HOT Mess (Expanded Edition)(Hostile Operations Team - Book 2) Read online

  “You okay, G?”

  Her shoulders stiffened momentarily. “Fine. I fell last night and got a little bruised.”

  He didn’t know why, but that made his hackles rise. She’d been divorced from Tim for months, and while Tim was a class-A prick, Sam had never known him to be violent. But what if Georgie was seeing some guy who was?

  Sam would kill him, that’s what.

  Georgie entered a bright kitchen at the back of the house and walked over to the counter. “I was just coming down for coffee. You want some?”

  “Sure.”

  Sam stood there with his Army-issue beret in his hands and watched her move. She was stiff, but still so graceful. She grabbed two delicate-looking white cups and saucers from her cabinet.

  Georgeanne Hayes was Texas money, debutante balls, exclusive sororities, and country club all the way. She knew which fork to use, what to wear to any event, and she used bone china for her morning coffee.

  He was nothing but a poor kid from a broken and dysfunctional family. The Hayeses had looked out for him as much as they were able, but he’d pretty much known from the time he’d been about thirteen that the military was his future. It guaranteed him a way out of Hopeful when nothing else would. Georgie’s father had talked to him once about college, about helping him apply for student loans and getting him a job to pay the money back when he was through.

  Sam had been too proud to accept that kind of help. And too embarrassed to admit he didn’t think he was college material. His daddy grew angry over the time he spent with the Hayeses, accused him of “putting on airs.” Well, he wasn’t putting on airs, dammit, and he’d forged his own way in life. Maybe he wasn’t college educated, but he could damn well do things his father couldn’t.

  For that matter, he could do things that Rick and Mr. Hayes couldn’t either. Not that they needed to know how to breach a steel door, rescue a hostage before the clock ran out, or hit a bull’s-eye blindfolded. But he could, and it made him proud.

  Georgie fixed the coffee and pushed it at him over the counter. “Cream and sugar?”

  “No, thanks.” He took the delicate cup and saucer and held them without drinking.

  Georgie fixed her own and then looked him in the eye. “Did Rick send you?”

  He wasn’t surprised at her directness. “Of course he did. But I’m here because I want to be. It’s good to see you, Georgie.”

  She sighed, her shoulders slumping just a little. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been under some strain lately. I’m glad to see you, Sam. Glad you’re looking well. Rick told me you were in Afghanistan and Iraq lately. I was worried about you.”

  Her concern made a lump form in his throat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for thinking about me.”

  She studied him in a way he wasn’t quite accustomed to from her. “It’s been six years. I didn’t think I’d see you again after all this time. I even thought maybe you were avoiding me.”

  Maybe he had been. A little. “I never doubted we’d see each other eventually. Just been busy—and deployed. A lot.”

  “You’ve certainly been gone a long time.”

  “It’s what I signed up for.”

  She closed her eyes and tilted her head slowly to either side, stretching her muscles. He tried not to focus on the creamy skin of her neck while she moved so sensuously. He’d once had his mouth on that skin. He’d wanted, so badly, to put his mouth in other places too.

  “So what did Rick say? Check up on Georgie because I think she’s gone off her rocker?”

  Sam snorted a laugh. “Not quite. But yeah, he’s worried about you.”

  She came around the island and headed for the family room. When she settled on the couch, tucking her knees beneath her, Sam didn’t miss the way she grimaced. He sank onto a chair opposite.

  “I’m doing okay,” she said. “Tim and I just grew apart. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing I’ve ever been through, but the divorce was final almost a year ago now. I’ve moved on.”

  He searched her face for signs of strain. “Rick thinks you should go home to Texas.”

  She blinked at him. “And do what? Attend country club gatherings with my mother? Join the Junior League?” She shook her head. “I like DC. And I like what I do so I’m staying. The last I checked, I was all grown up. And that’s one of the perks.”

  Man, no wonder Rick had asked him to talk to her. Georgie wasn’t about to be pushed around. Unlike when they’d been kids. He was three years older than her and that made a huge difference at a young age. Now, not so much. “Didn’t peg you for a college professor.”

  She shrugged. “I always wanted to be a writer, so the English degree was no stretch. Turns out I enjoy the teaching more than the writing, so here I am.”

  “I’m sure you’re great at what you do. The college kids must love you.”

  She laughed. “They aren’t really kids, Sam. Didn’t Rick tell you?” When he shook his head, she kept going. “I teach in the adult education program. My students are men and women like you. I’m at the Pentagon two nights a week, at Bolling two nights, and Quantico some weekends.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Enough about me. Tell me about you. What are you doing in DC?”

  He couldn’t tell her about HOT. That wasn’t authorized. Now that he’d in-processed, he was pulling duty out at their smoking new training facility on a military base in Maryland. Getting to know the guys he’d be working with, the routines, everything. HOT had only moved to DC a few weeks ago. Before that they’d been down at Fort Bragg.

  “Just got here for a new assignment. When I called Rick, he told me you were here.”

  “Tim took a job in DC two years ago. I followed him, of course. Left a good job at the University of Texas, too.”

  Sam leaned forward. He wanted to touch her, but he wisely refrained. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Georgie.”

  She swallowed. And then she shrugged as if it were nothing. “Sometimes it doesn’t. Lesson learned and all that.”

  Sam set the coffee down on the end table. He knew about marriages that didn’t work out. He couldn’t imagine Tim Cash screaming at Georgie the way his father had screamed at his mother though. Couldn’t imagine Georgie crying and begging for another chance. The idea of her crying over that dickhead made him sick.

  As if she’d just remembered why he’d spent so much time at her house as a kid, her expression changed into something that looked too much like pity for comfort. “Oh, Sam, I didn’t mean—”

  He stood abruptly. The one thing he couldn’t stomach from anyone was pity. “I have to get to work, Georgie. I just wanted to stop by and see how you were.”

  She looked up at him, her eyes bright. He hoped those weren’t tears. If they were, he was sunk. Georgie Hayes crying always brought out his protective instincts. She bit her lip and looked away again. “Of course. But can I ask you something first?”

  A wave of tension rolled through him. He had no idea what the fuck she might ask. But he couldn’t refuse her when it seemed such an easy thing on the surface.

  “Anything, G. You can ask me anything.”

  3

  Georgie couldn’t believe that Sam McKnight was standing in her house, looking so damn handsome and perfect and remote that she wanted to scream. When she’d been old enough to notice boys, he’d been everything she’d ever wanted. Three years older than she was, he hadn’t been interested in the least. But he’d given her a lot of angsty nights dreaming about him.

  He’d spent a lot of time at the Hayeses’ house. His parents didn’t have much money and they all lived in a run-down trailer in the middle of a field about six miles from town. She remembered one summer when Sam had stayed at their house from the day school let out until right before it started again. Her parents hadn’t minded. Rick was happy to have his best friend around and Georgie was happy to gaze blissfully at Sam over the dinner table every night.

  She remembered when his parents divorced, too. He’d been sixteen, and he’d grown tig
ht-lipped and sullen. He and Rick spent hours playing their guitars and sneaking Dad’s beer from the pool-house fridge. By then she’d been a love-struck thirteen-year-old. She’d spent hours writing Mrs. Georgeanne McKnight in her diary. And she’d followed him around, asking questions, trying to get him to notice her.

  He had, but never as anything more than Rick’s annoying little sister. He’d treated her exactly as Rick had treated her. Except for that one extremely memorable time when she’d been eighteen. Holy smokes, what a night that had almost been. She could still taste the disappointment and humiliation of being pushed away as if it were yesterday.

  She’d been burning up for him, wet and ready—and he’d stopped right before he’d gotten to the good part. Her fault. Shame still burned inside her when she thought of it. She only hoped it didn’t show on her face.

  Right now she’d blundered when she’d started talking about divorce and relationships not working out. Sometimes it wasn’t so simple. Sometimes people grew to hate each other, and sometimes they dragged their kids into the hell they created. Sam had been torn between parents who viciously despised each other and who used him as a weapon in their war. He’d suffered. She’d known it on some level, even as a thirteen-year-old.

  Georgie swallowed the lump in her throat. She was on edge, emotional, and a big part of it was due to seeing him again. Six years, and he still had the ability to make her heart speed up.

  My God.

  He’d always been handsome, but now? Now he was big and full of hard muscle that shifted beneath his shirt when he moved. His hair was short, though not as short as she was used to seeing on many of her Army students. His eyes were the most remarkable thing, though. They had depths she didn’t remember. Hidden secrets.

  “I… I was just wondering if you knew how I could find out if a soldier has been deployed. I’ve tried his unit orderly room, but they won’t tell me.”

  Sam’s brows drew down and she knew he was thinking not only about what she’d asked him, but also about why she wanted to know. She didn’t know why she’d tossed it out there, except that Sam was in the Army and maybe he knew how these things worked. Clearly, she didn’t.

  “Why do you need to know if someone has been deployed?”

  She shifted on the couch, her aching muscles protesting the movement. She’d nearly taken a dive onto the tracks last night, but just as she felt herself falling into the darkness below the platform, a man had grabbed her and pulled her free. She hadn’t seen his face, but she was forever grateful to him.

  Sam was still gazing at her with a look of bafflement—and maybe concern—on his face.

  “I have a student who stopped coming to class. It’s unusual.”

  Sam frowned for a second. And then he shook his head. She wondered if he’d been expecting her to say something else.

  “Not for an active-duty soldier. Things come up, sometimes at a moment’s notice.”

  She could feel fresh heat creeping into her cheeks. Hadn’t she thought the same thing herself? “He worked in General Porter’s office.”

  Sam eyes narrowed. “Porter’s part of DARPA. Maybe the guy had to go somewhere for a test.”

  She’d been working with the military for over a year now and the acronyms still went over her head sometimes. “DARPA? What’s that?”

  “It’s the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. They work on technological projects designed to advance military capabilities around the globe. Real cloak-and-dagger stuff.”

  Georgie shivered. Jake worked on cloak-and-dagger projects? “Sounds very secretive.”

  “It is. But what I just told you is the kind of thing you’d find on Wikipedia. The projects are classified, but not the existence of the agency or their basic mission.”

  Georgie frowned as she studied the coffee in her hands. She was being silly. Jake had been sent somewhere and it was far more important to him than the possibility of a less-than-perfect GPA. “So he could have just gone away at a moment’s notice?”

  “Very possible.”

  Yet she couldn’t forget that night in the Metro when he’d been talking to the man who’d given her a vaguely uneasy feeling. “I guess I can’t verify it in any way.”

  “Probably not.” After a moment, Sam sighed, his rigid stance relaxing a hair. “Give me his name and I’ll see what I can find out. I’m not promising anything, but maybe if I ask the right people I can find out when he’ll be back.”

  “That would be amazing. Army Sergeant Jake Hamilton.”

  Sam slapped the beret against his leg. “I really have to go, G. I have to get out to Maryland before the traffic gets too bad.”

  Georgie dragged herself up, wincing as she put weight on her leg. “I appreciate you checking into this for me.”

  Sam’s expression had turned hard, as if he wanted to punch something. It disconcerted her for a moment, but then she realized it was just his protective instincts coming out at the evidence of her discomfort. No bully had ever bothered her for long with Sam and Rick around.

  “You need to take a hot bath and relax.”

  She smiled. “Did that last night. I imagine the bruising will only get worse before it gets better.”

  Sam shoved a hand through his hair, which was sort of senseless since it was cropped so short. It was completely sexy on him. As were the muscles. Georgie forced herself to concentrate on his dark, glittering eyes. Put those muscles from your mind, girl.

  “How did you fall?”

  “Someone bumped into me in the Metro. I went down hard.”

  It was the truth, though she left out the part about nearly falling into a train’s path. Sam wouldn’t hesitate to call Rick about it, and then Rick would call their mother. Cynthia Tolliver Hayes would be on the next plane to DC. Georgie suppressed a shudder. She loved her mother but the woman would suffocate her if she showed up.

  Sam took a card from his pocket and wrote a number on it with the pen sitting on her coffee table. His tanned fingers were long and strong, and she found herself shivering involuntarily as she watched him write. Then he straightened again and she tried to force her mind away from his hands.

  Hands that had once caressed her so sweetly she’d nearly cried. He’d slid a finger into her wet folds, stroked her until she’d sobbed his name. Her body clenched with the memory, even now. It had been far too long since she’d desired a man, far too long since she’d felt anything remotely like need flare deep inside her.

  But right now if Sam McKnight asked her to strip naked and lie back on the sofa, she’d do it in a heartbeat.

  “Call me if you need anything, Georgie.”

  She tried not to swallow her tongue. If she needed anything.

  Gawd almighty.

  She took the card, and then they stood there awkwardly for several moments while she wondered whether she should give him a friendly hug. How did you hug a man you’d once wanted with every ounce of desire in your body? A man who was currently making you zing with sparks you hadn’t felt in a long damn time?

  “Goodbye, Georgie.”

  Her heart turned over but she managed to smile. “Bye, Sam. It was great seeing you.”

  “You too.” He hesitated so long she thought he might say something else, but then he turned and walked back down the hallway. She listened to the door snick closed behind him, and then she cursed herself up one side and down the other.

  Way to go, Georgie-girl.

  4

  Sam prowled around HOT headquarters like an angry lion. He didn’t know why he was so worked up over Georgie needing to know about a soldier. But he was. He could still hear the way she said the guy’s name, with such concern, until it twisted up inside his brain and made him want to dig it out by any means possible.

  Jake Hamilton. She’d said he was just a good student she was concerned about, but she sounded almost fond of the guy. What if there was more to it than that? What if she had a thing going with Jake Hamilton and didn’t want to admit it?

 
The thought didn’t sit quite right with Sam, though God knew he didn’t have even the ghost of a reason to be upset about it. He’d given up that right a long time ago.

  Georgie was off-limits to him. Always had been, even if he’d nearly fucked it up once.

  He could still taste her sweet mouth, the nectar of her pussy on his fingers, the drumbeat of hot desire that had pounded in his brain until he’d been nearly mindless with the urge to slide into her body and give them both some sweet relief.

  But then she’d whispered that she was still a virgin—that she’d saved herself for him—and he’d known he had to stop. How could he take what she offered with a clear conscience, knowing he could never give her more than a few stolen nights? Georgie had convinced herself she was in love with him when all he wanted was sex. If she’d been anybody else, he might not have cared. But she was Georgie, and he knew he couldn’t break her heart like that.

  Aside from that one incident, she was like a sister to him. He’d spent long summers at her house, pretending not to notice her following him around like a lovesick puppy, and he’d grown to care about her. Hell, he cared about all the Hayeses. Rick, his mom and dad, and little Georgie. They’d given him shelter when he’d had none, given him a place to be a kid when his house was nothing but a battleground.

  That was why he’d do whatever he could for any of them. So if Georgie was concerned about Sergeant Hamilton, then Sam would do his best. And he wouldn’t feel a pinch in his heart over the way she said the guy’s name or the blatant concern on her face or the thought there might be more between her and this soldier than she’d admitted.

  Sam walked back inside the offices where his new squad was located and plopped down at the desk he’d been assigned. There was nothing on it yet but a computer and some binders containing mission briefs. He was pumped to be here, but he couldn’t give it his full concentration just yet.

  “Yo, Knight Rider, you got everything you need?”