Seth (In the Company of Snipers Book 17)

by Irish Winters

  This was what he’d been waiting for, this passionate woman who loved with her whole heart, and who threw every last bit of her soul into all she did. But when another flash of lightning struck close enough that he smelled ozone, it was time to move.

  “Come with me,” Seth urged as he lifted to his feet and took hold of her hand. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” He gave her no time to ask questions as they ran for cover. Easing the door open, so he didn’t bump Gru, Seth ushered her into his dark little shack, which had gotten darker with the storm.

  The lizard was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t stop Devereaux from looking around. “There’s no one here. Who’d you want me to meet?”

  Seth held a stern finger to his lips. “Shhh. He might be asleep. He needs to rest and—”

  “Uncle George? He came back? How could he? Where is he?”

  “No, not George, but…”

  Gru scurried out from under the bed then, puffed to twice his size, hissing, and snapping his tail like Zorro did his bullwhip.

  “Holy hell,” Seth gasped at the powerful display of reptilian wrath. “I love this guy!”

  Devereaux sank to her knees. “Gru! But how? But, but, but…”

  “But I guess Sly didn’t kill Gru after all. Must’ve knocked him out, is all I can figure.” Seth joined the happy reunion, content to sit by Devereaux wherever she landed.

  “But Sly stabbed him. I know he did. I saw the blood.”

  “Yeah, about that…” Seth scratched his itchy brow as his chest filled with that intoxicating, everything’s-right-with-my-world sensation. “Did you happen to notice if Sly’s hands were bandaged when we ran into him on the dock that night? I think most of what you saw was his blood, not this little dragon’s. Gru’s got a good-sized slice under his arm. I cleaned it and smeared antiseptic on it, but I’ve been reading up on iguanas. They don’t bleed all that much. All that blood on your hands and clothes must’ve been Sly’s. It’s just possible he got more than he bargained for when he tangled with Gru.”

  “No, I… I didn’t notice. I was too scared and…” A hiccup choked her reply. “But Gru was dead. I was so sure. He wasn’t moving, and he wasn’t breathing, and… oh man! I buried him alive!”

  Devereaux reached for her baby, but Gru hadn’t relaxed those beautiful pointy spines on his back yet. Uh-uh. Hissing, he lunged as if he meant to bite her fingertips, not moving forward, but just enough to be scary. Posturing his handsome, scaly body, and going for no-kidding intimidation—just like any guy who’d been buried alive by the woman he adored—Gru’s throat swelled, and with it, the puffy discs on his cheeks all but glowed with opalescent defiance.

  “Has he ever bitten you?” Seth had to ask before things got further out of hand. Gru looked that pissed.

  Devereaux shook her head, raindrops spraying his face when she tossed her silvery-white locks. “Never. It was love at first sight. Honest. Here, baby. Come to Mama,” she crooned, her fingers extended again as she coaxed her scaly ‘baby’ to let her approach.

  Which Gru did. It took him a couple minutes, but finally, the ridge of spines up his tail and back relaxed. He seemed to deflate, especially when she curled her index finger under his chin and scratched. Damned if that tiny dinosaur didn’t close both eyes and smile. The corners of his lizard lips curved up. Seth was sure they did. Obviously, Devereaux was as irresistible to male iguanas as she was to him.

  Shoving up from the floor, Seth grabbed a dry t-shirt from the end of his bed and shrugged into it. From the bathroom cupboard, he snagged a couple bath towels and handed them to Devereaux.

  “Thanks,” she said as she wrapped one around her shoulders and the other in a turban over her head while still holding Gru. Uncle George had installed an electric heater beneath the kitchen cabinet. Seth set it on low, and then rejoined the happy family in the middle of his floor.

  He kept his distance this time, though, his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped between them. Women were highly sensitive, emotional creatures. He wasn’t about to assume Devereaux wanted anything more than that first impetuous kiss she’d blessed him with on shore. She hadn’t come out here in the middle of a treacherous storm for no reason. She wanted something. It’d be nice if that something were him, but yeah. Seth knew better than to jump to that crazy conclusion again. He held back, and he held on.

  Gru wasn’t the cuddly type, yet damned if he wasn’t snuggling on Devereaux’s lap while she stroked the floppy dewlap under his chin and rocked him like a kid. The funny guy basked—yes, basked—in her arms. His eyes closed, and his chin lifted the way it did when he’d been soaking up the early morning sun. The sappy sight was enough to make a hot-blooded man jealous of a cold-blooded reptile.

  At that uneasy realization, Seth scrambled to his feet and retrieved the supplies he’d left outside at the front door. The sand in the bucket was good and wet, and the rug wasn’t much better. They stayed where they were, while he came up with the only other option. Looks like Gru’s sleeping under my bed tonight.

  Leaning his hip to the kitchen counter, Seth crossed his arms over his chest. The one thing every soldier did best was to hurry up and wait. It happened on good days, bad days, and in between, I’m-so-bored-out-of-my-mind days. That was Army life for you. Hurry up and wait, then get ready to do it again tomorrow.

  So he waited. After soothing her baby a few moments longer, Devereaux lifted her gaze. The prettiest topaz-blue gaze rested on Seth. Except for her blonde hair, the black towel she’d draped over her head gave her the Mideastern appearance of a much younger girl. An innocent girl. With the way she chewed the inside of her cheek, there was hope in the look she sent him. Her hair was tousled and wet. The apples of her cheeks glowed red. Her eyes seemed bluer. Darker.

  “Thank you for what you’ve done for Gru, Seth,” she said very quietly. “I don’t deserve it, not after the way I treated you.”

  “Yeah, well…” he mumbled, suddenly ashamed how he’d wallowed in yet another pity party of his own making last night. “He’s the one who scratched his way out of his grave. I just intercepted him before he hit the beach and took off.”

  Devereaux closed her eyes, her lashes spiked and wet. This courageous woman had some hefty problems of her own, yet she hadn’t resorted to feeling sorry for herself. If anything, she gave back a hundredfold. Scottie had no idea how much his mother sacrificed for him, but the cute little guy definitely knew he was loved, and that was most important. And look at that charming Gru. He’d returned from the dead, and by hell. He. Was. Smiling.

  “How about a cup of coffee?” Seth asked as he set his long legs to doing something useful, like walking over to Uncle George’s compact fridge for a dozen eggs, then whipping up a couple omelets to go along with that coffee. Devereaux needed the distraction of breakfast as much as he did. His stomach had set to growling, which reminded him. The generator out back needed more fuel, but he’d left the pontoon boat docked on the mainland. Not smart, McCray.

  Easing out from under Gru, Devereaux lifted to her bare feet. “Seth.”

  He turned, and damn. There were no words for the beauty standing in the middle of his uncle’s shack, and Seth couldn’t have uttered them if there were. A beat of silence stretched between them. His brain turned to mush, just before an intense bolt of desire traveled the short distance, from her sultry blue eyes to his, like sniper fire.

  “Yes?” he replied, his voice gone rough with desire. The storm crashed outside. Lightning still flashed, and thunder still cracked like Thor’s hammer. Rain poured down in wicked, noisy torrents, but Seth could’ve stood and stared at Devereaux forever. The light in her eyes was back, and he was falling.

  She took one step to him. No smile breached her pretty pink lips, but those blues brimmed with an ocean of regret and repentance. Aw, hell. He was no hardass, just a weak, lonely man seeking his own repentance for dealing with the crap life had thrown at him. They weren’t so different.


  Closing the distance, Seth tugged her willing warm body against him and prayed for another chance to be part of her life. For a kiss. Hell, he’d settle for a crumb if it came from her hand. What he got was a luscious armful of Devereaux Shepherd.

  Chapter Nineteen

  At last. Dev launched herself, crashing into Seth’s powerful chest, and not willing to settle for less this time around. He wrapped her legs around his hips, while his hands mapped the feel of her skin from the crook of her knees to the curve of her ass. His fingers kneaded her derrière when they finally settled, while she clung to his neck and took extra special care of his mouth.

  Fire burned between them. Red-hot flames that licked up her spine and her belly, then nipped at her breasts, hardening both tips into diamonds against his chest muscles. So, so good. She arched, pushing for more of that incredible, out of control sensation he’d started, the lust building between them like a flash fire she relished with every wild beat of her pulse.

  A groan lifted up his throat, filling her mouth as her tongue tangled with his, stroking and dancing, tasting and craving. Seth. All she wanted was Seth in her mouth and in her body. In her soul.

  “Bed,” he mumbled, returning lick for lick and groan for groan.

  “Yes,” she hissed, her core weeping for the hardening length now grinding against the inseam of her rain-drenched shorts.

  She had no idea where Gru was at the moment, but Seth must have known. He was thoughtful and careful like that. When he released her to stand on her own two feet, she stood at his bedside. But the look on his face…

  There was heat in those whiskey brown eyes, a scorching ferocity that snapped between them. It was lust. It was fire. It was flame. His. Hers. Electricity lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. Was he primed to attack—or was she?

  Careful not to break eye contact, she let the towels drop to the floor. He stretched one arm over his back and his shirt landed with them. His eyes had gone dark and bright at the same time, like a panther on the prowl, gauging her every move. But the sight of that muscled wall… The tension in those very athletic shoulders… The sheer size and width of this guy… Focus!

  Dev hadn’t dressed for the storm. Floridians spent most of their lives in shorts and swimming attire. It took mere seconds to lose the tiny t-shirt and shorts she’d put on earlier. By then, he stood before her in only boxers with one magnificent hard-on.

  An unexpected groan rumbled up from her belly. This guy was all man, a real man, plain and simple. A massively gentle man with muscles to spare and every last one of them was primed for action, one in particular.

  Like the palm trees in the wind, she bent with the hurricane called Seth, brushing the rigid tips of her breasts to his pecs and moaning when those tender buds tightened even more. Her entire body ached with a desire so intense, there was only one remedy. Him. Now.

  Because he hadn’t yet moved, she lifted a knee to the edge of the bed and ran her hand over the mussed sheets, clearing them out of her way. “Want to talk?” she asked coyly.

  A hungry man’s gaze stared back at her, but Seth shook his head. He wanted her, that was very obvious, yet he stood at the foot of the bed, flexing his fingers.

  She patted the mattress beside her in case he was undecided. “Sit with me?”

  Another headshake, and “Why are you here?” he asked, his voice still thick with lust and his chest heaving. “I need to know.”

  Oh, that.

  Damn. Why was she here, and nearly naked at that? Just to use Seth again? Just to rely on his inherent honor and goodness for her own purpose? To take and take and take? Sure seemed like it.

  Dev tugged the sheet up to her chin, needing the cover. No matter what she said or did next, her reasons for being here had not always been pure. Initially, she’d come because Cord needed Seth’s help, and like a fool, she’d put Cord’s need above everything and everyone else. Again.

  But somewhere between Key West and Drunken Sailor Island, somewhere between the ‘more’ that Cord always demanded of her, and what Trish advised, Dev’s heart had stood up to be heard. Until these last days, her life had been all about Scottie and making a decent life for him. She’d been Cord’s willing baby sister after he’d appeared on her doorstep with his latest need to serve America. Man, she loved the guy, and she’d jumped into his mission with both eyes open to save what women and children they could. She thought she’d known what she was getting into. Helping women and girls escape human trafficking was a noble cause, but somewhere between that noble need to serve and the reality of holding onto a minimum wage job, mothering Scottie, and striving to be all she could be, Dev had lost—Dev.

  Cord had no idea how much he asked of her and Scottie, or how much it took out of her, financially and emotionally. Yes, she was strapped for cash and walking a fine line with her boss, but every person Cord had rescued had also taken a thread from the fabric of her soul. Knowing precisely what they’d suffered at the hands of human traffickers tore at Dev, but knowing that there were so many more out there in the world whom she hadn’t been able to help, made sleep a hard commodity to come by. Not to mention she worried day and night for Scottie’s safety. Sly thought he’d killed Gru. What would he do next time, break and enter? Threaten Scottie? Worse?

  It had to change, and for the first time in years, Dev realized she had needs too, needs that didn’t just tend towards childcare and brotherly love. This was about filling her cup for a change, grabbing that damned gold ring with her name engraved on it, just hers. She’d been running on empty for years, and she was hungry. Her candle wasn’t just burning at both ends. Hell no. It had long since melted into a wickless, worthless puddle of wax.

  Did she love her brother? Absolutely. Was she an undercover operative like his buddies? Never and neither did she want to be. Did she adore Scottie? Undeniably. And Seth? Was she ready to climb into bed with him because of Cord’s imminent return to Cuba, or because she truly cared about Seth?

  “I, ah, I…” Her lashes fell. There was no taking anything back. Cord did need Seth’s help, but Cord had nothing to do with why she’d tossed her clothes to the floor. “I’ll be honest,” she said, meeting Seth’s unwavering stare. “Yes, I came here to ask you to help my brother.”

  Seth blinked once. His gaze shifted from passionate to indifferent to somewhere over her left shoulder.

  Dev tugged the sheet tighter under her chin, wishing she weren’t such a spontaneous idiot. “But that’s only because I knew I could depend on you even if you were, umm, are—angry with me. You’re a good man, Seth. You’re strong and you’re noble. You’re courageous and you’re true.” And I’m still Chatty Cathy. “But I had time to think on the way out here.” She swallowed her pride. “I’m… I’m tired of what I’ve become. I’m tired of giving everything I own away every time Cord shows up with another boatload of desperate women and girls. I love what I do, but I want more than empty cupboards in my house and in my heart at the end of the day.” She dashed the blur of unwanted tears off her lashes. “There has to be something besides work in this crazy life of mine, and I…” Big sigh. “I want that something to be you.”

  His head canted ever so slightly as his gaze reconnected. Trembling with the audacity of her words, Dev only lifted her chin higher. Somewhere out there on the ocean, in the gale between Key West and Drunken Sailor Island, she’d found her heart’s desire, and he’d better stop standing there and looking at her like she was crazy, or… or… had she read this all wrong?

  Embarrassment enflamed her cheeks. Maybe that was precisely what he was thinking, that she was just some crazy chick with a kid and an iguana and a death wish.

  “Never mind,” she bit out. “I know what this must look like, so think what you want. Yeah, I’m easy and I’m fast. And I’m stupid. Don’t forget stupid.” Shit, I am so stoo-pid!

  She shoved his covers away, not caring that she was half-naked and making a fool of herself. Stupid people did that! It was p
ast time to go and he needed to get out of her way. “Listen, I had no right to come here, not after what I said last night, and—”

  And Seth was in her face, his mouth a heady suction on her lips. He ravaged her mouth, biting the bottom lip gently, tugging at it for her to let him in. Opening her mouth for him, she eased onto the pillow, breathing hard and ready to give him whatever he wanted.

  His fingers moved greedily from her neck to her shoulders, then one hand slipped down to cup her breast. Palming the weight of it, he kissed a moist, hot trail to the valley between her satin encased breasts.

  Breathing hard, Seth buried his face there, his breath scalding her sensitive skin. Dev pressed her nose into his short hair, breathing in the salt and rain they’d run through. He hadn’t moved, and she couldn’t make him, his wide shoulders expanding and contracting with every breath as he lay there. Just breathing. Just holding. Urgently on fire for the timid warrior in her arms, she lifted her hips in case he had any second thoughts.

  While she waited, she used her time wisely, smoothing her fingers over his shoulder blades and up the back of his neck, rubbing her fingertips into his scalp and over his ears. Memorizing the jut of his jaw and the press of his thighs between her knees. Mapping warm male flesh that quivered at her touch like the withers of a giant draft horse in the sun. Kissing what she could reach of his forehead.

  “I’m not into casual sex,” he growled to her breasts, the rumble a delicious vibration against her naked skin. “I don’t cut and run. If we do this…” Another rumbly growl. “It means I’m staying.”

  “Yes, yes, stay,” she agreed, her eyes closed as she absorbed the heat coming off this man.

  That seemed to do the trick. With expert slowness, Seth tugged her bra straps off her shoulders and eased the cups down to her belly. He tipped his upper body just enough for the heated lust in those whiskey browns to scorch a path over her bare skin. Never well-endowed, Dev thrilled at the male satisfaction simmering as his hooded gaze licked at each nipple, then down her centerline to her navel. And below.