“We’re going to be gorgeous. But we’ll tone it down so we won’t steal your thunder,” Selena teased.
Tess laughed. “I appreciate it.”
Greenback brushed a kiss across her cheek and whispered, “Thanks for this. She really needed something to focus on besides the surgery.”
“I needed her.”
Tess’s mother was emotional but too reserved to show it. She cupped Tess’s face and kissed her. “I love you. And this family you’re marrying into is something special.”
“They are, Mom.”
“I’m so glad you have them here to support you. I’ve always worried about you being here so far from us, without family.”
“Every one you see at this table has my back. I know I can call on them any time. So you don’t have to worry about me anymore.”
“I still will—it’s my job, after all—but I’m more at ease now.”
Tess moved on to hug Milton from behind. “I’m so glad you’ll be walking me down the aisle tomorrow, and that you’re willing to share the limelight with Ian.”
Milton patted her arm. “I wouldn’t miss it, princess.”
Doc and Bowie had come stag, and Tess gave them each a hug. “We appreciate you two acting as ushers.
“Our pleasure,” Doc said.
“Anything for you and Cutter,” Bowie said. “And if ever you decide to dump his ass, you have my number.”
“Bowie, I appreciate the offer but—it ain’t gonna happen.”
He grinned.
Langley and Trish sat on the other side of the table with Flash and Samantha. As the girlfriend of a SEAL, she and the other SEAL ladies had taken Samantha under their wing. Though she still owned a house in Nevada, she’d left her home to move to California with Flash, and had no family other than her little girl, Joy. Samantha, Zoe, Trish, Selena, Marsha and Clara acted as a network of support for each other when their spouses, boyfriends, and, in Clara’s case, her son was deployed. By marrying Brett, Tess was becoming an official member of this SEAL family.
She’d finally made it around the table, given Ian a brief hug, and reunited with Brett, when the clink of a spoon against a glass heralded an announcement and she looked up. Ian was rising to his feet, a glass of ginger ale in his hand instead of a wine glass. His red hair had dulled a little with age and was sprinkled here and there with gray, but his long-limbed body was still lean and athletic. “I want to make a brief announcement.”
Tess’s muscles tensed. She could never guess what her father might do or say. But if he said one word about Washington D.C. she was going to leap across the table and stab him with her butter knife.
“Brett,” Ian began. “I’m going to make you a list of everything I did wrong while I was married so you’ll have a ‘what not to do’ list. It may help you to avoid the pitfalls.” Laughter spread around the room. “The main thing I never learned to do, that I can tell you already have done, is to love my daughter more than yourself. You keep doing that and you’ll make a great husband.”
He looked down into his glass and cleared his throat. “Tess. I’ve made more mistakes than I care to think about as a father, but I do love you.”
Was that a tear she saw in her father’s eye? Tess refused to cry over a declaration he should have been more willing to make in the past. But the urge to weep was still strong.
“From the first moment the nurse handed me this tiny, screaming bundle with carrot-red hair in the delivery room, I knew you were going to dent my heart. Thank God the hair was the only thing you got from me. Otherwise we might not be sitting here tonight.” The group laughed again.
Ian grew serious. “I was never willing to make the right kind of sacrifices or compromises. Those were two of my biggest mistakes. You have something special with Brett, worth doing both. Lean on each other. Share everything with each other. Make sure there’s never an insurmountable distance between you, even when you’re physically miles apart. Because a love built on a willingness to share, not just troubles, but yourselves, is indestructible. You can do all that. You already have these last ten months while Brett was deployed. You’re both much wiser than I have ever been.”
He raised his glass and everyone stood and raised theirs. “To you both. Long life and happiness together.”
After a few more toasts, less serious, the party started breaking up. The hugging and kissing started all over again. By the time everyone was gone, leaving her and Brett alone at last, Tess leaned against him, exhausted.
They left the restaurant and walked around to the parking lot behind the restaurant. “Tell me why I decided to do a wedding.”
“Because as her only child, and a girl, your mother guilted you into it?”
Tess laughed. “Yeah, she did. But once I started making arrangements I sort of wanted it, too.”
He kissed her temple softly. “One more day and it will be over and you’ll be Mrs. Brett Weaver.”
“Tess Weaver sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”
“It definitely has a ring to it. You’re going to keep Tess Kelly as your byline, aren’t you? Since your readership knows you as Tess Kelly.”
“Yes. I’ll be able to maintain my privacy more if I’m Tess Kelly online and Tess Weaver everywhere else.”
Once in the car Brett paused before putting the key in the ignition. “What’s happened between you and Ian?”
She wasn’t surprised he had noticed the coolness between them. Tess was quiet for a moment, considering the best way to explain it. And realizing she should have told him before. “He was responsible for the Washington Post offer. He’s signed on with them to be head of their international news group. I think he attached my offer to the deal.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “So they didn’t offer me the job because they were impressed by my work, but because he encouraged them to.”
Brett was so still, his hands resting on the wheel, she turned to look at him. “Why would he do that?”
Tess shook her head. “I don’t know. I couldn’t take the job under those conditions. Arnold, the editor I spoke with, was very kind. He kept saying he was sorry I wasn’t going to be a member of their staff. I think he really meant it but…” she threw up her hands, “…I’ll never know for sure.”
In the dull illumination from the streetlight, Brett’s jaw rippled. “I’m sorry, Tess.”
“I’m not. I feel hurt and betrayed by Ian. But, after it’s all said and done, it was just a job, Brett. I think I was more excited about them wanting me than the position itself. Once that was taken away—” She shook her head. “I’d have been miserable there, and you’d have been miserable in Virginia. At least here we’re really together when we can be. Our family is here.”
“Yeah, they are. I can’t say anything that will make up for this. But you are good enough to be on the staff of the Washington Post, The New York Times, any national newspaper that comes calling.”
“It’s enough that you believe in me, Brett, and I believe in you. After I left the interview, I realized how selfish I’d been. I put you through so much for a job. I’d risked us by even thinking about it.” She gripped his arm. “What we have is more important to me than anything else.”
Brett leaned across the console and she met him halfway for the kiss. “You’re everything to me, Tess.”
Her hurt eased every time he acknowledged his love for her. How could she have risked that? She cupped his face and lingered over the next kiss.
“We could go home and have a quickie before I have to go bunk at Zoe and Hawk’s,” Brett suggested.
Tess laughed. “You’re such a man.” It was fun to make him think she was turning him down and see the small grimace of disappointment.
Twenty minutes later, they pulled in the parking lot at her apartment. Tess looped an arm around Brett’s waist and nestled in against his side in the elevator. “It’s going to feel strange not having you here tonight.”
“You could change your mind and I could stay.” H
e ran his fingers up beneath the edge of her sweater and caressed the bare skin along the waistband of her skirt.
“You’re not supposed to see me tomorrow until the wedding. It’s a tradition.” The elevator door opened and they walked down the hall.
“I can leave after you go to sleep.”
She had no willpower where he was concerned. She waited for him to unlock the door, then slid her fingers around his belt and pulled him into the apartment. She tossed her purse on the floor just inside the door. Brett crowded her back against the wall, his mouth seeking hers. One long kiss blended into the next. He released the button and zipper on her skirt and it fell to the floor at her feet. He caressed her hips, sliding her panties down. There was something fantastically erotic about him remaining completely dressed while she was naked from the waist down. He cupped her bottom and lifted her. Tess kicked free of her shoes and wrapped her legs around him. She wiggled against the pressure of his arousal while he rocked against her. So open to him, yet only feeling the promise of him moving against her, Tess groaned.
“Every time you do that it drives me crazy,” Brett murmured against her throat, his breath hot on her skin.
“I promise to do it again if you come inside me.”
It was his turn to groan. He hiked her higher against him and walked down the hall to the bedroom.
He lowered her to the bed and froze for a moment. It was too dark in the room to see anything but the shape of his face and the gleam of his eyes, but she knew what he was thinking.
“This will be the last time we make love until we’re married,” she said, sitting up to caress the back of his neck, then run her hands down his shirt in a quest for the buttons.
“Marriage will only make it better,” he murmured, his lips brushing her cheek. “I promise not to fall down on the job.”
He smothered her laughter with his mouth. Their tongues tangled, intensifying the slow, heady rush of need that throbbed through her body. He tugged her sweater and camisole up to cup her breast and knead it. She caught her breath when his mouth covered her nipple. He feathered the underside with his tongue, then sucked. The drawing sensation triggered rivulets of pleasure that flowed downward to the intimate heart of her.
She attacked his shirt buttons again and fumbled some of them open.
Brett dragged it up over his head, T-shirt and all, and tossed them to the side of the bed. He balanced on his knees between her thighs, and the jingle of his belt as he unbuckled it triggered a heartfelt sigh. Her body clenched, waiting for him, needing him.
But instead of entering her, he lowered his mouth to her breasts again. He pressed open-mouthed kisses over her stomach while she traced the taut muscles of his shoulders. A sudden memory of Kipfer’s gun pointed at him made her shudder. He’d have taken a bullet for her. He almost had at the parking garage. He was so precious. Did he know how much she loved him, needed him?
“Brett, kiss me,” she pleaded. He slid upward, allowing every inch of his naked torso to brush against her before his lips caught hers. She ran her hands down his back to his partially unclothed buttocks and pushed his pants down. She squeezed his muscular ass.
“I love you.” The words weren’t enough. Never enough. With a tilt of her hips, she guided his erection inside her. The heart-stopping moment of physical intimacy made her sigh.
“I know you do,” the assurance in his voice eased her last bit of anxiety. “And you’re always so impatient.”
Tess chuckled. “I love it when you’re inside me and we’re as close as we can get.”
He rocked forward, sealing the connection between them. That one quick movement triggered a tidal wave of pleasure and she groaned again.
“Oh, honey,” Brett moaned.
He gave up on control and began the intimate dance they’d perfected together. The sweet, sweeping give and take, push and pull, overtook them. Tess had a few moments to wonder at how the act mirrored their relationship. How they fit together in a hundred seamless ways, physically, emotionally, and how blessed they were to be together.
When they lay panting and spent a few minutes later Tess caressed his back and held him close.
Her cell rang in the living room and Brett made a noise very close to a growl. “I’ll get it.” He rolled free and reached for the bedside lamp.
Tess laughed at the sight of him. His pants were inside out and caught on one foot, which was still wearing a shoe. The other foot still sported a sock and his boxer briefs were half-mast at knee level.
Brett grinned, completely unabashed by his nudity or his clothing’s condition.
Her cell phone rang. “I’ll get it. You pull yourself together.” Tess rolled out of bed, grabbed a fresh pair of panties from the drawer and a pair of sleep pants. She wiggled into them while Brett straightened out his clothes.
Finding her skirt and panties in the living room, she picked them up and fumbled inside her bag for her cell. “Hello.”
“Tess, it’s me. I’m downstairs. Can we talk?” Ian’s voice was the last thing she’d expected to hear. She’d known they were due for a reckoning, but the night before the wedding was probably not the best time. But then, when? She sighed. “Yes, come on up.”
She returned to the bedroom. Brett was in the bathroom, and she tossed her discarded clothing onto the bed, exchanged her sweater for a T-shirt and gathered her hair into a scrunchie at the nape of her neck.
She answered Ian’s knock and stood back to allow him into the living room.
“I didn’t interrupt anything?”
“No, Brett’s getting ready to go to his sister’s to spend the night.”
He nodded. His body radiated tension, his expression concerned. He clenched and unclenched his fists inside his pants pockets. “I know you’re angry with me.”
“Not anymore, Ian. At first I was and just—”so hurt I couldn’t breathe. “You’ve done a lot of shitty things to me in the past. Said a lot of shitty, hurtful things. But this time you fucked with my professional life. My professional reputation. And I am done. I’m done.”
“It wasn’t like that, Tess. I showed them your articles. Told them you were my daughter, sure, but said you are also a damn fine journalist. And they were missing out on one of the best.” He threw out a hand in a gesture of entreaty she’d never seen from him before. “There was never any tie to my contract. Just a suggestion they check you out and see what you were doing. How strong a writer you are.”
Brett came down the hall and paused at the entrance to the living room.
She didn’t know whether to believe Ian or not. “Why? Why would you want me there? So I could live in your shadow some more?”
“You don’t have to, Tess. You have strengths of your own. I wanted you there because I wanted to work with you. I wanted us to be a father-daughter team.” He stepped forward and tried to take her arm, but she pulled away. “I missed out on your life as a child and a young adult because I had my head up my ass. I wanted to make up for as much of that as I could. I knew as soon as they saw the work you’re doing now they’d want you. And they did. Arnold and all the other editors were damn impressed. That was the only reason they contacted you and made the offer. Not because I demanded they give you a spot. They wouldn’t have gone for that even if I had.”
Maybe one day she’d believe that. But right now none of it mattered anymore. “I’ve made my decision, Ian. I didn’t turn them down because of you. I turned it down because of what I have with Brett. My job is my job. But Brett and I are building a life together.” She brushed away the fine wisps of hair that had escaped the scrunchie and lay against her cheek. “You missed out on my life. I was almost tempted to miss out on my own.”
“Will you at least think about doing some freelance stuff with me?”
Tess laughed and shook her head. A knocked sounded at the door and she automatically moved to answer it.
Surprised, she frowned at the man who stood in the hall.
Ronald Gordon looked thinne
r, almost haggard. Deep lines of grief etched each side of his mouth.
“I just wanted you to know my nephew is worth more than the paragraph you gave him in your paper. Did you know he and Daniel Delgado were friends? That he became an addict after he met Miguel at their house?
Gordon stifled a sob. “And now he’s dead and Miguel will live on to poison more teenagers with his dope. To cause more parents the pain my sister is feeling because she just buried her son. But you won’t.” Gordon raised his hand and plunged it downward.
Seeing something sharp descending at her, Tess threw up an arm to try and block it. Gordon shoved her back and she staggered, his greater size and strength pushing her, knocking her feet right out from under her. She went down hard onto her back. A piercing pain shot into her shoulder.
Ian and Brett rushed forward.
Brett dragged Gordon off of her as she tried to roll onto her side, but her arms wouldn’t work, nor her legs. Warmth spread through her, and a weightlessness that was not unpleasant. Her eyes refused to focus.
“Dear, God.” Ian knelt and reached for something sticking out of her shoulder.
After a moment of confusion, she recognized it as a syringe.
Am I going to die?
Her eyes rolled back in her head and darkness claimed her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
‡
“She’s throwing up, Brett,” Ian shouted from behind Brett. “She’s having trouble breathing.”
“What did you give her?” Brett plowed his fist into Gordon’s face again and again. “What was it?”
Gordon’s head lolled back, held up only by Brett’s grip on his shirt collar. “Heroin.” The word sounded garbled coming from Gordon’s busted mouth. “I gave her heroin.”
Brett’s heart thundered up through his chest and into his throat. “Oh, God. Jesus.” He released Gordon’s shirt and the man fell flat, then rolled onto his side.
Brett scrambled to his feet, sprinted to the phone on the desk and dialed 911.”
Building Ties (Military Romantic Suspense) (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 4) Page 28
