“I know you don’t want to have anything to do with me, but—”
“That’s not true, and you know it.”
Damn the man.
“I went over to Armando’s house today,” she said.
“Now why would you go and do that? Not very smart.”
“No. But then you know how smart I am, don’t you?”
“I think you’re one of the smartest girls I’ve ever met, but it was dumb to go over to that house. You must promise me you won’t do it again. Ever. It’s dangerous.”
“I think I know that now. Don’t worry.”
Kyle paused. In a soft voice, he asked, “What are you saying?”
“There were two men there.”
Christy moved around in the water.
“Where are you?”
“In the bathtub.”
“Oh.” He paused. “So, what did the men look like?”
“Dark-haired. Young. They ran out the front when I went in the back.”
“You went into the house?”
“Yes. The place is a mess. I think they were looking for something. But I scared them off.”
Kyle chuckled at that. “I could see how you would make a man go weak at the knees. Even two men. Two very bad men.”
“Not funny. Don’t make fun of me.”
“I’m not. So after you scared them off, what did you do?”
“I listened to Armando’s phone message on the answering machine.”
“What the hell? Christy, you have no business getting involved. You stay out of this, understand?”
“So do you want to hear the message?”
Kyle hesitated, breathing hard into the receiver. God she wished he was breathing against the side of her face, kissing her there, looking at her and touching…
“Yes.”
“He said ‘Foothills and thirty minutes.’ Then he said ‘Got ten loaded.’ He started to say he left something and then the line went dead.”
Christy could hear her heart pounding, wondering if he heard it, too.
“Thanks,” he whispered.
More silence. She would make him talk next, if he wanted to. That’s what she needed to hear. Did he want to or not?
“I understand you went out of your way to find me. I appreciate that.”
“Because it’s the right thing to do, Kyle.” She hoped it didn’t sound too strong, so she added as soft and sexy as she could muster, “Because it was important to you.”
There, she’d said it. Time to figure out if she would have to do a rescue mission on her own heart. A girl’s night out? A romantic movie that made her cry all night long?
“Well, I thank you.”
She could tell he had difficulty saying it.
“So, if you’re free tonight, I am.” God, she hoped he’d say he was.
“No. We have things we have to do. I’ll give you a call sometime.”
Her heart fell to the bottom of the tub. That was the answer she had expected. At least her attempt had been worth the try.
“Okay then, sailor. You know where I live.” She found the courage to hang up on him first. She lay back in the tub and placed a wet washcloth over her eyes, which absorbed the welled-up tears and those continuing to fall.
No, she didn’t do “wait” very well. She needed to move on.
Chapter 10
Kyle stepped into Jimmy’s, the place where the Wall of the Fallen took Kyle’s breath away every time he saw it—all the faces of young, handsome men, cut short in their prime. He usually looked at every one of their pictures as if he was looking right into their eyes, and said a thank you.
Every time.
The inscription in the middle, translated from a rough-hewn carving by some anonymous artisan at the graveyard on Iwo Jima read:
When you go home,
Tell them for us, and say,
For your tomorrow,
We gave our today.
As tough as he knew his community, he didn’t know a single team guy who didn’t choke up reading that.
Being a SEAL wasn’t all about rah rah or politics. Wasn’t about highs and lows of armed warfare, man on man. Wasn’t about knowing your limits or having a band of brothers. It was about life and death.
When he and Armando got their very first tattoo together, his the band of barbed wire thorns around his calf, the old artist looked Kyle right in the eyes and said, “So you want to make friends with death, son?”
He could answer the old man today. But not that day.
Kyle sat and waited for his team to arrive.
“I’ve talked to Armando’s mom,” Kyle began, after the group had gathered, “and I think he linked up with this guy, Caesar, who Mia has been hanging around. Apparently, she’s pregnant. Armando went to go find her.”
“That could be good news. Maybe this asshole won’t hurt her.” Fredo tossed that statement into the mix.
“Can’t count on that, Fredo.” Kyle worked to keep panic out of his voice.
Gunny swore and shook his head. “The man must be an animal. I’d say put him down.”
“Whoa! Gunny. We’re not talking about doing anything like that,” Kyle shot back, alarmed.
“Be doing the female population a favor, you ask me. But then you didn’t, did you?”
Cooper narrowed his eyes at Kyle and then winced. “You think they’re still in the area?”
Kyle nodded. “The message said something about the foothills and thirty minutes away. Said there were ten. Well-armed.” He sighed. “Can you get your friend to track this cell phone?” Kyle handed Cooper a yellow Post-It note with Mia’s cell phone number.
“Sure. No problem. How old is this?”
“I think only a couple of hours. This morning there was nothing on the answering machine. But…” He didn’t want to tell them how he got the message. “Well, the message came in sometime after noon. I’m guessing he used Mia’s cell phone, since they took or destroyed his.”
“You listen to it?” Fredo asked as Cooper got up, presumably to call his friend in the DOJ.
“Nah. Someone else did. And there’s another thing. Armando’s house has been thrashed.”
“Hey, boss, you got someone else working on this job? Someone we need to know about?” Fredo asked.
Kyle looked down at his folded hands. He wanted a beer, but he knew he’d need his wits about him in case they got a location. “The lady I was with yesterday afternoon came looking for me.” He didn’t want to make eye contact.
“Uh huh. Like I said, you gotta start thinking with your other head, boss.”
“I never had that problem,” Gunny inserted, laughing at Kyle’s obvious discomfort.
“So gramps, you knew about this too?” Fredo asked.
“Shit, yes. My gym’s like a fuckin beauty parlor. I learn everything about the crap you guys get into just from keeping my ears open. Always some newbie or wanna-be who is only too quick to tell me about all your dumb-ass moves.” Gunny coughed. “Although this time, he gave me a full description of the lady in question, like she was naked.”
Kyle almost grabbed Gunny by the shirt collar. He drank water and crunched on ice cubes instead.
“So Kyle, I gotta ask. Are you okay?” Fredo looked at him hard.
Not the question he wanted to hear. Were they feeling him starting to slip? Was he starting to slip? Was it wrong to want to feel the soft flesh of a woman next to his and not be able to get her out of his mind?
No, it wasn’t wrong. It was right. But it interfered with his mental clarity, and was so unfair to her.
“No worries, gentlemen. I’m right as rain. Got all the cum lovingly worked outta me real good last night. Now I’m ready for a fight.” Kyle hoped they believed him.
“Sounds like she didn’t get enough, though,” Fredo barked.
“Oh, yeah she did.” Kyle grinned. “She just wants more.”
Finally Fredo laughed and nodded his head. “Tell her I’m available.”
K
yle punched Fredo’s bicep, this time a little harder than usual.
Coop returned with the news he’d left a message for his DOJ friend in two places. “He’ll call me back, I hope tonight.”
“Okay, so now that we know Armando’s alive, we’re gonna only have one chance to break him out. I want this kept tight, just between us. And when we’re ready to roll, we go.”
The team nodded in agreement.
“Gentlemen, we got only three days to do this. Then I’ll go it alone,” Kyle said.
“The hell you will. I’m with you all the way,” Gunny said.
There was a pause as Gunny looked back into three cowed faces. Nothing more needed to be said. “Fuck it, fellas, I can drive a car, shoot a gun, I don’t wear glasses. And the ladies don’t distract me like some people sitting at this table.”
Everyone laughed, except Kyle. He was thinking of the way Christy’s breasts filled his palm, how she tasted under her ear, and how he’d tried to sleep with the largest boner he’d ever had just from the feel of her hair on his chest as he snuggled next to her in bed. The mere memory of her scent had kept him awake all night.
Gunny snapped his gnarled fingers in front of Kyle’s face. “You’ve got it bad, kid. That kind of a lapse in concentration can get you killed, you know.”
A harsh thing to say, but it was the truth. Kyle looked at the pockmarked and ruddy red complexion of one of the ugliest men he’d ever met, and knew Gunny would give his life to protect him. Gunny had a heart the size of the Pacific Ocean and wanted to go out like a hero.
But Kyle hoped he wouldn’t have to.
Kyle decided to get a motel room and watch movies all night. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep. He couldn’t get drunk or go clubbing because he had to be able to hear his phone. There were some nights he couldn’t wait to press his body into a throng of strangers and dance to oblivion, but tonight wasn’t one of them. He knew what he wanted to do.
If you’re available, I’m available.
It wasn’t the right thing, but it was the only thing he could think about. How she whimpered under him, how he loved to watch her and feel her shuddering with climax. He loved watching how he made her feel.
A really good guy would stay away.
But I’m just a man. A dog.
So he turned around and headed off the island toward Old Town.
Christy heard a knock at her door. She’d fallen asleep and the bathtub water had turned ice cold. She got out of the tub and quickly dried off, her heart pounding in her throat. With hair still dripping wet around the sides of her face, she slipped on her flowered silk robe, headed down the hall, then viewed Kyle’s face in profile through the peephole of her front door.
She quickly ran to her bedroom and made her bed, throwing her clothes behind the closet door. She put on some hand cream and then wished she’d gotten her legs and feet as well. She applied cherry lip-gloss and a spritzer of L’Interdit.
He came back.
She slowly walked back to the front door, took a big gulp, and pulled the door open, raising her gaze from his beltline up the hard chest encased in a baby blue T-shirt, up the thick clean-shaven neck to a square jaw, to the full lips and two light blue eyes. He stared back at her like he had the first time they made love. His need came across stronger than his control, and seeing that, she felt hope.
In an instant, he’d moved through the doorway and had kicked the front door closed behind him. His hands were suddenly inside her robe, exploring her flesh and igniting her passion. She tugged at his pants, then kneeled to unbutton his fly. He stripped off his T-shirt and removed his shoes. She kissed the head of his cock, then took his full length into her mouth, peeling his jeans down his tight cheeks to his ankles. She sucked him hard as he pulled her robe away and threw it into the corner. He leaned over her kneeling form, running his hands down her spine, over her shoulders and under her chin as she worked her tongue over him.
He moaned something she couldn’t make out.
He withdrew and kneeled in front of her. She didn’t care that she showed him how much she’d missed him.
“I can’t seem to stay away, Christy. You ensnare me and I willingly go…” He stopped speaking to plunge his tongue into her mouth, seeking hers, commanding her heart, pulling it out of her chest.
“I don’t want you to stay away, Kyle. I want…” She stopped before she said something she’d regret.
His hands grasped her jaw as he searched her eyes. Christy’s breasts rubbed against his hairless chest, nipples against nipples, and lazily moved one hand up and down his shaft while the other cupped his balls. His thumbs moved on her cheeks, then down to her lips as he bent and kissed her long and carefully, as if she were a china doll.
He picked her up with one arm under her knees and the other behind her shoulders. She buried her head in his neck, kissing him, biting him there. He placed her on the bed, then moved up to spread her legs and put his lips on her sex in one fluid movement. She offered no resistance, wanting him there. Her fingers dug into his thick brown hair and then moved behind his ears as his tongue pleasured her, licking her folds and sucking on her bud.
She asked to be found, and he found her, right there, between her legs, breathing life into her soul with his tongue and his hot breath.
Bending one knee and slipping her thigh in front of her, she turned to her belly to let him lap at her sex from the side and then behind. He placed two fingers deep inside her. She clutched the pillow and groaned into the fresh lavender linen, knowing he could see her face in profile. With her sighs and moans, Christy told him of her need and how beautifully he satisfied it.
She forced her rear up in the air, begging for penetration, and he pressed the crown of his cock at her opening. He slid inside her slowly so her body stretched and accepted his wide girth.
Bracing her arms in front of her, she placed her thighs outside his and arched her back up, then down as she impaled herself on him and ground into his groin He encased her back with his chest, whispering something in her ear and held her breasts with his palms, letting the pillows of her flesh overflow between his fingers.
“I love making love to you, Christy.”
Not exactly what she hoped to hear, but close. “Yes, Kyle. Oh...”
“Not possible”—he said between thrusts—“to stay away. Not possible.”
She shuddered and exploded in a warm, fluttering orgasm that shook every cell in her body. At the same time, his spasms filled her in more ways than one.
Only a few minutes had passed, and Kyle was still embedded inside her where they collapsed on the bed.
“Thank you,” Christy said as she turned to touch the side of his face with one hand, then trace over his lips. He bent and kissed her shoulder.
“I’m sorry I sent you away. I am so sorry.”
Christy snuggled against his chest, her fingers lacing over his lips. “I’m glad you came back.” Her hand reached down below and she found him nearly hard again.
“Oh, my,” she whispered to his belly button.
Kyle lay back, staring at the ceiling. Satisfied. This was the way it was supposed to feel. He’d finally found a woman who loved sex as much as he did.
Christy had fallen into a deep sleep, which surprised him. He loved the feel of her inhale and exhale, craved the sound of her gentle reverie. He drifted off, thinking about his other teammates.
Praise the Lord, Cooper would say. He smiled as he recalled the time when Cooper had told him how hot it made women when he read them the Love Chapter from Psalms.
He’d asked the guys to call him when they heard back from Cooper’s friend. Then he pictured Armando’s house and hoped it was not part of a crime scene investigation. He wondered what the intruders were after.
Probably guns.
He was the only one who knew about the hiding place in the corner of Armando’s bedroom—enough guns to start a small war. There’d be time to get his friend’s gear out of there later. This break-in m
eant Armando hadn’t given them what they wanted, unless they’d just found the guns. But Christy didn’t say anything about the floor being ripped up, so hopefully Armando still lived. And Mia as well.
Christy had cuddled herself under his chin. She awoke and stretched, then began stroking his chest with those nails of hers, tracing over a few scars, most of them from surfing. A few jagged ridges were from knife wounds due to close encounters with some pretty sorry-assed bad guys, all of whom hadn’t lived to tell their side of things.
He knew she waited for him to say something. Like it or not, she was involved, wanted to be involved. He hoped like hell she knew what she was doing. He sure didn’t. He’d never felt this way about a new relationship.
“Thank you, Christy.”
“For what?” She turned and gave him a crooked, wide-eyed smile.
“Thanks for the intel,” he whispered to the top of her head. He got back the warm scent of lavender.
“Oh.” She giggled. “No problem, sir. Anything else I can do for you?” She gripped his thigh between her legs.
A damned comedian, funny as hell. Is this how life with her would be? He studied her face, tilting up her chin, losing himself in the sparkle of her deep brown eyes. “No. I think you’ve done quite enough.” He saw the beginnings of a lusty smile form on her lips and knew it wouldn’t take long before he felt his own need growing. Again.
“Can I ask you what the message means? Or will I have to torture you to find out?” She kissed his left nipple and then licked it, swirling her tongue.
“Ah, not fair. Not sure this is in keeping with the Geneva Convention.”
“Shall I beg?”
“Please, no! I’m not sure I can get it up any more. I mean, my mind’s willing, but my body…”
She continued stroking him. “Please.”
With those eyes of hers, who would be able to deny her?
Hell, what would it hurt? He’d be telling her all sorts of things in a minute if he weren’t careful. “He said…” Kyle’s voice grew husky and ragged, but he continued. “He was trying to tell me he’s okay for now. But he’s heavily guarded, and whoever has him doesn’t mess around.”
Accidental SEAL (SEAL Brotherhood #1) Page 9
