Collateral Damage Read Online Free

hours off and decided to catch a transport down to see you.” His teeth flashed in the midst of his five o’clock shadow as he grinned. “Surprise.”
    He’d hopped a transport from Bagram just to see her for a few hours? Best surprise ever . Part of her was still convinced she was dreaming though. He’d already been deployed when she’d received her orders to come here, so it had been weeks since they’d last seen each other. “It’s great to see you.” He looked amazing as always. Strong enough to take on the world, and capable enough to do it.
    Smiling, she released his shoulders then started to step back to put a little space between them and tried not to melt when he didn’t release her right away. Instead he kept his hands at her waist, his fingers stroking over the small of her back. The deliberate touch was a discreet caress, and charged with the same possessiveness she read in his eyes. Before now, Liam had only ever looked at her like that in her wildest imaginings.
    Her mouth went dry as tingles erupted across her skin and her nipples tightened against her bra. Was he finally going to kiss her?
    Don’t be stupid; you’re in uniform standing in the middle of base.
    After a moment he let his hands slip away, his palms brushing against the sides of her hips in a way that made her insides flutter as he lowered his arms. So many times she’d imagined his hands gripping her hips while his weight pinned her to the bed and he pumped into her. “You settling in okay?”
    She was barely aware of the people walking past them on the boardwalk, her eyes only for him. “Yeah, everything’s great. Weather and climate reminds me a lot of Iraq.” Same shit, different sandbox.
    He nodded, amusement still bright in his gaze. “Yeah but soon you’ll be out of the Chair Force, all coddled and soft, and be one of us.”
    She grinned at the teasing jab. In a couple months she’d be finished her blue-to-green program that allowed her to officially transfer from the Air Force into the Army. “Yep, but look at me now in the meantime, living it up here in Kandahar.” She was grateful for the privacy her shades afforded her because she couldn’t help staring at him. He had a ridiculously square jaw and sharp features that gave him an intensely masculine look.
    “Pretty cushy down here, all right.”
    “I’d offer to show you around but you probably know the lay of the land here better than I do,” she said.
    One side of his sexy mouth curved upward. “Pretty sure I do, yeah.” The muscles in his arms flexed as he slid his shades back on, completing the sexy picture before her.
    Liam radiated power and authority, traits innate to him and his fellow SOF brothers. He’d been promoted to major a couple months ago, after only three years with SOAR. He’d tried to downplay it in his e-mail to her when it happened but she knew how much the promotion meant to him. She couldn’t be prouder of him.
    “Why the civvies?” she asked, drinking in the sight of his powerful frame in those jeans and snug shirt.
    Another shrug. “Figured it would make things easier for us without rank being in the way. Because there’s no way you’d have hugged me like that if I was in uniform.”
    “True,” she said with a grin. Honor also knew part of the reason for the casual dress was because he didn’t like drawing attention to himself, or that he was with SOAR. Being out of uniform would help him fly under the radar a little easier, so to speak.
    He put his hands on his hips. “So, what did I steal you away from in your day?”
    “We were just changing the blades on a sixty. My staff sergeant gave me permission to leave for a bit.”
    “Yeah?” He raised one dark eyebrow. “So how long do we have?”
    The sensual undertone to the question filled her with butterflies. She wanted to feel that beautiful mouth on hers, experience what it was like for those strong hands to roam over her body. “I don’t know. Not long enough.”