life, a more normal life; the kind she craved much like her coffee.
Lydia jumped in the shower and had just poured her first cup of coffee when a knock sounded on her door. She glanced down at her watch. It was only seven in the morning. Someone was an early riser just like she was. She pulled the door open to find the man that she’d dreamed about leaning against her door frame. His chocolate-brown wavy hair was still wet. A broad smile lit up his face, and his eyes twinkled with mischief. She let her gaze drop from his jade-green eyes down his broad chest covered with a black T-shirt pulled taut across the muscles that bulged beneath. His jeans hung loose from his hips incasing what she assumed were well-toned legs. Her eyes took in the muscular sensuality of his physique. Drool worthy definitely, marriage material doubtful. He was a good-looking man in a suit, but the sight of him in jeans made her heart pitter-patter. She’d seen him before dressed in the same attire but hadn’t been thinking the way she was today. The last three weeks had passed in a blur. Only now was she more aware of the man still standing at her door.
“Good morning.”
Lydia shook her head from the foreign thoughts and stepped back out of the way. “Morning, you’re here early.”
Rick stepped into her small living room and made a beeline to her coffee pot in the kitchen. He poured himself a cup of coffee. “I have a confession to make. I heard you up and decided to come have a cup of coffee with you.”
Lydia grinned. He hadn’t come to see her this morning; he just wanted what she had to offer. “Don’t you have a coffee pot in your own room?”
He shook his head. “Nope, it seems you’ve got the presidential suite. My bed is barely big enough to hold me. As it is, my feet hang off the end.”
****
Rick did a mental head slap at the mention of his bed. He was glad he hadn’t mentioned the almost sleepless night he’d had thinking about her being only a door away. Lydia was getting to him. This morning she had her red ringlets twisted up on her head with a few hanging loose to frame her face, and all he could think about was taking her hair down and running his fingers through the fiery strands. Her clothes hugged her body in all the right spots, giving him a glimpse of what hid beneath. He balled his fist at his side. He needed sexual release, and Lydia wasn’t going to be an option. She was his mission; the whole reason he was here. Rick refreshed both cups of coffee, fixing hers just the way she liked it and took a seat on her couch. He rested his ankle on his knee and leaned back into the cushions. “You have any idea what’s on the agenda today?”
He watched as Lydia bit her lip and took a seat on the opposite side of the room, curling up into the recliner. She looked as curious and unsure as he felt.
“Nope, I need to take a trip into town soon, but I wanted to get a feel for this place. Maybe meet some of the other people like me.”
Rick nodded. He’d wanted to do the same thing. The quicker he could get a read on the residents of this crazy train, he’d have a better grasp at what it was going to take to keep her safe and get to the secrets she had hidden from the world. He didn’t have any super powers and had no way to combat what he couldn’t see. It was the whole reason why his superiors had sent him to tag along. Misleading the General and the rest of the compound that he was a concerned friend had been easy enough for them to allow him entrance into their unknown world. Knowledge was power, and the more he knew about the people here, the better off he’d be. “I agree. I’d like to meet them too.”
Lydia silently studied him as she sipped her coffee. Her gaze raked over him, and he wondered what she was thinking. He knew what he was thinking, and most of it was X-rated. He wondered what the little spitfire would do if he picked her up, carried her to her room, and tested out the big