Hot SEAL, Alaskan Nights (SEALs in Paradise)

by Cynthia D'Alba

  “Your fault,” his dad said with a grin. “You’re the one who invited a guest.”

  With a groan and sigh, Levi stood and headed to get the outside broom from the garage. Sweeping the porch was totally worth it if it meant he got to see Bailey.

  Not only did he sweep the porch and walk, he cleaned out his mother’s flower gardens—still struggling to get a hold on spring growth—trimmed back the bushes close to the house, and power washed the deck overlooking the lake.

  “All I can say is that Bailey can come over every night of the week if I can get this level of cleaning out of you,” his mother said through the open sliding door to the deck.

  “Doesn’t have anything to do with Bailey,” he said. “I just saw a need and did a few things.”

  “Uh-huh. I don’t buy the bull you’re selling, but whatever. I appreciate the help, as does your father since he doesn’t have to do it. Now, it’s almost one-thirty. You probably want to grab a shower. You might be a tad ripe.”

  Lifting his shirt, he wiped his face with the hem. “Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea.”

  When he came back down at two-thirty, all his family members had arrived. The men were in the living room with his dad, the ladies in the kitchen, and the kids were everywhere. The high-pitched screams from the kids reminded him of the whine of a helicopter, and he’d heard enough of those to know.

  “What’d I miss?” he asked as he entered.

  “About time you got out of bed,” Patrick said.

  “No kidding,” added Sam. “I thought SEALs ate the sunrise for breakfast.”

  The two brothers chuckled at their jokes and exchanged high-fives.

  “Good to see you, Bob,” Levi said to his brother-in-law. The two men shook hands.

  “Sorry to have missed the welcome home party. Had an issue with a truck.” Bob and Nancy owned a large, international trucking company, meaning their trucks traveled from Alaska to Canada and back. They also had a number of trucks on the road around the state of Alaska, what roads there were.

  “No problem,” Levi assured him.

  Levi went to the sofa and wedged his ass onto the middle cushion between his brothers. It was sardine-tight, but that’s why he did it.

  Sam sniffed in Levi’s direction. “Are you wearing cologne?”

  Patrick leaned in and sniffed. “Wearing? I think he bathed in it.”

  “Har-har. You two are so funny,” Levi said. “I can’t help if I smell clean and fresh while you two smell like a gorilla’s armpits.”

  Bob snickered, but like a good brother-in-law, stayed out of the fray.

  “A gorilla’s armpit?” Sam said. “I’ll show you a gorilla’s armpit.”

  He arched his arm over his head and began running the armpit of his shirt over Levi’s head. Patrick followed suit from his side.

  “I’m dying,” Levi cried out. “Dying. Dad. Help me.”

  Their father looked over at his sons, shook his head, and looked at his son-in-law. “Probably should have found separate foster homes for them.”

  Bob snorted.

  Levi stood and straightened his shirt. “You two are disgusting.”

  Sam and Patrick exchanged glances and high-fived again.

  “We have company coming,” Levi said. “I hope you can act your ages and not your shoe sizes.”

  “Ohhh,” Patrick said. “Zinger from little bro.”

  “Who’s coming?” Bob asked.

  “Bailey Brown, the nurse practitioner working in Dr. Braverman’s office. She’s been great about helping with my bandages, and she took out my stitches yesterday. So, I kind of owe her.”

  “Just like you owed her dinner at the Saltry?” Sam said.

  “And AJ’s?” Patrick tossed in.

  Levi felt heat rise in his cheeks. “How do you know we’ve had a couple of meals?”

  “We have spies everywhere,” Patrick said. “Just ask my kids. I find out everything they do.”

  “First, I’m not one of your kids. And second, you don’t need to know anything, much less everything, about what I do.”

  The doorbell stopped the conversation.

  Levi looked at the four men. “Be nice or you’re all dead. Hear me?”

  As he walked to the front door, he heard the snickers from his brothers. Mattered not to him. They could snicker all they wanted, but if they did anything to embarrass him, well, revenge would be swift and painful. He’d feel horrible that their children wouldn’t have fathers, but…

  When the team headed out on a mission, he knew he could die. That was one of the downsides to his job. But even then, his heart didn’t race and pound like it was at this moment. The guys would give him so much shit if they knew a woman could make his heart race. Hell, his palms were even a little sweaty. At the last moment, before he opened the door, he wiped his hands on his jeans and then opened the door.

  His heart leapt into his throat at seeing her. Dressed in tan pants, a red sleeveless shirt with a matching sweater, a lightweight jacket, and tan flats, she was gorgeous. Her auburn hair had streaks of fire from the sun behind her. Her lips, painted a kissable shade of red, were tilted up in a smile. Her eyes twinkled, and his stomach fell like a skydiver from a plane.

  He was in so much trouble.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi back,” he said. “Hello, Mrs. Ellis.”

  Cherry Ellis stood to the right and slightly behind Bailey.

  “Do we get to come in?” Cherry asked. “Or should I find a seat on the porch? And you get to call me Cherry today.” She sent a glare in his direction. “But only today.”

  “Grandma,” Bailey said.

  Cherry giggled. “I’m kidding. He knows I’m kidding, right, kid?”

  Levi smiled. “Sure. Come on in.” He stepped back and ran into his dad.

  “Cherry. Good to see you.”

  “You too, Erick. Where’s Grace?”

  “I’m here,” Levi’s mom said as she entered from the kitchen. “Do you want to take your jackets off?” she said to Bailey and her grandmother.

  “I think I’ll keep my sweater on for now,” Cherry said.

  Bailey slipped hers off, and Levi reached for it.

  “I’ll go put this in my room,” he said and left.

  As he hurried up the stairs to his bedroom, he knew putting Bailey’s jacket in his room had been a major blunder. His brothers would have a field day with that one, not that he could blame them.

  When he returned to the living room, Sam pointed toward the kitchen. “She’s in there, or did you expect her to follow you up to your room?”

  Patrick snorted beer through his nose, and Bob tried to look innocent, as if he hadn’t heard a word.

  “Kiss my ass,” Levi said.

  “And you kiss people with that mouth?” Patrick said with a tsk.

  “Okay, guys. You’ve had enough fun with Levi today. Let it go.”

  Four heads turned toward Erick Van der Hayden. Their dad didn’t usually get into their tussles, but when he did, they knew he meant business.

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Only while you have a guest in the house. After that…” His dad shrugged. “I’m Switzerland again.”

  His dad had been around too long and was too smart to get between his children.

  High-pitched, female laughter floated from behind the swinging kitchen door. Levi pushed the door open and entered, chuckles still bouncing around the room.

  “What’d I miss?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” his mother said and whirled toward a pot on the stove that suddenly needed stirring.

  His sister Nancy snorted into her glass of wine, then shifted her gaze to the corner of the room.

  “Seriously?” he said. “You’re telling embarrassing stories about me to Bailey and Mrs. Ellis?”

  Cherry Ellis lifted a wine glass into the air. “I salute you for surviving childhood.”

  Bailey, leaning on the edge of a counter, lifted her wine glass. �
�Agreed.”

  With a long, exasperated sigh, Levi asked, “So nobody is going to tell me which story my mother told?”

  “Not me,” his mother said, followed by denials from Nancy, Mrs. Ellis, and of course, Bailey. That only left his sister Macy, who refused to look at him.

  “Let me just say, Macy, that payback can be swift and painful, or delayed and tortured. I’ll let you know what I decide.”

  Macy giggled into her glass of seltzer water.

  “Can I steal Bailey for a minute? I want to show her something outside.”

  “Sure,” his mother said. “We still have about thirty minutes until we eat.”

  Bailey straightened and set her wineglass on the counter. “Lead the way.”

  He took her hand as they left, fully aware that he would hear about that later. They walked across the deck and down the steps into the yard. He led her around the corner of the house and pressed her back into the house’s siding, his hands flat on the wall bracketing her head.

  “I need to do this,” he said, and took her mouth in a hot, tongue-thrusting, erotic kiss.

  She moaned as she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss with a passion that rocked his world. She rocked against his thickening cock.

  He wanted this woman, and somehow, at some time in the near future, he would have her…maybe even tonight. He hoped she liked the surprise he’d arranged.

  When the kisses ended, he rested his forehead against hers and smiled. “I missed you.”

  Leaning forward, she crushed her mouth to his, and then said, “Me, too.”

  “Come on.” He grabbed her hand, and they walked toward the dock. “I thought you might like to see the family plane.”

  “Sure,” she said, but she lagged behind him until he felt like he was dragging her along.

  When he glanced back, she was turning her head from side to side looking at his parents’ property.

  “This is really nice,” she said. “I mean, really nice. I’m envious. I’m such a water person that this setting is a vision of heaven for me.”

  He took a second look, trying to see it from a stranger’s viewpoint. He’d grown up here and this had always been home, but acreage on the water with a large, albeit older, house probably did look impressive. Only the family knew that the plumbing banged at times, or that the heat had a tendency to not work at the worst times. All visitors saw was a nice setting.

  “Thanks. I was lucky to grow up here.”

  “I agree.” She turned toward the water. “I bet your mom had her hands full. My grandmother mentioned your brothers. How many of you are there?”

  “Five kids. Two brothers and two sisters and everyone is here tonight.”

  “Where are you in the line up?”

  He grinned. “Baby.”

  She groaned. “That explains so much.”

  He laughed and pulled her to him for a tight hug. “Come on.”

  Hand in hand, they crossed the yard, down the steps to the dock, and over to the seaplane floating in the gentle waves of the lake.

  “Wow.” She ran the palm of her hand along the white and blue plane. “This is pretty darn cool.”

  “Ever been in one?”

  With a smirk and an arched eyebrow, she said, “A plane? But of course.”

  “Smarty pants. I meant a floatplane.”

  She shook her head. “Can’t say that I have.”

  He opened the rear door and rolled up a set of homemade steps. “Climb up.”

  She climbed the four steps and, leaning over at the waist, stepped in. Behind her, Levi bounded up and inside.

  “Wow,” she said looking around. “Looks like a plane inside.”

  He laughed. “It has pedals and everything.”

  She touched his forearm with her fingers. “I’m kidding,” she said and squeezed his arm. The squeeze wasn’t firm enough to hurt, but he felt an electrical zap from his head to his toes.

  “I know.” He pulled her down into the rear seats. “You don’t really want to see the cockpit, do you?”

  “Not at the moment, but I have been thinking about your offer of taking the plane up. I might not ever get the chance to come back to Alaska, and I would love to fly over the islands and Kenai Peninsula while I’m here.”

  Snaking his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her close. “Just tell me when, and we’ll go. I’m completely at your disposal.”

  She snuggled in under his arm. “How much time do you have left before you go back? Two more weekends?”

  He loved how she felt in his arms. She felt right. The whole situation felt right, like when he’s assembled a weapon and all the pieces clicked together perfectly. He felt “the click” with her. He should be freaked out, but he wasn’t, and that’s what freaked him out.

  “No. I have this week and next weekend. I have to report back to the base the middle of the following week.”

  She lifted head and looked into his eyes. Then, cupping his face in her hands, she kissed him. Levi adjusted in the seat until he was angled more toward her and enfolded her into his embrace. Their mouths crushed together. Their breaths became one as their kisses continued for long minutes.

  A loud knocking on the exterior of the plane made them jump apart. Levi whirled toward the door opening. “What?” he snarled.

  “Dinner’s ready,” Nancy said, her smile as sweet and innocent as a new baby. But he knew his sister. Her family nickname was Nosy Nancy. She came by it honestly.

  “And you couldn’t have called us from the dock?”

  Her eyes opened wide with guiltlessness. “I tried.” She held up three fingers. “I swear as a Girl Scout.”

  He scoffed. “You weren’t a Girl Scout.”

  Then her face lit with an honest smile. “Sorry to intrude, Bailey.”

  “No problem. We were just, um, talking about flying.”

  “Yeah, right. I remember those days. Anyway, if you don’t want Mom, or worse, one of the brothers to come down, you might want to come on up.”

  “We’re coming,” Levi muttered. He stopped Bailey when she stood. “Let me go first so I can help you down.”

  Grinning, she said, “I can walk down four steps.”

  “I’ll help,” Nancy volunteered, much to his consternation.

  Bailey stepped onto the first stair and realized how narrow and steep they were. Going up had been a breeze but going down was a little tougher. Nancy extended her hand, which Bailey took.

  “Thanks.”

  Nancy nodded. “It takes a little getting used to coming down. I remember the first couple of times for me.”

  “Do you fly too?”

  “Yep. I have my license. Bob doesn’t yet, but I’m pushing him to do it.” The two women stepped out of the way for Levi to exit. “Even when he gets his license,” Nancy continued, “we won’t be able to afford a plane of our own, or at least not one this nice. Mom and Dad are great about letting one of us take it, as needed, but there comes a time when you don’t want to borrow from the parents anymore. Know what I mean?”

  Bailey nodded. “I think I do. You’re an adult, and if your parents keep loaning you things, or bailing you out of trouble, you retain a child-slash-parent relationship, instead of developing an adult-to-adult one.”

  Nancy smiled. “Exactly.” She looked over Bailey’s shoulder. “Got you a smart one here, Bro.”

  Levi took Bailey’s hand and interlaced their fingers. “I’m finding that out.”

  Chapter 11

  Over dinner, Bailey enjoyed watching the family interaction, the sibling jests, the inside jokes. The whole evening made her homesick for her own family, not that she wasn’t loving spending time with her maternal grandmother. She was, but she missed her brothers and sister. Of course, she called home on a regular basis and she talked to her younger sister Jasmine at least once a week. The trials and tribulations of the teenage years hadn’t changed much since Bailey had been one. She’d told someone once that the only way she would time
travel back to those years would be with the knowledge of everything about life and boys that she knew now. Otherwise, no, thank you.

  Not that Bailey’s teen years had been bad. They hadn’t. In high school, she’d been a cheerleader and quite popular, but she’d never been positive if her popularity was due to her personality or her parents’ money. Sadly, her latest ex, Curtis, hadn’t been the first guy who saw dollar signs when he looked at her.

  Being in Alaska had been freeing in a way. Everyone knew her grandparents. Their hotel, the Homer Inn, had been popular. It hadn’t made millions of dollars, but her grandparents had lived on what they’d brought in. Everyone who knew them believed them to be simple hoteliers, unaware that the couple had additional acreage that held a large oil reserve.

  With a groan, Bailey pushed back from the table. “This meal was wonderful, Grace. You are a fabulous cook.”

  “Why, thank you, Bailey. I’ve come a long way in forty-four years of married life.”

  Erick Van der Hayden laughed. “You have no idea, Bailey. When we were first married—”

  All four children groaned a united, “Nooo.”

  Erick gave them a grin and turned to Bailey. “As I was saying, when we first married, the first meal Grace cooked was spaghetti.”

  “Okay,” Bailey said. “That’s simple enough.”

  Grace interrupted Erick’s story. “Except I had no idea what went into the sauce. I knew it was red like tomatoes, so I went to the store and found tomato sauce. I was so proud.”

  “Until,” Macy said, picking up the story, “she got home. She cooked the noodles for twenty minutes, instead of twelve—”

  “I wanted to make sure they were done,” Grace said with a laugh. “Then I heated the tomato sauce and poured it over the noodles.”

  Bailey winced. “No seasoning?”

  “Nope. Nothing but overcooked noodles and hot tomato sauce,” Erick said.

  Bailey laughed. “Sounds…um, how do I say this tactfully?”

  “Disgusting?” Grace said. “Oh, it was. I knew he was a keeper when he ate it anyway.”

  “I was starving,” Erick quipped.

  “So, how did you learn to cook?”

  “Erick’s mother. He confided in her, and she came over every day with the ingredients for dinner and taught me how to cook.”