The Daredevil

This was too much. She was wound tighter than a top, while he was sprawled in his chair, one hand resting comfortably around the ice-cold beer, the other slung over the back.

She should tell him.

“How’s the General?”

Rina cocked her head to the side, wondering where this was going, and answered slowly, “Great.”

He leaned forward, playing with the curling edge of the beer bottle label, his eyes staring straight and true into her own. Blue, deep, dark and dangerous.

“He still pulling your strings?”

The familiar anger welled up inside. She should be used to it by now, the automatic assumption that she’d gotten something—everything—simply because of who her father was.

She’d had to deal with it when she entered the academy, taking more shit than any of the other cadets just because of who she was. They’d wanted to break her. To have her go crying home to daddy. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. With each assignment, including the one to the Thunderbirds, she’d heard the whispers behind her back. “Oh, she’s the General’s daughter.”

Years of experience had hardened her to the reaction but, for some reason, coming from Chase…it hurt. But why should she expect more from him than everyone else? She could count the things she knew about him on one hand. His middle name was Edward and he could make her body hum with desire faster than should be legal.

“No one pulls my strings, least of all my father.”

“I think we both know that isn’t true. If it were we’d have had this conversation about seven years ago.”

Why was he baiting her? Why was he doing this? Pushing her chair back from the table, Rina grabbed her purse. “This was a mistake.”

“Sabrina.”

“Don’t call me that.” She bit the words out as she stalked from the bar.

His voice followed her from the restaurant, through the ever-present casino and into the falling darkness—or as dark as it could get with megawatt bulbs blaring from every direction.

She ignored him, melting into the crowd of people on the sidewalk, blending in to the ebb and flow around her.

That had not gone well. She walked through the throng for several moments, pushing unseeingly against the people and things in her way. After a couple minutes the anger finally peaked inside her and her steps slowed to something resembling normal. Then came the disappointment at losing control of her temper. She didn’t do it often, for not much pushed her to the edge, but Chase seemed to have a knack for stirring her emotions.

Of course, if she was honest with herself she’d admit that she’d used the anger as an escape. She wasn’t ready to tell him. Didn’t know how to tell him.

“Sabrina.” His voice was soft. And close. It touched her moments before his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her out of the flowing crowd.

One minute she’d been walking down the sidewalk, the next she was pressed against a cool stone building. How had that happened?

“I’m sorry.”

The heat of his hand seeped into the skin where it rested at her hip. “No, I,” she said, and swallowed hard, trying to tamp down the firestorm building inside her. “I’m touchy when it comes to my career and my father. I’m sorry.”

“I’ve been on edge lately, but that’s no excuse for purposely baiting you.” A sad smile pulled at the corners of his lips. His bright blue eyes flashed, but she couldn’t tell if it was from the lights around them or from some internal source she couldn’t understand. It only lasted for a moment before it was gone, and his normal cocky facade replaced the surprisingly unsettled expression.

“If I promise never to mention the General again, will you come back inside with me?”

Chase looked down into her eyes, his body holding her hostage against the unforgiving side of the building. She’d never known anyone else who, with a single look, could convince the people around him that he was all innocence and sincerity—all while hiding pure devilment underneath.

Normally she was immune to macho charisma and oozing flyboy sexuality. But she couldn’t seem to remain unaffected by Chase. Her nose wrinkled. No matter how much she wanted to.

His finger slid from the center of her forehead down between her eyes to the tip of her nose, smoothing the peaks and valleys as he went.

“That’s kinda cute. I don’t remember that from a year ago.”

“I don’t remember much reason to frown.”

“But you do remember.” He leaned closer into her space, his teasing smile fading away, along with the sounds of a city that never slept.

She could only nod, his eyes holding her hostage.

His hand lifted to her face again, only this time his touch was far from playful. The pad of his finger, ridged and rough, brushed the corner of her lips. He smoothed a path from edge to edge across the closed seam of her mouth. In the center he pushed gently against it, the tip of his finger slipping barely inside.

That simple sensation shouldn’t have mattered, sure as hell shouldn’t have sent her brain into overload. But Rina could feel her body responding in a way she hadn’t felt in eleven long months. The center of her sex grew damp and tingled. Her stomach turned over, wanting more. She pressed the tiny tip of her tongue against his finger and lost herself in a groan of pure pleasure.

His eyes darkened as he reached for her, crushing her between the weight of his body and the merciless wall at her back.

She could feel him, every breath, every muscle, every bone, every vibration. Her head dropped back, too heavy to hold up anymore. But she didn’t have to. He did it for her, snugging one palm to her nape, the other to the curve of her throat.

His mouth claimed her with a passion she’d convinced herself had been part of a fuzzy dream. It couldn’t have been real. The way she’d felt couldn’t be real. The woman she’d been with him couldn’t be real. Couldn’t be her.

Her back arched into him, seeking more, giving him everything he asked for without hesitation or thought. His tongue thrust inside, filling her up before his mouth moved lower.

Her eyes wanted to close, wanted to surrender to anything and everything Chase wanted to give her. But she wouldn’t let them, couldn’t, although for the life of her she could not remember why. She focused on the skyline above her and he nibbled at the delicate center of her throat.

A light revolved against the darkness, coming and going in a throbbing pulse that was echoed deep at her core.

No. No, this wasn’t right.

“Stop.” The word popped out of her mouth on a sigh that held not a wisp of conviction. But Chase immediately took a step away, opening a space between them that she desperately needed.

Rina looked up into his face, ruggedly handsome and stamped with an unmistakable hunger she recognized as the twin to the beast roaring inside her.

He wasn’t calm. He wasn’t collected. And he sure as hell wasn’t charming as his chest rose and fell with the same labored pattern as her own. Wild was what she’d have called him, if she’d had brain power enough to think of a label.

“Too fast.” The words whispered up from somewhere deep inside her.

“Not fast enough.”

“Slow down, cowboy. I have no intention of sleeping with you.”

“You may not intend to but you’re going to anyway.”

Now that was the cocky pilot she knew.

“I don’t think so. Unlike men, we women tend to think with our brains instead of our anatomy. I won’t deny that I’m still sexually attracted to you, flyboy, but trust me, I can resist.”

His eyelids lowered to half-mast, covering glittering sapphire eyes. His lips turned up at the corners in a mocking imitation of his full-blown smile.