A byproduct of the temperature, damn it, not the lure of home. She had to stop the past from dinging her control.
Guiding a groggy Trey to the side, she waited for Daniel and the others to clear the craft. She flipped a mental switch within herself, shifting from a too-vulnerable woman to analytical reporter mode. She would observe the world around her without getting involved.
One of the copilots, the young guy with a devilish twinkle in his eyes, strutted across the cement, guitar case slung over his back. "Need any help there, sir? I've got extra seats in my car."
He tossed a wink her way, his flirting complimentary without a threatening edge. She allowed herself a smile. Detached, but participating, interacting in normal human exchanges. Something she hadn't done in so long.
Daniel stepped closer. "No, thanks, Bo. My truck has an extended cab. We'll be fine."
"Okay, then. Take it easy, sir." Bo backed away, morning sun glinting off the copilot's jet-black hair and perfect features, increasing his fallen-angel air.
Actually more like an impish fallen cherub since the guy was probably all of twenty-five, making Daniel's hundred-percent adult male hard lines vibrate tension through the air.
Jaw set, Danny cupped her elbow as he guided her toward the waiting crew bus. "Did you want to ride with him?"
Jealousy laced his words. Surprising her. Thrilling her.
"Of course I didn't." The answer fell free before she could think to say something that would put more distance between them. Instead she just stared back as the thrill tripped through her, all the while blaming the yearning on a weakness born of exhaustion.
Running footsteps jarred her back to the present. The copilot, Darcy Renshaw, sprinted by toward the waiting military truck. The passenger door opened and a man stepped out, a civilian if his unconventional clothes and spiked hair were anything to go by. His seafoam-colored windbreaker clashed with flowered, knee-length swim trunks. Darcy dropped her flight bag and flung her arms around his neck seconds before he kissed her. Really kissed her, like a man who couldn't get enough of that one woman.
Screw distance. Analytical observations went up in flames as embers of long-dead dreams sparked. What would it be like to inspire that kind of passion? She and Daniel had been on fire for each other during those uninhibited weeks of lovemaking. But sometimes she wondered if years apart might have painted her memories a deeper shade of red as her discontent in her marriage grew.
Daniel cleared his throat.
Mary Elise glanced up. "They're married?"
"Nah, still in the newly engaged stage."
A rush of heat swelled through her. Yeah, she and Daniel had fallen well into that can't-get-enough engaged state. "Oh. Uh, they seem well suited."
He patted Austin's head to soothe the yawning child back to sleep and charged forward, the path past the necking couple the only route toward the waiting ambulance. "They met last summer on a joint mission to Guam."
"He's Air Force?" She eyed the man's nonregulation hair with curiosity, hair currently getting a finger comb from an amorous lady copilot who wasn't overly concerned about public displays of affection.
"Was CIA. Now he's a civilian employee with the OSI—Office of Special Investigations. Kind of like the Air Force's own CIA." Daniel cleared his throat and urged her forward, not even breaking stride as they drew alongside the embracing couple. "Thanks for your help, Spike. I owe ya one."
Without slowing the kiss, the man pulled his hand off Darcy Renshaw's waist and held his palm up for a high-five.
As they strode past, realization crept over Mary Elise. Wren's spiky-haired boyfriend who looked more like a beach bum than an OSI Special Agent had played a role in the boys' escape as well.
Had known exactly how much danger his fiancée flew into.
Mary Elise couldn't resist glancing over her shoulder. The air crackled. Desire derived from a day filled with life and death stakes licked the air, scorching her even from a distance.>Daniel hooked a hand on his knee, boot propped beside the trailing hair, and lost himself in the hypnotic sway of red. "She miscarried early, before we had a chance to get married. I would have married her though. No way would I have let her down."
But he had, in so many other ways, both of them too damned young. He'd been knocked on his ass by how much a few short weeks of making love to her had shaken him. So he'd run like hell the minute she'd given him the green light.
"And here you two are again."
"Not for long. She'll settle back in Savannah and I'll be in Charleston."
"All of two and a half hours apart," Tag's dry tones mixed with the rumble of four engines. "Might as well be on different planets."
Daniel snorted. "I think I enjoyed you more when you stayed quiet."
"My wife likely disagrees," he answered, his dry wit more parched than normal. Not that the guy looked open to making the current sharingfest a two-way deal.
Tag canted forward, elbows on his knees. "While I'm on a roll, here's some hard-earned wisdom you can take or leave. So you had a thing going once? But you were too young to hang on to it. Makes sense. That Mars and Venus stuff is hard as hell for an old guy like me to figure out. It can be damned near impossible when you're younger."