The Dangerous Jacob Wilde

She stuck her tongue out.

“You’re trying to distract me,” he said in a throaty growl.

She gave him a saccharine-sweet smile.

“Is it working?”

“Want to find out?” he said with a deliberate leer as he reached for her hand.

“Behave yourself,” she scolded, but her smile turned warm and real.

“I’ll behave if you try the grits. Who knows? You might like ‘em.”

“Trust me, Captain—”

“Lieutenant,” Jake said quickly, and suddenly his teasing smile was gone.

“But I thought—”

“Promotions and medals go together.”

Was that irony or bitterness in his voice? She couldn’t tell.

“I don’t understand.”

“They give you a medal, they up your rank. Simple as that.”

She knew it couldn’t possibly be as simple as that. And she saw the darkness in his face again. Talk to me, Jacob, she wanted to say …

“I was a lieutenant for a long time. It’s what my men called me. It’s what I still am, inside. Okay?”

There was no disputing that okay. Addison nodded.

“You must be glad to be back.”

His fingers wrapped around hers.

“I am. And I’m not.” He gave a rueful laugh. “Man, I’m really decisive, aren’t I?”

“It can’t be easy, coming home after everything you saw.”

He looked at her. “What I saw is that the world isn’t what I grew up thinking it was.”

“It’s not the place hardly anyone grows up thinking it is.”

He knew she was right, but it went deeper than that for him. When you grew up on tales of heroes and warriors, when men fought and died for reasons that were always clear and always honorable …

“No,” he said, after a minute, “it isn’t.” Jake turned his hand palm-up so that their fingers were intertwined. “Tell me about your father,” he said. “Losing him must have been tough for you and your mom.”

Her silver eyes darkened.

“It was awful. I adored him. He understood me, you know? I wasn’t into dolls or stuff. I loved reading and math and science.”

He smiled. “The future lawyer, hard at work.”

She smiled, too. “He used to tell me to grow up strong and independent enough to be whatever I wanted.”

“Good advice,” Jake said softly. “He sounds like a great guy.”