by Tawny Weber
Hell, by dawn, he’d been imagining the kinds of sex he’d barely been aware existed before.
Damn Sage.
And damn her daring him to enforce rule four.
He threw his car into gear, heading up the hill toward the Taylor house. He hadn’t seen his so-called fiancée since she’d offered a vague excuse of rejoining her friends, leaving Aiden and the Professor to have dinner alone together the previous night.
Just as well. He’d had enough trouble hearing the details of the Professor’s health issues—officially—from the Professor. Aiden knew it would have been even harder for Sage to hear it again. Especially as the Professor had taken the intellectual route, detailing the various options, side effects and prognosis statistics.
You’d have thought that information, the dire possibilities, would have filled Aiden’s head all night instead of the vivid fantasies of doing his mentor’s daughter.
Before he could sink into yet another one of those fantasies, his cell phone buzzed. Normally he’d ignore it. But desperate for a distraction, he pulled to the side of the road and hit talk.
“Dude, you on a beach covered in half-naked chicks yet?”
Aiden smirked. Leave it to Castillo to get right to the point.
“Nope. No beach, no naked chicks. What’s up?”
“Big mission.”
Aiden rolled his eyes. Castillo was as long-winded as he was subtle.
“I’m on leave.”
“You don’t wanna miss this one.”
That’s all the lieutenant said. Not because he was trying to be sly, but because protocol mandated that anything about the mission was classified. Even though Aiden was a part of the team, he wasn’t on duty, this wasn’t a secure line and he hadn’t been briefed by a commanding officer.
“No can do. I came home to some rough news.”
Castillo was silent for a second before clearing his throat and offering a rough, “Sucks, man.”
Despite the pounding in his temples and the stress of the situation, Aiden had to grin. The guy should be writing Hallmark cards.
“Without you, Banks is going to pull recon duty,” Castillo pointed out. “Last mission we did with him, he hotdogged the whole thing.”
“He’s good at his job,” Aiden pointed out fairly.
Still, he knew how Castillo felt. Banks had joined the team late last year, a replacement for Carter.
The sudden pain, the reminder of losing his buddy on that mission last winter, hit Aiden like a kick in the gut. Intellectually, he knew that was the risk they all took. Not just by putting their lives on the line, but by caring about the other guys who were right there with them. But for once, Aiden didn’t find any comfort in logic.
Still, that’s the way the military was. Nobody was irreplaceable. Even as specially trained and elite as the SEALs were, when one fell, another was there to step into his place.
Most days, Aiden accepted that as fact.
These days, it was just another fingernail on his emotional chalkboard.
“Don’t like working with divas,” Castillo grunted, pulling Aiden’s attention back to the phone call. The lieutenant was a guy who believed the old adage, there’s no I in Team.
“He’s good at what he does,” Aiden repeated. “He’s got solid recon training, and he’s a damned good medic.”
“Just because he’s got skills doesn’t mean he’s got heart,” Castillo said.
Heart was everything.
That’s what made a team, well, a team.
Aiden had only served one mission with Banks, but from what he’d observed so far, Castillo was right. The guy was a loner. That didn’t mean he didn’t have heart, though. Hell, Aiden was an integral part of the team and he wasn’t sure of his own heart anymore.
It was either gone or buried.
Dammit.
“I’ll call you in five,” he said, hitting the off button before he could give in to temptation and say more.
Aiden stared, unseeing, out the windshield, row after row of grapevines a blur.
Was he burned out? Was he just overwhelmed by the emotional impact of losing Carter, of facing the very real possibility of losing Professor Taylor?
Or was his brain blood-starved after an exhausted night of horny overload?
Aiden considered all of those valid reasons for his current stress level, and none of them necessary reasons for him to head back early. He was a dedicated SEAL, his entire life revolving around serving his country.
A few people, especially here in Villa Rosa, thought he served for revenge. That he’d joined the navy with a laser focus on being a SEAL because of his parents’ death in the Twin Towers attack.
Those people were wrong.
And they were right.
He had joined with the goal of stopping terrorists. But not for revenge. Intellectually, revenge wasn’t strategic. But actively working to prevent that kind of thing from ever happening again? There was enough strategy in that for Aiden to be comfortable making it a career. A calling, even.
He sighed. Glanced at his phone.
Would he be heading back because it was his calling? Because he was necessary for the success of this mission?
Nope.
As good as he was, he was just another tool in the SEALs’ arsenal. A damned good one, but he wasn’t irreplaceable.
Bottom line, he wanted to escape.
He just wasn’t sure what he was trying to escape from.
He actually wanted to turn the car around, head straight for the airport and leave a message at the Taylors’ that he’d been called back on duty.
They’d both unquestionably accept his decision. While neither understood his career choice, they’d never questioned his devotion to it either.
It was the perfect excuse. Then he could lose himself in a mission that would demand one-hundred-and-ten percent of his focus. He could put all worries of the Professor’s health out of his mind. And he could avoid any and all physical contact with Sage. The more he was with her, the hotter the fantasies were getting. But this mission would mean he’d most likely be halfway around the world, being shot at. It was pretty damned difficult to entertain sexual fantasies while dodging bullets.
He rested his forehead on the steering wheel, hating the decision he knew he was about to make.
Hating the drama it was going to embroil him in and the slew of tangled, messy problems it was guaranteed to create.
But hating a situation had never stopped him from facing it before. So he reached for his phone.
“No can do,” he told Castillo when the other guy answered. “I’ve got my own life-or-death scenario here, complete with its own set of hazards and challenges.”
* * *
IT WAS ABOUT TIME.
Sage had been watching for Aiden all morning. Peeking through the front curtains like a nosy neighbor, or worse, a lovesick schoolgirl, for the past hour. Finally, he was here.
Her eyes narrowed as she peered through the window.
He looked terrible.
She wasn’t sure if it was worry over her father that had him looking so unhappy. Or if he was feeling the misery of their engagement. Preferably the latter, since she could charm him out of that. Hopefully.
“Good morning,” Sage greeted in a singsong tone, welcoming him with a bright smile as he mounted the front steps. Sunshine filled the porch, haloing around his head, adding intensity to his furrowed brow and grumpy look. All those years in the military didn’t seem to have made Aiden a morning person.
No matter. Sage loved mornings enough for both of them. So much so that she widened her smile and shifted to gesture him inside. As soon as he crossed the threshold, she stood on tiptoe to brush a kiss across his cheek. Then pressed her lips tight together to keep from grinning at his scowl.
Yep. He was still a morning grump.
A cute one, too, she noted, her smile dimming.
“You’re just in time,” she said, determined to ignore the sexual flutter i
n her tummy as the scent of his soap wrapped around her. “We need to talk over plans for our engagement party before my dad wakes up from his nap.”
“An engagement party?” Aiden looked horrified as he handed her the white sack filled with delicious scents.
Sage’s stomach growled and her mouth watered.
She spent most of her life focusing on being healthy. Spirit, mind and body, she fed them all the best.
Daily meditation, thought-provoking books. And a healthy organic diet. Whole foods, low fats and lots of vegetables.
She didn’t pollute her spirit with nastiness, her mind with negativity. Or her body with processed foods.
But Tilly’s donuts were special.
Amazingly special.
She sniffed the rich cinnamon-filled air, all but licking her lips. Of course, Tilly’s apple-cinnamon donuts went beyond amazingly simple into the realms of magic.
And Sage made a point to always embrace magic.
She’d like to embrace it right here in the foyer, but she had the feeling that Mrs. Green, her father’s housekeeper, would smack her if she did.
“What do you mean, we’re having an engagement party?” Aiden prodded, not caring that she was contemplating magic. “That’s a stupid idea.”
Hmm. She peered at his face, noting that he looked more irritated than upset. A night’s sleep at his own place and a delicious breakfast at Tilly’s clearly hadn’t gotten him any closer to embracing their newfound coupledom. Sage gave him a long look, noting that he didn’t look any more rested this morning than he had after traveling yesterday.
Jet lag over flying home from who knew where?
Or something deeper?
She tilted her head to one side, her hair sliding in a heavy wave over her bare shoulder to tickle her elbow. Aiden never talked about the navy. When he was home, it was as if that part of his life was a completely different world. Here, he was supergeek, the cute brainiac who cozied up with the Professor to feed his brain cells.
But this time he didn’t seem to be shaking off the stress. Granted, it wasn’t yet even twenty-four hours since he’d crossed the city limits. Nor had Sage been home at the same time he was in over two years. So maybe this was SOP for Chief Petty Officer Masters.
But she was still worried.
“Earth to Sage,” he said, looking irritated when she frowned. “We were having a conversation. You want to rejoin it?”
“No. You were offering your opinion of the intelligence of having an engagement party,” she corrected precisely. Since asking was pointless, Sage decided to keep a close eye on him until she was sure Aiden wasn’t hurting over something more than her father’s prognosis. Stress, she knew he could deal with. Worry was part and parcel of his personality. But if he was hurting, she’d have to step in and help. Somehow.
“It is a stupid idea. Why the hell would we want to have one?” No longer just looking exhausted, he’d added horrified to his expression. Sage didn’t know if the reaction was specific to their situation, or if almost any guy would be just as freaked at being told he was going on groom-grooming display.
“Because my father has decided he wants to throw one, that’s why,” she told him with a sniff. “Besides, you say that like I just told you we were being invaded by a marauding band of pygmies.”
“Do pygmies maraud in bands? Actually that might be interesting to see,” he said thoughtfully. “Did you know that some groups of pygmies were hunted by cannibals? With that kind of incentive, I’ll bet they’ve learned to maraud pretty well.”
“No, no. No pygmy lessons,” Sage protested quickly, waving both hands in the air as she rolled her eyes. “Instead, tell me what you’d find more threatening than interesting.”
“A biochemical attack by terrorists?”
She shuddered, giving him a horrified look.
“What?” he asked with a shrug. “That’s a threat.”
“You put our engagement party in the same category as a biochemical terrorist attack?” She wasn’t sure if she should laugh, or smack him.
“Fake engagement party. And the subtle and overt dangers of both are cause for concern,” he told her, his tone deadly serious.
That hurt. It actually hurt. Her lower lip trembled. It took a second, then Sage saw a glint in his eyes. A little of the tension that’d been creeping into knots along her shoulders faded and she blew out a relieved breath.
“You worry me sometimes,” she told him, shaking her head.
“Ditto.”
“Me?” Truly shocked, Sage pressed her palm against her chest and gave him an openmouthed look of surprise. “What do I do that’s worrisome?”
Unlike some people who regularly jumped out of perfectly good airplanes to go into battles and be shot at, she was the epitome of mellow.
“Let’s see. You traipsed off to Tibet with a guy named Moon Petal. You sold your car and donated the money to a research group attempting to teach dogs to talk. When you volunteered at that recovery program in Brooklyn, a heroin junkie tried to use you to mop the floor because he didn’t like your views on using happy thoughts to overcome the shakes.” He paused, for a breath, she realized, not to try and think up more examples.
“Aww, you read my blog,” she realized, her heart warming at the news. He just scowled, then slanted his head to the side as if reminding her to get back on track.
“Okay, fine,” she said. “So I’ve been cause for a little worry in the past. That has nothing to do with right now.”
“You’re trying to rope me into a fake party.”
“And you hate parties,” she remembered with a grimace.
“Who needs a bunch of strangers around demanding attention and forcing you to engage in social chitchat? I’d rather hang out with a few people I actually like.”
“There will be a few people you actually like there,” she vowed, clueless where she’d find them. “I promise.”
He huffed, then shrugged as if giving in.
“Besides, this isn’t a fake party,” she reminded him. “You’re the one who said we have to treat Mission Engagement as if it’s real. So it stands to reason that people—and by people, I mean my father—would want to throw us a party, a real one, to celebrate.”
“It’s not a good idea,” he argued. Whether out of simple stubbornness or because he really did foresee huge pitfalls, she wasn’t sure. “There’s a lot that could go wrong.”
“Don’t be such a worrywart,” she said, laughing. “It’s only a party. No big deal.”
The look Aiden gave her was exasperated, frustrated and just a bit baffled. In other words, the same look he’d been giving her most of their lives.
“Tell you what. We’ll spend an afternoon, a couple of evenings together. We’ll go over every possible scenario, map out all of those scary pitfalls you’re so worried about. We’ll get to know each other so well that we could win one of those newlywed games.”
“I hate games,” he muttered.
“I love them.”
“Shock.”
Sage laughed, delighted in his dry humor and exasperated look. He was so sweet. Why hadn’t she realized that before? Or had she, and just ignored it because of his relationship with her father?
The smart thing to do would be to keep this all friendly and sweet. Nothing naughty that’d get them into trouble.
But...she liked naughty. Especially when naughty provided such a wonderful distraction to worrying about her father, about her future.
Unable to resist, she stepped closer. It was what she imagined getting close to a lightning bolt would feel like. Electric energy zapped through her system, making her feel edgy and needy and excited. And, at the same time, a little nervous.
Like, who knew what could happen if she reached out.
If she touched.
If she tasted.
Excitement stirred, needy and intense, deep in her belly. Her eyes met Aiden’s. The look in his hazel gaze should have warned her to be careful. Maybe tipped
her off that she was about to get into a whole lot of trouble if she didn’t take a very careful step backward.
Her heart thumped faster. And, like everything else she’d ever encountered that offered the possibility of delight and bliss, she couldn’t resist.
She had to see how it felt. How he felt.
She pressed her hands against his chest, her hands flat to better explore the delicious expanse of muscles under his shirt. Oh, my, they built them hard in the navy. So deliciously hard.
She wet her lips, then gave a low husky sigh of appreciation.
“Sage...” Aiden warned.
But he didn’t move.
So she did.
Closer. She slid her hands over his shoulders, her fingers tickling the back of his neck. He gave a slow shake of his head. She took that as a sign to move faster, before he sped up the denial.
So move she did. Her lips brushed his. First a soft caress. Just a sweet hello from her mouth to his.
His body tensed. She’d like to think it was passion, but more likely he was going to push her away.
So she stepped up her game. And pressed her body closer. The tips of her breasts grazed his chest. She almost moaned as desire swirled from her quickly hardening nipples to her belly. Her thighs felt heavy, loose. Her breathing grew deeper and the blood slowed as if everything in her body were preparing for how great this was going to feel.
Always willing to give her body what it wanted, she curled her fingers tighter around the back of Aiden’s neck. She slid her tongue along the crease of his lips, tasting.
Testing.
He tasted damned good.
For a second, she thought he was going to just stand there. Stoic and sweet, simply tolerating the move but not rejecting her so as not to hurt her feelings.
Then he gave a low growl.
The sound sent those tingles into high gear. Sage’s heart sped up. His mouth opened over hers.
Hot and swift, his tongue swept in. Took over.
This was a man used to command.
Sage liked it.
His lips molded, his tongue thrust.
Her body melted.
Then, slowly, as if not wanting to send her system into instant withdrawal, he slowed it down.
