Code Name: Kayla's Fire

by Natasza Waters

  “Like what? Say it.”

  “I never expected for you to feel anything but dislike for me. You have this unbreakable aura, as if daring anyone to get too close, and you’d shred them to pieces, and that included me.” As she turned the knob, the stove lit with a pop. “The last thing I expected was a future that included you and me.”

  “Fair enough. Tomorrow we find out who Daniel’s doctor is, and if he’ll share anything with you. Secondly, you’re going to file for divorce. Daniel’s signing those papers.”

  “Thane,” she said clearly exasperated. “I don’t want to agitate him.”

  “The barrel of my sig to his nutcracker is going to be pretty persuasive.”

  “Why is this so important to you?”

  “You ask the oddest questions sometimes.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Kayla tossed and turned all night, unable to get comfortable, and their son didn’t help. At three o’clock Thane rolled onto his side and gently rubbed her stomach.

  “I’m going to sleep in the other room. I’m keeping you awake.”

  Thane kissed her cheek. “SEALs don’t need sleep,” he said with a soothing grumble.

  She gave him a quick hug. “Yes, you do.” When she sat up, he grasped her hips.

  “Kayla, I can’t sleep without you next to me.”

  “Yes, you can. Just count SEALs jumping over tall buildings or something. I’m going to go make some herbal tea, and try to settle him down. Your little SEAL pup is flapping around like he’s out of water.”

  Thane chuckled, and placed a long kiss on her shoulder, grasping her breast with a warm gentle hand. “I don’t think I told you how much I love you yet today,” he said, biting the pulse in her neck.

  “That’s because it’s only three hours into today. Go to sleep.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” and pulled her back down with him, lazily swirling her breast with his tongue.

  A tremor rippled through her, and he chuckled. “You’ve been pretty preoccupied with those lately.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Switching to the other breast, little lightning strikes sparked between her thighs. “I don’t think I’ve seen a more gorgeous set.”

  Laving the tender point into his mouth, he rolled it with just enough pressure to make her thighs wet. “I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of…sets.”

  “Uh-huh.” His gaze wandered up her neck and set on her eyes. “True, but only yours make me hard just looking at them.” Thane’s finger stroked a crooked trail across her hip, and lower belly, sliding between her legs. “God, I love you’re so wet for me.”

  “This isn’t sleeping, Captain,” she admonished, but couldn’t keep the grin or the little moan from leaving her mouth.

  “No, it’s called distraction.” His thumb drew small circles where she wanted most, and then with a slow, gentle plunge entered her channel. “Did I ever tell you you’re perfect down here too?”

  A sigh of pleasure made her sink into the pillow.

  Coaxing her into position, their legs twined together, he entered her from behind with a groan. Gentle strokes filled her, and her body accepted him, wanting him deeper. His fingers twirled around her sensitive point. Lowering his hips, he seated himself, his balls brushing against her sensitive skin. With every plunge, a little cry escaped her.

  Soothing, firm hands pulled her hips up. Settled on her knees, he slid between her legs and licked the length of her heat, ending with a flutter, and a long sucking kiss that almost had her exploding in his mouth. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life giving you pleasure.” His tongue swiped the knot of sensitive flesh. With practiced fingers, he rubbed her sex until the tingle reached her toes. “I’ll never stop wanting you.”

  Kneeling behind her, he ran a slow, warm hand up her back, and then down to round her bottom, and plunged two fingers into her core. “Oh, God, please don’t stop.” When his shaft massaged her sex she left the earth, and he buried himself, lifting her onto his lap, seating himself all the way in. Her muscles clutched at him, and his pleasure escaped with a string of heated words. With a slow, deliberate cadence, she rode him, and another string of words, far dirtier left his mouth.

  Thane kissed and bit her shoulder as she worked her hips, clenching his hardness. He stilled her, and pushed her forward, swaying his hips, pulling his length out, and owning her with every stroke. His thickness massaged the tender points inside her, drawing out every sweet plunge, almost toppling over the edge and reigning each other back to make it last.

  Thane’s arms engulfed her, making her feel tiny as he rolled her onto her back. Tender hands wandered, and his mouth followed with wet kisses. Grasping his shaft, he circled her channel, her back arched, wanting his thickness to claim her.

  “Ah baby, it feels so good when I’m inside you.” His crown spread her opening, nudging her closer to a place that had her clawing with need. “Oh Fuck,” his voice rumbled like thunder as he thrust inside her, their thighs slick with her wetness.

  Thane’s scent filled her, his body hard with taut muscle, demanded her submission. When his thumb slid across her flesh, she was lost, and her orgasm rushed through her body voicing itself with a loud gasp of pleasure.

  Together they slipped into a luxurious place. Thane curled her in his arms. “Still want that tea?” he chuckled.

  “You just think you’re so damn smart.”

  Thane’s palm rested against her belly. “He just needed to be rocked to sleep.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I love you, Snow White. My forever girl.” Thane drifted off, and she wasn’t far behind.

  * * * *

  She dropped the phone on the patio table and turned when Thane stuck his head around the corner of the door. “That was a short run?” she said, seeing his torso glistening.

  “Didn’t want to get too far away. What did you find out?”

  She pointed at the other chair. “Dr. Belton was Daniel’s therapist in prison.”

  “You found him.” Thane pulled the seat out. His unease showed in the tensing of his masculine form.

  “Dr. Belton said he was wondering when I would call.” Thane waited patiently, but his steely gaze hardened. “Daniel is considered cured. His doctor told me Daniel’s therapy had been consistent and had good results. By the time he left prison he’d resolved most of his issues and had learned to control his anger. He said when he’d first met Daniel he had one of the worst cases he’d ever seen, but over time they found a healthy way to deal with it.” She blew a loud breath out and scanned the trees in the back yard. When Thane remained silent, she put her focus back on him. “What?”

  Thane’s expression grew even more severe. “Does that earn him another chance?”

  “Captain Austen, your green-eyed monster is showing again. Seriously Thane, a princess compared to me. Who should be in doubt here?”

  “Definitely him,” Daniel said rounding the corner.

  “What part of ‘stay away’ didn’t you understand?” Thane vaulted to his feet.

  Daniel thrust his hands in the air. “Easy, SEAL. I told you I’m not leaving.”

  She rolled her eyes when both of them went toe–to-toe. For some reason, she wasn’t as concerned this morning, even though they reminded her of two vicious dogs barking and snapping at each other.

  If the doctor told her the truth, and she’d left most of the conversation unsaid to Thane, Daniel’s therapy had centered on her. The doctor said his anger and control issues had been the source of his incapability to act in a healthy manner. He believed Daniel was a good man through and through, but had to learn violence and love did not belong together. Daniel had come from an abusive home, and he’d learned what his environment had taught him.

  “I’m making breakfast,” she said, stopping Thane’s tirade in midstream.

  “If you’re cooking, I’m eating,” Daniel said, and stepped away from Thane watching for an aggressive movement. He followed her inside and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re bea
utiful this morning, Angel.”

  “Daniel,” she turned on him. “You can’t kiss me, okay.”

  Daniel raised a brow at Thane, who was humming with anger in the doorway.

  “You can stay, and you can help find this monster who’s been slaughtering women, but we are not a couple any more. If you don’t like it, you can leave.” She watched his expression slide into boyish charm. He had a wicked little smile, and he only used it on her.

  “Can I hug you?”

  “Daniel,” she groaned.

  Daniel turned a not-so-friendly look on the Captain. “I mean look at the guy, he’s probably been a player all his life. You think he’s going to be faithful? He’s one of those friggin’ SEALs.”

  She bit down on that one. What happened with Zara was forced, not consensual. “I happen to work for those friggin’ SEALs, Daniel, and they are all honorable men.”

  “I was never unfaithful to you. These guys screw anything in arm’s reach. I bet the boyfriend here hasn’t even asked you to marry him. You’re carrying his child, and my guess is, he’s going to be turning his eye to some babe the first chance he gets.”

  She swallowed uncomfortably. Daniel’s uncanny ability to read a situation with little knowledge revealed had her insecurities pawing at the gate.

  Thane’s eyes narrowed to angry slits, his temper coiling like smoke. “Keep talking, asshole.”

  “Well, has he?” Daniel asked, cocking his head at her. “The answer’s no, isn’t it, because if he did, he would have known we weren’t divorced and you’re still my wife.”

  She ignored him and opened the cabinets to pull out some staples for pancakes. With an easy heave, Daniel seated himself on the counter. His muscular legs draped down the panel, his broad shoulders stretching the tight tee he wore this morning. His confidence had cemented, his experiences made him whole, and sure of himself. Dark, silky hair fell to just below his ears and framed his angular jaw. He never failed to remove her clothes with the look he gave her. “Stop looking at me like that.”

  “Sorry, Angel, but I was just remembering when I first saw you,” he said, falling into a conversational tone and directing it more at Thane, like he was an outsider who’d just dropped in. “She’d been brought in to give us a course in tactical communications from MARPACOPS. Only eighteen, if I remember correctly. She walked into the classroom, obviously nervous, but trying her damndest to hide it. I’m sure she thought a bunch like us was going to give her a bad time.” A slow grin grew on Daniel’s face. “Man, I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was absolutely stunning, all contrast—her dark hair and eyes, and her delicious curves. I knew right then this woman was going to be my wife.”

  “Romantic,” Thane said out the side of his mouth.

  “She kept me waiting for two months before agreeing to go out on a date with me, eh, Angel?” He palmed the edge of the counter, and tilted his chin. “She wouldn’t even let me kiss her good night, but I wanted to in the worst way, but we made up for it after we were married, didn’t we, baby?” Setting a bowl on the counter, Daniel stole the moment to pull a wisp of hair from her cheek. “Course at the time I didn’t know what had happened to her as a little girl. She was special, I knew that, and I was patient, but I knew she was going to be mine.”

  “I’ll tell you what I saw,” Thane said with an edge to his voice. “I saw a woman, hiding inside another woman. One who had secrets so deep and horrible she couldn’t live the way she should have been living. It’s because the man she married beat her regularly, and then in the end, scarred her so deeply I never thought I would be able to find that real woman.”

  Daniel’s smile disintegrated.

  “Okay, enough,” she ordered.

  “No, it’s not okay. It will never…be…okay, Kayla. He can walk down memory lane all he wants.” Thane was behind her now, and with a quick hand, her shirt tore open, exposing her back. “This is what you did. This,” he shouted and swung her around. “Is what you did to your wife.”

  Daniel paled, and his eyes shot to the floor.

  Thane gently pulled her aside, and stood in front of Daniel, tilting his head to catch his gaze. “Look at me, you son of a bitch. How could you do that to her, even in anger? She’s frustrated the hell out of me more than once, that’s for sure, but I have never laid a hand on her except to love her. No matter how many men I’ve killed, no matter how much violence and blood has covered these hands, I could never do what you did. And if I ever did, I would walk away from her forever, because I wouldn’t deserve to have her, and neither do you.” Daniel’s chest heaved with a huge intake of breath, meeting Thane’s gaze. “Kayla is not your possession. You have no choice but to let her go. Kayla is going to grow old with me, not you. Do you understand that?”

  Daniel’s eyes darted between them. “Kayla, honey—”

  “Thane, no!” The strike was lightning fast and powerful, sending Daniel backwards over the edge of the counter. She rushed to stand over top of him as he shook his head and pushed himself up. He took deep breathes and raised a hand to the red mark on his jaw. Ice cold fear stiffened her. If they started to fight, they wouldn’t stop. She waited for the explosion.

  Giving his neck a twist, he straightened a look on Thane. “You get one, Captain. Next time…”

  “Next time, I’ll break your fuckin’ neck, Canuck, and bury you in the dust.” Thane reached for her hand. “We’re going out for breakfast.”

  “Why did you do that?” she stormed at him as he pulled her out the door. She snagged a sweater from the hook, and threw it around her shoulders. “Daniel didn’t….”

  “Get in the car.”

  She slid into the seat with his help. Then he drove the car like hell was behind them.

  “When are you going to stop acting like such an asshat?”

  “When he stops putting the moves on my…on…” Thane slammed on the brakes sending the car, and them, to an abrupt stop. “For the love of God, woman, put me out of my misery.”

  She gaped at him, because she didn’t have a clue.

  “Kayla Katarina Banks, will you marry me?”

  Had she heard right? “You’re asking me to marry you, angry past reason, stopped in the middle of the highway after slamming my husband ass over tea kettle?”

  “Ex-husband. Yes.”

  “No.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Why not?” he looked dumbfounded.

  “That’s not a proposal.”

  “It was, ah, frig-it.” He banged his head against the car seat. “Kayla, I take it back.”

  “You can’t.”

  “I just did.”

  “Sorry.”

  “You love irritating the hell out of me, don’t you?”

  She paused for effect. “Yup.”

  He leaned over and wrapped a hand around her shoulder, drawing her to him. A wicked glint shone in his eyes. “I got you figured out, Angel.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “What the hell is that?” she said, stopping on the sidewalk. A few locals wandered the streets of a quaint town twenty miles from the ranch. One old man stopped to stare at them as she tried to dig her heels into the cement.

  “Come on, sweetheart.”

  “No friggin’ way am I going in there.” With legs straightened, Thane almost melted the rubber on her heels, still able to push her toward the storefront.

  The old man gave her a tobacco-stained grin and tapped his cane. With a wet, throaty laugh the old boy said, “Seen plenty of girls draggin’ their boyfriends in there, but never the other way around.” The old man’s bushy brows rose. “Especially in that condition.”

  “He put me in this condition,” she said as Thane pushed his chest into her back, nudging her forward.

  “Son, do the right thing.”

  “I’m trying to, old timer, but she’s as stubborn as a country mule.”

  The old boy barked out a laugh. “My Karen was the same way. We were happily m
arried for fifty-six years.”

  “Thane,” she growled at him when he wrapped his hands under her legs and picked her up.

  “Door, please,” Thane gestured with a head movement.

  “Sure thing, lad,” he said chuckling. The old guy hobbled to the door, and pulled it open, the small bell tinkling to announce their arrival.

  She kicked her leg out, wedging her foot in the doorframe. “I’ll get hives going in there,” she complained as Thane tipped her, and stepped through the doorway.

  Two women standing behind a glass display case looked up, cranked their heads to look at one another, and then back at them.

  “We’re here to buy a ring. Two, actually. She gets one now and the other later,” Thane said in a deep, commanding voice.

  They must have looked quite the sight from the expression on the ladies’ faces.

  “We’re not crazy, just him,” she said quickly.

  The older woman grew a grin. “Why don’t you put her down, dear, and tell me what it is you had in mind.”

  “Diamonds,” Thane said, putting her on her feet, but snagging her around the waist when she tried a quick turn. “Lots of them.”

  “Then maybe you’d like to look over in this case,” the older woman suggested giving the edge of her navy blue dress a swipe, and strolled behind all the twinkling gems displayed on glass shelves and dripping around blue velvet necks.

  “Thane, I don’t need a ring.” She couldn’t be more trussed up if he’d had her in handcuffs and coiled in a nylon rope as he nudged her in the direction of the woman who stood wearing a demure grin.

  The young girl flashed a sultry smile at Thane, and joined them. “Your fiancé is very handsome.”

  “He’s not my—” Thane pinched her ass, and it almost brought tears to her eyes.

  “When is the baby due?” the older woman asked, bending over, grasping velvet-lined cases with elegant fingers and manicured nails, placing them on the glass.