Free The Two and the Proud by Heather Long Page B

to where she worked and what she did for a living zinged her like a shock of static electricity. The clenched fist in her gut relaxed. Too often when men found what she did, they retreated or worse, they looked patronizing. The Marine sergeant did neither. He leaned closer.
    “How long?” Even better, he didn’t ask the typical follow-up question.
    “A few years. I got friendly with the agent onboard during my float on the Tortuga.” She cradled her beer bottle in her hands, twisting it back and forth. The cold moisture cooled the sudden warmth in her palms.
    “No way you were a sailor.” The corners of his mouth curved.
    “Hell, no. We stole the eagle from the Air Force, the anchor from the Navy, and the rope from the Army.” She lifted her eyebrows and waited. He didn’t need long.
    “On the seventh day when God rested, we took the perimeter and stole the globe and we’ve been running the show ever since.” Their bottles clinked together in a toast. “Fighters by day….”
    “Lovers by night. Drunkards by choice.” She finished it, joining him in the final act of the refrain. “And a United States Marine by an act of God.”
    They tipped their bottles back and drained them before setting them aside. Her face almost ached from the smile, but she was right. All the background info she dug through on the 1Night Stand service and the security clearance request she filed were worth it. They hadn’t made it out of the lounge and for the first time in months, she relaxed.
    “Seriously, why NCIS?”
    “Counterterrorism, investigation, keeping the Navy and the Marines safe here and abroad—it worked for me.” She licked her lips. “I like being a Marine. I liked serving, but I wanted to do more, too. The funny thing was, the agent afloat was this real player. He was forever taking women out when we were in port and he knew even more…but he never hit on us.”
    “’Cause you’d probably have hit him back.” Rowdy’s astute summation pegged it.
    “Probably.” She shrugged. “Still, he gave me an opportunity. A couple of years later when I cycled out, I gave him a call. He hooked me up and I got a job.”
    “That’s awesome. No seriously.” He raised a hand as if she’d protested the compliment. “Been thinking about what I want to do—got the letter a few weeks ago offering me an out. Don’t want to go back to the family business. Didn’t think about law enforcement.”
    “I work cold cases, mostly, but everyone deserves to have answers. What does your family do?”
    The waitress swung through and she didn’t bother with the flirt or come hither looks this time, replacing their beers with fresh ones. Rowdy waited till she left and turned sideways, their knees brushed and another finger of tension tightened inside of Kim.
    A deliciously provocative tension.
    “Military contractors. The family is Navy through and through. I’m the black sheep. I went Marines. Didn’t want to hoist the yardarm as it were.” His self-deprecation disguised the conflict his choice must have caused for his family. “Don’t get me wrong—they’re proud—but I’m not a nine-to-five paper pusher who enjoys blocking out the day with back-to-back meetings, inspections, and compliance reports.”
    She promised herself she wouldn’t make a face, but couldn’t help sticking her tongue out in a grimace. “Bleh.”
    “Exactly.”
    The third beer would be her last. The warm and fuzzy radiating out from her belly didn’t need any alcohol to fuel it.
    “I can appreciate that. I work for a living, and it’s not going to change.” She enjoyed his swift wit. “So why did you join?”
    “For the Marines? Or….” He lifted his eyebrows teasingly.
    “Both.”
    “Well there’s a long reason and a short one—”
    She arched her eyebrows at his dramatic pause, and laughed. “Please tell me you didn’t.”
    “Hey, you like my shoes—that’s the long reason.” He added salt to the tease with a wink, and she