The Right Stuff. Lori Wilde

candles. The smell of their combined sex. The headiness of the day. Neither one of them lasted long. A few powerful thrusts and they were both over the edge.

      Daniel exploded inside her at the same moment Taylor cried out a deep, throaty pleasure.

      Minutes later they lay on the bed in a tangle of arms and legs, sticky with sweat. He was completely sated, totally happy.

      A drifty, dozy moment passed, and then Taylor murmured, “Daniel.”

      “Uh-huh?” He breathed lazily.

      “We need to talk.” She sounded serious.

      Daniel rose up on one elbow. The expression on her face was sad, wistful, troubled. It touched him because he’d never seen his high-spirited, fun-loving Taylor look melancholy. His gut clenched. “What’s wrong?”

      “I can’t begin to tell you how great the last four months have been,” she said.

      “Same here,” he replied, his voice gruff with the emotions pushing at the seams of his heart.

      “It’s been the best four months of my life.”

      “Yeah, for me, too.”

      “And now it’s coming to an end.”

      It was almost impossible, but he tried to stay calm. “It doesn’t have to end, Taylor. I don’t want it to end and I don’t think you do, either.”

      She laughed, but it was a dry, humorless sound that sliced him wide open. “Don’t be silly. It has to end.”

      “You’re wrong.”

      “Be realistic. You’re going away. I’m staying here. Besides, you’ll be in medical school. Studying, working eighty hours a week.”

      “We can make it work.”

      “Long-distance relationships aren’t practical.”

      Since when was Taylor practical? “We’re different,” Daniel assured her. “You and I. We’re not like everyone else.”

      A strange expression that he couldn’t quite read came over her face. Part longing, part regret, part determination, part something else.

      Relief?

      Could she actually be relieved he was going away? The thought stung like a slap.

      “Face it, Daniel. We’re fire and ice. It makes for great sex…” She shook her head. “But it’s lousy for relationships.”

      “What are you talking about?”

      “We’re too different. You know that and I know it. Most of all, your family knows it. This has been fun. Great fun, in fact, but…”

       She was breaking up with him.

      It hit him then, a sledgehammer between the eyes. He had an engagement ring in his pocket to slip on her finger and she was breaking up with him.

      “We need to get out of this now before either one of us gets hurt,” she said.

       Too late, too late.

      Thunderstruck, he sat up and just stared at her. What then was this sudden stabbing in the center of his chest? Was that the kind of hurt she was talking about?

      “Taylor…” He started to say more, to plead his case, but he stopped himself. Dammit, he wasn’t going to beg. If she didn’t want him, she didn’t want him. He was an airman. A doctor in training. He came from a long line of strong, capable men. He wasn’t going to let a broken heart fell him. Hell, no.

      “This is our last hurrah,” she said gently and reached out to lay a hand over his, but her eyes were too shiny, her smile forced. “After tonight, it’s over, Daniel. It’s for the best and we both know it.”

      No, no, he didn’t know that at all. Yes, they came from different worlds. Yes, his parents disapproved. Probably so did her father.

      He hardened his jaw, tightened his hands into fists. “That’s really the way you want it?”

      Taylor nodded. She was checking her emotions, pulling back, detaching herself. He could see it in the murkiness descending over her intense brown eyes.

      “I’ve got to confess, Daniel, this was never anything more than a good time for me.”

      She couldn’t have hurt him more if she’d taken out a knife and driven it straight through his heart. His limbs felt wooden as he searched for his underwear and pants and somehow managed to jam his legs into them and then lace up his shoes.

      “You don’t have to leave now,” she murmured. “The night is still young.”

      Was it his imagination or did she sound a little panicky? He searched her face for a clue, but she gave away nothing. “Hoo-effing-rah,” he said through clenched teeth as he tightened his belt. “Been nice knowing you, Taylor.”

      He snatched up his shirt, grabbed his jacket, and snagged his hat from the bed post. Had he not been so mad, so hurt, he might have heard her whisper, “I love you, Danny Boy, with all my heart, but this is the way it’s gotta be.”

       2

       Present day

      “DOCTOR CORBEN?”

      Daniel got to his feet in the waiting area of the Department of Defense Manned Space Flight Support Office at Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral and smiled at the attractive young staff sergeant sitting behind the reception desk. “Yes?”

      She returned his smile with a flirtatious slant of her eyelashes. Had word already gotten out that he and Sandy had broken up? “Colonel Grayson is ready for you.”

       This is it, the conversation leading to the promotion I’ve been shooting for my entire career.

      From the time he was a kid in short pants listening to his father and grandfather talk about the exciting opportunities for air force doctors, he’d dreamed of going into space as a NASA physician. Making colonel before he was forty was a crucial step in that direction.

      Daniel squared his shoulders, perfected his best military-officer stance and stalked into Grayson’s office, hoping that he struck the perfect balance between cocky and obedient. Assertive, but eager to follow orders. “You asked to see me, sir?”

      “I did.” Colonel Cooper Grayson was standing. He pointed at the plain straight-backed chair positioned in front of his sturdy metal desk. “Have a seat, Daniel.”

      He sat, but the expression on Grayson’s face troubled Daniel. It wasn’t a congratulations-you’re-in-the-running-to-make-colonel look.

      “When are you going to ask Sandy to marry you?” the colonel asked.

      The minute the words were out of his superior’s mouth, Daniel tensed. Was this a fishing expedition? Deeming his worthiness for promotion? It was the one question he dreaded. He knew well enough that in the military you were more likely to get promoted if you were married. The service viewed its airmen as more stable, mature and trustworthy if they had a wedding ring on their finger and a passel of kids to support.

      He did not have that advantage going for him.

      It wasn’t that Daniel didn’t want to get married or have children. He did. But becoming a doctor had taken all his focus in his younger years. Then later, once he’d completed his internship and residency and he’d met Sandy, well…

      He’d thought about asking her to marry him. They’d been dating for four years. She was smart and pretty and safe and predictable. Her father was a career military man so she understood the life. In theory, she was perfect for him.

       But she wasn’t Taylor.

      The unwanted thought popped into his mind. What the hell was he