by Paige Tyler
Eden ignored the question. “And what’s his favorite food?”
“Pizza.”
“Favorite Beer?”
“Miller Genuine Draft.”
Eden hit Emily with about a dozen more questions, everything from what Brandon’s favorite pro sports team was to the names of his parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, even his childhood pets. Emily never had to hesitate before answering any of them.
“Okay, last one.” Eden said, holding up a finger when Emily would have interrupted again. “This one is simple. If Brandon could retire right now, what would he want to do with his life?”
The corners of Emily mouth curved into a smile. “He’d want to buy a boat so the two of us could sail around the world together. He has a picture of his dream boat tacked up to the wall in the bedroom.”
Eden lifted a brow. “Seems like you know your future husband pretty damn well to me. Better than some people I know who have been married for years.”
Emily regarded her in silence for a long time, then nodded slowly. “I guess so. But if this isn’t about how well I know Brandon, why the hell am I feeling so freaked out all of a sudden?”
Eden took his sister’s hand again, giving it a squeeze. “Maybe it’s because your whole life is about to change. Even if it’s a change for the better, it’s still a big change. That’s enough to rattle anybody.”
Emily considered that. “Do you think I’ll be able to pull it off as well as mom did?”
“Pull what off?” Eden asked, wondering if she’d missed a turn somewhere along the path of their conversation.
“Being able to keep a family going when Brandon is gone on fleet duty? Like mom was able to do with us?”
Eden smiled. Something told her they’d accidentally stumbled over the real crux of her sister’s anxiety. Dad had been gone a lot when Eden and Emily had been growing up. Schooling, temporary travel assignments, ship deployments, you name it. There were times when she and her sister felt like they didn’t have a father, and their mother was raising them all on her own.
And Mom had been amazing. Even as a kid, Eden had recognized she was like a force of nature as she dealt with all the problems that came along with being married to a man in the military completely on her own. Mom had handled their moves back and forth across the country, gotten her daughters in and out of schools, kept her husband’s military career on track, and somehow found time and energy to always be there not just for them, but also for the families of friends and relatives. Eden didn’t think she could ever handle that kind of responsibility.
Apparently, Emily was having those same doubts. Eden could certainly understand why. Her sister wasn’t just marrying a guy in the military. She was marrying into a way of life that put a lot of burdens on a newly married couple.
“Of course you’re going to be able to do it,” Eden told her. “It’s going to be hard and you’re probably going to be scared to death that you’re going to screw everything up. You’ll do some things differently than Mom would have done them. You’ll make mistakes and you’ll learn from them. But ultimately you’ll raise your own family just as well as Mom did. And you know why?”
“Why?” Emily asked, almost looking amused now.
“Because you and Brandon love each other.”
Emily smiled again. “Yeah, we do. I’m just being silly.” She gave Eden a sheepish look. “Sorry for dragging you all the way over here to listen to me whine.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eden said. “You can call me to whine anytime. It’s what sisters are for.”
“Deal.” Emily sighed. “Still, I feel bad making you come all the way over here. What were you up to when I called anyway?”
Eden had to fight to keep a silly grin from spreading across her face as she thought about exactly what she and Travis had been up to before her sister called. Even now, she could almost feel his erection pressing against her. The fact that he was so aroused even though he knew what she was just made everything even hotter. She’d never been so turned on with a guy before and had no doubt that they would be in bed naked right now if Emily hadn’t called.
Just thinking about that possibility made heat settle between her legs. The urge to reach down and touch herself through her jeans was practically impossible to ignore, but she couldn’t do it with Emily sitting across from her.
Which reminded her. She hadn’t answered her sister’s question yet.
“Nothing really,” she said. “Just hanging out in my hotel room with a friend.”
“You met up with one of our friends from school?” Emily asked, surprised. “Who was it?”
Eden shook her head. “It’s not one of our friends from school. It’s a guy I met recently.”
Her sister lifted a brow. “A guy. When did you meet a guy?”
Eden almost laughed. “The night outside the restaurant where we were having the rehearsal dinner.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “You mean that big, hunky guy who helped you out in the alley?”
“You shouldn’t be calling other men hunky,” Eden scolded with a laugh. “You’re about to get married.”
“Just because I’m getting married doesn’t mean I’m blind to other guys around me. I still know a sexy hunk when I see one,” Emily pointed out. “So, are you two sleeping together yet?”
Eden felt her face heat as an image of her riding up and down on Travis while he was sitting in the chair in her hotel room flashed into her head. She bit back a moan and redirected her focus to point out the obvious to her sister.
“We just met a few days ago. We were just talking.”
Eden looked at her doubtfully. “Uh-huh. My face always turns that cute shade of pink when I think about talking with Brandon.”
“I am not blushing!”
“Of course you’re not,” Emily agreed. “So, when were you planning to introduce me to him? You know I never did get a chance to thank him for helping save Brandon’s and Tim’s butts. You should ask him to come with you to the wedding. I know guys can get so freaked out about going to them, but I’d love to meet him.”
Eden almost told her that Travis was already coming, then thought better of it. If she admitted that Travis had already agreed to be her date to Emily’s wedding a few hours after they met, her sister would almost certainly think something serious was going on between them. And her sister would be right. By all accounts, that should have been terrifying since she’d just met him a few days ago. But it wasn’t scary at all. For the first time, she was with a guy she could finally be herself with. And it was a breathtaking feeling.
“I’ll ask him,” was all Eden said.
Emily pushed Eden’s ice cream bowl back in front of her, then grabbed her own and dug into the melted mess. “Well, tell him I hope he comes. There’ll be plenty of food and drink, and if he doesn’t want to drive back to his hotel after the reception, the country club is offering rooms to the wedding guests for the night at a fantastic price.”
Eden smiled as she ate her own gooey ice cream. Suddenly, all she could think about was spending the day at her sister’s wedding and the night with Travis in one of the country club’s elegant rooms. She remembered from the brochure Emily had shown her that the beds were ridiculously big. She could think of three or four things she’d like to try with Travis in a bed that big, and judging by the hard-on he had earlier, he’d definitely be up for most of them.
* * * * *
Travis was sitting outside the coffee shop on the boardwalk, staring out at the moonlit waves so wrapped up in thoughts of Eden that he didn’t even realize Jon was there until he sat down at the table across from him. Shit. Where the hell had he come from?
“You Special Forces guys usually aren’t so easy to sneak up on,” Jon said.
Usually he wasn’t daydreaming about a beautiful feline shifter. He wasn’t going to tell Jon that, though.
“That’s because we’re on the beach and you SEALs smell like fish.” Travis grinned. “
You blend right in.”
Jon laughed. “Funny. The clerk at the front desk of your hotel said I could find you here. By the way, I think she has a crush on you, dude. That, or she’s a stalker. Either way, it’s a little freaky that she knows exactly when you left and where you’ve gone.”
“I’ll remember to watch my back,” Travis said. “So, what’s up?”
“I haven’t heard from you, so I thought I’d check in to see if you’ve come up with any questions.”
Shit. He hadn’t meant to leave Jon hanging, but the truth was, he hadn’t even thought about the job offer. Something Jon must have realized if the frown on his face was any indication.
“Everything okay with you?” Jon asked.
Travis was about to give him the standard non-answer, but changed his mind. He’d been friends with Jon long enough to know he wouldn’t have asked the question if he didn’t want to know the answer. Maybe talking would help to get some of this stuff in his head out in the open.
“Have you ever met a woman so incredible that it changed your whole outlook on everything?” he asked.
Jon grinned. “Hell, yeah. The day I met Ali at that Fourth of July party was like the first day of my new life. Okay, to be fair, it took a little while for me to realize it, but once I figured out what I had with her, being in the navy wasn’t as important to me anymore. That’s the biggest reason I got out.”
Travis chuckled. “Okay, I guess that was a stupid question since I already knew the answer to it.”
During their downtime between missions over in Africa, Alison Cressly’s name had come up a lot. And there’d always been a smile on his face whenever Jon said it.
Jon leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “What’s with the deep, meaningful stuff all of a sudden? You go out and stumble over the love of your life in the last few days or something?”
That was exactly the same question Travis had been asking himself. And it sure as hell seemed like the answer was yes.
After Eden had left to go see her sister, Travis sat in his rental car for fifteen minutes trying to get his heartbeat—and his arousal—under control. He couldn’t believe how fast he was falling for her. It wasn’t just sexual attraction, either, although there was a truck load of that going on to. No, what he was feeling for Eden was way more than lust. He’d never been in love with a woman before, but this had to be what it felt like.
Even now, he was practically counting the minutes until he could see her again. He’d dated women he knew longer than Eden and hadn’t ever felt that way about being apart from them whenever he deployed, and that was for months at a time. If he took the job at GAPS, it would still be too far away even though she lived three hours from Virginia Beach. He was seriously considering moving his job search efforts closer to DC simply so he could be closer to her. It was insane and terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.
“Actually, I think maybe I did,” Travis finally said in answer to Jon’s question. “I met this incredible woman right after you and I talked a couple nights ago.”
Jon smiled. “That’s awesome. How the hell did you meet her?”
“That’s the crazy thing.” Travis snorted. “I went for a walk around after we talked—just thinking, you know? Well, I heard the sounds of a scuffle in an alley and when I went to check it out, I found five guys beating the hell out of a couple of suits behind this restaurant. I stepped in and started dealing with the situation, and the next thing I know, guns are coming out and I’m figuring I’m actually going to buy it right here in the good old US of A after surviving eight years of nonstop warzone deployments. Then, out of nowhere, this gorgeous DHS agent comes running out of the back of this restaurant and commences to kick some serious ass. She saves my ass, and I save hers. Now I’m going with her to her sister’s wedding on Saturday.”
On the other side of the table, Jon’s mouth was hanging open. “That was you in the shootout behind the Bluefin Bar and Grill? That’s been all over the news for the past two days. The reports are saying those guys had automatic weapons. How the hell did you and this woman get out of there without getting your asses perforated?”
It wasn’t like Travis could say it was because Eden was a government-trained agent who was also a shifter that could sprout claws and fangs, and run like Usain Bolt on a caffeine high. So he just shook his head and shrugged.
“Mostly we got lucky,” Travis said. “But when the bullets stopped flying, Eden and I just clicked. I gotta tell you, man, she’s frigging amazing.”
Jon regarded him thoughtfully. “She sounds like one hell of a woman to me. So, why are you out here on the boardwalk staring off into the ocean like you’re wrestling with a major problem?”
Travis sipped his coffee, trying to figure out how to explain it. Considering he really didn’t know what the issue was himself, that was easier said than done.
“Eden is one hell of a woman, and then some,” he finally said. “I guess I’m worried I might be making something out of nothing.”
Jon frowned. “What do you mean?”
Travis blew out a breath. “I met Eden less than forty-eight hours ago and I’m already thinking about looking for a job up in DC so I can be closer to her. Frigging forty-eight hours! I mean, I know I haven’t been in a real relationship with a woman since I joined Special Forces, but this whole thing seems damn fast to me. It’s like I’m a teenager at his first keg party. I’m not just drinking a beer for the first time. I’m having it poured down my throat with a firehose.”
“And now you don’t know if what you’re feeling is a real buzz since you’ve never been drunk before?” Jon asked.
“Yeah, pretty much.” Travis ran his hand through his hair. “I mean, am I really falling for a woman I only met a couple days ago? Or am I just going a little crazy because I finally have the freedom to actually see a woman more than once or twice before a deployment?”
Jon sighed. “I get where you’re coming from. Special Forces is no different than the SEAL teams. Most of us run from one-night stand to one-night stand because there doesn’t seem to be any point in starting a real relationship with a woman you probably won’t see for months on end.”
“Exactly,” Travis agreed. “Why start something you can’t finish?”
But it was different now. He wasn’t in Special Forces anymore. He didn’t have to worry about how to keep a long-distance relationship going while he was deployed. Maybe he was overthinking it. Maybe he should just enjoy being with Eden and stop channeling Dr. Phil.
“Let me ask you a real simple question,” Jon said. “And I don’t want you to think before you answer it. Just say the first thing that comes to mind.”
Now who was channeling Dr. Phil?
“Okay,” Travis said.
“How would you feel if you could never see Eden again?”
Travis didn’t have to think about how he’d feel. The thought of it punched him in the gut so hard he could barely breathe. “I think I’d probably die.”
Okay, that sounded melodramatic as hell. But it was true.
“Well then, I guess that answers the question as to whether or not you’re in love with her,” Jon said. “All that matters now is whether she feels the same about you. Does she?”
Jon was damn good at cutting through the bullshit, wasn’t he?
“I honestly don’t have a clue,” he admitted. “It’s scary as hell to think she might not feel any of the things I’m feeling right now.”
“Since when is scary a problem for people like us?” Jon grinned. “Scary just means you’re alive. Tell her how you feel and see what she says. Worse that can happen is that she’ll tell you to get lost.”
Right.
“So, Eden’s an agent with Homeland, huh?” Jon asked.
Travis took another swig of coffee, relieved to switch gears and talk about something other than Eden telling him to take a hike.
“Yeah,” he said. “As a matter of fact, one of the suits who got beat u
p is the fiancé. The other one is his best man, who may or may not have a gambling problem. Eden and I are going to pay a visit to the bookie, see if he was the one who sent those guys.”
John shook his head. “When people owe money to a bookie, they might get their fingers or kneecaps broken, but they aren’t likely to get shot full of holes with automatic weapons. Sounds like there’s more to it than that. If you need backup, give me a call, okay?”
“Will do,” Travis said.
Jon took off a little while after that, saying something about making dinner for Ali. It wasn’t until he left that Travis realized Jon hadn’t mentioned the job offer. Good thing, too, because Travis wasn’t sure what he would have said to him.
Chapter Six
Eden and Travis sat in his rental car a couple blocks down from the sports bar in Norfolk Kendra had told her about that morning. On the outside, it looked reputable enough with its classy sign and promise of more than a dozen giant TVs for fans to watch their favorite games, but Kendra said this was where Tim did most of his betting. Even though the place wasn’t open yet, there were a lot of people going in and out, and they didn’t look like they were there for take-out.
“The guy who runs the place is named Sammy Spillane,” Eden said. “The bar and grill is a legitimate business, but all the real money comes from his bookmaking. Kendra told me he does almost everything through member-only chat rooms and websites on the net, which is all very clean and hard to track. He’s probably pulling in at least a quarter million dollars a month. Organized crime figures from New York, Washington, and Chicago have tried to move in on his business several times over the years, but he’s fended them all off. He has a reputation for being prone to violence.”
“Shocking.” Travis eyed two men who just walked out of the bar, then glanced at her. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Nothing complicated,” she assured him. “We go in, introduce ourselves to this Sammy guy, make a little small talk, then ask him what he knows about Tim and his little gambling problem.”
Travis’s mouth quirked. “I take it you’re kind of new to this planning thing, huh?”
