by J. S. Scott
“No. I was just wondering if we have enough food to get us through the storm.”
Tate laughed, a happy sound that filled Lara’s heart with joy.
“I should have known you’d be worried about food.” He grinned down at her. “I got us covered. Gabe had the caretakers make sure we were completely stocked.”
“I suppose I’m cooking.” She released a joking, beleaguered sigh.
“You’ll teach me.” Tate still smiled at her.
That dimple gets me every time.
She reached up and ran a loving finger over the indentation in his cheek. “Only if you want to learn. I really don’t mind. I like to cook.”
“I do want to learn. What if you’re sick and can’t cook? What if I need to take care of you?” His expression was anxious.
She smiled up at him. “You’re not exactly short of funds. You can hire someone.”
“Nobody will ever take care of you except me,” he told her adamantly. “I’ll learn.”
Lara didn’t tell Tate that she didn’t need anybody to take care of her. His declaration had been too sweet, too tender, and it made her heart flip-flop.
She watched curiously as Tate slid off her and swaggered completely naked toward the door. It was very difficult for her not to focus in on his perfect, tight ass as he moved. He reached into the pocket of his jacket that hung on a peg, took something out and came back to the bed.
He looked almost sheepish as he knelt beside the bed. “I got this soon after the terrorist scare at the airport. I guess it will tell you just how long I’ve been crazy about you.”
Lara’s breath seized in her lungs as he handed her a tiny velvet box. She exhaled and popped the lid with trembling fingers. “Oh my God. Tate.”
“Marry me, Lara. Stay with me forever.”
In the bed of velvet was the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen. It was an enormous center stone diamond in an antique-inspired setting, which she was fairly certain was platinum. Smaller diamonds surrounded the center stone in a lovely circular setting. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes,” he answered immediately in a voice that was both demanding and hopeful.
“Yes.” She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears. He’d loved her almost from the beginning, just as she’d loved him.
Tate accepted her, actually adored her exactly as she was, and she felt the same way about him. They’d fight because they were both bullheaded, but they would also love.
He took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger.
“It fits. How did you know what size to buy?”
“I told the salesman that you had beautiful, long slender fingers that almost make me come every time you touch me.” Tate’s expression was deadpan.
She slapped his shoulder playfully. “You did not.”
He shrugged. “I guessed. I remember buying a pearl ring for Chloe when she graduated from college. I tried to judge from her size. We can take it to be sized if you need something different or you don’t like it.”
Lara sighed. “I love it.” The diamonds sparkled and reflected the light as she turned her hand.
Tate grimaced as he climbed onto the bed and examined her hand. “Maybe I should have gotten bigger diamonds.”
“You’d better be kidding,” Lara said, amused. “Any bigger and I’d need a crane to hold up my hand.” She rolled into his open arms and snuggled up against him.
“I want everyone to know you belong to me,” he said obstinately.
“Don’t worry. They’ll know. I’ll be your wife. And nobody could possibly miss my beautiful ring. Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Tate replied.
“What for?”
“For loving me,” he answered huskily as he wrapped his arms around her tighter.
Lara wrapped her arms around him. “Chloe is getting married soon, and I don’t want to take away from her happiness. She’s been planning for a long time. Do you think we could just elope?” she asked Tate hopefully.
Honestly, she was secretly hoping that Chloe’s wedding would never take place, but it sounded like a good excuse to elope.
“You deserve your day, baby.”
“I don’t really like weddings. I don’t like the crowds, the noise, all the focus on the bride and groom. Honestly, my dream wedding would be over in under ten minutes,” she admitted.
Tate pulled back to look at her face. “Seriously? You aren’t just saying that because Chloe is getting married?”
Lara nodded. “Honestly. I don’t want a fancy wedding. I know you’re a billionaire and the Colters are a prominent family. If it’s expected, I’ll do it—”
“I never do anything because it’s expected.” He grinned at her. “And I hate weddings, too. Jesus, you really are my kind of woman.”
“Vegas?” she suggested.
“As soon as the weather clears,” Tate agreed cheerfully.
“I guess we’ll have to find something to entertain ourselves until then.”
“The storm is coming in. No outdoor entertainment, but I’ll do my best to keep you well occupied.” He winked at her and shot her a naughty glance.
“I think I’m starting to get bored indoors already,” she told him mischievously.
“I’ll get on that problem right away.” Tate sounded amused as he lowered his mouth to hers tenderly.
He cured her boredom immediately, and so thoroughly that she didn’t have another moment of indifference the entire night.
It wasn’t until the following afternoon that Tate found out that Travis had been right…again. The flight that Lara was scheduled to be on to return to Washington had crashed as it was taking off due to equipment failure. There were no survivors.
Tate watched Lara’s face as she tried to absorb how close she had come to dying. His own heart raced as they watched the solemn news report.
Neither one of them had bothered to get dressed, and he wore a pair of pajama pants that he’d found in the closet, probably Gabe’s. Lara wore a pair of warm cotton, pink pajamas. He’d hiked to the helicopter after he got up this morning to get her bags.
“Oh, my God,” Lara gasped, her hand over her mouth in horror.
Tate looked at the television in the living room that he’d just turned on, wishing he hadn’t. Lara would have had to find out eventually, but it hadn’t needed to be today. She’d been so happy, so playful. They were still wallowing in the joy of finding out they were in love.
Oh, hell.
“It crashed, Tate. My flight. Everybody died,” she said in a shocked voice, her eyes glued to the television.
He sat down next to her on the couch and wrapped his arms around her to cuddle her against his chest.
“I know, Lara. I know.” Tate was practically hyperventilating himself, imagining how he would feel right now if Lara had been on that plane, and feeling sick for the passengers who had been on the aircraft. He could very easily been one of the people who were mourning loved ones right now.
“Those poor people.” Lara started to cry.
Tate flipped off the news, unable to watch Lara’s horror anymore. “Let’s not watch it anymore.”
Lara nodded, but she still sobbed.
He rocked her body against him, so damn grateful that she was here, alive and breathing. “I owe Travis…again.”
“What happened last time? I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.”
Tate shrugged. “I can’t say I really believed it either when Trav first told me about his dreams. But a warning from Travis made me hesitate to take an extra mission. I only stopped for a minute because what he said kept running through my mind over and over. But by the time I volunteered for the extra operation, somebody had beaten me to it. Everybody on the mission died.”
“So you understand how I feel,” Lara murmured softly.
Yeah, he knew exactly how she felt: as if it should have been her who died, too. “I know how you feel, and everyone would have died whether you’d been
on that plane or not. The fact that you survived doesn’t make a difference to those people, so be grateful that you’re alive and not feel guilty for living.”
“Is that how you felt?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Except it should have been me instead of the other volunteer. It took me awhile to get over that.”
Lara took a deep, tremulous breath. “I have to meet this Travis. He’s amazing. I just wish he could have warned the airline.”
“I’m certain he tried. But there’s no way the airline is going to cancel a flight because some guy thinks he had a psychic dream. Most likely they’ll just think he’s nuts. This has never been a blessing for Travis. It’s been more like a curse. It doesn’t happen to him that often. And I don’t think he’s had a premonition dream since he saved Ally’s life.”
“Ally?”
“His wife now. You’d love her. She can bust Travis’s balls when she wants to, and she used to be his secretary.” Ally could wrap Travis around her little finger, just like Lara could do to him very easily.
“You’re right. I’m sure we could be very good friends. Do you see them very often?” she asked curiously.
Glad that Lara was distracted from her near-death experience, he answered, “Not as often as I’d like. He lives in Florida. But we’re both involved in the charity for abused women that I told you about. His brother Kade’s wife is Asha, the woman who was abused, and started the charity.”
“Travis and Kade Harrison?” Lara asked, her voice slightly awed.
Tate frowned, not particularly liking the fact that Lara sounded impressed. “You’ve heard of them?”
Lara snorted. “Who hasn’t? Kade Harrison was a famous quarterback and a billionaire, and Travis Harrison is a brilliant businessman. I think it’s great that they both contribute.”
“We don’t just contribute,” Tate answered. “We run the whole operation. Jason Sutherland manages the financials and the rest of us do fundraising and other tasks that need to be done.”
She pulled back to look at him. “Is every billionaire in America involved? Sheesh! Jason Sutherland, too?”
“Not all of them…yet. But we’re working on it.” He grinned at her, proud of the organization that all of them had formed to combat domestic abuse.
“I really would like to get involved,” Lara mused.
“I offered.” Tate knew now why she’d refused. “Now that you’re going to be my wife, maybe you’ll feel like you can be involved in any way you want to.” He hesitated for moment before he added, “I don’t ever want to hold you back from anything you want to do. I’d move to Washington if you want me to so you can continue to be an agent.”
Fuck. That hurt!
The last thing he wanted was for Lara to put herself in danger every day as an FBI agent. But he didn’t want her unhappy either. He would stand beside her with whatever she wanted to do, but that didn’t mean he had to particularly like it.
“I like Colorado,” Lara admitted softly. “And we’d have family here.”
Tate’s heart swelled at the fact that Lara was going to consider his family as her family, too. It had been a long time since she’d had family who really cared. “You might find them a little overwhelming at times.” Tate knew he did. In fact, sometimes they drove him bat-shit crazy. But he loved every member of his family fiercely and considered himself lucky to be part of the Colter family.
“Solitude is highly overrated,” Lara told him thoughtfully. “I’d love to have family.”
“Well, get ready, baby, because you’re going to have a lot of it now.” He paused. “So how are you going to feel about giving up your career? Or are you going to just transfer to the Denver office?”
Damn. That hurt, too. But I have to make sure she has all of her options. This has to be her choice.
“Well, I’m actually going to have a very rich husband, so I think I’ll ask him if he’s willing to support us for a while if I go back to school.”
Tate let out a giant whoop. “Hell yeah, he would. He’s loaded.” He kissed her forehead. “I have to admit, I’m relieved.”
She cocked her head and looked at him as she said, “Thank you for giving me the option to be free to do whatever I want, even though you might not like my decision.”
“I’m perfectly happy with your decision,” Tate told her enthusiastically.
“It’s nice to know that you’re going to be the type of husband who would stand by me no matter what I wanted to do with my own career.” She cuddled back against his chest. “You’re pretty special.”
He didn’t feel special at all. Selfishly, he wanted her out of the field, but…
“I want you to be happy,” he told her earnestly.
“I know. I feel the same way. Are you going to tell me exactly what you still do for the government?”
Tate shrugged. “Not a lot, and it’s not dangerous, but I still work for them on a consulting basis. If they’re having problems with a particular Special Forces mission, I help them out. I don’t go out in the field anymore. It’s strictly strategy.”
“So you’re a warfare genius?” she teased.
“Actually…yeah, I am. I always have been. Strategy and covert missions are my specialty.” He was good at those things, so why deny it? He’d never exactly been modest, and he wanted Lara to know who he really was, all of his strengths…and weaknesses.
“Are you going to tell me what you were doing in Special Ops?”
“Working?” he tried.
“Tate,” she said in that warning voice that really turned him on.
What the hell; they were getting married. “The team I worked for doesn’t exist to most of the military or civilians. You were right when you said it was extremely covert and some of what we did was actually black ops. You’re the only one who knows. I couldn’t even tell my family exactly what I did, so I went on letting them think I was a SEAL. I was recruited after SEAL training because they needed another pilot for their team.” His woman had already been pretty damn smart and figured that out, but he confirmed it anyway.
“I’ll never tell. I swear I’ll take it to my grave,” Lara answered solemnly.
Tate shuddered, her comment making him think about her near-death again. “Which better not be for a very long time,” he grumbled.
“Do you miss being on active duty?”
He paused for a minute and thought about her question. “I did for a while. I lived for my job, just like you did as an agent. My team was as close to me as my brothers. We lived, slept, and ate together sometimes. Giving up that kind of job is like cutting off a limb. But it wasn’t something I was going to do forever. I was restless for a while, but I was slowly getting over it, moving on little by little. Now I’m glad I got out because if I hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t have ever met.”
“And the crash that broke your leg?”
“It was a pretty risky mission. We got shot down before we could accomplish our goal. I was damn lucky I could land the helicopter without it going up in flames. But we took the impact pretty hard. I got most of the damage. Everybody else got out under their own steam.” The whole operation had been screwed up, but at least nobody had died.
“Who got you out?” Lara asked anxiously.
“My team. They had to eventually carry me for miles before we got recovered.”
“You actually let them carry you out?”
“It was either that or bleed to death in hostile territory. Right about now, I’m pretty damn glad I survived.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “Did you take the damage intentionally?”
Tate shrugged, not really wanting to tell her that he had been willing to take the fall—literally—for the men on his team. He had tried to make the impact occur on his side of the copter near the front of the aircraft. “I was the senior officer and commander.” He didn’t really answer her question, but a look of dawning comprehension moved over her beautiful face, and made his admission unnecessary.
Thei
r eyes locked together, and Tate felt as if he were drowning in her love for him. His chest ached as she looked at him as though he was everything to her…the very same way he knew he looked at her.
He covered her mouth with his because he had to, needed to. He’d come close to losing her forever, and he would have been a broken man without her. He shoved his hands under her pajama top, needing to feel her warm, silky skin under his fingers. Then, he lifted his mouth from hers and gently removed her cotton pajamas, touching and kissing every inch of skin that he revealed, worshipping her body just like he cherished her heart.
He stood and got rid of his pajama bottoms, grinning at Lara as he revealed no underwear. Tate stood there for a minute. His eyes roamed over her naked flesh; her long, tangled blonde locks of hair that floated around her shoulders; and then at her face.
She bit her lip. “Fuck me?” she requested.
He lowered his body onto hers carefully, knowing she had to be sore from their rough mating the night before. He smoothed the hair back from her face and trailed a finger down her cheek. “No, baby. I’m going to make love to my fiancée right now.” He took her left hand, kissed his ring that adorned it, and then entwined their fingers together. He took her other hand and did the same thing, letting their conjoined hands rest above her head.
Lara instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. “I love you so much,” she whispered. Her eyes filled with tears.
Tate thrust forward and groaned as he felt her sheath accept him, welcome him with wet heat. “I love you, too, Lara. I always will.”
He savored every moment of being inside her, having her surround him with her love. There was no rush as he entered her again and again, grinding against her with every pump of his hips. They moved higher and higher together. Tate tried to taste every exposed inch of her skin, relished the feel of her short nails as they dug harder into his back as she climaxed.
He buried his face in her hair as the walls of her channel clenched around his cock and massaged it exquisitely until he couldn’t hold back his release. He came with a groan as he spilled himself deep inside her.
