Now? He was practically Mr. Alpha GQ.
She hadn’t missed dating. Or sex. Not with how busy she’d been trying to keep what remained of her family together and search for Micah. When she needed a release, well…she could take care of herself.
But standing this close to him—as tired as she was—her mind wandered briefly. If she hadn’t left so suddenly, would they have become friends? Would they have dated once they’d both been civilians again?
“Dana?” Terry reached for her, his strong fingers curling around her wrist and holding tight. “Did you hear me?”
“Sorry. No. I…” She tried to pull her hand back, but he wouldn’t let go. “I’ve been up since 6:00 a.m. Worked a shift at Trenton Memorial until two and then came straight here. I changed in the car.”
“Shit, sweetheart. Please don’t try to drive back tonight.” He was so close now she could smell his cologne, and her resolve weakened. “Stay with me. Nothin’ has to happen. I’ll sleep on the sofa, and I’ll drive you home in the mornin’.”
He was so earnest, and she wanted so very much to stay with him. Forever if he’d have her. At her nod, Terry pulled her against him and Dana relaxed into his embrace. For tonight, at least, she wouldn’t be alone.
6
Terry
He kept Dana tucked under his arm all the way back to his room. She’d retrieved a small backpack from her sedan—an old Mazda that had seen better days—and called her sister to let her know she wouldn’t be home until the next day.
As he slid his key into the lock, nerves tightened in his gut. What were they supposed to do now?
“Did you eat?” he asked after flipping the deadbolt and loosening his bowtie.
“McDonalds.” Dana’s cheeks turned a bright red, and she wandered over to the window that looked out over the Potomac. “I miss D.C. Especially at night. My apartment didn’t have a view, but the building had this amazing rooftop deck.”
Her sadness stirred a primal need to protect, and Terry approached slowly. “When did you move?”
“A week after I got back. Laura was a mess, and I was worried about her being on her own. Once she lost her job, we needed somewhere…cheap.” She turned, scanned the room, and stifled a yawn. Terry had scored a mini-suite, and while there was no door between the bedroom and the small sitting area, a screen would give Dana some privacy.
“You’re exhausted. Give me five minutes in the bathroom to change and we can both get some sleep.”
Dana watched him dig through his duffel bag for a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt. He’d planned to stay for two nights, and pulled out a second t-shirt, holding it out for her. “If you need it…”
“Thanks.”
Before he shut the bathroom door, Dana brought the plain blue shirt to her nose and inhaled deeply. The gesture made him smile. Maybe she had thought about him as much as he’d thought about her.
Stripping down to his briefs, he stared at his reflection in the mirror. Dana had seen him at his worst. Bloody, half-dead…hell, he’d been on a ventilator for more than two days. But the reality of his life, of his mangled leg, his prosthetic, the challenges he dealt with every day? That was something else altogether.
Screw it. He wanted to be a permanent fixture in Dana’s life, and that meant she’d see his prosthetic eventually. In his t-shirt and shorts, he strode back into the room to find Dana standing by the bed. Her dress was draped over the chair, and though he’d been right—his shirt was almost a dress on her—the sight of her legs made all the blood in his body head south.
He stifled his groan, calling on all of his strength to keep control of his dick. “I’ll be on the couch. Use anything of mine you need in the bathroom. There’s a hotel toothbrush still in the wrapper on the counter.”
The idea of her using his soap, his shampoo…didn’t help with his arousal, but the way she kept her hands clenched at her sides sobered him quickly.
“Dana…talk to me, sweetheart.” He ached to hold her, but when he took a step closer, her shoulders hiked up to her ears. “Fuck me. Now that I’ve found you again, I want to know everything about you. We couldn’t be together when we were in the Army. Not the way I wanted—and thought you did too—but we can now.”
A tear glistened in her eye until she swiped it away. Her words, when they came, were so soft, he had to strain to hear. “Not tonight, Terry. Please. Not…like this.” She tugged at the t-shirt like she wished it reached all the way to her toes, and he nodded.
“Not tonight. But soon. Promise me you’ll at least consider it?” Reaching up to drag a knuckle along her cheek, he relished the way she leaned into his touch.
“Okay,” she said. It was enough. For tonight at least, it was enough.
He waited until she’d slipped into bed and turned out the light before he sat down on the couch to remove his prosthetic. He’d been lucky. The above-the-knee amputation had healed well—and quickly—and getting used to the new leg had only taken him a few months once he’d been back in the United States.
Removing the outer sleeve that held everything in place, he pulled at the inner sock to break the suction, then carefully set his leg on the coffee table in front of him. The inner compression layer was always a bitch to roll off his stump, but once he removed it, he sighed with relief as the cool air in the room soothed the reddened skin. One of the other vets at the prosthetic center had been a runner before she’d lost both legs and likened removing her prosthetics at the end of the day to taking off her sports bra at the end of a workout. Sweet relief, she’d called it.
When he was home, he often used a set of crutches to get around at the end of the day, but carrying them around while traveling was a headache, so if he had to get up at all tonight, he’d be hopping around like an idiot and probably wake Dana.
