Surrendering To Her Sergeant (7 page)

“Thank you, babe,” she said smoothly,
“but you know it’s not ‘Brenda’ anymore, right?”

So much for sweeping
tension out of the way. The second she said
babe
, he watched every vertebra in
Ava’s spine go tight.
Not
acceptable
.

“Hmm. Sounds cool. So I’ll drop the
‘Brenda’ and you drop the ‘babe’ and we’ll be squared up, all
right?”

He looked up in time to catch a
meaningful glance fly between Ava and Charlie Jenkow. They were
obviously friends. That explained the subtle once-over he’d gotten
from the guy when they’d arrived. Looked like his bluntness to
Brenda, or whatever the hell she was calling herself these days,
had earned Jenkow’s approval. It clearly didn’t sit so well with
Brenda, who tipped another weird smile.

“Uh…right,” she finally replied.
“Though you do know what everyone calls me now, yes?”

A long silence took over the room. He
was clearly supposed to confirm that but the words would be a lie.
He was officially lost here. Forcing his gaze away from Bella,
Ethan locked a gaze onto Charlie, openly bumming some help off the
guy.

Thankfully, Charlie
believed in the friend-of-a-friend honor system. With a convincing
face palm, the man stepped forward and exclaimed, “For the love of
Peter, Paul, and Mary. Where did my manners go?” Charlie lifted
Brenda’s hand with a gallant sweep. “Gentlemen, though I’m certain
most of you are familiar with this icon, I’d like to officially
introduce Miss Bella Lanza, the star of
Dress Blues
.”

This time, Ethan didn’t
have to fake his reaction. His grin was genuine. “Wow. Star, huh?”
He looked over the expensive details she rocked besides the plastic
surgery, from the diamonds on her manicured fingers and the trendy
shoes on her elegant feet, and couldn’t believe this was the cute
theater major with whom he’d shared Friday night pizza and bike
rides across the Stanford campus. “You’re really all grown up,” he
murmured. “Good for you, Bren—” He borrowed the face palm move from
Charlie. “Shit. Sorry.
Bella
.”

The woman giggled. “It’s all right.
And understandable. Memories aren’t simple to shirk, especially
ones like ours.”

She finished by winding a hand around
his forearm. Ethan let his brain report to the office of Officially
Uncomfortable. He didn’t miss how Bella’s claim, in verbal and
physical form, made Ava’s tension expand up her spine, working into
her tight lips and aching eyes. He hated this. Every second.
Goddamnit, if he could only order everyone out of here and get Ava
back against the wall, back to where nothing or nobody mattered,
back to that connection he’d waited seven fucking months to have
again.

“
Hmm.” The interjection
came from an openly smirking Tait. “Unshirked memories. Shit,
Archer. That sounds like a lot of interesting bribery material to
me.”

Kellan added a knowing lift of brows.
“It’d come in handy, now that he’s a big bad sarge and
all.”

Bella’s stare, as intense as her grip,
got more penetrating. “Sarge? As in ‘sergeant?’”

“Newly minted, ma’am,” Franzen
offered. “Gave him his new stripe after we finished a
dick-whopper—err, a difficult mission—down in Mexico. Figured we’d
make this little side trip as part of the celebration.”

Another potent silence passed. Bella
maintained her unyielding attention. And her damn C-clamp of a
hold. She finally murmured, “You’re one of the Special Forces
visitors.”

He flashed a lopsided smile. “Would
appear that way, Miss Lanza.”

Bella’s eyes turned the color of brown
sugar. The warmth flowed into the rest of her surgically perfect
features. “Looks like you’re really all grown up, too,” she
replied. “You did it, babe.”

Fuck. There it was again.
But could he ream her for using the old endearment when he
identified the awkwardness she masked with it? His decision to join
up with the big green machine had been the beginning of the end for
them. Wasn’t like he was subtle about dealing the blow, either.
He’d dropped it into the middle of a halfway pleasant date toward
the end of their first year in college, even making
Brenda—
Bella
—laugh
at him, thinking for once he was pulling a bad joke. But he’d never
been good at joking, and she couldn’t see why he’d throw away the
corner office at Dad’s company, already reserved for him, along
with the cushy starting salary and his choice of Jag, Beemer, or
Mercedes as a signing bonus. Poor Bella had been stunned to the
brink of tears, especially because he hadn’t tried very hard to
explain himself. What would’ve been the point? She thought of her
freedoms as part of life’s path, not treasures that had to be
honored and defended.

Her outrage had been shared by most of
the world. His Stanford advisor labeled the decision “reckless and
irresponsible.” A more blunt assessment came from his frat drinking
buddies; their term was “stupid as shit pie.” Mom hadn’t used any
words; she just chose to disappear into her greenhouse for four
days. Shockingly, the worst reaction he’d expected had never come.
Dad’s support, and best of all his understanding, had made it
possible to grab at the Army’s big brass ring. The Special Forces
needed good men, and he’d set his sights of becoming one of
them.

He concluded that thought out loud.
“Fate smiled,” he murmured. “Yeah, I really did it.”

Behind him, Tait’s laugh tickled the
air. “Doing it’s never been a problem for you, Runway.”

“’
S long as it’s with his
palm and fingers,” cracked Kell.

“Gentlemen,” Franzen growled, “we
aren’t on Uncle Sam’s clock right now, but keep it up and I’ll make
you hate your sorry life when we are again.”

“Roger that, Captain.”

Tait’s respectful reply still shook
with humor. Ethan didn’t care. He almost turned and thanked the
ninjas for the interjection since it forced Bella to take her hand
off his arm to cover her giggling mouth.

“All right,” she finally declared, “I
can tell that a silly little set tour isn’t going to be enough time
with all of you. You’re all officially invited to my place for
dinner tonight. We have a short shooting schedule today and my chef
should be able to do something casual. Do you all like lobster,
shrimp, and bruschetta?”

Zeke chuckled again. “Honey, does a
Wookiee like Cortyg brandy?”

Bella frowned. “Huh?”

“Star Wars
geek,” Rayna explained. She shook her head then
stood on tiptoe to kiss Z’s jaw. “Nothing an Indiana Jones marathon
won’t fix.”

“In your dreams.” His countering
mutter was thick with affection.

Franzen saved them all from the couple
turning their smoochy moment into a puke-inducing PDA by stepping
forward with his hands spread. “Miss Lanza, your invitation is kind
but unnecessary. We’re not nitpicky Hollywood eaters. We’re
soldiers with the manners of hyenas and the appetites of elephants.
And this isn’t even all of us. Corporals Lange and Stafford are
still lurking around here somewhere, and—”

“Captain.” Bella pivoted at
him, showing off the same determination she once used to get into
closed classes and private frat parties. “I have a
five-thousand-square-foot villa that’s tailor-made for
entertaining, which I don’t do enough of, especially when the
crowd
isn’t
a
bunch of stuffy Hollywood eaters.”

“Look, the offer’s sweet,
but—”

“It’s on the sand in
Malibu.”

Franzen choked his next words into
silence. Hawkins laughed and spoke for him, instead. “What time do
you want us there?”

It hadn’t escaped Ethan’s attention
that Ava’s posture had gone stiff again. When Bella turned to
Franzen, he focused all his attention on grabbing Ava’s, but the
woman kept riveted on Bella like a goddamn lady-in-waiting for Anne
Boleyn herself. He was certain she’d filed him back into the
ignore-and-he’ll-go-away category.

Think again,
sunshine.

The queen herself helped him out with
that resolve. Bella turned back, twisting more screws of tension
down Ava’s spine. If Ethan was a betting man, he’d lay sure odds on
what would go down next.

“Ava darling, I won’t need anything
here for the rest of the day besides a few powder touchups, and
Faye can handle that. Can you be a love and supervise preparations
at the house?”

Yep. Fucking shame that Vegas was just
an hour away by plane. He could’ve just made a mint.

Ava squared her shoulders and stated,
“Bella, I don’t think I’m the right—” She huffed when Bella’s eyes
narrowed and conceded, “Fine. Sure.”

Bella’s smile was a sweep
of practiced goo. “You are
such
a champ.”

Ethan recognized an opportunity when
it hit. He scooted forward, smiling carefully. “Sounds like it’s
going to be a lot of logistics and shit. I can go along to
help.”

“No.” Ava’s rebuttal was fierce. “That
won’t be necessary, Sergeant.”

She tried to push past him. Ethan
didn’t move. “It’s no trouble.” He grinned down at her.
“Really.”

Bella actually squirmed a little.
“Uhhh…”

“He’s really good at
logistics.”

Ethan made a mental note to thank Z
for the well-timed insertion.

“I’m good at them, too.”
Ava seethed it this time. She tried to get past him again. Ethan
almost laughed as he slid around for the second block.
Get it through your head, woman. I’m
not
giving up.

Their cat-and-mouse dance wasn’t lost
on Bella. With a flirty toss of her head and another perfect smile,
she ventured, “You…don’t want to stay and watch me act,
babe?”

Ethan scooped up her hand.
“I’ve already seen you act,
babe
. Lots of times.” He tapped his
head with his other hand. “You just said it perfectly. Some
memories aren’t easy to shirk.”

“Thanks,” she muttered. “I
think.”

Zeke slammed his hands together. “Cool
beans. It’s settled, then. We’ll see you at Bella’s house tonight,
Runway. Toss me your room key. Ray and I will run past the hotel on
our way back to Ava’s and I’ll grab your swim trunks.”

Bella went even more quiet,
which made him sense that his victory was near. “You
were
always so sweet
about helping out on things.” She wrapped her hand around his arm
again and pressed herself close. The smell of expensive perfume
made a full frontal on his senses. “Thank you.”

“Welcome.” Surprisingly, he got it out
without a sneeze or a grimace. The smile that followed wasn’t so
hard. In an hour, he’d be miles from that perfume. He’d have Ava
alone again. For the whole day. That made all the sneaky tactics
worth it. Sometimes a guy had to bend the rules to achieve the
mission objective.

Now, all he had to do was
convince Ava that her aim was the same. Judging from the glower on
her face when they met at her car ten minutes later, that was going
to be easier said than done. The woman was clearly passionate
about
all
her
feelings, including total ire about having her day upended and her
job description hijacked, not to mention Ethan’s involvement in
both. That was okay by him. In his own line of work, patience and
tenacity were side-by-side partners. He was ready for
this.

Including, if he had to, a little bit
more than “bending” the rules.

Ava forced in a deep breath. Another.
Like they did any damn good at diminishing her ire at the man this
time.

Actually, she was shocked
she hadn’t lost it sooner with the bastard. She’d sure as hell
punched herself enough times for lingering too long at the set,
inviting disaster to happen—an offer disaster certainly hadn’t
refused. It happily obliged by plunking her here, alone in her
boss’s villa with the man who’d pulled the audacity card in a move
that still had her jaw heading toward the floor in shock. Yeah, the
same man who shared a past of “unshirkable” memories with Bella—and
with whom the starlet clearly wanted to create a few new ones
tonight. That hadn’t stopped him from charming himself into an
invitation for the whole
day
, had it?