Out of Uniform Box Set: Books 1-3

by Kennedy, Elle

He moved even closer. “That I’m in love with you.”

  Jane’s mouth ran dry. “What?”

  “You heard me,” he said roughly. “I’ve fallen for you, Jane. And I was a total jerk for ending things the way I did.”

  “Yeah, you were,” she agreed.

  “I was going to tell you I made a mistake. I realized it the day after.” His features creased with something that resembled guilt. “I came to find you that night at the hotel. Only when I got there, I saw you and Ryan in the parking lot, and I…”

  “You thought I slept with him,” she said flatly.

  Shame swam in his eyes. “Yes. I jumped to conclusions. I…” His voice wobbled. “I figured it confirmed what I was thinking all along, that you weren’t my type…you weren’t serious about me.”

  Jane let out a shaky breath. “I was serious about you.”

  “Past tense?” he said, watching her carefully.

  She met his gaze, and the hope and trepidation she saw there sent a rush of warmth flooding through her. “Present tense,” she said softly. “I am serious about you.”

  He didn’t speak for a moment. For so long, in fact, that she started to worry. But when he finally opened his mouth, it was worth the wait.

  “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry for comparing you to Alice, for telling you you’re not my type, and most of all, for believing you’d jump into bed with the first warm body you came across.” He stepped forward, one callused hand reaching out to stroke her cheek. “Can we start over?”

  A part of her wanted to scream yes! But she tamped down the eager response and studied Becker’s handsome face. “How will we make a relationship work, Beck? We live in different cities.”

  “Two hours away, that’s all. And I promise you, I’ll come up here whenever I can. I’ll spend every available second making you happy, Jane.”

  Pleasure skittered up her spine. “Wow. You actually sound like you mean that.”

  “I do mean it.” He smiled. “We can figure this out as we go along. I’ll do the long-distance thing for as long as we have to. All I know is that I want to be with you. I’ll take whatever I can get.”

  “What about the passive housewife you wanted?” she teased.

  “Screw passive,” he said fervently. He bent his head close to her ear. “I want aggressive, Jane. I want fiery and bold and honest. I want you.”

  And there it was. The three little words that made her melt. The three little words she’d wanted to hear since the moment Becker told her she didn’t fit his blueprint for an ideal woman. Well, screw the blueprint. She’d known all along that she was exactly what he needed. Someone who made him laugh, someone who challenged him and excited him and turned him on. And now he knew it too.

  She offered an innocent grin. “Took you long enough to figure it out, huh?”

  “So I’m a little slow on the uptake. Don’t rub it in.” He planted his hands on her waist and yanked her toward him.

  The second their bodies met, a ribbon of heat uncurled inside her body, making her skin burn.

  “I missed you,” Becker said gruffly.

  Jane’s eyelids fluttered closed as he leaned in to kiss her. When their lips touched, a thrill shot up her spine. “I missed you too,” she whispered against his mouth.

  They kissed again, and Jane was breathless by the time they finally broke apart. Her heart thudded wildly against her ribs, her nipples tingling, her panties soaked. “For the love of God,” she blurted out. “Help me pick up all these bags so we can go inside.”

  Becker’s eyes twinkled. “If I help, do you promise we can do naked things?”

  She bit back laughter. “Oh, we’ll definitely be doing naked things.”

  “Good,” he said, giving a satisfied nod.

  And then he helped her gather up the fallen bags, followed her into the apartment, and shut the door behind them.

  The End

  * * *

  UP NEXT: Ryan’s story! Keep reading for Heat of the Night…

  Heat of the Night

  An Out of Uniform Novella

  1

  “So this is the new place,” Jane Harrison remarked, glancing around the courtyard of the low-rise apartment building. She admired the perfectly kept lawn and colorful flowerbeds around the edge. “I like it.”

  “Me too,” Ryan Evans admitted.

  His gaze strayed to the rectangular pool, where his teammate, best friend and new roommate, Matt O’Connor, was swimming laps. He and Matt had moved in three weeks ago, and so far the arrangement was working out nicely. They’d always gotten along, being the two youngest members of SEAL Team Fifteen, and now its two remaining bachelors. All the other men had settled down over the past few years, handing the manwhore torch to Ryan and Matt, who used it to burn the sheets with the endless supply of willing women in San Diego.

  Hell, he and Matt had only been in the building three weeks and already they’d wound up in bed with their upstairs neighbor, Christina, a sexy blonde looking for some fun after a break-up with her beau. Ryan’s teammates constantly told him he should think about finding one woman to settle down with, how “rewarding” it was, but Ryan wasn’t interested. Not now, anyway. The only woman he spent more than a week with was standing right beside him, and she happened to be engaged to his commanding officer.

  “Beck and I are thinking of finding a house in this area,” Jane said, her long red ponytail bouncing as she continued looking around.

  “Didn’t he just buy a house near the base?” Ryan asked.

  “No, he’s renting. He didn’t want to buy until he knew whether I’d be leaving L.A. Now that I left the magazine, we’re ready to find a place.”

  Ryan frowned. “You left the magazine? Since when?”

  He couldn’t believe Jane would even consider leaving her job at Today’s World. Since the moment he’d met her, he could tell she loved her work. In fact, that was the main obstacle for her and Lieutenant Becker, the fact that Jane’s ambitions meant she wouldn’t be a housewife any time soon. Ryan still didn’t get why Beck had been so turned off by that. Jane was the greatest woman Ryan had ever met. Fuck, if he’d met her first, maybe he wouldn’t be having threesomes with Matt and their new neighbor. But Jane was head over heels in love with Beck, and Ryan respected that. He just hoped Becker hadn’t pressured her to quit her job.

  “It was my choice,” Jane added, reading his mind. “I’ll do some freelance work until the baby comes.”

  Ryan’s gaze flew to hers. “The baby? Holy shit, you’re pregnant?”

  “Seriously, you’re telling me you didn’t notice that my boobs got enormous?”

  “They were enormous to begin with.”

  “Yeah, but now they’re extra enormous.” Her eyes sparkled. “It’s worth it, though.”

  “You sure about that? Six months ago you had no intention of being a wife and mom. Don’t tell me you planned this.”

  “No, it wasn’t planned,” she admitted. “But the second I looked down at that pee stick and saw the pink plus sign, something changed. Honestly, Ry, I’m so freaking excited about this baby. I never thought I’d be this happy, but I am. And before you ask, yes, Beck and I plan to get married. Maybe in a few months.”

  Ryan studied her face, looking for any hint that she might not be completely honest, but Jane’s expression conveyed pure bliss. Shit. She was actually cool with all this. Which meant he had to be cool, too, no matter how apprehensive the news made him. Hit a little too close to home, that’s all. His mother never wanted a kid—Ryan’s father rushed her into it—and she’d been miserable and angry during Ryan’s entire childhood. So…yeah. He really hoped Jane was sure this was what she wanted.

  “So…” Jane eyed him expectantly. “Do I get a hug, or what?”

  He found himself experiencing a pang of longing as he pulled the petite redhead into his arms and held her close. Damn. Why hadn’t he met her first?

  Fuck. He seriously needed to put an end to all this inappropriate yearni
ng. It was all sorts of wrong.

  “I’m happy for you,” he murmured, planting a quick kiss on her forehead.

  Jane was beaming as she pulled back. “Thanks. That means a lot.”

  “Hey! Where’s my hug?” Matt teased. A moment later, he ascended the ladder at the edge of the water and hopped up on the pool deck. Water dripped down his bare chest and off his navy-blue swim trunks, and his shaved head glistened under the hot afternoon sun.

  “Janie’s preggers,” Ryan called as Matt grabbed a towel off the nearby chaise lounge.

  “No shit!” Drying off, Matt made his way over to them, shooting Jane a big, genuine smile. “Congrats, darlin’.”

  Jane grinned back, pretending to fan herself. “I love it when you call me darlin’. Where you from again, Matty? Georgia?”

  “Tennessee,” Matt drawled, thickening his accent, which barely made an appearance after all his years of living out west. “I’m flying out there in a couple hours, actually. It’s my mama’s birthday tomorrow so I’m heading home for a quick visit.”

  “Nice, have fun. I should get going too,” Jane said, shifting her purse to her other shoulder. “Beck and I are going to look at a few places.”

  She gave each of them a hug and kiss on the cheek, even Matt, who was still all wet. Then she offered her usual cheerful wave and flounced off, while Ryan watched after her, feeling slightly dismayed.

  “Get that look off your face.” Matt sighed, slinging his towel around his neck. “She’s off-limits.”

  “I know she’s off-limits.” Ryan’s lips tightened. “You don’t have to remind me of that every time she’s around.”

  “Yeah, I do. Because I see the way you look at her, and it’s not healthy, man. She’s having a baby with Beck, for chrissake.”

  Ryan didn’t answer. He should’ve never told Matt about his attraction to Jane, but Matt had the uncanny ability of knowing things without Ryan saying a word. They’d gotten drunk a few months ago and when Ryan mentioned Jane’s name in some random, unimportant sentence, Matt set down his beer and said, “You have a thing for her, don’t you?” Just like that. Ryan ended up confessing his completely improper feelings, which he now regretted, seeing as how Matt rode him about the issue whenever he could.

  “You need to distract yourself,” Matt said as they drifted toward the back entrance of the building. “Go out tonight or something.”

  Ryan shrugged. “Don’t feel like going out.”

  “Then visit Christina.” Matt grinned. “I mean, I know she likes me better, but since I won’t be around I’m sure she’d be willing to settle for second best.”

  “Funny.”

  They entered the stairwell and climbed the two floors to their apartment. Matt immediately made a beeline for his bedroom, calling out, “Gotta finish packing.”

  Ryan headed to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge before flopping down on the living room couch. He took a long swig of beer, hoping it would soothe the lump of sadness and faint bitterness stuck in the back of his throat. Damn, he was pathetic. He had absolutely no business wanting Jane. She was his friend. She was Becker’s pregnant fiancée. And besides, what could he really offer her, even if she was available? He’d never been in a long-term relationship before, wasn’t sure he even wanted one.

  Matt was right. He needed a distraction.

  The red numerals on the Blu-Ray player’s clock read 4:30. Christina volunteered at the hospital every afternoon until five, then worked as a bartender at a local bar until midnight. She wouldn’t get home until close to one, which meant he had about, oh, eight hours to kill before he could pay her a visit.

  Ryan leaned his head back on the sofa cushion and forced all thoughts of Jane, Becker and their new baby from his head. Fuck, it was going to be a long night.

  * * *

  Annabelle Holmes took another sip of her vanilla and lavender tea and glanced down at the lined sheet of paper in front of her. She stared at her own loopy handwriting, wishing she hadn’t written anything down. It made the words feel a little too…real. And they weren’t real. They were fiction, fantasy, just a silly exercise meant to prove to Bryce that the speech he’d unleashed on her two days ago was pure and total bullshit.

  I need to walk on the wild side, Annabelle.

  Translation: the vanilla sex we’ve been indulging in is boring the shit out of me.

  It wouldn’t hurt either one of us to experiment.

  Translation: you’re a prude in bed and I’d like to screw around with someone a tad more adventurous.

  The funny thing was, there was only one prude in the bed she and Bryce had shared for five years, and it sure as hell wasn’t her. She couldn’t remember how many times she’d suggested they spice things up, how many hints she’d dropped about straying from the missionary and exploring the raw, wild and indecent.

  How quickly Bryce forgot. He’d implied that she was the one holding back, promptly following that zinger with the admission that he wanted to take a break, play the field and let loose before they made any serious decisions about their relationship. She’d been tempted to laugh, because, really, they’d pretty much been engaged since they were six years old—their relationship had never been anything but serious.

  How could he be so freaking insulting? At first she’d been hurt and depressed, but after Bryce left the San Francisco condo they’d shared for five years, leaving her alone and upset, she’d gotten pissed off. And now here she was, two days later, staying in a strange apartment in San Diego and jotting down a list of every naughty act she’d ever fantasized about. She still wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the list. Rip it up? Deliver it to her insensitive ex?

  Annabelle looked at the list again, feeling her cheeks grow warm as she read the last item she’d written. Have sex with someone else—while you watch.

  She took another sip of tea and added another item. Sex in public (preferably a place without security cameras).

  Now that would be fun, seeing the suddenly-uninhibited Bryce pull down his Armani trousers and risk a random passerby seeing his cock.

  She snorted. Yeah, right.

  The cell phone next to her glass began to ring. She didn’t need to look at the caller ID to know who was on the other end of the line. Her parents nearly had joint coronaries when she’d announced she was going to San Diego for a few weeks. They hated that she was “slumming it”, though Christina’s apartment was hardly a hovel. The building was small, but pretty and clean, and Annabelle was looking forward to taking a dip in the pool tomorrow morning. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone swimming anywhere other than her father’s country club.

  “Hello?” she answered.

  “When are you coming home?” came her mother’s shrill voice.

  “I already told you, Mom. I’ll be here for a few weeks.”

  “But what about the anniversary dinner?” Sandra Holmes sounded crushed.

  “I said I’d be home for that,” she reminded her mother. “I’ll be back for the weekend, and then fly back to San Diego, okay?”

  Her mom let out a loud, put-upon sigh. “I don’t like knowing you’re all alone out there, living in a hippie’s apartment, carousing around in an uncivilized city.”

  Annabelle snorted. “First of all, Christina is not a hippie. She’s studying to be a doctor. Secondly, San Diego is a perfectly civilized place. Chill out, Mom. I won’t be here forever. Christina comes back in a month, so I’ll have to leave then anyway.”

  Never satisfied, her mother went on for a few more minutes about all the hazards Annabelle would face in such a dangerous city, but she tuned it all out. Thank God for Christina. If she hadn’t run into Christina’s parents at the market two days ago, she wouldn’t have known their daughter would be out of town for the month, and then she would’ve had to move in with her parents. Eek.

  “And why would she just leave you there in that apartment alone?” her mother was reprimanding.

  She suppressed
a sigh. “I told you, Christina eloped with her boyfriend. When I spoke to her, she said I could use the place until she gets back.”

  “I never liked that girl,” Sandra said in a frosty tone.

  No kidding. Sandra disliked all of Annabelle’s college friends, including Christina. She also disliked Annabelle’s co-workers, her boss, and pretty much anyone her daughter got close to. Except for Bryce, of course. Sandra loved Bryce. The Holmes and Worthington families had been close for years. Throughout Annabelle’s entire childhood and adolescence, all she’d heard from her mom was what a wonderful husband Bryce would make.

  “Christina is awesome,” Annabelle said in her friend’s defense.

  Her mom ignored the remark. “Your father and I want you to come home. Oh, and Paulette Worthington and I wanted to sit down with you to talk about the details for the wedding.”

  Annabelle held her tongue. She hadn’t told her mother about her and Bryce, so Sandra was still under the impression a wedding was in the foreseeable future. No point bursting that dream yet, not until she figured out for sure what she wanted to do about Bryce.

  “I’ll call you when I know when I’ll be home,” she said instead. “Talk to you later, Mom.”

  “Annab—”

  She hung up, then quickly powered off the phone so her mother wouldn’t be able to call back. Jeez. Talk about overbearing. She knew her parents loved her, but sometimes she wanted to strangle them. They were snobby, overprotective, presumptuous, and had total tunnel vision when it came to Annabelle’s future. Marry Bryce, move into a mansion on Nob Hill, spend the afternoons at the country club, the evenings entertaining San Francisco’s elite. If it weren’t for her job, Annabelle might have left San Francisco years ago, but she’d been lucky to land a position at one of the top event planning companies in the Bay Area, and as much as she hated her parents’ interference in her life, she loved her work.

  Fortunately, her boss had given her the month off, which meant she could take a breather and really think about what she wanted out of a relationship. Yeah, Bryce had dumped her, but their lives had been intertwined since they were children, and she knew eventually he’d try to win his way back into her life.