by Brenna Zinn
Table of Contents
Dagger’s Edge
Copyright
Trademarks Acknowledgement
Dedication
PRAISE FOR AUTHOR
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
About the Author
Also Available
Thank you for purchasing this Wild Rose Press, Inc. publication.
Dagger’s Edge
by
Brenna Zinn
SEALs On Fire Series
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Dagger’s Edge
COPYRIGHT © 2012 by Brenna Zinn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contact Information: [email protected]
Cover Art by Diana Carlile
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
PO Box 708
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708
Visit us at www.thewilderroses.com
Publishing History
First Scarlet Rose Edition, January 2013
Digital ISBN 978-1-61217-777-9
Published in the United States of America
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author of this work of fiction
acknowledges the following trademarks:
Corvette: General Motors LLC
Popsicle: Conopco, Inc.
Captain America: Marvel Characters, Inc.
Dedication
To the women and men of the armed forces.
I cannot thank you all enough for keeping me,
my family, and our country safe.
PRAISE FOR AUTHOR
Brenna Zinn
AND HER BOOKS
“This sexy, short story had me on the edge of my seat from the start.”
~Aster, Whipped Cream Review
“Readers beware…your fingers may get blisters.”
~Jacquelyn R. Ward, The Romance Studio
“The sex is blistering hot, low-down and dirty…”
~Cocktail Reviews
Chapter One
Dean Gregory, code name Dagger, only had himself to blame for being back on Key West, even though he’d sworn he wouldn’t come back unless the military sent him. His last visit to the island had shaken him to the core and the memories still haunted him. But his pride had once again stomped on his common sense, leaving said common sense little more than a whimpering pile of pulp at the back of his skull.
The moment his buddies had doubted his friendship with Brice Benson, Hollywood’s current “it” actor, Dagger’s pride had flipped the switch in his head from cool and collected to just plain stupid. Right then and there in the middle of the barrack mess hall, he had called Brice and put the two-time Oscar nominee on speaker phone for everyone to hear.
Reflecting upon his act of extreme idiocy, Dagger tightened his grip on the steering wheel of his friend’s cherry red 1957 Corvette convertible as he turned onto Truman Avenue, Key West’s main drag. Of course, Brice had offered his mansion on the island to a bunch of Navy SEALs looking for a place to blow off some steam for a few days. The man was nothing if not a chest-thumping, dyed in the wool American who loved the military.
“Take my house, guys. I’ll be in Spain for two weeks, so the place will be sitting empty. There’s plenty of room, plus the boat, the jet skies, and the cars. Have at it guys.” Dagger swung his arm in front of his chest imitating a boy scout’s atta-boy as he finished mimicking Brice’s enthusiastic invitation.
Had that been the end of his conversation with Brice, things still would have been fine. He and six of his SEAL buds could hit the island, relax, and maybe find some hot local girls to curl up next to at night. Most importantly, he’d have some down time to contemplate his future and make some important decisions about his life. But when he had taken his best friend off speaker for a personal chat, Brice had dropped the bomb.
“Check in on Mia, Dagger. She’s still working at Butch’s marina and living alone in our parents’ house on the island. I’m sure she’s fine, but I can’t help worry about her.”
Brice’s request, simple as it may have sounded, had twisted Dagger’s belly into a dozen knots. Not out of concern for Mia Benson. Oh, hell no. That annoying little brainiac was too smart to get into any trouble, or at least get caught. Most likely her job at the marina was a covert cover for her real plans to somehow take over the entire island and make it her personal kingdom. Soon everyone on Key West would be shouting, “Hail, Mia” at the top of their lungs.
No. Seeing Mia again was a bad idea for very personal reasons.
Three years ago when he’d last seen her in the Keys, he damn near got blue balls for wanting her so badly. Luckily, she’d opened her sensual, though incredibly exasperating mouth. Sure, he could have easily stopped her provoking comments by kissing her. But, there were lines between him and Brice, invisible and unspoken lines, he wouldn’t cross.
Having an all night sex-a-thon and doing it in every room in the house as well as the car and the back yard with his best friend’s sister was definitely one of those lines. When the line was crossed, it could never be uncrossed. The deed would be done. Brice’s friendship meant far too much to jeopardize for a chance to tap Mia’s ass, no matter how cotton candy sweet it looked in a pair of jeans.
You keep telling yourself and the world that Brice is what’s keeping you from Mia. Eventually even you’ll start to believe that whopper of a lie.
Unfortunately, after knowing the red-headed know-it-all for twenty years, the pot simmering with both aggravation and craving for her was coming to a boil. The things he wanted to do to her, the things that kept him up at night, were enough to make him insane. If he didn’t end up wringing her neck from pure irritation from just talking to her, he’d have her over his shoulder and on their way to her bedroom for the lay of the century. Because that was what their fuckfest would be. Something for the history books. And once he started with her, he wouldn’t allow himself to stop until she was out of his system for good. He couldn’t continue living with her constantly invading his thoughts, his desires. He was a SEAL, damn it. He had to focus on his missions and protecting his buddies, not to mention his own hide.
Dagger parked the Vette alongside the white picket fence framing the front yard of the Benson’s conch house. The old two story home, a combination of Victorian and Bahamian style architectures, had been built by someone in the Benson family over a hundred years ago and had stayed in the family since. Though the home was ancient, the paint job wasn’t. The last time he’d been here, the house had been a bright yellow. Now a light blue with bright white gingerbread trim, the place had never looked better.
The sound of music drifted out from somewhere inside the house as soon as Dagger killed the engine. Strolling up the steps to the covered veranda, he felt the twangy beats of some country song vibrating over his skin. He knocked on the door several times, knowing good and well no one inside could possibly hear his arrival over the din, then let himself in.
Having vacationed with Brice and Brice’s family in Key West every summer from the time he entered junior high until Dagger joined the Navy, there weren’t too many nooks or crannies in this house he didn’t know as
well his own home in Wisconsin. Finding Mia would be easy. Since all the French doors to the back porch and pool were wide open, he decided start his search in the back.
The sooner I’ve said hello, the sooner I can say good-bye. Then we’ll both be safe from each other. “I’ll find Coyote or Jonesin’ and we can check out this year’s crop of beach bunnies. Lord knows we can all use a good time after our last mission.” He nodded while he thought through his pep talk. “Then I’ve got to figure out what I’m doing with the rest of my life. I promised the Master Chief I’d have an answer about my reenlistment when I get back. I’ve put the decision off for too long already.”
Surrounded by mature palm trees and shrubbery, the expansive backyard completely shut out the rest of the island while providing pockets of shade, keeping the pool and anyone lounging nearby cool. At the end of the pool, he spotted Mia reclining in the shallow sun deck. God help him, the siren with sparks flying from her long copper hair didn’t have on a stitch of clothing other than a pair of large sunglasses.
Dagger stood frozen, unable to avert his gaze or move his feet. The scene before him, Mia leaning back on her elbows, her full breasts heaved out as if tempting the sun to touch them, could have been from one of his dreams. Further down, the shimmering water provided a shifting and fragmented view of dark auburn curls. She looked like a sexy mermaid whose tail had morphed into curvy legs and feet.
A bone chilling shiver quaked from his shoulders down his back as horror battled with desire. Mia was taboo. Forbidden fruit he shouldn’t even consider.
What are you doing? She’s Brice’s little sister.
Yah, like you haven’t told yourself that before.
But she certainly wasn’t little anymore. Only two years younger, she was now twenty-seven and looked every inch a woman. Long, tanned legs, flat stomach, and tits that would more than fill his large hands, the pretty girl he’d known and avoided like the plague had certainly grown up. Seeing her there, so fucking beautiful and so fucking enticing, charged his batteries and had his cock as hard as a battering ram.
Damn it, man. She’s Brice’s sister! Get the fuck out of here. Pronto.
Attempting to slip back inside the house without alerting her to his presence, Dagger slid back one foot and then another without turning around. When he thought he’d reached the French doors, he turned on his heel and slammed into a huge potted fern sitting on a metal stand. His breath caught as the plant stand shifted precariously onto one of its three legs. As though time had suddenly altered to slow motion, Dagger watched helplessly while the weight of the fern succumbed to gravity. It fell and shattered with one ear-piercing crash, sending pieces of fern and white glazed pottery across the pristine porch.
Dagger swore under his breath and looked back to the pool. Mia remained where she lay, though her sunglasses now topped her head like a sun goddesses’ crown. She picked up a remote control and pressed a button. The loud country music immediately silenced.
“I thought you SEALs are supposed to be quiet like ninjas.” She tilted her head toward him and raised her hand to her forehead, shielding her eyes. “Did you miss class the day they taught everyone how to be stealthy? Or did your commanders just take pity and pass you because they know you have the IQ of a squirrel?”
Her verbal jab landed a direct hit exactly where she had to know it would hurt him most. His pride. Her favorite target. Since her freshman year in high school when she had attended some of the same classes he did due to her above-average intelligence, she’d used her superior smarts to dog him whenever she could. Negotiating with a troop of Al Qaeda terrorists was easier than trying to carry on a conversation with her. The woman was clever. Much too clever for the likes of him.
Dagger took in a lungful of air and placed his mouth on safety while recanting the mantra learned in training. I am not letting this evolution get the best of me.
“Hello to you, too, Mia.” Though he tried to prevent it, he couldn’t keep sarcasm from slipping into this voice. Nor could he stop looking at her amazing breasts. “Nice to see you.” Truer words had never passed his lips. The little she-devil looked damned amazing.
She stood and tendrils of wet red hair fell over her shoulders. Water danced down her bronzed skin, seeping into intimate crevices he wished he could lick dry, then make moist all over again.
He mentally shook his head. You’re here as a favor to Brice. Get your head on straight. Find out how she’s doing, then leave her just the way you found her—untouched—at least by you.
“Nice to see me, too?” Mia stepped out of the pool. Her hips rocked like a boat on gentle waves as she sauntered to the house. “Do you like what you see, Dean?”
Dean. When was the last time someone had actually called him by his real name? Dagger had used his code name in the military for so long, he’d almost forgotten he had another name. Another life.
Refusing to bite her bait, Dagger focused his attention on the dirt and pottery spewed across the porch. “I made a mess over here. Why don’t you throw on a towel or something and get me a trash bag? I need to clean this up.” He lowered to one knee and picked several pieces of pot shards. Anything to avert his hungry stare from the luscious buffet of her body and hide the hard-on pressing against his shorts.
Two bare feet connected to perfectly shaped calves appeared in his peripheral view. Knowing all too well a triangle of delicious goodness hovered only inches from his face if he lifted his head, Dagger trained his gaze to the floor. “Seriously, Mia. Don’t you have a robe or something?”
“I thought Navy SEALs were tough and not afraid of anything.” She squatted, placing her mouth next to his ear. “Are you sure you’re really a SEAL? You seem awfully chicken to me.”
Dagger’s back muscles tightened and his pulse quickened. Both clear signs his involuntary defense mechanism had kicked into gear. Fight or flee. Kill or be killed. Luckily his military conditioning, which was as much a part of him as breathing, overrode the powerful urge to strike back, or worse, to lie her flat on her back and taste every inch of her.
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you need to stop.” His lowered voice sounded exactly as he’d intended, intimidating and full of deadly warning. He’d been in enough bar room verbal scuffles to know just how effective his tone could be.
“I think you do know what I’m doing and I won’t stop. I refuse to let you ignore me anymore.”
Moving faster, he continued to pluck up broken ceramic and fern pieces and arrange them into a neat pile. “Ignore you? What are you talking about?” he asked, feigning ignorance. If she hit on him any harder, she’d knock him unconscious. “I could be fishing with my buddies or driving around the Atlantic on jet skis while I’m on leave. Instead, I’m here to see you.”
“Don’t act as if you don’t understand. You know damned well I’m telling the truth. Since we were kids, you’ve purposely pushed me aside and never gave me the time of day. In high school, you went out of your way to pretend I didn’t exist, even though you sat only three desks behind me. The last time you were here, you avoided me like I had some rare disease. But we’re all alone this time, Dean.” She breathed in to his ear. “Just you and me. No way you can overlook me today.”
He chanced a glance up, finding her intense green eyes, then immediately regretted taking his focus off the downed plant. Lust, longing, and something else lurked behind those emerald jewels. If he didn’t do something to get away from her and make it fast his secret reasons for not getting involved with any woman wouldn’t be enough to stop him from finally kissing her pert mouth and testing the firmness of her round breasts.
Dagger stood, then pulled a beach towel from the back of a whicker chair. “Here,” he grunted, tossing it back in her general direction. “If we’re going to have a friendly chat, which we are and nothing else, then you can at least look decent.”
Her audible and thoroughly peeved huff provided a small degree of satisfaction.
Score one for t
he SEAL.
While Mia covered herself, Dagger rooted around in the kitchen and found a beer. Drinking one of his two allowed alcoholic beverages per day here, instead of on the beach or out with his friends, grated his nerves. But things were going from bad to worse by the second. He had anticipated resisting the urge to bed her during this social call, but he hadn’t expected needing to fight her off. Doing so felt unnatural, like walking backward. And looking as fine as she did, Mia certainly didn’t fight fair.
Sucking down a cold one now and seeing her with something on would at least take the edge off his spiking libido. He opened a second beer and set it on the counter, steering clear of any scolding she’d probably hit him with about his manners.
She padded into the room, the towel wrapped tightly around her petite frame as though it were a cocoon. On an adorable scale, Mia’s pouty lips and tousled appearance would easily merit a rating of eight. No doubt she’d hit a score of nine or ten after a night of sex, when her hair would be disheveled and her mouth would be slightly swollen from a good dose of kissing.
Cut the shit, man. Take another drink and get those thoughts out of your mind.
Before she had a chance to throw any more accusations at him, he advanced with a preemptive strike. “You’re right about what you said out there, Mia, and I’m sorry about the way I’ve treated you. But the last thing two young guys want is to hang around a little sister.” Her mouth opened as if to rebut his comment, but he held up a finger to stop her and pushed on. “When we grew up, and I’m just being honest here, you seemed to go out of your way to say something specifically meant to piss me off.”
Not to mention you are the hottest, smartest girl I’ve ever known and I would have given my right nut to have dated you if I wasn’t so afraid of hurting you. Oh, and let’s not forget that you’re so damned sassy.
