“You don’t get along?” she fished.
“No.”
“Does he still live on the res?” Hotwire had told her once that Daniel had been raised on a reservation, but not why he’d left it.
“No.”
If he were anyone else, she’d be sure the short answers meant he didn’t want to talk about it, but Daniel was laconic at the best of times. He was also blunt enough to tell her to mind her own business if she asked him something he didn’t want to answer.
“Where is he?”
“In prison.”
No wonder Daniel didn’t like resembling his father.
“What about your mom?”
“She died before he went to prison.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I am, too. She was a gentle woman. Soft.”
She stretched, pulling her T-shirt taut across her braless breasts, the nipples of which were still reacting to the image of licking syrup from his naked torso. “Unlike me.”
Daniel’s grim expression turned sexual in a heartbeat, just as she’d hoped it would. She remembered what he’d said about her softness yesterday and wanted to refocus his mind and take the look of grief out of his eyes.
“You feel soft enough to me.”
She grinned, feeling soft in a place she couldn’t afford to tell him about. Her heart. “I’m glad you think so.”
“Hashkeh Naabah.”
“What?”
“It’s my true name among the Sioux.”
“What does it mean?”
“Angry Warrior.”
“Why?”
“I made no secret of the fact that as soon as I was old enough I would leave the reservation. The one way I knew I could do it was as a soldier, so I told everyone I was going to become one.”
“Why angry?”
“I have a hel—heck of a temper.”
She smiled at how he stopped himself from swearing. She liked that he tried to around her. It was like an ongoing reminder he saw her as more woman than soldier. Not that she was a soldier anymore…at least that’s what she kept telling herself. How well her attempt at transformation was working, she wasn’t entirely sure.
After all, she’d armed herself just like the old days when she took Daniel into her dad’s hidden underground room.
“I’ve never seen you lose your temper.”
“That’s because you didn’t meet me until after I was assigned under Master Sergeant Cordell.”
“He taught you to control your temper?”
“Yes. He knew about my dad and drilled self-control into me as an alternative to turning out like him.”
“Your dad has a bad temper?”
“Yes.”
She wondered if that was why he’d ended up in prison, but didn’t want to hurt Daniel by asking. “Master Sergeant Cordell must be a pretty good trainer.”
“He is. He’s the one that nicknamed me Nitro. I hated it at the time. It was a constant reminder I was like my dad. He meant it to be. He pushed my temper every chance he got until I could control my anger in the most provoking circumstances he could imagine, and he had a pretty good imagination.”
Josie read between the lines to the torment Daniel must have endured to learn his immovable self-control and shuddered. “I’m not sure I’d like this master sergeant.”
“You will.”
“You expect me to meet him?”
“I want you to.”
“Why?”
“He’s a friend.”
“Where does he live?”
“He retired to Tillamook.”
“Is that why you wanted to buy in to my dad’s training school? So you could be near him more often?”
“That was one reason.”
She knew the other already. Daniel wasn’t ready to get out of the business, even though Wolf and Hotwire had been. He’d turned down their offer of partnership in the security consulting venture in order to go into soldier training with her dad.
Not wanting to dwell on his inability to move on from the paramilitary life, she said, “My mom used to call me Josie-bear.”
One corner of his mouth tilted, and his brown eyes warmed. “Is that your secret name?”
She nodded gravely. “I don’t bandy it about.”
“I can see why.”
“You think it’s too kidish, or that it doesn’t fit?” she asked archly, never having been flirtatious in her whole life. “Don’t you find me huggable?”
“The name fits you perfectly, but you’re safer not advertising how cuddly you are. Other men might get the wrong idea.”
“You mean that they can cuddle me?”
“They can’t.” He was back to looking fierce.
“You’re pretty possessive for a guy who sees me as nothing more than an obsession.”
“You’re my obsession.” But he didn’t deny that’s all she was to him.
“For now,” she taunted, unable to stifle the need to push him.
“For as long as you agree to share your body with mine.”
“You mean our arrangement is exclusive?”
“Damn right it is.”
“Watch it, Nitro, your temper is slipping.” And wasn’t it interesting she could impact it like she did, a mere obsession like her.
Her thoughts splintered as he stood up in a silent, feral rush. He came around the table with an unmistakable intent.
“I was just teasing you,” she screeched as he pulled her out of her chair and swung her up over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“Feeding my obsession.”
“Are you sure you’re not just trying to assert your male dominance?” she asked breathlessly as she fell back on the bed where he tossed her.
“No man could dominate you, little warrior.”
Maybe not, but her love for a man might make her submit to behavior she would normally crush beneath her size-seven combat boots. “I’m not a warrior. Not anymore.”
“You’re a warrior in here.” He pressed his forefinger against her left breast. “It doesn’t matter what you do with your life; underneath you’ll always be who you are.”
If someone else had said that, she would have felt despair, and a resurgence of her ongoing fear she would never have a normal life, but the way he said it made her feel as though being a warrior at heart was a good thing. His expression said that to him, she was anything but a freak, so she smiled and pulled his head down to hers.
Their lovemaking was elemental and fast and left her panting beneath Daniel in total shock at how quickly her body could find the ultimate pleasure in his.
