Page 17 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
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What am I doing?Lark is not anything like the women I want in my bed. Well, not normally…
He watched as she licked her bottom lip and thought about how to answer his provocative question. God, did she even realize what she was doing? Kostya didn’t think so; he’d seen her in multiple situations, and she’d never come across as provocative. Alluring, sure, but not in a way that said she was trying to attract him or anyone of his teammates. Nope, she was always the consummate professional.
Except for Afghanistan, then she’d been a royal pain in my ass.
Kostya grinned.
“Are you going to answer my question?” Kostya asked.
“I haven’t noticed as much about you as I did about Gray if that’s what you’re asking. At least not your mannerisms and such. Instead, I’ve focused more on your ability to take command and your intelligence.”
She bent her head. Her shoulder-length blonde hair shielded part of her face as she said the last part of the sentence.
Interesting.
“I’ve noticed things about you,” Kostya murmured.
“Sure you have,” Lark said with a grimace as she turned back toward him. “You noticed how much I bitched when we were in that god-awful cage in Afghanistan.”
“Well sure,” Kostya grinned. “That was hard to miss. But I also noticed the woman who refused to be saved unless we also brought Samira and her daughters to safety. I remember a woman whose commitment to what she thinks is right is more important than her own life. That’s what I remember.”
Lark smirked. “Come on, Kostya, you’re basically describing yourself and every other Navy SEAL. I’m not special.” Once again she shielded her expression with her hair as she reached for her empty glass.
Kostya tucked her hair behind her ear, and Lark’s head shot up in surprise.
“Lark, this is our job, we trained for this. But you doing it? That’s something else entirely.”
Her light blue eyes gleamed silver in the muted lights of the bar.
“Okay,” she finally said. Then she pulled her phone out of her clutch and glanced down at it. “The reception is due to start in an hour and fifteen minutes. What do you think, should we go to the ballroom?”
“Are you bored with my company already?”
Her eyes widened just a bit. “No, of course not. I just don’t want to have too many drinks before dinner since they’re sure to serve wine.”
“You know, we could sit here and not drink,” Kostya pointed out. “There is something called conversation.”
“Kostya, what are we doing here? I mean really? Yeah, I call you occasionally when some situation comes up that I think you could help with, but I do the same thing with Mason Gault and Kane McNamara.”
“We’retalking, Lark. If it takes us someplace else, well, who’s to say.”
Her eyes went wide, then changed to give him a considering look.
“Like where? Bed?”
“Is that where you want it to lead?” he asked quietly.
He watched as her eyes shifted and she took in his shoulders, his chest, then downward to his waist and further down to his crotch, then back up to his eyes. For just a second he could have sworn he saw trepidation. She bit her bottom lip, then cleared her throat and sat up straighter, and gave him a firm smile.
“Look, Kostya, you’re a nice guy, but I really don’t see a tangle of sheets in our future.”
Well damn.
That was the first time a woman had so blatantly perused his body and he’d come up wanting. He didn’t quite know how he felt about that. Kostya took more than a few seconds to think up a response.
“So, friends?” he asked slowly as he held out his hand.
