Protected by a Hero

by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne

  “Jesus, Mary.”

  “No! No crying! I can’t handle it. Just tell Ghost you want to borrow his damn car and do it. Find out if there’s a decent mall, if there’s a Starbucks nearby, if there’s a good country and western bar where I can pick up men…you know, all the important stuff.”

  Rayne gave a watery chuckle at her friend. God, she had no idea how she’d lucked out in finding Mary. “Okay, I will. Good idea.”

  “Of course it was.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow and report in?”

  “You better.”

  “Love you, Mare. Thanks for always making me feel better.”

  “Love you too, Raynie. Seriously, I’m happy for you. I wasn’t sure about Ghost at first, I saw how much he hurt you. So far he’s doing all right by you, but I’ll reserve judgement until he proves it once and for all. Okay?”

  “Okay. Talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  Rayne hung up the phone, feeling better now that she had a plan. She’d been worried about leaving Mary behind. It was stupid, but they’d been through a lot and had lived near each other for a long time. Rayne was closer to Mary than she was Samantha, and couldn’t imagine not being able to pop over to her place for a drink and a movie whenever the mood struck.

  * * *

  Later that night, lying boneless on top of Ghost after having jumped him the second they’d gone to bed, Rayne tried to ask as nonchalantly as she could, “So…have you used those Ben Wa ball things before?”

  Shrieking in surprise when Ghost flipped her abruptly on her back and loomed over her, she held on to his arms and looked up at him.

  “You been going through my drawers, Princess?”

  “No…well…yeah. You weren’t here. I was bored.”

  “I’ve never used them personally, but have seen them used.”

  “Seen?” Rayne wrinkled her nose at Ghost.

  He chuckled. “Not in person, in a video.”

  “Porn?”

  “Yeah, Rayne. Porn. Does it surprise you that a career military guy like me has seen porn?”

  “Um, no, but…”

  “It was extremely hot…I’m sure the woman’s reaction was way faked and over the top, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what they might feel like for you and how when you wriggled and squirmed, they’d chime inside you. I know they can’t actually give you an orgasm, or at least I think that’s right, but imagining them inside you while we go out to eat and how they’d get you wet and excited so I could fuck you the second we got home… Yeah, I decided maybe we could give them a try.”

  “Me?”

  “You, what?”

  “Inside me, specifically? Or inside a woman in general?”

  Ghost understood her question and kneed her legs apart so he could push up against her core and she could feel him lengthening.

  “You, Princess. Before London, the only thing in that drawer was a copy of Playboy and that bottle of lube. But after you, I watched some videos, got off, and immediately bought those clamps and the balls off the Internet and kept them in my drawer. It was stupid, I had no intention of doing anything with them, but just the thought of them there and the image of what they’d look like on and in you was enough to make me so hard I could pound nails.”

  “Uh…”

  “Want to try them out?”

  “What? Now?”

  “Why not?”

  “Because we just had sex?”

  “Just because I just made love to you doesn’t mean you can’t orgasm again. It might take me a bit longer, but I can guarantee seeing how much you enjoy my toys on you will do the trick in no time.”

  Rayne moaned as Ghost leaned over and reached for the handle on the drawer. She leaned up and nibbled on his shoulder as he moved above her. She had no idea what it was about Ghost that made her so uninhibited, but she loved it. She loved him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The next week and a half went by quickly for Rayne. She spent the days driving around the Killeen/Belton area and reporting back to Mary, and her nights being loved to within an inch of her life by Ghost.

  It was almost time for her to get back to work. She’d spoken with her boss and he’d agreed to keep her on the Dallas/Fort Worth-London route for a while until she’d gotten her bearings. Then she’d be back in the regular International rotation again.

  The thought made her want to puke, but Rayne sucked it up. It was her job; it was what she had to do.

  Rayne heard Ghost open the door to the house and when he didn’t immediately appear, went looking for him. She found him standing in the laundry room, staring at what she saw was simply a load of dirty clothes she hadn’t yet put into the washer. Ever since she’d asked to borrow the car while he was at work for the last week or so, Ghost had been picked up by Fletch and dropped off after work by one of the other guys on the team.

  This was the first time she could remember him coming into the house through the garage, and thus through the small laundry room.

  “Ghost? What are you doing? Are you all right?”

  He looked up at her. “You’re doing our laundry.”

  “Yeah? So? It was dirty. You didn’t want to walk around in nasty, smelly clothes did you?” Rayne had no idea what his deal was.

  Ghost dropped his duffle back on the floor and came toward her. “You’re doing our laundry.”

  “Yeah, Ghost. I am,” she repeated.

  “Ours. Our laundry.”

  “Did you hit your head today? I’m seriously worried about you.”

  Ghost picked her up by her waist and set her down on top of the washing machine. “I fucking love coming home and walking into my house and seeing your panties mixed up with my boxers. To come home and know you’re here. Waiting for me. You have no idea. None.”

  Chills broke out on Rayne’s arms and legs at Ghost’s words, but he didn’t stop.

  “This is what we fight for. This is what we’re willing to die for.”

  “For me to wash your dirty clothes?” Rayne had no idea what he was getting at. She wasn’t trying to be snarky, her question was genuine.

  Ghost leaned his head against hers and closed his eyes. She could feel his hands squeeze her waist and move up under her T-shirt to her lower back, where he stroked. She knew he understood exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t absently caressing her; he was running his hands over her tattoo, over their tattoo.

  “All my life, since I’ve worked with the team, we’ve rescued people, we’ve killed, we’ve gone into any and every situation, no questions asked. And every time I’ve come home to an empty house. I’ve done my own laundry, cooked my own food, cleaned my own space. I fucking love coming home to you, Princess. You make everything I’ve done, every sacrifice I’ve made, worth it.”

  “Ghost—”

  “I love you. I know it’s fast. I know people will call me pussy-whipped, but I don’t give a shit. You’re mine. I left you once, I won’t do it again. You were given to me to cherish, to protect, and to love. I’m not fucking that up again.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m not even asking you to move in with me, although I’ve loved every second of you being here.”

  “Even when I used your razor to shave my legs and you cut yourself to shreds when you tried to shave the next morning?”

  Ghost smiled briefly then got serious again. “Anytime you want to steal my razor, go for it. I don’t give a shit. But yes, you’re not perfect, and neither am I, but you don’t get on my back for the stupid stuff I do. I love that about you. It’s one of the million things I love. But you know what I love the most?”

  “No,” Rayne whispered, wrapping her legs around Ghost’s waist while she waited for his answer.

  “That I can tell you’re trying. I know you’re bored, Princess. I know you’ll never be a housewife who waits for her man to get home. But you’re trying, for me. For us. And that means more to
me than you’ll ever know.”

  Rayne swallowed through the tears in her throat. She’d thought she’d been hiding it from him. She should’ve known Ghost was too observant to let something like that slide.

  “It’s almost time for you to get back to work, right?” he asked, against hitting at the heart at what Rayne had been stressing about.

  She nodded. “I have the DFW-London rotation starting this weekend.”

  “You ask for that?”

  “Um-hum. I’m not ready for anything else yet.”

  Ghost pulled back and put his hands on either side of her head. “I love you, Rayne Jackson. I couldn’t take it if something happened to you.”

  Rayne could only nod, trying to swallow back the lump in her throat.

  “You’ll stay here until you need to go back up to Fort Worth, right?”

  She nodded again.

  “Okay, here’s the thing. Sometimes I’ll be able to tell you when we have to leave for a mission, other times we might not get that much advance notice. When we left for Egypt, we knew about forty-five minutes before we had to be at the airport. But this time we got advance notice. We’re leaving for a thing tomorrow morning.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  Ghost nodded. “It’s actually pretty good timing. You’re ready to go back to work and have to go home to Fort Worth. I want you to stay here, in my house…in our bed, until you have to. All right?”

  “What time?”

  Ghost moved his hands, scooted Rayne’s butt closer to him, and lifted her up. Her legs clamped tighter around his waist and she held on as he walked to the other room and the couch. “Early. Probably around three.”

  “Will you wake me before you go?”

  “Absolutely. I’ll never sneak out of our bed again, Princess. No matter what time it is, I’ll wake you up to say goodbye.”

  Rayne sniffed once, trying to hold her tears at bay. This was what he did. He was a super-soldier who had to go and save the world. She couldn’t be a baby about it. “Okay,” she whispered. “You hungry?” She watched as a grin moved over his face.

  “Starved.”

  Her lips quirked up in a smile at his lecherous response.

  “I meant for food.”

  “I could eat.”

  “Good. I made us some tacos. It’s nothing fancy, but it was easy and I wasn’t sure when you’d be getting home.”

  “Sounds perfect. You should know…after we eat?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’ll be taking you to bed and making you come so hard you’ll be sore, making sure you won’t forget about me.”

  “Lord, Ghost, seriously?”

  “Oh yeah, seriously. I’m gonna need to tide us over until I return.”

  Ghost helped Rayne stand up and smirked at the blush that moved across her face. He leaned down and kissed her chastely on the cheek. “Come on, Princess. Let’s eat so we can go and have dessert.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Rayne wrung her hands together as she sat in the jump seat. The flight from DFW to London had been tough. It wasn’t the flying that was the hard part—it was knowing she had an overnight layover waiting for her that was the problem.

  The airline had put her and Sarah on the same flight, obviously thinking, correctly, that they might like to see each other and that it might be good for them after what had happened. Rayne had hugged Sarah tightly and their coworkers had been polite enough to ignore the tears they’d shed at their reunion.

  The flight had gone off without a hitch. They didn’t even have anyone try to become a member of the mile-high club, which was somewhat unusual. Feeling no need whatsoever to tour the city, especially since it held such wonderful memories of Ghost and he wasn’t there with her, Rayne had stuck like glue to the two pilots and the other flight attendants as they’d made their way to the airport hotel.

  She and Sarah shared a room and had talked much of the night about their experience and how happy they were to be alive and well.

  Now she was on her way back to the Dallas/Fort Worth area after getting the passengers settled in for the long ten-hour flight back to Texas.

  Rayne took a deep breath. She’d done it. She’d gotten over the hurdle of her first trip, akin to getting back on the horse after it had bucked her off.

  The only thing that would’ve made it better was to be able to talk to Ghost after she’d gotten to the hotel while in England. But Rayne knew she probably had quite a few instances in her future of wanting to talk to Ghost but not being able to, because he was off saving the world.

  * * *

  Ten days later, Rayne stuck her keys in her purse and dropped it on the little table inside her apartment. She wheeled her small suitcase back to her room and left it there, deciding to deal with it later. Kicking off her shoes, and sighing at the relief of having her feet free from the heels she hadn’t worn the entire time she’d been convalescing, she plopped down on her sofa and put her head back against the couch.

  She had one day off, then she’d be back on the plane heading over to London again. She’d be on this run for another week, then she’d have to decide what to do. Her boss had hinted that her next rotation would be the DFW-Paris-South Africa rotation, but the thought of having to step foot on the continent of Africa made her break out in hives. Intellectually, she knew South Africa wasn’t Egypt, but emotionally, it was way too close for her way of thinking.

  It’d been almost two weeks since she’d said goodbye to Ghost, and she hadn’t heard anything since. Ghost had warned her that he wouldn’t be able to talk to her at all while he was gone. However, hearing him say it and experiencing it were two completely different things.

  While she’d relaxed in Ghost’s house after he left, she’d watched the news for the first few nights he was gone, and had called Mary completely freaked out over a story about a terrorist bombing in a subway over in Japan. Mary had, luckily, talked her off the ledge and told her to shut off the damn television and quit imagining the worst.

  Mary had come to get her from Ghost’s house the next day, even though Chase had promised to take her back up to Fort Worth whenever she was ready. Rayne needed some Mary time, and it had been more than worth it. They’d chatted all the way home and by the time Mary had pulled up in front of Rayne’s condo, they’d decided that the news was off-limits. All it did was stress Rayne out and make her have nightmares.

  Rayne knew she should get up, get ready for bed, eat…something, but it felt so good to just sit and relax for a moment, she couldn’t move.

  The next thing she knew, her cell phone was chirping next to her.

  She looked around in confusion. Her condo was dark except for the light she’d turned on in the hall as she’d come in earlier that evening.

  Looking down at the phone, Rayne saw it was two in the morning. The incoming call was from “Unknown.” Hastily swiping the screen to answer, she wondered if this could be Ghost…finally. “Hello?”

  “I’m looking for Rayne Jackson,” the voice on the other end of the line said with a slight Texan drawl.

  Rayne’s heartrate sped up and she sat upright on the couch. Was this someone from the Army? Who had her number and would be calling her at this hour? She didn’t think it was any of Ghost’s teammates, she didn’t recall any of them having an accent like this man did.

  “Who is this?”

  “Is this Rayne?”

  “Who is this?” Ghost had given her a short lecture before he left about how he never wanted the dangerous stuff he did to leak back on her, and while it shouldn’t, he urged her to always be careful about what she let slip about herself, him, the two of them, and what he did for a living.

  The man on the other end of the line chuckled. “I see Ghost has taught you well. My name is Tex. I’m a friend of his.”

  Rayne frantically thought about what to do. Did she believe him? Did she not? If she hung up on him, would she miss learning something about Ghost and when he’d be back? She decided to err on the sid
e of caution. “And?”

  “I also see Ghost hasn’t told you about me.”

  “No, he hasn’t.”

  “Okay, as I said. My name is Tex. It’s really John, but everyone calls me Tex. I also know Wolf and his team…you met Wolf a couple of months ago in Egypt, yeah?”

  That surprised her. First, she wasn’t sure who knew the SEAL team and the Delta team were in Egypt, and because of the way Ghost got her out of the country, she wasn’t sure many people knew she had been over in Egypt in the middle of all that had gone down.

  “Yeah, I met him.” She still purposely kept her answers vague.

  “Good girl. Not telling me anything.”

  Rayne flushed at the pleasure she got from his words. She didn’t know this man, but it still felt good that he was acknowledging her attempts to keep information close to her chest.

  “Look, here’s the deal. You like Ghost, right?”

  “What are you, matchmaker-dot-com?”

  “I’m pretty sure you do.” Tex ignored her snarky remark. “This was his first deployment since you’ve been together and he thinks he’s doing the right thing, but my wife and I talked, and we don’t think he is. Hence this phone call.”

  Now Rayne was feeling uneasy. “What?”

  “Two days ago, Ghost and his team arrived back at Fort Hood. Ghost was admitted to the hospital for wounds he sustained while on a mission. It’s my understanding he’s still there, and should be released sometime in the next two days.”

  Rayne’s thoughts were all over the place. “What? Is this a joke?”

  “No, Rayne. There’s no way I would joke about this. Call your girl, get in the car, drive safely down there. The team should all be at the hospital when you arrive.”

  “Is he okay?” Rayne’s voice was low and frightened.

  “He will be. And Rayne?”

  She was already on the move, heading to her bedroom to throw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She had to call Mary, then her boss; she’d have to figure out who to switch with at work so she could—