“Okay, tell me everything,” Angie said after she’d ordered Mia to sit on the closed toilet seat. “Who is he? Is he cute?”
“His name is Jackson and he’s very cute,” Mia admitted. “But don’t bust out any parades, hon. I probably won’t see him again after tonight.”
“Why not? You never go out, Mia. You totes deserve to have some fun.”
“I’m too busy for that.” Her jaw dropped when the younger girl placed an enormous zipped case on the counter. “What on earth do you keep in there? Rocks?”
“Every girl needs a fully stocked makeup kit,” Angie said firmly. “We’ll go out this weekend and buy you one.”
“Nah, I’ll pass.”
Danny’s voice came from the doorway. “Stop being a grouch. Angie’s right. It’s about time you started caring about your appearance. I don’t want a spinster for a sister.”
“Um, excuse me, but us spinsters prefer the term old maid,” she said stiffly.
Angie burst out laughing. “You’re so funny. Jackson is going to love you.”
“Jackson?” Danny echoed curiously. “Is that his name?”
“Yep,” Angie answered for Mia. “And supposedly he’s very cute.”
“What does he do? Like, for a job?”
Mia laughed at her brother’s narrowed eyes. “Why do you care? If he’s unemployed will you forbid me from seeing him?”
“Of course. I don’t want some bum taking advantage of my old-maid sister.”
“Don’t worry, he’s not a bum. He’s a SEAL.”
Both teenagers gawked at her.
“For real?” Angie blurted out.
“For real.”
Danny’s suspicion transformed into glee. “That’s so frickin’ cool. Do you think he’ll bring a gun on your date?”
“Why on earth would he do that? He’s a soldier, not a cop.”
“Is he picking you up? I’ve never met a SEAL before.”
Jeez. Her brother looked scarily excited about the prospect of Mia going out with a navy man. Maybe she ought to send Danny on the date.
“I’m meeting him at the restaurant,” she replied.
The interrogation didn’t let up. “Which restaurant?”
“Go away, babe,” Angie announced. “I have a lot of work to do and you’re distracting me.”
“Fine.” Just like that, Danny left the room without a protest.
Mia raised her eyebrows. “I’m impressed. It takes me a minimum of five attempts to get him to do what I say.”
“That’s ’cause he likes making you mad. He thinks it’s funny.” Angie stuck her hand in the case and emerged with a tube of foundation. “’Kay, now quit talking. This might take a while.”
4
Mia was late.
Jackson waited in front of the small Italian bistro on Market Street and checked his phone for the third time in the past five minutes. No new messages.
He would’ve been worried that he was being stood up, if not for the text Mia sent ten minutes ago informing him she was on her way. The gentleman in him still wished she’d allowed him to pick her up, but she’d been mighty insistent about meeting him here.
Clearly she was trying to keep her distance right off the bat, which didn’t surprise him considering how difficult it’d been getting her to even agree to dinner. But her arm’s-length approach didn’t faze him. He was determined to win Mia over tonight, no matter what.
Truth was, he liked her. He really, really liked her, a rare and wonderful feeling he hadn’t experienced in ages. He hadn’t realized how frustrating dating could be. Sex? That was easy—San Diego was full of women eager to take off their clothes for a SEAL. But finding a girl who truly liked him and wanted to be with him? A whole other story.
“Hey, sorry I’m late!”
He lifted his head in time to see Mia round the side of the building, and the sight of her blew him away. Her hair was loose, the dark shoulder-length tresses curling slightly at the ends, and her skin looked so soft and luminous his fingers tingled with the urge to stroke her face. She was wearing makeup, but not an obscene amount of it, just enough to accentuate her hunter-green eyes, high cheekbones and full lips. And she’d donned a dress tonight. A knee-length green sundress paired with brown platform heels that added a few inches to her tiny frame.
“You done checking me out or should I give you another minute?”
Her dry voice snapped him out of it. Clearing his throat, he shoved his fingers in the belt loops of his khaki cargo pants. “You look amazing,” he said gruffly.
Her lips stayed in smirk formation, but there was no mistaking the flicker of pleasure in her eyes. “Thanks. I’ll have you know I endured forty-five minutes of torture at the hands of my brother’s girlfriend in order to look like this. That’s why I was late.”
“Aw shucks, darlin’. You got a makeover just for me?”
“Don’t you dare read anything into it. I’d have done it for anybody.”
“I don’t believe you.” With that, he smiled broadly. “C’mon, let’s go inside.”
They walked through the bright red door of Tonio’s, Jackson’s favorite place to eat in San Diego. His teammates constantly teased him about it, maintaining that cowboys were supposed to eat steak and potatoes and nothin’ else, but Jackson had always had a thing for Italian food. When he and Mia had messaged back and forth about tonight, he’d been pleased to hear that it was her favorite food too.
“I love this place,” she told him as they entered the waiting area. “Danny and I get takeout from here at least once a week.”
Apparently she wasn’t kidding, because a second later the dark-haired woman at the hostess stand greeted Mia like the two of them were old friends.
“Mamma Mia!” the older woman teased, her brown eyes crinkling. “You didn’t call ahead to place an order, cara.”
“No takeout for me tonight, Rosa. We’re eating in.”
The hostess shifted her gaze to Jackson, and a smile stretched across her face. “Ah, I see. A special occasion! Let’s get you a table, then.”
The woman led them into the cozy main room, which felt even more romantic than usual. The entire bistro seemed to glow from the soft light seeping out of the overhead fixtures, and the faint strains of classical piano only enhanced the vibe.
They arrived at a table with a crimson tablecloth, lit candles and gleaming silverware resting on pristine white napkins. After they were seated, the hostess hurried away and a waiter took her place, taking their drink orders before handing each of them a leather-bound menu. Yet for all the pomp and circumstance, the food wasn’t overpriced and there was no air of pretension about the place.
“So,” Mia announced, clasping her hands on the tablecloth. “You did it.”
“Did what?”
“You lured me out of the house for the first date I’ve had in years.” She raised her eyebrows in challenge. “Time to show me what you’ve got, sugar.”
He flashed a grin. “Hmmm…I can take my shirt off if you want. That usually gets the ladies goin’.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t doubt it. But I was thinking more along the lines of you wowing me with your conversational prowess.”
“All righty. Name a topic and I promise to rock the shit out of it.”
Her answering laugh made his pulse race. He liked her laugh. It had a sweet lilt to it, like a pretty melody.
“Tell me where you grew up,” she ordered. “’Cause I know that’s not a California accent.”
“I’m from Texas. Grew up in a little town called Abbott Creek, about fifty miles west of Dallas.”
“Let me guess, you hail from a family of cowboys.”
“Yup. My folks own a cattle ranch, so I spent my entire childhood waking up at the crack of dawn to do a shitload of chores.”
“Did you like the ranch work?”
“I loved it,” he confessed. “Growing up I wanted nothin’ more than to stay on the ranch. Maybe buy a spread of my own
someday.”
Her green eyes went thoughtful. “But you joined the navy instead. Why?”
He shrugged. “I needed a change.”
“Well, that’s vague.” She laughed again. “Care to elaborate?”
Discomfort welled inside him, but he forced himself to offer a few more details. “Small-town life is…oppressive, for lack of a better word. Everybody’s always stickin’ their noses into everybody else’s business. I got sick of it. I wanted to experience life beyond Abbott Creek, know what I mean?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I get that.”
The server returned with their drinks, then waited patiently while they scanned the menus and ordered their entrees. Once he was gone, Jackson turned the tables on his date.
“Have you always lived in California?” he asked.
“Nah, we moved around a lot when I was a kid. I was born in Colorado, but my mom moved us to New Jersey when I was five. Then we moved to Philly, Chicago, Atlanta, Missouri, um—I think I’m forgetting a few places—and then after high school I came to San Diego for college, and ended up loving it here. So I stayed.”
He wrinkled his forehead. “Why’d you move so much?”
The edge that crept into her voice told him he’d struck a nerve. “My mom kept getting married.”
Jackson blinked. “Huh?”
“She gets married a lot.” Mia absently dragged her index finger over the trail of condensation clinging to her water glass. “I think she’s on marriage number nine now.”
“Nine?”
“Actually, I could be wrong. I haven’t seen her in two years, so she could have tied the knot a couple more times, for all I know.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice. “I think she’s trying to double Liz Taylor’s record.”
“So each time she got married she packed y’all up and moved you to a new city?”
“Well, it was more like each time she got divorced we packed up and moved to a new city. Trust me, her divorces were as epic as her marriages—no city was big enough to accommodate both Mom and her latest ex-husband.”
Jackson didn’t need to be a genius to figure out there were definitely some unresolved issues when it came to Mia’s relationship with her mother. He couldn’t even imagine growing up with a parent like that. His folks were happily married, had been for nearly thirty years now, and they’d raised their family in the same little town where generations of their ancestors had put up roots.
“Moving so much must have been tough.”
She gave a noncommittal shrug. “It was harder on Danny, I think.”
“Your brother?”
“Yeah. He never really got to be a normal kid, and with the ten-year age difference between us, I was already out of the house when he was just eight.”
“Sure, but you still had to deal with it for eighteen years of your life,” he pointed out.
Another shrug. “I managed. I’m a lot tougher than Danny, truth be told. He’s too softhearted for his own good. He always made excuses for our mom—still does. He refuses to admit how selfish she is.”
“Where is she now?”
“Who knows.” Mia took a long sip of water, unmistakable sadness washing over her expression. “She showed up at my door two years ago with Danny in tow and asked if he could crash with me while she went on a one-month honeymoon with her latest husband. I said sure—I mean, I love that kid to death—but once the month was over, she never came back.”
Shock spiraled through him. “Seriously?”
“Yep. She took off and never looked back. That’s why Danny’s living with me now. I filed for guardianship of him and the court approved my request on the grounds of abandonment.”
“Shit, Mia, that’s…”
“My life,” she finished wryly. “But enough about that. No need for both of us to leave here bummed out and jonesing for antidepressants. Tell me about this SEAL thing.”
He grinned. “SEAL thing?”
“Yeah, you know, your military career. How many times you’ve saved the world, that kind of stuff.”
A chuckle slipped out. “Why? Does the idea of me saving the world get you goin’?”
“What is it with your need to ‘get me goin’?”
“Can’t help it. I want a second date, remember? That ain’t gonna happen unless I make you fall in love with me.”
Her laughter tickled his ears and made him want to jump across the table and kiss her.
“Ain’t gonna happen,” she mimicked.
“Fine. I’ll settle for making you fall in lust with me.”
“That probably won’t happen either.”
The remark piqued his interest. Cheeky as it was, he’d detected a note of resignation in her voice. “You don’t experience lust often, darlin’?”
“Not really,” she confessed. “I mean, I’ve been attracted to guys before, but never in a super lusty way. You know, like I can’t wait to rip their clothes off and screw them silly.”
“Are you a virgin?” he had to ask.
“Nope. Are you?”
“If I say yes, will you be my sexual tutor and make a man outta me?”
“Nope.”
“Fine, then no, I’m not a virgin.”
“Shocking.”
He tipped his head, still intrigued by the entire conversation. “Do you enjoy sex?”
She laughed again. “This is not appropriate first-date subject matter.”
“Well, seeing as there won’t be a second date—” he shot her a pointed look, “—I figure any topic is up for grabs tonight.”
“Fair enough.” She sipped her water. “Fine, I’ll answer the question. Do I enjoy sex? Not really. Honestly, I can take it or leave it.”
His eyebrows soared to his forehead. “You don’t like it at all?”
“It’s okay, I guess, but I’ve never had a sexual encounter that’s been any better than my solo sessions.” An endearing blush appeared on her cheeks. “Actually, I have more fun alone than I ever have with a guy.”
Damned if his dick didn’t take that as a challenge.
Jackson shifted in his chair, trying to ignore the semi-erection that had sprung in his pants. Mia’s candid revelations had brought way too many visuals to mind. Like the image of her lying in bed, her fingers moving between her legs as she got herself off. Or the one of him in that bed with her, licking every inch of her body and proving to her just how much fun it could be having another person around.
“What, no response?” she said with a smirk. “Let me guess—my thoughts about sex have changed your mind about that second date.”
“Not at all.”
“Really? You don’t think it’s weird that I’d rather make myself come than—” She halted abruptly, her cheeks turning redder as their server strode up with their meals.
Jackson swallowed a laugh when he noticed the waiter’s face. The man’s expression was polite, but the flicker of amusement in his eyes said that he’d definitely overheard Mia’s last remark.
Neither of them spoke as their food was served, and after the waiter hurried off, Mia instantly stuck her fork in the tangle of linguine on her plate, then took a bite of the steaming noodles.
“Ugh, that’s hot!” she burst out a second later, making a mad grab for her water.
Jackson chuckled. “That’s what you get for trying to avoid the subject.”
“I’m not avoiding. I thought we were done talking about it.”
“A man is never done talkin’ about sex.”
That got him another laugh. “Okay. What else do we have to say about it?”
He picked up his knife and fork and cut into his massive serving of chicken Parmesan. After popping a small piece into his mouth, he chewed thoughtfully, then said, “Tell me one sexy secret nobody knows about you.”
She wrapped her fingers around her glass. “Hmmm. Well. How’s this? I keep a nine-inch dildo in a locked drawer beside my bed.”
His semi-erection transformed into a full-blown boner.
&nbs
p; Breathing through the wave of arousal, Jackson responded in a casual voice. “Interesting. Because my sexy secret was gonna be that I have a nine-inch cock.”
“Wow. Congratulations, big boy.” His date snorted, then raised her glass to her lips.
“Oh, and it’s pierced.”
A spray of water splashed the table as Mia did an honest-to-God spit take.
Smirking, Jackson took another bite of chicken.
“You’re joking,” she said.
He met her narrowed green eyes. “Am I?”
Her tone grew even more suspicious. “There’s no way a small-town Texas boy like yourself has his nether regions pierced.”
“It’s a dang shame you’ll never get to find out,” he said cheerfully. “I guess you should’ve thought twice before insisting this is a one-date thing.”
She harrumphed, wiped her mouth with her napkin and picked up her fork again.
“So…” he said pensively, “back to the topic at hand. You don’t enjoy sex. Is it just the penetration part or all parts?”
“You’re incorrigible.”
Her chest heaved as she released another exasperated breath, drawing his gaze to her breasts. They were smaller than he usually liked, just a gentle swell of cleavage peeking out the bodice of her dress, but something about those perky little tits made his mouth water.
He wanted to fuck her. Getting to know her better had been the number one item on his agenda, but now that was joined by a hefty dose of desire. He wanted her naked. Naked and moaning while he thrust into her and drove her mindless with passion.
“And it’s all parts of it.”
Her voice brought him back to the present. To the table where they were both seated, fully clothed.
Mia went on. “The intercourse part, the oral, the kissing—it’s all boring to me.”
“Even the kissing?” he said in surprise.
“Yep. I don’t know if I’m the bad kisser in the equation, or if the guys I’ve made out with have just been abysmal at it, but make-out sessions have never really done it for me.” She offered a knowing look. “You must think I’m a total prude, huh?”
“Nope. I think you’re the most fascinating woman I’ve ever met.”
Out of Uniform Box Set: Books 4-6 plus 2 Bonus Novellas Page 62
