Free Conard County Marine by Rachel Lee Page B

she felt she’d been robbed of her future, maybe she could get back all the missing stuff that was good and skip the bad things.
    Yeah, how likely was that?
    He raised a hand to rub his chin and realized he desperately needed a shave. But not tonight. The rasping sound of his skin against the stubble drew Kylie’s gaze his way. He saw the fear pinching her eyes even as she offered a small smile.
    “I need a shave,” he remarked, trying to keep things light.
    “Thus speaks the marine.” Glenda grinned. “You’re not on duty, Gunny. Let it go.”
    “I often did when I was on a mission.” He seized on something that might amuse them both. “For a while I had a beard halfway down my chest. I blended better that way.”
    The eyes of both women widened and he could tell they were trying to imagine it.
    “Seriously,” he said, making a blade of his hand across his chest. “Down to here once.”
    Kylie tried to imagine it. “But wouldn’t your uniform give you away? How was that blending?”
    “I wasn’t always in uniform.”
    Simple truth. There were times he’d looked more like a mujahid than most of the mujahideen. Like an Afghan rebel. But he wasn’t allowed to talk about those times he’d been slipping around in places he wasn’t supposed to go, so he dropped it. No need to get into any of that. It wouldn’t help him to remember it and it wouldn’t help Kylie with any of her problems.
    Then Kylie turned the conversation back to their walk. “Was I crazy to feel I was watched? Coop?”
    He didn’t even hesitate. “No, I felt it, too. Most people can feel eyes on them. It was probably just folks looking out windows or whatever.” Lie. He didn’t believe it, but he didn’t want this woman any more frightened than she already was.
    “Yeah, probably,” she said quietly. “God, I hate this fear. I just wish it would go away. There’s no point to it. I’m safe here. How much safer could I be than being with you and Glenda?”
    Coop nodded in agreement, but he was sickeningly aware of how little real safety there was. “I don’t know if you’ll ever entirely shake it,” he admitted. “Look at Connie.”
    “Right,” said Glenda. “You heard her. Most of the time she forgets about it, but nearly losing Sophie...well, it still comes to mind from time to time. And now with this new incident, it must be like reliving her worst nightmare.”
    “She seems to be handling it well, though,” Kylie said.
    “She’s had more time,” Coop answered. “It’ll get easier, I promise.”
    Kylie seemed to wander off in her own thoughts for a few minutes, then shook herself and smiled. “I need to stop being such a baby. Worse things happen to people and they survive. I will, too.”
    “Of course you will,” Glenda said swiftly. “I don’t doubt it for a minute. You were always strong. That hasn’t changed.”
    Except in one important way, Coop thought but didn’t say. Later Kylie decided she wanted to try sleeping in her own bed by herself. He was sorry about that. He’d started to really like the long night hours with her head on his lap, stirring from sleep any time she moved or murmured.
    He wondered how many people looked as good as she did when they were sleeping. He doubted he looked good at all racked out with his face slack and probably snoring. Not that he snored, as far as he knew. No one had ever complained about it or mentioned it, and there’d been plenty of times when he would have been kicked awake by his buddy for making that kind of dangerous noise. No kicks had ever come his way.
    But still, he’d watched enough people sleep to know it wasn’t always pretty. But Kylie was. In sleep all the tension left her face and she looked almost like an angel. An angel he felt an increasing desire to make love to. This desire he felt for her was different, though. Women had revved him up before, made him nearly lose his mind with hunger, but this one...it was different.
    Softer. Kinder.