by Cora Cade
“Good.”
There was something not quite military about Danvers and Masterson. He eyed them across the table and took in their casual posture, their shaggier-than-military hair, even their slightly scruffy facial hair. When Masterson shifted a bit in his chair it raised the sleeve of his tee, exposing the bottom edge of a tattoo. It looked like the tip of a sword with flames dancing along the edges.
Cal nodded at the tattoo, drawing both Danvers’s and Masterson’s attentions. They both lifted their right sleeves, exposing identical tattoos. Inked into the blade of the sword was the phrase miles conductus. Which was Latin for mercenary. And everything clicked. Gabe Ryan had hired two mercs to protect his sister when he couldn’t.
Cal sat back with a smile. He already liked Molly’s brother. A man who knew how to get shit done. If you wanted to protect someone you loved, sometimes you had to make the hard decisions. If a psycho was gunning for his sister, he’d do the same damn thing. No question about it. Hell, he thought Gabe Ryan had already shown a great deal of restraint, since Harrison Pratt was still alive. “Molly doesn’t need to know about that, but I’ll back you guys if needed. You just let me know when.”
Chapter Six
They had settled into a comfortable silence when Molly came bustling out of the kitchen with a tray of food. Chief followed with a pitcher of iced tea. “I figured since we’re all on the same team the least I could do is feed you.”
Molly’s smile lit the room, and she looked more relaxed than when she’d left with Chief. The old man really had a way with her. If Master Chief had been thirty years younger, he might’ve given Cal a run for his money.
As they began to dig into Chief’s crab cakes, the door to the pub opened and every eye turned in that direction. Cal’s mind froze at the sight of the woman in the doorway. A quick smile formed when she spotted Cal, and she began to make her way to their table.
Danvers whistled low in appreciation as Lainey skirted around a table, presenting them with a view of her from behind. Cal kicked the man in the shins and gave him a speaking glance before turning his attention back to the woman.
Under his breath, Danvers said, “What? She’s damn fine.”
“She’s also my sister, you ass.”
Molly watched the very pretty woman make her way across the pub. She only had eyes for Cal as she wove through the tables. She heard Cal make a low comment to Danvers, but it had been lost to her, too low for her to register.
With a pair of comfortable khaki shorts, a plain white tank and hot-pink flip-flops, the woman looked far too casual to be drop-dead gorgeous. But when Molly took in the whole package, this woman was just that. Pretty, nearly black hair fell to her shoulders in an edgy, modern style that framed a face with golden skin and exotic gray eyes. Devoid of any makeup, she was fresh faced and slightly dewy from the summer heat.
It was her body that really made her a stand out, though. She was taller than the average woman, maybe nearly five inches over Molly, with mile-long legs that were trim and athletic. Both arms were covered in ink to just below her elbows. A slim waist gave way to an impressive chest that bounced and swayed as she walked. And every man in the room watched her make her way toward their table.
A spark of jealousy rose in Molly as she watched Cal frown at the new arrival but stand to hug her. He kissed her cheek and said something in her ear that caused the new girl to laugh before placing a kiss on Cal’s cheek in return. As he turned to face the table at large, Cal kept an arm around the woman.
This was so not good. Already she was getting attached to Cal. One damn day! A couple of smoking hot kisses and she was just greedy enough to want more from him. The very same someone she didn’t even want to date.
When Molly stood to excuse herself, Cal was starting introductions, but she wasn’t listening. She needed a few minutes to regroup before she could play nice. Just when she thought she was getting a handle on the chaos that was her life, she suddenly felt off balance again. She had to make an escape before she said or did something ridiculous. Like make it obvious that she wanted more from Cal than a short fling.
She caught her foot on the table leg and stumbled forward, like a fool, then righted herself in a hurry. Striving for some semblance of control, she picked up her plate and turned her back to the crowd watching her retreat.
“Molly?” Cal’s voice broke through the buzzing in her ears, sounding confused and a little sharper than his normal tone.
Without turning around, she said, “I’ll be right back. Just a sec.”
What the hell was wrong with her? She did not have feelings for Cal Eversman, she was not jealous of the beauty on Cal’s arm. She just needed to catch her breath. And regain control of her life.
She was angrily scraping her plate into the trash when Cal burst through the door.
Cal watched Molly closely. He’d assumed she was upset about Pratt and the situation becoming so much more than she’d thought, but that didn’t explain why she was preparing to wage war with him right now. Molly’s shoulders were a rigid line as she set her plate down and turned to him.
Having learned from an early age that understanding women was harder than infiltrating an enemy camp unarmed and alone, he just waited for her to continue before opening his mouth.
She vibrated with tension. “I’m fine.”
Okay, now he was really confused. “You are obviously not fine.”
She scowled at him, but without any real heat. “I’m freaking out. Okay? I just got jealous of your friend! That is not supposed to be happening. And everything else is out of control. So out of control I can’t even comprehend how to put it all together again. Now go away so I can freak out alone.” She was getting that panicked edge to her voice again, the kind where only dogs could hear her as she started to squeak.
Well, hell. That explained a lot. He tried not to smile, but he couldn’t help himself. A smile curved one side of his mouth and Molly gasped at his display.
“This isn’t funny!” She took a step toward him, probably to tear his face off with her bare hands. She was tiny but mighty.
When she was within reaching distance, he gripped both wrists and pulled her close. She struggled against him, but it was useless. “Molly.” She struggled more and tried to stomp on his foot. He jerked her fully against his body, feeling her breath catch as he held her hands behind her back with a gentle grip. “Listen to me. That’s my sister. Her name is Lainey, and if you look closely you’ll notice that she’s my twin.”
She looked surprised, and he felt her body relax in his arms. “You have a twin? And she’s a girl?”
With a smile he answered, “Yes, to both questions.”
He watched a blush climb her neck and creep across her cheeks. “Oh.”
She was adorable. It gave him a glimmer of hope, just a small one, after getting shot down earlier for a real date. Not that he was against a little fun, but the spark between him and the spitfire in front of him deserved more than just a fling. She could make him yearn for things he’d never anticipated wanting.
He released her now that the threat of bodily harm had passed and brought his hands to cradle her face. “There’s no need to be upset. We can work on getting everything under control. The important thing is you stay safe and protected.”
Still blushing, she said, “I’m sorry… Everything is out of balance in my life and it isn’t like me to be so damn clingy. Not that it’s an excuse. Lord, I’m making a fool out of myself.”
Scowling now, Cal brought his face closer to hers. Their lips nearly met as he felt her hands curl around his waist, gripping him tightly. “We are exclusive, while I’m here. Agreed?”
In response she took his mouth. Hungrily, he absorbed the feel of her body pressed close. Her lips were warm and pliant under his and within moments, their kiss turned erotic and his dick hummed to life again. This tiny woman had the p
ower to turn him inside out.
They were both too wrapped up in each other to hear his sister’s entrance but quickly broke apart when she spoke. “Oh. I’m really sorry to interrupt you guys. I need to go check in at the cabin I rented, but I thought maybe we could plan on dinner later?”
Cal placed Molly in front him in an effort to hide his erection from his baby sister.
“Oh.” Molly looked up at him with a question in her eyes.
“Sure, Laine. How about you meet us here around seven and we’ll go from there?”
“Excellent.” She smiled and brushed a stray lock of hair from her face, and he noticed the slight bruising on the inside of her wrist.
When his eyes locked on the bruise, she dropped her arm quickly and attempted to rush out the door.
“Laine.” It was a command, and she recognized it as such.
She stopped with her back to him and steeled herself before turning around. “Cal. Can we not do this right now?”
“What happened?”
Molly looked confused by their conversation but let him step around her without question.
“Not now.” She gave him a pleading look and looked at Molly pointedly before saying, “Later?”
“Lainey. You are going to tell me what’s going on right now or you are not leaving. What else happened? Does Dad know?”
His little sister bit her lip, and he feared he was going to have a crying female on his hands. But Lainey Eversman was tougher than that. She shoved at his chest instead. “Look, buddy, everything is fine. Dad doesn’t need to know, and I’m here to see you before you ship out to some godforsaken country for another year.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“Fine. The boyfriend didn’t appreciate becoming my ex.” She held up her wrist for his inspection before saying, “But it’s handled, and he’s history. I’m here to see you, since Dad clued me in on where you were. Thanks for calling me, by the way.”
There was more to the story, there always was with his sister, but it was enough to calm his nerves. As soon as he dealt with Molly’s situation, he was going to track down that bastard ex-boyfriend and tear him limb from limb. No one laid a hand on his sister. He nodded and said, “We’ll talk more tonight.”
With a quick smile, so much like his own, she rushed out the door without a backward glance.
Molly watched Cal’s sister bolt out the kitchen door as he gathered himself a few feet away from her. When he turned, he was rubbing a hand over his scalp in irritation.
“Is everything okay?”
He retraced his steps back to her and laid a brief kiss on her forehead. “She’s fine, a little shaken up, but I’ll handle the ex.”
Now it was her turn to smile. “I’m not quite sure you know it, but you and your sister speak shorthand, so I only followed about half of the conversation.”
His eyebrows shot up, and then he chuckled. “It’s always been that way between us.” He took a deep breath before going on. “Her boyfriend left a bruise as a parting gift—faint, but definite. She’s close with our dad back in Ohio, so I was surprised to see her here. I called Dad when I got stateside but hadn’t given Laine a call yet. She’s obviously spooked about the boyfriend to show up unannounced here. And it’s unlike her to take time off from the studio, even more so when it’s unplanned.”
“Is she okay? That’s awful.” For a brief moment Molly remembered Pratt’s attack. How helpless she felt when he laid his hands on her, pushing her against the stone wall at the car park. “It’s terrible when you feel helpless.”
Cal frowned and she felt the tension in him as she hugged him tight, running a hand down his back to sooth. “She’s a tough cookie. And like you, she can hold her own. You don’t have a big brother as an Army Ranger without learning how to handle yourself.”
It made her smile, to hear his obvious admiration for his sister. It also made her wistful for her own big brother. “You don’t think it’s more? After what happened in Chicago I really needed my family. That’s why I moved closer to Gabe, even though he’s never here. At least when he is on base I’ll be able to see him.”
Cal frowned, in thought. He looked at the door Lainey had just left through and then back at Molly. “I’ll talk to her. You’re probably right, she wouldn’t ask for help outright, but she would just show up unannounced because it made her feel better. Especially since my unit will be shipping back overseas in a few months.”
Just the thought made her heart clench. It was hard enough to worry about her brother’s safety every second of every day. She wasn’t ready to face worrying about Cal’s safety as well. Getting involved with him, however casually, wasn’t going to end well for her. Molly didn’t exactly excel at casual relationships. Which couldn’t be more obvious to her after her weird little panic attack a few minutes ago.
Molly got attached, involved, and it was obvious Cal was already looking ahead to when he left town and moved on with this career. Sometimes being such a girl was a total pain in the ass. She’d really like to have this casual fling without letting her heart get involved. Well, she could try anyway.
Chapter Seven
The last five days had passed in a haze of work, work and more work. Well, there had been a few illicit encounters with Cal in various places throughout the pub and his apartment—even a few while they’d been training. All memorable. All blistering hot.
Damn, memorable was putting it mildly. They’d had quite the unforgettable training session that very morning. The gym had been barren at the ungodly hour of six a.m. and Molly hadn’t had a single cup of coffee prior to meeting Cal on the mats.
She’d pulled on her basic workout gear, which consisted of a pair of yoga pants and the world’s ugliest sports bra hidden behind a basic tank. Her hair stood on end from a fitful sleep and she just didn’t care enough to shower before and after their training. She looked like a hot mess and Cal would just have to deal, since it was entirely his fault for picking the crack of dawn as a start time. The man was a sadist.
When Cal had stripped his shirt off and stood before her in his shorts and bare feet—only for a split second—she’d wished she’d bothered with primping just a tiny bit. Damn him.
Instead of showing her discomfort, she used her embarrassment as a catalyst and attacked. She was always on the defensive during training and her forward motion was awkward and uncontrolled at best. Cal took full advantage and swept her feet out from under her in less than two seconds.
Molly went down hard. Hard enough to knock the air from her lungs and cause a spiral of pain to radiate out from her chest to tingle in her fingers.
“Molly. Shit. Are you okay?”
“As soon as I get up, Callum Eversman, you are a dead man. Dead, I tell you.”
“I’m sorry, babe. I tried to get a grip on you before you went down, but I missed the grab. Can you sit up?”
He helped pull her into a sitting position. Molly took a deep breath and felt the tingling in her limbs recede. Cal was hovering, crouched in front of her looking quite nervous and apologetic.
“Next time I could use some warning before you throw yourself bodily at me.”
She patted his cheek. Maybe a little rougher than necessary. “It’s okay, Cal. I won’t be throwing myself at you anytime soon.”
He arched a brow and leaned even closer. “You know what I meant.”
“Do I?”
Instead of answering her, he took her mouth in a fierce kiss. She liked him best when he was barely contained and loved to push his buttons to get him there. Cal slipped a rough palm up her cheek and into her hair. He tugged gently, pulling her into position to slide searing kisses down her neck and along her collarbone.
As he tugged her tank off she remembered her hideous sports bra and batted his hand away. “Cal! I am not getting naked in this dirty gym with you. No matter how hot y
ou look without your shirt on.”
“You think I look hot without my shirt?”
“That’s not even a legitimate question and you know it.”
“Hmmm… Well, you don’t have to get naked. I can still show you a good time.”
He had a wicked gleam in his eye that made Molly reconsider getting naked on a grimy gym mat. “Show me what you got, soldier.”
Cal gently gripped her legs and drew them out from under her until she was leaning back on her elbows, perfectly positioned to watch his every move. He tipped his head down, running his tongue along the edge of her yoga pants, caressing the sliver of bare skin there.
When he lifted one leg over his shoulder her breath hitched before she could stop herself. He was watching her as intensely as she him, and when he placed a kiss to the very core of her she trembled. Her toes curled as he gripped her hips and held her in place.
Cal waited a heartbeat, two even, before he tugged the elastic waist of her pants down an inch, kissed the newly exposed skin there. He repeated this slow torture until he encountered the edge of her panties.
As he ran his tongue along the edge everything in her turned liquid and she rolled her hips in response. He was seconds away from finding the promised land and she was all but panting for him when there was the telltale jingle of the gym door.
Molly collapsed into an inelegant heap as Cal hauled her clothing back into place. “Later, babe. Promise.”
“You are a giant vagina tease, Callum Eversman.”
The stupid man only chuckled at her while helping her gain her feet. In response she gave him a swift kick to the ass before they went about their training schedule.
Later that afternoon Cal had cornered her in the service hall before her shift and brought her to the edge of orgasm with just a few strokes of his steady hands over her body, a quick pat to her ass underneath her skirt and a nip along her jaw line. Then the bastard had walked away, leaving her aching and wanting. Again.
Her not dating plan wasn’t working out exactly as she’d expected. What was supposed to be a casual fling with some hot sex and an even hotter man, had turned into one long week of foreplay and no relief.
