No, what worried him most was that she had somehow managed to become the center of his.
He knew it could happen. The danger, added to the tremendous responsibility of preserving another’s life, and multiplied by a very natural and honest sexual attraction, sometimes resulted in an emotional response above and beyond the norm.
He’d first been aware of his inappropriate response to this girl when they’d hidden from the city’s patrols. She’d huddled close and he’d put his arm around her—nothing wrong with that. She’d rested her head against his chest—and there was nothing wrong with her drawing strength and support from him that way, either.
But then, beneath the pungent odor of the shoe polish she wore on her hair, beneath the more subtle yet no less sharp odor of fear that surrounded all of the former hostages, he’d smelled something sweet, something distinctly female.
And then, right then, when the curfew patrol was inches away from them, when they were nanoseconds away from being discovered and killed, he’d felt Melody relax. The tension among the other hostages and the SEALs could’ve been cut with a knife, but Melody had damn near fallen asleep in his arms.
He knew in that instant that she trusted him more completely than anyone had ever trusted him before. Her faith in him was strong enough to conquer her fear. Her life was in his hands, and she’d placed it there willingly, trusting that if she died it would be because there was no other way out.
And just like that, as they hid behind trash in one of the city’s back alleys, Cowboy’s entire life changed. He felt his pulse rate accelerate out of control, felt his body respond to her nearness.
He might’ve been able to dismiss it as mere sexual desire except that it happened over and over again—even when she wasn’t touching him. All this girl had to do was smile at him, and he got that same hot, possessive rush.
Cowboy knew he should have mentioned the way he was feeling to Joe Cat before they split into three smaller groups. But he didn’t. He didn’t want to risk Cat’s pulling him away from Melody. He wanted to make damn sure she got out of this armpit of a country alive. As much as he trusted his teammates, he knew the only way he’d be certain of that was to stay close, to take care of her himself.
With Harvard’s help.
As the sun climbed above the horizon, they sat for a moment in the growing warmth outside a shallow cave Harvard had found cut into a desolate outcropping of rocks.
Once they warmed up, they’d spend the daylight hours here, out of the sun and out of sight of anyone wandering the foothills. Come nightfall, they would set out again, heading steadily north.
“I’ll take the first watch,” Cowboy told Harvard.
Melody was sitting next to him, near the entrance to the cave, her head back, eyes closed, face lifted toward the warmth of the sun. He touched her arm lightly, ready to pass her his canteen, but she didn’t move. She was exhausted, but she hadn’t complained once, all night long.
“Maybe you should get her settled first,” Harvard said in a low voice.
“Am I suddenly not here?” Melody asked, opening her eyes and surprising them both.
Harvard laughed, a low, rich chuckle. “Sorry,” he said. “I thought you were asleep.”
“Where are we heading?” she asked. Her eyes were nearly the same shade of blue as the cloudless sky. “Up to the coast?” They flashed in Cowboy’s direction as he handed her the canteen.
As their fingers touched, he felt an instant connection, a flood of electricity. And he knew damn well she felt it, too.
She was covered with dust from the road, smeared with shoe polish and utterly bone weary. Yet at the same time, she managed to be the most beautiful woman Cowboy could ever remember seeing. Damn, he shouldn’t be feeling this way. After this was over, he would have to go in for a psychological review, work with the unit shrink and try to pinpoint what it was, exactly, that he’d done wrong. Find out when it was that he’d let her get under his skin…
Harvard nodded. “We’re going for the ocean.” He glanced at Cowboy. They hadn’t had much time to discuss their route. “I thought it would be easier to leave the country by boat.”
“Or plane, Senior Chief,” Cowboy interjected. “Get us home a whole hell of a lot faster.”
Harvard caught and held his gaze, and Cowboy knew the older man was thinking the same thing he was. They’d both studied a map of this country during the briefing. There was a major city directly between their current position and the ocean. According to the map, that city had an airfield. Maybe instead of skirting the city, they should get close enough to check it out.
“With any luck, it’ll be a military base,” Cowboy said aloud. “We’re the last people they’ll be expecting to show up there.”
Harvard nodded. “The best defense is a strong offense.”
“Do you two always communicate through non sequiturs?” Melody asked.
Harvard stood up. “Junior thinks we should steal a plane tonight, and crazy as it sounds, I agree. But right now I’ve got a combat nap scheduled.” He paused before going into the cave, turning back to Melody. “You’ve got dibs on whatever soft ground is in there, milady,” he said.
But she shook her head. “Thanks, but…I want to get warm first,” she told him. She glanced at Cowboy and a faint blush spread along her cheeks as if she realized how transparent she was. No one was fooled. It was clear she wanted to be out here with her own personal hero.
Cowboy felt it again. That hot rush of emotion.
Harvard paused just inside the cave. “Don’t let her fall asleep out here,” he instructed Cowboy. “And make sure you get your Texan butt in the shade before too long, too. I don’t want you two pigment-challenged types unable to move come dusk because of a sunburn.”
“Yes, Mother,” Cowboy droned.
“And wake me in four.” Harvard headed toward the back of the cave. “No more, no less.”
Cowboy looked at Melody and smiled. “Hell, I thought he’d never leave.”
She blushed again.
“You okay?” he asked, both wishing she wasn’t sitting quite so far away and glad as hell for the distance between them. God help him if he actually got her into his arms when it wasn’t a life-and-death situation.
“I wish I could wash my face,” she told him.
Cowboy shook his head in apology. “We’ve got to save the water I’ve got for drinking,” he told her.
“I know,” she said. “I just wish it, that’s all.”
The sun was warming the air considerably, and Cowboy loosened his robe and even unfastened the black combat vest he wore underneath.
Her next words surprised him. “I thought we’d be dead by now.”
“Tomorrow at this time, we’ll be on America-friendly soil.”
She shifted
