Chapter Seventeen

Blake wasn’t sure if he admired her determination or not, but at the moment, he sure as hell couldn’t stop her, especially when she shot him The Look. “Be careful.”

There was that look again, like he was an idiot for voicing the obvious. “Hey,” he said, climbing over the metal rail that was clearly ineffective at keeping Zandra out. “It’s that self-preservation thing. Your brother will kill me if anything happens to you.”

Her brother? Hell, his mom would get first shot, and that wouldn’t be pretty, either.

“I’ll make it quick,” she promised.

He felt like a colossal dick as he stood there, watching her ascend the rock, but there was barely enough room for one person, let alone two. He positioned himself right underneath her, arms outstretched. If she fell, maybe he’d have a chance to catch her.

Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall… Sweat trickling down his back, he sent up the silent plea.

Zandra took a step up, then another, her body leaning forward as she climbed. And all the while, he held his breath. What if she really did fall? And she broke a bone or, worse, broke her neck? He’d never forgive himself.

After what seemed like hours to Blake, she’d finally reached a flat spot and stopped.

“Now what?” he called up to her. “There’s not enough room for your tripod. Didn’t you say you needed it because it holds the camera steady? How ’bout you just come on back down?” He motioned her down with one hand, which was idiotic, considering she was totally ignoring him.

Blake held his breath as she carefully raised her camera with one hand then let go of the rock she’d been holding. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.”

This was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

She snapped a few shots, brought the camera down enough so she could look at the rock tip again, and began taking more photos.

“Zandra.” Damn it. His voice came out as more of a plea than with the firmness he’d planned on. He was a Special Forces officer, for Christ’s sake, and while he could instruct a room full of mostly cocky, highly competent soldiers, he couldn’t control one determined, feisty female…and it fucking sucked.

“There,” she said, replacing the lens cover on her camera. “All done.”

Her descent took far less time than the climb up, thank God. It wasn’t until she finally stood in front of him, her face smiling up at him and a light in her eyes that Blake finally broke.

He reached for her and gently tugged her forward, wrapping his arms around her. She was safe. And, damn, it felt good to hold her, good to pull her close and know she was back on firm ground again.

“Your heart’s racing,” she murmured, the camera slung around her neck pressing against his chest.

“Gee, I wonder why.” He retreated just far enough to pull the camera over her head and set it on her backpack beside them. “I swear you took a year off my life.”

She swallowed, her gaze dropping briefly to his mouth before flicking up to his eyes again. “I’m sorry.”

The warmth from her body warmed him like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Damn it. He’d told himself he wouldn’t do it, told himself he’d keep his distance from Zandra because the last thing he’d wanted was for either of them to get carried away.

Yeah, kissing her was a bad idea, no doubt, but still…

Her lips parted, then she raised onto her toes, her hands playing on his chest making Blake smile. Leave it to Zandra to make the decisive move.

He dipped his head down, and the moment she opened underneath his kiss, a weight lifted off his shoulders. This sweetness, this touch, this moment—these were all reserved for Zandra. Nothing else mattered but the feel of her mouth on his, the way her tongue dueled, invited, teased.

He tightened his grip on her hips and gently pulled her closer. Somehow, his brain registered her deep moan, registered the way she moved against him, synchronized almost, and spurring all sorts of thoughts in his head. None of them good, all of them good.

Did it matter, really, what his brain labeled right or wrong when the feel of Zandra against him inspired all sorts of scenarios he likely wouldn’t be happy with, either?

She pushed herself up against him, shifted just enough that his erection strained even harder. Was she teasing him? God, he hoped not, but he wasn’t about to ask. Better to let things play out, no matter how they played out.

From somewhere a drum beat insistently, and a voice over a mic registered. He groaned. The band was about to kick in.

He pulled back and smiled when she leaned toward him, mewling softly, her mouth searching for his. He couldn’t help it. He leaned toward her and planted another kiss on her soft mouth. “This probably isn’t the time or place,” he said regretfully. Damn, how he wished it were.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she swallowed, nodding. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Her tongue snaked out and moistened her lower lip.

“Now you’re just teasing,” he said.

As if to prove her point, she cleared her throat and took a step back as she tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. “Am not.”

Cute ear. Was the area behind it sensitive? If he kissed and licked it, would she respond?

If he were a smart man, he’d steer clear of Zandra.

Although the way he’d been behaving lately, he was beginning to question just how smart he was.

…

From what Zandra had seen so far, Cologne was as charming as its inhabitants. They’d finished the shoot at a local teashop where patrons could purchase tea blends or mix their own. The adjoining café even gave them the ability to brew it themselves. The owners were delightful, and the atmosphere light and fun.

Thankfully so.

Since that kiss in Lichtenstein a few days ago, she’d managed to keep her brain focused on work, keeping herself occupied as she combed through the photos she’d taken and retouched those as necessary so they were ready to be submitted to Flights and Sights.

She’d been tempted to share some of the photos on social media, but her editor was right. It was better to hang onto any still shots until it was time to run promotional material.

But now that the shoot was over and they were settled in their overnight extended stay location, Zandra was forced to face facts. Somewhere over the last couple of days, Blake intrigued the hell out of her. Or maybe it was just because it’d been awhile since she’d been with a man. Either way, her attraction to her travel partner was bad. Very. Bad.

Sure, the guy was intelligent and caught on quickly, anticipating what her lighting needs were or offering suggestions on how she could get a better shot. Once or twice she’d had to agree that he was right. He even graciously hauled her stuff around and kept an eye on her backpack if she needed to do something as silly as climb a rock.

Despite all of that, it was annoying. Was there anything the guy couldn’t do?

“You mind chopping the carrots?” Blake asked.

Yeah, then there was the fact the guy could cook on top of it all. Really, couldn’t she catch a break somewhere along the way? “Sure.”

“So, the best way to cook a barbacoa is low and slow,” Blake told her. “That way the meat’s tender and juicy and tastes even better than what’s served at a lot of restaurants, if I do say so myself.”

“Uh-huh.” She washed her hands. “So how come we’re having steak instead of that?”

“No blender, no CrockPot, not enough time.”

“All good points,” she said, chopping the top off a carrot. “But now it seems like you’re just teasing me with how good your barbacoa is.”

“I promise to make it for you…one day,” he said then shrugged. “Maybe before I PCS out. Jackson might be back by then.”

Permanent change of station. Right. Army-speak for moving to a different base and yet another reason not to get involved with Blake. The Army owned him, and while Zandra didn’t know enough about how the Army planned things, if her brother’s tour schedules were any indication, a soldier didn’t exactly get to choose where he went.

“How’d you and Jackson get to be friends, anyway? All I remember is that one day, you showed up at our house and it’s like you’ve always been around.”

He threw her his signature charming grin, and Zandra’s heart did this funky skip, the zap of electricity arcing through her like he’d touched her in all the places that craved him.

Bad thought. Very, very bad thought.

Or maybe, actually, a good one?

God, now she was thinking the way he might. Of course, it was a bad thought. Nothing good could come out of any sort of a relationship with Blake that went beyond friendship.

But did it have to go beyond friendship?

The real question was, could she handle a physical relationship with Blake even if she knew it wouldn’t amount to anything?

“I’ll take that as a good thing.”

Startled, she looked up from the last carrot she was slicing into rounds and into his gorgeous brown eyes. “Huh?”

A corner of his mouth quirked up. “How I met Jackson,” he reminded her. “You said I just showed up one day and seemed to be around ever since.”

“Oh, right.” That’d teach her to daydream while in the middle of a conversation. She shrugged, feigning ambivalence. “I didn’t notice anything other than you seemed to be around.”

“Ouch.” He squinted and stopped chopping. “For the record, that’s painful for a guy to hear.”

“You’ll live.”

“Barely.”

“So, go on,” she prompted. “Tell me how you guys became friends.”

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

She rolled her eyes. “Jeez. Spare me all the gory details.”

“No, really, it was a dark and stormy night. Jackson had just finished football practice, so the two of us were going to grab a bite when he realized he’d lost his car keys. We went back to look for them and had rounded the corner to the football field by the locker rooms. There was this kid, Tom, who was backed up against the wall, with this bully threatening him.

“Seems that Tom came from a wealthy family, and the bully wanted his allowance.” Blake shrugged. “Probably didn’t help that he bragged about it more than he should’ve. Anyway, there weren’t any adults around, and this kid had a history of getting away with his bullying, so let’s just say Jackson and I took matters into our own hands.”

“And you ended up in detention for a couple of days. I remember now. My brother refused to tell my parents exactly what’d happened.”

“It’s a code of honor thing. And for the record, the bully got expelled from school once we pulled all the facts together for the principal.” He scraped the carrots off the cutting board and into a bowl. “That’s when I finalized my plans to be in a career where I could see that justice was done.”

“Wait. Let me guess: you wanted to be a superhero.”

“Those who need defending don’t need a superhero. They just need enough people to step up and do the right thing.” He said it so quietly that she knew this revelation was big. Huge, even…

“This is why you went military,” she said.

“Yeah.” His gaze held hers, a glint of something in them. “And that’s why I’m going to law school, too.”

Law school? She raised an eyebrow. What else didn’t she know about him? “What made you decide that? I mean, not that I don’t think you can’t do it.”

He frowned and measured spices into a bowl, his movements slow, methodical, like he was weighing his words as carefully as he spooned the spices. “I knew when I was a kid that I wanted to go to law school. My dad was killed by a couple of thugs, and I knew I wanted to grow up and put the bad guys away, I wanted to protect the world from them.”

He’d been through all that as a kid? That he had such depth plucked at something deep inside her.

He grinned, and the mood shifted as he shook his head. “Yeah, well, I don’t need to advertise it. Besides, Mom’s got a couple more years of med school, then once she’s in the residency program, it’ll be my turn.”

Wow.

Zandra stared.

She was beginning to discover the different facets of Blake Monroe: good friend, patient traveler, caring son, great kisser. Definitely a great kisser.

“So you want to go to law school like my dad did to defend the defenseless?”

Really, it made perfect sense.

“More like I want to see to it that justice is served,” Blake replied after a moment. “That kid was scared. He didn’t do anything, didn’t hurt anyone, yet some bully thought it’d be okay to forcibly take something from him. That’s just plain wrong.

“I’m not naive enough to think I can save the world,” he added. “But I’m not standing around waiting for someone else to do it, either.”

Well, damn. What was she supposed to say so it didn’t sound like she was being too mushy? But was he serious about any of it?

The intensity in his eyes was something she’d never seen before. This belief, this calling he had to bring justice to the world, was it a short-term deal? Given how long it’d been since he’d graduated high school, not likely. No, Blake was committed to protecting those unable to protect themselves.

Damn it to hell and back.

Zandra stared at Blake as he seasoned the steaks. Somehow, some way, he’d managed to chip away at the protective screen around her heart.