Seek and Destroy (15 page)

    And maybe pigs would suddenly sprout feathery wings and fly.

    Wonderful. He refused to regret his decision to not have sex with her, no matter how she looked at him with those captivating eyes. And he would not give in to her plan to bring him back to NASSD. He had a different life now. A life full of excitement. A different kind of excitement, but excitement nonetheless.

    
Keep talking, Snyder. Maybe you'll convince yourself of that.

    They continued to walk along the surf. He refused to allow the slight hitch in his resistance to take anchor. Going back to NASSD would be a mistake. Back to long, thankless hours. Back to risking his life every day. Back to...

    Doing exactly what he loved, what he still craved to do.

    "NASSD made a huge mistake, David."

    He slowed and shot her a careful look. "How so?"

    "You are a good agent. A
great
agent. For them to simply let you go..." She trailed off, kept her eyes on the surf as she thought of her next words. "I don't see how they could do it."

    "You and me, both." He admitted aloud for the first time since leaving the agency. How
could
they do it? He'd never given them any reason to question his loyalty to the agency, to his country. One shot, one goddamn bullet and they didn't even hesitate on giving him the boot.

    "I sure would love to know," she mentioned, her eyes still on the surf. "If I were the one they kicked out."

    He knew what she played at. No way would he let her get into his head. No way. "It's too late."

    Charis stopped and turned to him. When he shoved his hands back deep in his pockets and planted his feet in the sand, she walked up to him, placed her hand on his arm. The connection shot electricity up his arm and down to his annoying, painful hard-on. Her eyes searched his. "It's never too late, David."

    He loved the way his name fell from her lips, loved the way she scraped her teeth across her lower lip when she said it. Staring at her lips, he waited for her to say something else. Anything to watch the way those sultry lips moved when she talked.

    She must have sensed his defenses weakening. Without hesitation, she pushed him another step. "I'll be right there with you."

    Her words seemed to lift some of the weight off his heart. Maybe if... No! Stop it. She would not talk him into returning. As her eyes softened and continued to search his, his resistance to her started to crumble. Oh damn.

    "I don't need you, or anyone, to fight my battles."

    She spiked her brow and gave him a knowing smile. "Well, someone has to."

    He stiffened, stepped back. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

    "You ran," she stated, not the least bit offended by his words. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you aren't willing to go back and fight."

    "I did not run."

    "Really?"

    God
damn
it. Is that what she thought of him? "I do not run from my battles."

    She grasped both his shoulders. Hard. "Then go back and fight. Don't let them beat you. If you don't do something about it, then they win. They'll just do this to another great agent and you'll be left with wondering whether you could have made a difference."

    "They did
not
-" He stopped. Holy shit. She did it. She'd gotten into his head, damn near convinced him to jump on the next flight back to Seattle and tell Weber exactly what he thought of being tossed out of NASSD without so much as a
thanks-for-the-memories
.

    David started to laugh. It stemmed from deep inside his chest, reverberating through his heart, filling the emptiness with a warmth he hadn't felt in years. "You are good."

    She smiled. "Thank you."

    "No," he insisted. "You aren't just good. You are really good. You almost had me."

    "Then I'm not good enough." With that, she gave him a wink.

    He laughed again. Damn, she was fun.

    

    

    "Tell me more about your family."

    Charis turned and started walking along the surf again. As if she had some invisible pull on him, he fell along beside her, actually wanted to know more about her family. "My mom is the smartest person I know. Word to the wise-never play Trivial Pursuit with her. You will lose miserably. She has no problem embarrassing the heck out of you."

    "Point taken." David felt completely baffled as to how she had found a way into his brain, into his heart. He didn't remember opening either one up to her. Hell, they'd only shared a single kiss. An unbelievable kiss, but a kiss nonetheless.

    "My dad runs the ICE agency."

    He nodded. He knew. "Malcolm McKoy."

    "He wants me close. He doesn't know when to let go. I'm a full-grown woman, for crying out loud."

    You can say that again. He bit his tongue. Something he'd learned, not only as a NASSD agent but also as a bartender, was to listen. The kind of things people with loose lips told a person willing to listen would sink ships. And at the rate this woman talked, she'd have the entire naval fleet at the bottom of the ocean within the hour.

    "He didn't make Bailey or Kaylee follow into the family business. Nope. I'm the only female McKoy in ICE."

    "Who are Bailey and Kaylee?"

    "Those are my little sisters. They just graduated from the University of Montana. Bailey with a computer science degree like me, Kaylee with a fine arts degree. They couldn't be more different. I mean, they may look alike, but they are way opposite in terms of who they are. Bailey wants into ICE. Kaylee wants nothing to do with it. I hate to say it, but she is more like someone who'd be in NASSD."

    He listened and walked along side her, taking it all in. The woman barely took a breath between stories.

    "My brother, Chris, who used to be ICE, as you know, is on assignment overseas. He wouldn't tell me where, only that he's working logistics for some special op over there."

    Interesting. He stored that in his mental bank for later. "What about your other brothers?"

    "Logan is next in line. He's still in ICE, but is watching Chris' progress in NASSD to see if that's what he wants to do. He's a sharpshooter, even though there isn't much use for one in ICE. It does come in handy on certain missions to have him watching your back." she boasted proudly. "My dad says Logan can take out a gnat from a thousand yards. In high wind, no less."

    He wouldn't be able to see a
man
from a thousand yards, let alone a
gnat
. And he wasn't even going to touch the comment about the wind. No doubt her dad and brothers found it amusing Charis would believe such a story.

    "Then you have Mitchell. Mitch, actually. You call him Mitchell and he won't even answer. Trust me. He's the sheriff of Rock Creek County." She paused and looked up at him. "Ever heard of it?"

    "No."

    She shrugged. "That's okay. No one has, unless you either live in it or nearby. It's in Montana."

    That would explain why he'd never heard of it.

    "Then there's Seth. He's the youngest of the boys. He's serving his last year as an intern right now. Isn't that great? We are going to have a doctor in the family."

    "I thought you said you were a doctor?"

    "I am, but like I already told you, I'm not a medical doctor. He's going to be a
doctor
doctor, you know?"

    Amazing. She just kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny of gabbing. How did anyone ever carry a conversation with this woman? She never shut up. God help them all if the enemy ever captured her. She'd tell them every secret she knew, and probably make up a few.

    "Then you have my baby sisters, which I already told you about. So, that's it. Me, Chris, Logan, Mitch, Seth, Bailey, and Kaylee."

    He couldn't believe how much personal information this woman had just spilled in a matter of minutes. He had enough on her and her family to last a while. It was time for her to talk about NASSD and why they wanted him back.

    "Tell me about your conversation with Weber."

    "Which one?"

    "The one who sent you."

    "That would be JT. She's really nice. Don't you think she's really nice?"

    "What I think doesn't matter," he answered curtly. He needed to keep her focused on the conversation and not the personalities of the other agents. "How did she contact you?"

    "My cell." She pulled it out of her cleavage to show him. David blinked in disbelief. He didn't know women actually stored things in there. What else did she keep in there? His fingers itched to find out, trace her nipples until they peaked. He blew out a breath as she replaced her phone back into her cleavage and danced in the surf. "What's your favorite season?"

    This woman's mind bounced all over the place. "Uh...summer. Now, about the call-"

    "Not mine. I love the winter. Snow. Lots of it."

    He stopped. "You love the beach. Yet you love the snow?"

    "It's why I live in Montana," she replied, that smile causing her eyes to dance in the moonlight. "In the middle of winter, you usually get snowed in once or twice a year. I learned to love it. It was either that or hate it, and with so much of it year after year, I had no choice. I'm weird, right?"

    More than anyone he'd ever met. He pulled her to a stop in front of him and eyed her mouth. "You could say that."

    Charis licked her lips and met his eyes. He lowered his lips down to hers, searching for that connection they'd shared in the elevator. She allowed him entrance once more.

    This kiss lit a fire he didn't remember ever feeling. Their tongues danced, twisting against each other as they starved to taste the other. The water started to dance around their ankles, but he didn't care. This woman, right here, kissing him back with such unbridled passion, was all that mattered. He tested her, slowly running his hands over her bare shoulders, down to her waist. She felt amazing. Pulling her even closer to him, he finally left her lips to trace the lines of her jaw with his tongue.

    She kept coming up with new ways to surprise him, this time by slipping her hands under his shirt and weaving them into his chest hair. Lifting her chin to give him access, he dove for her neck and nibbled his way up to the softness of her lobe.

    His erection throbbed and he rubbed it up against her hip. She let out a slight whimper and ground her hips in return. He found her mouth again, and the passion of their kiss deepened. As he ran his hands up and down her shoulders, he felt the goose bumps wash across her. Moving one arm behind her neck and weaving his fingers in her hair, tracing the recesses of her mouth with his tongue, he moved the other hand down her side, barely brushing the roundness of her breast. He played with the curve of her hip before bringing his hand back up to finally tease a waiting nipple.

    "You two newlyweds?"

    David brought his head up and finally pulled in a breath. It took him a second to bring some blood back into his brain since all the blood in his body went to power his rock hard arousal. Charis buried her face against his chest, letting out a slight giggle that brought a smile to his face. He glanced over his shoulder at the intruder. The old man smiled at them, the dog at the end of the leash in his hand eagerly pulling at him to keep moving.

    Oh Christ. Talk about a reality check. Immediately his mind slammed into the memory of Dan Weber when he met JT. That man had nearly blown the op they were on for that woman, and they both ended up getting pretty banged up in the process. David didn't want to make the same error in judgment.

    He shook his head, careful not to look at Charis. "No. Thanks."
Thank you for stopping me from making the biggest fucking mistake of my life.

    Literally.

    The old man nodded politely and allowed his dog to pull him away. Reluctantly, David sighed and turned to see Charis staring up at him with those piercing eyes, the mix of emotions so apparent he felt the punch straight to his gut.

    He couldn't do it. Something about her made him lose control as soon as he touched her. And he needed to show some control. He ached to touch her again, taste her. He wanted her more than he'd ever wanted another woman. His dick twitched in agreement.

    The risk was too great. He'd lose himself in her, if even for one night. He couldn't allow emotions to get in the way. With every kiss, every smile, she pulled him deeper and deeper. If they took this any further, if he experienced the way her body responded to him the way he knew it would, he'd be lost. "This needs to stop. Now."

    "What needs to stop?"

    "This. Right here." He motioned to the fact her arms were still inside his shirt. Pushing away, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and took several steps back to try and clear his head. "We can't do this."

    She looked up at him as her eyes clouded over with emotion. "I don't understand. You said-"

    "I know what I said," he barked back sharply. He softened his voice when he saw the reaction she had to his harsh tone. "But you are on an op. Hell, I'm your mark. This breaks all the rules."

    It broke the mother of all rules.
Don't get emotionally tied to your target.
It was the cardinal rule in his book as well. He'd spent years perfecting that rule. One look, one touch from a snappy brunette and he'd already broken the one rule he'd lived by, survived by.

    "You know, all my life I've lived by somebody else's rules. No more. I don't care." She brazenly stepped toward him.

    "I do." He turned away, shaking his head, feeling an inch tall for cutting her off like this. The fact that he did care, more than he should, irritated the shit out of him. "I don't want you to end up hating me."