by Vaughn, Ann
Kevin laughed. "He won't hurt me. Mike has never lifted a hand against any of us. His brothers did, but not Mike. He was always the peacemaker."
"Yeah, well, don't push him, please. This between us is very, very new. We're still figuring everything out. We've got enough to deal with because of this stalker situation without you adding to it, you hear me?"
Kevin draped his arm around her shoulders, making her give him an irritated glare.
"I'm just giving him a bit of a push, no big deal."
"Kevin! Stop, now, I mean it," she said, giving him a playful push with her hand on his ribs.
"What? I just-"
"Hands off, Adtkisson," Mike said from behind them. Lainey shook her head. She never even heard him approach.
Kevin turned, arm still around Lainey's shoulders.
"Relax, Popeye," Kevin smirked, kissing the side of Lainey's head before he again walked away.
Lainey thought it was best not to even comment on him, rolling her eyes before meeting Mike's gaze.
"Were you looking for me or just passing through?" she asked.
"Passing through. You think you can manage to stay out of trouble for longer than fifteen minutes this time?"
She busted out laughing, the light happy sound echoing through the marble foyer and hitting Mike right in the gut. The decision to let his walls down when they were at Melissa's had been a conscious one on his part. Lainey was surprised when he'd kissed her in the kitchen but it had been a semi-planned move on his part. He'd meant to take that next step with her while they were out-of-state and had just been waiting for the right opportunity.
"Go finish your work, Commander, so we can go home," she told him.
"Ordering me around now, Ms. Riley?"
"Absolutely. So get going."
He winked at her and went on to Jack Adtkisson's home office, finding the family patriarch behind his desk, typing on the computer. Jack looked up as soon as Mike appeared in the doorway, standing as Mike walked in to shake his hand. Jack Adtkisson had always been nice to Mike and he'd always admired him. Shame his sons were such assholes.
"How's it all looking?" Jack asked him without preamble.
"We've replaced nine of your old cameras and added two dozen more."
"Two dozen?" Jack asked, brows raised in question.
"There were several gaps in the existing cameras coverage."
"Well, you're the expert. I'll leave it to your discretion."
"Thank you, sir."
"What is the status of Lainey's stalker situation, if you don't mind me asking? Lainey is Kacee's longest and best friend. I don't want anything to happen to her."
Somehow, Mike wasn't surprised to know that Lainey had charmed her way into Jack Adtkisson's affections as well.
"We've identified the individual. He was one of Lainey's pro bono patients at the VA hospital. He's a former Marine who suffered a debilitating injury and has latched on to Lainey likely because she was the last person who really helped him."
"You know who he is but you can't get him?"
"He's gone to ground, sir."
"I've known you your whole life, Mike, no need to be so formal with me," Jack chuckled.
"Habit, sir."
"I suppose so. I wanted to ask you about the changes you've proposed to the serving staff for the banquet."
"Yes, sir."
"My head of staff is disgruntled because you've denied allowing him to hire extra hands for the evening."
"Last thing we need is new staff, unfamiliar with the rules allowing Conroy the opening he needs to slip through the cracks, because no system, no matter how strong or state-of-the-art is going to be infallible."
Jack nodded. "Duly noted. I will let Simmons know he will have to make do with current staff."
"Thank you, sir. Anything else?"
"Just that, I've also known Lainey Riley most of her life. I admit to having reservations when she was dating Kevin. Not about her, but because I knew she really wasn't his type and he would end up hurting her."
"Yes, sir."
Jack was quiet a moment, studying Mike. Mike stood still, calmly returning the older man's regard.
"You take care of her, son," Jack said.
Mike nodded. "Yes, sir."
Chapter Twenty-One
Going back into the family room, Lainey saw that all eyes rose to see her walk in and all conversation stopped. She met Kacee's gaze and smiled when her friend winked at her and rolled her eyes. Her mother gave her a stern but puzzled look as she sat beside her but refrained from saying anything. Jeannette pulled her glasses off and leaned forward, putting the papers she held down on the coffee table before them.
"Were you able to talk some sense into my son, Lainey?" Jeannette asked her.
Lainey gave her a falsely bright smile. "About what?"
"Darling, don't you want him to be your escort?"
"It would be nice, but with all that's going on, it just isn't feasible. I'm disappointed but I understand."
Gia cut her mother off when she would have spoke again.
"I think it's wonderful that the two of you have hit it off," she said, smiling at Lainey, "maybe you can get him to remember how to smile again."
An image of Mike juggling apples on Melissa's back porch popped into her mind, dimples flashing in his cheeks when she'd called him a fraud. The time they spent at Melissa's...that was the real Mike Casiano. When he was relaxed, he smiled often.
"He smiles quite a bit around me. Laughs, too."
Jeannette gasped, her hand going to cover her mouth. Gia reached out and took her mother's hand, comforting her.
"I'm sorry," Jeannette said after a moment, "it's just...I haven't heard a genuine laugh from him in a long, long time," she said, wiping a tear from her cheek.
"When he came home," Gia said, then shook her head, "that wasn't my brother who came home from the desert. My brother was always reserved, but he smiled and laughed and talked. The man who came home was like a ghost."
Jeannette took a deep breath, nodding. "He was...he'd lost so much weight. He didn't tell us what happened to him. We could all see that something had happened. He was smaller. He walked with a limp. He wouldn't allow anyone to touch him, not even me. My son was hurting and I couldn't touch him, I couldn't hold him. Andre accidentally bumped into him and Mike had his hand on Andre's throat and slammed him against the wall...he left for Tuscany after that and didn't come back until Riley asked him to start Orion Securities with him. He's starting to let me in now, slowly. I can hold his hand occasionally, touch his arm, and every once in a while, I can hug him."
Lainey's heart was breaking, and as if on cue, Mike came walking into the room. Seeing him, with Jeannette and Gia's words echoing through her mind, Lainey rose to her feet and went to him, still well aware that all eyes were on them.
"Are you done, Commander?" she asked and even she could hear the false brightness to her tone.
"What's wrong?" he asked immediately.
She gave him a smile and shook her head.
"Please tell me you're done."
He studied her a moment. "I can be."
"Please," she whispered.
He glanced briefly over her shoulder, seeing his mother and sister watching them, her mother as well.
"Let's go," he said, placing his hand on her back to guide her away from the room. She stopped him, however, before they left the room and turned to wrap her arms around him. He could feel a slight tremble in her body and slid his arms around her, leaning down to place his lips next to her ear, "what's wrong? What did they say to you?"
"Nothing," she replied.
He pulled back to look into her eyes and brushed his thumb over her cheek.
"Doesn't look like nothing," he said softly.
"I'll be fine, but I want to go home."
Well aware that their mothers were watching, Mike leaned down and gently kissed her, feeling her hand fist in his shirt. When he pulled back, he was alarmed to see
more tears in her eyes than before.
"Lainey...," he began but she stopped him.
"I'm fine. Let's go," she said, stepping back from him.
This time, he tucked her hand into his arm and led her away. They crossed through the house to the ballroom so he could let the rest of the team know he was leaving, then they silently went out and got in in his Escalade.
"Now, will you tell me what happened back there?" he asked once they were on the road. She glanced at him briefly, then looked back out the window. "Lainey, don't make me ask you again."
At that, a soft smile touched her lips. "Or what, Commander? Will you reprimand me?"
"Don't tempt me."
A soft laugh escaped her before she could stop it and she turned to look at him.
"Your mother and Gia were telling me about how you were when you were released from the hospital."
He didn't speak for several moments.
"Coming home was difficult," he said finally.
"Your mother had a hard time seeing that you were hurting. She wanted to touch you and hold you and -"
"I didn't want anyone touching me then. My skin was hyper-sensitive, not because of injuries, per se, but just the memory of what was done."
"You let me touch you, to a point," she observed.
"Enough time has passed," he said simply.
"Has it?" she asked, looking back out the window.
They stayed quiet the rest of the short drive back to the loft. When they pulled into the garage, Lainey waited for the garage door to shut behind them before opening her door, climbing out without waiting for him to help her. He did stop her before she went to the elevator with a hand on her shoulder. She forgot she was supposed to stay behind him whenever they approached a door. They remained silent waiting for the elevator and on the ride up. He stepped in first, holding his hand back to keep her inside the elevator while he did a quick sweep of the room. She wondered if he really believed anyone could break into the fortress he'd built here, or if he was just being extra cautious.
"I'll fix dinner," he said, surprising her, "go relax."
"I can help."
"I got it. Half Italian, remember? I like to cook. My grandmother was a good cook, I paid attention."
She sighed and sat at the bar, feeling restless. She didn't want to think about what had been done to him, how he'd come home broken to a family that he could no longer relate to. Tears pooled in her eyes but she blinked them away. He wouldn't want her pity.
"You probably haven't gotten to cook much over the years, though, have you?" she asked, watching him.
"Not really. I'd cook for the guys at Zig and Melissa's whenever we were home...when she would let me."
That brought a smile to Lainey's face. "She likes taking care of all of you. She definitely wasn't what I was expecting."
"Never met anyone quite like her...eccentricities aside, she is very good at what she does. She doesn't take no for an answer. You need something, she can find it."
"She found Jenna one of those new PlayStations on Black Friday and got it for her at a discount, with just one phone call from Riley, in less than 10 minutes," she said, watching him chop vegetables like a gourmet chef. "You weren't kidding."
He paused and looked up at her. "About what?"
"You're chopping that up like a chef on a TV show."
A dimple appeared in his cheek, making butterflies take flight in her stomach.
"Nonna taught me well."
"What else do you like to do, other than cook and play the piano? Did you play sports?"
"Soccer and lacrosse."
That surprised her, but then she remembered he went to school in Italy for a while.
"No football or baseball?"
"Played rugby. By the time I'd come to the states for school it was really too late for me to get into baseball."
"And you and Riley met at camp?"
"When we were fourteen," he shrugged, "we just hit it off, and stayed in touch. Found out that our mothers knew each other so we got them to let us hang out."
"How long did you take piano lessons?"
"Twelve years...six to eighteen. Took cotillion, too. All the usual society stuff."
"Were you and Nick not close?"
"We were, don't get me wrong. He's my twin, no one knew me better at one time. We wanted different things when we went to college. He went to Harvard. I went to Yale. I had Riley. Nick had his circle of friends. He absolutely couldn't wait to join Uncle Brad's law firm. I knew I wanted something else."
"Why didn't you want to join the firm?"
He shrugged. "Chandler, Casiano & Associates is a corporate law firm. Business law is really boring. I always had this sense that, I don't know, that there was something more for me. That I could do something to make a difference. Riley always knew he was going into the Navy. The more he talked about it, the more I thought, yeah, this is what I want. And we seriously did think we would go into the JAG Corp."
"But you signed up for SEALs training."
"SEALs teach you swimming in Basics. They saw something in Riley and me and talked to us about signing up. We talked it over for a few days and then decided to go for it."
"Do you ever regret it, considering all that happened to you?"
"No. I would do it all again."
"Really?" she asked, surprised.
"We did accomplish some good things...and we went through nearly ten years of missions without losing a man, until that last one."
"But you'd all been hurt before?"
"Yeah, nature of the beast. None bad, though. Riley got caught in razor wire. Colt went in to get him out and got his leg caught in it."
She laughed. "Colt went in after Riley?"
"Don't let their jawing fool you. Colt and Riley are close, too. We are all close. You can't go through the kind of stuff we did together and not form strong, lasting bonds. Colt reminded Riley of his brothers."
"Oh, yes, he does. Colt is a lot like Trevor."
He put the vegetables in a steamer, added pasta to boil and began preparing an alfredo sauce white wine. His movements were so practiced, so perfect...she wondered if there was anything he did that he wasn't good at. And she had to admit, it was a serious turn-on, watching him cook; those scarred hands moving quickly and efficiently.
"What about you?" he asked, placing a glass in front of her and filling it with wine. "What did you do when you were younger?"
"I played softball at one time," she told him and she could see she'd surprised him.
"Really?"
She laughed, picking up her glass to take a sip. "Don't act so surprised! Just because I'm little doesn't mean I couldn't play sports."
He held his hands up defensively but she could see his eyes actually shining with mirth.
"I didn't say a word!"
"Yeah, but you were thinking it!" she said, eyes narrowed at him. "Anyway, yes, Kacee and I played softball. She pitched and I was a catcher," she threw a wadded up paper towel at him when his eyes widened, "Stop that, Michael Casiano! I grew up with Riley and his brothers, do you think I didn't know how to play sports?? I was a good catcher, too. Had more runners caught stealing than any other catcher in my division."
"How many years did you play?"
"Through high school."
"I am impressed. I would have thought you were more the cheerleader type."
She gave him a dry look. "I was that, too."
He laughed then and she absolutely loved the sound.
"A cheerleader and a catcher. You are full of surprises, Ms. Riley."
"I went to high school in Texas, Mike. Everyone wanted to be a cheerleader."
"Naturally...wasn't Kacee a cheerleader in college, too?"
"Yes."
"And were you?"
She sighed, bracing for his reaction. "Yes."
"Well, now...seems like I've got the ultimate fantasy...blonde, Texas cheerleader."
"Just don't ask me to do any flips...haven't don
e those in six years."
"I bet you could. Like riding a bike, isn't it?"
"Possibly. But I'm not going to try it."
"Come on, you can do it."
"Not happening, Commander."
"Come on, please?" he asked and the look on his face was absolutely priceless to her, and she knew she was going to give in.
"Man," she grumbled, getting off the stool and taking her shoes off. Thankfully, his loft was plenty big enough for her to perform the stunts. "All right, but if I hurt myself..."
"You won't," he said, coming around the bar and folding his arms over his chest to watch her.
Thinking she must be an idiot, she went to the far side of the room, got a running start and did several front hand springs, coming to a stop in front of him with a hop, adjusting her sweater, a big smile on her face. Mike was laughing as he came to her, cupped her face in his hands and leaned down to kiss her.
"That was seriously hot," he said against her lips.
"I'm little but because of catching and tumbling, my thighs are strong...keep that in mind, Commander. For future reference," she said, kissing him quickly, then stepping back, only to have him pull her back to him.
"Going somewhere?" he asked, towering over her.
"I need to..."
"Stay right where you are," he finished, sealing his lips over hers. She melted into him then, wrapping her arms around him when he deepened the kiss, clinging to him.
"Mike," she whispered when he ended the kiss.
He kissed her one more time then released her to check on the food. Lainey stood still for a moment, catching her breath. She went back to the bar, pausing to put her shoes back on, then went to the sink to wash her hands. While her hands were still under the water, he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning down to kiss her shoulder.
"You smell nice," he said, his lips skimming up from her shoulder to her ear.
She smiled and looked up over her shoulder at him.
"You're much easier to be around when you aren't scowling at everyone all the time."
"I don't scowl all the time," he countered.
