A Promise Never Forgotten

by KaLyn Cooper

  She rolled her lips between her teeth and rapidly nodded. “I can have a double total mastectomy.” She grabbed her breasts once again. “The surgeon takes out everything and replaces it with fake boobs.”

  He hesitated, but then had to ask. “How much does that decrease your risk?”

  Her smile was genuine when she answered, “Between ninety and ninety-five percent.”

  “What the hell are you waiting for?” He twisted so he could look at her complete face. “Teagan, let’s get this scheduled. From the little you told me, the longer you delay the surgery, the greater the chance the cancer will appear.”

  “I couldn’t. My insurance company in DC considered it elective surgery.” She turned her head away from him. “Between the cost for mom’s memory care nursing home, living in DC, and all the testing on the new CH-53 King Stallion helicopter for the Marine Corps, I couldn’t afford it or the time off work. I’d been saving up all my vacation time, then Marsha was murdered.” She threw her hand toward the other side of the duplex. “I’m now mother to two small children. Are you going to take care of them while I’m in the hospital for a week and help out during the six weeks of recovery?”

  “Fuck, yes. They’re my kids too, you know. You are not in this alone.” He would do anything, and everything, she needed. “Have you seen a…breast…specialist down here, yet?” He had no idea what kind of doctor she needed, but dammit, he’d find the best one within two hundred miles. He didn’t care what it cost. He would find a way to pay for her surgery if he had to. First, though, he would go head to head with the insurance company.

  “No, not yet. I was going to look more seriously after the kids went back to school. They needed me here, establishing a new normal for them.” She shook her head. “Brann and Anora have been through so much lately. I’m afraid seeing me sick would devastate them.”

  “We could talk to their grief counselor about that.” He leaned in and gave her a soft, tender kiss. “We should also talk to her about how to tell the children about us.”

  “Is there an us?” He could see the multiple questions in her eyes.

  “Fuck, yes, there is an us.” If Logan had his way, there always would be, but he didn’t think Teagan was ready to hear that just yet. Glancing at the clock, he calculated there was enough time to hear her call his name as she came at least twice more.

  He started his kisses at her chin and worked his way down her throat before paying particular attention to each breast. With nips and kisses he made his way over her flat stomach to the apex of her thighs. He liked that she spread wide for him. He spread her lips with his thumbs then kissed her swollen clit before running his tongue through her folds as she writhed and bucked under him. He slid two fingers inside her hot wet channel, pumping them in and out as he sucked on her clit.

  “Logan, I can’t hold back much longer.” She begged, “I want you, not your fingers.”

  He glanced up her body, stopping only briefly to say the single word, “Nope.” He flicked her clit with the tip of his tongue and her hips raised six inches off the bed. Logan grinned. “Let yourself go.”

  Fingers shoving in and out, he alternated between sucking and flicking her bundle of nerves.

  “Logan.” She cried out his name as her entire body shook its release.

  Christ. He almost lost it just listening to her come.

  He grabbed another condom from the nightstand and rolled it on, sliding inside of her while her muscles still convulsed.

  Teagan’s eyes flew open.

  “One more time,” he ordered.

  Panting for breath, she managed to say, “I can’t.”

  Holding himself up with one arm, he used the pad of his thumb to rub her overstimulated clitoris with each stroke. “Sure you can.” Within a minute, he could feel her muscles tense once again. When she came the second time, he was only two strokes behind her. His entire body went rigid. Buried deep inside her, he let her spasming inner muscles milk him dry. With just enough brainpower before he blacked out, he rolled to one side pulling her with him. He wasn’t ready to lose their intimate connection.

  Logan could never let her go. Teagan was his.

  The alarm on his phone chimed all too soon. It was time for Teagan to return to her half of the house. He’d programmed in enough time for her to shower, but she insisted on gathering her clothes and returning a few minutes earlier than they’d promised the babysitter.

  Logan slid on the jeans he’d worn out to dinner, not bothering with underwear. He snagged one of his polo shirts rather than fussing with all those buttons.

  Retracing her steps, unabashedly naked, she went up and down the steps twice, more slowly the second time.

  Grinning, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the scrap of lace, dangling it from a single finger. He could still smell her arousal. “Looking for this?”

  She frowned up at him from the bottom of the stairs with fists planted on her tanned hips. “You owe me a new pair of panties. Those were expensive.”

  He fingered the soft lace as he slowly descended the stairs. “I’ll gladly replace them. From now on, though, you don’t need to bother wearing any when I’m around.” He sat down on a step near the bottom and pulled her to him. He wanted one more taste.

  Burying his nose in her trimmed golden curls, he used his thumbs to open her wet folds. He licked a circle around her clitoris before he latched on and sucked.

  She moaned. “Logan, I really have to go.” She stepped back. Heat blazing in her darkened blue eyes, a slow sensual smile crossed her face as she looked down at him. “Promise me, though, that we’ll pickup right here next time. I’ve never had sex on the staircase.”

  “Absolutely.” He’d have sex anywhere and everywhere she wanted. He stood and had her in his arms within a single step. When he kissed her, he hoped she could taste herself on him. It was his new favorite flavor.

  His cell phone buzzed interrupting them. It was the five-minute warning. Teagan needed to get next door and Logan was going to see to it that Erin got home safely.

  He looked at the wall that connected, and separated, the two halves. “I’m going to talk to a contractor about putting a door right there.” He pointed to a blank spot on the wall. “Then we wouldn’t have to go outside to get to the other home.”

  She laughed. “Just put a door between our bedrooms and call it good.” Teagan grabbed her bra from the floor and quickly put it on. Still walking toward the door, she slipped the pretty blue sundress over her head. Peering into the mirror at the entrance, she combed her fingers through her mussed hair. Showing up with sex hair the first time Erin babysat for them probably would not be a good thing.

  On the short walk to her side, Logan thought about the cancer gene and the beautiful, giving woman next to him. “That’s why you never had children, isn’t it?”

  She nodded. “I wouldn’t want to curse any daughter of mine with this gene.”

  “Is that why you’ve never had a serious relationship?” Logan had so many questions.

  “I was engaged when they did the DNA test,” she quietly confessed as she slowed their pace. “Greg said he really wanted kids and broke off the engagement. We were in the same squadron, so seeing him move on was really hard. When mom got sick and I was nearing the end of my contract, leaving the Navy was an easy decision.”

  “What a dick.” Logan wondered if the man had ever even loved her. He didn’t care if she was sick. He would be there for her. Through thick and thin.

  “Yeah.” Teagan sounded defeated.

  Somehow, he had to convince her what a gorgeous woman she was, with or without breasts, worthy of love even though she didn’t want to have children of her own.

  As they walked up the steps to the house where their children slept, he realized their current situation was for her. “Did Marsha know about your condition?”

  “Of course.” Teagan smiled. “She was my rock, and I was hers. She went to almost every appointment with me, from the beginni
ng. And I helped her whenever I could. When taking care of two small children, while Gabe traveled, became too much, she’d call me and ask if I wanted to play mom for a few hours, or even a day. I love Brann and Anora as though they were my own.”

  “I love them too, you know.” Logan held open the door and followed Teagan inside. He also loved her, but knew she wasn’t ready to hear those words.

  Chapter Twenty

  The man behind the large mahogany desk was shocked at the familiar ringtone. “I’m sorry, senator, I have an emergency call coming in. Would you like to continue this conversation over drinks later this afternoon at the club?” He hoped the man would say yes. The private gentleman’s club they both belonged to would give him even more secrets to use against the elected official.

  He could also take advantage of the facility’s private rooms. He’d been under so much stress lately and knew the powerful release he could get from the hands and mouth of Mistress Tigress would go a long way. Maybe he’d even fuck her tonight.

  The man on the other end of the line agreed quickly.

  “Perfect, then I’ll see you at eight.” He quickly opened the locked drawer and pressed the button to bolt his doors and engage the sound encryption before he answered the secure satellite phone. “Uncle. Is there a problem?” His uncle knew damn well what time and date was and that he would be at work. Calling him there was becoming dangerous as they moved toward their ultimate goal.

  “You tell me, Abd al Rashid.” His uncle sounded angry. “My sources say there are hidden files in a computer that you failed to retrieve. Partial copies are right there in your own building. You’d better hope they don’t have enough to lead them to you, and you had better make sure there is absolutely nothing tangible that connects you to me. Double your security methods.”

  Half a world away, the man let out a heavy sigh. “Even though you are of my blood, we are all disposable soldiers in Allah’s army. Let me know as soon as you have secured and destroyed those files.”

  The line went dead.

  The man stared at the tight grain in his mahogany desk.

  Who the fuck did his uncle have inside the CIA? Where the hell were those files? Who within the organization had found them?

  As soon as he asked himself the last question, he knew the answer. Matthew Saint Clare. He was becoming a bigger threat every day. He allowed himself time to consider sending the special agent back through reprogramming but discarded the idea when he remembered that Saint Clare had remarried Elizabeth. She would instantly realize something was amiss, as one of the original members of the mission, and may put the fragments together. She was a very smart woman, a threat in her own right. She had been onto his uncle, Nassar al-Jamil, for years.

  His own men had checked the computer they had found in Gabriel’s apartment. It contained very little, only personal bills. Tax shit. Nothing of interest.

  It was his own fault. He had ordered his men not to take anything that might be missed. He would not punish them for following orders precisely. Besides, they were his best protégés. They were moving quickly through the ranks at the secret camp in Pennsylvania. They had a future with his organization.

  The first thing he needed to do was seek and destroy the copies currently in the hands of the CIA. Then he needed to retrieve that laptop. If Matthew Saint Clare had recently gotten possession of information, then the laptop was active, which meant its location was traceable.

  He picked up the phone and called his personal geek on sub level two. Within moments, he had the location of the computer and a bit of bad news. The copies they had in-house were just that, copies. Worse, they were two copies created.

  Gabe’s old computer was now filled with games for young children. Unfortunately, the computer had been disconnected from the Internet too soon so his computer genius could not delve deeper into the hard drive. He was, though, able to determine that two copies of the hidden files had been created.

  The man rocked back in his leather executive chair. He concluded that the laptop was now being used by Gabriel’s children. If he were a gambling man, he’d bet the Marine special operator had made two copies of the hard drive and shared one with his friend Matthew Sinclair. Logically, he would keep the second copy in a safe at his house in North Carolina.

  He knew exactly who he’d send to retrieve the computer and backup files. It would be good practice for his men, putting their covert skills against those of Lieutenant Colonel Jackson. It would also be an excellent test of their creativity. This was a real-life situation, and a real-time test.

  He picked up the encrypted phone and issued orders.

  Glancing at the clock, he thought he’d head to the club. He had plenty of time to take advantage of the services of Mistress Tigress before he had to meet with the senator. He was definitely going to fuck her.

  He chuckled. It was his doctor’s orders.

  He was following his doctor’s orders.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Aunt Teagan, I’m hungry,” Anora whined for the thirtieth time that hour, her shoulders dramatically slumping and looking up at her with those big blue puppy eyes.

  “Anora,” Teagan was beyond calling the little girl any term of endearment. The child was pushing her last raw nerve. “Do you remember what I told you less than two minutes ago?”

  “Yes,” the four-year-old mumbled dejectedly. “I should have eaten all my breakfast. This isn’t a restaurant. Lunch will be served at noon like usual.” She looked up at the clock. “How many more minutes until noon?”

  “Two less minutes than the last time you asked.” Teagan stirred the pot of macaroni. She’d become very adept at making mac and cheese, but the noodles would only cook so fast. She hated that yellow shit with fake cheese that came in a box, so she was using the recipe that Elizabeth had shared. Setting the pasta scoop down, she picked up the wooden spoon to stir the thickening mixture of real cheese and whole milk. With her friend’s help, she was getting the hang of this motherhood deal.

  In her next private conversation with Elizabeth, though, she was going to find out the secret to sex. It had been two weeks since her date with Logan and they had only been able to successfully have sex once, and Brann had almost caught them. They needed another fucking date, emphasis on the word fucking.

  Sure, Logan had been around constantly before their amazing date, but now that they’d had sex, she seemed to want it all the time. So did he. Just the other night, as they snuggled on her huge couch under blankets watching a children’s movie, he’d captured her breasts in both hands and had her so worked up she was panting. Brann had asked her if she was okay. Completely embarrassed, she hopped off the couch and retreated to the kitchen where she downed an entire glass of ice water in an attempt to cool off.

  Last week they had waited until the children had fallen asleep…or so they’d thought. Thank God they’d locked the door to her bedroom. Logan had her clit in his mouth, working her perfectly with his tongue and fingers. Just as she was about to come, Brann knocked on the door, asking if she was having a nightmare. She lied to the boy for the first time and told him it was a show on television. It was the truth, though, when she’d added that she’d be sure to keep the volume down from that point on. She was surprised that he didn’t hear her and Logan giggling like teenagers.

  When did parents find time to have sex with children in the house? Maybe it would get easier once the kids went to school, but that was still three weeks away. There was no way in hell she and Logan would find a moment alone together during the next week. They’d have a house full of company.

  The thought of the Saint Clares visiting for a week was both wonderful and terrifying at the same time. The four children played extremely well together, and Teagan was looking forward to spending time with Elizabeth. Matthew had blended seamlessly into their group. Thankfully, Logan seemed to enjoy his company, even though there was a ten-year age difference.

  She and Logan had worked out the logistics for everyon
e. All the children would stay in her side of the duplex and Matthew and Elizabeth would take Logan’s guestroom which had a king size bed and an attached bathroom.

  Teagan opened the refrigerator and grabbed the almost empty gallon of milk to pour some for Anora and Brann. She quickly added milk to her growing grocery list. She would definitely need two more gallons. Scanning her list while stirring the sauce, she made the executive decision to double up on everything.

  Quickly assembling the children’s lunch, she called out, “Brann. Time for lunch.”

  The boy pounded down the stairs and shot to his stool at the breakfast counter. “Aunt Teagan, I can’t find my computer. Did Uncle Logan already take it?”

  “Why would Uncle Logan have it?” Between preparing for company, and in a constantly aroused state every time Logan was around, had she missed something?

  “Unc—” the boy started to talk with a mouthful of food.

  “You know better than that,” Teagan warned.

  Brann chewed and swallowed then chased it with a gulp of milk. “Uncle Matt is bringing me a new hard drive filled with games. I guess Dad’s old hard drive has some work stuff still on it.”

  “Now I remember.” Teagan thought about the flash drives containing the backup copy that were still upstairs in the loft. She probably should have locked them all in the safe in her master bedroom with her gun. Since she’d left the Navy, she’d only considered operational security where it concerned her job. She hadn’t given those drives a second thought after shipping a copy to Matthew. She should probably send them back with him. She had no reason to keep them.

  The phone buzzed in her back pocket. She could only hope it was Logan informing her that he didn’t have to work late that night after all and would be home for supper.