by Tawny Weber
“Sage, I’m glad you’re home,” the doctor said, his expression gravely relieved.
“What’s going on?”
She looked from her father to the doctor then back again.
“Dad?”
“Sweetie, I’ll explain everything,” he promised, patting her icy hand. Despite his horrible appearance, he looked like he’d just won the lottery, discovered a time machine and had spent the weekend with a roomful of exotic dancers, combined. His huge smile was at direct odds with the dread in her belly.
“But first, sweetie, I want all the details of your great news. I hear we’re having a wedding.”
2
The present
AHH, VILLA ROSA.
He’d been gone quite a while. Two tours and his last couple leaves spent in sunny places meant he hadn’t been back in well over a year. Long enough that Chief Petty Officer Aiden Masters wondered why he still considered Villa Rosa home. Or if he did.
For a guy that spent most of his life on a naval base, transferring from the east to the west coast and back and called an APO his mailing address, home was an odd concept.
There were plenty of odes to coming home in literature. Hell, Odysseus had spent two decades obsessed with the task. Movies were sold on the theme month after month. People made a big deal out of it all the time.
But for Aiden, coming home was a mystery. Was he supposed to feel nostalgia over crossing the city limits of Villa Rosa, just because he’d spent time here as a kid? Or was that special feeling reserved for the little corner of Idaho he’d been born in, even though he hadn’t been there since he was two? Was familiarity a qualifier to calling a place his own? Was it longevity, since he’d lived here longer than any other place? Maybe the fact that he owned a little cottage on the outskirts of Villa Rosa? More for a place to store his parents’ things than because he wanted a tax write-off.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t sentiment. Aiden was too smart to make decisions based on vague feelings of longing or silly emotions.
Yet, that morning he’d left Coronado Naval Base with a vague plan to take the first plane heading somewhere hot. But he’d hit the airport, and found himself asking for a ticket to San Francisco instead. From there, he’d rented a car and drove the three hours north.
And he still wasn’t sure why.
He just knew something was missing, off.
What, he hadn’t figured out.
Yet.
Driving through the narrow, familiar streets, Aiden watched the people, recognizing many of them. So if he was home, as per some definitions of the concept, why was he still so unsatisfied? What the hell was wrong with him?
Stopped at a red light, he scrubbed one hand over his face and sighed. Or maybe he’d just sleep. Damn, he was tired. This last mission had been a bitch. Rough enough to have him entertaining the rare thought of hanging up his naval uniform and doing something else.
Something chill.
Like sleeping.
That could be the fact that other than zoning out on the hour-long flight, he hadn’t had any shut-eye in about two days. No biggie. Aiden was used to operating at peak efficiency under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Still, sleep would be good.
Or maybe his bunkmate, Castillo, had been right when he’d told Aiden to go get laid on leave.
Sex had definite appeal.
But sex in Villa Rosa? Not such a hot idea.
He returned a couple of waves, even though he didn’t know the people’s names. Of course, they probably didn’t know his either. In a town the size of Villa Rosa, waves didn’t tend to be personal. They were more a random greeting offered to friend and stranger alike. Or a warning that yes, they’d seen his vehicle and were noting his license number. Just in case.
Or maybe too much time in the Middle East, facing distrust, destruction and despair had gotten to him.
Maybe that’s why he’d felt the need to see this place. Because nothing in his life was personal, and he was starting to wonder why.
Including sex.
His stomach growled, making itself heard over the Stones pounding out of the radio. A timely reminder that once he reached the cottage, his cupboards were gonna be bare.
So when the light turned green, he turned left instead of going straight, deciding to get a few things to tide him over. At least until tomorrow, when he’d visit the Professor and get some real food.
Thinking of the old guy made him smile. It’d be good to catch up. Visit. Talk about things that required brains, not brawn. Get his ass kicked at chess and expand his mind a little. He could always count on Professor Lee Taylor for all of that.
Parking in front of the small grocer’s, Aiden pocketed the keys and headed for beer and cereal. All he’d need, he decided, to last until he could hit the old guy up for eggs Benedict in the morning.
“Well, well, look at the soldier boy.”
Aiden glanced over as a bruiser the size of Lieutenant Castillo and twice as ugly sauntered over. It took less than a second to place him. Two years older than Aiden and three grades behind, the star of the football team had a reputation for being an ass to the ladies.
“Aren’t you supposed to wear a little white uniform or something, Soldier Boy?” the guy asked as he reached Aiden.
“That’s sailor, not soldier, and I’m off duty,” Aiden responded quietly, sliding the guy a sideways glance that didn’t pack any more punch than he’d offer any other asshole who was in his way.
The guy blinked a couple of times, then shifted a step to the right, putting a little distance between them and lifted both hands as if in surrender.
“Dude, no offense. Just wanted to stop you and say congratulations,” the guy said, slapping Aiden on the back. His just-this-side-of-nasty grin and the extra force of that slap were in keeping with Aiden’s memory of him being a dickhead. “You caught yourself a wild one. Good luck taming her.”
Taming who?
Aiden didn’t ask, though. He had a policy against engaging dickheads. Instead, he offered a dismissive smile and kept moving toward the grocery store.
He didn’t make it through the automatic doors before he was grabbed by a very large, very plush woman who he thought he might have taken a piano lesson from once in first grade.
Before he could ask what the hell was up, she started babbling and blubbering at the same time, pulling him into a hug that smelled like cinnamon rolls.
“Oh, Aiden, I’m so happy for you. Congratulations. You’re a lucky man.” She leaned back to pat his cheeks with both of her plump hands, smiling so wide he didn’t have the heart to let her know she was crazy. “After all this time, you’ll have a family again. Such a blessing.”
He’d been seventeen when his parents were killed. He was thirty years old now. Hardly a helpless orphan then, or now. So what was she talking about, he’d have a family? Afraid to find out, Aiden smiled instead and mumbled a thanks. His stomach growling, he quickly extricated himself and headed into the store.
A minute later, six-pack in hand, he headed for the cereal aisle.
“Aiden? Aiden Masters?”
Hanging his head, wondering why he’d thought Villa Rosa was a good place to rest, Aiden sighed then turned. A little of the edgy exhaustion faded at the sight of Sergeant Gary Davis, a local cop and a great guy.
The two men came together in a solid chest-bumping hug, shaking hands and grinning at each other as they took stock of how each had held up over time.
“I haven’t seen you since you stood as best man at my wedding.”
Right. Gary had married that little redhead, AnaMaria.
“What’s that been? Two years,” Aiden calculated. “I wanted to make it back last year for Eric’s wedding but I was on duty.”
On a rescue mission gone miserably wrong, Aiden remembered. They’d lost one guy, almost lost another to the aftereffects. He ground his teeth at the memory, trying to shrug off the tight bands of stress gripping him. Brody Lane was back on duty, e
ngaged to be married, even. The team was solid. Carrying the weight of missions past only weighed on a guy, Aiden knew. So, as he always did, he made himself focus on the here and now.
Which was his high school buddy, who was nodding, his grin widening as if he were thinking of just how good those couple of married years had been.
“Guess we’ll be celebrating your wedding soon, right?”
Huh? Aiden squinted, wondering if his old friend had taken a few head shots. He’d have thought Villa Rosa was a pretty mellow place, but you never knew.
“I’m impressed,” Gary said, shaking his head as if baffled was a better term. “If there was a pool over whom everyone thought was least likely to marry, I swear it’d have been a tie between the two of you. And now you’re getting together?”
Again...huh? A surreptitious sniff assured him that Gary hadn’t taken to drinking on the job.
So what the hell was he talking about?
Before Aiden could ask, the radio on Gary’s belt crackled. The sergeant responded, then gave Aiden a gotta go look.
“Congrats, man,” his buddy said as he headed down the aisle. “I know some people think she’s a little weird, with all the traveling and crazy jobs she’s had. But she and AnaMaria are tight, so I know how great she really is. And her father must be thrilled. He’s always had a soft spot for you.”
A thrilled father. Crazy jobs and traveling.
No longer needing to ask what everyone was talking about, Aiden’s gaze shifted to the front of the grocery store, where he could see the highest hill in Villa Rosa through the gleaming plate glass.
Sage.
As always, just her name invoked a gutful of mixed feelings. Exasperation, affection, lust.
Damn, what’d she done this time?
Handing the beer to a passing stock boy, Aiden made a beeline for the exit, not stopping to talk to anyone on the way to his car.
Professor Lee Taylor had been a lifesaver to a ten-year-old brainiac geek with more IQ points than social skills, who was too advanced even for the gifted program. Realizing that ten was just too young to take classes alongside college students, the Professor had created a special curriculum and tutored Aiden himself. He’d shown Aiden the thrill of expanding his brain, of accepting his mental skills. He’d welcomed him into his home, first at fifteen when Aiden hadn’t wanted to follow his parents to New York, then at seventeen when his parents had been killed in the Twin Towers. He’d provided a touchstone, been a mentor and always given Aiden a sense of acceptance.
And then there was his daughter, Sage.
Three years Aiden’s junior, she was about as opposite in personality of her father as the sun was from the moon. But like the Professor, she’d welcomed Aiden into their family with a no-strings open-armed sort of acceptance. Despite her father’s focus on his protégé, she’d never shown any jealousy. Rather, she’d seemed relieved that her dad had found someone like Aiden, taking the pressure off of her.
As a thanks for that, she’d spent a good portion of the last two decades driving him crazy.
So Aiden no longer questioned why people thought he and Sage were engaged. He knew the prodigal daughter must be home and for reasons probably only clear to herself, was up to something. He just had to find out what.
And then decide what he wanted to do about it.
Knowing better than to prejudge, or even try to guess about anything Sage did, he kept his mind clear of questions as he made his way up the hill to the Taylor house. He parked behind a handful of cars in the circular driveway. As soon as he opened his door the sound of laughter and splashing water hit him.
Not bothering with the front door, he made his way around the house toward the pool. Set a few hundred yards away from the house, the Professor had built the waterfall-inspired feature as a treat for his daughter when she’d decided she wanted to be a mermaid. Not to swim, or for sunbathing. That wasn’t whimsical enough for Sage.
And knowing his daughter’s love of socializing—something that baffled both the Professor and Aiden alike—he’d built it big, with ample room for entertaining and a large gazebo at one end.
It was around that white open-aired building that most of the crowd gathered.
And there, like the most exotic flower in the garden, was Sage. Aiden had a special radar when it came to her. Call it an eye for trouble, or the fact that despite his best efforts to keep her out, she always snuck into his sexiest fantasies. It didn’t matter that she looked nothing like the last time he’d seen her, or that her back was to him, it didn’t take him more than a glance to pick her out of the crowd.
Rather than pitch-black and edgy, her hair was back to her natural blond, waving halfway down her back. Even from behind, her tall, slender frame was as familiar to him as his own. And her laugh rang out, the welcome home he hadn’t realized he was waiting for.
As usual, she was surrounded by people. A few he recognized from the social events he’d attended from time to time while home on leave. A few he knew from school.
None of them mattered.
It was hard to pay attention to anything, anyone, since Sage was wearing a bikini.
A couple of teeny, tiny turquoise scraps of fabric that covered little, but did a great job of drawing attention to the curves between the material.
When whoever she was talking to gestured, Sage quickly turned.
Aiden desperately hoped his moan was only in his head and not aloud. Because oh, baby, she was gorgeous.
Her breasts filled the bikini top with a generous bounty, her curves an ode, he knew, to her yoga discipline and not any sort of diet. Already pale gold, despite it only being spring, her skin seemed to glow. To beckon. His fingers itched to touch.
His desperate need for her always took him by surprise. As was his habit whenever he saw her again, he had to warn himself to keep his distance. No touching, no lusting. He knew from experience that it’d only take a few minutes, an hour tops, before the message sank in.
All that SEAL training for command over his body came in handy for this kind of thing.
Because Sage Taylor was strictly off-limits.
As if hearing and mocking his thoughts, she clapped her hands together with her usual exuberance at the sight of him and hurried barefoot across the lawn.
The crowd followed.
At least, Aiden thought it did. There was a blur of bodies moving behind her bikini-clad form. But he was so busy trying not to drool and commanding his erection to stand down that he wasn’t positive.
Damn, she had gorgeous legs.
“Aiden,” she called when she was a few yards away. Her smile as wide as her legs were long, she threw out both arms as if to hug him from across the yard. “I didn’t realize you were coming home.”
There was something there beneath the bright smile and enthusiastic tone. But before he could figure out what, she was close enough that her scent wrapped around him. A mix of fresh grass, some sort of incense and the faint aroma of flowers.
“I hear you’re causing trouble again,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “Isn’t that always more fun if I’m here to appreciate it?”
“Me?” she asked with a laugh, pressing one hand against her lush chest and making him want to whimper. “When have I ever caused trouble?”
“When haven’t you?” he responded with a grin of his own.
“I’m innocent, I tell ya,” she claimed as she reached him.
“Right. Like I’m dumb enough to believe that?” He fell into the easy, teasing banter, knowing the faster they reestablished those friendly boundaries, the faster his body would get the message.
“Aww, you sweet talker, you.” Her eyes, a few shades lighter than her swimsuit, danced with glee. But they were shadowed, hinting at worry and stress. Two things he’d never associated with Sage.
“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly, glancing behind her at the people slowly making their way toward them.
“Like I said, I didn’t realize you were going to
be home so soon,” she told him, frowning a little as she too looked at her posse.
Since he hadn’t realized he was coming home either until that morning when he’d changed his flight from Aruba to San Francisco, he was sure that was true. But that wasn’t what was bothering her.
“Sage?”
“I’m sorry, babe,” she said, a hint of something in her husky tone that put his senses on full alert. “I know you wanted to keep it a secret. But I’m so bad at that kind of thing, and when Dad asked, I just had to tell him our news.”
“What news—” Before he could finish his very reasonable question, Sage threw herself into his arms with enough force to catch him by surprise.
Not over the move.
He’d come to expect anything and everything from his mentor’s daughter over the years.
But over the desperation that had her body tight and her hands shaking as they curved over his shoulders. She was in trouble. And not simple trouble, this time. His body tensed, his hands going to her waist as much to comfort as to hold her in place so he could inspect her face.
As soon as he touched her, tiny explosions of need shot through him. Ignoring them, he tried to read her expression and figure out why she was pretending to be happy when she looked so deeply miserable.
Lucky for him his body was good at multitasking.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his words low.
He looked at the small crowd gathered behind her. Before he could ask why everyone was wearing a cheesy grin and staring like he’d just won a Nobel Prize, Sage moved even closer.
Plastered that sweet—oh, God, she felt so sweet—body against his in a way guaranteed to command his full attention.
Then, before he could push her away or even demand an explanation for the crazy public behavior, she planted that full, usually babbling mouth on his.
And Aiden forgot everything.
His demand for information.
His reasonable argument.
