by Susan Stoker
“Uh…yeah.”
“I don’t have a phone, since Bahrain isn’t covered by my cell company. But I wanted to make sure I knew where you’d be so I could find you to set up dinner.”
“Oh!” She finally clued in…and immediately blushed. “Yeah. This is my desk. Most of the time I feel like I live here, but of course you know I have an apartment just outside the gate. I’ve got a cell, but it’s work-issued. I went ahead and canceled my personal one to save the money. But I guess that doesn’t help, since you don’t have one, huh?” Caite knew she was babbling, but it was such a surreal experience to have a guy actually want to take her out. “I don’t know what your schedule is like, but I’m usually here until six or so.”
“Six? You don’t go home at five?”
Caite shrugged. “Officially, yes, but most days I stay late because it’s not like I have anything else to do. It’s easier to do stuff when no one is around to interrupt me.”
“Like I’m doing,” Rocco said with a slight frown.
“No, it’s just—” Her phone rang, and she smiled apologetically at him. “Wait just a second?”
“Of course,” he responded.
Caite picked up the phone—and immediately wished she’d let it ring.
“You aren’t getting paid to flirt with the visiting sailors, Ms. McCallan. Do you have that report done yet that I asked you for this morning?”
She sighed. Her boss was an ass. “No, sir. I’ve been busy checking in the visitors for the conference.” She wanted to say, “for the conference you set up and didn’t ask me if I’d be willing to help with,” but figured she’d be pushing her luck if she did.
“Right. So how about you put away your googly eyes and get to work?” Joshua said haughtily.
“Yes, sir.”
He hung up without another word.
Caite hated that her desk was in direct line of sight from her boss’s through the window of his office. Knowing she was poking the bear, and not caring that she’d most likely piss off Joshua by not immediately getting to work, she stood and held out a hand to Rocco. “It was good to meet you, Rocco. I’d love to go to dinner with you. At the risk of sounding lame, I never have any plans, so whatever works with your schedule will work with mine.”
He smiled at her and took her hand in his. He brought it up to his mouth and kissed the back. “Friday?”
Caite nodded and couldn’t take her eyes from his mouth. The beard tickled the skin of her hand, and she wondered what it would feel like on other parts of her body.
“If I’m in the area, can I stop by before then?” he asked.
“I…I’d like that,” she got out. It was time she stopped being so damn shy and said what she meant. It wasn’t as if men were falling out of the sky at her feet. She was almost thirty, and if she wanted to ever settle down, she needed to work on being more outgoing. Not that she was going to marry Rocco. She was just saying.
“Me too,” the man in front of her said. Then with the kind of perception she imagined all SEALs had, he said, “And now I’d better get out of your hair so your boss doesn’t have another reason to yell at you.”
“He doesn’t need a reason,” Caite blurted. “He’s not a very happy man.”
“Hmmm.” Rocco dropped her hand almost reluctantly.
“It was good to meet you guys too,” Caite said politely, looking around Rocco to Ace and Gumby.
“You too,” Ace said with a wide grin on his face.
“It was a pleasure,” Gumby echoed.
“Thanks for knowing what to do in the elevator,” Caite told Rocco, prolonging their goodbye.
“Of course. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better, ma petite fée,” Rocco said.
Caite knew she was blushing, again, but managed to keep eye contact with him.
“Be safe out there,” she told the trio.
“Be safe in here,” Rocco returned mysteriously.
Before she could ask him what he meant, he nodded at her and turned to head down the hallway toward the stairwell with his friends.
Despite knowing she was going to be reprimanded by her boss, Caite stood there for a moment longer, staring at Rocco’s ass as he walked away. The view was worth every harsh word she’d receive later.
Chapter Three
Two days later, on Friday, Rocco was standing outside the barracks they were staying in with Ace and Gumby. They’d spent the last two days researching the info Commander Horner had given them. They’d also enlisted the assistance of their good friend, Tex. The man was tight with the SEAL teams back home and was an absolute computer genius. Rocco had seen his work firsthand when the man had single-handedly figured out where Dakota and Caroline—the women of two fellow SEALs—were being held after being kidnapped a couple of years ago. Rocco had kept in touch with Tex, and the man had offered his assistance whenever and wherever Rocco and his team needed it.
The other SEAL team they’d assisted to rescue Dakota Cutsinger was legendary. They’d been successful on so many of their missions, they’d been called “unbeatable.”
Of course, Rocco, and even that team’s renowned leader himself, Wolf, knew that was bullshit. All it took was one bullet to fuck up an entire mission. The last Rocco had heard, Wolf and his teammates were retiring at the end of the year. They were all happily married and only too willing to transition out of active duty to the training side. Rocco was thrilled they were staying to share their knowledge with teams like his, as well as the younger SEALs. Everyone could learn from Wolf and his crew.
Tex had no intention of retiring though. He’d told Rocco in no uncertain terms that the day he quit helping his country fight against terrorists, hoodlums, and general assholes, was the day they put him in the ground. He’d confirmed the information commander Horner had given them, that Jeo Bitoo was currently visiting his family back in Lambaréné, a small town near where Albert Switzer had built his famous hospital. He also confirmed that his sons all lived together in a small hovel about ten minutes from the store owned by the elder Bitoo. When Jeo was in town, he and his wife lived in a room above the store itself.
The parents were booked on a flight back to Bahrain on the following Monday. Which gave the SEALs plenty of time to search the store for the tablets. They had to find them before Jeo got back and could pass them off to be shipped out.
Rocco, Ace, and Gumby were heading out that afternoon to scope out the store. Their hope was that they’d stick out less if they were wandering around in the daytime than at night. Their plan was to get in, hopefully find the tablets, and get out with no one being the wiser. The fact that the sons hadn’t bothered to open their dad’s store while he was away made things a bit easier, as they shouldn’t have to worry about anyone interrupting them. The SEALs didn’t have any leads on the mole Commander Horner had alluded to, but that wasn’t their mission. Finding the artifacts and preventing them from leaving the country was the goal.
Despite the mission keeping him busy, Rocco had been…unsettled…the last couple days.
Gumby called him out on it. “Go see her,” he ordered.
“Who?” Rocco asked, knowing full well who his friend was talking about.
Gumby simply raised an eyebrow. “Look, whatever connection you two have could be the real deal. I may not have found my woman yet, but I’m not an idiot. You aren’t concentrating fully, and you won’t if you don’t go see Caite. Talk to her.”
Rocco ran a hand through his thick hair. “I don’t know why she’s gotten under my skin so fast. I don’t even know her.”
“Doesn’t matter. You saw it happen to Wolf and his team time and time again. Why should we be any different?” Ace asked.
“Because I’m not them,” Rocco said. “I don’t get worked up over women. And like you said, we’re leaving as soon as this mission is over. It wouldn’t be fair to start anything with her and then leave. Hell, we all know that being with a SEAL isn’t easy. And I can’t even tell her I am a SEAL.” He shook his
head. “What a clusterfuck.”
“Stop thinking,” Gumby ordered. “Go see her. Confirm your dinner. Then afterward you can worry about all that shit. You might find out she chews with her mouth open. Or she orders a salad when she really wants a steak. Or she has some other annoying quirk that you can’t deal with. We need you completely focused on what we’re doing, and you can’t do that if you’re worrying about her as much as you are right now.”
Rocco nodded. “You’re right. And I admit that I want to see her. Need to make sure she’s okay. Knowing she’s been around anyone we’re investigating hasn’t sat right with me the last two days.”
“She’s fine,” Ace reassured him. “You watched her walk home the last two evenings.”
“I know, I know,” Rocco said. And he had. He’d hidden in the shadows and followed her to her apartment building both nights, just making sure no one hassled her. She’d been fine, and had no clue whatsoever that she was being followed—which also bothered him—and she’d gone straight home both nights. But he still worried about her and what was happening inside the building. Was her boss still giving her a hard time? Had the brothers been clued in that their father was being investigated and if so, would that put her in danger?
He had no idea if seeing Caite again would make him worry less or more, but there was no doubt he wanted to see her. “Fine. I’ll just head up there and see if she can take a ten-minute break or something. I’ll meet you back here at the barracks and we’ll head out.”
Gumby nodded. “Tell her we said hello.”
Rocco was about to tell his friend to fuck off when he realized he was serious. He narrowed his eyes at him.
“Hey! I like her,” Gumby said, holding his hands up in capitulation. “Not like that, but she was pretty calm when we had to go out the top of the elevator. She wasn’t happy about it, and she was obviously scared, but she held herself together. That shit goes a long way in my eyes.”
“Yeah, she was nice,” Ace added. “She seems like she has her head on straight. She’s not looking for a free ride by marrying a military man. And you deserve a nice woman who isn’t constantly eye-fucking you and doesn’t just want to get in your pants.” Ace smirked.
Rocco rolled his eyes. There’d been a time when all of them had been more interested in what was under a woman’s clothes than what was between her ears, but they’d all learned over the years to appreciate being more than a piece of meat themselves—and no longer treated women the same. “I’ll send your regards,” he said with a hint of snark. “I’ll be ready to go in thirty.”
The other two men nodded and headed for the door to the barracks. Rocco turned and walked quickly across the base to Caite’s building. He strode inside and headed for the stairs. He was actually glad to see an “out of order” sign on the elevator. From what Caite had said, it sounded like it was about time, as often as the damn thing kept breaking down.
He headed down the hallway toward her desk and smiled when he saw her. She had her head bent over some papers and was mumbling to herself.
“Do they ever talk back?” Rocco asked as he stood right in front of her desk.
She startled badly and looked up at him.
“Crud, you scared me!” she said, holding a hand to her chest.
Rocco couldn’t help but follow her hand movement with his eyes. He could see her chest moving up and down with her quick breaths as she tried to regain her equilibrium. Her tits were small, but they fit her frame perfectly. She’d claimed she was too heavy for him to lift the other day, and he’d thought it ridiculous then, just as he did now. He couldn’t see her legs since they were hidden under the desk, but he remembered that she was the perfect blend of curvy and lush without being fat.
What women didn’t understand was that ultimately, most men didn’t care how big their tits were. Men just loved boobs. All sizes and shapes. And if they were attached to a woman they were interested in, they were absolutely perfect.
Besides, what he cared about was what kind of person she was. He didn’t know Caite yet, not really, but he’d talked to a few others on the base who did. He’d overheard a sailor who had moved into a room on their floor in guest housing talking on the phone, telling someone how much of a help Ms. McCallan had been. He’d just missed her in the food court one day, arriving in time to see her helping an elderly person get his food to a table before she headed out the door. He’d even asked Commander Horner about her, and he’d had nothing but good things to say about how helpful, efficient, and pleasant she was. Those things went a long way in his eyes.
“Sorry I scared you,” he said softly.
“It’s okay,” she said immediately, letting him off the hook. “I was just trying to figure out what the heck my boss wrote. His handwriting is atrocious. He took off and won’t be back until Monday, and he left me a bunch of directions for the conference.”
“He left? I thought he’d organized the thing?” Rocco asked.
Caite shrugged. “He did. But everyone knows that it’s the grunts like me who actually run and organize stuff like this.”
She had him there. “Right, so since Mr. Grumpy isn’t here…can you take a break?”
She immediately looked concerned. “Is everything all right?”
“Of course,” he soothed, liking how she seemed worried about him. “I just haven’t seen you in two days and wanted to catch up…and make sure we’ve got our schedules coordinated for dinner tonight.”
“Oh. Although I’m not sure how we can ‘catch up’ when we don’t even really know each other in the first place.”
He chuckled. “Point made. Fine. I missed you and wanted to say hello. Is that better?”
Rocco was fascinated by the way her cheeks turned pink at his confession. It had been a long time since he’d made a woman blush with such innocent words.
“Oh.”
“So…can you take ten minutes?” he pressed.
Caite nodded. “Of course. Let me put some things away…” She started shuffling papers around on her desk, and he was impressed that, even though she was only stepping away for a few minutes, she knew the importance of making sure everything was secured. She locked her top desk drawer and her computer screen and stood.
Today, she was wearing another pair of loose black pants with a short-sleeved white shirt. He could just see the outline of the camisole she wore under the blouse, but not enough for it to be indecent when she walked around outside. The norms of the country frowned upon anything see-through.
“There’s a break room down the hall. We can go there,” she said.
Not wanting to be where anyone might overhear them, and wanting her all to himself, Rocco asked, “Do you mind if we step outside?”
“Outside?”
He chuckled, remembering her dislike of the heat. “We’ll be fast. I’m not a fan of enclosed spaces,” he told her. And it wasn’t a lie. Thanks to a stint as a Taliban prisoner a few years back, he now preferred being outside rather than in. Not to mention he had no idea who the mole was in Commander Horner’s department, and didn’t want to risk him, or her, overhearing anything he might say.
“Oh! Of course. That’s fine. No problem,” Caite said quickly, falling all over herself to apologize.
Rocco gestured for her to precede him and took the chance to check out her ass as she passed. He hadn’t been with anyone in a very long time, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t appreciative of a good-looking woman.
And Caite McCallan had a perfect ass. He guessed maybe she’d been thinking about that particular body part when she’d mentioned her weight. But her bubble butt was incredible. His fingers actually twitched with the need to squeeze the generous globes.
She looked over her shoulder and gave him a shy smile. “Coming?”
“Right behind you,” he said automatically, mentally reprimanding himself.
They walked down the stairs and out into the heat. It was at least one hundred degrees already, and as much as he wanted to spend t
ime with Caite, he didn’t want her to suffer in the heat either. He gestured to a small bench placed under a grouping of trees. It was shaded and, more importantly, empty.
They sat on the bench, their knees angled toward each other.
“So…” she said after a moment.
“So,” he echoed with a grin. “How are you?”
“I’m good. You? Everything going okay with your thing?”
“My thing?”
“Yeah. The reason you’re here. Mission. Job. Thing.”
Pretty and considerate. “Yeah. My thing is good. We’re headed out right after this to get more information,” he told her.
Caite frowned. “Is it safe?”
He would’ve blown off the question, but her genuine concern touched him deeply. “It’s safe,” he said. “Not everything we do is, but as far as things go, this one is relatively harmless. Just some recon at a local shop.”
“Good.”
Rocco wanted to ask her if she’d seen anything weird going on at work. Wanted to see if he could find out who the mole was that Commander Horner talked about, but one, he didn’t have time, and two, he preferred to learn more about her in the short visit he had with her. “How’s the conference going? Any problems?”
Caite shrugged. “Nothing more than usual. People are the same all across the world.”
“What do you mean?”
“They think rules don’t apply to them. They ‘forget’ the papers they were supposed to bring with them. They want more than they’re entitled to receive. They feel as if they’re more important than everyone else around them. They’re rude. They talk too loud and say inappropriate things.”
With every word out of her mouth, Rocco got more and more pissed. “Someone was inappropriate with you?” he asked in a hard tone.
“Rocco, people are always that way to me. I’m just a secretary. I don’t have any rank on my shoulder and I’m a woman. But I don’t think anything of it.”
“You should complain.”
