HOT SEAL Redemption: HOT SEAL Team - Book 5

by Lynn Raye Harris

  “Alexei…” His name was a whisper. A cracked whisper.

  Kayla jumped up and grabbed a cup with a straw. “Sip some water, sissy.”

  Bailey sucked on the straw. The cool water felt good on her throat. She wanted to smile to reassure Kayla—if her sister had reverted to calling her sissy, something she’d only ever called her when she was small and scared, then Bailey figured that Kayla must be worried sick.

  “Alexei,” she said again.

  “He was here. He’s been here the whole time, but you’ve been out for a while and I told him to go home and change and I’d stay with you. Figures you’d wake up while he was gone.” Kayla smiled brightly. “He really does care about you. He didn’t want to go, but he needed to eat and shave and get some rest. He looked like hell—handsome hell, but still rough.”

  Bailey closed her eyes. Alexei was here. He cared.

  He cared?

  “Ana?” she asked.

  “She’s with Miranda while I stay here with you. I swear she grew an inch overnight, Bale! You just wait until you see her again.”

  Bailey squeezed her sister’s hand. Then she fell back asleep. The next time she woke, it was darker in the room. The machines still whirred, but she felt more alert. And she wasn’t scared this time. She felt safe. And when she tried to shift this time, her body obeyed. Joy flooded her at that small movement.

  She turned her head—and Alexei was there. His head was on her mattress. He sat in a chair beside the bed, bent over, forehead on his arms where they were crossed beneath him. His fingers were near hers. She stretched hers out, touched his.

  He sat up so fast she squeaked. But then his fingers closed over hers and his other arm went around her head as he stood and leaned down to look at her. “Bailey? How do you feel? Are you in pain? Want me to get the nurse?”

  She lifted her arm—it obeyed, thank heaven—and pressed her fingers against his mouth. His delicious mouth. His lips were soft and full, and she wanted to feel them on her body again. One more time before she and Kayla left.

  “Alexei.” She smiled.

  He kissed her fingers, and then she traced them over his mouth and along his jaw. So beautiful. So strong.

  “You scared me,” he said, and she frowned.

  “Scared you? Why?” Her voice sounded cracked again, and he picked up her cup of water, fed her the straw. She sipped until her throat was somewhat soothed.

  “You had a bad reaction, baby. They injected you—Jesus, I hate to tell you this, but you’ll hear it soon enough—they injected you with heroin. It should have made you high and euphoric, but you had a different reaction.”

  Bailey’s blood turned cold. Heroin? Her entire life, she’d vowed never to try drugs. Never to drink. Never to be what her parents had been. And James Dunn had injected her with heroin. She assumed it had been James Dunn, though in truth she didn’t know which of the two men she recalled seeing in the room had done it.

  “You’re okay,” Alexei rushed on to explain. “You’ve been in the hospital for a couple of days. They’ve flushed it out of your system and taken care of your cuts and bruises. You had a bad blow to the head, but there was no internal bleeding or other damage. A slight concussion, but you’re doing fine.”

  Bailey tried to remember everything that happened, but parts of it were fuzzy. She remembered cold water, being naked, James Dunn trying to rape her. But it hadn’t happened because there’d been an explosion. Or she didn’t think it had happened. Had it?

  “I was naked. He was going to rape me…” She pulled in a breath. “Did he?”

  Alexei’s face showed more emotion than she expected. He closed his eyes, his jaw flexing as he gritted his teeth. Then he shook his head. “No. The doctors used a rape kit on you. The only, um, DNA inside you was mine. Which my command knows, by the way. My bosses,” he clarified when she frowned.

  “Are you in trouble?”

  “No, not yet.”

  He smiled down at her. She could drown in that smile. But then she remembered that she was leaving and he wasn’t planning to stop her. She dropped her gaze and tried to hide her broken heart. But he gently tipped her head up until they were looking at each other again.

  “You need to know some things, Bailey,” he said very seriously. “Are you ready to hear them?”

  She didn’t know where this was going, but she nodded anyway. When you had to pull off a bandage, it was best to rip it all at once, not peel it slowly.

  “I have an unpredictable and demanding job. You got a taste of it the other night. There will be times when I tell you I have to go and I don’t know when I’ll be back. It could be days. It could be weeks. I’ll call when I can, but it won’t always be on a schedule. And then there’s the possibility I won’t come back at all. It happens, though not too often. We’re well trained and well equipped. Best motherfucking military in the world. But I promise I will always come back to you so long as I have breath in my body.”

  Bailey tried to process everything he’d said. It hadn’t been what she’d expected. But what did it mean? “Are you saying… are you telling me you want to date me?”

  He frowned. “Date you? No. I don’t want to date you, Bailey.”

  Her heart deflated as if he’d pierced it with a dagger. She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. He forced her to look at him. So she did. She glared at him, angry that he would say all this shit—and then it hit her. The patience in his gaze. The determination. There was more here, and she needed to listen.

  “I don’t want to date you,” he said, his voice soft. “I want to be with you. Right now. Always. I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay. I want you to move in with me, and hell, I want you to marry me someday, when you’re ready. I want you to wake up with me and go to sleep with me, and I want to come home to you every night. And when I can’t come home to you every night, I want to come home to you at the end of the mission.”

  Hot tears slipped down her cheeks as she stared up at him. He was blurry, damn him.

  “I love you, Bailey Jones. I’ve never felt that way about anyone, and I don’t know how to do this whole relationship thing at all, but shit, it’s love. It’s what I see when I look at the way Cowboy looks at Miranda or Money looks at Ella—hell, half my team is married or engaged, and every one of them is an idiot over the woman they love. So, yeah, I feel like a fucking idiot over you—and maybe this is too much right now, but dammit, I’ve been sitting here for two days praying you’d survive and planning to tell you how I feel the moment you were awake enough to listen.”

  His speech finally trailed off, and she kept on crying. Damn him. Damn the drugs they’d given her. That had to be the reason.

  She turned her head away and pulled herself together as best she could. Then she glared at him. He looked taken aback. And crushed, which she hadn’t intended at all. She gripped his arm. It was like wrapping her hand around solid iron.

  “You idiot,” she said, her throat still aching. “First of all, I love you. Second of all, why did you have to tell me all this right now when I feel like shit and look like death warmed over? A girl wants to be dazzling when a man tells her he loves her for the first time. You’ve ruined the fantasy.”

  “Jesus H. Christ, Bailey,” he said in a whoosh of breath. “You scared the shit out of me. I thought you were going to tell me to go to hell.”

  She smacked him lightly. “Hardly. I knew I loved you the second you cradled Ana and took care of her when I had no clue how—”

  “You did not,” he interrupted. “You thought I was a man whore who’d knocked up your sister.”

  Bailey couldn’t help but laugh. God, it sounded rusty. “Okay, fine. I thought you were a man whore. But when Kayla and I were talking that night that you went and got her from Virginia, and you came out of the bedroom carrying Ana—you smiled at me, and I knew.”

  He grumbled. “Well, I was a fucking idiot. I had to call my mother and ask her about her relationship with my dad. I told
her about you and she pointed out that I’d never mentioned a woman before. So, yeah, I was trying to figure it out. But when I heard that Dunn was free? I lost it. When I knew you were gone? I fucking went crazy.”

  Bailey could still picture James Dunn tugging on his dick. Trying to make it hard. She shuddered with the memory. “What happened to him?”

  Alexei’s expression clouded. “Not enough for my liking. The Feds took control of the compound. Dunn and his fellow gang members are being held—without bond this time. It’s a federal case now. The Kings of Doom are finished for good, like I promised. I just wish it had happened before they grabbed you.”

  Bailey closed her eyes as a wave of tiredness descended. “Stay with me,” she whispered.

  His lips feathered over her brow. “Always. Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake.”

  Chapter 28

  Three months later…

  *

  Alexei tossed his duffel into his truck and jumped inside, eager to get home and wrap his arms around his woman. The SEALs had just returned from a mission, been debriefed, and now they’d been dismissed. It was nearly two in the morning, and he couldn’t wait to see Bailey. He was tired, dirty from the desert, still wearing some smears of greasepaint he hadn’t gotten completely off, and he needed about six days’ worth of sleep.

  When he pulled into the drive, her car was there and his heart leaped. He hadn’t called her because of the time. Kayla and Ana were there too, and he didn’t want to wake any of them. Well, he wanted to wake Bailey. With kisses and caresses and, if he was lucky, some sweet lovemaking.

  He paused before climbing out of the truck and texted her. Might not be a good idea to sneak up on her now that he thought about it. He’d been teaching her how to defend herself. Her and Kayla both. He didn’t need to find himself on the floor clutching his balls while they smashed his head in with a baseball bat.

  Her answering text was swift. What? You’re here? Now?

  Yeah. Coming inside in two seconds. Don’t knock me over the head with a frying pan.

  He hadn’t even closed the truck door when the front door of the house was yanked open. Bailey came running outside and jumped into his arms as he dropped the duffel and opened them for her.

  She wrapped her arms and legs around him and kissed him as he spun her around, holding her tightly. She wasn’t wearing much. A tank top. No bra. Tiny panties that he planned to drag off with his teeth.

  “Baby, I’m dirty,” he said when she let him come up for breath.

  She growled. “Oh, I sure hope so. I’ve missed you so much. I’m ready for you to be as dirty as you want.”

  He snorted. “Not what I meant, but yeah, I’m planning to be dirty, baby doll.” He squeezed her ass, let a finger skate over her hot center. “I want to be in here so bad.”

  “Oh, you are getting in there. Immediately.” She kissed him again, her tongue plunging between his lips, tangling with his. His heart hammered, euphoria soared in his veins. Love, sharp and hungry, filled him. If they weren’t outside in the middle of the night, he’d unbuckle his belt and fill her right now.

  “I missed you, Bailey,” he said. “So much. You were all I thought about.”

  “Take me inside and make love to me,” she gasped as he dropped his mouth over her throat, tasting her, needing her. Loving her.

  He reached down and hooked the duffel onto one arm, slung it over his shoulder, and carried both her and the bag inside the house. He didn’t want to put her down, but he did so she could quietly shut and lock the door. He left the duffel on the floor and let her drag him to the bathroom where she flicked on the shower and turned to start dragging his clothes off. She knew he wanted to shower first, bless her. He helped her and then ripped her top off and, remembering his plans to remove her panties with his teeth, dropped to his knees and pressed a kiss to her pubic bone through her silky panties. Then he dragged them down until they fell before spreading her with his thumbs and curling his tongue around her clit.

  Her fingers dug into his hair. “Alexei—oh my God, I missed this so much. My fingers just aren’t the same.”

  The thought of her rubbing herself into orgasm made his dick ache. He licked her into a shuddering orgasm and then rose, lifting her until she’d wrapped her legs around him again. He stepped into the shower, pressed her to the wall, and drove into her. They both groaned with the rightness of it.

  “I love you,” she gasped as he pulled out and thrust into her again.

  “I love you too. So fucking much. I live for this, Bailey. For coming home to you.”

  Everything was right with her. So right. He hadn’t known what was missing in his life until her. So he showed her as best he could with his body, and then he took her to bed and did it again before falling into a deep sleep that was filled with dreams of her.

  When he woke, the sun was streaming into the bedroom and Bailey was fully dressed in jeans and a silky top with low heels that made her look so fucking sexy his dick started to tingle with interest before he was even fully awake.

  “Hi, baby,” she said, coming over and setting down a cup of coffee on the nightstand.

  He pushed up on an elbow. “Is that for me?”

  “It is. You want breakfast?”

  “What time is it?”

  “About eleven. I have class at one thirty, so there’s still time to whip up some pancakes for my baby.”

  “Mmm, pancakes. One of my five favorite things,” he said with a grin. “Any chance of getting my other favorite things this morning?”

  She laughed. “Guns? Sure, I’ll put one on your breakfast tray. You can clean it while you eat.”

  “Tease.”

  “Oh,” she said exaggeratedly. “You mean the other things? Tits, ass, and pussy?” Her fingers went to the buttons of her silky top. “I might manage to provide those. Would you like a strip tease?”

  “Does it end with your pussy in my face?”

  “If you want it to.” She laughed.

  “Fuck yeah.”

  “You know,” she said as her hands ran down her body and back up again, emphasizing the sexiness of her form. “I’ve retired my G-string and Velcro. But for you, I’ll make an exception.”

  His dick was stone. He threw the covers off and let her see it as he wrapped his hand around its length. Her jaw went slack. “Oh,” she breathed. “And there’s one of my favorite things.”

  “You want this?” he asked, stroking himself.

  “Desperately.”

  When it was over, when they lay beside each other naked, sweaty, and panting a little bit, Alexei reached for her fingers, grasping them. “Damn, you make waking up fun.”

  She rolled and threw her arm over his chest. “You still want those pancakes?”

  “Hell yeah.”

  She kissed him and then got up to dress. He followed her lead, yawning as he shuffled into the kitchen. The sunlight was on her hair, highlighting the pale pink strands as she moved around the kitchen, grabbing a mixing bowl and the ingredients she needed. No boxed mix for Bailey. She made them from scratch, and he sat to watch her.

  “Where’s your sister and the pip-squeak?”

  “Kayla’s been taking Ana to a mother’s-morning-out program while she works answering phones in a real estate office. She’s getting on her feet, slowly but surely.”

  She no longer worried about James Dunn coming after her. Dunn and many of the Kings of Doom were behind bars. The club was disbanded, the compound seized by the Feds, and the girls who’d been trafficked were now free. It wasn’t much more than a tiny dent in a huge problem, but it was something.

  “Let’s move,” Alexei said, and Bailey stopped what she was doing to look at him.

  “Move?”

  “To a bigger house. Maybe one with an in-law apartment for Kayla. So she can have her own space but still be near.”

  Bailey looked hopeful. “I think that’s a good idea. You don’t mind moving?”

  He shook his head. “Nah.
Besides, I want a master suite with a shower so I don’t have to worry about accidentally walking in on your sister—or her walking in on us. Last night… Hell, I wanted to make a lot more noise than we did.”

  He liked that she could still manage to blush when he talked about the things they did to each other. “I did too.”

  “I like coming inside you,” he said, just to see that blush deepen.

  “On that subject, the implant is holding up,” she told him. “In case you were worried.”

  “I wasn’t. But I’m glad. I think a little pip-squeak of our own would be great. But maybe not yet.”

  “No, not yet. I need to finish nursing school first.” She poured baking soda into the flour and started to mix in milk. “I got an A on the first exam in both my classes,” she added.

  “That’s awesome, baby. I’m proud of you.”

  She smiled at him, and he felt almost unbearably happy. It was that simple. She smiled, his world felt right. Anything he could do to keep that smile there, he was doing it.

  It was crazy how different his life was from just a couple of months ago. He’d avoided relationships. Run from any hint of emotion. He’d shut people out and kept them at a distance. Even his teammates didn’t know who he really was. They only knew what he gave them, and that was only as much as he had to. Oh, he trusted them implicitly and they him—it had to be that way for them to survive—but that didn’t mean they knew him. Because he didn’t let anyone know him.

  Until now. Until Bailey.

  He stood, went to her. Slipped his arms around her waist while she poured pancake batter in the hot pan. She made a soft sound in her throat and kept on working. He wanted to make love to her again—he always wanted that—but right now he was content to stand here and watch her fix pancakes. To simply be with her. Because that’s what love was. Being.

  “So while we’re looking for this new house,” he said as he breathed in her sweet scent, “why don’t we make it official?”

  “Official?”

  “Marry me, Bailey.”