Her selfless warrior, p.5
Her Selfless Warrior, page 5
“That is reason one hundred and ninety-seven I’m thankful Debra and I never had kids,” was Kostya’s heartfelt response as they started to walk away from the obstacle course.
“Plus the fact that she had no spine and you would have been stuck raising them by yourself, as well as continuing to raise her,” Gideon uttered sarcastically.
“What are you talking about?” Kostya’s tone was mild. The divorce was nine years in the past, so hearing something negative about Debra no longer stung.
“Just that she’s the normal type of woman you like. Like Landon, you definitely have a type.”
Kostya gave his friend a look out of the corner of his eye. “I know for a fact I don’t like strippers. So what are you talking about? I’ve dated women who have been everything from waitresses to vice presidents of banks—I’d say I don’t have a type, my man.”
Gideon snorted. “I’d say you’re wrong. Every single woman wanted you to rescue them from some sort of situation.”
“I call bullshit. Think about Mary, she didn’t have anything going on in her life that she needed rescuing from.”
“Sure she didn’t.” Gideon’s voice was mildly sarcastic. “Think about it Kostya, she’d been sexually assaulted years ago, and you were the first man she reached out to help her overcome that trauma. See? Rescue.”
“How do you explain her dumping me?”
“After you fixed her.”
“And Susan?” Kostya asked curiously.
“The hedge fund manager?” Gideon clarified.
Kostya nodded.
“She was a ballbuster at work, but as soon as she got home, she wanted you to make every goddamn decision for her. Hell, was there a time she ever decided what to have for dinner?”
Kostya thought about it and realized there hadn’t been.
“See, that’s the type of woman you like. You want to be the hero, over and over again. You want to go back in time and rescue your mom.”
Kostya stopped in his tracks. Gideon had gone two steps forward before realizing that Kostya wasn’t with him. He looked backward.
“Aw, hell. I didn’t mean it,” Gideon said as he rubbed the top of his closely shaved head.
Red swirled in front of Kostya’s eyes as he tried to focus in on Gideon, but it was difficult because he was watching his mother’s stomach bursting open, her blood spraying across the walls and ceiling and finally landing across his father’s stunned face.
“Kostya?”
Kostya shook his head, trying to clear the blood from his vision.
“Kostya, are you with me?”
“I’m…” Kostya cleared his throat. “I’m with you.”
“You sure didn’t seem like you were with me.” Gideon’s voice was dubious.
“I just didn’t expect to be put on a psychiatrist’s couch by my best friend, so I got a little shook, what can I say?” Kostya forced a chuckle. Gideon still gave him the stink eye. “Come on Gideon, we need to get a report from Captain Lockhart and see how our guys are doing.”
Gideon gave him a knowing grin.
“Damn. I take it from the way you’re smiling that you’ve already hacked into their systems?” Kostya lifted his brow.
“Hacked is such an ugly word,” Gideon said as he opened the door to the locker room. “I might have peeked into a few places to see if there were any problems so I could address them with members of our team. That’s what you pay me for, isn’t it?” Gideon asked innocently.
Kostya couldn’t disagree with that. He went to his locker and grabbed clean clothes and a towel before heading to a bench to untie his boots. God, he needed a shower.
“So, what is the Captain going to tell us?” Kostya asked.
“Should be nothing but thumbs up. As a matter of fact, she plans to stay out a little longer and have Jase do some training with her men.”
“Not surprised,” Kostya said as he headed for the shower. “So I shouldn’t expect to see my guys back this week?”
Gideon shrugged as he turned on the water.
Kostya went through the roster of men who were still with him in case they were pulled in for a mission. He’d selected the men carefully for the training exercise so he wouldn’t be left hanging. The only change was having to send Jase Drakos in Landon Kelly’s place.
If Landon failed to show again, he’d have him doing paperwork for the next six months!
Kostya’s sister called that night and invited him over for dinner. Normally he’d be all-in, but his conversation with Gideon had gotten under his skin and he couldn’t settle.
“Sorry, Irinushka, I have too much paperwork I’ve got to get done,” he lied.
“Okay, but I expect to see you next week. Tony will be back then and he’s going to try to grill and you have to be here to make sure he doesn’t turn the steaks to charcoal.”
Kostya laughed. “I promise, I promise.”
On that note, he hung up and then walked over to the back of his house and looked out the large window to gaze at the back bay. The water normally soothed him, but not this afternoon. All he could think about was a feisty, sexy blonde.
“Dammit,” he muttered, then strode back to the kitchen and scooped up his cell phone. He punched in Lark’s number.
“Kostya?” she answered on the second ring. “Is something wrong?”
“Are you still in D.C.?” he asked.
“No, I’m in Baltimore.”
Kostya headed to the formal dining room that he’d made into his home office and opened up his laptop. “Why are you in Baltimore?” he asked.
“Sick friend,” Lark answered succinctly. “Kostya, why are you calling?”
He could see her reporter antennae sticking up even over the phone. He called up his favorite airline and checked out flights to Baltimore. In seconds he saw he could be on a plane in less than an hour, but he winced. In good conscience, he couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t, not when he and his team were on stand-by. He switched the flights around. He could be picking her up at the Norfolk airport by eight o’clock tonight.
“How is your friend doing?” Kostya asked.
“She’s actually doing pretty good. I’m thinking I can fly home to Manhattan tomorrow.”
“That’s good, that’s really good.”
“Why?”
He made another couple of keystrokes. “Can I take you to a late dinner tonight?”
There was a long pause.
“Are you asking as a friend?”
Kostya rubbed the back of his neck as he pictured Lark in the slinky dress she’d been wearing at the Kimpton bar. “No. I’m not asking as a friend,” he admitted.
It was an eternity before she answered. “I thought we agreed this wasn’t a good idea. I specifically told you that you weren’t my type.” Lark’s voice was breathy.
Breathy was good.
“Lark, I have no idea what in the hell is going on either. I’m on standby, and I can’t get my ass to Baltimore, otherwise I would be there in a heartbeat to entertain a hypothesis I have.”
“And what’s that?”
“That friends make a great foundation for something more than just friends.”
“Kostya,” Lark sighed.
That was definitely not a ‘No.’
“Look, Lark, I just want to take you on a date, is that such a big deal? You already said that you intend to fly home tomorrow. You can just as easily catch a flight from Virginia Beach tomorrow.”
He glanced down at his computer. “I already figured out that there’s a plane leaving from Baltimore in an hour. I can be picking you up in less than three hours.”
Kostya winced at Lark’s laughter. “You’re kidding, right?”
This time he kept quiet.
“You’re not kidding,” she finally said. Again, her voice was breathy.
“I’ll get you a hotel, no pressure, Honey. I just want to take you out to dinner.”
“This is insane. You’re crazy, you know that, don’t you Barona?”
“Yep.”
More silence.
“Kostya, I’m not going to sleep with you. Scratch that. I’m not going to have sex with you. You understand that, right?”
“I got that, Lark. I’m not going to ask you to…but.”
“But what?”
He loved that suspicious reporter voice. It turned him on.
“I’m going to be working to tempt you into a goodnight kiss before I leave you at your hotel room door. The hotel room that I’m paying for.”
Lark snorted. “You’re not paying for my damned hotel room. I pay my own way.”
Kostya’s smile was fast in coming. She’d agreed.
“Lark, normally I’d be coming to you and I’d be paying for everything, but I can’t right now, I’m on standby, so I’m paying for your hotel room.”
“Look, you big oaf. You can pay for the damned plane ticket, you can pay for dinner, but I’m paying for my own hotel room, you got it?”
“Text me your details so I can make your plane reservations, and I’ll send you the confirmation. I’ll pick you up from the airport.”
She took so long to reply he had to look down at his phone to make sure she hadn’t hung up.
“You know this is a bad idea, right?”
“You’re wrong; this is the best idea I’ve had in ages. Now don’t forget to text me.” Kostya hung up before she could change her mind.
Why had she let Amy convince her this was a good idea? She knew Kostya thought he’d done the convincing, but it was really Amy. She knew Lark’s background, she knew about the overgrown step-grandfather Lark had had to live with for the majority of her early childhood. Amy knew all the ugly stories, yet went right on ahead and just shoved her out of the nest.
“You’re the one who said you were over it, but based on dweebs one through thirty-nine, you’re not. You also don’t believe in counseling, so off you go into the deep end. I’ve got just the dress.”
Lark knew she was stuck.
Stuck. Stuck. Stuck.
“You do realize this isn’t the deep end, it’s the middle of the ocean?”
“He’s a SEAL, he can save you.” Amy pulled a blue body-con dress out of her closet and shoved it at Lark. “Now, quit with the whining, you’re giving me a headache.”
“This is too small,” Lark whined.
“What did I just say about whining?” Amy demanded to know as she shoved Lark into the bathroom.
That was three hours ago.
Lark hefted her backpack up higher on her shoulder as she pulled her carry-on behind her. She looked down to make sure all of the buttons on her overcoat were buttoned. They were. She looked up and saw Kostya’s blond head high above the crowd. He was easy to spot because he was taller and broader than everybody else waiting at the bottom of the escalator.
She felt a shiver run down her spine—his expression was positively hungry. This was so not a good idea.
Then why the hell am I here?
Lark squared her shoulders as she stepped off the end of the escalator, making sure that the heel of her thigh-high boot didn’t get caught.
Goddamn, Amy!
“Let me take that,” Kostya said as he gently pulled her backpack off her shoulder.
He smells good.
“Thanks,” she muttered as she kept her eyes on his chin. “You could have just texted and picked me up outside at the curb, you didn’t have to park.”
Somehow Kostya was carrying her suitcase along with her backpack and still had one hand at the small of her back while the crowd parted for them as they headed to the exit. “It’s easy enough to park.” At the sound of a smile in his voice, she risked looking into his eyes. She saw the raw heat emanating from his gaze.
She missed a step, but he was there and he caught her around the waist, steadying her.
“Thanks for coming, Lark.” His voice, his accent, the power and fire almost had her stumbling again.
What the hell?
She gripped her handbag until her knuckles turned white. Kostya stopped steering them toward the parking garage. Instead, she found herself pressed into a corner, his heat surrounding her.
Kostya gently traced his fingers over her tight knuckles, then tilted her chin up so that their eyes met. “It’s just dinner, I promise.”
She swallowed.
Okay. Okay. Dinner, I can do dinner.
She sucked in air, forcing herself to breathe. She caught his scent. Hints of the sea, leather, and something indefinably Kostya.
“Talk to me, Lark,” Kostya whispered. She heard nothing else, just his voice. She remembered listening to him in the dark in Afghanistan; back then she could forget how big he was, how powerful, how he could snap her like a twig. But this was Kostya. The man who made her feel safe.
He took a step backward, but two of his fingers traced down from the pulse point at her temple, along her cheek, until they rested at the corner of her mouth.
“Please, Honey, say something. Anything.”
This time when she looked into his eyes, she didn’t see hunger, she saw tenderness and comfort, the same expression that had been on his face when he’d crouched down in front of little Taja and Nazy back in Afghanistan. Another small piece of ice cracked, letting in a glimmer of light. She smiled.
“Of course, dinner.” She stood up straight. “Stop looking at me like that. I’m here, aren’t I? I’m hungry and you promised food,” she said briskly.
His eyes glanced down to her relaxed hands, then back up to her face and a slow smile started. Her toes curled and she grinned back at him as she pushed by him. “Get a move on, big guy, I’m going to bankrupt you at the restaurant. You better not cheap out on me.”
Lark heard a crack of laughter behind her right before Kostya put his hand around her waist and continued on to the parking garage.
“Ms. Sorensen, I’ll have you know, the taco truck is not cheap.”
Aw, hell, he’s funny.
Damn, I like this woman.
Kostya watched her scoop up another bite of her marionberry ice cream and he practically groaned. How long had it been since he’d bedded a woman? He thought back and realized it had been too damned long. Lark’s bee-stung lips wrapped around her spoon as she sucked off the ice cream and it took everything he had not to groan. His glance swooped up to her eyes to see if she was pleased that she had his balls in a vice and he got a surprise. Her eyes were closed. Instead of studying him, she was lost in her own personal heaven.
Fuck, she wasn’t teasing him, she was just that blissed out.
How the hell am I going to end this night with just a kiss?
Kostya glared at the waiter as he placed the check on the table and ogled Lark. The man made himself scarce, fast. Kostya pulled out his credit card and continued to watch the show.
“You’re going to give me a complex,” Lark said.
“Huh?”
“You’re staring at me.”
“Lark, I’ve been staring at you all night.”
She gave him a cheeky grin. “Okay, I admit there’s been a little bit of staring going on between both of us, but that’s only because we couldn’t see each other for the thirty-six hours we were hidden in the back of that godawful truck.”
Her entire body shuddered, then she smiled again.
Nope, this woman was not a victim, no rescue needed here.
“Not many people could have handled that Afghanistan situation like you did,” he said as the waiter took the bill.
“Don’t you mean women?”
“English is my second language, which means I use my words precisely. I say exactly what I mean, and I meant people, man or woman. You’re impressive, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.” A blush crawled up her neck to stain her cheeks.
“I could never do what you and your team do on a regular basis. You are the ones who are impressive.” She cleared her throat. “You realize that you’re the definition of heroes, right?”
Kostya shook his head. “Lark, you’re wrong. We have a job to do and we do it—it’s just that simple. I came to this country as a political refugee. America took me and my sister in after we lost our parents.”
He paused as he saw the soles of his father’s shoes when the monsters dragged him out of the house. There had been a hole near the big toe, his blue sock poking out.
“Kostya?” Lark’s voice was soft.
“America is my home. I love my country; I could think of no higher purpose than serving her. I’m not a hero, I’m a soldier.”
Lark reached over and put her dainty hand on top of his. “We’ll just have to agree to disagree.”
Kostya wasn’t a stupid man, he wasn’t going to let an opportunity slip by. He turned his hand over so that their fingers could tangle. “You ready to leave?”
Her eyes searched his. “A kiss, nothing more.”
“I keep my promises.”
“I know that, Kostya, that’s why I’m here.”
He ushered her out of the restaurant and tipped the valet when he brought his Bronco to the front. Kostya tilted his chin to the kid who nodded, then Kostya opened the passenger door and assisted Lark in. He headed back to the Hilton where Lark had made her reservation. He waited for her to start a conversation and when she didn’t, he didn’t bother to try either.
He pulled up to the front and gave his keys to yet another valet, then grabbed Lark’s luggage before quickly joining Lark at the front entrance.
“Aren’t you going to check in?” he queried when she bypassed the reception desk.
“I already did online. They arranged for my phone to be my key card.”
“Slick,” he said as he pressed the button for the elevator. “Gideon would love to know about this technology.”
Lark grinned up at him. “I’ll bet you a steak and lobster dinner at the Kimpton in D.C. that Gideon knew about this technology before it was put into use,” Lark teased. She unbuttoned her coat and took it off.
