Radclyffe - Firestorm

Mallory leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes. After midnight, and the pile of papers in front of her didn’t look any lower. Probably because she hadn’t managed to complete anything in the last hour, at least. Ever since Jac had gone upstairs to the loft, Mallory had been aware of her, even though only silence drifted down around her. No matter how hard she concentrated on filling out work rosters, she couldn’t keep her mind from wandering to Jac, lying upstairs asleep, breathing softly in the dark. She didn’t want to go up to bed. Foolish. Nothing had happened between them and nothing was going to, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that if she was that close to her, in the dark, in the night, alone, she would feel her in a way she’d never felt anyone before. Her skin disappeared when she was around Jac, and every sensation, every shiver, penetrated to her core as if she had no barriers at all. She pictured herself on her cot, listening to Jac breathe, and feared she’d imagine Jac lying next to her, naked. Her breasts tightened and her skin tingled. Oh no, she wasn’t going upstairs.

She’d sleep in the damn plane before she’d let herself get any more crazy over Jac.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Jac said from very close to her.

Mallory jumped. “God! Where did you come from?”

Jac grinned and pointed upward. “Remember?”

“Forgot all about you,” Mallory said through gritted teeth. Damn it. Jac was wearing a faded gray T-shirt with pinpoint holes over the belly, as if tiny sparks had drifted from the air and landed on it. Burning through. Faded letters said something Mallory couldn’t quite make out—baseball, maybe—under some kind of college logo. And sweatpants, just tight enough to show off her muscular thighs. Jac was almost certainly naked underneath. Mallory’s heart galloped and her fingertips almost vibrated, conjuring soft cotton over hard muscle.

“Want some company?”

“No. I’m working here,” Mallory said grumpily. Jac’s hair was tousled, just as Mallory imagined it would be, but she didn’t look sleepy. Her dark eyes glinted, and her handsome face was smooth and unwrinkled. She looked young and vigorous and unbelievably sexy. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Why aren’t you?”

“Because I’d rather do anything except paperwork, and now I’m being punished.”

Jac laughed, looked around the shadowy corner of the hangar, and pulled over a packing crate. As she sat down, she said, “Clear off a corner of your desk. You’re not doing that stuff anyhow.”

Mallory frowned, not bothering to debate the obvious. “Why?”

“Because,” Jac said, holding up a deck of cards, “I’m going to beat you at gin.”

The words were right on the tip of Mallory’s tongue— I’m not playing cards with you, go back to sleep, go away . But those weren’t the words that came out of her mouth. “Beat me? Oh, I don’t think so.”

Mallory heard the words and wondered what was wrong with her. Why couldn’t she seem to say no?

“You’re going to regret that, Mal.”

“Excuse me? Mal?” Mallory’s heart beat a wild tattoo against the inside of her ribs. “Where did that come from?”

“Ice doesn’t suit you. Not really.”

Jac watched her, searching, and Mallory couldn’t escape. “You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?” Jac riffled the cards in one hand. “Ready?”

“You’re incredibly sure of yourself.”

“I didn’t get the nickname Hotshot just last year, you know.”

Mallory glared. “Oh, you’re some kind of ringer, aren’t you? What, did you put yourself through college playing blackjack?”

Jac grinned. “Nope. I put myself through college dealing stud in a casino in Reno.”

“Same difference,” Mallory muttered. “Well, gin isn’t poker, Hotshot , and I’m very good at both.”

Jac deftly dealt out a hand of gin. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we.”

Mallory snatched up the cards. She had a good hand and allowed herself a moment of satisfaction. As she sorted her melds, she said, “How did your father feel about you being a card dealer?” Jac sucked in a breath, and Mallory mentally kicked herself. “Sorry. Out of bounds. I don’t know where that—”

“No, it’s okay,” Jac said calmly. “I’m just not used to people asking questions because they actually want to know about me and not him. And he didn’t like it—at all.” Jac’s smile was part pleased, part rueful. “He hated it, in fact, which is probably the reason I decided to do it in the first place. Then I found out I really liked it, it paid really well, and it was a great way to pick up girls.”

“Aha,” Mallory said. “Of course.”

“You want the turn card?”

“No.”

Jac took the upcard and tossed down a discard. “Of course what?”

“Nothing.” Mallory picked up Jac’s discard, pretending to shuffle the rest of her hand into a new order. “I’m sure you would have had no trouble getting girls even without the cards.”

“You think so? Why?”

Mallory stopped herself from saying You’re sexy as sin and the devil rides in your eyes . “Never mind.”

Jac chuckled, took a stock card, and discarded one. After a beat of silence she asked, “What about you? Girlfriend?”

Mallory drew from the deck and fanned her cards. “Gin. No.”

“Well hell,” Jac said. “We keeping score?”

“Of course we’re keeping score, Hotshot.”

Jac passed the cards for the deal. “How come?”

“How come we’re keeping score? Because I told you I was go—”

“No, you know what I mean.” Jac studied her cards intently, seeming oddly uncertain. “How come no girlfriend?”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Mallory said, completely at a loss as to why she was even answering, “but I live up here eight months out of the year. It’s not conducive to relationships.”

“What about dating?”

“What about it?” Mallory picked up her hand, feeling progressively more cranky. There were a million things she ought to be doing, and none of them included sitting up in the middle of the night with Jac Russo talking about things she never talked about. Not even with Sarah.

“We’re not exactly in Antarctica,” Jac said. “And although I haven’t actually verified this, we do get some time off now and then, don’t we?”

“If you make it through boot camp,” Mallory said, “you’ll be on rotation for fire call, and when you’re off, you’re welcome to go anywhere you want to.” And do anything you want, which will undoubtedly involve a woman. Probably more than one.

“Well then, there’s no reason not to have a date now and then, right?”

Mallory looked at Jac over the top of her cards, wondering where Jac was going with the conversation. Her expression was suspiciously innocent, but her eyes were anything but. If Mallory could only escape from Jac’s eyes, she could get control of herself again. But looking away was so hard. Jac’s gaze was so warm, so deep, so focused on her, the connection couldn’t have been any stronger if they were touching. However Jac managed it, Mallory hadn’t been able to break the link since the moment they’d met, and she was starting to get a little scared. Anger, she’d found, helped banish fear. “Is that your plan? Carousing on your off-hours?”

“I had thought of that,” Jac said, her mouth curving at one end. “Only not quite in those terms.”

“You’re all set, then, aren’t you?” Mallory discarded and immediately regretted it. She could have used the eight for a run.

“Looks like it,” Jac said, picking up Mallory’s discard. She laid her hand down. “Gin.”

“You talk too much while you play,” Mallory griped.