The Hot Sergeant (Second Chance Military Romance) (Hargrave Brothers - Book #2)

by Alexa Davis

  Cal’s eyes brightened. She gave a little “happy wiggle” on the ground, rocking side to side and grinning.

  “That was my happy dance. If you couldn’t tell.” She grinned and looked up at the us. If it weren’t for the facial hair and broad shoulders and, well, for Callie, we could’ve been fifteen again, drinking beers Danny had swiped from the ranch hands and planning our next jaunt into the mountains or how to slip off to a party none of us were supposed to go to.

  “Cal, let’s call your parents up and have a barbeque. Tuck’s on his way; we’ll make it a party. Who knows when we’ll be back up this way and able to get most of us together?”

  Cal agreed and called her mom, who instantly agreed and told her to expect them in a couple of hours. Danny offered to tell Patty to make enough for a couple more people, and wandered off in the direction of the house. Jackson made up some lame excuse about checking in with his online girlfriend and took off, leaving Callie and me alone with the soft breeze through the honeysuckle and the silence of each other’s company.

  I was terrified that tonight wouldn’t go the way I planned. I was awful at surprises and the bigger the surprise, the bigger the failure. Which was in large part why I had decided to ask Callie to marry me while we were on the ranch. Surrounded by our families, with the luck of the Hargraves around me, nothing would stand between me and Callie.

  “Hey, Cal. We’ve gone a lot of rounds lately, haven’t we?”

  “More than some times, less than others, I suppose. Why?”

  “I was happy yesterday. I slept well, too. You keep me more centered than I am on my own.”

  “I thought that’s why you have Xavi?” Callie climbed up on the barrel next to mine and tucked her knees up under chin, with her ankles crossed in front of her.

  “Xavi’s a good friend. But, I feel like he gets between me and the world, and you stand between me and myself.”

  “Wow. That’s pretty damn flattering.” She arched an eyebrow at me. “Are you trying to sell me a bridge?”

  “Nope. I just wanted you to understand why I give you a hard time sometimes. You deserve better, but you stick around.”

  “I think I have loved you since I was thirteen. Before I even knew what love was. It’s hard to find a man who can live up to the guy who’s been my hero since I was in pigtails.”

  “Mmmm, pigtails. I remember those. You should do that again.” Callie scoffed and shook her head.

  “Men.” I winked at her and she giggled. “Seriously.” She blushed and my body responded to her like the very first time I’d noticed that her long, silken pigtails fell just to the swell of her newly minted breasts. It had taken another two months before I’d even dared to press myself against them, in an awkward hug that made me feel like a thief on the verge of opening a vault of treasures.

  “I remember how you used to wear pigtails, but you stopped. I wondered why.”

  “You really want to know?”

  “There’s an actual reason? Hell, yeah, I want to know.”

  “It was at Becky Polanski’s end of school party. She was all over you all night, and Daniel found me sitting alone in a corner where you’d abandoned me. He told me that I was still a little girl to you, and you wanted something more. He was trying to be kind, but it hurt like hell. The next day, I got my hair cut off to my chin. No more pigtails. No more rope swing or tree climbing or one-on-one hoops. I even became a cheerleader.”

  “God, I am an asshole. I never wanted you to change. We were so young. I didn’t know what I wanted. But, I knew that I couldn’t imagine life without you around.”

  “Well, I grew up eventually and went back to doing whatever the hell I wanted to, Georgie.” She flashed me a smile. “Besides, you never even asked Becky out, did you?”

  “Nah. Scott McIntyre liked her. I would never have, even if you and I weren’t, you know.” She smiled again, but her face was pensive.

  “I have loved you since before I understood what those feelings were.” I reached out and touched her hair. “Now that I understand, I know I always will.”

  22. Callie

  I stood under the steaming rainfall and let George’s words repeat in my head. The water beat down and cascaded over my back and legs and matched the heat welling up inside me from between my thighs up to my stomach. I had just shampooed and rinsed the bubbles down my skin, cupping some in my hand and slipping the foam down between my legs, when a low whistle startled me and I slipped, barely catching myself before I fell in the slippery tub.

  “Sorry, beautiful. I thought you knew I was here and that little soap show was for my benefit.” I colored hot and fast and prayed the color looked like it was from the shower.

  “I was washing up, George.” I watched as his head disappeared again outside the shower and all I could see was the silhouette of his body through the frosted glass. I stepped back and bumped up against the wall when his naked body suddenly came into view and he stepped inside the shower with a grin.

  “At your service to assist with any washing needs you might have, madam.” He tried to put on an English accent and failed. It was adorable. I rolled my eyes at him and handed him a blue washcloth and a slender bottle of body wash. He squirted some of the pearly, fragrant liquid on the cloth and worked it into a lather over my back and shoulders, nearly making me moan with how good it felt.

  With every inch his hands moved down my body, my pulse picked up its pace. My thighs were wet with more than just shower water by the time he slid the soapy washcloth between my legs. My eyes closed and I leaned my elbows against the tile in front of me while he continued to thoroughly wash me, his fingers slipping inside easily with the extra lubrication of soap and my own wet, need. I begged for more, and he wrapped an arm around me and a soapy hand clutched at my breasts, rubbing over my hard nipples and circling the tender skin around them.

  “George, please,” I gasped, begging him to take me. He pushed me up against the tile, and I felt him slip inside me in a long, smooth stroke that made my knees weak and my entire body clench with desire. He lifted me to accommodate the angle of his thrusts and I balanced with one foot on the stone seat in the corner to brace us. His chest was pressed against my back, one hand on the tile next to mine while his other still grasped my soapy breast.

  He panted in my ear as his hips slammed against my ass with a wet, slapping sound, and I reached behind me to clutch at his hip as he drove me over the edge. I came with a wordless scream and he followed close behind, driving me up against the wall with the force of his thrust and roaring into my hair as he emptied into me. He held me up until his arms shook, and I pushed him off with a weak laugh. I pulled the showerhead off its hook and rinsed him off, cupping him in my hand. He gasped and shuddered at the sensation on that most sensitive part of him, and swallowed hard.

  I turned the water on myself and watched his eyes grow dark as I slowly and carefully rinsed myself, taking extra care with every motion, until I thought he might be ready to go again.

  “How about another quickie before the water gets cold?” I suggested.

  “Darlin’, I would love nothing better. But, your parents will be here soon. I think Tucker already is here, and we need to pow wow what to do with your dad once we get back to town.” I pouted, but nodded my agreement. I turned the water off, and when I turned around, George’s disembodied hand held out a soft, thick towel to wrap myself in.

  I got dressed while he watched me, a satisfied look on his face. I waited until he was decent to open the bedroom door, and almost fell backwards when his mother was on the other side, her hand raised to knock on the door.

  “Oh, sorry, honey, I was just going to call you down. Your parents are coming up the drive now.” Her eyes flew wide open at a crash and a curse behind me. I held my face in my hands and waited for her to scold.

  “Oh, hey, Mom, I got caught up in my jeans and decided to break the bedside lamp. Don’t worry, I’ll replace it.” I peeked through my fingers. Hannah was watching me
with her eyebrows raised.

  “You gonna be okay, Callie? For heavens’ sake, I’m not a puritan.” Molten crimson crept up my neck and face.

  “All the time I’ve spent here and never, ever did we…and the one time we do…I, I just have no words.” I sputtered and shrugged.

  “Oh, sweetie. You are grown adults. Thank you for worrying about my sense of morality. I’ll be fine. We don’t ever have to speak of this again. Unless it’s a situation in which I will get entertainment value from retelling it.” Her grin was positively evil and her eyes twinkled.

  “Great. So, for sure tonight, we’ll be talking about it.” George’s mother nodded vigorously and handed me the towels she had brought up for my bathroom.

  “You betcha.” She nodded to her son and continued down the hall with fresh towels for the other guest bathrooms. I turned to George and tried to speak but all that came out was stuttering and stammers. He chuckled and hugged me tight.

  “Let’s go say hello to your parents.” He rubbed my back and kissed my forehead. With his arm around my waist, we joined the rest of the family on the big front porch. It was good to see my parents together. They finally were beginning to look comfortable with each other again, and I silently prayed that we could start feeling like a normal family again.

  Patty called us to supper, and we followed the smell of grilling meat and charcoal smoke to the garden patio. Men were laughing and talking, and I got a round of hugs from Tucker and his girlfriend, Mandy, and everyone settled in at the table or the chairs and benches scattered over the patio and garden. It was loud and raucous and full of laughter and horseplay from the men.

  The gas warmers were lit around the edge of the veranda, and as the sun began to sink behind the hills, lanterns were lit at the perimeter, giving everything a warm, friendly glow. I was speaking to Rachel when she stopped and gaped. In the doorway was a disheveled, bearded man with bright blue eyes that matched Daniel’s and a smile that was the twin of George’s.

  Hannah shrieked and ran at the man, leaping into his arms and wrapping him up in a hug as she cried in his shoulder. Rachel looked at me in askance.

  “Logan,” I mouthed to her. I gathered up Slinky and Xavi and led them to one side to make room for all the family greetings. Beard or no beard, I would have known the fourth Hargrave brother anywhere. Frank finally disengaged his wife so he could hug his son, and Daniel, Jackson, and Tucker lined up for their turns to hug, punch, and headlock their brother. I watched George stand off to one side, leaning on his cane, and my heart ached for him.

  I knew the last words between Logan and George hadn’t been happy. They’d been best friends growing up, but when George came back from Afghanistan the first time, he’d already been through a lot and begun to change. Logan didn’t spare his opinion of George leaving me or his mother again, and by the end of the argument, I don’t think they even knew what they were shouting about. Logan had thrown a punch, which George had easily ducked and answered with one of his own. Unfortunately, his fist found its mark. When Logan had picked himself up off the floor, he’d stormed out and slammed the door behind him.

  That had been the last I’d seen of Logan, and frankly, the beginning of the end of George and I. George had never quite believed that Logan’s words hadn’t come from me, and I refused to be dragged into their fight, so I stopped trying to make him believe anything.

  Now, Logan looked across the veranda and met my eyes. I smiled and glanced toward George. Logan followed my gaze and saw his brother, knuckles white as his fingers wrapped around the hand piece of his cane, face almost as pale.

  George pressed his lips together and stood still, like a bull waiting to charge a fence. Logan took a step toward him, then launched himself full speed at his older brother. George put up a hand to block a blow, but his little brother wrapped his arms around him in a bear hug. George barely stayed on his feet as Logan gripped him tight and even from a few feet away, I saw his eyes begin to shine with unshed tears.

  “What happened to you, George?” Logan held his brother at arms’ length. “Dude. You got old.” George laughed abruptly and pulled him back into him with his free hand.

  “You’re the one who looks like he got a job as a lumberjack.” George shoved Logan, who pretended to lose his balance and stumbled a step back, laughing.

  “Careful, big brother. Lumberjacks have huge muscles.” Logan pretended to flex and Jackson joined in the fun, pretending to kidney shot Logan. Logan spun ‘round and grabbed Jackson, overbalancing him off his feet and spinning him to the ground. Slinky barked and pulled at her leash trying to join in, but Xavi went stock still, and his leash went slack in my hand, I had a split-second warning, and Xavi was on him. I gasped, and George bellowed his “down” command. To my relief, Xavi dropped to the ground like a stone, never taking his eyes from Logan.

  “I’m so sorry. I was distracted. I should never have let him jerk away from me.” I stepped forward and picked up the leash end, handing it to George. I gave Xavi the command to roll, and then to sit, so I had a reason to give him a treat, which he accepted happily, before sitting on George’s foot.

  “He wouldn’t have harmed you,” George reassured his brother. “He would’ve just held you down until the authorities arrived.”

  “Oh great. Think we can make friends?” George looked at me and I nodded.

  “Please move slowly and be careful. Xavi is not an aggressive dog, but he sees you as suspicious, if not a threat. I’m a pet store owner and groomer, not a professional dog trainer, so I can’t promise I’ll have this under the best control.”

  “So, I can’t sue you?”

  “No, but you could give me a goddamn hug. It’s my turn, anyway, and maybe he’ll relax if he sees it.”

  “Okay, sis. Bring it in.” He engulfed me in a bear hug and squeezed until it was hard to breathe. When he released me, I took a huge breath and bent over, bracing myself on my bent knees. I tilted my head and winked at both George and Logan. George laughed and Xavi’s ears perked up, twitching.

  “Did I hurt you?” Logan asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “Well, little brother, after all this time apart, we really should have gone over our safe word before you started squeezing the life out of me.” There were more snickers from the guys, and Logan shook his head.

  “You always were the trouble maker.” I winked again, and staying partially bent over, I called Xavi to me. George stepped forward holding the leash tight, and Xavi slowly approached us. I held out my hand with a treat hidden in my fist and let him sniff it. Then I transferred the treat to Logan’s waiting hand. He let Xavi sniff his fist, then opened his hand, hyper-extending his fingers so Xavi couldn’t bite.

  Xavi the wonder dog gently took the offered treat, barely even scraping his palm with his canines as he scooped it up and swallowed it with a satisfied gulp. Licking his chops, he snuffled against Logan’s hands one after the other, looking for more jerky.

  “I think you two will be fine.” I glanced up at George, but he was staring off across the veranda, not paying attention to Xavier or Logan. “George. Your dog won’t eat your brother.”

  “Great, great.” His voice was distant and he jangled the change in one pocket, a habit when he was thinking.

  “George, what is it?”

  “Cal, I need to talk to you, before we go back to straighten things out for your dad. Can we take a walk?” I looked up at his brother, who just smiled and shrugged. The rest of the family had drifted back toward the long, wooden dinner table, which was being set with ice cream, pastries, and baked goodies. Logan gave me a knowing look and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

  “You lovebirds talk amongst yourselves. I see the makings of a brownie sundae calling my name.”

  He strode off and George offered me his hand to stand. I took his hand and once I was on my feet, he kept it. He folded my hand over my arm and led the way to the patch of garden where the honeysuckle still bloomed. He offered me the bench s
eat and paced in front of me.

  We were far enough from the lanterns and lights of the veranda, that the stars were bright and clear in the sky, and I traced a line in my head from one star to the next until I could make out the constellations of Virgo and Hydra. When I looked back down, I saw George, on one knee, his cane propped up beside me against my seat.

  “Callie, I’m not a perfect man. I make mistakes and sometimes I even make them worse when I try to fix them. But, I will always be loyal, and I will always do my best to be your equal in every way. Will you marry me and be my partner in crime, for the rest of my life?”

  My heart stopped beating and my lungs crumpled inside my ribcage. I couldn’t breathe. I blinked back the tears that stung my eyelids and stared down at the multi-colored, three-stone ring. I tried to speak three times before the invisible hand gripping my throat vanished and I could say yes. He slid the ring on my finger and held me in his arms as I cried a little more and hugged him back. The stars blurred in my tears until they were white streaks running down a black canvas.

  “We’re really going to do this? I whispered in his ear.

  “Of course. It’s only worth doing if we’re doing it together.” He kissed me and held me for a long while in the garden. I cried and positioned the ring so the stones could sparkle in the dim light of the stars.

  “I guess I didn’t pick the right way to do this. If I hadn’t lost my nerve, I would’ve asked you at the lake and you could’ve seen how pretty the colored diamonds are in the ring.” I hummed contentedly.

  “It could have been colored glass for all I care. I love you, George Hargrave. It’s beautiful and unexpected.”

  “Almost as beautiful and unexpected as its wearer.” He kissed me tenderly and tears filled my eyes.