Free Red, Hot & Blue 09 - A Prince Among Men by Cat Johnson Page A

written it thinking the same? That online flirting was one thing, but she’d never follow through in real life?
    But still, Ryan couldn’t keep her in the dark. Withholding the truth didn’t sit well with his conscience. He would just have to take his chances at rejection.
    He opened his mouth to tell her when she interrupted his good intentions.
    “Hey, Ryan.”
    Phew. A reprieve. “Yeah?”
    “Can I ask you something?”
    His sex-deprived brain imagined what she might want to ask and how he would answer her. Will I help you out of those restrictive clothes? Yes, of course, I will. “Um, sure. What is it?”
    “I asked Hawk when you guys could take me out into the countryside to meet the locals, and instead of answering me, all he did was talk about the moon and poppies. Was he pulling my chain trying to avoid taking me?”
    At that question, an image popped into his head. The vision of his hands, chained and bound, unable to move. Vicki, clad in leather, torturing him with her tongue as he writhed with pleasure.
    What the… Where the hell had that come from?
    Ryan raised his eyes to find Vicki watching him expectantly, waiting for an answer to her perfectly innocent and logical question, not knowing at all that she starred as the dominatrix in the porn movie currently running in his head.
    “Um. No, he wasn’t, uh, yanking your chain.” Ryan’s face felt hot. And jeez, was he starting to sweat? He launched into his answer to Vicki’s question in hopes it would calm his libido, which had apparently sensed a female nearby and had kicked into overdrive.
    “Hawk meant that when there’s no moon showing the Taliban take advantage of the darkness and their movements and attacks are more frequent. And now that they aren’t all busy harvesting and transporting the poppies they use to produce the heroin that funds their little militant efforts, they have all the time in the world to plan and stage attacks. Our region gets pretty hot. The squad may have to travel outside of base under those conditions, but you don’t.”
    Vicki’s face paled a bit. “So knowing the enemy is out there and the likelihood of your getting attacked when you go into the countryside is very high, you guys still leave the safety of base?”
    While Ryan debated how to tell her that the base wasn’t all that safe, just safer than outside in the mountains, Vicki continued, “How can you do that? Why do you do it?”
    He shrugged. “It’s my job.”
    She still looked doubtful, so he went on. “And I do it for the guy standing next to me, just as he does it for me.”
    Vicki let out a short laugh and shook her head, still looking baffled.
    Ryan raised a brow. “What?”
    “You guys, soldiers I mean, are a different breed. You’re not like other men.”
    He considered that for a moment, weighing his chances with this girl. “And in your opinion, is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
    Vicki’s face softened as her eyes met his. “I haven’t decided yet.”
    Suddenly it was very tough to breathe as the squirrels moved from his drawers up into his chest. He had better start talking before he started kissing her. “So, um, you can sleep in here tonight.”
    Vicki’s expression showed her surprise. Her gaze swept the room that was already nearly wall-to-wall beds.
    Ryan decided he better clarify before she assumed she’d be sharing one of their beds, not that he would mind. Nuh, uh. Not one bit. “The squad’s going to be out all night on an overwatch mission. You’ll have the place to yourself until we get back in the morning.”
    She nodded, looking a bit relieved until she frowned. “This all-night mission is tonight?”
    Vicki’s hand landed lightly on Ryan’s forearm. He felt a shiver run through him. He nodded. “Yes.”
    “Do you want me to go somewhere else so you can take a nap before you have to leave?” she asked.
    “A nap? Um, no, that’s okay. I’m fine.”
    In spite of the feeling being this close physically