Weston

by Dale Mayer

  Then he went into Sari’s room and looked over at the small crib, where his daughter still slept. Would she panic if she woke up and didn’t see her mom? Would Daniela panic if she woke up and didn’t see her baby? The crib was on wheels, so that was an easy solution. Moving quietly through the hallway, he wheeled Sari’s bed so it was beside Daniela. Shambhala totally agreed with the concept and, when Weston picked up the rug she’d been sleeping on and put it between the two women, Shambhala took up a position between them. Weston bent down and gave her a cuddle.

  He headed back downstairs once more, and, when the authorities finally left, he locked up and returned upstairs, heading toward his own bed in the guest room. And then found Daniela sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  He walked in and said, “Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “It’s okay,” she whispered. “What’s going on downstairs?”

  “They’re gone. It’s quite a mess, and we’ll have lots of cleaning to do tomorrow, but it’s over.”

  She smiled and looked down. “Did you put me to bed?”

  “Yes,” he said, “you looked so uncomfortable the way you were lying.” Then she smiled at Sari’s crib beside her. She looked up at him and said, “You are the sweetest man.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know about that, but you need to get more rest.”

  She patted the bed beside her. “Curl up,” she said. “We all need rest, and nobody needs to be alone.”

  “That would be dangerous,” he said with a half smile. “I was on my best behavior putting you to bed, but I won’t be on good behavior if I get in too.”

  She gave him a slow dawning smile. “I’ve been on good behavior for one hell of a long time. I really don’t mind letting loose a little tonight.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked, studying her carefully.

  “It’s got nothing to do with tonight and nothing to do with Sari,” she said. “It has everything to do with you. I don’t think I’ve ever met a man quite like you.”

  He frowned, still unsure.

  She looked up at him, slowly pushed the covers back and slipped out of bed. Still wearing only her panties and bra, she walked toward him, her hands sliding up his chest. “You know you’re wearing too many clothes, right?”

  His grin flashed. “I can take care of that in no time,” he said, “but I don’t want this to be a reaction, you know, to—”

  Chapter 19

  “To all that violence?” Daniela said. “I get it. Partly it is a reaction because, if there’s anything that one needs to affirm in the face of so much death, it is life. And, if there’s anybody I’d like to do that with, it would be you.” She tugged him into Sari’s room, her fingers already busy undoing the buttons on his shirt, then tugging the material out of his jeans. When she got his shirt off his chest, she stopped and stared because he was heavily muscled everywhere. Even the multiple crisscrossing of scars didn’t diminish the sense of power exuding from him. She stared in astonishment, her hands stroking the huge muscles across his pecks.

  As she stroked her finger down to his belt buckle, his belly automatically retracted, and a massive six-pack showed up. “Wow,” she said. “I’ve never been a girl who cared about jocks, but, man, oh, man, there’s something about all these muscles.” She gently stroked her hands over the ridges and hills until he grabbed her hands and tugged her close. She could see the worry still in his eyes.

  “Are you sure?” he said, his breath catching in the back of his throat.

  She smiled. “Never more sure in my life,” she whispered, stretching up on her tiptoes, but still she could only reach his chin. She kissed him gently.

  He leaned down to give her a kiss on the lips. The first kiss was tentative and gentle, more of a searching kiss to see if there was a response. And what a response there was, as she could feel her heart slamming against her ribs and then her body straining to get closer to his. She threw her arms around his neck and passionately kissed him back.

  His arms wrapped around her and held her tight.

  With her pressed against his bare chest, she could already feel his response. She loved it. She loved everything about it. She’d missed being held, missed making love and missed being close to somebody. She hadn’t been with anyone since her husband, thinking she could never trust another man. But instinctively she knew this would be a man she could trust, not just for now but forever.

  When he finally stepped back, he slipped off the rest of his clothes, and she unclipped her bra so she stood there just in tiny panties. But, even then, she stopped, amazed when she saw all of him. His quads were massive and, of course, the rest of him made her smile. She reached out, her fingers wrapping around his erection. He sucked in his breath, his hands going to hers to hold her there and to stop the movement.

  “If you do that,” he said, “it’ll be over far too soon.”

  “Well, I highly doubt it’ll be the end anyway. I suspect you’re good for more than one round,” she teased.

  He gave her a wicked smile. “Why don’t we find out?”

  Before she realized what he intended, he picked her up and tossed her on the daybed, where she let out a startled squeak. She clapped her hand over her mouth as she realized her daughter slept just one door away. She’d never made love to a man with her daughter in the house before outside of Charlie.

  He grinned. “Now you don’t have to be as quiet,” he said.

  With two quick snaps, her tiny panties were gone. He stopped, his eyes going hot as he studied every inch of her nude body. “You are so tiny,” he marveled, his hands spreading across her sunken belly.

  “I’m hardly tiny.”

  “You are,” he said. “Long, lean and beautiful.”

  She could hear the fervor in his voice and the passion coating his tones, and she loved it. She stretched out in front of him, her arms over her head. “I don’t know how much peace and quiet we’ll have—”

  “So get on with it, is that it?” he teased in a whisper as he came down on the bed beside her. He knelt between her legs, staring at her. “You’re so beautiful.”

  She laughed, completely natural and comfortable in this state. “It seems almost disrespectful to make love,” she said, “with all the horrible events earlier.”

  “No,” he said. “It has nothing to do with it. That was death. This is rebirth.” He bent down, wrapped his arms under her and gently kissed her. Then he worked his way down her neck, her collarbone, her arm and right to her fingertips, kissing and caressing every inch of her.

  She twisted and sighed, moaning with joy and passion, and, when he finally worked his way back up the other side of her, she was already mindless jelly. “I don’t care how long you do this, and we can go all night, but I really, really, really want you inside me right now.”

  Before she had a chance to say anything else, he was seated right at the heart of her. Her body arched naturally, her muscles tense and struggling to relax and to accept this new force within her. He stilled and waited, his hands gently massaging her hips and her thighs. He murmured against her neck, “Are you okay?”

  She took a deep breath, shifted her position and then nodded. “It’s been a long time.”

  He leaned over her, smiled and whispered, “Good, but it won’t be very long after this.” And he kissed her, his tongue sliding deep within and mimicking the same motion as his hips as he started to move. She shuddered beneath him, her temperature already escalating back to where it had been before his entry. She kissed him tenderly at first, but soon there was no tenderness, just heat. It was passion; it was tumultuous emotions and pulsating nerves.

  When he finally held her at the precipice, she whispered, “Now, please, dear God, now!”

  He slid his fingers down between them to find the little nub and sent her flying off the cliff. As she floated free of her body, consumed by that kaleidoscope of emotions and nerve endings, she heard him groan above her, before collapsing beside her. He h
eld her close and wrapped up in his arms as she lay against him.

  “This was not quite what I expected when I came to Alaska,” he whispered. “I had wished …”

  She chuckled. “Then it’s a good thing you came up here. I always knew it was important that you did. I just didn’t know why.”

  “Well, it’s important,” he said, “and what’s most important is what we do with it now.”

  She looked up at him. “Everything that’s happened since you arrived here has been so crazy. It doesn’t seem real.”

  He leaned over and kissed her hard. “Does that seem real?”

  “Yes,” she said, gently rubbing her nose against his. “This is very real.”

  “And Sari’s real,” he said, “and Shambhala. So it looks to me like we have a family.”

  She stopped, her eyebrows shooting up.

  “Well, you’re Sari’s mom,” he said, “and I’m Sari’s dad. And obviously Shambhala is Sari’s guardian angel.”

  Her smile was breathtaking when she heard that. “Oh, I like that,” she said. “What does it all mean though?” She pushed, looking for more from him.

  “I don’t know,” he said, “but to me it sounds like a new beginning.”

  She stopped and looked up at him, and tears came to her eyes. “You know I’m all for a new beginning,” she whispered. “It seems like I’ve had nothing but endings since I’ve been in Alaska.”

  “Not true,” he said, “and, even if it were, it doesn’t matter because I highly suggest that we leave all the bad stuff behind, and the four of us go start all over again somewhere new. I’d like to go back to New Mexico, but, if you want to go somewhere else, I’m totally okay with that too.”

  “All right.” She looked up at him. “Is it really that easy?”

  “No,” he said. “The thing about easy is it’s not always worth doing. It’s the things that you really want, that you really have to work for, that are worth doing. And this”—he gestured down the hall to his daughter and back down at Daniela—“is something I really want. So you can count on the fact I’ll really work hard to make it happen.”

  She slid her arms around his neck and chest. “You’re saying all the right words. It’s just happening so fast.”

  He nodded, nuzzling her cheek. “Exactly. It’s happened fast, and, therefore, it’s right. I don’t do this with everybody,” he said. “I know you’re probably thinking of Angel and a one-night stand many moons ago. I was a different man back then. I was on leave. I was drunk. I took what was offered. That was a whole different story than right now.”

  She searched his gaze as he leaned over, kissing her again.

  “Why do you think it took me so long to come to Alaska and see you?”

  She frowned. “I figured you didn’t want to have anything to do with us.”

  “No. It’s because I knew how important it could be, and I wanted to make sure I was ready and prepared for the changes this would bring in my life.”

  “But you didn’t know this would happen,” she protested.

  He gave her that slow dawning smile, and she stared at him in wonder. “I didn’t know for sure, but I wondered, and I’m very happy to say that this is exactly what I had wished for.”

  Her eyes filled with tears as she threw her arms around his neck again and whispered, “It’s what I wished for too.”

  “In that case, why don’t we find out if wishes can come true?”

  Epilogue

  It was a new stage of life for him—this sitting around, doing what he wanted, helping out others basically by choice instead of having a regimented lifestyle. When Greyson Morgenstein had been in the military, a Navy SEAL no less, he had been on training missions, more training, more fitness, more missions. And after his accident that ruined his back, damaged his shoulder and took off part of his foot, it had seemed like it was so much the same, and yet so different, because it was therapy, then doctors, more tests, more physical fitness, more of everything, but everything on a schedule.

  Since he’d been released, his back was as good as it would get, just needed more strengthening. His shoulder was functional, not pretty, but who said that was even part of his life anymore? He learned to walk with just half the foot, and who knew that would be such a pain? But he was better off than so many of the other guys.

  He lifted his coffee mug and stretched. He was out along the back of Geir’s house. They’d been working on building decks on a bunch of the guy’s places. And Greyson really enjoyed the camaraderie of being here, the sense of belonging, and yet without the pressure to do anything.

  He was living off his benefits at the moment, while he tried to assess what the hell he wanted to do with his life. The only thing he really couldn’t do would be heavy construction, but not much else held him back.

  He’d been a trainer within the military, so management might be something he could do. But he didn’t think he wanted anything to do with that kind of pressure, any more of that stress. He loved animals, had worked briefly with the K9 department in the military, but had wanted a much more personal relationship with the animals than the handlers were allowed to have. He’d seen various animal rescues that interested him, but that wasn’t a way to make money.

  When Geir sat down beside him, Greyson said, “It’s a nice deal you’ve got going here.”

  Geir nodded slowly. “It is. It was a long time coming. What we’ve got, we’ve built ourselves.”

  Greyson didn’t say anything else, just sipped his coffee.

  “What do you want for your future?” Geir asked.

  Greyson shrugged. “Something different, something more peaceful than the navy and all the missions. Something still helping out, I guess, but without the stress, without the schedule, without the chaos.”

  Geir nodded. “You know not too many people would understand that.”

  “Well, I sure as hell hope some could.” He shook his head. “I want to stop and smell the roses a little more.”

  Geir grinned. “You need a wife for that.”

  “Is that what helped you?”

  Geir thought about it, then nodded. “A lot of my adjustments came from her being in my life—having that other perspective—plus having the guys at my side as we decided what we wanted to do, moving forward. All of us having physical disabilities made the world look at us differently.” He shook his head. “It makes you reassess.”

  “It does, indeed,” Greyson said.

  “How do you feel about animals?”

  “Love them. I was just thinking it’s too bad I can’t set up a rescue, but they don’t make any money so …”

  “What kind of rescue?”

  “I don’t know. I’m particular to dogs, but I’m a cat guy too,” he said with a quirk of his lips.

  “Interesting.”

  “That sounded like you have something going on in the back of your head.”

  “We’ve been working some K9 files. We’ve had a really good success rate, but this next one? We just don’t have a lot of information on it.”

  “What are the K9 files?”

  And he listened while Geir explained about the War Dog Division shutting down this part of the department, and a bunch of these dogs having been lost in the system.

  “Those dogs give their lives in many instances,” Greyson said. “They certainly give the best years of their physical lives, and they deserve to have a decent ending to it.”

  “Which is why we agreed to help on a pro bono basis,” Geir said. “What we now have is Kona. A Belgian Malinois female, who was shipped to Denver but somehow ended up in Hawaii.”

  “That doesn’t even compute,” Greyson said, staring at him in surprise.

  “Right?”

  “So has she been shipped back to Denver?”

  “No, she was picked up, supposed to go to a foster setup for a few nights, until someone could arrange her trip home, only she disappeared overnight.”

  “Well, that could be a good thing,” Gre
yson said. “A lot of people don’t agree with shelters.”

  “This was a rescue. She had her own run. She should have been just fine there,” Geir said. “What we can’t do is ignore this. We need to know that whoever stole the dog is looking after her and that the dog will have the best life possible.”

  “What about legalities in this one?”

  “An adoptive family was lined up in Denver. We didn’t have anybody in Hawaii.”

  “So, if I do find the dog, and I do find that it’s in a good home, am I supposed to rip it away and send it to Denver?”

  Geir thought about that for a long moment as he studied his coffee cup. “No,” he finally said. “I think the baseline here is that we go with whatever is in the best interests of the dog.”

  “So, go find the dog, track down whoever stole it, figure out why and what they’re doing with it and if the dog will be okay?” He looked around at the yard he spent the last few days working at and said, “Hawaii could be good.”

  Geir looked at him and smiled. “Any connection for you?”

  “Grandparents. They used to live in New York, and then, one day, it’s like they snapped, sold everything and moved to Hawaii.”

  “Hey, I’m not sure that’s such a bad idea,” Geir said, “but honestly, if you’ll be in one of the big cities, I’m not sure there’s any difference.”

  “They’re on one of the outer islands, I believe,” he said. “It might be time to find out.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What airport did the dog disappear from?”

  “It was flown into Lanai Airport, and then it was at the Freedom shelter. That’s the last known location we have.”

  He nodded. “How long ago?”

  “Now that we are actually delving into this case, it’s possible the trail ran cold a long time ago. The dog has been missing for just over three months.”

  “So long enough to bond but not enough to bond well.”