She grinned.
“Make up your mind, you’re either mad at me, or your happy. Why are you grinning?” Gunnar demanded.
“You’re the one who combined a whole lot of sweet with a whole lot of gruff in one sentence. How could I not grin? I love you too, Grandpa.” She untangled her leg and leaned over and kissed the old man on his cheek.
“Got dessert,” he smiled.
“None for Dalton,” Aurora scowled at the Navy SEAL who was trying to stay unobtrusive. “He doesn’t deserve a reward for stirring up shit.”
“Are you kidding, he’s getting extra ice cream to go with the apple brown betty.” Gunnar pushed up from the table to get the food from the oven.
Dalton looked up from his empty plate and gave her a smile that would melt more than just ice cream.
“We need to talk,” she whispered outside his door.
Even if he had been soundly sleeping, Dalton still would have heard the moment her bedroom door opened, and there wasn’t a chance in hell he would have slept through her softly worded command outside his door. He listened as she drifted down the hall toward the kitchen. It was still pretty cold for her to be going around barefoot, what was she thinking?
He pulled on his jeans and a flannel shirt which he didn’t bother to button. Did he do that on purpose? Maybe, he admitted ruefully. It was the middle of the night and a gorgeous woman wanted to talk to him. A woman who had caught fire in his arms, damned right he was going to see if he could talk her into a little bit of play. Grinning, he pushed through the swinging door of the kitchen.
“Get rid of the smirk, Sullivan.” Even in the dim light he could see her chocolate brown eyes sparking.
The scent of cinnamon, apples, vanilla and Aurora permeated the room.
The microwave dinged, and she pulled out a single serving dish of left over dessert.
“Only one bowl? That’s not very friendly,” Dalton was unable to keep the laughter out of his voice.
She slid the bowl onto the table and got a spoon. “I asked you in here, so we could talk about you keeping things between me and you going forward. I don’t want grandpa worried about this situation more than he has to be.”
He leaned his shoulder against the cupboard, enjoying how she moved around the kitchen. The sweatpants hid all her charms, but he sure loved the way her breasts looked in her thermal. Aurora should never wear a bra, it was a crime against humanity.
He watched her get a spoon out the silverware drawer. “Aurora, I gotta tell you, he seems in great shape to me. Part of my job is to keep an eye on the health of my teammates, and for his age, your grandfather seems in peak condition.”
“He’s seventy-six years old, he doesn’t need the stress,” she frowned.
When he watched her fold the paper towel and put it underneath her fork beside her bowl he realized she was a woman after his own heart.
“You know, it’s not very friendly, inviting me into the kitchen and then only serving yourself.”
“If you want something, help yourself,” she said as she bent to the freezer drawer.
As he watched her bend over he reassessed his earlier position. Even in sweats, she looked delectable. Dalton moved across the large farm kitchen and put his hand on her hip and peered over her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she asked throatily, continuing to rummage through the contents of the freezer.
“Helping myself.”
“Stop it, we have to talk.” She made an attempt to wiggle away from him, but that only pressed her fanny against his crotch.
“Do that again,” he pleaded.
Aurora jerked around with a tub of vanilla bean ice cream in her hands and took a deep breath. He saw her eyes dilate and color suffuse her face. When she bit her lower lip, he was lost. Dalton covered her mouth with his, sliding his hand around her hip so that it dropped lower. She tasted so good.
He swept his tongue against her lips, begging for entry. It took an eternity for her lips to part, but when they did, he hurtled into a whirlwind of pleasure. Of need. Dalton slipped his hand from her hip to the tempting swell of her fanny. Everything about this woman called out to his senses, telling him that she was his.
“What the hell?!” Dalton jerked and looked down at the smear of vanilla ice cream that was dripping down on his abdomen. He looked up at eyes that were spitting fire. He couldn’t tell if she was angry, frustrated or laughing, maybe it was a combination of all three. When she lifted her hand and licked her fingers, he groaned.
“I told you we needed to talk.”
Dalton shivered as rivulets of melted cream slithered down his stomach toward the waistband of his jeans. He continued to watch Aurora’s tongue delicately lapping up the sticky white dessert. Then she had the audacity to look down, and he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell she could miss his erection.
“It’s your fault. There’s no way I can talk now,” he rasped.
“You’re a SEAL. I’ve read up on you guys, you’re trained to handle any situation, no matter how hard it is.”
Shit, this time it was obvious that she was laughing.
“Sunshine,” he began.
She turned away and wet a washcloth in the sink then threw it at him. He wiped up the mess. And buttoned his shirt.
“You’re a mean woman.”
“You shouldn’t go around flaunting your hot body and making advances when it’s time for a serious conversation.” She plopped the container of ice cream down on the table and gave it a considering look. “Dammit, I had my hand in that. Now only I can eat it. Granddad’s going to be disappointed.”
Dalton grabbed a spoon and put a big scoop on her apple brown betty, then pulled the container in front of him as he sat down. “I don’t mind eating it, I’ll enjoy the extra bit of sweetness,” he said as he took a spoonful. “What’s our topic of conversation?”
“You keeping all of this stuff just between the two of us. I don’t want Grandpa worried.”
Dalton looked at Aurora as she savored her food. He appreciated a woman who ate in front of him. Lacey hadn’t. She was constantly on some fad diet or another, her temper flaring from lack of food.
As soon as he thought that, he shut it down. He didn’t like thinking about his dead wife. Ever. Certainly not when he was admiring Aurora. The two women shouldn’t ever occupy the same part of his brain.
“Dalton? Are you listening to me? Or are you watching me eat again. This time I’m not licking my fingers.” Her smile was wicked as she sucked on her spoon.
“My God woman, you are putting out so many mixed signals, if I were a ship in the night I’d crash on the rocks.”
Aurora’s laugh was like a stroke of velvet. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. You mix me up. I’ve never wanted a man as much as I want you.” She immediately put out her hand, palm up. “But…before we get all hot and bothered, I have a couple of questions.”
“Shoot,” he smiled.
She looked him dead in the eye. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-three.”
“How long have you been in the Navy?”
“Since I was nineteen. I’ve been a SEAL since I was twenty-two,” he answered slowly.
She stirred the contents of her bowl until it was apple sludge. “Give me some more of that,” she nodded at the ice cream. He gave her another hefty scoop. She stirred some more, then took a big bite, swallowed and sighed. “You’ve been here for three days now, can you think of any reason why someone would target me? Are you sure this is actually happening?”
“’Fraid so.”
“If I’m in the cross-fire, what about Granddad?”
“He was taking precautions before he left. That’s why he hadn’t gone into town. That’s why he extended the hours of Hal and Erwin.”
“Well at least now I know why I wasn’t allowed to sit on the porch swing,” Aurora said wryly.
Dalton lifted an eyebrow.
“I’d bet my bottom dollar that Granddad has his rifle hidd
en underneath the seat cushion.”
He winced. “Yeah, well I’m thinking that might not be the best hiding place.”
“Ya think?” She scooped up more apple mixture, eyed it, then dumped it back into the bowl. “I don’t even think this is going to make me feel better. Dammit Dalton. What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know. But we’ll keep you safe.”
“I don’t care about me, I worry about my grandfather.”
Of course, she would. “I think him going to Sacramento is the best thing for him.”
“But what about when he comes back?” she asked worriedly.
“Sunshine, this is probably about something that happened in your past. I’m going to want to go through your employment records for the last five years.”
“Those are confidential.”
“I spoke to Hal and Erwin, both of them said it was great working here, but that you’ve had to let at least two people go since they’ve been here at Valhalla.”
“It was for cause,” she sat up straight in her chair, her eyes bright.
“I didn’t doubt it for a minute,” he assured her. “But a disgruntled former employee is definitely different than some kid who you chased away from throwing rotten apples at your barn, don’t you think?”
“Neither one of the made a stink.” She jammed her spoon into the mush of dessert. “Not that they had a chance to,” she qualified. “They should feel damned lucky they got their final paychecks. As far as I’m concerned they should have been run out of town on a rail.” Aurora stirred the apple mixture so hard that some of it flew onto the table.
Dalton put his hand over hers. “You can stop now, I think you’ve killed it. It deserves to be buried in the garbage disposal.” He pulled the bowl away from her and picked up the melted carton on the table in front of him and took both to the sink. When he came back to the table, he pulled his chair close to hers and sat back down.
“Tell me what happened with the two men that were fired. Did you terminate them, or did Gunnar?”
“I did,” she bit out. “I didn’t want granddad to know what happened. If he did he would have gotten out his shotgun and plugged their asses. Especially Darryl.”
He didn’t like the sounds of that. “Tell me.”
She rubbed her forehead, then winced in pain. “I keep forgetting about the bump on my head,” she admitted with a half-smile. She continued to probe the bruise.
There was nothing about this that he was finding amusing. He tugged her hand away from her head and then stared at her bruise. “You could have been killed that day, you do realize that, don’t you? This isn’t a game.”
She liked the feel of his fingers against her skin. She liked it too much. There wasn’t anything about this man that she didn’t adore, and it had only been three days. Shit, was she staring again? She saw a flare of fire in his eyes. His fingers trailed down her cheek to her jaw. Who knew that she was an erogenous zone?
“Tell me about Darryl.”
Well that stopped all the tender feelings.
“It was nothing.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth she saw him scowl and knew she was in for an argument.
“Aurora.” Nothing more, just her name.
“Dalton.”
“Enough with the bullshit. Tell me what happened.”
“Number one, I handled it.” She moved her face away from his hand, and stood up, then placed her palms against the table. “Second, it’s not him. Do you know how I know? Because he’s currently doing time in Folsom for assault.” Her legs buckled and fell back into her chair. “He hurt someone, and it’s my fault.” Her gut twisted just thinking about it.
Dalton was around the table in an instant, he crouched down beside her, one hand on the top of her chair the other on the table, effectively blocking her in. “Tell me,” he coaxed.
“Darryl hurt someone on my watch. He hurt a girl while he worked for me.” She bit her lip, attempting to hold back those old feelings. She started again. “I tried to get Renee to press charges, but her mom talked her out of it. I told Brody about it, but he said without her filing a complaint, his hands were tied. That left Darryl off to do the same thing in California.”
“I don’t understand. Tell me what happened.”
“The Henderson family is one of our clients. Darryl was supposed to deliver their horse. Renee was the only one that was home. She was seventeen at the time. After the delivery, I called to make sure that the mare was settled, and Renee sounded funny. I asked if everything was all right, and should I come over. She freaked at the idea that I would have Darryl come with me, which just set me on red alert. He’d always seemed a little smarmy with me, but nothing to overt. I immediately went over to see her.”
“What did you find?”
Aurora pushed Dalton out of the way as she jumped out of the chair. She charged to the sink and clawed the remains of the dessert down the garbage disposal with her fingers, but she didn’t’ turn it on. Even with the door closed to the kitchen she was afraid the noise might wake up Gunnar, instead she looked out the window. The night was pitch black. She couldn’t look at Dalton to answer his question, but she could speak the truth into the vast inky night sky.
“I found a teenager with all of the doors and windows locked. It was in the middle of summer, and she had on a t-shirt, hoodie and jacket. It took me fifteen minutes to convince her to open the door.”
Aurora jumped sideways when Dalton touched her shoulder. “Shhh, I’m sorry I startled you.”
“It’s all right,” she said. She looked up at him wearily.
He stared down at her. “How bad was it?”
“Not as bad as it could have been. When Darryl was making a grab for her, the mare got fractious, and Renee took off at a run.”
“That’s really good.”
“Nope.” She shook her head, then pulled at the hair that caught in her mouth. “It should have never happened. I should have been there.”
Dalton put his hands on her shoulders. “Did you know that he was delivering the horse to a house where a teenage girl was alone?”
“Of course not. When I’d set things up the day before, Lowell had said he’d be taking delivery. That day he got called into work on an emergency and he figured Renee could handle things.”
“Lowell should have called and given you a heads up,” Dalton bit out.
“No!” she glared up at him. “This was on me. I should have had better instincts.”
“Did you check his references? Did you have any other complaints before this?”
“Of course, I checked references,” she whispered fiercely. “There had never been any complaints. And if there had been one whiff of a complaint I would have checked it out. But Dalton, I should have done something about the fact that he made me feel icky.” She rubbed her arms, trying to fight off the cold.
Dalton grabbed her up in his arms and she snuggled into his heat.
“Unfortunately, that isn’t cause for any kind of employee action,” he sighed.
“But still-”
“Uh-uh Sunshine, you’ve got to stop beating yourself up about that. Tell me what you did when you got to the Henderson’s.”
“It took me about twenty minutes to coax Renee to open the door.” She said into his flannel shirt. She took a breath and took comfort from being wrapped in his strength. “It made my heart ache when I saw her all bundled up. It was summer, and it had to be eighty degrees in the house. I got her to the couch, and it took me another twenty minutes and a glass of lemonade before I could talk her into taking off her jacket. She was in shock. It wasn’t until I said I had to call her parents and get her to the hospital that she started to talk.”
Aurora could picture the young girl. She’d looked like the awkward teenager she was, tear streaked face, glasses and long brown hair that she used to hide her face.
“Tell me,” Dalton prompted.
“She didn’t want to take off her hoodie. I was so worried. Wh
en she finally did, I could see his handprints on her arms. They were already bruising.”
“What else?” Aurora appreciated the warmth in Dalton’s eyes, the softness in his voice. She really believed he cared. He made it so much easier for her to talk.
She wrenched out of his hold, and he let her go. “I don’t know why I’m acting like a victim. For God’s sake, it was that poor little girl. Her mother was out of town.” Aurora took a deep breath, then continued in a steady voice. “It took me almost an hour for her to tell me that Darryl had grabbed her arms and held them above her head, shoved her up against the horse trailer and rubbed himself against her. She said it went on and on, and if it weren’t for the horse kicking the side of the trailer, she wouldn’t have gotten away.”
“Aurora, you wouldn’t be human if something like that didn’t affect you.”
She shook her head. Again, her hair went flying, and she grabbed it up in a tight fist, enjoying the slight bit of pain. “Anyway, I finally got her dad’s number, and called him home. He was great with her, but no matter what I said they refused to call the sheriff. As soon as I was sure he handled it. I went straight to the sheriff’s office. I wanted this asshole locked up, but because Mr. Henderson wouldn’t come forward because he didn’t want Renee upset any further, I was…what did you call it?” She looked up at Dalton.
“Shit out of luck.”
“Exactly.”
“So, what did you do?”
Aurora thought back to that day and a feral smile passed her lips. Seriously, she hadn’t wanted her grandfather anywhere that mess, because she knew that whatever he did would end up be reported to the sheriff.
“It was the good luck to be a Friday. He always hung out at this dive in town. I called Erwin and said that he should suggest that he and Hal should invite Darryl out that night. I also said that should make sure the booze kept on coming.”
“I think I’m going to like how this ends.”
“I pulled in two of my Dressler cousins. One was a tight-end another was a blocker. I told them what had gone down, and they met me at midnight out behind the bar.”
“Except for the part that you were there, I’m really liking this.” He pried her fingers apart, so she wasn’t gripping her hair, then held her hand so that their palms were pressed together. “Tell me what happened. I’m assuming your cousins held their own.”
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