“What in the heck is so funny?” Sherman asked as he looked back and forth between the two of them with an eyebrow raised.
Ace felt tears in his eyes, he was laughing so hard, and even still, he couldn’t stop. Soon Cooper and Maverick were standing beside them, looking at the two of them with concern, which only made Ace laugh harder. It had been so long since he’d last laughed, he couldn’t even remember when it had been. The sound was so strange that it amplified his laughter even more.
It took several moments for him to get control over himself. Finally, he stood up straight and sent a beaming smile toward Nick, who was greeting people but still looking over at Ace with an obvious question in his eyes.
“Sorry, Dakota just told me how she had planned on kicking Nick’s ass, and it struck my funny bone,” Ace said, a few more chuckles escaping.
All sets of eyes turned to Dakota, who shrugged.
“When did this happen?” Cooper asked, new admiration showing in his eyes.
“You haven’t heard the story?” Ace asked. He was oddly pleased he had been the first to hear it. It made him feel a little less out of the family loop.
“No, but I’m eagerly waiting,” Maverick said, getting a little closer.
Dakota told her story again, which had Ace chuckling just as hard, but this time Maverick, Cooper, and Sherman joined in. When they all looked over at Nick, their brother was obviously aware the joke was on him, and it was obvious he wanted to step out of the greeting line and join in on the fun. His new wife gave him a reassuring squeeze, and he turned away from his laughing family to continue greeting guests.
“Dakota, you are truly a member of the family now,” Uncle Sherman said.
Ace wanted to groan with frustration. That meant the woman was completely off-limits. It looked like this reception was going to be boring and torturous as well. If he were to hook up with Dakota, the family would expect a commitment from him, which he couldn’t offer. This side trip home was only until he was healed, and then he’d be off on the next mission lickety-split. He couldn’t make up his mind if he was staying with the CIA or leaving. Damn his luck and his indecisiveness!
“It’s time for a toast, or at least it’s time to start drinking,” Ace said.
He pulled away from the group, but he felt them hot on his heels as he made his way into the ballroom. Even without looking at Dakota, he could still feel her presence. Now that he knew she was there, he couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than her.
He went straight for the bar and ordered a double scotch. He had a feeling it wasn’t going to help him. When Dakota shot him a look from across the room that was full of fire and humor, he downed his drink and ordered another. The long night had just become what would feel like an eternity, no end in sight.
He’d rather be back in enemy territory than try to resist these urges that he hadn’t felt in such a long time. But even thinking this, his eyes were drawn back to the woman again—and he knew the night had only just begun.
CHAPTER FIVE
Dakota couldn’t help but smile as she watched the incredible view of Ace Armstrong walking away from her. She’d heard a lot of stories about the rebel brother of the family, and she had to say they hadn’t done the man justice. His old photos hadn’t done him justice, either. He’d most certainly grown from a boy to one hell of a hot man.
Her heart was thundering, and she actually felt her skin tingling from nothing more than simply being in his presence. He was a dangerous man—and Dakota had a serious problem with hazardous males. He was something she didn’t want a cure for. She also had a thing with wanting to meddle in people’s lives—she could see the restlessness in the man’s otherwise confident eyes and wanted to ease his pain.
He’d been away from his family for a long time, and he looked like a lost and frightened animal who’d been dragged home. That brought every meddlesome instinct alive for Dakota. If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was delve inside the areas of a person’s mind where they wanted to keep you out. The harder someone tried to hide from her, the more she wanted to know his or her story. Sure, Ace had flirted and given her as much sass as she was doling out, but she had a feeling it was automatic on his part, as if he was desperately trying to hide something behind his witty banter.
Now she wanted to jump right in with both feet and get to know him—and it had nothing to do with the size of the man’s shoulders, which rivaled those of the Seattle Seahawk football players she cheered for. And it certainly had nothing to do with his emerald-green eyes or square jaw or far-too-kissable lips. Nope, she assured herself. It was all about the discomfort she saw in Ace’s eyes and how desperately he was trying to mask it by flirting and showing a grin that didn’t quite reach the windows to his soul.
Okay, if she were being completely honest with herself, she might admit his body didn’t hurt, she thought with a smile as the man turned around and their gazes locked. But he was now her best friend’s brother-in-law, and knowing how rebellious he was, he probably wasn’t sticking around. She might be a little terrified of relationships, but she also gave her heart to people, and she feared one day she would give it away and never get it back. She’d seen the devastating results of that happening. And Ace would leave when he was better. She knew that for sure. She was now a little lost—a feeling Dakota didn’t relish in the least.
Insecurity wasn’t a feeling Dakota was familiar with. Sure, she’d had moments of weakness, just like every other person on the damn planet, but she didn’t allow those emotions to define her—didn’t easily accept defeat, and didn’t crawl into a hole feeling sorry for herself.
Life was simply too short to be angry, sad, or insecure. She preferred to smile through the pain and turn that frown . . . another way. She scowled as she tried to remember how that saying went. Chloe teased her relentlessly that she couldn’t get popular idioms right. Dakota disagreed. She figured it was just that the sayings were wrong. Dakota liked to think only of the positive in life.
Ace started moving back toward her, and Dakota’s spidey senses began tingling. Hot damn, there was an air of danger about the man that was sending signals to all the right places on her needy body. It had been too long since she’d been in a relationship. Though she might be the world’s biggest flirt, and she sure as heck loved a hot make-out session, that didn’t mean she gave it up to all the great-looking men who sent a signal her way. Ah, the damn morals her mom had taught her. She wished she didn’t have them, and she really wished she didn’t have such an open heart.
But her mother had never told her it was wrong to drool over a sexy man. She let her imagination run as wild as it wanted. And she had one hell of an imagination. Right now, she was picturing sweaty bodies entwined with not a stitch of clothes between them.
Just because she wasn’t ready to jump into the flames didn’t mean she wasn’t going to look—and possibly even drool—a heck of a lot while around Ace. After all, she’d already decided she was going to find out every little thing about him, so her reward would be an active imagination.
“Hold this, Ace.”
The moment his uncle Sherman gave Ace the tray of wineglasses he’d been moving for some odd reason, Dakota knew it was a mistake. It felt almost as if she were in a thriller movie and about to watch the ditzy girl open the basement door because she heard a sound down there.
Ace took the tray, and it teetered precariously in his hand. The fool didn’t even lift the other arm to try to stabilize it. She made her feet move forward, but before she’d taken two steps, she knew she wasn’t going to make it.
“Ace . . .” she called out to him. He looked up, and the tray turned sideways just as she reached his side—just in time for a whole lot of champagne to spill down the front of him, some of it splashing onto her, surely ruining her incredibly beautiful and expensive heels.