a single night she’d been Kyle’s Montebello woman, and if she’d slept later that morning, she was certain she would have been the one to wake up all alone in bed.
She knew from experience that it was better to have no father than a military father. Kyle Ramsey would never know about the baby. Never.
Chapter 3
“Eagle One to base.”
Joanna swallowed the yawn that had been about to take control of her mouth, and flipped the button on the radio control panel so she could respond. “Base… Go ahead, Eagle One.”
“Ah, McCreary must have taken a break.” Kyle’s voice was deep and smooth and sounded as if he were standing right next to her instead of thousands of feet in the air. “Your sweet, sexy voice is a pleasant surprise.”
Heat swept through Joanna. Drat the man, even from miles away he could set her heart to racing. What was it about him that made her feel all fluttery inside? Maybe she had indigestion.
“Just thought I’d let you know we’re coming in,” he continued. “The relief team just came into sight.”
“The ground crew is ready for you, and you’re cleared for landing,” she replied, and smiled at Jason McCreary as he resumed a seat next to her and put on a second headset. Jason was an old friend of Kyle’s and a top-notch flyer who had been assigned to ground support with Joanna for the day.
“Joanna.” Kyle’s voice came again, strong and clear over the radio. “That morning you left me in bed all alone in the hotel room…was it because I was hogging all the pillows?”
Joanna couldn’t hide her gasp of disbelief that he would ask such a thing over the radio with McCreary sitting right next to her. “Eagle One, you’re breaking up. I can’t understand you. You’re cleared for landing.”
She yanked off the headset, aware of McCreary’s amused gaze on her. She turned and glared at him. “Don’t you say a word.”
He held up his hands and grinned, his freckles appearing to dance all across his broad, open face. “I wasn’t going to say a word,” he protested, his blue eyes twinkling merrily. “Of course, I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say I wasn’t just a tad curious.”
Joanna got up from her chair. “You know what curiosity did to the cat,” she replied.
He laughed and focused his attention back on business as one of the other pilots radioed in.
Joanna had quickly taken a liking to Jason McCreary, whose round face and freckles made him look like an old version of the irrepressible Huck Finn. He was friendly and open and spent much of the day talking about his wife and his two kids, whom he obviously adored. Joanna had been totally at ease around him.
However, she had certainly not intended for him to know that she’d spent any time at all in a hotel room with his commanding officer.
Drat Kyle Ramsey, anyway. The man was beyond aggravating.
She fumed inwardly and poured herself a cup of water from the nearby cooler. Sitting in one of the chairs that surrounded a large table, she gazed at her watch. It was almost three o’clock.
The first day of their mission had zoomed by despite the fact that it had been a relatively boring one. Boring was what they wanted. Boring meant there had been no signs of aggression from Tamir, no lives at risk or crazy aerial combat dramas.
She sipped the water and realized she was ravenous. She’d eaten no breakfast, had consumed only an apple and a small bag of pretzels around eleven, and now her stomach was letting her know it required a real meal.
Officially, her duties were over for the day, and the way the schedule was set up, she wasn’t required to be back here until two the next afternoon. She pulled out one of the schedules from her paperwork and studied it.
It annoyed her that Kyle had set up the work schedule and had arranged for her to work all the same times he was. As he’d handed her the schedule, he’d mentioned that this way they could ride to and from the base together. As if he didn’t have access to other transportation. As if he couldn’t afford to rent a car…
She didn’t understand what he hoped to gain by forcing them to spend time together. Surely she’d made it clear to him that she didn’t intend to indulge in a repeat performance of the night they had spent together.
Although she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t acknowledge that for the past twenty-four hours she’d spent far too much time remembering that night.
She had a feeling that the time she’d spent in Kyle’s arms would always be a heady, powerful memory, that it was forever burned not only into her head, but into every fiber of her body.
She was still seated at the table when Kyle walked in. Instantly, as he entered through the door, the space in the room seemed to shrink and the air filled with crackling energy.
That had been one of the first things that drew her to him that night in the bar—the aura of intense energy that had emanated from him.
“Good afternoon,” he said, his gray eyes glittering brightly as he grinned rakishly at Joanna. He walked past McCreary and ruffled the man’s red hair. “Hey, McCreary, how’s that woman of yours?”
“Great,” McCreary replied as Kyle went to the cooler and got himself a glass of water.
It was obvious he was pumped with energy, and Joanna couldn’t help but notice how utterly wonderful he looked in his flight suit. The navy material pulled taut across his broad shoulders and displayed his slim stomach and lean hips to perfection.
He downed the water, crumpled the paper cup and tossed it in the trash, then grinned once again at Joanna. “Our first patrol can be written down as a success. We encountered nothing but blue skies and a fantastic view of the wonders of Montebello. You ready to go?”
She nodded and stood.
“Just let me get out of these clothes,” he said, and began to unzip the flight suit. Joanna’s breath seemed to momentarily stop as she caught a glimpse of tanned chest and a sprinkling of dark hair before he turned and grabbed his clothes, then disappeared into the bathroom next door.
She released a sigh of relief, grateful he’d left when he had. She didn’t want to see any more of that hard, muscled chest, didn’t want to remember how that flesh, those muscles and that springy hair had felt beneath her fingertips.
And she certainly didn’t want to remember the pleasure of her bare breasts against his chest. The man was positively a menace to her peace of mind.
He returned dressed in the clothes he’d had on when she’d picked him up that morning. “Ready?” he asked.
“See you tomorrow,” McCreary said as Joanna grabbed her purse.
“Contact us if there are any developments or problems,” Kyle said to McCreary.
As Joanna and Kyle walked to her car, Joanna fought the impulse to tear into him about the personal, intimate information he’d relayed over the radio, but she had a feeling he wanted to get a rise out of her. She decided her best course of
