Strike Fast

by Kaylea Cross

  It made his dick even harder, seeing her all sleek and wet and hearing those pleasurable sounds in the back of her throat. But this was his chance to give her what she needed, and so he lathered and massaged her scalp while she lay there.

  Once her hair was rinsed off he gently eased her into a sitting position and slipped into the tub behind her, drawing her into the curve of his body. She settled against him with a contented sigh that satisfied something primal inside him, her head on his shoulder.

  Gently grasping her swollen right wrist, he pushed aside her left arm so she could rest it and kissed her temple.

  “I never did thank you properly for what you did,” Tess murmured, eyes closed while he ran the soap over her. “If you hadn’t come in after us when you did, I’d probably be dead.”

  It chilled his blood to think of it, of losing this vibrant, amazing woman. “You don’t ever need to thank me for coming after you, Tess. Anywhere, anytime, if you need me, I’m there.”

  She tipped her head back to meet his gaze. “That’s nice to hear, thank you.”

  He wanted to tell her a whole lot more than that, but not while she was facing away from him in a tub. He spent some more time smoothing his hands over her wet skin, telling her without words how much he cared, how much she meant to him.

  When she was half asleep, he rinsed her off and lifted her out of the tub. After setting her on her feet to dry her, he helped wrap her arm back up in the sling and scooped her up to carry her to bed.

  “I haven’t been carried like this since I was a kid,” she said on a laugh, her left arm looped around his neck.

  Her husband hadn’t done this for her? Reid held the question back, not wanting to bring him up right now. He settled her on the bed, crawled in beside her and tugged the covers over her. “What way are you most comfortable?” he asked, stroking her hair back.

  Her green eyes were full of mirth. “Honestly? They’re all really damn painful.”

  “What about this?” he asked, gently turning her onto her side facing him and sliding a pillow between her bent knees. He shifted close and wrapped his arm around her waist, well clear of her injured arm and the sling.

  “I like the view a lot,” she murmured, lifting her left hand to stroke the side of his face.

  Reid couldn’t resist the temptation and moved in to cover her mouth with his. He kept it light even though he was so damn hungry for her, stroking her lips, caressing her tongue. When he pulled back she was breathing faster and her pupils were dilated.

  “I wish I was feeling good enough to do something about this,” she murmured, pressing her hips against his throbbing erection.

  He grinned against her mouth and kissed her again. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

  She smiled back. “So true.”

  He came up on one elbow and stroked his fingers through her hair, his chest about to burst with everything he was feeling. “I know we haven’t had a lot of time together, but I haven’t felt like this in… Maybe ever. I think about you all the time, and I miss you like hell when we’re apart.”

  He took a breath, let it out slowly, heart pounding. “I didn’t see you coming, Tess. Didn’t expect you at all, but I’m falling for you hard and I don’t want to lose you. I realize we’ve all been through a lot here, and I know I come with a shitload of baggage and that we live in different cities, but I’m hoping that’s not a deal breaker for you. I want to see where things go with us.”

  Joy flashed in her eyes, easing the constriction in his chest. “I don’t want to lose you either. And believe me, you’re the last thing I expected, too.”

  “And the baggage?” A young daughter, an ex-wife, and a drinking problem were a lot for a woman to take on.

  “I can handle anything but you breaking my heart or drinking again.”

  He mentally winced at the reminder of what he’d done the night Autumn was taken. “I won’t. Neither of those. I’m calling my sponsor tomorrow.”

  She smiled again. “That’s good.” She groaned softly and leaned her forehead against his chest. “I’m supposed to fly out the day after tomorrow with my sister, but I don’t wanna go home.”

  Then don’t.

  Reid barely held the words back. Asking her to make that big a leap for him right now wasn’t fair. She had at least six weeks of healing ahead of her, and other things to take care of back in Texas—like her job and family. He had to be patient, give her time to figure out what she wanted. “If we’re both willing to try, we can make this work.”

  “I want this to work,” she murmured sleepily. Then she yawned and he tucked her in closer to him, keeping another pillow between their chests to shield her arm.

  He wanted to be there for her through her recovery, but he needed to be there for Autumn more. And Tess would understand that completely.

  It was just another reason why she’d stolen his heart so completely, so fast. And why he intended to claim hers for good in return.

  Epilogue

  “How’s the view back there?” Tess asked via the headset from the cockpit as she flew them back to base.

  “Great!” came the enthusiastic response from the back. “I can see the airfield out the side door window,” Autumn said excitedly, then sobered. “It’s so flat here.”

  “Welcome to Dallas Fort Worth, honey.” Tess shared a smile with her copilot and eased the cyclic to the right to turn them, her feet adjusting the pedals to keep them steady.

  Autumn had adjusted well into her normal routine after her ordeal. Autumn kept regular appointments with a counselor, but no longer had to see a psychiatrist, and Sarah had kept her word about loosening the reins with the schedule she and Reid shared. Even so, Tess had been stunned—and ecstatic—when Reid and Autumn had surprised her at the office this morning.

  It had been eight weeks since the accident and her collarbone was fully healed. She still saw a physiotherapist twice a week but she had almost ninety-percent range of motion back in her shoulder already, and no more swelling in her hand.

  The moment they’d cleared her to fly, she’d climbed back into the cockpit for various training missions out of her home base here in Fort Worth. The first few times had been hard, haunted by the memory of what had happened, but she’d refused to let it beat her. Imagining Ruiz despising life inside his max security prison cell was fabulous mental motivation.

  “What can you see out the other side now?” Tess asked her.

  A few seconds passed before Autumn answered. “My dad! I see him!”

  Tess grinned as she lined them up on the runway and followed it in to the landing pad near the hangar. Reid stood there waiting for them, a pair of shades hiding his eyes as he watched them land.

  Tess lowered them into a hover and gently touched the wheels down. “Touch down. Your first flight on a Blackhawk is in the books.”

  “It was so awesome! I can’t wait to go up again.”

  “Think you might have created a monster there, Tess,” her crew chief said, popping his head in from the back. “That’s one excited little girl.”

  It warmed Tess inside and out to know that Autumn had enjoyed it so much. While she and the copilot went through shutdown procedures, she watched out her cockpit window as the crew chief led Autumn away from the helo, holding her hand. The moment they were clear of the rotors he released her, and Autumn went running to her father.

  Tess’s heart squeezed so hard it hurt when Reid grinned and bent to catch her as she jumped into his waiting arms.

  “That’s one adorable kid,” the copilot said.

  “Don’t I know it,” Tess murmured. “And I’m even more partial to her dad.”

  The copilot chuckled and clapped a hand on her shoulder before undoing his harness and climbing out of the cockpit. Tess followed, hopping onto the hot tarmac beneath a clear blue July Texas sky. Reid stood there with Autumn, watching her.

  Tess couldn’t help but grin. “If I run and jump at you too, will you catch me?”

>   “Sweetheart, you know I will.” Reid opened up his arms and raised his eyebrows, waiting expectantly.

  She laughed and ran at him, jumping just as she reached him and sure enough, those big, strong arms not only caught her, but crushed her to his hard body and held her off the ground. Autumn was giggling like mad at the show. Grinning, Tess wound her arms around his sturdy neck and leaned her head back to look down at him. “Nice catch.”

  “Yeah, you’re a helluva catch,” he murmured, using one hand to pull her head down for a long, deep kiss that made every nerve ending in her body go haywire.

  “Iiiick,” Autumn said next to her. “Mush.”

  Tess laughed against Reid’s mouth and kept her arms around him as he lowered her to the ground, not missing the solid length of his erection pressing against her lower belly.

  She shared a naughty grin with him, a silent promise to take care of that later on tonight, when her parents, sister and the girls took Autumn for a sleepover so she and Reid could have a night by themselves at the hotel. She loved Autumn, but she couldn’t wait to be alone with Reid. It had been over a month since they’d last seen each other and they were both impatient as hell to get naked again.

  “So you loved it?” Reid asked Autumn, one arm locked around Tess’s waist. She loved how openly affectionate he was, even around his daughter.

  Her little face brightened. “Yes! I’m gonna fly a Blackhawk someday, too. Tess’ll teach me. Right Tess?”

  “Oh, wow, I really did create a monster,” Tess whispered to him.

  “Could be worse,” he said. “You could’ve been a prima ballerina or something, and then I’d have to sit through recitals and whatever. At least flying a helo is badass.”

  Tess pressed a quick, hard kiss to his mouth. “Okay, who’s starving for a chocolate milkshake?”

  “Me! Me!” Autumn grabbed Tess’s hand and started towing her to where Reid had parked his rental vehicle.

  “And after that, it’s sleepover time,” Reid added, waggling his eyebrows at Tess.

  “Yep. Right after you run the gauntlet of meeting my parents, sister, and nieces.” They’d all flown in to stay the week at Tess’s place, and she’d had no idea Reid was planning to surprise her by showing up. But this way, they had awesome babysitters for the next two days.

  “I can handle it. As long as it doesn’t cut into our night too much,” he added in a sexy tone that made her toes curl in her boots.

  After milkshakes at a favorite diner, then a BBQ dinner at Tess’s place, they left an insanely excited Autumn to an evening of pedicures and movie sleepover with Tess’s family, and headed for the rental vehicle.

  Rather than open her door for her and put her inside, Reid caged her in against the door in the shadows cast by the detached garage. Tess hummed in her throat and threaded her hands through his hair to kiss him, but he merely brushed his lips over hers and eased back. Staring at her.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Autumn and I brought you a present. I told her I’d give it to you now.”

  She loved presents. “Where is it?”

  “In my back pocket.”

  When he made no move to get it, she laughed. “You want me to get it?”

  His lips curved into the sexiest smile, his deep blue eyes almost black in the shadows. “Yup.”

  With a light, teasing touch, Tess trailed her left hand down the hard ridge of his right pec, down his flat abs and dragged her palm over the bulge forming in the crotch of his jeans before sliding it over his hip to his ass. She squeezed for good measure, then stopped when the shape of something in his back pocket registered. Flat. Fairly small.

  Holding his gaze, she slipped her fingers into the denim pocket and pulled out a small pink envelope. she turned the envelope over in her fingers. For Tess, with love from me and my dad, it read in Autumn’s printing.

  “Open it,” he murmured, standing so close his breath brushed over her temple and his clean, spicy scent enveloped her.

  A little dizzy, Tess did, and pulled out a key tied to a pink velvet ribbon with a tiny silver helicopter charm attached to the end. Awed, Tess looked up into Reid’s eyes, afraid to believe what it meant.

  He cupped her face in his hands, looking into her eyes as he spoke. “I’m in love with you, Tess Dubrovski, and I can’t stand being away from you anymore. So Autumn and I went out and found a new two-bedroom apartment just being finished outside Alexandria. We want you to move in there with us when we get possession next month.”

  Her chin wobbled and her throat thickened. She’d already looked into getting a transfer to D.C. and they had an opening for her there if she wanted it. “You’re in love with me?” She was still stuck on that part.

  Reid nodded, a gentle smile tugging at his lips. “I love you so much it hurts.”

  “I love you too,” she whispered, trying like hell to hold it together.

  His teeth flashed as he grinned. “I’m damn glad to hear that, sweetheart. And what about—“

  “Yes. Yes, of course I’ll move in with you.” She threw her arms around his neck and clung, laughing even as tears flooded her eyes. It seemed surreal, to have found a love like this after she’d become a widow and thought that part of her life was over forever. Reid had made her brave enough to love again.

  He made a low, hungry sound in the back of his throat and then his mouth was on hers, his body pressing her into the side of the vehicle. Tess kissed him back with every ounce of love and passion in her, letting out a squeak when he hauled her off her feet and bodily put her into the SUV.

  “Should we tell the others?” she asked breathlessly, shoving her hair out of her face as he climbed behind the wheel.

  “Later.” He started the engine and reversed, swinging them around so fast on the driveway that gravel spewed from beneath the tires. She laughed as he shifted into drive and shot them down the long, straight driveway.

  “Looks like someone’s in a hurry to get somewhere,” she teased, climbing to her knees to lean over and nibble on the side of his neck. Her heart felt like it might burst from happiness. She felt free, the rest of her life with him a warm, beckoning glow on the horizon, full of possibility.

  He groaned, reaching one hand up to clench in the back of her hair. “Wish we were in a Blackhawk instead. Would be way faster.”

  She laughed lightly, her hands busily undoing the button of his jeans. “Oh, but taking the long route is going to be so much more fun.”

  His chuckle ended in a tortured groan as she freed his hot, hard length and curled her fist around him. “Whatever you do to me in this car, I’m gonna tease you twice as bad when we get inside that hotel room,” he warned, not doing a thing to stop her.

  “Who said anything about teasing?” she murmured, bending down to brush her lips over the swollen head. She knew exactly what he liked now, knew precisely how to take him to the edge…and over it. Just like she knew he would return the favor and then some once they reached the hotel, making her fly higher than she’d ever flown before.

  He hissed in a breath, his hand clenching tighter in her hair. “Dammit, Tess, I’m—”

  Whatever else he was going to say ended in a strangled growl as she parted her lips and started the real torment. Tess smiled inwardly and set to work driving her big, badass alpha male out of his skull. Because this was the first night of the rest of their lives together, and she was going to make sure neither one of them ever forgot it.

  —The End—

  Thank you for reading STRIKE FAST. I really hope you enjoyed it and that you’ll consider leaving a review at one of your favorite online retailers. It’s a great way to help other readers discover new books.

  If you liked STRIKE FAST and would like to read more, turn the page for a list of my other books. And if you don’t want to miss any future releases, please join my newsletter. Direct link: http://kayleacross.com/v2/newsletter/

  Complete Booklist

  ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  DEA FA
ST Series

  Falling Fast

  Fast Kill

  Stand Fast

  Strike Fast

  Colebrook Siblings Trilogy

  Brody’s Vow

  Wyatt’s Stand

  Easton’s Claim

  Hostage Rescue Team Series

  Marked

  Targeted

  Hunted

  Disavowed

  Avenged

  Exposed

  Seized

  Wanted

  Betrayed

  Reclaimed

  Titanium Security Series

  Ignited

  Singed

  Burned

  Extinguished

  Rekindled

  Blindsided: A Titanium Christmas novella

  Bagram Special Ops Series

  Deadly Descent

  Tactical Strike

  Lethal Pursuit

  Danger Close

  Collateral Damage

  Never Surrender (a MacKenzie Family novella)

  Suspense Series

  Out of Her League

  Cover of Darkness

  No Turning Back

  Relentless

  Absolution

  PARANORMAL ROMANCE

  Empowered Series

  Darkest Caress

  HISTORICAL ROMANCE

  The Vacant Chair

  EROTIC ROMANCE (writing as Callie Croix)

  Deacon’s Touch

  Dillon’s Claim

  No Holds Barred

  Touch Me

  Let Me In

  Covert Seduction

  About the Author

  NY Times and USA Today Bestselling author Kaylea Cross writes edge-of-your-seat military romantic suspense. Her work has won many awards, including the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence, and has been nominated for multiple National Readers’ Choice Awards. A Registered Massage Therapist by trade, Kaylea is also an avid gardener, artist, Civil War buff, Special Ops aficionado, belly dance enthusiast and former nationally-carded softball pitcher. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her husband and family.