The Dare Affair: Summer In Savannah Anth. (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 6.5

by Sheri WhiteFeather

  Zack Sheridan, Mike’s SEAL team leader, leaned on the doorjamb and grinned himself. “Kim’s a little pissed, but personally, I think she likes it.”

  “What’s not to like?” Mike asked with a dramatic shrug.

  “Exactly what I said.” Zack stepped back and said, “Come on in, Mad Dog, wanna beer?”

  “Oh, yeah, sounds good.” Mike stepped into the small living room and saw that a few things had changed since Zack had married Kim Danforth. The walls were still a cool blue, but parts of Zack’s past dotted the room now. A pair of fatigues were draped across a chair in the corner and the bookcases were crammed with Zack’s collection of military history books. Framed photos of his SEAL team were hung on the walls along with pictures of Zack’s and Kim’s wedding and their families.

  Overall, the place looked a little less rigid than it had before and a little more lived in. Just a few months ago Zack had been assigned to protect Kim Danforth, the snooty fish geek as Zack had called her then. And now, Zack was happily married to the geek—er, Kim.

  “So where’s the better-lookin’ half of your family?” he asked as Zack came into the room, carrying two bottles of beer.

  Zack dropped onto one of the blue-and-white-checked sofas and propped his bare feet up on the coffee table. His jeans were threadbare and his Go Navy T-shirt was frayed at the collar. The boss looked comfortable and happier than Mike had ever seen him. Smiling, Zack said, “Kim’s off teaching dolphins to ride bikes or some damn thing.”

  “If anyone can do it, she can,” Mike said, lifting his beer in silent salute.

  “Damn straight.” Zack smiled to himself, and Mike wondered if he looked as sappy as the boss did now when he thought of Kelly.

  “So what’ve you guys been doing?” Zack asked, dragging Mike’s thoughts back to the here and now. “Haven’t seen one of you this leave.”

  Mike shrugged and took a sip of his beer. “We just figured you and Kim’d like some time alone.”

  “And I thank you,” his friend and superior officer said with a mocking incline of his head. “But now that you’re here, catch me up. Everybody ready to go back to work?”

  “I don’t know.” Mike stood up suddenly and stalked over to the brick fireplace on the far wall. Leaning one hand on the hand-carved mantel, he stared down into the cold hearth as if looking for answers to the questions stumbling through his brain. “Haven’t seen the guys myself this trip. Well, except for Hula, the first night in.”

  “Yeah?”

  Mike shifted a look at Zack, wondering how he could ask what he wanted to ask without sounding like an idiot. Hell. Guys just didn’t talk about stuff like this. But, after studying the other man for a long minute, he asked, “How’s Kim handling being married to a SEAL?”

  Zack’s dark brown eyebrows lifted. “She’s good. Says that if anyone should marry a SEAL, it should be a marine biologist.”

  “I’m not kidding around.”

  “Yeah, I see that.” Zack balanced his beer bottle on his flat stomach and looked at his friend. “So what’s going on?”

  He wasn’t really sure why he’d come to see the boss—except for the fact that talking to him had always helped Mike straighten out his own mind. And, hell, maybe it was just as simple as knowing he needed a friend. Whatever the reason, Mike started talking, and when he was finished, he scraped one hand across his face as Zack said, “So basically, you want to marry her.”

  Mike blew out a breath. There it was. Out in the open. And damn it, it sounded good. Right. This is what he’d been aiming for since that first night when she’d dumped a tray of drinks in his lap. This is what he needed. Even as a confused kid, he’d known in his heart that Kelly was the one for him—even if he hadn’t been able to claim her then. Now he knew what he wanted. He just didn’t know how he was going to be able to convince Kelly.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Guess I do.”

  “Before we ship out?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Mike couldn’t imagine leaving her again, for months maybe, without having their relationship sealed and locked down. He wanted to go off knowing she’d be there when he got back. He wanted to make sure that this time she knew he’d be back.

  “Then, my friend,” Zack said as the front door opened and his wife walked in, “you’d better get busy. You’re running out of time.”

  “Who’s out of time?” Kim asked, dropping her backpack by the door and walking into the room. Her waist-length, midnight-black hair swung in a ponytail as she walked, and her green eyes sparkled. “Mike! What a great surprise! You staying for dinner?” she asked, crossing to give him a kiss on the cheek before going back to drop onto her husband’s lap.

  “Can’t tonight, Kim, thanks,” Mike said.

  “You kiss him first?” Zack asked, pretending to be insulted.

  “Yeah, but I kiss you last,” Kim teased. “So, somebody want to tell me what’s going on?”

  Zack shot a look at his friend. “Mad Dog’s getting married.”

  Kim shouted, jumped off Zack’s lap and ran to Mike, giving him a huge hug of congratulations. And Mike could only hope that getting married would be as easy as Zack made it sound—but knowing Kelly, he highly doubted it.

  The next day Kelly was dressed and ready to walk out the door to work when Mike arrived unexpectedly. Usually, he simply showed up at the club and stayed until her shift was over. She watched him climb out of the too-small car and unfold his long legs, and her heart fluttered a little just at the sight of him.

  “What are you doing here?” She held the front door open.

  “I have to talk to you,” he said, catching her before she could step out onto the porch.

  She laughed but shook her head. “I can’t wait, I’m already running a little late and—”

  But Mike was a man on a mission. After talking to Zack the day before, he’d been shopping. He had a plan, he had a ring—now all he needed was his woman. He grabbed her upper arms, set her back from the door, then stepped farther inside himself and closed the door behind him.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, staring up at him. Her grass-green eyes caught him and held him and he knew he wanted to be looking into those same eyes for the rest of his life.

  He only hoped she’d be willing to take another chance on him.

  “My leave’s up in a few days,” he said, and watched as the light drained out of her eyes. Good sign? Or bad? Hell, he wished he knew. Wished he could tell what she was thinking. Feeling.

  “When?”

  “Sunday.”

  She inhaled sharply and blew the air out of her lungs as she nodded. “Fine. Thanks for the warning.”

  He frowned, confused. “That’s not why I’m telling you.”

  She pulled free and took a step back from him, as if already keeping a distance between them. To protect herself? To lock him out? Who the hell knew?

  “Then why?” she asked.

  “Because I don’t want to leave with things…unsettled between us.”

  One finely arched red eyebrow lifted. “Times have changed, then.”

  “Yes. And so’ve I.”

  “Me, too,” she said and her features stiffened along with her spine. “And I’m not going to do this with you again, so I’m just going to go to work now. If you still want to come by tonight—”

  “Of course I’ll be here tonight,” he said, grabbing her upper arms and holding her so she couldn’t bolt before he’d had a chance to say what he had to say. “That’s my whole point. I want to be here with you every night. Every night I can be, I want to be with you.”

  “You have been,” she said, and her voice sounded small, anxious. “Let’s just leave it there, okay?”

  He held her tighter, as if fighting for her already. “Damn it, Kelly, no. I don’t want to ‘leave it there.’ I want more.”

  She pulled away from him again and swiped one hand across her face but not before he saw a single tear escape the corner of her eye. “I wanted more six years ago, Mike.
I thought you did, too.”

  He sighed heavily and pushed both hands along the sides of his head as if trying to hold his skull together despite the pounding going on in his brain at the moment. “We’ve been over this. I thought we settled it.”

  “We have,” she said, steadying herself with an effort he could see. “This isn’t about the past anymore. Honestly, Mike. This is about me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She hitched her black purse strap higher on her shoulder and clutched it tightly in one fist. “This last week, our time together, was about me getting over you, Mike. That’s all. I needed closure. So I could move on with my life. Find someone who loves me enough to marry me.”

  “Closure?” He shook his head as if he hadn’t heard her right. “What the hell do you need closure for? I want to marry you.”

  “No, you don’t.” The words were squeezed out of a tight throat as she lifted her chin into that defiant tilt he knew so well.

  “Now you know me better than I do?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said softly. “What does matter is that the last couple of weeks have given me time to come to grips with what I feel for you, Mike.”

  Man, this was not going as he’d planned. In his little scenario, Kelly said yes, told him she loved him, then called in sick to work so the two of them could spend the night setting a lovemaking record for how many times in one night.

  What the hell had happened?

  “I needed to get you out of my heart,” she was saying, and each word stabbed at him like the tip of a bayonet. “So that I could finally move on and love someone else.”

  “Kelly, damn it—” He reached for her again, but she held up both hands, warding him off. He let his hands drop to his sides, but still he tried to reach her with the words that had been in his heart for years. “I love you.”

  She flinched, as if the words had actually hurt her. Then she looked up at him and said, “You told me that six years ago, too. It didn’t stop you from walking out.”

  His back teeth ground together, and his heart felt as if it were being squeezed in a cold, tight fist. “This is different.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed sadly, stepping past him to open the door. “It is. This time I’m the one walking out.”

  And in a heartbeat—an eternity—she was gone.

  Chapter 10

  He loved her.

  Kelly groaned tightly and threw the car into Park. Shutting off the engine, she sat in Steam’s parking lot and stared out at the trees just beyond the windshield. A hot wind was blowing, and the line of trees surrounding the lot dipped and swayed as if dancing.

  And watching the leaves twist and turn in the breeze wasn’t doing a damn thing to take her mind off Mike.

  She slapped her hands to her face and groaned again. He loved her. He’d proposed. He’d offered her everything she’d wanted for six years, and she’d left him standing in her living room.

  “What is wrong with me?” she muttered, and thanked heaven no one was there to answer. She was fairly certain she wouldn’t like what they had to say.

  She’d told Mike this wasn’t about the past—but was that the truth? Wasn’t there still a part of her that wanted to make him pay for hurting her so desperately? Even though her rational mind had accepted the fact that just maybe he’d been right when he said they’d been too young? Wasn’t there still a small, wounded part of her still looking for payback?

  Hadn’t that been what the plan was all about?

  “Oh, God, the plan.” Her hands dropped to the steering wheel and squeezed it tightly. “Yeah, that worked out really well. Closure. God, what an idiot.” Shaking her head, she stared blindly at the trees again and realized what she should have known all along. There was no getting Mike Connelly out of her heart. He was there to stay, having carved out his place in her soul so many years ago.

  No wonder she hadn’t been able to move on.

  It wasn’t a lack of closure, it was the simple fact that she’d never stopped loving him.

  And now it was all over. In her own panic and fear, she’d turned him down as he had her so long ago, and they’d finally come full circle.

  Was it all about pain, then? she wondered as a knife blade of agony pierced her heart and left her gasping. Were she and Mike destined to be two ships crashing in the night? Had she really turned away from another chance at love just to prove a point? She wasn’t that stupid, was she? No, she wasn’t. Couldn’t be. But how could she be sure that Mike meant his proposal now when he hadn’t then? And why didn’t she have any darn answers?

  A knock on her car window startled her, and Kelly turned to look into Sophia’s concerned gaze. Automatically she rolled the window down and let in a blast of hot air that slapped at her.

  “You okay?” her friend asked.

  “No,” Kelly admitted, feeling the sting of tears prickle at the backs of her eyes. Oh, great. Just what she needed. To start her shift with tears streaming down her face. Lots of pity tips tonight.

  “Want to talk about it?” Sophia’s features softened in sympathy.

  “Not really.” She so didn’t want to have to explain to her friend just how big an idiot she was. Kelly opened the car door, rolled up her window, then climbed out and locked up the car. Swinging her purse onto her shoulder, she took a deep breath of the damp air and blew it out again. She felt…empty. And, oh, God, she wondered if she’d always feel that way. “Maybe later, okay?”

  “Sure,” Sophia said and wrapped an arm around Kelly’s waist as they headed for the back door of Steam.

  It was good to have friends, Kelly thought. Because now that she’d chased Mike off, she was going to be exploring whole new levels of loneliness.

  The club was crowded, as it was every night. In Savannah, it seemed, people didn’t wait for the weekend to have a good time. Even on a Wednesday night, there was a long wait for dinner, and the bar was practically standing room only.

  Mike eased into the lounge and let his gaze scan the mob of people, searching for one face in particular and coming up empty. His regular table was taken, so he pushed through to the end of the bar and leaned his forearms on the glossy wood finish.

  The bartender, recognizing him, sent him a smile and a nod and automatically filled a tall crystal glass from the tap. Delivering Mike’s drink, the man went back to work, and Mike concentrated on the task at hand. How to get through Kelly O’Shea’s hard head to make her understand they belonged together.

  He’d been so stunned at Kelly’s reaction to his proposal it had taken him a while to realize that she’d actually said no. But there was just no way Mike Connelly was going to take that no for an answer. Not now. Not after finding her again.

  He already knew what life without Kelly was like—and it wasn’t acceptable.

  Not anymore.

  “Closure,” he muttered darkly, his eyes narrowing on the crowd. He noticed Donna, one of the cocktail waitresses, laughing with a customer, and his scowl deepened. Kelly wanted to put him behind her so she could move on? To some other guy?

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” Just imagining Kelly with some other man made his blood boil and the top of his head threaten to blow off. He’d never let another guy have a shot at her. Not when he loved her so much his chest hurt with it. Kelly was his, damn it. His heart. His soul. The very best part of him—and he wouldn’t lose her.

  Not now.

  Not ever.

  “You say something?” the woman on the stool next to him asked.

  “Nope,” he said, and moved farther down the bar, ignoring the sparkle of interest in the woman’s blue eyes.

  There was only one woman he wanted smiling at him. And, by God, he wasn’t going to settle for less.

  At the other end of the bar, the swinging door from the kitchen opened and Kelly swept through, carrying a tray of appetizers. Mike’s heart galloped in his chest as he forgot about his beer and moved away from the bar.

  Stepping into the middle of the room
, he watched her work the crowd. She delivered her order and smiled as though she didn’t have a care in the world. Unless you were looking at her eyes. And there, Mike saw everything he needed to see. Misery.

  Good, he thought, hope leaping into his chest and digging into his heart. If she was miserable, maybe she’d listen.

  She spotted him, and her face froze over. A shutter dropped over her expressive eyes, locking him out. But it was too late. He knew she loved him, damn it, and he wasn’t leaving this place until she knew it, too.

  He took a step toward her, but she shook her head and held up her now-empty tray in front of her like a warrior’s shield. “Go away,” she said evenly.

  “Not a chance.” He didn’t bother to keep his voice down. Hell, if he had to, if it was what she needed, he’d go up onto the roof and shout his love for her.

  A couple of people turned to watch, caught by the tension humming between them. Mike didn’t care who watched. His gaze was fixed on Kelly. His muscles bunched, preparing to run after her if she made a dash for it.

  But she stood stock-still, as if rooted to the spot. Around them, conversations slowly dwindled to a studied hush as more and more of the crowd became aware of the drama playing out in their midst.

  The music played on though, a soft, sweeping saxophone that rose and fell as if the room was breathing.

  “You walked out.” He braced his feet wide apart and folded his arms across his chest.

  “You noticed.”

  She was trying for glib, but Mike heard the pain in her voice.

  “Why?” he demanded.

  “Don’t do this, Mike.”

  “Oh, yeah, we’re doing this.”

  “Not here.”

  “Right here, babe.” He wasn’t moving. Not an inch. Not until they had this settled, and Kelly admitted she belonged with him.

  She blew out a frustrated breath that ruffled the dark red curls that had fallen across her forehead. “You are unbelievable.”