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She seemed genuinely excited for them both. Casper felt guilty for all the times he’d thought this woman was a robot, going about her business all emotionless and stoic. It was obvious she had plenty of deep feelings—she’d just kept them locked down around him . Which was a blow for some reason.

Another awkward silence filled the air, and Casper wasn’t sure what to say.

“Sooo…” she said, drawing the word out. “If you aren’t here for your car, and you aren’t here to tell me something’s wrong with the chopper…why are you really here?”

“We’ve worked together for three years or so now, right?” Casper asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“In all those years, we haven’t ever sat down and had lunch together. Or hung out. Or talked about anything other than work. Why is that?”

Laryn looked at him as if he had two heads. “Because. I’m the mechanic and you’re the pilot. You’re, like, a god or something. I’m nothing. ”

“Bullshit!” Casper exclaimed, wincing when Laryn flinched. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be so loud. But that’s bullshit,” he repeated. “Everyone knows a pilot is only as good as the mechanic who works on his machines.”

“Now you’re spouting bullshit,” Laryn said with a small laugh.

“ No one notices us. No one cares about the grease monkeys behind the scenes. It’s been that way everywhere I’ve ever worked.

With no exceptions. The drivers get all the accolades.

All the press attention. All the women…or men.

And that’s fine,” she rushed to add. “I’m fully content to stay in the background with my head under the hood, so to speak, keeping the engines purring. ”

Casper was getting exasperated with his body. His damn cock wouldn’t stay down. Just hearing her say “engines purring” had him thinking about very different things other than helicopters and cars. “How many job offers have you received since you started working on the MH-60s?” he asked.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“How many?” he insisted.

“A few.”

Casper arched a brow.

“Fine. I get about five or six a year.”

“Laryn, you’re underestimating your worth. I can think of half a dozen companies—hell, countries —off the top of my head that would kill to lure you away and have you work for them. You want to know how many companies are trying to get me to work for them?”

“It’s not the same. You’re in the Army. You can’t just up and leave,” Laryn protested.

“It’s a little different, sure, but my point stands. I’m a good pilot. But good pilots are a dime a dozen. Good mechanics? Who know their preferred chopper like the back of their hand? Not so easy to find.”

“Good pilot?” Laryn leaned toward him a little. “Tate, you’re a Night Stalker. The best of the best. I’ve seen videos of some of the things you can do with a chopper. It’s scary as hell and just as impressive. Good pilot, my ass.” She huffed that last part and sat back.

Casper couldn’t help but grin at her reaction. The truth was, he was a hell of a pilot, but he stood by the point he was making. “You ever think about it?”

“About what?”

“About taking one of those job offers.”

Her gaze dropped, and she looked everywhere except at him.

Casper’s heart fell. “Holy shit, Laryn. You have.”

She shrugged and straightened. “I’d be an idiot not to at least consider what’s being offered.”

“What is being offered?” Casper asked, shifting to face her.

“A lot more money than I’m making now, I can tell you that,” Laryn said, with a bit of nervous laughter.

“And?”

“That isn’t enough?” she asked a little defensively.

“Are you truly not happy here?” he asked her quietly. He felt defeated. Sad.

“It’s not that,” she hedged.

“If I’ve said or done anything to make you feel unappreciated or not wanted, I’m sorry,” he told her.

“No!” she said immediately, which made him feel a little better.

“Working with you and the other Night Stalkers has made me a better mechanic,” she went on.

“It’s brought home in the most visceral way possible that everything I do makes a difference.

If I’m tired and don’t put all my attention on my work, it could literally have life or death consequences.

If I don’t tighten a bolt correctly, or if I cut corners, you could die .

Or your friends and the Navy SEALs you transport.

And if you can’t complete a mission, a bad guy might get away, and he or she might plot against the US and execute another 9/11.

That’s an extreme example, but that’s what I think about every time I get a job offer from another country. ”

“What other countries have you heard from?” he found himself asking.

“Oh…here and there,” she said offhandedly.

“Where?” Casper pressed.

“Bahrain, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt…even Australia. I’d love to go to Australia. Have you heard about these adorable animals called quokkas? They’re known as the selfie kings and queens, because they look like they’re smiling in pictures.”

“Laryn!” Casper burst out. “You can’t go work for Egypt! Or Turkey! Or Saudi fucking Arabia!”

“Why not?” she asked, sounding genuinely puzzled.

“Because!”

“That’s not an answer. And I know there have been some issues between them and the US, but that’s in the past.”

She was so na?ve, it was infuriating and adorable at the same time. Casper forced himself to take a deep breath.

“Besides, I’m not really considering it. But some of the people offering me jobs have been pretty unrelenting. They think I’m playing hard to get and angling for better offers.” She laughed. “I’ve even been offered my own harem of men, ready and willing to do whatever I want. It’s crazy, actually.”

The thought of Laryn with another man made Casper’s skin crawl. It was a surprising reaction, considering their past…or lack thereof.

His body moved before his brain could catch up, scooting over on the couch until he was sitting right next to her. His thigh touched hers, and this close, her vanilla scent drove him crazy. He couldn’t resist, leaning in until his nose was almost touching her neck.

“What are you doing?” she asked, almost sounding panicked.

Casper had no idea what he was doing, except that it felt right.

This woman had been right under his nose for years, and he’d failed to see what a gem she was.

The longer he was around her, the more he learned about her, the more intrigued he became.

She didn’t care about money, that was obvious; if she did, she would’ve been gone a long time ago, lured away by some other company’s or country’s monetary offer.

She was loyal and patriotic. She was hard-working… and Casper liked that a hell of a lot.

He also hadn’t missed the way she’d specifically mentioned cutting corners could hurt him. Yes, she’d included his fellow pilots and the SEALs they often carried, but they were almost an afterthought.

Now that he was paying close attention, it wasn’t hard to see that she was interested in him.

Casper wasn’t being conceited, thinking all women wanted him, but he’d gotten very good at reading the signs over the years.

And Laryn wasn’t all that good at the game of being coy.

All her emotions were there to read in her eyes.

In her body language. Even now, though she’d sounded panicked, she wasn’t pulling back, wasn’t telling him to get the hell away from her.

She sat stiffly, yes, but he could see her heart beating in the artery in her neck and the instant flush on her cheeks the moment he scooted closer. Could hear her breathing increase.

“You smell delicious. Is that soap? Lotion?”

“Both. Why?”

He should stay away from her. If he chased away the best mechanic the Army had ever had, he’d feel like shit. But he was drawn to her, was kicking himself for not paying better attention to the shy, liked-to-fade-into-the-background woman who’d been such a huge part of his life for years.

“Tate?” she asked uncertainly.

That was another thing. The way she called him Tate made him feel like a different man.

Not the hotshot Night Stalker everyone wanted a piece of.

The Army wanted to control him. Women wanted him in their bed.

Men felt that if they could get close, some of his supposed badass-ness would rub off on them.

All Casper wanted was to be himself. To find someone like his twin had, who would let him be who he was…the guy who liked to read instead of watch TV at night, who loved to cook, who could sit for hours in a quiet garden, soaking in the outdoors.

Was Laryn that person? He had no idea, but when he was around her, he felt more like the person he’d been when he’d joined the Army—na?ve and fresh-faced, excited about the future—than the cynical, jaded man he’d started to become over the years.

His nose brushed against the skin under Laryn’s ear, and he felt her shiver at the slight touch—before she abruptly leaped from the couch and turned to face him with a frown.

“What the hell was that?”

“What?” Casper asked with a slight grin.

He’d definitely felt her reaction to him.

It was heady. He liked being the pursuer for once.

It had been years since he’d found a woman he was interested in who made him work to woo her.

And it was quite clear that Laryn Hardy wasn’t going to jump into his arms at the smallest sign from him that he wanted her.

No, she wasn’t like the women at Anchor Point, who went there trolling for sailors and pilots and didn’t care which one they ended up with.

“You think you can come here and knock on my door, make me dinner, then sweet talk me to get me into bed? Not happening, hotshot. I wouldn’t sleep with you if you were the last man on the planet! And I don’t appreciate you trying to seduce me to keep me from entertaining any other job offers.”

“That’s not what I was doing!” Casper protested, genuinely shocked that she’d think such a thing.