Last Virgin In California (Mills & Boon Desire) Read Online Free PDF Page A

honest. Heck, she’d called Kevin Rogan a coward for not telling the truth. Yet she hadn’t either, when given a perfect opportunity. She pushed that thought aside for the moment. “Don’t get me wrong,” she added, “Dad’s terrific. He’s just…how do I say this?”
    “A Marine?” he inquired wryly.
    “Exactly,” she said.
    Kevin stared at her. That smile of hers should be classified as a weapon. Top grade. It had the wattage of a nuclear bomb and probably had the same results on most men. Able to leave them flat and whimpering.
    He, however, was a different story. Oh, he wasn’t blind. And since he was most definitely male, he could appreciate her package. Just like he’d appreciate a beautiful piece of art. That didn’t mean he wanted to take her home and hang her on his walls.
    And he’d been down this route before, he reminded himself. He’d taken one look at a woman and seen everything he’d wanted to see and nothing he didn’t. He wouldn’t be making the same mistake again.
    “I don’t really need a tour of the base anyway, you know,” she was saying and he told himself to pay attention. He had a feeling that not paying attention around Lilah Forrest could be a dangerous thing.
    “Why’s that?” he asked. Not that he minded cutting the tour short.
    “Because,” she said, shrugging, “all bases are pretty much the same.” Turning in a tight circle, she lifted one hand and pointed as she counted off, “Headquarters, Billeting, Provost Marshall, beyond that, the PX, Post Office, Commissary. And,” she said, turning back to him with another one of those smiles, “let’s not forget the theater, rec center and oh, yeah. There’re the clubs, enlisted, officers and Staff NCOs, and last but not least, the all important Recruit Receiving.”
    When she was finished, she looked up at him and gave him another one of those smiles. “Same church, different pew.”
    She was right, of course. Hell, she’d been raisedon bases around the world. She probably knew her way around as well as he did. Which led him back to the one question that was flashing on and off in his brain like a broken neon light. Before he could stop himself, he asked, “So what are we doing here?”
    “You’ve got me.”
    A simple phrase. So why did it snake along his spine like a red-hot thread? Because having her implied all sorts of things that his body clearly approved of wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, though, there would be no having of any kind. Not only was she the Colonel’s daughter and Kevin’s responsibility for the next few weeks…but she wasn’t the one-night-stand kind of woman and he wasn’t the happily-ever-after kind of man.
    So that left them square in the middle of “no touch” land.
    Then she touched him. A simple touch, she leaned into him and laid one hand on his upper arm. Heat skittered through him, but he drew on every ounce of his formidable will and told himself to ignore it. It wasn’t getting any easier, though.
    “It’s weird,” Lilah muttered more to herself than to her strong, silent type companion.
    “What is?” he asked, but she had the feeling he didn’t really care.
    “Being back on a base.”
    “How long’s it been?”
    Not long enough, she thought. But all she said was, “A year or so.”
    “Why’s that?”
    She slanted a look up— way up—at him. “Do you always talk like that?”
    “Like what?”
    Lilah sighed. “In short, three-to-four-word sentences. I mean you don’t say much and when you do, it’s almost over before you start.”
    “You talk enough for both of us.”
    She did tend to babble when she was nervous, she admitted silently. Which brought up the question of just why she was nervous. It wasn’t being on base. Or being around her father. Those things she was used to dealing with. She just plastered on a smile and went out of her way to point out her unsuitability herself to avoid having others do it for her.
    An old trick, Lilah had been using it