Red Hot Steamy Romance Boxed Set: A Steamy Military Romance Series Collection

by Penelope Wylde

  “When someone I care about is in trouble, there’s no hesitation, baby. We’ll get to the bottom of this, and when we do, the people responsible will pay for trying to hurt you.”

  She didn’t agree with him about her being the target. “What makes you think it’s me their sights are set on? I was safe on the beach, remember?”

  His stance grew rigid as her words sank in. “You shouldn’t be outside alone until we get this figured out. And the fact still remains. Bautista is up to something. You heard what he said tonight to you. The whole ‘you’re a traitor’ line of crap was aimed at you, precious. And in my experience, he was throwing down a threat, if not a damn promise, at our feet.”

  She wrapped her arms around herself, worrying her lower lip. “True, but he seemed to have a beef with you military boys more.”

  She’d seen the hatred in the darkness of the other man’s eyes tonight. Something was off there and it looked more and more as though she’d made a mistake in asking Bautista as her date to Diego’s wedding despite the family ties between him and her mother.

  Dyson nodded. “You can say Bautista and I share a history and it looks like the man has a few more issues and something to prove. He won’t get that chance as long as I’m next to you.”

  Dyson moved over to her and softly curled a single finger under her chin. “And, precious, you’re not going anywhere without me. I’ll never let anyone hurt you, Shay.” Her breath caught and her body hummed with anticipation at his tender touch and the meaning behind his softly spoken words.

  He sealed his words with a kiss. Light at first then he took it deeper.

  Her head cautioned her against promises, but her heart swelled with relief. Like two opposing angels on her shoulders, her head quickly jumped to override her heart’s desires. He’s dedicated to the uniform, not you, chica. Military men had their duties. Love was secondary.

  He pulled back and wrapped her in his arms, utterly unaware of her mental tug-of-war.

  “You ready to go rock ’n roll?”

  Chapter Five

  Twenty minutes and a couple of shots of Mexican gold later, Shay was pretty damn sure there was no problem in the world tequila couldn’t solve. She didn’t intend to get drunk, but she needed something to dull the tension knotting her nerves.

  While Dyson made his calls to his CO stateside, she’d showered off the soot and was wide awake at some ungodly hour with an eight-hour road trip ahead of her come morning.

  That was another thing. She couldn’t leave Dyson here by himself to find out what tonight was all about. Not to mention, she wanted answers, too.

  “I can see that pretty mind of yours clocking in some overtime. Worried ‘bout what happened tonight?” Dyson walked up behind her and placed the cell down before resting his hands on her hips. She leaned back against his bare chest, causing the sheet she had wrapped around her to loosen around her breasts.

  He slipped a finger between her breasts and tugged until her hard, pink nipples peeked out. Right on cue, her nipples puckered.

  “Mmm…lovely.” He groaned, and she knew he was trying to ease her tension.

  Always a flirt. She nodded. “Just thinking about my trip back.”

  Dyson’s chest rose and fell with a deep sigh against her back. “Can I offer you another option?”

  Shay turned in his warm, strong arms to face him. Streaks of moonlight poured through the ocean-facing window to cast a pale light over his features. Dimmed sconces complemented the low lighting.

  Her cousin’s seaside home was decadent on a smaller scale, yet still dreamy.

  Half of Dyson’s face remained in shadow, but nothing could hide the hope in his eyes. One thing was for sure. The man wore sexiness and protectiveness with a touch of broodiness like a second skin.

  Wistful thoughts flitted across her mind at what it would be like to wake up to a man like Dyson every morning.

  No, she corrected herself. She didn’t want any other man. She wanted him. All six feet plus of sexy muscle rounded out with a sweet heart. But she couldn’t have him. Not truly one hundred percent. Memories of the pain her mother suffered slammed on the brakes to her runaway heart, and the promise he’d made. Dyson was like her father, married to the military and when it came down to it and had to choose, he picked his country over family. Some men were just built like that.

  As weak as it made her look, she wasn’t strong enough to let Dyson get close to her, and she knew Dyson wouldn’t take anything less.

  “There’s that look again. The one that says I’ve lost you, only you haven’t left.” His hand came out to trace a soft line along her shoulder and arm.

  “You know this can’t happen. We can’t do this.” Her voice, barely above a whisper, conveyed all the hurt crushing her chest. “I can’t let my heart continue to guide me while in my head, I know misery is only a matter of when and not if.”

  His hand stilled against her arm. Sliding out of his touch, she leaned forward on the kitchen counter, tracing her fingers along the rough edges of a freshly picked pineapple her cousin favored.

  “You’re counting me out before you even give me a chance? Why? Where do you think I’m going, Shay?”

  “That’s just it, Dyson.” Fear knotted in her stomach. She’d never admitted this to anyone before. “I don’t know when you’re going, coming, or if you’ll ever come back. If an us were even possible, I couldn’t live on the edge of not knowing all the time.”

  “Shay, baby, how can you survive like that? Never letting the people that love you close enough to touch your heart?”

  “It’s all I know, Dyson,” she said gently, afraid if she said it too loud fate or the Universe would hear and use it against her.

  Dyson didn’t seem to have that problem.

  He frowned at that, his eyes glittering with sudden irritation. “You mean it’s all your mother taught you.” He turned her around with a gentle hand. Truth blazed down at her when their gazes connected. “Don’t let someone else’s past dictate your future. That’s no way to live. Baby, I might wear a uniform, and yes, there’s no removing the fact that my job is dangerous—”

  She stiffened. “Don’t treat me like I’m naïve. Dangerous is a gross understatement, Dyson.” Her voice cracked.

  With his shirt off there was no hiding the truth of her statement. “I can count three bullet holes in you, and that’s not counting the other scars. I’d say dangerous is putting it mildly.”

  “Shay,” he said her name in that low voice that always affected her. She took a deep breath to steel against it. “You’re searching for something that doesn’t exist. Safety… it’s a perception. An illusion, at best, sweetheart. No one’s really safe. As a child I wasn’t safe and there’s no guarantee I’ll be safe tomorrow either.”

  He moved in, bracing himself on the counter, locking her in his embrace. His warmth surrounded her and trapped her against his hard hot body. She gulped air, taking in everything he was—strength and honesty. He made loving him so hard to resist. Coming here tonight with him was the ultimate test of her resistance, and she was failing. And for all that was holy, it was becoming harder and harder to remember why that was such a bad thing.

  Gazes locked, he continued in a huskier voice than before. “I could walk out of here and be hit by lightning. Safety can’t be promised in or out of the uniform. I think Bautista proved that tonight. All we did was go to a wedding.”

  She rested her hands on his bare chest. His dog tags hanging between them a solitary reminder. “I don’t know how to do what you are craving from me. I always tell myself that what we have is enough. The occasional rendezvous and late-night phone calls are all I need.”

  “Let me be very clear here. I’ll never be satisfied just taking you to bed. And the phone calls, well, those were my needing to hear your voice, if nothing else. Connecting with you when I can’t be here physically.” Her heart warmed a fraction more to his confession. “This friends-with-benefits shit is not what I really want. I
want what’s under here.” Dyson rested a hand on her heart, nestling her cheek in the palm of his other hand. Heat gathered in her core and worked its way into a full-body flush. She couldn’t move if she wanted to. “The hot, soul-consuming lovemaking will always be there as long as I hold your heart, precious.”

  His gaze never wavered as he spoke. “The uniform…” he shrugged “… it’s who I am, baby. It gave me a second chance at something when no one else cared. It defines me. Proves that while I’m not the biggest badass of ‘em all, I sure as hell walk among them. So when I lace up, and snap and pop for my CO, I do it with pride. But one thing the uniform—and this ink on my arm—doesn’t show, is the heart that beats for only you, Shay. And the baby that will one day be growing in your womb.” He placed a gentle hand over her midriff.

  She looked into the depths of his eyes and saw the truth staring back at her. She’d never heard Dyson speak so much at one time, and that fact brought a smile to her face. He cared enough to lay it all on the line.

  “How do you make it sound so easy, so right, while I feel like I am breaking inside? I saw the fear in my mother’s eyes every day and the heartache that crippled her.”

  Dyson shook his head, frustration etched in the creases of his eyes. “That fear is not yours. It was your mother’s. Love never follows a rule book. You decide, just like I decided I wouldn’t be my father.” He rested his forehead against hers and let out a soft sigh. “Stop running from what you feel. I can’t promise easy, but it only hurts because you’re fighting the current.”

  She worried her lower lip, running her fingers along his chest, unable to resist his nearness “So, when did you know?”

  “I think you know the answer to that one, Shay.” He lowered his lips to the shell of her ear, “I whispered it to you six months ago as you lay awake in my arms.”

  “Oh.” She blushed, recalling the night and her actions. “Then I ran out as soon as you fell asleep.”

  He caught her chin and tilted her head up. “But there’s something you don’t realize. You wouldn’t have run if you didn’t feel the same way.”

  She had no time to question that statement or the accompanying thought confirming his words.

  He lowered his lips to hers. Warm, tender and so full of love, searing her with a soul-burning kiss. Her stomach quivered and she shoved aside all the pesky voices in her head screaming for a timeout.

  He straightened slowly and brushed his lips over hers. “Resisting only makes it worse. You have to be strong enough to take what you want in this life, fucking grab on with both hands and never let go. Don’t let fear of the unknown take you away from a happiness that’s right in front of you. A happiness I want to give you. The decision is yours, but don’t think for a second I’ll stop trying to convince you that we are perfect for each other.”

  Shay sighed and moved away. He was being so open and honest with her; how could she not do the same for him?

  “There’s something else you need to know, Dyson. I invited Bautista to the wedding as my plus one because my business is going under and I have no way of keeping Abigail in school.” She brushed her freshly washed hair away from her face, trying to maintain a firm control over all the emotions wanting to bombard her all at once.

  “He was the last hope I had of saving… well, everything.” She shrugged, beating back tears with nothing more than pure willpower.

  Despite the glittering anger in his eyes suddenly tracking her every move, she pushed forward anyway.

  “I have to head back to San Diego and figure out what I’m going to do with the flower shop before an us even has a chance. Then I have to deal with Abigail’s tuition and...” She dropped into a chair, letting her weight slide halfway down into the cushioned high back, gripping the sheet tighter around her chest. “Then there’s rent, bills, food. Do I really need to continue?”

  Dyson pulled over a matching chair and carved out a place in her personal space, pushing her thighs wide with his knees. “Do you think an us can happen, Shay?” He gave tenacity a run for its money, she’d allow him that much.

  “I’ve never had much luck with wishing, Dyson.”

  He nodded and sat forward, placing a hand on her sheet-clad thigh. “How much do you know about Bautista?”

  “I know he and my mother grew up close. Went to the same school, had their first puppy love at the age of eight, but drifted apart like friends do sometimes as they got older. During her more lucid moments, she’d talk to me about him from time to time, and more so when she was close to the end. She missed the tiempos antiguas, you know, the old days when things were easier.”

  She looked down at her hands in her lap. “Then she would talk about my father like he was a mistake.”

  The knot in her belly tightened a notch further and unsettled the tequila and food they’d shared earlier. “It always boiled down to him. She couldn’t find the strength for me or for Abigail because, according to her, my mother only had room for one in her heart.”

  She shook her head, still unable to understand the reasoning of an alcoholic. “Can you imagine a mother saying that to her daughters?” Her shoulders shook and her chest clamped from the pressure of all the pain she held deep inside her.

  Dyson rested his hand on her interlocked ones. “So why did you go to him for help? Why not your family or me?” She could hear the hurt in his words.

  “Who, Dyson? Besides Abigail, Diego is the only family left and how could I ask him for twenty grand? With the wedding and everything, I can’t ask him for money. And why not Bautista? He’s been a family friend for years and I think you know he has enough money to have at least considered my offer.”

  “Which was?”

  “A partnership. And if he helped me go international, it had a lot of potential for both of us. Abigail helped me run the numbers. With his help we could be global within five years.”

  “No doubt he would have helped you go international for sure, sweetheart. Right into his back yard and under his thumb.”

  She cocked her head to the side in question. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “One little detail your mother left out of her stories, or hell, maybe she didn’t know. Your Bautista is a businessman all right. One that leans on the power of murder and intimidation. He’s a drug lord wanted not only in the US, but also in Mexico.”

  Shay stared, unable to believe what she’d just heard. She groaned inwardly. “How do you know this?”

  “My team and I were charged with taking him and his organization down about a year ago. We made a big dent, but obviously not big enough.”

  Shay swallowed against the bile burning the back of her throat. How could she be so stupid? So trusting? Her mother had talked about the boy she’d known, but the man she didn’t almost killed them both tonight.

  She rested her head in her hands. “You must think I’m so stupid.”

  “No, precious, just desperate, and I understand that more than you think. But you could have come to me for help. Doesn’t matter what you need, all you had to do was ask.” It broke her heart to hear the pain in his words.

  She straightened in her chair. He looked at her with so much feeling, so much love it took her breath away. But there was hurt there too, and she’d put it there.

  “For years my father shunned me. I could never make the bastard happy no matter what. Took me fucking years to erase what the SOB did to me from my memory.” He sliced the air between them with a swift move of his hand. “But when you do it…” He pulled back from her, breaking the contact. Her breath hitched and her heart fell. God, she felt like such an ass now. She’d never intended to hurt him and she ached for the boy who’d never known the love of his father. At least she had, even if for a few short years.

  She took a deep breath, fighting the raw emotions threatening to override her good sense. Dyson continued to stare as if he saw the inner war she struggled with. She worried her lower lip, unable to break away from the power in his gaze.

&n
bsp; “Why didn’t you let me in, let me help, Shay?”

  She wrestled her emotions into check, desperate to clamp the lid shut.

  If she let herself need him, where would that leave her? Them? The firm lines she worked hard to maintain between them would be blurred, and her clear-cut path to keeping her heart secure would no longer be safe.

  “Because I felt it was my duty to do what was needed for my family.” A single tear escaped down her cheek. He sat forward, his attention locked fully on her. It was all she could do not to let the dam burst open from the understanding she saw in his eyes.

  He cupped her cheeks between warm, callused hands. “My family, too, Shay. If you’ll allow me a place in your heart, and your life, I want to be there for you.” She melted at his words. Her tough-built Marine had a soft heart beneath all that muscle.

  She kissed his jaw. The day’s stubble tickled her lips, and she smiled. No way she’d ever tell him how much she loved his rougher side.

  Or how much she would miss it.

  Shay pushed up from the chair. “I need to get dressed and back to San Diego, Dyson. This isn’t your mess to fix.” She moved to the stairs. Hopefully, Diego’s wife had something here that would fit her and she could get the hell out before anyone else got hurt.

  Distance was what Shay needed. Once she got him out of her system, reclaimed her senses, and forgot the way his hard body felt against hers, she’d be okay.

  Her heart called her liar.

  Chapter Six

  Shay made her way upstairs, her bare feet softly falling against the hardwood. Fire blazed between her shoulder blades from the heat of Dyson’s stare. Hard breaths cut through the thick air. Not hers, but his.