VT handed the phone over and winked. “Okay. Deal.”

Lilly checked the time and sent off a text to Paige as she made her way to a quiet alcove in the front of the bar. By the time she made it there, the phone buzzed. She picked up on the first ring.

“Why are you texting me from some random phone number?” Paige demanded.

“It’s a long story that starts with me making the biggest mistake of my life and ends with me deciding not to make any more damned mistakes. I need you to come get me. I’m somewhere on the corner of Redneckville and Trucker’s Paradise.”

“You’ve only been gone half a day. It can’t be that bad,” Paige said.

“Trust me. It can,” Lilly said, peering around the corner, looking for Nate.

“You’re going to want to lower your hips more for this position,” Paige said in a muffled voice. “That’s it. Relax your lower back and breathe.”

Lilly pulled back around the corner and out of sight. “Are you seriously talking on your phone while you’re instructing a yoga class?”

“You texted me 911.”

“No. I texted you ‘911 SEXY SOLDIER SITUATION,’ so you wouldn’t think I was injured or dead.”

Paige sighed. “If you were dead you wouldn’t be able to text.”

“Are you going to help me or not?” Lilly snapped, peeking around the corner again.

“Okay, now we’re going to transition into downward dog,” Paige said. “Take a deep breath and—”

“Paige!”

“I’m here! Okay! Look, you’ve already been through worse than anything Private Panty-Melter could possibly dish out. You can make it through this, too.”

Lilly closed her eyes and groaned. “I kissed him, Paige.”

“You what?” she said on a gasp. “What happened to teaching him a lesson? For the record, sticking your tongue down a guy’s throat doesn’t usually count as a punishment.”

“You think I don’t know that?” she muttered. “Why do you think I can’t be here with him another minute?”

Paige sighed. “It’s okay. All you have to do is keep it in your pants. You can do that, right?”

Lilly let her head fall back against the brick wall and sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Say it,” Paige instructed sternly.

Lilly groaned, and closed her eyes. “I can keep it in my pants. I will keep it in my pants.”

“Good to know.”

Lilly yelped, and jumped away from the wall to see Nate watching her with an amused look on his face.

He pursed his lips. “Maybe you should say it a few more times, just to be sure.”

Her face flamed and her stomach dropped like a lead sinker. She said a hasty good-bye to Paige and ended the call. “That wasn’t— I wasn’t—”

God, just kill me now.

“I found a guy to tow the truck to a garage,” he said. “I want you to wait here. The storm is getting bad. It’s not safe out there.”

“Fine.” She brushed past him, heading back to the bar. “But know that if you bail and leave me stranded here, I will hunt you down and crush your manhood.”

Nate grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. The firm touch of his fingers sent a flurry of butterflies reeling in her stomach. She looked up, surprised, and swallowed when she saw the intense look in his eyes.

“Enough.” His voice dropped so that only she could hear him, the rumbling tone doing things to her insides she wished she could fight. She licked her lips and his gaze dropped to her mouth. “I would never leave you like that. Ever. Got it?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

He searched her face, seemed satisfied with what he saw, and nodded. “Good.”

Without another word, he released her arm and stalked back through the bar and out into the storm.

She touched her lips, forcing her wildly thudding heart to calm.

She had to get away from that man.

Now. Before she did something really, really stupid.

Like kiss him again.

Or not keep it in her pants.

…

The tow truck’s headlights spilled over the entrance to Dirty Dick’s Brew and Grub as they pulled into the parking lot. Nate was anxious to get back to Lilly. He shouldn’t have left her alone. When he’d walked away from her at the bar, he’d had only one thought in mind. Putting some distance between them. After that kiss on the side of the road and then renewing his intimate acquaintance with the perfection that hid beneath that wet, translucent dress, he’d needed to back off. If he hadn’t, he would have done something insane. Like drag her back to the restroom and make her come loud enough for every leering f*cker in the bar to hear.

He nodded his thanks to the driver and checked his watch. Shit. He’d been gone an hour. There was no telling what kind of trouble she’d gotten herself into in that amount of time.

He’d been lucky. All he’d needed was a winch to get his truck out of the muddy ditch, but even with a jump they weren’t able to get her up and running. He was going to have to leave it at a shop. There was no getting around it. They were stuck.

He strode into the bar like a man on a mission and stopped cold when he didn’t spot Lilly. The barstool he’d left her on was empty. The jacket he’d given her draped over the back.

F*cking hell.

Panic gripped his chest in a tight fist as he grasped the back of the barstool and scanned the bar. The bartender who introduced herself earlier as Jessica cleared away a half-empty glass in front of the stool. Lilly had been drinking? Had she accepted a drink from a man she didn’t know? A thousand nightmarish scenarios bled through his mind. He had to find her.

He slapped his hand down on the bar to get the two bartenders’ attention. “Hey, have either of you seen the blonde I came in with?”

“Denny was buzzing around her for a while. I think I saw them leave together,” Jessica informed him.

A sickening mixture of jealous rage and uncontrollable worry clouded Nate’s mind. No. Lilly wouldn’t have left willingly with someone she didn’t know.

Would she?

She’d do anything to get away from you, remember? You made sure of that, dickhead.

“Who’s Denny?” he ground out.

Jessica shrugged as she wiped down the bar, leaning over in a way that made her look obvious and pathetic in her attempts to attract his attention. He’d already told her earlier he wasn’t interested.

“He’s a regular,” she said. “He owns a farm up on County Line Road. Comes in a few times a week. Usually leaves with one pretty blonde or another.” She chuckled at his murderous expression and rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, sugar. She didn’t look like she was going anywhere she wasn’t willing to go. Denny tends to have that effect on the ladies.”

Nate dropped the denim jacket and stormed out of the bar, his heart hammering in his chest so hard he’d probably have bruises on the inside tomorrow. He was two seconds away from completely losing his shit. Why the hell would she do this? Had he pissed her off that badly, to the point she’d put herself in danger just to escape him?


She didn’t know this Denny f*cker. What if he hurt her? What if he—

He heard her voice. He froze. A laugh? He was going out of his mind and she was somewhere laughing?

He stomped around the corner toward the source of the mirth and stopped when he saw her. Lilly was huddled under the eave, sheltered from the rain, with some douchebag in a Virginia Tech baseball cap. He was guessing this was Denny.

Well, Denny was about to get the beat-down of his life if he didn’t remove his goddamned hand from the small of her back. Nate would be damned if he stood by and let another man touch her so intimately when his handprint was still branded on her ass.

If she kept pushing him like this, he was going to give her another to match it.

Douchebag Denny whispered something in her ear and she laughed, the sound light and free. Her damp dress now clung to every dip and curve of her lithe little body. And that bastard had his paws all over her.

Lilly crouched down and he spotted the source of her joy. A little scruffball of a mutt was lying in front of her chewing on a bone. It paused only to look up and burrow its head into the palm of her hand as she scratched its ear. A dog? She was out here feeding a damn stray dog?

“I’ve always wanted a dog,” she murmured. “We couldn’t afford it when I was little. And now my apartment complex doesn’t allow pets.” She pushed out a breath. “Not that I’ll have an apartment in a few weeks.”

“Falling out with the roommate?” Denny asked.

“No. Nothing that serious,” she said. “She’s opening up a new yoga studio across town. There’s no way I’ll be able to afford our loft on my own.”

“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Who knows, maybe you’ll find an even better place. One that allows pets, then you can have a little mutt like this to call your own.” Denny draped an arm around her, brushed a hair from the side of her face.

She smiled up at him. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Nate saw red. She might be out here for the mutt, but this a*shole had his own agenda.

Nate strode forward, accepting the fact that he might go to jail tonight. If she’d been trying to make him jealous with this little stunt, good for her. It had worked. But jealousy was an ugly emotion, and one he didn’t deal well with.

Lilly looked up at the sound of his footsteps, and her face paled.

“That’s right, Princess,” he said evenly. “You want to play? We’ll play.” He folded his arms over his chest to stop them from doing something foolish. On second thought, he was done with the f*cking games. He’d take her to a damn motel and lock her in if he had to. “Time to go.”

“I don’t think she wants to leave with you,” the jerk in the hat drawled.

Nate looked at him with murder on his mind and the douchebag loosened his hold on her. She looked up as if surprised the other man had gotten so close, and scooted out from under his hand.

“She came with me,” Nate said, voice harsh. “She’s leaving with me.”

She stood up and scowled at him. “Fine. Let’s go, warden.”

She leaned over and nuzzled the dog’s nose, whispering something soft and sweet to it.

Nate nearly groaned at the sight of that damp dress stretched across her backside. Jesus H. Christ. Clearly, she had no idea what she was doing to him. Or hell, maybe she did.

He shot a look at D-Bag, who was enjoying the view, as well, and made a warning sound. “I’d avert your eyes, motherf*cker, unless you want one of them black.”

The bastard cursed under his breath, nodded at Lilly, and stomped back into the noisy bar.

Lilly glared at Nate as she stormed past and he followed, hot on her heels. When her fancy high heels hit the gravel parking lot, she stopped searching for the truck, and he grabbed her by the arm. She spun right into his chest. He felt dizzy from her proximity, her warmth. He closed his eyes and breathed her in. She was intoxicating, and this was where she belonged.

With him.

“Are you trying to give me a damn heart attack?” he demanded. “Or do you just want to be kidnapped or killed by some sick f*ck?”

She jerked out of his grip. “I was feeding a stray dog. I wasn’t out dancing on a pole. And for the record, last time I checked I was a grown woman. I don’t need your permission. Denny is a nice guy. He was just keeping me entertained while I waited for you to finish whatever it was you were doing in there with Lady McBoobs.”

“Do you even have a clue what could have happened to you?” he said in exasperation. “You’re in a strange city, wearing a dress that’s certain to lure every lecherous creep within a five-mile radius like a moth to flame. And you decide it’s a good idea to wander into a dark alley with a complete stranger? You didn’t even know that guy, Lil. He could have—”

“Nothing happened,” she said between her teeth. “Nothing was going to happen. He was nice. He asked if I wanted to go with him to feed scraps to a dog that always hung around the bar, so I went. End of story.”

Nate opened his mouth to launch into another tirade, but she stopped him with a shake of her head. “Don’t. You don’t get to do this, Nate,” she snapped. “I’m not yours to protect. I can take care of myself. So leave it alone. Leave me alone. I can find another ride.”

He pinned her with a hard glare and shook his head. She was right. She wasn’t his. She wasn’t going to be his. “Not a f*cking chance. Get in the truck.”

He motioned to the tow truck that had agreed to give them a ride to a motel and take his ride to a shop.

She gritted her teeth. “Fine.”

Jesus. This road trip was definitely going to kill him.

After this, active duty would be a damn picnic.