Born of Passion

“So, what about your family? You have brothers or sisters?” he asked when they were in her car and headed toward the nearby military base.

The yearning that never seemed to be completely still echoed once again inside her. “No brothers, no sisters. No immediate family since my father died three years ago.”

“What about your mother?” he asked.

“She died when I was born.”

“That’s tough.”

Joanna said nothing, although she wanted to tell him that the loss of her mother hadn’t been half as tough as life with her military father.

She’d spent her childhood being pulled from base to base and raised by hired help, some good, some not so good, and none of them family.

The end result was that she had no place to call home…no connection to anyone else in the world. The night she had met Kyle and slept with him, she had been driven by an overwhelming need to connect, and “connecting” with him had been frighteningly wonderful—until she’d realized he was military, just like her father.

“That night I first met you, I just assumed you were a local woman. Your coloring—your features—are of the locals.”

She felt his gaze warming her face and wondered why, despite knowing he was absolutely wrong for her and there would never, ever be any future relationship between them, she remained so acutely aware of him, so intimately drawn to him.

“My mother was a native of Montebello. My father met her while he was based here.”

“Your father was in the military?”

“Army.” She offered nothing else and searched her mind for a way to change the topic. “I understand there are ten pilots comprising your team for this mission.”

He nodded and directed his gaze forward out the window, where the military base had come into view. “Two of the men will aid you in ground support, the rest of us will take eight-hour shifts in the air, with time on the ground only for refueling. We’ll refuel in shifts as well, so there is always at least one plane flying.”

They stopped speaking as she pulled up to the guard shack in front of the military base. Fifteen minutes later, she sat in the back of a small room that had been transformed into an operation center for their “unofficial” mission. State-of-the-art equipment lined one wall, complete with radar screens and high-tech computers.

She watched and listened as Kyle addressed the men seated before him, explaining what their jobs would be and the shifts that would be taken.

It was impossible not to notice the authority and respect Kyle commanded from the men. He wore his casual clothes as elegantly as he wore his uniform, and an appealing self-confidence oozed from his very pores.

He’s the father of my baby. The realization struck her like a startling blow to the chest. Until this moment, the baby inside her had been something of a dream, not quite real to her. But now the reality exploded inside her.

She was pregnant, and in approximately six months time she would have a baby—Kyle’s baby. Her hand moved to her abdomen, as if to stroke the life that grew within.

The child she carried would get half of its DNA from the man before her. And Kyle had no idea that on the night they had shared, he’d given her a piece of himself that could never be retrieved, a piece that would be a part of her life for the rest of her days.

What would he do if he knew? There was no way she could guess what his reaction would be if he discovered that he was the father of the baby.

She knew how he kissed, how his skin felt beneath her fingertips. She knew how his heart felt racing against her own, how his breathing quickened with each stroke of her skin. But all of that intimate knowledge told her nothing about how he might react to the news of his pending fatherhood.

Not that she intended to tell him. No way! Again her hand touched her stomach and a maelstrom of love cascaded through her. This was her baby, and the child would be the family she never had.

She knew all she needed to know about Kyle Ramsey. He was first and foremost a military man, a rootless bachelor who thrived on adventure, a man who probably had a woman in every port.

Kyle was a man just like her father, who had pulled her from post to post, never staying in one place long enough for her to feel any stability or sense of home. All he’d wanted to do was fight wars. He didn’t want a family or roots.

For 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.