Читать книгу The Right Stuff - Lori Wilde - Страница 8

RECOGNITION knifed Daniel in the chest.

It couldn’t be, but the hell if it wasn’t.

The very woman who’d sledgehammered his heart thirteen years ago which had led to his break-up with Sandy now.

“Daniel,” Taylor said, her voice low, husky. She cleared her throat, slipped off her sunglasses and took him in. He spied the nervousness in her eyes as she inspected the insignias on the collar of his uniform shirt before lifting her defiant chin. “Lieutenant-Colonel Dr. Daniel Corben, I see.”

His heart thumped and his palms slicked as he peered into those familiar brown eyes. Taylor Milton in the flesh and looking far more beautiful than any woman had the right to look.

Twin dots of color pinked her cheeks and he felt a corresponding heat rise inside him. Slowly, he raked his gaze over her, starting with her gorgeous red hair, now stylishly streaked with blond threads. He couldn’t help but lust after her swan-like throat and then the swell of her breasts, before rolling right on down to those long, shapely legs. He remembered exactly what it felt like to have those legs wrapped tightly around him in the throes of passion.

Something ripped loose inside his chest, a tearingaway sensation. God, she was gorgeous. The years had been generous to her. In fact, she’d grown even lovelier with the passing of time. He shook his head, tried to shake off the attraction. But it was useless.

“I should have known,” Daniel said, dragging his gaze back to her face.

“Known?” she echoed, seeming confused.

“You’re the one who wrapped General Miller around your little finger. Bravo, Taylor. You’ve always had a knack for bringing men to their knees.” His tone came out harsher than he had intended.

Her eyes widened as if he’d slapped her, and he immediately felt like a jerk. She moistened her lips, swallowed. “You’re upset with me.”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I am.”

She shifted her weight, but held his gaze. “Why?”

“Because you’re intent on making a mockery of the thing I love most.”

Her eyes darkened. “The Air Force.”

“I want you to know I’m adamantly opposed to the reason you’re here.”

“Duly noted,” she said coolly.

As coolly as when she’d told him that their love affair had been nothing more than a fun fling. It had been thirteen years. The memory shouldn’t still sting.

But it did.

“I tried to tell her, sir,” the anxious young staff sergeant was saying, “that she couldn’t just barge in. There’s protocol. This is a military base. But she wouldn’t listen to me. I—”

Daniel held up a hand to silence the kid, who was about the same age Daniel had been when he’d graduated college. Not once did he take his eyes off Taylor. “I’ve got it from here, Staff Sergeant. You’re dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir.” The young man snapped off a salute.

“Impressive.” Taylor lifted an eyebrow. Mocking him?

Daniel narrowed his gaze, his world condensing to her. Just Taylor and no one else. He could no longer see the staff sergeant hustling around to his jeep, although he could hear the young man’s shoes slapping quickly against the asphalt.

She boldly held his stare, but Daniel could see past the bravado in the way she slipped her fingers through her hair, trying to tame the windblown strands. He remembered she had a habit of running her hand through her hair when she was nervous. Nice to see that some things didn’t change.

Her chest moved with each breath of air. Her magnificent breasts strained the buttons of the expensive yellow silk blouse she wore. He thought of her nipples, recalled how sweet they’d tasted. With her sun-streaked red hair, Taylor looked damned delicious in yellow. Like marigolds in a wheat field.

Her fingers dropped from her hair in one long graceful movement and fell to the pocket of her sleek charcoal-gray slacks. Her fingernails, he noted, sported a flawless French manicure.

Daniel wondered, not for the first time, how he’d ever ended up with a woman like her even for a little while. She was pure class from the top of her head to the tips of her pedicured toes peeping from golden high-heeled sandals. She came from money, privilege. He was military all the way. An officer first, a doctor second.

His eyes latched on to her lips. Full, lavish, painted the color of the pink Gerbera daisies he’d given his mom the other day. He held his breath.

Waiting.

What was he waiting for?

Taylor took a thick tortoise-shell hairclip from the gold pocketbook that matched her designer sandals, pulled back several long strands of hair with one hand and anchored them in place with the clip. The remaining hair, not caught up in the barrette, fell in soft, sexy waves about her face.

Her languid movements stirred up her scent, bringing her perfume to him. Honeysuckle. The sweet farm-girl scent was in total opposition to the sleek reality. Urban, hip, on-top-of-the world. Creator of sexual-fantasy resorts.

The morning sun peeped behind a cloud, cloaking her face one half in shadow, the other in light, illuminating the dichotomy that was Taylor Milton. On the one hand constant, on the other enigmatic and changeable. Daniel peered into her eyes, glimpsing something melancholy lurking there.

Old memories, heartfelt feelings—both happy and sorrowful—shimmered between them like heat waves off asphalt, thin, fragile, elusive as snow in the desert.

A chord was struck, only for a whisper of a second. But it was enough to pull the breath from their lungs in a synchronized exhale.

He focused on her mouth. A mouth he yearned to kiss. A mouth that still called to him in the dark recesses of dreams he hadn’t known he’d dreamed. He moved toward her. Not thinking, just longing, craving, wanting.

She didn’t step back.

Daniel never took his eyes off her face. It felt so natural for him to kiss her. To pull her into his arms, rekindle their past, fan the sparks, make a new one.

He stepped forward, closing the small gap. All at once, he realized their lips were almost touching. She didn’t flinch. She seemed as mesmerized as he.

Knock it off, Corben, this is completely unprofessional.

And yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He didn’t want to stop himself. What was he trying to prove? That he could intimidate her?

Not cool.

Daniel thought he’d grown beyond his resentment over the way Taylor had broken things off with him. He was disturbed to discover he had not. He thought of himself as a rational man, but around her, he felt…what did he feel? Irrational? Fevered? Out of control?

A miserable combination of all three, he concluded.

For the first time, he fully understood why his parents hadn’t liked her. Taylor didn’t play by the rules and both medicine and the military were all about rules. She was rebellious and opinionated and imaginative and creative. She blazed her path and didn’t care what anyone thought.

And the hell of it was Daniel had loved her for all those things.

The heat of her skin radiated outward, zapped into him. It was all he could do not to act on his impulses and take her right there in the parking lot.

She flicked out her tongue, tracing the pink tip over her moist lips. He knew it was an innocent gesture born of nervousness, but it had the same effect as if it had been carefully calculated. His gut squeezed and his cock hardened. The unexpectedness of his desires scared the hell out of him. Like it or not, he still cared for her.

Dammit. He did not want to care for her. He could not. Should not. Would not.

Her eyes widened again and she tucked her elbows close to her sides. Suddenly, she looked utterly vulnerable. As if she would shatter like fragile glass if he were to touch her. Daniel could read his own fears reflected in her eyes. They were both unsettled by a chemistry that time had not erased.

They stared into each other with a mix of stunned surprise, affection and stark sexual need.

It was still there. The old flare. The embers just waiting to be stoked. All this time and he still burned for her in a way that shook him to his core.

Fate had brought them back together again.

Reunited them.

Reunited.

The idea felt both wonderful and treacherous. Wonderful because there was the hint of hope, treacherous because it was all an illusion. A pang of longing pierced him.

That’s when Daniel knew that his promotion was in serious jeopardy.

“SO YOU’RE my escort,” Taylor said with all the cool aplomb and calm control she could muster, hiding the fact that inside she was a quivering mass of nerves and anxiety.

“Feels like old times, huh?” Daniel said, his voice loaded with sarcasm.

One look at him and she was jettisoned back thirteen years. With the passing of time, she’d told herself she’d embellished their attraction. That it was nothing more than the fuzzy sweet memory of a love that used to be. But here, now, feeling the raw, aching chemistry again, she realized she’d actually downplayed it.

What was she going to do?

She’d never bargained on running across him, on feeling like this; for a split second she thought perhaps Uncle Chuck was playing matchmaker, hooking her up with her old college sweetheart. Then she remembered that General Miller knew nothing about her youthful affair with Daniel. She’d never even told her father of their liaison because it had been too new, too romantic to share with a man who viewed love as something that had to be sacrificed. This hook-up was sheer, miserable bad luck.

Or destiny, whispered a voice in the back of her mind.

“It’s my duty to show you around,” he replied.

She could tell from the sharp-edged light in his eyes and his pointed tone of voice that duty was not the word he really wanted to use. The military had disciplined him to hold his tongue. Not that he’d ever been great at expressing his feelings. Typical strong, silent type.

But Taylor was a Milton born and bred. She could hide her real emotions just as well as he could. It was the one thing they had in common.

But hiding her feelings took a toll.

What she yearned to do was fling herself into his arms, tell him just how stupid she’d been to send him away all those years ago. Of course, she didn’t do that, instead, she called him on it. “You disapprove of my being here.”

“Patrick is a restricted military base.”

“Aren’t all military bases restricted?”

“Civilians shouldn’t be allowed to go running around unchecked.” His chin hardened.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m checked. You’re here to check me.”

“You’re here because you’re throwing money at General Miller’s political campaign, that’s it.”

“And that’s bad because…?”

“Not everyone has your wealth and privilege. Not everyone has pockets big enough to support their whims.”

That irritated her. “My business is not a whim.”

He said nothing, just scrutinized her with those stalwart blue eyes that shook her up.

Taylor forced a smile. She refused to let him rattle her. “So, tell me all about Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Daniel Corben. I’m assuming you’re married. Got a big brood of kids.”

“No wife, no children.” Daniel shook his head and her foolish, foolish heart soared.

“Oh,” she said, struggling to sound neutral, as if she didn’t care. But damn if she didn’t sound hopeful to her own ears. She felt hopeful, too. Why should she be hopeful when he’d made it clear he didn’t want her here?

Stop it. There’s a good reason you broke up with him.

But for the life of her—in that moment as her eyes drank him in—she couldn’t remember what it was, why she’d lied to him and told him their love affair had been nothing more than a fling. Why she’d walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Pulse pounding, she searched his face. The years had been lavishly generous. Maturity had deepened his good looks, ripening his masculine appeal. He was bigger than she remembered. Taller, harder. He’d been handsome before, but now…?

Now, he was extraordinary.

His shoulders had broadened and so had his muscular thighs and biceps. His posture was ramrodstraight, his presence commanding. He wore a white lab jacket over his basic uniform. His face was attractively fuller, less rangy than it had been, but his waist was just as narrow. His hair was a bit longer than the buzz cut he’d had for military induction, but it was still quite short and tidy. She couldn’t spy even a hint of gray.

And his eyes. His devastatingly gorgeous eyes were as impossibly blue as ever.

“How about you?” he asked.

“What?” She blinked.

“Is there a Mr. Milton? Any little Taylors running around?”

“Me?” Taylor laughed, desperate to appear casual and unaffected by this strange turn of events. How could she still be affected by him after all these years? “Not hardly.”

“It’s a fair question. You’re thirty-three now. No ticking biological clock?”

“That’s not any of your business.” The answer was yes. She did think about kids. Especially since her father had died, since she was all alone in the world, but she didn’t have to tell him that.

“So you’ve never been married?”

“No.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Not currently. You know me.” She laughed again, trying to sound carefree. “I’m not the kind to settle down.”

“Still all about fun, fun, fun, huh?” He said fun as though it was a dirty word.

“I do enjoy a good time.” She battered her eyelashes in a facetious gesture.

He frowned. “I know.”

Her pulse quickened. “I never made a secret of it.”

“I never said you did.”

If you only knew how much it hurt me to have to hurt you…

She stifled the urge to jump into her Porsche and zoom away from the intensity of those snapping blue eyes. Eyes that seemed to possess a hidden meaning all their own. At the same time an equally compelling impulse had her wanting to kiss him with a fervency born of urgent familiarity.

But she did neither.

Thirty-three years as the only child of a billionaire airline executive had honed her ability to cloak her true feelings behind a happy-go-lucky facade. The skill had given her the strength to send Daniel away on the night of his graduation. From the looks of him now—disciplined, a doctor, a lieutenant colonel involved with the aerospace program—it had been the right decision. He had achieved all his dreams because she’d let him go.

Taylor took a deep breath, steeling herself. She could handle this.

And yet, the intensity of those blue eyes unsettled her in a way nothing else could.

“I remember a lot of things about you,” he added.

The criticism in his voice grabbed her in a stranglehold. She knew she’d hurt him, yes, but she’d been hurt, too. That part he didn’t understand. He stood looking at her, his expression a combination of judgment and annoyance.

“You haven’t changed a bit, Taylor,” Daniel said. “Still beautiful and as inaccessible as ever.”

“I…I’ve changed,” she said, denying his accusation.

“Yeah?” He arched an eyebrow. “How’s that?”

I learned how to live without you.

Taylor drew herself up tall. “I’m running my father’s airline now,” she answered. “I’ve overhauled it completely and we’re more successful than ever.”

“How is your father?”

“Dad passed away four years ago.”

“Taylor, I…I’m so sorry.” He reached out a hand, but seemed to think better of it, and let his arm fall to his side. “I know he was your only family. That must have been so hard on you.”

His sympathy pushed a lump of unshed tears into her throat. “I managed.”

Casually, she slipped her sunglasses on, trying her best not to let him see that her hands were trembling, hiding her eyes behind the barrier of UV lenses. Perspiration dewed her upper lip. Not so much from the warm morning sun as from his unwavering gaze.

At that moment, a young airman came running up to them. “Doctor Corben, Doctor Corben!”

“What is it, airman?” Daniel’s voice was authoritative, commanding. A shiver tripped down Taylor’s spine at the sound of it.

“We’ve got…there’s been…” The young man was hyperventilating.

Daniel rested a hand on his shoulder. “Slow down. Take a deep breath.”

“I…it’s an emergency, hurry, hurry.”

Alarm lifted the hairs on Taylor’s arm. She’d never been any good during emergencies.

“Where?” Daniel’s expression was calm and assertive.

“Motor pool…” the guy wheezed out. “My buddy Mac. Vehicle jack collapsed. Got him pinned underneath a Jeep. He can’t breathe. There’s blood.”

“Let’s go.” Daniel and the airman took off at a sprint.

“What do I do?” Taylor called.

“You wanted in on the action,” Daniel barked over his shoulder. “Come on.”

Taylor followed them, but had trouble keeping up in her high-heeled sandals. Finally, she stopped, peeled them off and ran after them, the straps of her shoes looped around her fingers.

Daniel and the airman entered the hanger building housing military vehicles out of service for repairs. The smell of oil and diesel fuel burned her nose. Vehicle parts were strewn around, as well as various tools that looked as if they’d been dropped in a hurry. A stack of tires initially blocked her view, but as she rounded the corner she saw a cluster of airmen hovered around a Jeep.

The minute they saw Daniel, the airmen immediately parted as if he was Moses and they were the Red Sea.

“Thank God, you’re here, Doc,” said a senior airman with relief in his voice. “We knew better than to try to get the Jeep off him, even though he was begging us.”

“Good job.” Swiftly, Daniel knelt beside a pair of uniformed legs protruding from underneath the vehicle. As the men related what had happened, Taylor could hear the victim moaning softly.

Daniel issued orders and the airmen leapt into action. They scrambled here and there; one airman going for a first aid kit, a second one bringing in a hydraulic lift, another rushing out to wait for the medics to arrive.

The coppery taste of adrenaline spilled into her mouth as she watched the scenario unfold. In a matter of minutes, they had the vehicle off the victim. Daniel sprang into action with skills that took her breath away. His assured self-confidence was amazing.

Taylor watched, agog. Sure, she knew he was a doctor, but knowing it intellectually and seeing him in action as a strong, decisive leader whose actions saved lives, were two different things. The boy she’d once known had become a powerful, influential man.

Ambulance sirens screamed to a halt outside the hangar door and two medics hustled in to load the victim onto the gurney. They’d brought a portable cardiac monitor with them and Daniel slapped the leads onto the man’s chest, busily barking out instructions about IV solutions and pain medication and other medical stuff Taylor didn’t understand.

The medics carried out his orders, seemingly doing a dozen things at once at the same time they were wheeling the victim toward the ambulance.

“You riding with us, Doc?” one of the medics asked.

Daniel’s head came up then, his eyes meeting Taylor’s and she realized he’d completely forgotten about her until that moment. She stood there barefooted, holding her five-hundred-dollar sandals, as a gaggle of airmen ogled her. She felt distinctly out of place.

“We’ll meet you there.”

We. He was taking her with him.

The ambulance raced off and Daniel commandeered a Jeep that was parked outside the hangar. “Get in,” he said.

She climbed in beside him, slipping on her shoes as he drove. Her pulse pounded in her temples, her head spun, overwhelmed by what she’d just witnessed.

“I thought you were a flight surgeon to the astronauts,” she said.

“I am, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respond to emergencies.”

“I didn’t mean that,” she corrected. “Of course you’d respond to any emergency. I did some research before coming here and I was surprised to learn a flight surgeon isn’t really a surgeon. It’s just what they call the doctors who take care of the flight team.”

“I’m an actual surgeon as well. Trained in a field hospital in Iraq.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“Why would you?”

“So you won’t be following this airman’s case?”

“No, I’m just going along to make sure everyone is okay and to brief the physician who’ll be taking over his care.”

“I see. How severe are the man’s injuries?”

“When the jack collapsed, the Jeep fell on his chest.”

Taylor hissed in a breath.