The Baby Bargain

by Jennifer Apodaca

  Adam smiled. “So. Weren’t you just starting your practice last time I saw you?”

  “I’d had it about a year and was still building my clientele. It wasn’t until I took over the care of a champion show dog that the business took off.”

  Adam looked over to the thick quilt he’d brought outside for Ellie. She was resting on her good side, a stuffed gray elephant under one of her paws. When she saw Adam looking at her, she thumped her tail.

  Meg saw him smile in response. When she’d arrived at the house, the dog was following every step Adam made until he’d told her to lie down.

  “You don’t need a show dog to prove you’re good,” Adam said. “You were great with Ellie. She’s already doing better.”

  Megan flushed under his praise. “Thanks. But taking over the care of a champion dog put me on the radar. There’s a lot of overhead in running a vet business. Loans for all the equipment…” She trailed off, embarrassed that she’d revealed so much. She smiled over her discomfort and said, “I love my job. What about you? Tell me about starting your own security agency.”

  Adam collected their finished salads and returned carrying plates heaping with tender tri tip and potatoes and carrots. He also topped off her wine.

  Finally, he sat down and answered. “It was a dream of mine and Trace’s. But I came home, and Trace…didn’t.”

  Megan’s bite of food turned to dust as she realized what he meant. Setting her fork down, she put her hand on his forearm. Felt his bunched muscles. She saw his clenched jaw, yet his eyes stared off into the darkness. “I’m sorry.”

  He turned to look at her.

  Megan sucked in a breath at the sheer agony in his gaze. Raw, undiluted pain darkening his eyes. Then he closed his eyes, opened them, and it was gone. “So I did it for both of us. And his wife, Sienna, works for me. She’s my administrative assistant and general pain in the ass.”

  “You care about her.” She could hear it in his voice.

  “She’s my best friend’s wife. Hell, yeah, I care about her like a brother. I brought her in right at the beginning, and we’re building the agency. We’re hiring a lot of the Marines I worked with as they leave the military. I’m going to build this agency nationwide. Most of the guys are single, free to go anywhere at the drop of a hat.”

  Megan withdrew her hand and picked up her fork. She had to remember why she was here. “So you never found a woman who changed your mind about marriage and kids?” She speared a carrot and ate it, struggling to seem casual. The food was delicious, and eating gave her a way to keep her nerves under control.

  “No.”

  She watched as he cut some meat, his actions as crisp and emotionless as his answer. So no meaning that he never found the right woman, or no he would never accept a child no matter what? She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed it when he spoke.

  “What about you? You always wanted a family. I was surprised you didn’t marry years ago.”

  She had to balance this carefully. “Getting my DVM took all my time. Then I was building my practice, and the right guy just hasn’t come along.” Most likely he never would. At some point, she had made peace with that. She picked up her wine glass and sat back. “I’m happy with my life the way it is now.”

  Adam’s gaze was intense. “That’s not the whole story, is it?”

  Startled, she set her glass down. “What do you mean?”

  “Not wanting to be seen with me. There’s a reason. I’d like to know what it is.”

  His warm fingers wrapped around hers, and his thumb stroked over her skin, creating sensual sparks. Beneath the soft lantern lights, she stared at him. It was impossible to believe he was here. Real. Her stomach tightened. Nerves? Desire? “Is that bad? Do you feel like I’m being secretive?”

  “It makes me want to learn you all over again, Meg. You were always pretty, but now you’re beautiful. Intriguing.” His voice dropped. “Sexy.”

  Shivers raced down her back and hardened her nipples.

  He pushed back his chair. “Come on, I want to show you something.”

  She hesitated. “Shouldn’t we clear the dishes?”

  He stepped up to her. So close, she could feel the heat of him. “Stalling, Meg?”

  “Yes.”

  He laughed. “I want to show you my offices on my laptop. Not drag you to my bedroom and pressure you into sex. I told you, tonight is just for getting reacquainted.”

  “And touching.” She remembered him saying that.

  “And kissing,” he said. “Anywhere you want me to.”

  Tingles shivered over her skin while her belly warmed. It had been so long since anyone had touched her with desire, since anyone had made her feel like more than a mom and a vet…like a woman. “Tempting offer.” She held her breath, her nerves pulling tight.

  He dropped his gaze to her mouth.

  Blood rushed through her and desire pooled between her legs. She wanted him to kiss her, needed it almost as much as she needed her next breath.

  Then Adam stepped back and pulled his phone out of his pants pocket. “All I do is text the caterer, and they come and pick up all this. Food, dishes, tablecloth, lanterns. It’s a package deal.”

  Finished, he put the phone away and tugged on her hand. “Come on, Ellie,” he called and waited for the dog to get up. She limped in with them.

  …

  Adam looked over Megan’s shoulder as she clicked through the pictures of Once A Marine Security Agency photos. Unable to resist, his gaze drifted down to the soft swell of her breasts. When she leaned forward, her filmy green shirt bunched, revealing her cleavage.

  The need to touch her grew with every breath. He wanted to trace her with his fingers and lips, hear her soft moans and taste the chocolate and strawberry flavor of her mouth.

  She was quickly becoming an obsession. A need so raw, it tested his formidable control. Adam always stayed in control of himself. He had meant what he’d told her in her office, no sex tonight. For him. But bringing her pleasure? Yeah…he could so justify that.

  “How many people do you have working for you now?”

  Trying to cool his thoughts, he reached past her and snagged a chocolate-dipped strawberry. “Sienna is full time. We contract out work with five other ex-Marines on a regular basis, and a few others as needed. The goal is to get enough work to hire the five as full-time employees with benefit packages.” He took a bite of the fruit. Good, but not what he craved.

  “Are you close to that?”

  He was close to scooping her up and spreading her out on the table. Forcing himself to focus on her question, he said, “The sale of the house will give me the cushion I need to do that, along with a solid reserve fund.” He had half his money invested in the business, the other half secured for contingencies. If anything happened to one of his agents or Sienna, their loved ones would be taken care of.

  Megan turned back to the pictures. “It’s an impressive suite and very professional operation.” She glanced back to him. “Why Los Angeles as your base?”

  “Trace and I discussed that a lot. Easier to break in there with a lot of need for security and protection. It’s important to be seen, and I’ve snagged some very high-profile clients.”

  She studied him. “You love this, don’t you?”

  “I like using the skills I honed in the military to protect or solve problems for clients.” He stood with one hand on the back of the chair she sat in and the other on the dining room table. “I like the freedom of being able to do whatever needs to be done. No red tape to navigate, no hoops to jump through, nothing to tie my hands.”

  She looked around the dining room and the living room, filled with the stacks of boxes of his parents’ stuff. “Ties, like this house.”

  “Yes.” He stood up, his neck tensing as the echoes of guilt and pain etched into the soul of the house weighed down on him. Everything in Raven’s Cove was a part of that dark shroud of misery that colored his years after the accid
ent. “This house, this town, it’s all a tie to a past I want to forget.” The constant guilt and recriminations heaped on him because of his failure.

  “Can you just forget? Is it really that simple?”

  He dropped his gaze to her face. Down the lines of her throat, over that shirt to her jeans. “Not you. The rest, yeah. But you…” He shut his laptop. Then reached down, lifted Megan, and swung her up from the chair to sit on the table. “You’re the one thing in this town that I need to taste again.” Kicking the chair out of his way, he wedged his hips between her thighs and ran his palms up her bare arms.

  He felt the goose bumps rise on her skin, saw the flush spread over her face and chest. He affected her as much as she did him. He lowered his head and drew his lips over hers. Then he caught her bottom lip and sucked gently. Tasted strawberries, dark chocolate, and pure Meg.

  The leash he’d kept on his raging lust snapped. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into his erection. He sank his other hand into her silky hair, tugging her head back and invading her mouth. Deep and possessive, he wanted all of her, as much as he could have.

  She dug her fingers into his biceps and kissed him back. The sweet, somewhat timid girl he remembered? Vanished. This woman invaded him with the same fierce passion. Her hands slid around him, snaking beneath his shirt to knead his back.

  More. It wasn’t enough.

  Adam broke the kiss, every cell in his body aching, needing. Wanting. She’d never been this fiery, this responsive. Oh, she’d been hot in that girl-next-door way. But this?

  The woman of his most erotic dreams. She touched him like she couldn’t get enough. He began working the buttons on her shirt, the filmy material slowly parting. Revealing more, and then more, until he pushed it off her shoulders. Leaving her in a tiny, light green bra.

  Blood roared in his ears and his arousal strained against his pants. But this was not about him. No, tonight was all about Megan. She was fuller than he remembered, spilling over the cups just enough to drive him crazy. Molding his hands to her flesh, he felt the silky coolness of her bra against the heat of her skin. He brushed his thumbs over her nipples through the material.

  She tightened her thighs around his hips in response.

  It finally got through to his overheated brain that she was tugging on his shirt, trying to get it off.

  Adam reached back, grabbed a handful of material and pulled it off. Tossed it…somewhere. Didn’t know, didn’t care, his attention was on her.

  “Meg.”

  “Adam.”

  He pushed her back until she rested on her elbows. Her hair spread out on the dark table like rivers of red and gold. She stared at him, her mouth slightly parted, her breath coming fast.

  She was so damned beautiful it made his chest ache. He never wanted Meg to know what he truly was. The child his parents hated, and how much that hatred drove him to prove how worthy he was.

  She’d thought he was a patriot. Out saving the world.

  Jesus, he’d never let her find out what was out there, the human monsters that did unspeakable things to one another. Meg needed to be exactly where she was, in this quaint town, saving her animals and being…

  Meg.

  He couldn’t have her forever, was too fucked up to have any woman or family in his life. But for this short time? It was a gift, and he’d walk away, knowing he’d treated her right. Given her the only good thing left in him, the ability to bring her pleasure.

  “Let me give you this.” He pushed her back and caged her on the table with his arms. Then he kissed her.

  Chapter Six

  Megan was on sensory overload. Adam surrounded her, his hard chest and taut stomach pressing against her, showing her his strength.

  His mouth, oh God he tasted of dark chocolate and a flavor so erotic, it made her frantic. Dimly, she remembered the no-sex promise. As she ran her hands over his back, all that warm, rugged skin, her fingers tripping over ridges of muscles and catching on old scars, she was glad he’d forgotten it. Trailing down over his belt to feel his tight butt in his jeans, she admitted the truth to herself.

  She needed this. Wanted him. And just for this short while, she gave herself over to it.

  His thick arousal pressed through their jeans. He slid down, his hardness leaving her hot center. His mouth trailed over her jaw, into the curve of her neck. His tongue hot and wet. Shivers danced over her skin. Then he rose, hovering a few inches over her. Cool air rushed in and she squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers digging into his waist, trying to bring him back.

  She wasn’t ready for this to end. Not yet. “Adam.” She forced her eyes open, looked down at him.

  The intensity of his stare, the harsh need pulled his face tight. “Let me. I need to taste you. This…” He leaned on one arm, drew his other hand over her bare shoulder, trailing over her skin with wicked heat, to the front clasp of her bra. He popped it open and drew the material apart. He cupped one breast, sliding the pad of his thumb over her nipple. Hot sensations shot through her, making her arch.

  He made a sound deep in his throat and bent over her, drawing her other nipple into the wet heat of his mouth. He tugged and rolled one, sucked the other. The dual sensations rose, higher and sharper, making her moan. Her belly tightened with need. The ache between her thighs bloomed. She couldn’t take any more.

  “This I can give you,” he said. “I want to give you pleasure, Meg.”

  His voice was thick, rough, sexy. The tight skin over his cheekbones had darkened with color. He drew his hands down her stomach, his gaze hot on her skin.

  Megan’s stomach clenched with a flare of worry. Did he see her stretch marks? They were thin, silvery, hard to see against her pale skin. But what if—

  His hands caught the clasp on her jeans. Unbuttoned. Unzipped. Pulled them down her legs. In a swift motion, he slipped off her shoes and her pants. Then he was back, pressing his hips between her legs. He sucked in a breath, his chest expanding. “Damn, Meg. So pretty.” He drew one finger along the top edge of her matching green panties, following the line from one hipbone to the other, then over the material to touch her intimately through the cotton.

  His jaw flexed and his throat worked as he visually drank her in.

  Megan felt a wave of desire and power rush her. It burned the backs of her eyes to see this man, so hard, so strong, a man who walked into danger over and over for his country, who had suffered for his country, to see him look at her this way. The heat, the need, it shattered her ability to think of anything but Adam.

  He slipped his hand deeper, cupping her through her panties, touching and stroking as she swelled and throbbed in response. He leaned over her, drawing his tongue up her stomach to capture one aching nipple as he slid a finger beneath her panties and deep inside her. She cried out, wrapping her arms around his head, holding him to her as he touched and stroked her. Then he kissed back down her belly and kept going.

  She couldn’t catch her breath. Her nipples were so sensitive even the air made her shiver. Deep in her belly, tension pulled tighter and tighter. He gave her no respite.

  Gently, he nipped at her hip with his teeth, then soothed the sting with his tongue. She clenched her thighs around him. He caught her legs, pressing them wider, and settled to his knees, staring at her panties. Raising his eyes to meet hers, his face flushed deeper. “That is the sweetest sight. Your panties are damp, clinging to you.”

  Blood roared in her ears. This was…more. Something was happening.

  He kissed her through her panties, dragged his tongue over her and pressed the damp cotton into her. Megan thumped her head back, her entire body rising. Not enough, there was never enough of him.

  One of his hands caught her hip, holding her to him. Another hand swept aside her panties and then he was there, kissing her, as if he were drinking her in. She shattered, erupting with hot waves of pleasure. Everything was gone but what Adam was giving her. He stayed with her, pushing her higher, then bringing her down w
ith soft kisses and sending her flying apart again until she finally calmed enough to realize he was settling her panties back into place. He loomed over her, caging her again as kissed her.

  She slipped her hands down his back, trying to get between them to touch him. She could feel his arousal against her. He pulled her hands up and held them tucked between their chests. Before she could open her mouth to protest, he said, “Know why I left your panties on?”

  She shook her head, unable to understand where he was going with this. She knew he wanted her. Oh, not forever, not for a lifetime, but for sex.

  “If I’d taken them off, if I’d…” He ground his jaw for a few seconds. “Tonight is for you, Megan. I can’t give you commitment, I’m not that man.” Agony flickered in his eyes. “I can’t be that man. Ever. But I can give you pleasure. Trust me for that.”

  In that moment, when his barriers were down, she saw Adam. And what she saw broke her heart.

  …

  “How did the big date go?” Sienna Lorey’s image stared at him from his laptop screen.

  They often worked together via Skype when Adam traveled. Right now, he avoided his assistant’s nosy gaze by focusing on the electronic copy of the country club blueprints. He had walked the entire golf course, buildings, outbuildings, memorizing every detail. “Where are the blueprints of the hotel?”

  “I’m getting them. The first copy wasn’t updated with their latest remodel, so I called and they’re sending over their most current blueprint. Now stop avoiding my question.”

  He shifted his gaze from his iPad to his laptop screen. Sienna had her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore workout clothes. She was working from home, rather than the office in L.A. today. Her glasses hid the worst of her dark circles, but he wasn’t fooled. He hated her exhaustion.

  “Rough night?” Damn, he worried about her. Was doing work with all of the guys, all Trace’s friends, keeping her from healing? Keeping her stuck in grief?

  “Get that look off your face, boss. I’m fine. You’re the one tangling with your past right now.”

  He leaned back in the chair and ran his hand over his face, glanced at the dining room table he was currently using as a desk.