She shrugged. “With all the bases around here, we sometimes get military guys in here.”
Colt had lost interest and would have eased her off his lap to resume playing pool if he hadn’t looked across the room and seen something that made his entire body—and everything inside it—still.
Fuck me.
He must have said it aloud, as the woman on his lap laughed and said something that sounded like “you sure don’t waste time,” but he wasn’t really paying attention. His focus was on the woman who’d just walked into the bar and was standing there staring at him, completely oblivious to the fact that the rest of the bar was doing the same thing to her.
But Kate had always been oblivious to the effect she had on those around her—especially men. It had been part of her charm. And part of what had drawn him to her, since God knew she was pretty much the opposite of the kind of woman he’d ever thought to marry. Not that he’d really ever thought he’d marry.
She couldn’t have looked more out of place if she tried. The first time he’d seen her he’d had the same thought as he had right then:What the hell is she doing here?
Before he’d moved to the “Special Assignments” department of Task Force Tier One—the secret unit within JSOC that was nicknamed CAD (as in control alt delete)—he’d been chief of SEAL Team Nine. They’d been downrange at a shithole forward operating base in Khost,Afghanistan. He and the guys were sitting around shooting the shit while waiting for a CIA briefing from some new hotshot analyst, and in walks this icy blonde in a fucking skirt and heels, looking sexy as hell and pretty much like a girlie tropical frozen drink to a bunch of guys who’d been dying of thirst in a desert. He was sure he wasn’t the only one fighting off wood just looking at her.
To defuse the tension, he’d made some comment to the guys that she’d overheard. He couldn’t remember exactly what he’d said, but it had been along the lines of what the fuck was CIA Barbie doing here? He’d never forget her reply—or the way those icy blue eyes had looked down at him. “Trying to help you do your job,Chief, as you sure as heck haven’t gotten it done so far.”
Heck? With the rest of the team trying not to bust out into laughter, Colt had met that cool gaze with a raised eyebrow and a “Yes, ma’am.”
But that was the moment he knew he had to have her. Game fucking on. And it was a game at first. A challenge. An opposite-side-of-the-tracks thing. Bringing the ice bitch down to his level for a while—preferably under him, although if she wanted to be on top, he wouldn’t put up much of an argument.
If only it had stayed that way. But the ice bitch hadn’t been a bitch at all. She’d been sweet and kind of shy, and had a heart of gold. She’d seen through his shit with alarming speed.
She also hadn’t been icy. She’d been hot. Sizzling hot. And he’d been the one to melt.
For a while. She’d almost had him convinced about love and happily ever after. But eventually reality had caught up with them both. He had too many sins to erase, too many demons to tame, and too much baggage to carry.
He’d warned her. But she thought she could change him. Instead, he’d changed her. The woman he married never would have cheated on him. But after four years asMrs. Colt Wesson, Kate had found refuge in the bed of their mutual friend Lieutenant Commander Scott Taylor, although he’d been only a lieutenant back then. Colt had trained Taylor since he was a junior officer. He’d been like a younger brother to him.
Ironically, it was Taylor’s death that had brought Kate back into his life. Taylor had been the officer in charge of Retiarius Platoon when it had gone missing in Russia. Colt had reached out to Kate to put him in touch with her godfather, General Thomas Murray, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who could get Colt access to the information he needed to find out what had gone wrong and who was responsible. To that end, Colt was going to Russia tomorrow to trace the path of the platoon.
It was just the kind of solo operation he did for Uncle Sam as an operative for CAD, although this was actually unauthorized as opposed to “unauthorized if you get caught.” The end result was the same. If he found trouble, he was on his own and no one was going to claim him. But he wouldn’t be taken alive.
For a minute he thought Kate might turn around and leave. He didn’t need to ask why. Sadie was making herself nice and comfortable, snuggling into his lap and looping her arms around his neck. He wasn’t encouraging her, but neither was he discouraging. He let her do what she wanted, which at the moment was kissing his neck, as his ex-wife swallowed her distaste and made her way toward him.
Distaste—not hurt or pain. Those days were long gone. Kate was engaged to someone else now. Someone worthy of her, as her godfather had pointed out.
The dull tap of her heels stopped a few feet away from him. Kate wore her usual uniform of a short suit skirt that looked as if it had been made for her—because undoubtedly it had—silk blouse, and matching suit jacket. This one was in a light khaki, but she probably had one in every color.
Kate was a skirt-and-dress kind of girl. She rarely wore pants. Colt had offered her money to see her in jeans just once, but she’d just laughed and rolled her eyes. With legs like hers, skirts were a good choice, but male admiration wasn’t why she wore them. Kate didn’t do casual. She hadn’t been brought up that way. She was always dressed properly because that was what was expected. She was always on. Always polished to a glossy shine. Dirtying her up a little had been part of the appeal.
Colt was hit by the familiar whiff of perfume. Even the faint floral scent smelled like rich girl. Everything about her screamed privilege, wealth, and genteel refinement. He’d originally thought the scent was roses. But he’d found out later it was peony. A flower he hadn’t even known existed before he met Kate.
They were her favorite. Once, after a particularly ugly argument early in their marriage, he’d spent two hundred bucks to have them delivered to her in December. It was probably the only romantic thing he’d ever done in his life. She’d burst into tears with happiness, and he’d never done it again. Making her that happy had scared him; he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it up. He had to keep the bar low.
“I need to talk to you,” she said.
Colt guessed why, and it pissed him off. If she had tracked him down, it probably had something to do with Retiarius and, more specifically, Taylor. When she’d agreed to put him in touch with the general, it hadn’t been for Colt’s sake; it had been for the man who’d ended their marriage and fathered the baby that should have been Colt’s.
•••
It was like stepping back in time—and not in a good way.
When Kate walked into the bar and saw her ex-husband sitting on a stool by the pool table with a woman drapedall over him, she’d felt a stab of pain so deep it seemed to cut her in half. It might have been three years ago in Hawaii, when she’d flown in to surprise him and tell him the news that she hoped would bring him back to her and resuscitate the last dying breath of their marriage.
Instead it had been like a knife in her heart and the beginning of the end. Or maybe, more accurately, the end of the end. Their marriage had been in trouble for a long time before she’d seen him with the woman draped all over him in the bar.
Three years ago in Honolulu, Kate had turned on her heels and fled the bar in tears. Colt had come after her, but only to accuse her of spying on him. Checking up on him because she didn’t trust him. How could he blame her after what she’d seen? He’d claimed it was nothing, but Kate had been crushed. Her last hope destroyed.
She’d told him that she was tired of being the only person fighting for their marriage. If he wanted her, he knew where to find her. She’d flown back to Virginia without telling him about the baby.
