Breaking Through (Book 2 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)

by Reasor, Teresa

  “How long before I can train again?”

  “Six weeks for the tissue to heal completely, maybe a couple of more just to be certain. Two months at least.”

  Shit. More waiting. More fighting his way back. More excuses for Captain Jackson to stall his orders. Or find a way to push him out.

  “When can I get out of here?” He needed to get home. He needed to protect his mom, his sister. And that niggling worry about Tess kept tormenting him.

  She’d hung around to get the scoop so she could use him as copy. He cared about someone who didn’t give a shit about him. How pathetic was that? Pain like battery acid ate at him.

  Dr. Talbert studied the chart for a moment. “The nurse said you’d been up and moving well.”

  “Yeah.” It had hurt despite the pain medication, and he’d mentally cussed every step. But he’d done it.

  “I can release you late tomorrow, if you’re showing no signs of infection and you have someone responsible who’ll stay with you.”

  It wouldn’t be Tess. “Trust me, I have two responsible somebodies who’ll stay with me. That’s the one good thing about being the only male in the family.”

  Talbert smiled for the first time. “Good, I’ll get on that paperwork tomorrow.”

  “You’re ex-military aren’t you, Doc?” Brett asked.

  “Yes, I was a Naval surgeon. I just retired last year. How did you know?”

  “The analysis of the wound. And the anger.”

  Talbert frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I got home from a seven-month tour in Iraq four months ago. And I’ve been angry ever since. Angry and restless. I see a psychologist twice a week. You might want to talk to someone.”

  Talbert remained silent for a moment. A brief smile crossed his lips though he shook his head. “I’ll think about that, Ensign.”

  Brett extended his hand. “Thanks for patching me up.”

  “You’re welcome.” Talbert shook his hand. “I’ll want to follow up in a week, just to make sure everything is healing as it should, and then again in six weeks. The nurse will be in with some paperwork for you to sign, an appointment and some instructions.”

  “Thanks, Doc.”

  As soon as Talbert left the room, Brett swung his legs over the side of the bed. He placed a bracing hand against his hip as he rose to his feet. The more he moved around, the quicker the soreness would abate, but, damn, he felt like he’d been stomped on several times.

  The door swung inward behind him and he turned.

  Hawk stood in the doorway. A smile broke across Brett’s face.

  Hawk’s serious expression didn’t change. “We need to talk.”

  ***

  Russell exited his car and headed up the walk to the house where Clara was staying. He’d called earlier to check on her, but his need to see her, just to be certain she was okay, overwhelmed his usual control. The porch stretched across the front of the house. At one end, a wicker lounge, and two chairs with a table angled before them, were arranged invitingly. The cushions on the furniture, printed with bold flowers, mirrored the hibiscus plants in the two large planters that bracketed the arrangement.

  “Sir.” A police officer approached him from a car on the street. “I need to see your identification.”

  Russell pulled his wallet from his back pocket and waited while the man looked over his license and military ID.

  The door swung inward and Clara stood within its frame. “Thank you, officer. Dr. Connelly is a friend.”

  The police officer returned his ID, and Clara motioned for Russell to come in. She shut the door and locked it.

  “I wanted to see you just to be sure you are all right,” he said

  Clara’s smile eased the taut knot of anxiety, and he drew his first deep breath since he’d rushed to the hospital.

  Dressed in lightweight cotton pants and a summer sweater, she looked her normal self except for the brace that hugged her arm. The early morning light picked out the copper highlights in her hair and touched the fine lines at the corner of each eye and around her mouth. He didn’t dwell on those, but homed in on the fragile slope of her jaw where a black bruise and a swollen area marred the oval shape of her face.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m just a little sore.”

  The careful way she moved her head told him something more. Tipping her face up, Russell studied the lighter bruise along her cheekbone. Someone had hurt her. Had tried to kill her.

  Every time he looked at her injuries, acknowledged them, rage shot through his system, and he wanted to punch the asshole and go on punching him until he was … no more.

  Instead, he enveloped Clara into his arms and held her. When she nestled against him, pressing her breasts into his ribs and her head against his chest, he drew a deep breath. He wanted her. He couldn’t hide his response to her, nor did he want to. He’d almost lost her before they’d ever had a chance to truly know what they could have together.

  Her arms tightened around him. He smiled at the color in her cheeks when she looked up at him. He bent his head and kissed her. Her lips clung to his, intensifying his need. He drew back before it got harder to stop, but his lips lingered against her cheek, her temple.

  “Evan wants me to bring you over so he can see for himself that you’re okay,” he said.

  “Maybe later.” Clara drew back, but her hand lingered against the front of his knit shirt. “I’ve always thought when my children were grown and gone I’d have plenty of privacy to do as I pleased.”

  “Let me guess,” he interrupted. “When you had the privacy, you didn’t really need it, then when you crave it most, it’s impossible to find.”

  Her smile held a wry twist. “Exactly.”

  “I’ve been feeling the same way.” His breathing grew labored against the frantic beat of his heart.

  She ran a caressing hand over his chest, and his skin heated.

  “I called earlier to check on Brett. He’ll be released later today.” She rested her cheek against his chest, once again stirring his urge to protect and comfort. “Zoe’s left to take Tess to pick up her car. She’s going on to work with the rental car. And Hawk will be coming home later tonight.”

  Russell ran his hand down her spine to the small of her back. His pulse leaped to pounding in a matter of a nanosecond. “How’s your arm feeling?”

  “I took some medication earlier. It’s fine.”

  He touched her chin, and she tilted her head back to look up at him. He searched her features one by one. “You’ve just been through a trauma, Clara. Are you sure?”

  “What time do you have to go to the hospital?” she asked.

  “Fourteen hundred.” His mouth found hers again. She cupped his face, and her tongue caressed his in a slow sensuous response. He groaned.

  She pulled free of his arms to take his hand and tug him down the hall into a bedroom decorated in cool shades of green.

  She slipped her feet free of her sandals, and his attention fastened on the graceful shape of her ankles, her feet, and the pale pink polish on her toenails. Had he ever recognized how sexy bare feet could be? Surely not until this moment.

  He toed off his own shoes and reached for his belt.

  “We’ve had so little time alone together. I’ve wanted more,” she said.

  “I have, too.”

  She shimmied out of her pants and stood in just her sweater and panties.

  The shapeliness of her thighs drew his attention. He slipped his arms around her. “We can take our time, Clara.” He dragged the comforter down to the foot of the bed and urged her to lie down. He was aware of her watching as he shucked his, socks, pants and shirt and stretched out beside her in his boxer briefs. Her head found a place in the hollow of his shoulder and the brush of her bare thigh across his sent instant heat racing upward. He grew painfully hard. It had been too long. He drew her hand to his lips and he brushed a kiss against her fingertips. “I know we’re past the need to w
orry about conception, but do you have protection? I’m careful at work and with Evan, but just in case … ”

  “They’re in the nightstand drawer.” She ran a hand over his chest in a caress he felt all the way to his toes. She raised her head to look down at him and the trust he read in her face triggered a rush of tenderness for her.

  “You ought to have seen the look the young girl at the pharmacy gave me when I bought them. I don’t know which of us was the most embarrassed,” she said, and laughed.

  He chuckled. “Young people look at us and see the lines on our faces, and the gray in our hair, and nothing else.” He caressed the tender curve of her cheek. Seductive and shy, generous and caring, she drew him in more thoroughly than any other woman ever had. “When did you buy them?” he asked.

  “After you took me to the harbor and the Gaslamp Quarter for lunch.”

  He smiled. “I bought some then, too. I haven’t been carrying them around with me, but I got them. Just in case.”

  Her smile was laced with mischief, though her cheeks grew pink with a blush. “Maybe you should start carrying them. Just in case.”

  He caught his breath at the depth of his response to her teasing. He kissed her, pouring into it all the intensity of his passion for her.

  ***

  Clara tried to lose herself in his kiss, but the nervous tremors spread from her hands all the way down her body. For as much as she wanted him, she was terrified of disappointing him. For all the seductive teasing she’d done, she was afraid this first experience would end as disastrously as her last one.

  The patient love she’d seen in his face as he looked at his son, the tenderness and humor she’d read in his eyes when he looked at her, suddenly came to mind to chase the nerves away. It was going to be okay. She loved him.

  It had been so long since a man had touched her. Russell’s hands running over her skin felt like something new and wonderful. She wanted to laugh with the joy of it and weep for all the barren years she’d waited. Why could she not have found him sooner?

  Russell’s fingers tugged the sweater upward, and she pulled it over her head. He guided the strap of her bra down her shoulder and followed it with his lips. “Your breasts are beautiful. I had to keep myself from staring at them that day at the airport.”

  She unhooked her bra and nearly groaned aloud when he paused to caress each one before lowering his lips to her nipple. The texture of his tongue, the warmth of his mouth as he sucked, sent ripples of pleasure arrowing down her body and her hips rose in response. Her breathing grew choppy and her hands ran over the width of his shoulders in a caress. The shape and size of him was both familiar and strange, and oh, so dear. When his lips came back to hers, she caressed the sturdy strength of his chest and felt the coarseness of the hair there against her skin. The thrust of his arousal pressed against her hip and she ran her fingertips down the length of him through the briefs. He thrust against her touch and groaned her name, his tone husky.

  When he peeled her panties down, she wiggled free without hesitation. He ran his palm over her hip and down her thigh then back up, his exploration slow and thorough. As he stroked and caressed the inside of her legs, need clawed at her and she rolled her hips, encouraging his touch. At the first careful, intimate brush of his fingertips, she caught her breath. He tempted and teased her with the circling movement of his finger until her hips rocked with need. His name broke from her.

  He rolled away to strip off his briefs and reached for the drawer. Seconds seemed like eons as he ripped open the condom and covered himself. When he turned back, she opened her arms and her thighs to welcome him.

  The careful way he balanced atop her, the easy way he thrust so slowly inside her, gave her heart a squeeze. His eyes swept her features, his expression filled with tender passion. “I’ve wanted you so much, Clara.” She cupped his face and drew his lips back to hers.

  And after a small pause, Russell captured a rhythm, edgy with pent-up need. She welcomed the push and drag of his body moving in and out of hers. Her breathing grew ragged as the firm thrust of his erection swept that sweet spot just inside her again and again. At the swelling throb of his release, her pleasure spiked, stealing the strength from her limbs, and she clung to him as the orgasm tumbled through her.

  When she opened her eyes, he was smiling down at her, his hazel eyes alight with amusement and satisfaction. “How long has it been?” he asked.

  “Almost six years.”

  Surprise rocketed across his features. “Dear God!” He kissed her.

  CHAPTER 26

  Hawk wandered down the hall to physical therapy wing. A plastic smell like the mats in a training room grew stronger the farther down the hall he progressed.

  He’d wanted to see Zoe before visiting Brett, but he’d taken pity on a fellow teammate and dropped the news on him as soon as he’d hit town. Captain Morrow had a copy of the transmission between HQ and the security detail. According to the tape, they’d delivered the kid, and then bugged out back to base.

  Morrow had sent NCIS a copy of both the transcript and the tape on the first stateside-bound transport. It would arrive in a few days. Knowing NCIS’s reputation, the tape wouldn’t completely clear Brett, but it was a start.

  And now he was going to see his girl, even if it was just for a minute between patients. He lengthened his strid,e and excitement brought a surge in his heart rate and his temperature. He’d missed her every day and every night of the three weeks he’d been gone.

  A woman passed him the hall and paused. “May I help you?” she asked.

  “I’m looking for Zoe Weaver. She’s a physical therapist here.”

  The woman’s eyes ran down over his brown t-shirt and desert cammies, all the way to his boots. The come-on registered only long enough for him to frown. Not interested.

  “And you are?” she asked

  Her boyfriend. Her partner. Her lover. Her man. It was growing more awkward for him each time someone asked. Zoe deserved to be a wife. He wanted to be a husband. So, why wasn’t he remedying that situation?

  “I’m Adam Yazzie, her boyfriend. I’ve been gone three weeks on a training op and just wanted to see her.”

  The woman’s attitude changed from scoping him out to being helpful. “She’s with a patient, but I’ll slip into the room and tell her you’re here. You can go down to the lounge and get a cup of coffee while you wait. It’s just three doors down and to the right.”

  “Thanks.” A patient with an artificial arm fitted at the elbow walked by and saluted him with his hook. Their eyes met for a moment and Hawk returned the salute. By the grace of God. Hawk was reminded every day how lucky he was. He wandered down the hall to a room with a kitchen, a small table and chairs, and a television mounted high on the wall in one corner. The smell of fresh coffee permeated the room He leaned against the counter uninterested. All he wanted was to see Zoe and hold her.

  Five minutes passed and he was reading the same poster about the stages of grief for the tenth time when Zoe rushed in. For a split second they just looked at one another, and then they were in each other’s arms. Zoe’s head pressed against his chest and her arms clung tight around his waist, her breasts pushing into his ribs. He breathed in her vanilla scent. Vanilla and her. God knew what he smelled like after riding from Miramar to base in the back of a truck. Maybe he should have stopped to shower. He ran his hand down her back to her waist with one hand while he cupped her head with the other and tangled his fingers in her ponytail.

  When she finally leaned back to look up at him and smiled, his mouth found hers. Her lips parted and their tongues tangled. The kiss went on and on as they tried to make up for three weeks of separation.

  When he finally raised his head, her voice came wispy with emotion. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  Hawk cupped her face with both of his hands and just studied each feature. He’d never known he was capable of loving anyone as completely as he loved her. “The words ‘me, too’ don’t e
ven scratch the surface.”

  Her dark blue eyes looked even darker since the kiss. He took her lips again, this time with all the tenderness that rose inside him.

  “You can’t keep looking at me like that, kissing me like that. You’re either going to make me cry or we’re going to have to find a storage closet somewhere,” she said, her laugh shaky.

  “There’s an idea. What time do you get off?”

  A grin curved her lips. “As soon as I get home, I hope.”

  The erection he’d tried to control was instantly at full mast. “That’s a promise, sweetheart.” He kissed her again, then grew serious. “I need to know what time to be back here so I can ride home with you.”

  He hated watching the teasing light go out of her eyes.

  “It’s just a precaution, Zoe.” A well-founded precaution. Did the asshole who’d shot Brett know about Zoe. Where she lived? Where she worked? Did he know where Clara was staying?

  “Have you been home yet?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “There’s a policeman standing guard at the house. He’ll want to see your ID. Mom’s there with the alarm on.”

  “Good.”

  “So, you think the man may know where she is?” she asked, her voice rising with alarm.

  Hawk kept his voice moderate. “We don’t know that, Zoe. But it doesn’t hurt to take precautions.” He sighed inwardly. “I want to stick around and have lunch with you.”

  “I’d love it. But I don’t get a break for an hour. And I’d feel better if you were home with Mom. If you don’t mind.”

  “No problem.”

  “Do you really think this guy may be after Brett?”

  “Brett believes he was targeted, and he and your mother were the only two the shooter went after.”

  “But why Brett?”

  Shit. He hated keeping Zoe in the dark. But it wasn’t his secret to tell, and even if it were, he was bound by his oath and couldn’t say. “I don’t know, Zoe. We were in Iraq for seven months and dealt with a lot of bad guys while we were there. This one may or may not have a tie to a mission. We don’t know for sure.” And now that NCIS and all the other agencies were involved, they probably wouldn’t know if this guy was tied to one of their missions, until somebody was on a slab. That possibility had him and all the other guys in the team on high alert.