haunted her for the past couple of months.
It was almost exactly three months ago that she had made love to a virtual stranger. She’d like to believe that she had been drunk, but she knew better. Joanna never did anything to excess, especially drink.
No, she hadn’t been drunk—she’d been intoxicated by the sexy charm that had radiated from his eyes, inebriated by the flirtatious, playful banter they had shared, smashed on the blatant masculine sexuality that had rolled off him in waves.
“Marie.” A rapid knock sounded on the door.
She bit her lower lip, fighting against a wave of nausea. She’d never expected to see him again. Their night together had been a crazy lapse of judgment, a momentary slide into insanity, a wild ride of abandonment that had been completely out of character for her.
“Marie…Joanna.” This time the knock was louder and echoed with a touch of impatience. “You can’t stay in there all day. Sooner or later you have to come out.”
He was right, of course. She couldn’t stay in here forever, but she needed a little time to regain her equilibrium. She wasn’t ready to come out yet. She still hadn’t fully recovered from the absolute shock of seeing him again.
“Joanna, we have work to do.” His voice came softly through the door.
Work to do? What work could they have to do? A new wave of despair swept through her as her brain struggled to make sense of his words.
Oh heavens, he’d come from the ambassador’s office. He’d been in there when the ambassador was to meet with the top gun navy pilot who was sharing her new assignment with her.
Just that morning Ambassador Templeton had told her about her new, important assignment—providing ground support for a team of top gun fliers who were coming in unofficially to patrol the skies over Montebello.
Kyle was the top gun navy pilot, and she would be working with him until the current tensions between Montebello and Tamir were resolved. Fate had a hysterical sense of humor, she thought. Unfortunately, at the moment she wasn’t laughing, she simply felt as if she might throw up.
“Buck up,” she commanded herself. “You’re a professional and you will act like one.” She slid a hand down her navy skirt, then drew a deep breath, opened the door and stepped out.
The last time she’d seen Kyle Ramsey, he’d been wearing jeans and a polo shirt. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The very last time she’d seen him, he’d been gloriously naked and asleep. That final vision of him exploded in her head, granting her an unwelcome image of his naked body stretched out on white sheets.
“Joanna M. Morgan.” His gaze lingered a moment on her badge before returning to her face. “I assume the M stands for Marie?”
She nodded. He’d looked marvelous clad in jeans and a shirt. He’d looked sinfully sexy naked against crisp white sheets, but at the moment he looked arrogant and commanding in his pristine, wrinkle-free uniform.
“So, should I call you Joanna or Marie?” His slate eyes glittered brightly. “Or is Marie the name you use only when you’re picking up men in bars?”
She gasped. “I did not pick you up,” she exclaimed indignantly before abruptly changing the subject. She fumbled with her purse and withdrew her car keys. “I understand I’m to take you to where you will be staying. Shall we go?”
She marched ahead of him, mortified by the entire situation. She’d allowed herself to be seduced, had indulged in some seduction of her own that night. But when she’d awakened early the next morning, she’d been appalled by what she’d done.
Even worse was discovering that Kyle Ramsey was in the military. She’d crept out of the room, consoling herself with the knowledge that she would never see him again.
She didn’t look at him now until they were alone in the elevator. Then it was impossible to avoid doing so.
He filled the entire cubicle with his presence, with the spicy scent of his cologne and a subtle underlying fragrance of clean male. His eyes, with their sinful, long dark lashes and wicked gleam, swept her from head to toe, evoking tiny heat bursts wherever his gaze lingered.
His lips curved into a lazy smile that she remembered far too vividly from their night together. “Don’t you know it’s the height of bad manners to sneak away from a lover while he’s sleeping?”
“We weren’t lovers and I think it’s most unchivalrous of you to even mention that night.”
He took a step closer to her. With the high beam of his bedroom eyes on her and the nearly blinding charm of his smile, she suddenly remembered how easy it had been to succumb to his seduction.
“We were lovers for that night, and why shouldn’t I mention it? It’s definitely a fond memory for me.”
The elevator doors slid open, and Joanna nearly leaped out in an effort to escape the close proximity.
“Lieutenant Commander—”
“Kyle,” he interjected as he fell into step beside her. “I figure any woman who has seen me naked should be able to call me by my first name.”
Joanna refused to rise to his obvious baiting, but her cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Okay, fine,” she continued as they left the embassy building and walked toward the nearby parking area. “Kyle, we have a job to do…an important job. And it would be best if we could just pretend that we met for the first time right now.”
She stopped walking as they reached her small sports car. She unlocked the passenger door, then turned to face him, swallowing a gasp as she realized just how close he stood to her.
“Don’t tell me you’re married,” he said.
“Of course not,” she replied indignantly.
“Why didn’t you tell me you worked at the embassy?” he asked, and took another step closer, effectively trapping her between her car and his hard, muscled body.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a hotshot top gun?” she countered.
She’d realized he was a military man early the next morning, when she’d awakened and gotten up to go to the bathroom. She’d spied his wallet on the bathroom counter. The wallet was open, displaying military identification. It was that that had prompted her to leave him, sneaking out like a thief just as the dawn had began to creep across the sky.
A slow, seductive smile curved his lips. “I didn’t tell you I was a pilot because I wanted you to like me for who I was, not what I did for a living.” He reached up and tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.
The simple touch galvanized her. She slid sideways, freeing herself from contact with the car and with him. “Like I said, it would be best if we’d just forget we had any dealings with each other before now.”
She didn’t wait for him to reply, but instead walked around the car and unlocked the driver’s door. She slid behind the wheel at the same time he got in on the passenger side. She started to put the key in the ignition, but was stopped by his hand grabbing hers.
His long fingers curled around her wrist, warm
