Read Online Until There Was You (Coming Home, #2) by Jessica Scott - Free Book Online

His cheeks cut sharply against the shadows beneath his dark, dark eyes.
    He hadn’t slept well and she wondered why. She couldn’t see the almighty Evan Loehr succumbing to nightmares. That would be too common of him. But she wondered if he dreamed. And in those dreams, did he let himself go or did he retain the tight control she saw now, pulsing through his clenched jaw and the tight muscles in his neck?
    The hard contours of his chest stood out in stark relief against the grey cotton T-shirt. She smiled faintly. He wore his dog tags even in civilian clothes to work out. Always a soldier.
    She pulled her rampant thoughts roughly in line, then dug her nails into her palms to keep herself grounded in the moment. A deep, primitive hunger clawed at her and made her want what she could not have. “So, ah, about last night …” Claire really didn’t have the words to put what she needed to say into anything resembling coherent conversation. Too bad her brain was somewhere between her thighs at the moment.
    He said nothing for the longest time. Then he exhaled sharply. “There’s a storm coming in tomorrow.”
    That was it? A kiss that rocked her entire way of looking at Evan Loehr and he wanted to talk about a snowstorm. Wow, how was that for a confidence boost? Shenarrowed her eyes. He wanted to avoid the subject. Fine. She damn sure wasn’t about to beg him to talk about it.
    “I just got off the phone with the brigade ops officer. Colonel Danvers is talking about cancelling training because of the snowstorm.”
    Claire swore beneath her breath, pissed about Evan’s brush-off and fully irritated at the thought of the snowstorm interrupting the training timeline. “Damn it, first we waste half a day with that stupid bonfire. Now a storm? Are we ever going to get any training done?”
    “If the roads are too dangerous, they need to shut them down. Otherwise, people do stupid things like try to drive on them.” He shrugged and a shadow crossed his face, a hint of old memories. Something in his eyes pulled at her and she stomped it down, uncomfortable with the direction of her thoughts. This. This was why she didn’t fool around with people she worked with.
    “Yeah, well, there’s such a thing as being too risk averse. We’re not getting anything done.”
    “I can’t believe you’re complaining about this,” he snapped. “You can’t control the weather, Claire.”
    Her mouth worked but nothing came out for a long moment. This was an old, familiar path between them. The tension of that awkward-as-hell kiss was gone, melted into the floor like a pool of melted snow. “Really? Well, on the bright side, if they close the post, maybe they’ll cut out a day of death by PowerPoint and we can get out to the range and start blowing things up instead of just
talking
about blowing things up.”
    Anger flashed across Evan’s face. “You honestly think they’re going to cancel the briefings? If anything, they’ll tack on extra hours to each day to fit them in.”
    “Heaven forbid we don’t teach a lieutenant how to brief.” Claire let the irritation rip, glad for the cover it offered from the lingering distraction of his kiss. She didn’t want to remember the feel of his lips moving over hers or the thread of his fingers through herhair. She felt needy. Claire hated feeling needy. “You could recommend it,” she said suddenly.
    “Recommend what, exactly?”
    “Recommend to Colonel Danvers that he change the focus to ranges and weapons training instead of insisting on all these stupid meetings.” A faint wisp of hope uncurled in the vicinity of her chest.
    Evan shook his head. “Do you have any idea what it’s like with some of these guys? I’m a captain. Captains don’t recommend that a full bird colonel change his training plan just because someone on my team thinks it’s stupid.”
    “What part of combat operations leads you to think that a PowerPoint slide on the proper storage of gasoline in Iraq