Danger and Desire: A Romantic Suspense Anthology

by Kimberly Kincaid

  “Now, sir?”

  “Jesus God, I’m not a sir.” It took everything he had to keep his voice down. “You’re now down to fourteen minutes. Get a move on and keep your butt down before Red Smoke tags your ass.”

  He watched as Roger scrambled away. He was going to kill the runt if they lost this war game.

  Jill pressed send on the third text that she’d sent to Law. One every day since Sunday. Monday was cookie and milk emojis. Tuesday was beer and limes. Wednesday was a hammock, and today was a smiley face. She really hoped that she was right about today being a day to smile and she would really get a chance to see him.

  She had googled Marine Raider since she’d met him. His job was crazy scary. She hadn’t heard of them before, because it seemed like Navy SEALs sucked all the oxygen out of the room. But Marine Raiders were uber special forces along the same lines. Reading up on them, Jill got the impression that they thought they were all that and a bag of chips. It must have something to do with being a Marine.

  Jill pushed her phone into the back pocket of her cut-off jeans.

  “But Law doesn’t seem all that egotistical,” she told her giant purple alliums as she pulled the weeds from around their base. She patted down the upturned soil, then moved onto another patch in the flowerbed where more stubborn weeds had popped up.

  “Law seems pretty nice. What do you think? It’s only been ten days.” she asked the pretty red zinnias. “Am I getting too excited too early, or are my instincts on track?”

  She dug in at another pesky weed and yanked it out. She sat back on her heels and looked at the colorful bed of flowers.

  “You know, considering how nicely I take care of y’all, the least you could do is answer me.”

  She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and realized it was Mr. Applegate from next door. She prayed that because he was retired and had white hair, that his hearing was not what it should be.

  “Hello, Jill,” he said as he walked across his lawn toward her. “How are you doing? I haven’t seen you in far too long. Edith and I were talking not so long ago about our grandson and how we really think we should introduce the two of you.”

  Please, deliver me. What did I do to deserve this?

  “I met Robin, remember? He was at Lorraine’s service.”

  “Oh, that’s right, you did. Maybe we can arrange to have the two of you over to our place for dinner some time?”

  Jill put her left hand behind her back and crossed her fingers. Whether it was for luck so that it was true, or to save herself from telling a fib, she did not know.

  “Mr. Applegate, I’m seeing someone.”

  “You are?” His eyes lit up. “That’s wonderful. Edith and I worry about you. Especially when we see you talking out loud to your flowers.”

  It took everything she had not to groan out loud. Time to change the subject.

  “So, will I see you and your lovely wife at the Labor Day festival at Founder’s Park?”

  Mr. Applegate gave her a quizzical glance.

  “You know, the one that the guy from the HOA was taking a headcount for?”

  “Jill, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen anything on the community website, and nobody has stopped by telling Edith and me about something for Labor Day.”

  Jill got up and brushed grass off the back of her shorts. “Were you home on Monday?”

  “All day. I beat Edith at Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.”

  “Didn’t a man come to your house and ask you how many from your house would go to the Labor Day celebration? He was from the homeowners association.”

  “Jill, Edith and I bought into this development thirty years ago. Nobody has ever come to our door and done a headcount. Maybe back in the day they would call us, but I’d have to ask her. Are you sure?”

  “That is so weird. Maybe it’s because he knew that the property has changed hands?”

  Mr. Applegate put his hand on her shoulder. “You need to call the guard at the gate. Something’s not right. Find out who came into the community on Monday. It sounds fishy to me, Honey.”

  How sweet is that?

  “Thank you, Mr. Applegate, I definitely will.”

  Her back pocket vibrated and she reached for her phone. She saw it was Law and grinned. “Mr. Applegate, give Mrs. Applegate my best. I’ll bring over cookies next week. Thanks for everything.”

  “Don’t forget to call the guard,” he admonished.

  “I won’t.” She smiled. It was so nice of him to worry about her; she was so lucky to have neighbors who cared. She turned toward the house and read the text.

  Whoo Hoo! He’s back!

  Chapter 6

  Lawson squeezed the bridge of his nose as he leaned back in his favorite chair. Today his brother Xavier would have been thirty-three years old. He and Asher had just done a joint call with their mother in Belgium.

  God, he loved the woman to the moon and back, and he ached for her. Losing a husband and a son was more than one woman should ever have to bear, but she did it with grace and dignity.

  He took another shuddering gulp of air and thanked God and his brother Asher that she didn’t know that Xavier had killed himself. Living thousands of miles away, that was one more burden she didn’t need to shoulder. Law knew Marie-Louise Thorne—she would somehow think she was at fault and she’d collapse in on herself.

  He got up. It was time for a run. Something that would drive away the demons. His phone vibrated with a text. From his brother Asher, of course.

  Love you man.

  Mom loves you.

  Xave, wherever he is, loves you.

  Law gulped down another shuddering breath and typed.

  Back at you.

  Law pushed up from his chair and looked out the window.

  “Xave, I’m still pissed at you. But I mostly just miss you now. Happy birthday.”

  He turned away and tensed when he heard his phone vibrate against the coffee table. What was Ash texting now?

  Bought good beer, the kind that comes in a bottle. Limes are sliced. You tempted?

  And with those last two words, Lawson felt his world tilt back into place. He’d been seeing Jill for almost four weeks now, and her humor, sexiness, and plain old niceness had gotten to him like no other woman ever had. Law texted back.

  I’ve been tempted since I met you.

  He waited for a response and luckily it didn’t take long.

  Do I bring the beer to you, or do you come to me?

  His blood heated. If he said here, she’d take too long to get ready before coming over and he didn’t want to wait.

  I’m heading over now.

  He pressed send and grabbed the keys to his truck.

  Four weeks. Four of the fastest weeks of her life. They’ d flown by as she’d spent time with Lawson Jacob Thorne. There was so much to learn about him. So much to savor. But it had also been four of the slowest weeks of her life as Law had taken his time on the getting to real-live hanky-panky.

  “I’m taking control tonight if he cuts us off before nookie,” she muttered as she changed the sheets on her bed. His kisses were to die for. If his team ever needed to go undercover on a Marine assignment and seduce information from some woman, Law was the man for the job. Of course, she’d kill him if he volunteered.

  She snapped the top sheet at the very thought of Lawson kissing someone else.

  “He’s mine. I called dibs.”

  She smoothed out the sheet, then put on the summer comforter. He ran hot, she knew because she had cuddled against him. Law wasn’t going to need an extra blanket on the bed. God-willing that he was spending the night.

  He darn well better not be one of those guys who don’t spend the night. She’d heard of them. Her friends had told her. She’d only had sex with two men in her life, always in ‘relationships’. Normally, it would take her three or four months before she’d move to the hanky-panky stage, but sheesh, nobody else had ever kissed like Lawson. Had di
mples like Lawson. Had been as honorable as Lawson. Had held her hand like Lawson did.

  “Lawson, Lawson, Lawson. You’ve got it bad, Sister.”

  Jill giggled to herself. It was true. She did. At twenty-six, it felt good to be crushing this hard.

  Crushing? You think it’s only a crush? It’s time for a reality check, Girly.

  “Shut up, inner self. I’m not in love. Falling in love this fast is crazy. I’ll end up chasing him away and I’ll be destined for hurt. Yep, this is only a crush.”

  She walked down the long hallway to the large kitchen and stopped in midstride. She’d forgotten to call the people at the gate to let him in. She immediately made the call. She really didn’t need to give Law one more thing to tease her about. It was nice that she was so competent in her work life, otherwise, she’d have to sign up for remedial life training or something for how oblivious she was in other areas.

  “Why was I headed to the kitchen?”

  Jill grinned as she remembered that she wanted to put out some food to go with the beer. She had fully-loaded potato skins ready to pop into the oven and a tray of veggies. The man did like his vegetables.

  When her phone rang and she saw that it was Lesley from the counseling group, guilt made her pick up.

  “Hi, Lesley,” she infused warmth into her voice.

  “Hi, Jill, I was sorry to see your text. Having you as part of the group was really an asset, but it was also great to know that you were finally in a place where you could move on. That’s the outcome I want for everyone who attends these sessions.”

  Jill blew out a breath. “Thanks, Lesley. Your leadership helped.” And it had in the beginning, Jill realized.

  “That is very kind of you to say. I really think it’s the whole group’s interaction that makes a difference.” Jill could almost hear her smiling. “The reason for my call is that I was wondering if I could get you to write a one-sentence testimonial for our website. I wouldn’t want you to use your last name, just your first.”

  “Absolutely. I’m pretty sure I have your e-mail.” Jill sighed with relief when she saw that she’d already turned on her oven. She kept the phone to her ear as she juggled the baking sheet of potato skins into the oven.

  “Ow!”

  “Are you okay Jill?”

  She shoved the oven door shut and put down her phone. She turned on the tap and ran the cold water.

  “Hold on for a second, Lesley,” she yelled out. “I need just a second and I’ll hit the speaker button.”

  Why didn’t I use an oven mitt to put in the tray? she wondered as she looked at her reddening skin.

  She heard the tinny sound of Lesley talking, but couldn’t make out her words. “Hold on, I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

  She used her index finger on her good hand to press speaker on her phone. “Can you repeat that, Lesley?” She turned up the volume since the cold water was still running. At least the side of her hand was feeling better.

  “I was wondering if Mr. Mazur had gotten in touch with you yet. He seemed very anxious the last time I spoke to him, and I wanted to make sure the two of you had connected.”

  “Who is Mr. Mazur?”

  “Oh dear, you haven’t connected,” Lesley sounded upset. “I gave him your name and number since it was so important. I wouldn’t have done that if it wasn’t for the fact that it was urgent.”

  “What was so important?” Jill dried off her hand and set the timer for the potatoes, as Lesley explained.

  “He had tracked down his wife, Angela, to our group sessions. He’s been really worried about her since their son died.” Lesley paused. “Jill, had you realized that she just up and left her old life in Detroit? Apparently, the grief was so bad she couldn’t cope anymore and one day she just disappeared. Her husband’s been frantic. A private investigator tracked her down to Orange County, California.”

  “Lesley, she never mentioned anything but her baby. That was the only thing I knew about her previous life, how about you?”

  “Same here. But grief can do strange things. Mr. Mazur was here, I don’t know, the middle of last month. I can’t believe he hasn’t been in touch with you.”

  Something clicked for Jill.

  Darn it!

  “Lesley, was it really six weeks ago, or was it more like right after the last session I attended? You know, four weeks ago. Was he kind of hard to understand?”

  “It was after the last session. He didn’t have an accent or anything, he just talked really fast. Why?”

  “I got two calls from a number that I didn’t recognize and that didn’t translate into my voice to text. I figured it was more spam, so I blocked the number. I feel terrible. I wonder if I can recall those voice messages. Do you have his number?”

  “I do somewhere. Let me text it to you. Don’t delete it, okay?” Lesley teased.

  They both laughed, then sobered up. “Angela seemed so sad the last day I saw her,” Jill said. “If I can do something to make things better for her, I’m all for it.”

  “That sounds like you. I’ll text you the number. Thanks for the testimonial.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  With every mile that he drove towards Jill’s house, Law shook off a little bit more of his disquiet. Just knowing that he would see her lifted his spirits. It was the second time he’d been invited to her home; the last was when he’d insisted on hauling over all the mulch that she wanted for her yard. Who would’ve guessed that the woman had such a green thumb?

  When he pulled into the short driveway she was waiting outside the front door. It was the first time he’d seen her in a dress, and man, wasn’t that a treat? It was white and frothy and showed off her long tan legs. Today was definitely turning around.

  She swayed up to the driver’s side of the truck. “Come inside, I have food and beer waiting.”

  “Food even? I didn’t think the day could get any better than a chance to see you.” He watched a blush stain her cheeks. Compliments seemed to take her by surprise. How was that even possible?

  She backed away from the door so he could get out. “Well, get yourself on into the house and grab some food.”

  “I brought something I need to get out of the truck bed.”

  She cocked her head. “What?”

  He reached over the side and pulled up a flat of blue irises. “You’d been talking about filling that space over there.” He nodded toward an area near her jacaranda tree.

  “You brought me flowers. Good flowers. The kind that doesn’t die! These are beautiful, Law.”

  Jill started running her hands over the tops of the blooms. “You’re going to love it here,” she crooned. “I’m going to take such good care of you.”

  He chuckled. “I also figured this would give you more flowers to talk to when you need to sort things out.”

  Her head jerked up and she bit her lip. “I didn’t do that in front of you, did I?”

  “Darlin’, we were working in your yard for four hours, last week. After one of your work calls, you were pissed as hell. You went around to the side of the house and went off on a ten-minute diatribe with your marigolds. Now, I would’ve been worried if you’d thought they were answering you, but it didn’t seem like a back and forth conversation.”

  She still gave him a worried look.

  He held the flat of flowers under one arm and put his other around her waist. “Where do you want these? I’m hungry.”

  Now that he had his arm around her, he was really hungry.

  Down, boy.

  “It’s not hot today. They can go in the shed, and then I can plant them tomorrow. Seriously, Law, thank you for such a thoughtful gift.” She stopped walking, put her hand on his chest, and stood on her tiptoes so that she could place a kiss on his jaw.

  “How about a real kiss?” he suggested.

  He watched as she turned around and looked over at the neighbor’s yard. He’d already seen Hiram Applegate watching them with interest. Law coul
d care less if they gave him an eyeful, and since he’d met him the last time he was here, he didn’t think the older man would do anything but chuckle.

  Jill blushed once again. “We can’t. Mr. Applegate will see us.” She tugged Law’s hand to take him around to the back of the house where the shed was.

  “Hi, Lawson,” Hiram called out as they got closer to his lawn.

  “Hello, Hiram. Nice day to be working in the yard.”

  “I don’t know, I think it will be nicer once Edith has that pie out of the oven.” He winked at Jill. Law didn’t look at her, but he would bet his last dollar that her cheeks were heating up again.

  “Law, I haven’t asked you, do you have any plans for Labor Day? There’s going to be a festival at Founder’s park here in our community. They should have a lot of food trucks from the local restaurants.”

  “That sounds—” Law started to answer.

  “Jill, are you still going on about that? I told you, something was fishy about that guy who came around. You reported him, didn’t you? I checked into it, there are no Labor Day festivities going on here. the homeowners association said it would compete with what’s going on down at Laguna Beach.”

  “Hiram, what are you talking about?” Law didn’t like the sound of this at all.

  “Some man came to Jill’s door.”

  “Mr. Applegate, I can tell the story.”

  “Can you? You weren’t suspicious and it sounds like you didn’t bother to get this checked out or go to the guards at the gate like I told you to.”

  Jill stiffened. There wasn’t any blush on her cheeks now. As a matter of fact, Law thought he might see steam coming out of her ears.

  “Mr. Applegate,” she started to get testy. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

  “What are you talking about, not being a big deal?” It was clear that the older man was agitated. “Jill, that man was casing your house. He might have been targeting you. This is something that you need to take seriously. Lawson, did she tell you about this?”