The Right Stuff

The morning sun peeped behind a cloud, cloaking her face one half in shadow, the other in light, illuminating the dichotomy that was Taylor Milton. On the one hand constant, on the other enigmatic and changeable. Daniel peered into her eyes, glimpsing something melancholy lurking there.

Old memories, heartfelt feelings—both happy and sorrowful—shimmered between them like heat waves off asphalt, thin, fragile, elusive as snow in the desert.

A chord was struck, only for a whisper of a second. But it was enough to pull the breath from their lungs in a synchronized exhale.

He focused on her mouth. A mouth he yearned to kiss. A mouth that still called to him in the dark recesses of dreams he hadn’t known he’d dreamed. He moved toward her. Not thinking, just longing, craving, wanting.

She didn’t step back.

Daniel never took his eyes off her face. It felt so natural for him to kiss her. To pull her into his arms, rekindle their past, fan the sparks, make a new one.

He stepped forward, closing the small gap. All at once, he realized their lips were almost touching. She didn’t flinch. She seemed as mesmerized as he.

Knock it off, Corben, this is completely unprofessional.

And yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He didn’t want to stop himself. What was he trying to prove? That he could intimidate her?

Not cool.

Daniel thought he’d grown beyond his resentment over the way Taylor had broken things off with him. He was disturbed to discover he had not. He thought of himself as a rational man, but around her, he felt…what did he feel? Irrational? Fevered? Out of control?

A miserable combination of all three, he concluded.

For the first time, he fully understood why his parents hadn’t liked her. Taylor didn’t play by the rules and both medicine and the military were all about rules. She was rebellious and opinionated and imaginative and creative. She blazed her path and didn’t care what anyone thought.

And the hell of it was Daniel had loved her for all those things.

The heat of her skin radiated outward, zapped into him. It was all he could do not to act on his impulses and take her right there in the parking lot.

She flicked out her tongue, tracing the pink tip over her moist lips. He knew it was an innocent gesture born of nervousness, but it had the same effect as if it had been carefully calculated. His gut squeezed and his cock hardened. The unexpectedness of his desires scared the hell out of him. Like it or not, he still cared for her.

Dammit. He did not want to care for her. He could not. Should not. Would not.

Her eyes widened again and she tucked her elbows close to her sides. Suddenly, she looked utterly vulnerable. As if she would shatter like fragile glass if he were to touch her. Daniel could read his own fears reflected in her eyes. They were both unsettled by a chemistry that time had not erased.

They stared into each other with a mix of stunned surprise, affection and stark sexual need.

It was still there. The old flare. The embers just waiting to be stoked. All this time and he still burned for her in a way that shook him to his core.

Fate had brought them back together again.

Reunited them.

Reunited.

The idea felt both wonderful and treacherous. Wonderful because there was the hint of hope, treacherous because it was all an illusion. A pang of longing pierced him.

That’s when Daniel knew that his promotion was in serious jeopardy.

“SO YOU’RE my escort,” Taylor said with all the cool aplomb and calm control she could muster, hiding the fact that inside she was a quivering mass of nerves and anxiety.

“Feels like old times, huh?” Daniel said, his voice loaded with sarcasm.

One look at him and she was jettisoned back thirteen years. With the passing of time, she’d told herself she’d embellished their attraction. That it was nothing more than the fuzzy sweet memory of a love that used to be. But here, now, feeling the raw, aching chemistry again, she realized she’d actually downplayed it.

What was she going to do?

She’d never bargained on running across him, on feeling like this; for a split second she thought perhaps Uncle Chuck was playing matchmaker, hooking her up with her old college sweetheart. Then she remembered that General Miller knew nothing about her youthful affair with Daniel. She’d never even told her father of their liaison because it had been too new, too romantic to share with a man who viewed love as something that had to be sacrificed. This hook-up was sheer, miserable bad luck.

Or destiny, whispered a voice in the back of her mind.

“It’s my duty to show you around,” he replied.

She could tell from the sharp-edged light in his eyes and his pointed tone of voice that duty was not the word he really wanted to use. The military had disciplined him to hold his tongue. Not that he’d ever been great at expressing his feelings. Typical strong, silent type.

But Taylor was a Milton born and bred. She could hide her real emotions just as well as he could. It was the one thing they had in common.

But hiding her feelings took a toll.

What she yearned to do was fling herself into his arms, tell him just how stupid she’d been to send him away all those years ago. Of course, she didn’t do that, instead, she called him on it. “You disapprove of my being here.”

“Patrick is a restricted military base.”

“Aren’t all military bases restricted?”

“Civilians shouldn’t be allowed to go running around unchecked.” His chin hardened.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m checked. You’re here to check me.”

“You’re here because you’re throwing money at General Miller’s political campaign, that’s it.”

“And that’s bad because…?”

“Not everyone has your wealth and privilege. Not everyone has pockets big enough to support their whims.”

That irritated her. “My business is not a whim.”

He said nothing, just scrutinized her with those stalwart blue eyes that shook her up.

Taylor forced a smile. She refused to let him rattle her. “So, tell me all about Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Daniel Corben. I’m assuming you’re married. Got a big brood of kids.”

“No wife, no children.” Daniel shook his head and her foolish, foolish heart soared.

“Oh,” she said, struggling to sound neutral, as if she didn’t care. But damn if she didn’t sound hopeful to her own ears. She felt hopeful, too. Why should she be hopeful when he’d made it clear he didn’t want her here?

Stop it. There’s a good reason you broke up with him.

But for the life of her—in that moment as her eyes drank him in—she couldn’t remember what it was, why she’d lied to him and told him their love affair had been nothing more than a fling. Why she’d walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to her.