Zach provided what he knew, which admittedly wasn't a lot. The only thing he didn't tell John was what a struggle he found it to resist the pull of Lily's sexuality. It wasn't pertinent anyhow. The attraction was strictly involuntary, and he planned to get a grip on it.
But he must be slipping, because when he finished laying everything out Rocket crossed his ankles beneath the table, sank a little deeper onto his tailbone, and stud-ied him intently as he sipped his beer.
And Zach knew he'd somehow given himself away.
For a moment, John didn't say a word. Then he scratched the tip of his thumbnail across his chin. "From what I've seen since hittingL.A., theseCaliforniagirls are something else again. The solution seems like a no-brainer to me."
"Give me a clue then, Miglionni, because I'm not seeing it."
"She's built, she's blond, and she's no better than she oughtta be, right?"
"Yeah. So?"
He shrugged. "So, why not make her an offer she can't refuse? Hell, Zach, she sounds like every girl you've ever pursued. Buy the chick a few baubles. Become her sugar daddy for a while."
Zach snapped upright in his chair. "What are you, crazy ?"
"Crazy like a fox, maybe." Rocket's grin was all teeth. "It's a win-win situation. You've got the funds to keep her happy; sounds to me like she's got the goods to keep you happy; and if she's occupied taking care of your needs, she won't have the time or energy to hustle Baby Sis."
For several heartbeats the urge to take his friend's suggestion and run with it was sweeter than the sing of narcotics through a junkie's veins. The sheer temptation of it caught Zach by surprise.
Then he came to his senses.
"I prefer not to buy my women," he said with a coolly sardonic smile. But he had to take a long pull on his beer to wet his suddenly dry throat.
"Ah, well, if you're gonna be fussy about it." Rocket shrugged. "Now, me, I'll take the little darlins any way I can get 'em. Just as long as the end result is me getting my hands on them."
Zach laughed. "You're so full of shit, John." Raising his beer bottle to his lips, he studied his friend over the top of the amber glass for a moment. "Though, come to think of it, you never were all that discriminating, were you? Still chasing skirts as fast as you can?"
"Nah. I've slowed down some. Hell, I don't even brag about my conquests anymore."
"Get outta here. The guy who used to regale Coop and me in pornographic detail of whatever girl had ridden the rocket the night before—now keeping it all to himself? Son of a bitch, boy."
"I know; the world as we once knew it has ceased to exist. This growing up is a spooky business." He killed off his brew and set the bottle on the table. "Speaking of growing up, when you plan on giving up field work?"
"Goddamn never." Because it hit a nerve too close to the surface, his voice was flatter than he might have wished.
But John didn't seem to mind; he merely hitched one shoulder in an easy shrug. "The twenty-year-olds haven't managed to run you into the ground yet, then?"
"They try, but I'm hanging tough." Although maybe not bouncing back as fast as he used to. "Jesus, Rocket, were we ever that young? Or that stupid? I just got back from a detail inSouth Americawhere I had to ride herd on a bunch of horny teenagers bent on chasing the local senoritas. We damn near had ourselves an international incident by the time we pulled out."
"One of your men compromise a local girl?"
" 'Ruined' her is how her betrothed put it." He shook his head in disgust. "We went down to extract a hostage from a drug cartel, then stayed to defend the local village against retaliation. It was supposed to be quick and professional. We were to get the hostage out, set up defensible parameters around the village and show the villagers the basics of maintaining them, then select a few of their young men to bring back to Pendleton."
"To train in the rudiments of warfare?"
"Yeah; you know how it works."
"Sure." John shrugged again. "Teach 'em everything you can cram into six weeks, then send them back to educate the rest of the village and hope for the best. So, was it actually your man getting his rocks off that nearly caused the incident, or was this just one of those ops that are fucked from start to finish?"
"No, the recon and extraction went great. My unit is young, but they're good. The problems didn't start until we got to the village. That's when they turned from a corps of highly trained professionals into a bunch of pussy-chasing morons."
"And this is something new? Hell,Midnight, there's always shit like that to rein in whenever young soldiers are exposed to nubile sweet young things. Or to any female with a pulse when it comes to that—particularly following a successful mission."
"I know, but this time one of my men diddling with a local girl damn near meant the difference between a village getting the training to defend itself and not. And I sure as hell wouldn't have enjoyed having to explain why to the brass."
"What happened?"
Zach noticed John's empty beer bottle and got up to get two more longnecks out of the fridge. "The best candidate for the program by far," he said, "was a young man named Miguel Escavez. He had the most raw talent, the greatest determination to protect what's his, and unquestionable leadership potential." Handing Rocket a beer, he sat back down, then stopped in the midst of twisting the cap off his own to look at his friend across the table. "Unfortunately, he was also the girl's fiance."
"Oh, shit."
"Tell me about it. After talking to the girl and determining the sex with Pederson was consensual, I got the happy job of telling Miguel that since that was so, and she was of age, I didn't have jurisdiction to punish my soldier-cum-stud of the hour." Zach got a sudden flashback to swarming flies and thick, steamy heat, saw again the outraged ego burning in the young Latino's eyes.
He finished twisting the bottle cap off and took a swig of beer to wash the vision away. "A couple days later we found Pederson outside the village, beaten to a pulp. I know damn well Escavez was responsible, but lacking concrete proof, there wasn't a helluva lot I could do about that, either." His jaw set. "Which pretty much summed up the entire detail. I didn't do a helluva lot."
John shrugged. "Some missions are like that—there's just not much you can do. And it's probably just as well you didn't find evidence against Escavez anyway."
"How do you figure?"
"We've both spent more hours than we can count in these villages. If there's one thing you can depend on in some of the more macho cultures, it's the store they place in saving face. Is Pederson okay?"
"Yeah. He's still not one hundred percent, but you know how fast a nineteen-year-old heals."
"There you go, then. Your soldier survived and might even think twice before he messes with another villager's woman. Escavez got his retribution, which probably helped him save face in front of his village."
"True." Zach felt some of the weight he'd been carrying slide away. "And in the end Miguel even volunteered to be part of the three-man delegation we brought back with us." He saluted Rocket with his beer bottle. "So all's well that ends well, I guess."
He heard the sound of the front door opening. Knowing it had to be Lily, he looked toward the archway, waiting for her to pass by. It bugged him to realize his blood was pumping a little hotter and faster through his veins than it had been a few moments ago. Then, recalling his friend's words, he took a slow, controlled breath and gave himself a break.
Rocket was right. Lily was the exact type of woman that usually drew his attention—at least in the physical sense. I'll be damned , he thought with a little surge of relief. I'm not turning into the world's worst brother, after all. I merely need to get laid .