“Huh?” she asked, her head cocked to the side and her soft lips parted.

“December. Pay attention,” I chastised, and then took my shirt off just for the hell of it. Okay, maybe I wanted to see her drool a little. Besides, the way that little white tank top hugged her perfect breasts, well, I was ready to climb through the screen to get my hands on her.

“You could put on some clothes.” She stuck her lower lip out in a pout that my soul echoed. Skype was great because I could see her in real-time, but it made the ache to hold her that much sharper.

“It’s hot,” I said with a smile.

“Yes, it is,” she said with a slow nod of her head.

“You could always join me.”

“I’m not nearly desperate enough to start forniskyping with you,” she said with her mouth, but her gaze said something very different as she eye-fucked me.

“You will be.”

God, how the hell could she do that? Turn me on from eight thousand miles away with nothing but a look?

“It’s not exactly private over there,” she argued.

“I’d never let anyone see you naked,” I promised. “That delectable little body is all mine, and I don’t share.” I adjusted in my seat as the door burst open.

“Dude!” Rizzo called out in a rush. “If you want in on the— Oh, sorry!”

“Fucking seriously?” I yelled at him.

“Playing through?” she asked with a laugh, reminding me of another time we’d been walked in on.

I swiveled back to her and pointed at her gorgeous face. “Not funny.”

“Yet the point is so eloquently made. How’s it going, Rizzo?” she asked.

The kid raked his hand over his buzzed head. “Sorry for barging in, Ember. Walker, it can wait until later.”

“How’s my guy doing over there?” she asked him.

“I’m fine,” I answered.

She clucked her tongue at me. “Not asking you. You lie. Rizzo?”

He put his giant head in front of mine and blocked the screen so I couldn’t even see her. “You have no need to worry, this guy is already a legend.”

“Oh? Tell me about this legend,” she said with a giggle. I could imagine the smile that would accompany it and nearly shoved his head out of the way to see.

“He’s seriously a badass. Fucking phenomenal pilot, and he’s got it, that one percent everyone else is missing.” Jesus, Rizzo sounded like I was running for office or something.

“One percent?” she asked.

I swiveled my head to see her, but he still blocked the view. Two more seconds and I was going to boot his ass.

“Yeah. You know, everyone has that last percent of self-preservation, that part that kicks in and pulls you back?”

Fuck. This was not going well. “Rizzo,” I warned.

“Yeah?” Ember’s voice dropped.

“Walker’s missing it. His sense of imminent death kicks in like one percent later than everyone else, so he’ll go for it. Hot LZ or not, man, he’s in it to get those guys out. It makes him pretty much the most badass pilot we’ve got here.”

I shoved his head out of my way. “Out. Now.”

“See ya, Ember!” Rizzo called. “Walker, we’ll start without you?”

I nodded and surveyed the damage once Rizzo shut my door behind him. Ember sat crisscross on our bed, her chin held between her hands as she braced her elbows on her bare knees. The smile had vanished from her face, leaving blinking, wide eyes.

“One percent, huh?” she asked, trying to force a smile, which was all the sadder for the attempt. “You might need to tell me where another Kiss is.”

“December.” I breathed her name like it could soothe her soul as it did mine. “It’s not as badass as he makes it sound.”

She nodded slowly, her eyes anywhere but on the screen. “I get it. I do.”

“I’m perfectly safe,” I lied. He was right. I pushed the envelope to where it needed to be, or rather where I felt it needed to be. “I never do anything that I think might get me, or the crew, killed.” That part was true. I was well aware that it wasn’t only me in that aircraft, that I was responsible for more than just the lives on the ground.

She transformed before my eyes, sucking in a breath and sitting straighter, tucking away the fear into a place that I prayed she wouldn’t really examine until she was physically in my arms again.

Seven more months.

“So, I still can’t seem to get the office to fix the disposal,” she said in a smooth, let’s-change-the-subject move.

“What did you stick down it this time?” My memory flashed to the time she set a West Point shirt on fire in the kitchen sink.

“I may have accidentally not seen a fondue stick in there when I started it last week.”

Her face was too damn cute, and I burst into laughter. “Of course you did. Was it at least good?”

She nodded. “Paisley wanted it, so of course I hooked her up. She’s all southern and sweet, but man, there’s a little dragon underneath there, too.”

Ember had climbed up to get the fondue pot she had to have. Maybe it was small, but she’d asked me not to put it where she couldn’t reach, and I’d done it anyway. I’d made this just a tiny bit harder on her, figuring that I’d be there if she ever needed to get it down. But she’d done it without me.