In the Golden Triangle

Chapter 12: Indirect Kisses

Kitt uncapped and recapped the marker in his hand. Black ink covered his fingers from playing with the marker, but he didn't notice—his mind was on the events of last night.

Why had he kissed her?

He didn't remember wanting to kiss Devon. He didn't remember thinking it was a good idea. One moment he was opening the door for her and the next he had bent down and was laying a kiss on her forehead. Kitt could still feel the tickle of her blonde hair against his nose and her scent.

It was really the way she smelled that did him in.

Distinctly he could remember a sugary sweet smell that should have made him sick. It smelled like every other body lotion he had smelled on a woman. There was nothing definitive or special about it. Hell, it was probably called something like 'Fairy Night Wish' or something equally inane. Perfume or scents had never really affected him before. He didn't even wear cologne.

Which is why whatever Devon was wearing should not have fried his brain.

But it did. And he kissed her.

He had spent the night playing the scene over and over in his mind. The way she looked up at him beneath dusky eyelashes, those green eyes looking straight through him. Her freckles splattered across her cheeks and the way she gasped a little when he did kiss her. That gasp had haunted him more than anything. How could something so innocuous affect every part of him?

Finally, Hin had flung a flat pillow at him and cursed his ancestors. Only then was Kitt able to lie still and fall asleep.

It wasn't enough sleep, and now there was an annoying pressure behind his eyes. His head ached and his lips were dry. If it wasn't for this meeting he had scheduled with Lt. Colonel Khamsi he would have found a quiet place to take a nap.

Instead of curling up in the motor pool shed, he was sitting in the uncomfortable chair in Lt. Colonel Khamsi's office and praying for that fan to hit him. It was oddly familiar, and he couldn't help but feel a vague sense of déjà vu.

The wire fan was working double time and Kitt thought it looked like it was wobbling dangerously. If that fan fell off the Lt. Colonel's desk, then Kitt would have nothing to look forward to in these meetings.

Lt. Colonel Khamsi wasn't here yet. He had told Kitt to go ahead and wait for him while he finished up whatever it was the CO of the BPU did when he wasn't in his office. Kitt tried to settle back in the chair and close his eyes. While the office was only fractionally cooler than the outside, it was dark and quiet. It would be easy to drift off...

Except that every time he got close to falling asleep, he would picture those damn freckles and his entire body would snap awake from embarrassment.

It wasn't even the kiss, Kitt could live with that. It was the way he opened up to her. He had never told anyone about his fear of graduation. Hin might have guessed it, because the bastard saw everything, but Kitt had never spoken the words to him. It was the one thing he usually kept to himself. He couldn't even blame the alcohol—Kitt wasn't nearly drunk enough to justify spilling secrets.

No, he had taken one look at Devon fresh out of the shower and decided he would unhinge his jaw like a snake and tell her everything.

He told a woman who had done two tours in the Middle East that he was afraid of graduating University.

It was a miracle she didn't laugh in his face.

Dropping his chin to his chest he contemplated walking through the jungle to find a real landmine to step on.