“Don’t, Mia.” He placed a hand on her arm and shook his head. “He’s already gone out on a shaky limb for me. If you tell him about any of this, it will put him in an impossible position.”
She sipped her wine, a flicker of worry shadowing her expression. “You’re right. He’s very…honorable. A true cop, through and through.”
“You already said I’m a bad influence. If something goes sideways with all this, I’ll feel responsible.”
“There’s only so long you can stand on the edge of a fault-ridden precipice before something collapses. That’s what’ll eventually happen to Camille and Mason.”
Jazz walked across Mia’s lap and settled in his. He ran a hand from the back of the cat’s head to the end of his tail and earned a loud purr.
“I almost pulled up stakes and moved away after college. I would have, but I didn’t want to leave my grandmother.”
“You could have taken her with you, Mia.”
She gestured with her wine glass. “This warehouse property belongs to her, and she’s a silent partner in my business. She supplied the space and gave me some backing.”
He reached for her hand. “She’s always believed in you.”
“You always did, too. That’s why it was so hard for me after you left. You were part of my support system.”
“And you were part of mine.” She’d always encouraged him. Had urged him to take some college classes while working. In fact, he’d already signed up for some, but had to cancel them when he left.
He’d wanted to be there for her while she followed her dream, but she attained it without him. That hurt some. “I’m glad you finished what you started. You’ve built something amazing here.”
She’d have probably left him behind anyway. Why would she have held onto an oil rig worker? And why would she want to take on a Navy SEAL who lived eighteen hundred miles away?
He stood when she did. “I appreciate you letting me stay here, Mia.”
Soft color touched her cheeks.
“If you want to stay up and watch television, feel free. I’ll put fresh towels out in the hallway bathroom for you. And help yourself to anything you find to eat or drink. The pantry is next to the refrigerator, and there’s a stash of emergency junk food in there.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll turn in too. I have to be at the hospital at ten, so it’ll be an early morning for me as well.” He’d do his five-mile run, then come back to shower and change before going to the hospital, then return to Mama’s and get started on replacing the attic windows.
He polished off his beer and got to his feet, putting the bottle in the recycling bin in the pantry as he saw her do last night, then collecting his bag from where he dropped it next to the door. He waited for her to go down the hall ahead of him.
She stopped next to the guest room. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Why are you doing all this for me?”
“It isn’t just for you, Gage. It’s for me, too. It isn’t just what they did. It’s that they didn’t care how it affected our lives.”
He suspected there was more to it than that. He tossed his bag inside the bedroom door. “I can’t swear that the guy parked outside Mama’s house was spying on you. He might have been waiting for someone. But if you want to pay them back, spend plenty of time with me while I’m here.”
“I’m not going to use you as some kind of revenge to stir up Camille and Mason.”
“That’s only a side benefit. We didn’t get to say good-bye. And I’m not going to call it closure, but by the time I head back to San Diego, I’d like to know we’re both in a better place.”
He didn’t want to have to live with the what-ifs anymore. He was a kid when he left, but by the time he made it through BUD/s the kid had been kicked out of him. Still, even though he’d grown into manhood, he still had the same hang-ups about relationships. He still compared every woman to Mia.
“Think about it.” He turned and went into his room.
*
Mia set out fresh towels for Gage in the hallway bathroom, then got ready for bed. She hated being so hyper-aware that Gage was in the next room. She kept thinking of those few minutes in the cab when he reminded her of how they’d been together.
But being able to remember in minute detail how they were together in the past was a curse. He was young then, not as inexperienced as she was, but still he was careful, caring, and every caress was given with love. And when he came inside her, he always said he loved her while their bodies joined and then moved together.
It had been a disservice to the other two men she’d been with to expect any of that. They’d been older, more experienced, and they’d given her pleasure. But she hadn’t been wildly in love with either of them. She liked them. Even felt affection for both of them. But nothing as strong as what she and Gage shared.
And it wasn’t the two men’s fault. It all lay within her. But she didn’t know what to do about it. How to change her feelings.
And the things Camille and Mason did to her…Mason with his snide remarks and his dislike of her—or was it jealousy because he wasn’t the center of Camille’s world? Why didn’t he realize that Camille was always too busy thinking of herself to think of anyone else?
And the men Camille had tried to push her to date. She shuddered. All rich, all self-centered, all less than Gage.
When Camille sabotaged her college scholarship, that was the catalyst for her to walk away for good.
But living for years with a narcissistic mother and a brother who detested her… She didn’t know how to heal the damage.
After an hour of lying sleepless, she shoved back the covers and crept down the hall toward the kitchen. The light from the television screen reached her before she emerged into the living room. An old movie played silently, closed captions crawling across the bottom of the screen.
She eased forward to look over the back of the couch and saw Gage lying stretched along its length. Dark sleep pants covered his hips and legs, but light played along each hill and valley of his bare torso, highlighting every muscle across his chest and abdomen.
He’d been lean and muscular from the hard labor of two jobs when they dated, but she was looking at the body of a warrior now. And he was beautiful.
When she looked up at his face and realized he was watching her, a blush scalded her face and neck, and she broke out in a sweat.
She cleared her throat, hoping her voice would work. “I’m going to fix a cup of hot tea. Would you like something?”
“I’m good.”
She moved around the island, reached for the teakettle, filled it, and set it on the stove. The gas flame flared beneath the kettle.
Gage’s bare feet barely made a sound as he came around the island to stand behind her. “Maybe I should leave and go back to Mama’s.”
She swallowed and managed, “Why?”
“Because I can’t sleep knowing you’re just down the hall.”
She turned to face him.
He leaned back against the island, leaving a three-foot space between them while his dark eyes searched her face.
She still wanted him. Wanted him from the moment she saw him at the airport.
What more did she have to lose? She turned off the burner.
Her voice was swallowed by the breath-stealing heat that arrowed down her body to settle in the very heart of her. She took one step toward him, then another. She ran a hand from his chest down to the low-slung waist of his sleep pants.
Gage caught his breath.
When she pressed an open-mouthed kiss in the center of his chest, he whispered her name while he ran his hands down over her ass and lifted her.
She spread her legs to ride his hips while he carried her down the hall to her bedroom.
Bracing his knee on the mattress, he lowered her to the bed while she felt the hard heat of his erection pressing against her as they kissed. His features looked sharp with desire, his eyes dark in the dim glow of the la
mp on the dresser. His mouth was hot on hers, his tongue darting into her mouth, both demanding and tempting.
His hands worked beneath her gown, caressing her breasts and toying with her nipples. When he dragged the gown up, she wiggled free and raked her fingers through his hair while his mouth latched on one nipple, drawing on it, and sending rivulets of sensation through her.
When he found her with his fingers, she rolled her hips in response. He caught the rhythm of her movements and echoed them to tempt her, tease her. Until she was aching with need.
She didn’t want to wait. She wanted him inside her.
His skin felt hot as she caressed the back of his neck, his shoulders. When his mouth came back to hers, she ran her hands down his back and under his sleep pants, caressing, then cupping, the cheeks of his ass.
He jerked the pajamas down and thrust inside her with one bold stroke, and she climaxed. He waited for her to ride it out before withdrawing, then thrusting deep again. His rhythm became hot and frantic, stroking her in just the right spot, and sending her over the edge again. Then the throb of his release inside her sent her into gentler aftershocks.
With Gage’s heart thudding at a frantic pace against her and his breath hot against her neck, she smiled. It felt right. More than right.
“If I’d known you didn’t have any panties on under that gown, I’d never have made it to the bedroom.”
She brushed his cheek with a kiss while she continued to stroke his back and enjoy the weight of him between her legs. “It’s much more comfortable in a bed than in the back seat of a Camry.”
He finally raised his head. “At the risk of sounding like a sentimental fool, I wouldn’t take anything for the memories we made in that Camry.”
“No fool at all.” She ran her hands up his back again. “There’s more room in my Mitsubishi.”
Gage chuckled and eased away to lie beside her. He turned to look at her. “We’re both a little old to be caught in the back seat of a car doing what we just did.”
“True.” She ran a hand up and down his side because she couldn’t seem to stop touching him.
He seemed the same when he ran the side of his finger over her shoulder and down until he found her breast again. He cupped the weight in his hand and gently ran a thumb over her nipple until it peaked.
“Gage.” She ran her hand down over his taut stomach to find him hot and already hard again.
“I can’t help myself. I have to have you again, Mia.”
“Me too. Come inside me.”
When he entered her this time, she knew she was lost. She was still in love with him.
CHAPTER 12
‡
Gage eased out of bed so he wouldn’t wake Mia, since she still had some time before she needed to get ready for work.
He needed a short run to think things through. Which he should have done last night before they tumbled into her bed.
He was too hungry for her to resist. Hungrier than he could ever remember feeling for anyone else.
She’d expect more from him now. She was no one-night stand. And he wanted to give her everything she wanted, but returning to duty in California in a little more than three weeks loomed large. And it was nearly an insurmountable mountain between them. You couldn’t really carry on a romance via Zoom. And he should have thought of that before his dick barged in and took over the situation.
She’d been as hungry for him as he was for her, and they exhausted each other, then fell asleep spooning. He was getting hard again just thinking about it. In fact, as he looked down at her, he wanted to climb back in bed, wake her, and make love all over again. Maybe more than once.
He forced himself to turn away and leave the room.
He ripped a sheet of paper off a pad on the kitchen island, wrote her a note saying he was going for a run and would be back in thirty minutes. After leaving the note on the pillow on his side of the bed, he put on running shorts, T-shirt and running shoes, and tucked his cell phone into an armband with his ID.
He paused at the bottom of the stairs to stretch, then started out slowly to warm his muscles, building momentum as he jogged past Mia’s Promises, nestled between two other businesses, an antique store on the right and a coffee shop on the left. It was upscale area, but he still stayed on the alert for trouble.
He timed a light and crossed the street, jogging past a group of five women just emerging from a café. When someone wolf-whistled, he waved and grinned, and the women giggled, then burst into raucous laughter.
He fell into a rhythm, his muscles warming while his mind dwelled on Mia. She was wary and reserved in the past, and it took time for her to trust him. And now the older Mia had built walls thicker than the younger one’s ever were.
There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that his sudden defection was partly responsible for that.
She had few people in her life she could depend on. A few servants and her grandmother.
He left. Broke her heart, and her trust. He recognized that, even though at the time he hadn’t had a choice, he did have one later. And he chose to try to forget rather than reach out. So why should she trust him now?
But he hadn’t forgotten. Still compared every woman he dated—even the one-night stands he was guilty of when he first became a SEAL—to her. He should have called to tell her what happened. Why didn’t he?
It was partly the fear that Mason would make good on his threat and have him extradited back to Louisiana.
And he’d been working so hard to become a SEAL. Boot camp, pre-SEAL training, BUD/S, then more training, then working with his team, then deployment. Nearly three years solid of grueling training and hard labor to get his Trident. Then two years of deployments. He’d been filling the hole her loss left in his life with a goal. Her loss, and his displacement from his family, crippled him emotionally for a year. And once he finally managed to crawl out of that hole on his own and move on, he’d been as wary as she was about letting people close.
But he should have called.
He kicked up to a faster pace and ran across side roads, leaping over the curbs as he circled around the World War II Museum and saluted it when he raced past, his muscles burning. He’d hit his stride, dodged past a slow-moving couple window-shopping, and suddenly hit a section where more mundane businesses were scattered, so he cut up one block and headed back to Mia’s apartment at full speed.
A car cruised by, then pulled over to park, and two beefy men got out. His senses leaped to combat alert in seconds. Gage cut up an alley back toward the Museum and heard running footsteps behind him.
He sprinted down the alley, cut back behind some of the buildings onto the main street, and reached the closed museum.
A car pulled up and parked, and a family got out. Early birds waiting for the museum to open. He stopped and pretended to tie his shoe while he pulled his phone free of his armband, holding it up while he waited for the two men show up, then started taking pictures of them. They quickly turned and walked back the way they’d just come.
God dammit! What was it going to take? He found and punched in a number on his phone. “I’m sending you some pictures. I had two guys try to pick me up just past the WWII museum, and they chased me down an alley.”
“You need backup?”
“No. They’ve turned around and headed back down the street.”
Jules let out a sigh. “Are you in a safe location?”
“For the moment.”
“I’m going to pick you up. Stay where you are. We need to talk.”
“Okay.”
He closed out the call and debated with himself about whether to call Mia. He decided to wait until Jules showed up. Ten minutes later Jules pulled up in a Buick, and Gage got in and reached for his phone to call Mia. “Hey, Jules and I ran into each other, and he wants to go for coffee. I’ll be back in a little while.”
“Is there something wrong?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him yet. I’ll fill you in when
I get back.”
“Okay.”
Jules shot him a look when he hung up.
“I didn’t want to worry her.”
Jules growled, “What happened?”
Fuck, where should he start? “I’ve been installing cameras and sensors in the house so it’ll be safe for my grandmother to return. Because my brother has had a drug issue in the past, I searched the entire house from top to bottom. He’s been there one time since, and he remained in the room with me the whole time. He doesn’t have a key to the house anymore.
“Last night a police officer called me on my cell and said someone broke into my grandmother’s house. When Mia and I got there he and his partner were parked in front of the place and one of the attic windows had been kicked in.
“Then the cops insisted on coming in and making sure no one had gained entry to the house. Which they couldn’t have. Otherwise the alarm would have gone off. Mia called the next-door neighbor, who said the only one she saw on the roof was one of the cops.
“When they left, we went upstairs to see the damage and search—just in case. We found a bag of pills, powder, and other paraphernalia planted in an old hatbox I’d already searched a few days ago. We got rid of it.”
Jules whipped into a parking spot in front of a coffee shop. “What the hell do you mean you got rid of it?”
“I mean it’s gone. You know it’s a done deal that someone will be sent out to search the house, Jules. I can’t allow anyone to find drugs there. I’m not risking my career and my freedom, and Mason’s looking for a way to destroy one and take the other.”
Jules gripped the steering wheel as though he wanted to break it.
“After last night, Mia invited me to stay with her until my grandmother is released. I got up this morning to take a five-mile run, and everything was fine until two men pulled up in front of me, got out of the car, then pursued me when I dodged down an alley. You got the pictures I sent, right?”
“Yeah.” Jules huffed in a breath. “They’re not cops. They’re hired muscle. And they’re bad news.”
As long as guns weren’t involved, Gage wasn’t too worried. “I’m between a rock and a hard place here, Jules. If I defend myself, I could be arrested. And that could fuck up my career with the Navy. But if I don’t fight back I could end up dead. How do you want me to deal with them?”
Hot SEAL, Midnight Magic (SEALs In Paradise) Page 10
