Page 12 of Keeping Laryn
“Besides, I’m notreallyconsidering it. But some of the people offering me jobs have been pretty unrelenting. They think I’m playing hard to get and angling for better offers.” She laughed. “I’ve even been offered my own harem of men, ready and willing to do whatever I want. It’s crazy, actually.”
The thought of Laryn with another man made Casper’s skin crawl. It was a surprising reaction, considering their past…or lack thereof.
His body moved before his brain could catch up, scooting over on the couch until he was sitting right next to her. His thigh touched hers, and this close, her vanilla scent drove him crazy. He couldn’t resist, leaning in until his nose was almost touching her neck.
“What are you doing?” she asked, almost sounding panicked.
Casper had no ideawhathe was doing, except that it feltright. This woman had been right under his nose for years, and he’d failed to see what a gem she was. The longer he was around her, the more he learned about her, the more intrigued he became. She didn’t care about money, that was obvious; if she did, she would’ve been gone a long time ago, lured away by some other company’s or country’s monetary offer. She was loyal and patriotic. She was hard-working…and Casper liked that a hell of a lot.
He also hadn’t missed the way she’d specifically mentioned cutting corners could hurt him. Yes, she’d included his fellow pilots and the SEALs they often carried, but they were almost an afterthought.
Now that he was paying close attention, it wasn’t hard to see that she was interested in him. Casper wasn’t being conceited, thinking all women wanted him, but he’d gotten very good at reading the signs over the years. And Laryn wasn’t all that good at the game of being coy. All her emotions were there to read in her eyes. In her body language. Even now, though she’d sounded panicked, she wasn’t pulling back, wasn’t telling him to get the hell away from her. She sat stiffly, yes, but he could see her heart beating in the artery in her neck and the instant flush on her cheeks the moment he scooted closer. Could hear her breathing increase.
“You smell delicious. Is that soap? Lotion?”
“Both. Why?”
He should stay away from her. If he chased away the best mechanic the Army had ever had, he’d feel like shit. But he was drawn to her, was kicking himself for not paying better attention to the shy, liked-to-fade-into-the-background woman who’d been such a huge part of his life for years.
“Tate?” she asked uncertainly.
That was another thing. The way she called him Tate made him feel like a different man. Not the hotshot Night Stalker everyone wanted a piece of. The Army wanted to control him.Women wanted him in their bed. Men felt that if they could get close, some of his supposed badass-ness would rub off on them.
All Casper wanted was to be himself. To find someone like his twin had, who would let him be who he was…the guy who liked to read instead of watch TV at night, who loved to cook, who could sit for hours in a quiet garden, soaking in the outdoors.
Was Laryn that person? He had no idea, but when he was around her, he felt more like the person he’d been when he’d joined the Army—naïve and fresh-faced, excited about the future—than the cynical, jaded man he’d started to become over the years.
His nose brushed against the skin under Laryn’s ear, and he felt her shiver at the slight touch—before she abruptly leaped from the couch and turned to face him with a frown.
“What the hell was that?”
“What?” Casper asked with a slight grin. He’d definitely felt her reaction to him. It was heady. He liked being the pursuer for once. It had been years since he’d found a woman he was interested in who made him work to woo her. And it was quite clear that Laryn Hardy wasn’t going to jump into his arms at the smallest sign from him that he wanted her.
No, she wasn’t like the women at Anchor Point, who went there trolling for sailors and pilots and didn’t care which one they ended up with.
“You think you can come here and knock on my door, make me dinner, then sweet talk me to get me into bed? Not happening, hotshot. I wouldn’t sleep with you if you were the last man on the planet! And I don’t appreciate you trying to seduce me to keep me from entertaining any other job offers.”
“That’s not what I was doing!” Casper protested, genuinely shocked that she’d think such a thing.
She snorted. “Yeah, right. You expect me to believe that afterthree years, you’ve suddenly discovered that you want me? Give me a break. I’m not that stupid. Get out.”
“Laryn—” he started.
She shook her head. “No. I want you out, Tate. Now.”
Casper slowly stood. This wasn’t how he’d wanted things to go. He wasn’t entirely surewhathe’d wanted to happen, but it wasn’t for her to get pissed off and kick him out. But if she thought things between them were going to go back to the way they were…she was very wrong.
“I’ll go. I honestly didn’t come here to get you into bed. I wouldn’t disrespect you that way. Believe it or not, I came because…well…I was worried about you. You work really hard, and you’ve done an amazing job getting the new MH-60 ready for the flight trials. I have no doubt that everything is going to go perfectly, and we’ll all be on our way to the Middle East next week.
“And yes, I’ve apparently had blinders on for the last three years, but they’re gone now. I see you, Laryn Hardy—and I like what I see. I want a chance to get to know you better. To be friends. And maybe something more. Either way, things are going to be different from here on out. I’m going to be around a lot.”
“And what if I don’t want you around?” Laryn asked. “If I say no?”
Casper was frustrated, but it was a good question. “If you truly don’t want to be my friend, I’ll back off. I’m not the kind of man who can’t take no for an answer. If you aren’t interested, we can go back to being pilot and mechanic, only talking about the choppers and how they’re operating. But I think if you give me a chance to show you that I’m serious about wanting to get to know you better, you’ll find that I’m a pretty decent guy. My dad raised Nate and I to respect women. To treat them right.”
Laryn didn’t respond, simply stared at him.
Casper was taking that as a win…for now.
