Kitabı oku: «Colonel Daddy»

One

“Major Jennings to see you, sir,” the young corporal said over the intercom.

Colonel Tom Candello pushed a button and said, “Send her in.”

He sat back in his chair, his gaze locked on the door across from him. Major Katherine Jennings. Kate. Instantly his mind filled with erotic images. Memories of their last R and R together.

A week in Japan and they’d hardly left the hotel. But it had been like that between them since they’d first met in Hawaii three years ago. A week-long, incredible affair had led to them deciding to meet again the following year. And then the year after. It was always the same. They arranged their leave time to coincide, met at an agreed-upon location, and surrendered to the overwhelming passion they’d found in each other.

And except for that one week a year, they led separate lives. Each of them were career Marines, but they were posted at different bases, thousands of miles from each other, which kept them from ever crossing paths.

Until recently.

Two months ago, Kate had been transferred to Camp Pendleton, California. His base. His command. Now she was not only his once-a-year lover, she was one of his officers. He’d hardly seen her since she arrived. But for one or two brief meetings, where they were surrounded by other Marines, he hadn’t really spoken to her since their last morning in Japan.

He stood up abruptly, pushed one hand through his short, black hair and walked to the window. Staring out at the base, he told himself to get rid of the mental images he carried of Kate, naked in bed, her arms held up to welcome him. This wasn’t Japan. This wasn’t even R and R. This was work, and their two worlds were about to collide.

He felt as though he was on a speeding train heading for a cliff. The brakes were out, and there was no stopping the disaster looming just ahead. All he could do was hang on and wait for it.

A knock at the door brought him out of his thoughts. He turned around, pulled in a deep breath and raced over the edge of the precipice. “Come in.”

The door swung open, she stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind her. Then she was there. Standing in his office.

At attention.

“Good afternoon, Colonel,” she said stiffly, her right hand slanted in a perfect salute.

“Major,” he said and returned her salute, despite feeling a bit awkward about saluting a woman whose body he had explored intimately, thoroughly. “At ease.”

She relaxed instantly and his gaze swept over her. Dark green, brimmed cap settled firmly on her head, her short blond hair curled under to lie just along her jawline. Her khaki uniform blouse was starched and ironed to perfection, and a row of ribbons and commendations lay just atop her left breast Her slim, straight dark skirt stopped just above her knees and she wore regulation high heels that did amazing things for her legs.

He lifted his gaze to her face before he could torture himself further with memories of those legs wrapped around him, holding his body within her tight, damp heat. Damn, this was not going to be easy.

Clearing his throat, Tom spoke up. “Kate, it’s good to see you.” The understatement of the century, he thought, and tried to will his hardened body into submission.

“Thomas,” she started and he had to smile. She was the only person he knew who always called him Thomas.

He took a step toward her, but she backed up and held out one hand toward him, palm up, to stop him.

“Thomas, we have to talk.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, knowing she was right to keep her distance. Ever since the day they’d met, there had been fireworks between them. Distance was their only hope. “We do. Kate, we can work with this situation,” Tom said. “We’re both professionals. Our private time together doesn’t have to intrude on our careers.”

She took off her hat, tossed it onto a nearby chair, then ran her fingers through her hair. He thought he detected a glimmer of a wry grin before her expression evened out again.

“I’m afraid that ship has sailed, Thomas,” she told him softly.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, not really sure he wanted to hear the answer.

“Do you remember that last night in Japan?” she asked, gripping her hands in front of her waist so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Remember it? he wanted to say. The memories still kept him awake at night, his body hard, his mind filled with thoughts of her. They’d toasted each other over a bottle of champagne and spent an hour deciding where they would meet the following year, finally settling on Copenhagen. Then they’d gone out to the balcony of their ridiculously expensive hotel suite and made love under the stars for hours. The memories were so fresh, so ingrained on his mind, Thomas could almost smell the sea air, taste the champagne he’d dribbled onto her nipples and then licked off as she writhed beneath him, moaning his name.

He groaned silently as his body tightened uncomfortably. Aloud, he said only, “Yeah. I remember.”

His gaze locked on her face, he saw that she, too, was recalling that night. And if he didn’t know better, he’d swear that Major Kate Jennings was blushing. But Kate didn’t have an inhibited bone in her gorgeous body, so that couldn’t be right.

As their gazes met and held, he began to feel the first twinges of misgiving. She didn’t look like a woman who’d just dropped in on her lover for a little stroll down memory lane. “What’s this about, Kate?” he asked quietly. “What’s wrong?”

As he watched, her pale complexion went shades lighter. Not a good sign. She sucked in a gulp of air like a drowning woman, then blurted, “I’m pregnant, Thomas.”

Was that an earthquake?

Tom would have sworn the room had just trembled around him. He shook his head and flicked an uneasy glance at the framed picture of the President, hanging on the wall nearest him. Nope. The picture wasn’t swaying. There was no loud, trainlike rumble of sound.

So. It wasn’t the earth shaking.

It was him.

Katherine stared at him and watched several different expressions slide across his features. Stunned shock. Disbelief. Anxiety. And finally, acceptance. She recognized all of them. Hadn’t she seen the very same expressions staring back at her in the mirror only a month ago?

She hadn’t wanted to believe that early pregnancy test kit. At the time, she had still been so stressed from being transferred to Thomas’s base, she’d assumed that stress was messing up her cycle. After all, it wasn’t going to be easy to face her new commanding officer when that officer had seen her naked. So naturally, she’d bought a few more kits, hoping for a different result. But as she’d stared down at the four little test wands, each of them with a neatly stamped plus sign staring back at her, Kate had had to accept the truth.

She was single, thirty-two years old, a major in the Marines and pregnant for the first time.

Now, after living with the secret for a month, she waited to hear her lover’s reaction.

“How did this happen?” he said, almost to himself.

Her eyebrows lifted as she looked at him. “You said you remembered the balcony.”

“I do.”

“Then you also remember how neither of us wanted to get up and go inside for another condom.”

He rubbed one hand across his face as that one defining moment reared up in his mind. “Oh, yeah.”

“Yeah.” Unable to stand still another moment, Kate started pacing. Her high heels clicked against the linoleum floor, sounding like a rapidfire heartbeat.

Strange, she’d thought the burden of this secret would be lightened by sharing it. But nothing had changed. She was still facing a situation she had no idea how to handle.

And added to that, she couldn’t help worrying about what Thomas would say when he recovered from the initial shock.

Her career, her life, hung in the balance and seemed to be resting precariously on a tipped pair of scales. She’d spent nearly fourteen years in the Corps, building a career and a reputation to be proud of. It was all she knew. All she’d ever wanted.

All she had.

Now, that was all threatened. A pregnant, married Marine was acceptable. A pregnant unmarried Marine—particularly an officer—could find herself discharged. Or at the very least disgraced and her exemplary career in ruins. At that thought, Kate winced. If she lost the Corps, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

Hell. She wouldn’t even know who she was.

“Kate,” Tom said from across the room, “don’t work yourself up like this. We’ll figure something out.”

She stopped short suddenly and swiveled her head to look at him. One thing she had to make perfectly clear right from the beginning. “You should know, Thomas. Ending this pregnancy is not an option.”

He nodded and gave her a small smile. “I understand.”

“I’m not sure I do,” she countered and started pacing again. She had never given much thought to social issues. Especially the ones that didn’t concern her directly. She’d always been too focused on her career for that. But even Kate had been surprised at the strong, protective instinct that had swelled within her at the discovery of her pregnancy. “I’m a career woman, Thomas. And a firm believer in the ERA. Frankly, I didn’t think I’d feel like this. And I can’t tell other women what decisions to make about their lives. But for me, I’ve discovered that there is no decision to make. This baby is a fact. One that we have to deal with. One that isn’t going away.”

“Good.”

She stopped again, turning her head to look at him. “Good?”

He nodded and moved toward her. “I’m glad you feel that way, Kate. We can handle this. We’ll think of something.”

“We will, huh?” she said, and started pacing again. The sound of her heels on tile echoed on and on in her mind. So stupid. So...irresponsible. How could they have let this happen? They weren’t teenagers. They were supposed to be mature adults. Marines for God’s sake! Her stomach churned uneasily. “Think, you said?” she shook her head. “I hope you have better luck than I’ve had.” She paced right up to the wall and turned for the return trip. Glancing into his dark chocolate eyes, she added, “I’ve known about this for a month now and I haven’t been able to think of a blasted thing.”

“A month?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to tell a man, you know,” she snapped, then caught herself. Sarcasm wasn’t going to be a big help here. Throwing her hands up only to let them fall again, she said. “I needed time. To think. To...” pretend it wasn’t happening? she asked silently as her words trailed off.

“Do you want to leave the Corps?” he asked quietly.

“No!” Kate stopped dead, frozen in her tracks. Then she faced him. “Leave the Corps?” she repeated, as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “I can’t resign. The Corps is my life. As much as it is yours. I can’t—no. I won’t give it up.”

Did her voice really sound that shrill? Or was it just her?

“Well, then,” Thomas said. “That makes things even simpler.”

“I don’t see how.”

His gaze locked with hers. “You know the regulations on pregnancy as well as I do.”

A short breath shot into her lungs and caught. “I know.” Of course she knew. Wasn’t that what had been driving her quietly insane for the last month? Wasn’t that why she was wearing a path in his linoleum? Wasn’t that why she felt like crying, for goodness’ sake?

Another long minute passed in silence. Finally Thomas said, “Then you know what the answer to all this is.”

She held her breath again and absently wondered if all of this breath holding would hurt a baby currently no bigger than a peanut.

“I would be honored if you would consent to marry me, Kate.”

That pent-up breath exploded from her in a rush. Even though she had half suspected he would do exactly this, she was still almost shocked to hear the words out loud.

Marriage.

She should be happy, damn it.

Over the past three years, she’d secretly clung to the hope that one day, he would propose to her. Of course, she had also hoped that a little thing like love would prompt his proposal. Instead, it was duty and responsibility guiding the oh-so-honorable man in front of her.

No orange blossoms, candlelight and soft music for them, she mused. Nope. Marine green and Duty.

Lord, how romantic.

She lifted one hand and rubbed at a spot between her eyes, hoping to ease the throbbing headache centered there.

It didn’t help.

Kate knew he was right. Their getting married was the only possible solution. But her heart cringed at the notion of a dutiful marriage.

How strange. She’d managed to avoid marriage and motherhood all of her adult life. Now suddenly she was jumping feet first into both.

“Kate?” Tom asked, watching as her expressive face displayed each of her emotions in turn. “This is the best way. The only way.”

She nodded stiffly, but he could see she wasn’t convinced.

“Kate, this can work,” he said, walking across the room to her side. Hands on her shoulders, he held her gently but firmly, ignoring the sudden, white-hot jolt of desire that shot through him like a mortar blast. If she accepted his proposal, there would be plenty of time to indulge in the passion they shared. “We like each other. We get along well.”

“Like,” she repeated numbly and crossed her arms in front of her before letting her gaze slide from his.

He cupped her face in his palm and turned her back to look at him. “This will work,” he repeated, warming to his theme. Sure, he’d never intended to get married again. One failure in that department had been more than enough for Tom Candello. And here was another chance to show the world what lousy fathers the Candello men made. Like his own dad before him, Tom had failed at fatherhood. And the thought of another failure wasn’t a pretty one. But this was a special circumstance. Kate was pregnant. With his baby. Their child. He couldn’t let her down.

She needed him.

And for now, that was enough.

On that thought, he suggested, “Think about this as if it’s a Corps assignment, Kate.”

“What?”

“We’re fellow officers. We like each other. We understand each other’s work.”

She smiled sadly. “Not much to base a marriage on, Thomas.”

“More than some people have,” he said, and smoothed her hair back behind her ear.

“And less than others.”

He knew what she was talking about. Love. Well, love wasn’t something he was interested in. Desire at least was honest. And he did desire her. Plus he genuinely liked her. Wasn’t that better than some indefinable emotion that broke as many hearts as it healed?

Stroking her cheekbone with the pad of his thumb, he said quietly, “Love’s not all it’s cracked up to be, Kate. I believe we can have a better-than-average marriage just by keeping love out of it. We’ll still manage to raise our child in a happy enough environment.”

Kate stared up at him for a long, thoughtful moment. The knot in her throat seemed to grow to colossal proportions, threatening to choke off her air entirely. His words keep repeating themselves over and over in her mind, like a tape stuck on Playback. “Keep love out of it. Happy enough environment. Better than average marriage.”

Not at all what she’d secretly yearned for the moment she’d first laid eyes on Colonel Thomas Candello. But fantasies and dreams had to give way to the realities of life...didn’t they?

And the cold, harsh reality was...she was pregnant. She was a Marine. And without the Corps she would have nothing to offer either herself or her child.

Because she really did have no choice at all here, she finally said, “All right, Thomas. I will marry you.”

He let out a pent-up breath and pulled her to him. As he wrapped his arms around her, Kate let herself lean against him, drawing on the strength he was offering her. Hoping they were doing the right thing.

For the baby and for them.

All she knew for sure was that the man she loved was marrying her—not because he couldn’t live without her—but because of a baby neither of them had counted on.