by Susan Stoker
It was more than simply having a wife and kids. Hell, he could go out and marry the first woman who’d have him, if that’s all he wanted. No, he wanted the connection the others had. He wanted to know down to the marrow of his bones that he was loved. Wanted to give that same love to someone else.
He didn’t know if Caite was that person or not, but he felt a hell of a lot more for her than any other woman he’d met in the last five years or so. It didn’t hurt that she was selfless, brave, and that she’d literally put her career on the line for him, Ace, and Gumby.
Taking a look through the peephole, and seeing his teammates on the other side of the door, Rocco opened it. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Yo.”
“Howdy.”
The other two men just gave him chin lifts.
“Everything go okay at the storage facility?” Rocco asked.
“Yeah. No issues,” Rex said as he entered the apartment.
The others filed in, and Rocco headed straight for Caite, who was now standing next to the counter in the kitchen, looking uncertain. He reached for her hand, and something inside him settled when she immediately grabbed it.
He pulled her out into the living room where his team waited. “Caite, I want you to meet the best set of friends and teammates a man could have. You know Gumby and Ace.” He nodded to the two men.
“Yeah. Hi,” Caite said softly. The men looked a hell of a lot better than the last time she’d seen them. Like Rocco, they no longer had any bruises on their faces, and they’d even trimmed their beards.
Gumby stepped forward and pulled her into a tight embrace. She had to let go of Rocco’s hand or have her arm twisted behind her.
“Move over, my turn,” Ace insisted. The second Gumby let go of her, Ace pulled her close.
Gumby kept his hand on her upper arm, even as Ace hugged her, and said, “Thank you, Caite. Seriously.”
“It wasn’t a big deal,” she mumbled.
“Not a big deal?” Bubba said, then pulled Ace back and put his hands on Caite’s shoulders. “You kept my friends from being murdered. It’s definitely a big deal.”
“Guys,” Rocco warned, but they ignored him.
He didn’t like Bubba’s hands on Caite. He was the youngest of their crew at thirty-one—and the guy most women seemed to gravitate toward. He was the only one of their group who didn’t have a beard, and Rocco had seen women literally throw themselves at him when they’d had too much to drink. The last thing he wanted was his buddy turning Caite’s head with his clean-cut good looks.
But he needn’t have worried. Caite didn’t have time to be dazzled by Bubba, because Phantom stepped up to their little huddle and threw in his two cents. “They might be assholes sometimes, but we’ve been a team since we graduated from BUD/s. I don’t know about the others, but I’m not sure I could continue being a SEAL if they weren’t around to have my back.”
Then Rex, arguably the scariest-looking man on their team, pushed Bubba out of the way and stood in front of Caite.
Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. He wasn’t the tallest of the group, but with one arm covered in tattoos and his hair long and a bit wild around his head—and with the scowl currently on Rex’s face—Caite looked ready to bolt. Even Rocco had to admit that if he put the man in a plaid flannel shirt and threw an ax over his shoulder, he’d look like a stereotypical lumberjack. The only thing saving him from that fate was his longer hair.
Rex didn’t touch Caite, just leaned close and stared at her. “You don’t look like you could hurt a fly,” he said baldly. “What made you think you could do one damn thing to rescue my buddies?”
“Um…nothing?” she croaked.
“Rex,” Rocco said in a low, hard tone, but he ignored him.
“Right. So you, a woman in a country known to be somewhat hostile toward women, trotted off into the bowels of a city you knew nothing about to track down three Navy SEALs?”
Caite didn’t say anything, but she swallowed hard.
“And not only did you find them, you managed to free them from their prison and help them sneak out of the neighborhood, without one shot being fired and without anyone being hurt. How the fuck could you think for one second that isn’t a big deal?”
Caite bit her lip and shrugged slightly. “Because you guys do it all the time? Because I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing? How would I have felt if I’d read in the base paper that three of our navy guys had been found murdered if I had information and didn’t do anything about it? Was I supposed to just go home and forget what I’d heard? Forget that Rocco asked me out? Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve been asked out on a date? It might’ve been years before I had the opportunity again.”
By the end of her little speech, Rocco knew she was relaxing a bit, and it made him feel better about her state of mind. But he wasn’t prepared for Rex’s response.
“I’ll take you out. Name the time and place.”
“Me too,” Bubba echoed.
“No fair, we knew her first,” Gumby grumbled. “If she’s going out with anyone, it should be me or Ace.”
Rocco was done. “Shut the fuck up,” he told his friends and reached for Caite. He snagged her around the waist and pulled her backward until she was against his chest. He wrapped his other arm diagonally across her chest for good measure—and to further stake his claim. “She’s not going out with any of you yahoos. She’s already going out with me.”
Rex was grinning, but his smile died when he looked back down at Caite. “It was a big deal, sweetheart. Maybe not smart, but a big deal. And like it or not, you’ve now got six big brothers at your disposal. You need anything, you call one of us. We’ll move your shit from a storage unit to your apartment twenty times over and it won’t faze us one bit. You need someone to carry your groceries back from the store, call us. Need a hundred bucks to pay the electric bill? We’ve got your back. You need a date for your second cousin once removed’s wedding? Call one of us and we’re there. What I’m sayin’ is, what you did in Bahrain was above and beyond, and as a result, we’ll have your back no matter what. Got me?”
“Five brothers,” Rocco corrected into Caite’s ear. He felt her shiver against him, but she didn’t take her eyes from Rex.
“Got you.”
“Good.”
“Although I’m drawing the line at borrowing money. Nothing good ever comes from borrowing money from family members.”
Ace swore under his breath.
“Way to go, asshole,” Gumby muttered.
Rex simply smiled but didn’t respond. Rocco wondered if they’d already hidden a few bills amongst her belongings. He wouldn’t put it past them.
“How about we get started on moving her stuff in?” Bubba asked. “This place needs furniture more than any place I’ve ever seen.”
“Right,” Rex said, then leaned close and brushed his lips against Caite’s cheek, forcing Rocco to let her go. “Thank you.” Then, without waiting for her to respond, he headed for the front door.
The others followed behind him, but not before stopping and kissing her cheek just like Rex had.
When all five men had left, Rocco turned Caite to face him. “You okay?”
“Your friends are intense,” she said.
“You think?” he asked.
“You don’t?” Caite retorted.
Rocco shook his head. “I guess I’ve seen them in too many precarious situations to think that was intense.”
“Right. We should go help.”
“Nah. They’ve got it.”
Caite pulled his arm. “Seriously, Rocco, we should go help. It looks like Gumby’s ankle is okay though.”
“Seriously, Caite. They’re fine. Gumby’s ankle is good. We’re all fine. Healed up without any issues. You need to stay up here and tell them where to put your shit when they bring it in.”
She nodded as if that made sense. “Then why are you not going to help?”
> “I have to stay here and make sure my friends don’t put their lips on you again.”
Caite rolled her eyes, but she smiled. “You’re crazy. They were just thanking me.”
Rocco didn’t want to tell her they’d been completely serious about taking her out. If she gave any of them the slightest hint that she was interested, he’d have a fight on his hands. And kissing her? Yeah, it was to thank her, but they were also giving him shit. They knew he’d hate it. And he had. The only person who should be touching her with his lips was him.
The next hour and a half went by quickly, with lots of laughter and teasing between the men and Caite. Rocco was happy to note that, once she got more comfortable with the team, she held her own when it came to bantering.
The guys helped her unpack the boxes, and when they were done, the apartment wasn’t exactly full, but at least she had a small couch, a few chairs and, most importantly, a bed to sleep in.
“We gotta get going,” Bubba said. Then he turned to Rocco. “You need any more help, let us know.”
“I will.”
“See you at PT in the morning,” Gumby told Rocco as he left.
The other four men followed suit, and soon it was just Rocco and Caite.
“Can I have your number?” he asked.
Caite nodded. “Of course. Although it’s only a temporary disposable phone until I can get to the store and get a new one.”
“Will you let me take care of that for you?” Rocco asked, knowing the answer but asking anyway.
“Thanks, but no. I’ll take in my old phone and get them to transfer the SIM card, so I’ll have all my contacts and pictures and stuff. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet and it was easier to just grab one of these cheapies from the store in the meantime. I need to upgrade my old phone anyway, and now is about a good a time as any.”
“Is that going to be a hit for you?” he asked.
“You mean the price?” When Rocco nodded, she shook her head. “No. I budgeted for it. I’m going to hold off on getting a car for the time being, until I find a better-paying and more permanent job. But I can afford a phone.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. But thank you.”
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” Rocco asked in frustration.
Caite smiled up at him. “You can call me. And text me. I’ve found over the years that my friends from work are only ‘work friends.’ We get along when I’m there, but the second I leave, poof, they never call or email anymore. I could use someone to talk to other than my mom.”
“That’s easy, ma petite fée. I was going to do that anyway. I meant, is there anything else I can do for you?”
She nibbled on her lower lip. “You said something about adding another deadbolt to my door?”
“Yup. I’ll pick up the stuff and come back tomorrow, if that works for you.”
Caite nodded. “I’m working from eight to four tomorrow, so it’ll have to be after that.”
“Done. Want me to bring dinner?”
“How are you even real?” Caite asked.
“I’m real,” Rocco reassured her. “What do you want me to bring tomorrow?”
“I’m not picky. Just grab something easy. I’ll pay you back.”
Rocco rolled his eyes. “As if.”
She giggled. “You sound like a teenager.”
He didn’t smile. “You’re not paying me back, Caite. When a man brings a woman dinner, she doesn’t pay. Are you working this weekend?”
She nodded.
“But not at night, right?”
“Right.”
“Then how about Saturday evening for our date?”
“You bringing dinner over tomorrow isn’t our date?” she asked.
It annoyed him that she was dead serious. Stepping into her space, he wrapped his arm around her waist and loved how her hands immediately landed on his chest. “No, ma petite fée, that’s not the date that’s making up for the one we missed in Bahrain. It is a date though.”
“Okay,” she said with a small smile.
“Okay,” he echoed. Then after a beat, said, “I’m having a hard time leaving.”
She chuckled. “Want me to say something bitchy to make it easier?”
Rocco shook his head. “I don’t think you have a bitchy bone in your body.”
“Oh, I do,” she countered. “I’m sure I’ll say something sooner or later that will have you wondering what the hell you’re doing.”
“Same here. I’m not perfect,” he warned her.
The smile on her face didn’t wane. “I’m not either. Rocco, I’m not expecting a movie-version boyfriend from anyone. I’m ridiculously easy to please. Be nice to me, and don’t be rude to other people we come into contact with when we’re together, and I’m good.”
“I’m nice,” Rocco confirmed, although he wasn’t sure that was always the case.
As if she could read his mind, she clarified, “I mean, be nice to people who deserve it. You don’t have to play the good guy to anyone who cuts you off in traffic, who flips you the bird when you’re simply minding your own business, or who refuses to respect you or what you do for a living.”
“You’re a bloodthirsty little thing, aren’t you?”
“You have no idea,” Caite said with a smirk. “Now…do I need to say something mean to get you to leave?”
“No. I’m going. But first…” Rocco leaned down and gently kissed one of her cheeks, then the other. “I need to replace the feel of their lips on your skin.”
Caite relaxed against him, and Rocco had never felt so masculine as he did holding her in his arms. She was a curvy handful, and he struggled to keep his hands where they were and not grope her ass like he wanted.
“I think Rex’s lips touched mine,” she teased. “Although I can’t be sure because of that beard of his. It’s a little weird that you all have beards, isn’t it?”
Not bothering to answer her question and explain how the beards helped them blend in when they went overseas, Rocco lowered his mouth to hers without hesitation.
How long they stood in the middle of her apartment kissing, he had no idea. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d kissed a woman with absolutely no expectation of going further. He wanted to do more, but not right at the moment. He was completely satisfied learning what she liked and feeling her hands on his chest.
When she began to suck gently on his lower lip, Rocco finally pulled back.
“You didn’t like that?” she asked. Her cheeks were flushed and her blue eyes were slightly dilated.
“I liked it too much. And I’m trying to be nice.”
“Screw being nice,” Caite mumbled.
Rocco chuckled. “We’ll have plenty of time, Caite,” he reassured her.
“That’s what you said in Bahrain and look what happened. I had to track your ass down,” she quipped.
Barking out a laugh, Rocco said, “Point taken. But this time, I’m serious. I’ll be back tomorrow with dinner and to install your lock. I’ll call, you’ll text, and we’ll get to know each other better. Saturday, we’ll go on that date and we’ll see where things go from there.”
Caite smiled and nodded.
Rocco kissed her once more, then stepped away. “The second you get your new phone, I want to be the first person you text. Don’t make me track you down again,” he mock warned.
“You never did tell me how you found me,” Caite said, brows furrowed.
“Nope. That’s for me to know and you to never find out,” he teased. “I have a feeling I’ll need an ace in the hole to keep one step ahead of you.”
Caite rolled her eyes again. “Whatever. I’m perfectly harmless.”
“Whatever,” Rocco echoed, but smiled as he said it.
“Thanks for helping me out today,” Caite told him.
“Any time. And I mean it.”
She nodded.
“Tomorrow,” Rocco said, then backed toward her front door.
&nbs
p; “Drive safe.”
“I will. Be careful at that new job of yours.”
“Of course. Bye, Rocco.”
“Bye, ma petite fée.”
Rocco reluctantly closed her door and heard her locking it behind him. He headed down the stairs toward his car. He hated to leave her, but it wasn’t as if he could stay. They hadn’t even been on a date yet.
But after Saturday, all bets were off. Yes, he was moving fast, but it was easy to see that Caite was on the same page he was. He didn’t know her thoughts on how soon was appropriate to have sex after she started dating someone, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Whether he had to wait a week or a year, he had a feeling she’d be worth it.
As he drove away from her apartment toward his own, Rocco had the sudden thought that he couldn’t wait to introduce Caite to Wolf and Caroline. He respected the man more than he could ever say, and the fact that he wanted the retired SEAL to know Caite spoke volumes.
He had no idea he was smiling the entire drive home.
“She just got a job at that shitty convenience store down the street from her apartment,” the man on the other end of the line said.
The naval officer nodded. “Fine. Does she have a car?”
“No.”
“So she’s walking to work?”
“Yes.”
“Perfect. Arrange a nice and tidy hit and run. I’m sure you’ll steal a car to do the deed. Don’t let anyone see your face, and make sure you hit her hard enough to kill her. I don’t want her waking up in the hospital banged up but still alive.” He’d learned the hard way that he had to be clear when giving directions. No more “take her out” shit.
“I want her dead,” he reiterated.
“Yeah, yeah, I got that,” the man said. “I’ll get it done. When will I be paid?”
“Half now and half when she’s lying in the morgue,” the harried man said from his corner office on the naval base.
“I’ll be at the gas station where we met for the first half of the money. Tonight at five,” the gang member responded. “Don’t be late.”
Hanging up without a reply, the officer shifted impatiently in his seat. With every day that passed, Caite McCallan had more and more time to recall his name. He had to prevent that at all costs.