SEALed with a Ring

by Mary Margret Daughtridge

  He pocketed the BlackBerry. He glanced around to make sure nothing else had been overlooked. He opened a drawer at random and saw the shoe box. He had al ready given JJ the only valuable thing in it. Still, taking it might be a good idea. He tucked it under his arm.

  He took U.S. 17 south. I-95 would be faster, but so what. There was no need to rush anywhere. Nowhere he had to be for twenty-nine days.

  He'd always been content to live in the present, never having been able to see far into the future. If he couldn't be a SEAL, he had no future at all.

  For much of its length, U.S. 17 was a two-lane blacktop. It strung together tiny coastal plain towns, skirted flat open fields where behemoth cotton-pickers toiled, and tunneled for miles through pine forests. Long bridges crossed one wide black-water river after another. He had driven through North Carolina numerous times. After graduating B/UDS, SEAL basic training, his com bat medic training had taken place at the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center at Fort Bragg. SEALs sometimes had training exercises with Marine Spec Ops at Camp LeJeune.

  But he'd never before driven through North Carolina thinking he might be going home.

  He told himself he should call JJ from the time U.S. 17 passed near Elizabeth City. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know how glad JJ would be to see him. It would be too easy for her to tell him "No" on the phone. It would be harder to turn him away face to face.

  One mile added invisibly to the next. He was at Jacksonville, North Carolina, watching signs for Camp LeJeune, when he decided showing up at the Topsail cot tage wouldn't be his best strategy.

  The critical period would be the time between when she saw he had turned up after she thought she was rid of him, and when he brought it to her attention that she was happy to see him. She'd have a hard time giving him the boot in front of other people. He drove past the Route 210 turnoff that would have taken him to the island and continued on to Wilmington.

  "JJ," Kelly said, calling from the concierge desk. "There's a man here asking to see you."

  JJ stood and straightened the neckline of her white eyelet blouse. She debated only a second before she took the suit jacket from its hanger. The suit was a fine merino wool in deep purple—her power color. She'd put it on for her appointment at the bank this morning. She had needed all the power she could get.

  She'd called the bank Friday, hoping to assure them of the rumor's falsity before they heard the rumor else where. Floor-plan lenders took seriously having their borrowers be entirely above board. With the whole in dustry in a credit crunch, if a firm lost their lender, they weren't likely to find another one.

  Unfortunately, the chilly tone of this morning's meet ing made it clear that while she got points by asking for the meeting, she hadn't acted quickly enough. The rumors had already reached the bank. They had talked about reassessing the degree of risk. They could, if they assigned her to a higher risk category, raise her interest, or they could reduce her line of credit. Either would be a serious setback to the gains Caruthers had made. Either one could effectively put Caruthers out of business.

  She could only assert that the rumors were not true and that she planned to operate Caruthers for many years.

  Even after the bank meeting, she had been called to the front desk four times to reassure customers.

  "You stay here and be good," she told Brinkley as she shut her office door. It was almost five. The coordina tor from the rescue organization would be by to pick up Brinkley soon. She was going to miss him, but she couldn't ask him to stay alone all the hours she was gone or continue bringing him to work with her.

  She was halfway down the stairs when she recog nized the set of broad shoulders of the man leaning over the concierge desk. Hot bright joy expanded to the point of pain in her chest. "David?"

  The last piece she needed fell into place. She loved him.

  He turned at the sound of his name. For one half second, naked supplication shone from his eyes. And then his teeth flashed white. When she was on the sec ond step to the bottom, he lifted her in his hard, strong arms and swung her around.

  She buried her nose between his neck and shirt collar, inhaling deeply of his comforting scent. Everything was okay now, not because she was some child who believed a place or another person would fix her world and keep it safe. Everything was okay now just because it was.

  "Love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things." Words she had learned as a child, heard read at dozens of weddings, blossomed with meaning.

  The piece that was missing from her life was her heart, and she had found it when she had irrevocably given it away.

  Needing affirmation of his physical presence, she found his lips with hungry joy.

  A long, loud wolf-whistle brought JJ back to aware ness that she was standing in the middle of the Caruthers showroom floor.

  David released her, a tender light in his eyes.

  "I was a little scared you wouldn't be glad to see me. I guess I shouldn't have worried, huh?"

  Chapter 45

  "HEY, BRINK." JUMPING UP WASN'T YET IN BRINKLEY'S repertoire, David saw, but he bounced on his front legs and wagged his whole hind end when David followed JJ into her office.

  "Now that we've got some privacy, let's see if we can get this right." He crushed JJ to him, relishing the way she fit in his arms and her spicy scent, the scent that was hers alone.

  JJ found herself bent over the desk, her skirt being pushed up. "Whoa, we can't do that here."

  "You never let me have any fun. That's a perfectly good desk. There's no reason that we can't put it to use."

  "I'm expecting Luann from the rescue group to come for Brinkley any minute."

  "Let's foster him. At least until he's prettier looking. Once his hair has grown over the scar, he'll be a lot more adoptable."

  They hadn't been together fifteen minutes, and al ready he was remaking her plans and turning her world topsy-turvy. "You want him, don't you?"

  "It's been a long time since there was any way I could have a dog. Don't you?" He saw her weakening. "Call Luann. Tell her you've changed your mind."

  JJ turned around to retrieve her phone from her desk. While she looked for Luann's number, David pulled her back to his front. In a tour de force of dexterity, he had her jacket and blouse unbuttoned before she hit Send.

  She batted his hands out of the way. "Not now."

  His hands came right back from a different direction. "Why? Luann's not a problem anymore."

  "Because—" JJ had to break off when Luann answered.

  While JJ tried to talk sensibly, he insinuated one long-fingered hand into the cup of her bra. Cupping her breast, he kissed the side of her neck.

  "Everything okay now?" David asked when she hung up.

  "Luann was almost pathetically grateful," she told David, turning so she could put her arms around him. "Apparently she's been bending over backwards to find a foster home for Brinkley." JJ hid her face in his neck. "Do I walk over people?"

  David rocked her in his arms. "You don't walk over me." He paused. "Might be fun to try sometime."

  She began to re-button her blouse. "Since you've dealt with Luann, we need to go. Granddaddy is expect ing us—me. Mary Cole Sessoms—you remember her from our wedding—is already there. We're having a war council. I'll explain on the way."

  "I've found out the source of the gossip," Mary Cole an nounced when they were all seated in the cushy leather sofas of the family room, Lucas with his scotch, Mary Cole and JJ having red wine, and David his preferred soft drink.

  "Who?"

  "Blount Satterfield. First let me tell you what he's been saying. According to Blount, foreign interests want to buy Caruthers but aren't willing to work with an un married woman. The deal was threatening to go sour. That's when Lucas approached Blount and offered him one hundred thousand dollars to marry you. You two had been dating, and Lucas thought money would make you more attractive."

  Hands shaking with ange
r, JJ carefully set her wine on the coffee table before she spilled it. "And what does Blount say happened next?"

  "He says no amount of money could make you more attractive. He refused and broke things off. A couple of weeks later, suddenly you're married very privately to someone no one had heard of. Someone only a few people in town have even seen. It's obvious you or Lucas beat the bushes until you found someone who— for enough money—would accept a paper marriage and fade back into the woodwork once the deed was done."

  It was a tissue of lies and half-truths—all of them impossible to deny.

  It was her word against his, and she could offer not one shred of proof that he was lying. In fact, it was one of those stories that the more she denied it, the more questions she would raise in people's minds.

  David put his hand on JJ's knee and squeezed gently. "Is Blount The Idiot?—the one who was careless enough to leave you by yourself?"

  Lucas and Mary Cole exchanged glances. Obviously, there was more to this story than they had heard.

  "That doesn't prove he's an idiot. You went off and left me alone."

  David picked up her left hand and displayed it for all to see. "Not until I had a ring on your finger."

  JJ snatched her hand back. "I cannot believe you said that. Neanderthal."

  This time David and Lucas traded looks. Very mas culine looks.

  "Do you honestly believe I'm property that you can stick a Taken sign on?" JJ demanded.

  David captured her hand again. This time he brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. "I be lieve you wouldn't have accepted the ring if you didn't intend to live up to all it means." His beautiful, clear brown eyes were sincere. At the same time, they assessed her reaction to see if she was going to let him skate.

  One corner of JJ's mouth twitched. "Good save."

  He turned her hand over and kissed the palm. "I thought so."

  "Well. All right!" Clearly delighted and a little bit wide-eyed at David's loverly gesture, Mary Cole slapped the padded leather arms of her chair. "Let's get back to the subject, shall we?"

  "Right. What are we—what am I going to do? There's just enough truth in what Blount is saying. If I attempt to refute it, I'll only make the story juicier. The bank is holding off now, but they're nervous. It won't take much for them to pull our financing."

  "Wait." David held up his hand. "Which part of the story is true?"

  "I did promise him one hundred thousand dollars," Lucas admitted, "once he and JJ were married."

  "And you did threaten to sell Caruthers if I didn't marry," JJ added.

  "That's what I thought. You know, Lucas," David spoke in a quiet uninflected tone, "somebody ought to ream you a new one."

  "I know. This whole mess is my fault."

  That was so true everyone took a sip of their drink and avoided one another's eyes. A profound quiet settled over the room.

  "Since we're dividing up the blame for this mess, I contributed too." JJ broke the silence. "Blount doesn't have anything to gain by spreading this tale. This is spite, pure and simple. I should have handled breaking up with him more considerately. I've been warned I walk over people. I'm trying to do better, but this lapse has come back to bite me."

  "Don't be too down on yourself. And don't take too much credit either. Blount's not the kind of man it's safe to turn your back on." Mary Cole raised her eyes heavenward. "Blount Satterfield, Lucas? What were you thinking?"

  "I admit Blount was a mistake. But I never expected JJ to pick him. He was there to offer her a range of choices."

  JJ blew out a breath. "Regardless of who's to blame, we have the same problem. I can't see what to do about it."

  Mary Cole set down her wine glass. "There's only one thing you can do. The part of Blount's story that makes the whole seem plausible is the 'invisible husband.' Make him visible, and the story collapses." Mary Cole tilted her head, a strategic light in her intelligent blue eyes. "Until tonight, I couldn't see how to accomplish that." She grinned at David. "How long is your leave?"

  "As of tomorrow, twenty-eight days."

  "That means you have to go back, when?"

  JJ saw David hesitate. "January third." She filled in. "Isn't that what you told me?"

  "And you didn't know he was coming home?" Mary Cole asked JJ.

  "The docs thought I needed more time to heal," David fielded the question for JJ, "before I went back to full duty. Rather than hang around doing scut work, I decided to hang around my beautiful wife. A no brainer, right?"

  Mary Cole shook her head in wonder. "My pastor preached on Biblical miracles a few Sundays ago. He said miracles are natural events that happen at exactly the right moment. If this isn't a perfect example, I don't know what would be. You're home over the Christmas holidays. There will be parties all over town for you to be seen at."

  Chapter 46

  "MARY COLE, ARE YOU SUGGESTING THAT I SHOULD drag David around with me? He shouldn't have to satisfy a bunch of gossips. If you're right, wouldn't it be enough to have a party here, maybe a couple of dinners?"

  "JJ, I don't think you realize how far this thing has gone—"

  "Excuse me, Mary Cole," David broke in. "JJ, can I speak to you in the other room?"

  When David had pulled her into a powder room off the wide entryway, JJ held up a restraining hand. "Stop. I'm not going to ask you to socialize night after night with people you don't know and have no interest in knowing."

  David stifled ire and made his voice flat and even. "Correct me if I'm wrong. This whole thing rests on the question of whether you really have a husband or not. As it happens, you do. You're the one who doesn't seem convinced. Maybe if you start believing, it will be easier to convince others."

  "It's just that this isn't any part of what you signed on for. And you don't know what you're letting yourself in for. Parties, dinners, events every night—sometimes two or three."

  Did he know what he was getting into? If he had the gist of what had been said in the family room, Mary Cole was suggesting his worst nightmare: hours and hours of unaccustomed, noisy surroundings in which he had to stay focused on what strangers were saying. And if he blundered because he wasn't keeping up, he would be a discredit to JJ.

  He did okay one on one. As long as he knew the peo ple and had background knowledge of the subject under discussion, he could handle a group. The person he could remember being had liked parties, enjoyed chatting with strangers—but he couldn't let his mind go there.

  "Let me worry about jumping into Wilmington's social whirl. I already told you, this marriage will be as real as I can make it. A husband stands up for his wife. If you need me, then I want to be there."

  She laid her palm on his chest—right over his heart. "Do you mean that?"

  "I did then and I do now."

  "Then, thank you."

  "All right." He reached for the door. "Let's tell Mary Cole her work is done, and go home."

  "Wait. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, but how did you happen to show up now?"

  David had carefully prepared his story so that it would come out easily and seem reasonable. He didn't know what else to add. "I had leave coming. Is it so hard to believe I would choose to spend it with you?"

  "Well, no—but it wasn't your plan when you left here."

  "After I saw the doc, it made sense to me."

  JJ's eyes narrowed. "So he didn't think you were ready to go back on duty either?"

  "He was just being cautious." Before she could ques tion him further, he drew her closer. He lifted her hair from her shoulder and nuzzled the scented skin of her neck. He had already learned her neck was her most vulnerable spot. Not necessarily what turned her on the most, but the place that got underneath her guard.

  He couldn't believe he'd gotten lucky enough to choose to kiss her there the night they met on the beach— it was just as if he'd known what he was doing.

  He kissed the place just behind her earlobe. She soft ened ag
ainst him, and he cupped her breast. "We have twenty-eight days together. What do you say we make the most of it?"

  Chapter 47

  THE NEXT MORNING, JJ FOUND DAVID ON THE DECK. The sun, risen just above the horizon, trimmed purple clouds in vermillion and laid streaks of beaten gold on a flat, calm, peach-tinted ocean.

  Her bare toes curled away from the cold, damp boards of the deck. She hugged her robe tighter. "Chilly out here." She took in the amount of skin exposed by David's khaki shorts, T-shirt, and running shoes. "Aren't you cold?"