Code Red: The First Mission ~ Chapter 3 B

Mika's Note: Are you laughing yet?  This was titled Trouble in Paradise and is yet another section added after the fact.  I keep hoping all this is adding depth but am horribly afraid it's just confusing the issue...

Opening her eyes, she looked around the living area of the hotel room. Not seeing anything immediately, Ali sat up and rubbed her eyes, scanning the darkness a second time. There it is again. Leaving her bed on the couch, she checked the door to make sure it was locked. Moving to the kitchen, she assured that all was code green: good to go.

This flippin’ hotel room is nicer than my damn apartment.

“So what the hell am I hearing?” she asked herself quietly. “Front door is secure, balcony door ditto. Kitchen and all other areas clear. And Bryan’s sound asleep on the floor.”

Ali made a second round of the hotel room and paused outside Blake’s door. Lifting her hand, she got ready to knock when she discovered the source of the noise. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. I do not want to know what they’re doing. I do not even wanna…

“Ali?”

She turned quickly, firearm ready. “Damn, Bryan!” Lowering her weapon, she glared at him. “You know better than to sneak up on me!”

“Sorry. Noticed you were up. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Thought I heard something is all.” Returning to the couch, she sat and stretched. “It was apparently just them.”

“Them?” He looked back over his shoulder and realized whom she meant. “Oh. Yeah.” He frowned for a second before asking, “Were they… um, are they…”

An odd mix of emotion crossed his face as Ali watched the situation hit home with him. Sparing him the effort, she just nodded. “I’m assuming so. Either that or there is someone in there murdering Miss Morgan.”

Bryan’s frown deepened. “That’s not funny.”

“I know, I know. What did you want me to say?”

“Nothing, Allyson. I’m going back to bed.”

Ali let go of her anger and her jealousy. “I’m sorry, Bryan. This has just been a long, boring assignment. I’m tired. I want to go home. I’m enjoying the company, but there just doesn’t appear to be a threat anywhere. I feel like I’m wasting my time.” Wasting my time chasing a man I can’t have, maybe.

“Well then, I guess you’ll be happy to hear that as soon as your brother and his cohort return from their current assignment, they’ll be replacing you here.

Panic flooded her suddenly. What did he just say? “I’m being reassigned in the middle of this? I don’t think you’ve ever taken me off an assignment before it was complete.”

“You just said yourself that you were bored. Besides, we have need of you elsewhere. Now, I’m really going back to bed.”

“Night, Bryan,” she mumbled. She watched him bed down on the floor, thankful for his insisting she sleep on the couch. Lying against the arm of the couch, she stared at the ceiling, relieved that in the darkness he hadn’t been able to read her expression. What would he have seen anyway? Hurt? Anger? Frustration?

Who knows, Ali? Does it even matter now anyway? Now that it’s clear Blake isn’t quite done with Leslie yet?

She squeezed her eyes closed against the flood that threatened at their rims. Breathing slow and deep, she forced herself to relax and rein in her rampant emotions. This was completely unlike her to get caught up in a man like this. When the hell did she become so attached? And why? It couldn’t have been because of what happened earlier. Sex was just that – sex. And it didn’t matter how hot the Cowboy was. Not like they’d managed to get very far anyway. Just enough to get her started. And apparently unable to stop.

Ali knew better, even if she was unwilling to admit it to herself. She’d fallen hard for the tall, lanky goofball on the day they’d met. He had a knack for being irritating and loveable all at the same time. His goofy personality melded with his immeasurable talent and boyish good looks and hit her right where she was weakest: her heart. Despite knowing ahead of time that he’d had a girlfriend, she couldn’t help but be attracted to him; he was one of the few men she knew who still treated her like a woman, and not like what she was: a soldier. She was in deep and couldn’t see any way out.

~*~

He watched her brewing coffee in her pajamas. Dressed in nothing but a tank top and cast-off boxers, she had his complete attention, even at this early hour. Needing to feel her body against his, he stepped behind her and reached an arm around her waist.

“Don’t touch me, Blake.”

“How’d you…” he asked, confused.

“I could hear you breathing. Besides, I’m trained not to miss things like that. Be glad of it too.”

“I just want a hug.”

Ali looked over her shoulder and frowned at him. His hair stuck up in wild cowlicks across his head while his deep blue eyes still held that sleepy ‘just-woke-up’ look. “You smell like her cologne.”

Blake took her by the arm and turned her until they were face-to-face. “Does that mean you’re jealous?”

“No,” she swallowed her initial positive response, forcing herself into her persona-mode. “It just means I’m stupid.”

“That’s not fair,” he protested, trying to keep her from walking away.

“Only as fair as you using my lonely heart against me to pass the time with.” And that was completely unfair. “If all you were looking for was a night or two, you should have just told me before…” She quickly bit off the rest of her response, before her poor, lonely heart could completely betray her.

“Before what?” He moved closer, backing her against the kitchen counter. “And what makes you think I don’t want more from you?”

Blake leaned in to kiss her; she pushed him back, more roughly than she’d intended. “You do realize Bryan is up and on the prowl, right? You cannot touch me like this when he’s around. Or at all anymore.” She moved out of his reach and poured herself a bowl of cereal. “And how do I know you don’t want more? Shall I point out how loud the two of you were last night?” She instantly regretted her remarks. He at least had the courtesy to look ashamed.

“I’d say I didn’t have a choice but I know you wouldn’t buy that.”

“Not a chance, Cowboy.”

He gave her a sideways grin. “And it wouldn’t really be true anyway. You had me so riled up yesterday…”

She held one hand up. “’Nuff said. I really don’t want any more details.”

His grin broadened suddenly. “I could always show you.”

“Show her what?” Bryan asked from the doorway. “And what the hell are you wearing, Ali?”

“My ‘jamas,” she told him, carrying her cereal to the dining area.

“And you?”

Blake shrugged. “Just offering to show her how to shoot a bow. Told me she already knew.” He shrugged again, following Ali to the table.

He sat down across from her, watching her eat. Bryan moved behind her, studying their reactions to one another. “I’m going to check on Miss Morgan since you two seem to be on task.”

Once he’d left the area, Blake caught Ali’s gaze. “I want so much more with you than you’ll let me have. I could give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of and then some. I’m not as successful as a lot of these guys are, but I do okay.” He took her hand in his and squeezed. “And I can love you like no one’s business, if you let me.”

She pulled her hand back. “You know that can’t happen, we’ve had this discussion already. Besides, men don’t date girls like me.”

“I would.”

“Yeah, but you’re not all there either.”

He grinned. “Yeah, not the first time I’ve been told that.”

“Won’t be the last either, I’m sure.” She put her spoon down and sighed. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much I want to say ‘Okay, Blake, let’s go’. But it’s more complicated than that.”

“Yeah, don’t remind me.” Blake stood, looking down at her. “Just remember this the next time you’re feeling lonely, okay? I’d give anything for another chance. But I think I ought to go check on Lee myself.”

He left her sitting at the table with her cereal and her thoughts. What I wouldn’t give to be able to let you have another chance…

Wearily, she stood and returned her dishes to the kitchen. In silence, she washed and then dried her bowl. Carefully placing it back in the cupboard, she wondered what a real relationship would be like. It’d been too long since she’d had one, it was almost impossible to imagine.