She turned away, but he stepped toward her and caught her arm. “Annie, wait. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, but I can’t tell you what you want to know.”
Hurt her feelings? She should thank him. Now she wasn’t stinging; she was furious. “You can’t tell me anything about yourself?”
He dropped her hand. “It’s better that way.”
“Better for who?”
He didn’t answer. She stared into his eyes, looking for any crack, any sign of weakness. She should have known better. “Just tell me, is it something illegal?”
He couldn’t be a drug smuggler... please.
He shook his head. “It’s not.”
“But you are in some kind of trouble?”
Apparently she’d gotten as much out of him as she was going to get. He ignored the questions and went on with the business of getting the place habitable. She watched as he retrieved his backpack and started pulling out items and setting them on the table. Not a Boy Scout, huh? He certainly came prepared.
It took her a moment, but eventually she figured it out. She sucked in a breath through lungs that were suddenly on fire. The back-off attitude and scruffy appearance had prevented her from seeing it sooner. And he didn’t have the usual swagger and cockiness, but after seeing him in action today, sheknew. “Army, navy, air force, or marines?” she asked.
Fourteen
Dean hoped to hell she hadn’t seen him flinch. But when he turned around, he could see he hadn’t been that lucky.
He cursed under his breath. How the hell had she guessed? He’d taken special care not to walk, talk, or act like military.
She answered his question with a knowing look. “My father was a Ranger—and later Delta. I recognize the signs. Cool under pressure. Capable. Badass. Not to mention that you have obviously been trained in hand-to-hand combat and survival skills.”
Dean’s instincts had been dead-on. Being with her was averybad idea.
Her father was Delta? What kind of shit luck was that? Dean would have to be way more careful. Guessing that he was military was bad enough—he didn’t want her any closer than that.
Realizing that he needed to cut his losses before it got worse, he said, “I was in the navy for a while.”
Technically that was correct. Retiarius Platoon didn’t exist anymore. And neither did he.
His confirmation seemed to seal something for her. Whatever interest there might have been sparking in her eyes—and other places a little while ago—died.
He still couldn’t believe she’d propositioned him like that.It had been a long time since anyone called him on something—and certainly never with an effort to get him off. Not that he hadn’t deserved it. But what the hell could he have done? Those big wounded eyes had been eating away at him. Maleficent was easier to take than Bambi.
But neither prepared him for the cool flatness of indifference. It wasn’t hard to guess the reason for her sudden change of heart.
He should be glad. Her not being interested in him made it a lot easier to fight the attraction between them until he could get her someplace safe. But he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “Don’t worry. You don’t need to say anything more. I know exactly how you feel about the military. We’re all a bunch of programmed machines, right?”
He didn’t quite erase all the bitterness from his voice.
She had the decency to blush. “You heard me?”
“The entire bar heard you.”
Her flush of embarrassment deepened. But she didn’t shy away from the taunt. She tilted her chin up to look at him. “I have my reasons.”
“I’m sure you do.” But he didn’t need to hear them. He picked up one of the buckets from under the sink and turned toward the door. “I’m going to see about getting us some water.” It was almost dark.
“Dan, wait.”
He was surprised how much he hated the sound of the false name coming from her lips. It was wrong, but he couldn’t make it right.
He stiffened as he felt her hand on his arm. He could feel his heart beating strangely in his chest. It felt out of place. Higher and too close to his ribs.
