by Tawny Weber
From outside, Dominic watched her and his sister through the window of his cabin. Their laughter rang out the open door; their smiles lit in the dim morning light.
“They’re having fun.”
He glanced at Lucas, who had his head under the hood of the truck. Paranoid as ever, he figured it needed a once-over before it could handle the trip south.
“She’s had fun with everyone this week,” he observed in return.
“Ma likes her.” Lucas’s words echoed through the engine compartment, taking on an otherworldly blessing tone.
Ma liked her. Grandma liked her. Matteo, Lucas—everyone liked her.
But she and Celia had gotten tightest.
God knew what they whispered about. It wasn’t all clothes, although his sister had taken a trip into Sacramento to get Lara what she deemed a dozen bags full of essentials. Lara had been upset that he’d covered the cost, but had settled when he told her he’d add it to Banks’s tab.
Then she’d laughed.
She laughed a lot more now than she had when they’d first met. Over the past few days, she’d actually started to glow. It wasn’t the attention that was making her look more relaxed and happy than he’d seen her in their weeklong relationship. For all her lack of inhibitions and ease onstage, attention actually seemed to make her uncomfortable.
She liked his family.
Not a surprise, since Dominic considered his family pretty damned awesome. Meantime her only living relative was one certified stick-in-the-mud, Lieutenant Phillip Banks.
Poor girl.
As if he had a wiretap hooked up to Dominic’s brain, Lucas looked out from under the hood and asked, “So you know her brother, right?”
Not really.
He could pick him out of a lineup, write a job recommendation for the guy. But know him?
“We serve together,” was all he could say, hoping Lucas would get the hint and change the subject.
“You gonna bring her back?”
Not even close to the change Dominic had been hoping for.
“I dunno. I’m not really in a relationship place.”
“Who is?”
“Women?”
“Not that one,” Lucas said with a laugh, tilting his head toward the cabin.
“No?” Dominic frowned at the cabin.
Lara didn’t want a relationship?
At all? Or with him?
How did Lucas know that?
Dominic almost asked, then decided he really didn’t want to know.
He tossed his duffel behind the truck seat. He didn’t have much to pack. Pretty much everything he needed was on base. But it didn’t hurt to bring a few dozen extra condoms, a bottle of hot fudge and his digital camera, too. Not that he wanted to make dirty movies with Lara. Much. But he figured a few pictures of her visit to San Diego and Coronado would be fun to have.
A little souvenir of their time together.
He stared blankly at the trees on the other side of the truck, wondering why. He’d never wanted anything to remember a relationship by before. And if Lucas was right, Lara had no interest in one, either.
So why was he so reluctant to let go of this one? It’d been a week. Usually at this point he was done, finished and ready to be long gone. If he even made it this far. Most women had issues with the idea of his job being top secret, or that he’d be gone indefinitely. They figured a guy was cheating or didn’t care enough. He’d always considered it one of his greatest job benefits.
Now he was wondering how the guys in relationships made it work. Masters and Lane were both recently married and seemed to juggle it all just fine. Then again, their ladies were rare and special. Same with Landon. He’d been married over a year—a record for some military guys.
“You’re good to go,” Lucas decided, slamming the hood shut and giving it a pat. He tilted his head toward the house. “I’m gonna get Celia and go. You good?”
“I’m good.” Dominic issued his traditional response, slapped his brother on the back, then lifted the cooler his mom had filled into the truck.
While Lucas went inside to say his goodbyes and drag their sister away, Dominic reminded himself that he wasn’t looking for a relationship.
He just wanted to help Lara out.
He had a few ideas. First he’d have to find her a better job to keep her going until she was through with school. Something she could do with a few extra clothes on. And there was no point finding her a new apartment until she knew where she wanted to work. Maybe she’d get crazy for Southern California and want to relocate there. If her apartment was close to base, he could visit from time to time.
Damn.
Dominic all but smacked himself in the head.
There he went again, thinking those ridiculous relationship thoughts.
Not gonna happen.
He was gonna fix things up for Lara, then this was over.
Bad Ass had messaged the night before with news.
Bird in hand, flying back to nest.
The team should be in Coronado within a day, debriefed and available within the week.
Dominic could have simply returned Lara to Reno with the news about her brother. Fixed her apartment door, kissed her cheek and let her get back to her life.
That’s what he should have done.
Instead, he’d told her they’d be safer on base.
True, but now totally inapplicable to the situation.
But he figured she’d already called work to arrange to take the rest of the week off, so they might as well go. They’d cruise down the coast, spend more time together, have enough sex that he’d get her out of his system.
He was due back on duty the first of next week, so by the time they’d come up for air he’d be ready to put her on a plane back to Reno.
If she ever got out here. Dominic looked at his watch, then the cabin door.
As if she heard his impatience, Lara sauntered out, duffel over her shoulder and a laugh on her lips. His brother and sister flanked her, but he barely saw them.
Damn.
She was crazy sexy.
Long, leggy and slender, her body was a work of art that he was afraid he could spend forever studying. She’d fancied up her simple jeans and a long-sleeved tee as green as her eyes by adding a scarf that draped around and around her neck in a fluffy circle. The filmy blue fabric somehow highlighted instead of hid her full breasts. Dominic liked that in fashion.
He waited for the goodbyes, barely offering more than a cursory hug and nod to his family to hurry them along.
“Sorry, I was just thanking Celia and Lucas,” she said, her ever-present laptop tight in her hand. “You have the nicest family. Did you know she came over to hang out last night while you and Lucas were off doing your boy-club powwow?”
“Yeah, she said she was going to.” Ready to hit the road, he opened the passenger door, waiting until she was settled before circling the truck. As he started the engine, he glanced over, taking another second to appreciate his sister’s choice in clothes if she’d had a hand in what Lara was wearing. “She likes you.”
“She’s great.” Lara spent the next twenty minutes chatting about his family. Impressions, observations, questions.
It was cute.
“Lucas figures you’re gonna nail the security tech internship.” Waiting for the light to signal that they were clear to turn onto the freeway, Dominic reached over to flick Lara’s scarf, just there by the tip of her breast. “He’s trying to figure out how to change your mind and get you to come on board with Castillo Security instead.”
He grinned when he saw that her nipple had hardened against her T-shirt. Damn, she was delicious.
Lara twisted around, one knee on the seat between them as she reached over to grab his arm. She didn’t seem interested in her body’s reaction, though.
“He really said that?” Lara’s laugh sounded more stunned than amused as she reached over to lay her hand on his arm.
He looked at her fing
ers with a frown, realizing this was the first sign of vulnerability he’d seen in her. After everything she’d been through, this got to her?
Dominic prided himself on knowing women. What made them tick, what got them happy, what turned them to mush.
But Lara kept on surprising him.
“Yeah.” He shot her a glance. “Why the disbelief? Didn’t you say you’re top of your class? That means you’re good, right?”
“Well, sure,” she said with a shrug. “But good and good enough for a company like Castillo Security are two different things. Why didn’t you tell me before that your family owned the biggest security company on the West Coast?”
“Sorry. I rarely think to share that with women.” Or his assignments.
“Well, you should. It’s pretty impressive.”
Dominic gave her a baffled look.
“Lara, I’m a Navy SEAL. You really think I need to work to impress women?”
Lara’s laughter burst out, filling the cab of the truck and making him grin.
She was tough, savvy, strong.
She was sexy, gorgeous and demanding.
And she had one hell of a sense of humor.
And that was why he was falling for her.
No.
Dominic stopped that thought in its tracks.
That was crazy thinking. It was just the novelty of seeing a woman around his family.
The ultimate challenge of fixing her life so it was as great as she deserved.
It was sex.
Just sex.
Dominic settled into the seat, one hand on the wheel and the other arm stretched across the bench seat so he could play with the short ends of Lara’s hair. As the miles passed, he plotted.
She needed family.
He knew where she had one.
Time to fix that little rift, whatever it was, and give her that connection she craved.
Then he could get over this crazy idea of sharing his.
Because thinking like that, it was purely stupid.
That was the kind of thinking that led to expectations, sharing closet space and, God forbid, long-term commitment.
Nope.
Tension faded, leaving Dominic to focus on his fallback emotion toward women: affectionate lust. Yeah. That’s all he felt for Lara.
And as long as he ignored that laughing voice in the back of his head, everything would be just fine.
* * *
“SO TELL ME about your family.”
Lara’s gaze ricocheted off the soothing view of fields and trees to stare at Dominic. Frowning, she gave him an irritated look he didn’t see because, of course, he was driving.
“Why?” Talking about them would ruin the nice mood she’d been in.
“Because I’m curious. C’mon, you know everything about mine. Don’t tell me my grandmother didn’t show you that picture frame with all of my school photos. Kindergarten to graduation, with a story for every year.”
Lara’s annoyance faded a little as she recalled his second-grade picture. He’d been so cute with his front teeth missing and his hair in little-punk-boy spikes.
“I liked your prom pictures better,” she said, shifting in her seat and reaching over to tap his thigh with her fingers. “So did you get lucky with that cute little blonde?”
“Which one? I went to three proms.”
“All with blondes?”
“What can I say, it was a phase,” he said with a shrug. Then he shot her a laughing look. “I’m partial to brunettes now, though.”
“You’re partial to anything female, you mean. Don’t try to deny it. I talked to at least twenty members of your family this week and every one had a story about you and a girl. But no two were the same girl.”
“So I know how you went from Maryland to New York, but how did you end up in Reno?” he asked, surprising her.
“You want to know how I ended up a showgirl, you mean?”
“Sure, maybe. I’m not criticizing, I’m just curious. Broadway indicates some major dedication. So why would you leave it?”
“I had to.” Lara shifted in her seat, wishing he’d talk about something else. She hated thinking about what she’d given up. It wasn’t that she was so dedicated that she mourned leaving something she’d spent most of her life training for. No, she just hated the reminder of why she’d lost it all.
Especially now, when she was head over heels for a guy who’d end up leaving her high and dry.
But this time she wasn’t sidelining her dreams or giving up her ambitions. She’d used the extra time off work to finish her homework and her semester project and to grill Lucas for information that should help her ace her final exam. For once a relationship was actually working in her favor.
“So what happened to make you leave Broadway?” he asked again, interrupting her self-congratulatory mental happy dance.
“Life. She has a way of stepping in and shaking things up, you know. I figure it’s her way of keeping us from getting too cocky.” She angled an arch look his way. “You should watch out. I’ll bet you’re due.”
“C’mon, tell me. You know everything about me,” he reminded her. “Including the sad fact that I wore a purple tuxedo to the prom.”
“It was closer to violet,” she observed. Then she shrugged. “It’s not a very exciting story. I was in a car accident. Busted my leg up pretty bad.”
He shot her a frown. “You didn’t call your parents? Go home, play good daughter for a while until you healed?”
“I called them,” she said stiffly.
“And?”
“They said I’d made my choice, now I could live with it.” Lara’s words were matter-of-fact. She’d expected nothing less, nothing more. After all, she’d left home for a reason. Why would her being gone change anything?
“Son of a bitch,” Dominic breathed. His fingers clenched, stretched then clenched again on the steering wheel. “Banks left you swinging in the wind, too?”
“Phillip?” Lara blinked. Had she ever considered calling him back then? She tried to remember, but didn’t recall that ever entering her head.
“You didn’t even ask him for help?”
“I never thought about it. He was always a toe-the-line kind of guy, though. No reason to think Prince Perfect would buck the company line.”
“That’s just sibling rivalry,” Dominic said with an indulgent glace that made Lara want to punch him. “Everyone who has brothers or sisters has that. Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have helped you.”
She rolled her eyes. As if he had a clue?
“Enough talking about ancient history,” she dismissed with a wave of her hand. “Tell me what we’re going to do when we get to Southern California.”
He shot her a look that said he was doing her a favor but would be returning to the subject later. Fine. Lara knew how to dodge with the best of them.
“When we get to Southern California?” he mused. “We’re going to have sex. Lots and lots of crazy, wild sex.”
Sounded good to her.
10
WHAT A MONTH.
Two weeks ago, she hadn’t known Dominic Castillo existed.
Now she was sitting on a hotel terrace overlooking the Pacific Ocean, sipping coffee and debating her newfound attitude and how she felt about it.
Southern California’s much too laid-back attitude seemed to be rubbing off on her. Two days after arriving, he’d gone back on duty, but they still spent every night together, had gone sightseeing and spent glorious hours on the beach. Who knew she was crazy about the ocean? With Dominic on duty during the day, she had plenty of time to add extras to her final project. Nights were for wild sex, long walks on the beach and soulful talks. She figured the wild sex balanced out the cheesiness of the other two.
When Flo had called to reluctantly inform her that she’d been fired, Lara had just laughed.
Nibbling a strawberry, the sweetly tart juice exploding on her tongue, Lara watched the tiny surfers from afar.
H
er landlord had left a message with Flo that she was evicted. Apparently he hadn’t found a body in her apartment so didn’t feel her excuse was justified and was keeping her deposit but throwing away her belongings. No biggie, since Lara didn’t figure they could scrape together enough of that mess to equal a single thing worth saving.
So she was jobless and homeless.
And she was oddly fine with that. It was as though a huge weight of obligation was gone. Of course, she had very little money and no apparent means of making more until she graduated. Since the internship paid jack, she’d have to find some way to cover the bills. But she couldn’t quite work up enough energy to worry.
Lara’s easy mood dimmed.
She was a little worried for her brother. Dominic had assured her over and over that Phillip was fine, that she just had to lay low a little longer while the team secured the situation. But now, after barely thinking about the guy more than a dozen times over the years, she was thinking of him daily. She could chalk that up to the situation. After all, it was because of him that she was here on this very balcony.
But that didn’t explain why she was suddenly wondering how he was doing. What he was like. Did he still eat his cereal dry and read at the table when he was alone? Did he ever think about the Christmas their parents had spent in Vail, leaving the two of them home alone? They’d had McDonald’s for breakfast because neither could cook and Phillip had driven Lara to the store the next day to exchange all of her lousy gifts. She’d totally forgotten about those things until this month.
She’d almost forgotten what he looked like, his image flashes of photographs rather than impressions of his actual self.
Now she wondered.
Late at night, curled in Dominic’s arms, she pondered if she’d ever find out. If she’d have a chance to.
And why it was suddenly so important.
Lara poured more coffee, drinking it fast to wash away the worry. Using the same guaranteed method of calming herself that she’d employed all week, Lara took a deep breath, cleared her mind, then imagined Dominic naked.
Oh, yeah...
