The Wolfe (131 page)

Jeremy took over. Directing his
teammates to circle around him forming a protective shield, she and the doctor
ran shotgun and parted the mass of officers with amazing effectiveness. Twice
they were stopped by admirals demanding to speak with Wade, but the doctor
insisted quite forcefully that the man was in no condition for questions and
that they would have to wait.

They broke through the lines and
removed Wade through the ambulance entrance, racing him out into the parking
lot where a large government-issue van waited for them. Racing against the
officers that were starting to file out after them, and pressing to avoid the
reporters that were at the other entrance, the team loaded Wade onto the van
and bailed in after him.

Jeremy ran around to the driver’s
door where Peter sat behind the wheel. “Up over the green bridge.” she yelled
over the roar of the engine. “Take a hard right to Bay Park Avenue.”

He waved at her and she stood back,
waiting for the van to take off. Peter turned his head and spoke with someone
before hanging his head back out the window again. “Hey, doc! What’s your name?”

The young doctor with the red-gold
hair smiled. “Alan Longworth.”

Peter nodded. “Thanks!” he looked at
Jeremy. “Go around to the passenger side. The commander wants to tell you
something.”

Jeremy ran around and opened the
door, aware that people were crossing the parking lot toward the van. She ripped
open the front passenger door.

“What?” she demanded breathlessly.

Wade smiled at her, a smile that
made her go weak in the knees. Just as she started to smile back, he reached
out and grabbed her gently around the back of the neck and pulled her to him,
depositing a kiss so sweet on her lips that she nearly swooned. It was achingly
tender and oddly, faintly, familiar.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

She was forgetting to breathe. The
naval personnel were rapidly closing the gap and as much as she wanted to stare
into his eyes forever, she forced herself to pull away and slammed the door.

“Go!” she yelled.

Wade waved at her the entire way out
of the parking lot and Jeremy stood there a long time after the van had
disappeared from view, oblivious to the officers and news people who were
shouting and trying to get her attention.

She would see him again tomorrow
night. The Wolf himself. Above her head, the sky was a bright summer blue and
birds were singing loudly in the palm tree in front of her. She could hardly
believe the feelings she was experiencing, a peculiar but wonderful myriad of
emotions that filled her so completely.

Why had he affected her so? She
shook her head in amazement as Alan put a protective arm around her and pulled
her through the swarm of people. She wasn’t even paying attention and suddenly
she was back through the ambulance doors and Alan had left her.

She retreated back into the
examining room to finish Wade’s chart and collect the other paperwork, stealing
one last glance at the gurney with Wade’s blood on it, oblivious to the orderly
cleaning the room. Why had she reacted to him so recklessly? She had had other
men pursue her, handsome men, rich men, but she hadn’t responded to any of them
Then why the naval commander with the super-hero reputation?

The orderly stripped off the sheet
and the blood was gone. Yet she continued to stare at the gurney when,
suddenly, it hit her.

She had been about twelve or thirteen
years old. She’d had a dream one night after watching some sort of medieval
romance movie, a film about a knight rescuing a damsel in distress. In her
dream, a knight swinging the biggest sword she ever saw filled her mind,  tall
and handsome and huge. She remembered vividly the look he gave her, a look of
such love and tenderness that she had awoken in a cold sweat. Even at her young
age, she knew true love when she saw it, and that man had loved her. A dream,
of course, but she had remembered it all these years.

And then her knees began to shake…
oh, my God…. She sagged against the counter, realizing in the deepest part of
her that the knight in her dream had possessed Wade’s face.
It had been
Wade’s face.

Impossible!
Jeremy pushed
herself off the counter, her brisk movements masking her quaking nerves. She
had never seen him before the very moment she had entered the examination room.
How in the hell could she have dreamed about him fourteen years ago? It was
stupid. Crazy!
A coincidence
!

Jeremy was off at nine that night.  Once
in her car, she found herself driving for Coronado Island. It was as if she was
possessed; she had no control over herself as she sped toward the little
vacation island off San Diego. Why she had to see Wade was unknown; all she
knew was that she had to. Ever since she realized she had dreamt about him, she
was seized with the urge to see him again. And it could not wait until tomorrow
night. The drive, the sensation, was too overwhelming for words.

Jeremy was speeding and she knew it.
Crossing the big green bridge and entering the little city, she made a hard
right and went down two streets to Bay Park. As soon as she turned the corner,
she spied the ugly government van in the driveway.

She was in such a blind rush that
she didn’t even set the parking break. The night was balmy and dark as she
crossed the front yard and took the steps up onto the front porch. She fumbled
for her spare key, remembering very well she had told the guys inside she
wasn’t coming here tonight. She hoped they didn’t freak out and shoot first,
ask questions later.

“You lied.” Came a voice out of the
darkness.

Jeremy jumped at the sound, her
heart pounding in her ears and her keys falling to the wood porch. Wade sat
over in one of the plastic patio chairs, half-shrouded in the darkness.

“Jesus Christ!” she gasped, reaching
down to pick up her keys. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“You didn’t see me?”

“No!” she exclaimed, catching her
breath. “What are you doing out here?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “What
are
you
doing here? You said you weren’t coming.”

She stood there looking at him for a
moment. Now that her eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, she could see
that he had cleaned up and was dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts. The
sight of his bare chest was enough to make her hyperventilate.

“I…I wanted to see how you were
doing,” she stammered. Hell, why
had
she come? She didn’t even know. “Your
leg was pretty nasty.”

He put his hand on his thigh. “This
is nothing. I can hardly feel it.”

She approached him. “You sound
better. I take it the Demerol has worn off.”

He nodded. “A little while ago. By
the way, this is a really nice place. Are you sure your dad doesn’t mind if
we’re here?”

She shook her head. “Of course not,”
she said, eyeing him in the darkness just as he was eyeing her. She had stated
her reason for coming and now seeing that he was all right, she suddenly felt uncertain
and embarrassed. She knew she should go to save her pride.

“Do you always make house calls?” he
asked after a moment.

She felt like a fool. “Not usually,”
she said. “But I sort of feel responsible for you since you are staying here.”
Nice recovery, she thought.

Wade stood up and Jeremy’s eyes
widened; she’d never seen him on his feet and he was several inches over six
feet. He was absolutely enormous. She took a step back, down the stairs.

“Where are you going?” he asked, his
voice full of that husky, rich quality that made her feel warm.

She cleared her throat. “Back to
base,” she said, struggling not to stammer. “I’ve been on since six o’clock
this morning and I am exhausted. You know, you really shouldn’t be standing on
that leg. At least until tomorrow.”

He walked slowly toward her without as
much as a limp. “The leg is fine,” he repeated. “Why do you have to go?”

She began to feel all quivery and
warm and weak inside. She took another protective step back as he approached.

“I told you, because I am tired,”
she insisted, extending her foot off the stairs and onto the walkway. “I just
came out here to make sure you are okay.”

“I’m fine.”

“I know.”

She suddenly forgot how to take a
step and ended up tripping. Wade reached out and grabbed her to keep her from
falling to the concrete.

“Steady, there,” he said. “Are you
okay?”

She nodded, pulling out of his grip.
“I’m fine,” she said quickly, wondering if this night could get any more
embarrassing. “I’m just going to head on back to base now… well, now that I
know you’re okay. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

She turned quickly and was taking
rapid steps toward her car when she heard his voice behind her. It stopped her
cold.

“Jeremy,” he called softly.

She paused, heart thumping against
her ribs, before turning to him.  The moment their eyes met, she felt a jolt.
She couldn’t describe it any other way.

“What?” she replied softly.

Wade stepped off the porch and she
watched, entranced, as his tall, broad body came toward her. When he was within
a few feet of her he stopped.

“I have to be honest with you,” he
said quietly. “Ever since I saw you this afternoon, I haven’t been able to get
you out of my mind. I was sitting out here tonight because every time I closed
my eyes, I saw you. You seem so uncomfortable around me and I am sorry if I
give you the willies. I know that all I’ve done is stare at you since we met
but I’m not trying to be creepy, I swear. I just feel so drawn to you. I’m not
sure I can explain it any more than that.”

Jeremy felt wildly happy, as if his
admission somehow validated her own feelings. To know that he felt something,
too, was overwhelming and she wasn’t so nervous anymore.

“You don’t give me the willies,” she
smiled at him, lifting her hand in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know why I came
out here tonight. I knew you were all right, but I still came. I guess I am
pretty weird.”

“Pretty, yes. Weird, no,” he said,
returning her smile and she could see the deep dimples in his cheeks. “In fact,
I’d say you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I couldn’t believe
it when you said you’d go out with me.”

She stepped closer to him, her face
upturned. “And I could not believe you asked me. How’d I get to be so lucky?”

He laughed softly, studying her
face. He knew at that very moment he would never let this woman go, ever.
Jeremy watched his eyes, feeling so incredibly excited that her entire body was
aching to touch him. She’d never had that sort of reaction to anybody. She
wanted to stay there forever, staring up into his handsome and powerful face.

For decency’s sake, she knew should
really leave. After all, the surrounding houses were her father’s neighbors and
she would hate the word to get back to him that his daughter had been hanging
out in the front yard with a strange man in the middle of the night.

“Well, I’d really better go,” she
turned back for her car and opened the passenger door. She tossed her purse
inside and, on second thought, pulled out the elastic band in her hair and
stripped off her lab coat. Everything landed in the front seat.

“Hey, Jeremy?” Wade called softly.

She turned around, her hair free and
unbound and the tee-shirt revealing her beautiful shape. “What?”

“Do you believe in fate?” he asked
hesitantly.

She smiled and shrugged. “Sort of.
Why?”

He shook his head, looking confused
and puzzled. “I do not know. This may sound really bizarre, but I think I
dreamed about you once. Now, that
is
pretty weird.”

Jeremy’s breath caught in her
throat. My God, how could he have experienced the same thing she did? It didn’t
make any sense, any of it. Her heart began to race and before she realized it,
she was moving toward him, like in slow motion. She was moving closer, closer,
not sure of what she was going to do when she reached him, but going just the
same.

It must have been the expression on
her face, because suddenly his arms were opening up to her and she was in them,
being lifted off the ground and feeling his mouth on hers with fevered, stark intensity.
Her arms wound around his neck, responding to him as if she had done it a
thousand times before, knowing his mouth but not knowing it, losing herself
completely in him.

Jeremy didn’t know how long she
remained aloft in Wade’s arms, her feet dangling off the ground and their
passionate kisses drowning out everything else in the world. Had she stopped to
figure it out, she could not have explained it in words.

Six years and four kids later, she
still could not have explained that moment if she tried. And neither could he.

And
now this is the story told

Knights
of legend, riding bold