by Zoe Dawson
Cowboy chuckled. His heart turning over. He wanted the whole lot of them.
“What is happening to Gray Havens?” He hated to think that someone else would live here.
“I sold it to Melody, the horse trainer from the reunion. She needed to expand, and her husband and daughter will love it here. I’m going to be one of the principle patrons of The Gray Havens Horse Rescue.”
“That’s perfect.” He loved the idea that someone who had benefited from Kia’s influence would be own this place.
“What about The Back Forty?”
“I’ve made Sally Jean my manager. I can come back here when needed to make sure everything is running smoothly. We already have everything worked out.”
“So, that only leaves you and your menagerie. Where exactly are you going with three horses, one dog and one semi-reformed ornery cat?” He took a step up, his heart in his throat.
“San Diego,” she said, taking another step down.
“You were in the city?” He moved up one more step.
“Only briefly to buy this beautiful place just outside of the city, near the ocean. It has this beautiful red barn and a quaint, gorgeous, remodeled farmhouse.”
“You didn’t come to see me. I deserved that.”
“I wanted to see you, but…” She bit her lip.
“I read your letter, and I can only say, I’m so damn sorry for reacting instead of realizing that you would never do anything to deliberately hurt me. I understand you wanted to wait for the evidence, understand why you tried to protect me from the truth before you had a chance to figure everything out. Can you…forgive me, Kia?”
“Oh, God, Wes. I love you so much I can’t breathe.” He rushed up the rest of the steps to her. All he could do was look at her. She was so beautiful. She’d knocked him senseless the first time he’d seen her, and he’d never really recovered—the wild color of her hair, the delicate arch of her brows, the shape of her face, the clear, sun-shot gray of her eyes. Her mouth. God, what she’d done to him with her mouth.
“I…I hoped…” she started, her voice trailing off breathlessly. Her cheeks were flushed. “You have perfect timing.”
“I wanted to thank you for what you did for my family,” his voice broke and she wrapped her arms around him and he reveled in the comfort her touch brought him. “Can you forgive me?”
Her face went many shades of soft and tender. “Yes, I can. I did it for you, Wes. I couldn’t bear for you to lose something so important to you. I’m so sorry about your dad. He was more a father to me in the two years I knew him than all my foster fathers put together. I’ll never forget him.”
Then it occurred to him. “You nominated him, didn’t you?”
She nodded and buried her face against his throat. “Yes, every year. He showed me all his buckles. I was so proud. I loved him, you know.”
“And you had to go through all the grief alone. Aw, Kia, darlin’, I love you.”
Her head came up so fast, she clipped him on the chin. He laughed softly, feeling so free. “Ow. What did you just say?”
He cupped her face in his hands. “I love you, Kia Silverbrook.” Then there was nothing else to say, not right now when all he wanted, all he needed was to touch her, to slide his tongue in her mouth and taste her, to fill himself up with her.
Their lips met, hers parted, and a hundred emotions flooded through him. He’d expected pleasure, electrifying pleasure—but he also got relief, bone deep. This was home, being with Kia, their bodies touching. She came up on tiptoe, her mouth on his, her arms going around his neck, and he slid his hand down her back.
Then farther.
He tried not to devour her, but she was already there, and he was drowning in the love he felt—on the edge of desperation pulling him under, the heat of her skin, in the all-consuming soft wetness of her mouth.
This was going to be more than he could ever imagine as the future with her stretched out. She was fierce and independent, and she would handle him and his deployments in stride. He was so in love with her. How had he ever thought he could live without this?
It looked like he was damned lucky. There was nowhere to take her now that her house had been packed up. But, he was sure if there was a bed in there, he wouldn’t have made it anyway. She was soft and wet and his pants were half off, not when her hand was between his legs and he could hardly breathe for what she was doing to him.
“Kia,” he whispered, rocking against her, then lifted her in his arms and pressed her back against the arch. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She did, helping him out, helping herself, and then he was pushing up inside her—and everything slowed down, way down.
It was so incredible, the sensations so intensely sweet, the rush of emotion overwhelming.
This woman had shown him so much in the ten years that he’d been gone. She had preserved his family’s legacy, searched for his dad’s killer, believed in his dad, her determination was off the charts. She was a storm and she’d taken him by storm—took him deep.
He swore softly. She felt so amazingly good. He nuzzled her neck, thrusting into her, and felt himself die a little from the pleasure—and the pain of letting her down. He would make sure he never did that again.
With his arms supporting her, he had one hand wrapped around a fistful of vines, holding them against the arch, and the other threaded through her hair, flowers crushed in his fingers. The whole thing was amazing, the heat, the smell, the softness. Kia, taking him again and again. The powerful need for her slaked each time he slid into her, even as the thirst deepened. It would be a lifetime of thirst.
All she had to do was exist to make him crazy.
But she did more, sealing her mouth over his and sucking on his tongue and just flat-out filling his whole body with the sensation of love, the feeling of home from the top of his head on down. Everything. Consuming him. It was all sex and love and heat and Kia.
He moved one arm down to her butt, holding her tighter, lifting her, pushing deeper—and then he came, that first rush of the sweet power of release, and he was helpless against it. He didn’t have the strength. He didn’t have the will. Later would be soon enough to have control.
Oh, God. It was soul-wrenching, a melting orgasm that started at the back of his skull and the base of his groin and just flowed out of him, taking him deep inside himself, deep inside her. It was a timeless sensation, and it lasted forever, and all the while she kissed him, holding him, her mouth so hot and sweet.
“Kia…” he groaned, pushing himself deeper, his body shuddering. He’d needed her for so long—he’d been a fool to wait so long. The past was over and there was only the future to plan, the present to live.
The wait was over and she was his. Now and forever.
Epilogue
Two weeks later, Kia was settled in that nice little house with her zoo menagerie. Wes had just vacated his apartment and moved in with her. They had stayed in Reddick while Kia got acquainted with Wes’s family, and she couldn’t have had the best and worst times if she’d tried. Big Red had passed on after a massive heart attack and most town folks speculated it was from the whole terrible fallout of Travis’s murder and his son’s arrest. The news about Red hanging himself in his cell just hours after he was told was the kind of irony that wasn’t lost on any of them. It was the last part of Wes’s past to be resolved.
All her life she’d wanted to experience that sense of home. Now she had it, and she’d been right, it was love.
She wasn’t sure she’d worked through all her abandonment issues because when Wes’s deployment inched closer, she had a lot of anxiety, but that could be because he was going into danger. Being in love with a SEAL came with knowing your man was in danger when he was out in the field, but Kia also knew the passion and dedication that Wes gave to his brothers in arms. He now couldn’t live any other way, and she wanted him to be happy and fulfilled. She would be there when he came home.
His family moved back into the
ir Sweetwater home, and Wes agreed with Kia to keep their excellent foreman to run the property. Wes and Kia would visit when they could, and he would take over ranching once he retired from the SEALs.
They were getting ready for LT’s wedding and as the best man, he would be wearing his full-dress uniform and Kia couldn’t wait to see him in it.
They headed to the venue, Coronado Landing Park with a spectacular view of the San Diego skyline. The day was beautiful, but Kia was beginning to understand that it was idyllic weather here. It was very different from Texas, but she was enjoying her adventure. Triton and BFA were settling in nicely and since BFA had saved her life, she was overindulgent with his tuna snacks. Quicksand had quickly become attached to Wes who rode him with ease where Kia had to fight him every step of the way. He took him to a cattle ranch once a week when he was home and let him haze cattle. It also made Wes happy. Kia was content in switching off on Twilight Star and Saragon, riding Quicksand when Wes would be gone.
A tent had been set up for the wedding party to change in, one for the guys and one for the women. She waited patiently by the opening for him to come out. She wasn’t disappointed.
“Wow,” she breathed. He looked amazing. From his cover, a navy word to describe any uniform hat, to his shoulder boards, to the tips of his very shiny shoes, he wore the dress blues well, his broad shoulders filling out the jacket nicely, his ribbons impressive. He would be standing up with Lieutenant Bowie Cooper.
As the guests assembled filling in the padded chairs, Kia took her seat on the groom’s side up close to the front. After the procession, Dana and Ruckus stood on the gazebo decorated with bright, colorful flowers and exchanged their vows in front of family and friends. All these people were now her family and here in the SEAL community, the girlfriends and the wives made her feel so welcome. She finally felt like she belonged.
Their expressions were full of the kind of love and adoration a person couldn’t help but envy, and as Wes looked over at her, she was caught up in the ceremony, and the genuine emotion between the couple.
Dana’s boss, Sara Campbell stood up with her along with two of her friends from college with Kid Chaos and Blue, whose eyes really stood out against his blue uniform, acting as ushers.
Then the minister was delivering the last line, telling Ruckus he could kiss his new wife. Cowboy moved into line with the rest of his team where they presented their swords. Each two men they came to, dropped their swords barring the way until Ruckus kissed Dana, with the same action until they reached Cowboy. As they were stopped by him, he said, “You can’t pass until you kiss.” Ruckus gave her a quick one and Cowboy said, “Plant one on her.”
And he did, bent her over his arm and gave her a deep kiss. Cowboy let her pass, but as soon as she walked past, Cowboy dropped his sword and swatted her on the butt with the flat of his sword. “Welcome to the navy, Dana.”
She laughed and jumped forward.
After the reception where there was much dancing, drinking, kissing and cake, Kia went home with her SEAL. Tucked against him, she ran her hands over his heavy muscles. “Keep that up and you’re going to start something, darlin’.”
“Maybe I want to start something.”
“Is that so.” He turned toward her and brushed the back of his hands against the fading bruises on her cheekbones. She ran her hand down his chest to his hip and cupped his super fine ass. “Geez, Wes, your butt is like granite.” He followed the same path.
“I like yours better, especially the tat on your taillights.”
She giggled. “Yeah, I was such a fool for you in high school.”
He dragged her hips against his. “We are certainly older and wiser,” he whispered against her mouth. Then he kissed her, and that was the end of the conversation except the purely physical one they fully embraced.
Afterward, Wes said. “Kia, one promise.”
“What?”
“No more illegal hacking.”
“Okay, I think I can handle that.”
He grabbed her chin and she sighed. “I’m going to miss you when you’re gone, Wes.”
“But you can handle it.”
“Yes, there’s no other man for me, not in this lifetime.”
“That’s a good thing, ‘cause I’d have to kill him.”
She said, “Maybe we can run a yellow traffic light every once in a while? You know live on the wild side just a bit.”
He chuckled. “Maybe we could.” She snuggled down with him and drifted off.
Shortly after that, Cowboy saw less of her as the SEALs began training. Word came down they were joining a NATO joint task force to take down the Kirikhan Rebels and apprehend Boris and Natasha Golovkin. Retrieving the warheads was the secondary task.
Three teams of eight were being mobilized: Team One was going to take point and go in to try to get to the Golovkin’s and capture them. Dragon’s Team a badass sniper who had filled in for Kid Chaos on an op into North Korea when Kid had been in Bolivia, was secondary with Ruckus’s team acting as back up. They all trained together and Cowboy could see that Ryuu “Dragon” Shannon was well-respected amongst his teammates. No surprise there. They often worked with other members of Team Seven and there were some tough guys working with Dragon. A set of triplets, Errol “Pitbull” Ballentine, Flynn “Pirate” Ballentine, and Robin “Hood” Ballentine, their corpsman, then a smart aleck, former Royal Marine and elite member of the Special Boat Service, the British equivalent of the SEALs, Oliver “Artful Dodger” Graham. Their leader, a gearhead that Tank got along with very well as they talked a lot about muscle cars and motorcycles was aptly named Ford “Fast Lane” Nixon. Milo “Professor” Prescott, a Rhodes Scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge and photographic memory and lastly, Justin “Speed” Myerson, a quiet guy who did his job well, but kept to himself mostly.
He came home tense and Kia picked up on it and insisted that they go riding. That always relaxed him. She was right.
“You doing all right?” she asked.
“Yeah, just a lot on my mind. I wanted to ask you. What happened to Sunshine—Sunny?”
Her face went a little sad. “He was despondent after you didn’t return. I took him home with me and he lived a happy life until he passed about five years ago. He was a sweet guy and after I got Twilight Star, they bonded. He perked up quite a bit after that and had a serene life.”
Cowboy nodded. One more thing he could add to his growing list of why he loved this woman. His heart tightened a bit at the fond memory of that excellent horse, but knowing that he was happy and well-cared for tempered his ache some.
As they clopped along, she said. “I know you can’t talk about it, but know that whatever it is that you’re going to be doing, remember that I love you, support you and want you back.”
He reached out and clasped her hand. “That means everything, darlin’”
He sat in the quiet of the meadow in the peaceful afternoon and said, “This…this is what I’m fighting for. I’ll keep you safe, Kia. Every illegal, gorgeous, sassy inch of you,” he whispered. “The last breath I breathe will be for you.”
She tightened her hold on him. “Every single American should be thankful for that. I love you, Wes.”
“I love you, too, darlin’.”
He pulled her out of the saddle and she went with a squeak. Settling her solidly against him, he bent down and took her mouth. “This isn’t going to be a garden party,” she murmured.
He threw his head back and laughed. “It’s going to be one hell of a blast party.”
And, in the end, the score was: Stupid Girl Crush—ha! A measly four/Kia—infinity. She rather liked being a starry-eyed fool for Wes. “Hoo-yah, rodeo, hoo-yah.”
Thank you for reading Cowboy!
Reviews are appreciated!
Book 4 in the SEAL Team Alpha series, Tank, is next. A mission gone wrong, a missing team member and heartbreaking changes knock Thorn “Tank” Hunt off his game. He’ll need the help of a caring, dedica
ted woman, someone like veterinarian Dr. Alyssa St. James. But she’s the kind of woman who would demand picket fences, cause fraternization issues, was bossy, and drove him crazy. For a hell raiser like Tank, it might just all be too much out of his comfort zone.
Glossary
BUD/S - Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEAL training
Comm - The equipment that SEALs use to communicate with each other in the field.
CO - Commanding Officer
DoD - Department of Defense
DZ - Drop zone, the targeted area for parachutists.
HALO - High altitude, low opening jump from an aircraft.
HVT - High value target
IED - Improvised Incendiary Device
Klicks - Shortened word for kilometers.
LRRP - Long-range reconnaissance patrol.
LT - Nickname for lieutenant.
LZ - Landing Zone where aircraft can land.
Merc - Mercenary - guns for hire.
MWD - Military Working Dog
MRE - Meals, Ready-to-Eat, portable in pouches and packed with calories, these packaged meals are used in the field.
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCIS - Naval Criminal Investigative Service
NWU - Navy Working Uniform
RIB - Rigid Inflatable Boat
RPG - Rocket Propelled Grenade
R&R - Rest and Relaxation
Tango -Hostile combatants.
SERE -Stands for survival, evasion, resistance, escape. The principles of avoiding the enemy in the field.
Six - Military speak for watching a man’s back.
About the Author
Zoe Dawson lives in North Carolina, one of the friendliest states in the US. She discovered romance in her teens and has been spinning stories in her head ever since. Her heroes are sexy males with a disregard for danger and whether reluctant, gung-ho, or caught up in the action, show their hearts of gold.
Her imagination runs wild with romances from sensual to scorching including romantic comedy, new adult, romantic suspense, small town, and urban fantasy. Look below to explore the many avenues to her writing. She believes it’s all about the happily ever afters and always will.
