Honourable Intentions

Forcing him to fold himself into her tiny econo car would be silly and pointless. In fact, fighting him every step of the way could be more telling than just going with the flow, pretending they were still simply friends.

He opened the back door and tossed in the diaper bag. “And does the infant seat meet with your approval?”

“Let me see… .” She checked the belt, making sure he’d installed it properly.

“The air force trusts me with a B-52. I think you can trust me to follow instructions.”

“It’s my child’s safety. I have to be sure.” And she found nothing wrong.

Wow. It had taken her three hours to figure one of these out. She eased Max from the sling, her son so small in her hands, so perfect. Love and protectiveness welled up inside her—along with gratitude that Hank had gone to such trouble to make sure her baby had everything he needed.

Hank had to be exhausted, just back from overseas, then immediately on the road to see her. No wonder he needed the coffee. Her mouth watered at the thought of having a taste of something she’d been denied since getting pregnant with Max… .

Uh, coffee. She missed coffee and chocolate and spicy foods, things she gave up while breastfeeding.

“Gabrielle?” Hank stood in the open door, her beautiful historic city behind him.

Her adventure. She’d started out here with such plans for taking the world by storm, launching a powerful career in international banking. Now she just wanted to help her child get healthy.

“Right, let’s go before we’re late.”

She clicked Max in securely and thought about staying in back with him. But he was already asleep again and Hank was holding the passenger door open for her. Without another thought, she shuffled into the front, and Hank pulled out into the early morning traffic.

His GPS spoke softly. Of course he’d already plugged in the address for the hospital where Max would have his pre-admission blood work. Outside the car, people walked to work in business clothes. A mom pushed her kid in a stroller, passing by a homeless guy sleeping in a doorway. New Orleans was such a mix of history and wealth, poverty and decay. The city had looked different to her before her son was born. Her plans had looked different.

Hank’s phone chimed from where he’d placed it on the dash. He glanced at the LED screen and let it go to voice mail. It was the same phone she’d seen him playing with earlier.

“I wouldn’t have pegged you as the video game type.”

He glanced over with barely a half smile, so serious for a guy who’d been blasting digital bugs on her steps. “I went to a military high school. One of my roommates was a computer geek.”

“He got you hooked on games?”

“You could say so. His computer access was limited in school—conditions of not going to jail for breaking into the Department of Defense mainframe.”

Her eyes zipped to his phone. “How did I never know you attended a military high school? Or that you’re into video games?”

“You and I spent most of our time together keeping things light.”

They had always avoided more serious subjects, like where they’d gone to school and their family histories. Until that day she’d poured her heart out over her fight with Kevin. How he’d wanted her to move in and she’d wanted the space to finish pursuing her dreams. Kevin had been living his. She just wanted the same chance.

She’d stopped short of telling Hank everything the fight had been about, unable to bring herself to share intimate details about a forgotten condom. How she’d been frustrated about Kevin’s partying. The very playful attitude she’d originally been drawn to was beginning to pall. She was tired of always having to be the responsible one.

But God, she couldn’t break up with Kevin right before a deployment, especially not when she wasn’t even sure what she wanted. Talking to Hank, the harder she’d cried, the more she’d gasped, the more each breath hauled in the scent of him. Before she could think, she’d been kissing him, stunned as hell over the desire combusting inside her. She’d been attracted to him—sure—but she’d thought she had that under control. She was focused. She and Kevin were a good match. They balanced each other out, his humor lightening her driven nature. She didn’t need more intensity in her life.

Except when Hank had focused all that intensity on her, she’d been damn near helpless to resist.

Her hands fisted until her gnawed-down nails bit into her palms. Their past time together was better left alone, especially today with everything he’d said last night still so fresh and raw. “Back to the DoD hacker high school roommate?”

“Once he turned twenty-one and got free of his cyber watchdog, he set up a small company that developed cutting-edge software. Computer games. Mostly save-the-world type of stuff.”

“What game were you playing this morning?” she asked, intrigued by this side of Hank she hadn’t guessed at before. Had he never seemed lighthearted around Kevin because Hank had been relegated to the role of mature grown-up? Had she lost some of her lightheartedness around her fiancé for the same reason, playing less rather than more around him? “Maybe I’ve heard of it.”

“It isn’t out yet.”

“How nice of your friend to let you test run his material.”

“I own part of the company.”

That caught her up short.

“Really? Yet another thing I didn’t know about you.” Did his influence stretch to every niche of the stratosphere—political, financial, military and now even the geek-squad world, as well?

“I’m a silent partner, and I prefer to keep it that way. I’ve got enough notoriety hanging around my neck thanks to my family.”

“Why this investment, though?” She wished she could see his eyes, read what he was thinking as her impression of him altered. “You’re not a games kind of guy.”

“But I’m a practical guy.” He stopped smoothly at a red light. “The venture made good business sense.”

The MBA part of her applauded him, although she suspected something else was at work here. “You’re all about the military, not business. You don’t care about money. You never have.” Her more frugal upbringing applauded that, as well. “You risked the money to help a friend, and it just turned out well for you.”

“When did you swap from a business major to psychology?” He slid his sunglasses down his nose, his eyes laser sharp as he looked over the top of the lenses at her.