by KaLyn Cooper
“In all the times I’ve ever been here, I’ve never seen another person unless they walked onto the beach with me.” Grace gasped as he nipped across her throat. He loved the little sounds she made when she was getting excited. “The Callahans own this whole area, all the way to the Nicaraguan border.”
Griffin ran his hand up her spine to her neck and pulled the strings to her bikini top before tracing back down each vertebrae slowly until he reached the strap. It had one of those hook thingies, impossible one-handed. When Grace reached around to unfasten her top, her hardened nipples scraped his chest.
His cock throbbed, begging to be inside her.
She dropped her bathing suit top to the ground.
“Are you sure no one’s going to catch us?” he asked.
“Does it really matter? We’re consenting adults on private property. I guarantee you that no one from my team is going to follow us.” She answered his question before he could even ask it. “Katlin saw us leave, and she knows where we’re going.”
Grace slid her hand down his loose-fitting swim shorts and wrapped her fingers around his cock. “The idea of someone catching us is half the fun.” She tilted her head up until her lips met his and took the kiss he was more than willing to give her.
Bending his head, he took one breast in his mouth and used his good hand to caress the other before lightly pinching the nipple. He was rewarded as she squeezed his shaft and rubbed up and down.
Within minutes they were both breathing hard.
Grace stepped back. “Give me your towel,” she demanded as she dug hers out of the oversized woven bag. She quickly spread them both out, creating a soft sand bed in the Caribbean sunshine. After tucking in the edges of the towels, while still on her knees, she pulled off his swim trunks and slid off her bikini bottoms. As she lay naked at his feet, the red in her hair glinting in the bright sun, she was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. And all his.
He kneeled down between her legs, pushing her knees a little farther apart. With the tip of his finger he traced her soaking folds before he leaned forward on his good arm. Readjusting his hips, he tried to align himself with difficulty. She reached down and took him in her hand, guiding him inside her while lifting her hips to meet his, sending him deep.
Relief coursed through his body. This was right. Where he belonged. As part of her and she was part of him. He moved slowly in and out, wanting it to last forever. As his muscles tightened they seem to drain all of his strength.
Grace leaned up and tenderly kissed him. “Rollover to your back. Let me take care of us.”
Not wanting to lose their connection, Griffin slowly lowered his body to the side and rolled with her. Straddling his hips, she continued the rocking motion, bringing them both back to the edge. When her inner walls clamped around him, he almost came, but he wanted them to go together. Reaching to where they were connected, he rubbed his thumb over her clit.
Grace threw her head back and called his name. He followed her over as she collapsed beside him.
Sleeping in the sun, naked, next to a naked Grace, was his definition of heaven. They’d made love, and Griffin was positive it had been love, not just sex, that they had several times that afternoon. As the shadows grew over them, they decided to head back to compound. Besides, Griffin was starving.
As they rounded the curve near the sagging palm tree, Grace’s phone rang.
“Hi, Mom. Is everything okay?” Grace sighed in relief and leaned against her shooting tree. “That’s good. So Dad is doing okay in his physical therapy?” Pause. “I’m fine, Mom.”
She signaled him to come over and welcomed him to listen. Griffin felt like he was invading her privacy, but she obviously wanted to share this conversation.
“I can’t tell you where I am, but I can tell you I’m safe. I’m staying with friends.”
“Are you staying with Griffin?” Her mother’s voice sounded chastising.
The smile Grace gave him took the sting out of her mother’s words. “Yes. He’s here.” Then she quickly added, “But so is the rest of my team. And Katlin’s boyfriend, Alex.”
“Your father liked Mr. Mitchell, and we are both so thankful that he saved you from that attacker. But, Gracie, we were hoping you would come home and stay. There are several new young men who have joined our church.”
“Mom,” Grace tried to interrupt.
“Do you remember Andrew Spurlock? He was one of Kevin’s good friends, and he lost his wife in a car accident about a year ago and left him to raise two little babies under five years old.”
“Mom, yes, I remember Andrew but—” Grace rolled her eyes then looked at Griffin apologetically.
“Gracie, those babies need a good mama and you would make them the perfect mother. And Andrew is even singing in the choir these days.”
“Mom, first, I’m so sorry about Andrew’s wife.” Grace covered the microphone and quietly told Griffin, “I don’t even remember who he was married to.”
She returned her attention to the phone. “And second, Mom, I can’t just come home. I have a contract with the Navy that they expect me to fulfill.” Grace held the phone far away and whispered to Griffin. “Lord, give me courage and patience.”
“Third thing, Mom, I’m sorry, but my life is elsewhere. I don’t see me coming back and living in Ames.”
“It’s that Griffin, isn’t it?” her mother accused. “Now, Gracie, we’re much beholding to him for rescuing you, but we don’t know anything about him. You need a good man in your life and Andrew is a good man. You remember what good friends he was with Kevin?”
Grace shook her head and held the phone at arm’s length, covering the microphone. “She never listens to me.”
“Mom, I have to go. I love you, Mom.” Grace hung up while her mother was midsentence.
Grace slipped under the big tree and started back toward the compound. “I’m really sorry you had to listen to all that. I truly love my mother, but I swear she never listens to me.”
They walked the rest of the way in silence. Griffin had no idea what to say about her parents, so he said nothing. His relationship with his own parents was about as fucked up as it could be. At least hers seemed to care about her and her future rather than theirs.
But her mother hadn’t hesitated to point out all the attributes of the Kevin clone or the fact that Griffin was not good enough for Grace.
When they entered their bedroom, Grace seemed to want to be alone as she said nothing to him. She simply walked straight into the bathroom to shower.
Ten minutes later, she emerged wrapped in a towel. She gave him a come-hither look as she sauntered toward the bed where he’d stretched out. She stopped and stared at him.
Tucking the end of the towel securely between her breasts, she strode over and lay down beside him.
“Are you okay? Did we do too much today? Do you need me to get you a pill or something?” Her questions spewed one after the other before he could get a word in.
“Thanks, but I don’t need a pill.” Medicine wouldn’t take away the pain in his heart.
“What’s bothering you?” Grace pushed.
They needed to get this out in the open. “I’m fucking tired of being compared to mister perfect. I don’t know how to compete with a dead man.”
Grace tried to interrupt but he kept on going. It had been building up inside of him and he had to let it out.
“All you have are memories of Kevin, and he’s perfect in every one of them. He’s the perfect boyfriend, the perfect husband, the perfect churchgoing non-swearing man to marry the preacher’s perfect little daughter.”
Griffin rolled to face her. “I hate to break this to you, Grace, that’s not me. The only thing I’m perfect at is being a gun-toting ass kicker. And guess what? Look at me. I’m not perfect at that, either.” He dragged in a deep breath before he went on. “If I couldn’t make you love me a thousand miles away on a warm sandy beach watching the Miami sunset, I don’t know what the
fuck I was thinking believing I could make you love me on your own home turf. Everywhere we went, I felt like the life you and Kevin had surrounded us, smothering any chance we have to be together. I get it. He was the love of your life.” The fist of pain clenched his throat and strangled his words. “No one can ever replace Kevin.”
“I don’t want to replace Kevin,” Grace burst out.
There it was.
All the proof Griffin needed.
She could never be his.
Grace clenched her jaw. “I hate the way people look at me back there. Poor little Gracie. She followed her husband off to war, and he got killed. Widow Gracie. What will she ever do with her life now that her husband is gone?”
Grace leaned up on her forearm. “I’ll tell you what I do. I wake up every morning and pull up my big girl panties. I climb in my cammies, and I strap on my weapons. Then I go to work. I hunt down the most dangerous men in the world. Then I kill them. That’s right. I look through the scope of my sniper rifle, and I put bad guys in my cross hairs. When they fall to the ground, I don’t pray for their souls, I thank God for giving me the skills to remove evil from this earth. I then pray He protects me and the Ladies of Black Swan as we leave that dangerous place, so we can return home safely, to the ones we love.”
Grace reached down and laid her palm on Griffin’s cheek. “So I can return home to you.” She glanced away then returned her gaze back to meet Griffin’s. “You could never replace Kevin.”
She had to see the pain in his eyes so he glanced away.
“No. You look at me Parker Griffin Mitchell.”
He dragged his gaze back to meet hers.
“You could never replace Kevin…because I never loved him the way I love you.” Those beautiful green eyes of hers were filled with hope and truth.
She loves me. Grace Hall loves me.
Before he could say anything, she was talking again. “What Kevin and I had was first love. It was a youthful, innocent love. The kind most teenagers move beyond and through their second, third, fourth, and fifth, each time learning who they are, how to develop a mature relationship, emotionally and sexually.” She shrugged. “Kevin and I got married, because we’d been taught that was the next step, rather than move on to someone new and different and broaden our experiences.”
She looked at him, her heart in her eyes, her soul bared. “I love you in ways I never loved him.”
Griffin didn’t bother to hold in his grin.
She blushed. “Not just physically, although I have to admit I’ve thoroughly enjoyed those aspects of our relationship and intend to explore those avenues even more, but I love you because you accept me. All of me. The woman who has to say good-bye and fly off to some far-off place, and you never knowing where I am or how long I will be there. You accept me when I trip over my own darn feet. You tolerate me when I prattle on about our nation’s monuments. And you accept the woman who loves to dress up in pretty clothes and dance sexy.”
Griffin grabbed her then and pulled her body to his. “You love me?” Griffin’s words were just above a whisper. He needed to be sure.
“Of course I do, you doofus.” She pulled his face to hers and kissed him the way he’d always wanted her to.
When they parted, he had to tell her the truth. “I’m not sure I even believed in love, and I never thought I’d fall in love. I never expected to find you. But I love you, Grace Hall.”
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The End
About the Author
KaLyn Cooper writes romantic suspense based in fact. Twenty seven years as a military wife has shown her the world and the men and women who protect it every day. Thirty years in PR taught her fact can be stranger than fiction, but she leaves it up to the reader to separate truth from imagination. She and her husband live in Tennessee on their micro-plantation filled with gardens, cattle, quail, and a bird dog. When she’s not writing, she’s at the shooting range or paddling on the river.
Contact KaLyn
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Also by KaLyn Cooper
Black Swan Series
Military active duty women secretly trained in Special Operations assigned to governmental agencies and the men who dare to capture the heart of a Woman Warrior.
Unconventional Beginnings: Prequel (Black Swan Novella # 0.5)
He’s dead. But they can’t allow it to affect her. She’s too important.
Unrelenting Love: Lady Hawk (Katlin) & Alex (Black Swan Book #1)
Women in Special Operations? Never…Until he sleeps with the most lethal woman in the world.
Noel’s Puppy Power: Bailey & Tanner (A Sweet Christmas Black Swan Novella #1.5)
He’s better at communicating with animals than women, but as an amputee she knows firsthand, it’s the internal scars that can be the most difficult to heal.
Uncaged Love: Harper & Rafe (Black Swan Book #2)
The jungle isn’t the only thing that’s hot while escaping a Colombian cartel.
Unexpected Love: Lady Eagle (Grace) & Griffin (Black Swan Book #3) Coming September 2017
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Guardian Elite Series
Former special operators, these men work for Guardian Security (from the Black Swan Series) protecting families in their homes and executives on the road, but they can’t always protect their hearts.
Smoke and Mirrors (Novella #1 Guardian Elite series crossover with Paige Tyler’s Dallas Fire and Rescue Kindle World)
She’s not what she seems. Neither is he. But the terrorist threat is real. So is the desire that smolders between them.
Double Jeopardy (Novella #2 Guardian Elite series crossover with Hildie McQueen’s Indulgences series)
Guarding a billionaire and his wife isn’t easy when you can’t keep your eyes off your bikini wearing, gun carrying partner who is lethal in stilettos.
Rescuing Melina (Novella #3 Guardian Elite series crossover with Susan Stoker’s Special Forces: Operation Alpha Kindle World)
When Jacin awoke stateside, he remembered nothing about his escape from the Colombian cartel or his torture. He was sure of only one thing, his love of Melina, his handler. When she disappears, neither bruises nor the CIA will keep him from rescuing her.
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Terrorists want her…but so does he. The chase isn’t the only thing that heats up when the flint of the former SEAL strikes against the steel of the woman warrior.
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Cancun Series
Follow the Girard family —along with their friends, former SEALs and active duty female Navy pilots—as they hunt Mayan antiquities, terrorists and Mexican cartels in what most would call paradise. Tropical nights aren’t the only thing HOT in Cancun.
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Can the former SEAL keep his libido in check and his family safe when the quest for ancient Mayan idols turns murderous?
Conquered in Cancun (Cancun Series Novella #1.5)
A helicopter pilot’s second chance at love walks into a Cancun nightclub, but she’s a jet fighter pilot with reinforced walls around her heart.
Captivated in Cancun (Cancun Series Book #2)
His job is tracking down terrorists so he’s not interested in a family. She wants him short-term then needs him when their worlds collide.
Claimed by a SEAL (
Cancun Series crossover Novella #2.5 with Cat Johnson’s Hot SEALs Kindle Worlds)
How far will the Homeland Security agent go to assure mission success when forced undercover for a second time with an irresistible SEAL?
Crisis in Cancun (Cancun Series Book #3)