by Katie Knight
“And did she say yes? The suspense is killing me, woman.” He smiled back at her and felt his heart expand with love.
“Naturally, and once they returned to the kingdom, he presented her with a diamond fit for a queen.” She held out her left hand and angled it, so a rainbow of color glinted off the pear-shaped diamond.
“And how did they…consummate this marriage?” He nuzzled her neck, loving the way her airy laugh echoed through the house.
“Oh, easily enough.” She sent him a saucy grin. “And they had dozens of babies who could walk the land and swim in the sea.”
A chuckle escaped his lips. “Dozens, huh?” He raised a brow, and Meg’s grin widened.
“That’s right, dozens. And they lived happily ever after.”
Consumed with love for Meg and their unborn child, he moved his hands up to her cheeks and kissed her long and gently. She was everything he’d ever wanted. Strong yet sweet, beautiful yet natural. Megan had a maternal air about her that made him so damn proud of the mother she already was to their unborn child. She amazed him every day, and he was lucky to be at her side.
“This isn’t a fairy tale,” he whispered in her ear.
“No?” she asked, resting her forehead against his.
“It’s better.” He swooped back in, claiming her lips as the joy inside him grew. Everything he’d ever wanted, everything he’d ever dreamed and hoped for was in his hands, and he couldn’t wait to spend each moment being the prince his mermaid deserved and creating their storybook ending chapter by amazing chapter.
End of Her SEAL Rescuer
Blurb
When Navy SEAL Jake Hendrix attends a charity bachelor/bachelorette auction as a favor for a friend, he’s stunned to see his squad mate’s gorgeous sister, Hanna Masterson, walk across the stage. She’s grown even more stunning in the years since he’d met (and very nearly made out with) her at the end of basic training. When Jake overhears other bidders talking about her, his alpha protector instinct kicks in and he decides to bid on her himself. He thinks he’s saving her. What he didn’t expect was how upset she’d be at him.
Hanna has developed a checklist of qualities she wants in a man. Someone reliable, dependable, and family oriented who can provide for her and their children. She doesn’t need the likes of Jake Hendrix—smoking hot as he is—getting in the way of her man hunt. She’d been hoping the auction might pair her with a potential long-term match, but alas she just got her brother’s hot squad mate who has “one night only” written all over him.
But the date actually goes well—really well. Best sex of her life well. But the following day, Jake immediately pulls back, just as she expected. Romance only gets in the way of doing his job: protection has no room for passion. Resigned to their night together being nothing more than a blip in the road, Hanna’s unsettled when a pregnancy test turns that blip into a major speedbump.
Before she can tell Jake she’s pregnant, something far more unexpected lands on her plate. One of her high-profile clients has been murdered, and because he’s shared certain information with Hanna, the killers will stop at nothing to silence her.
Despite his promises to stay uninvolved, Jake can’t help but protect Hanna, baby bump and all, insisting they go on the run as they dig deeper into the dangerous situation they’ve found themselves in. But as the threat closes in on their secluded safe house, their biggest problem might just be falling in love and losing it all…
Chapter One
Jake pulled under the porte-cochère in front of Hotel del Coronado and chuckled to himself when the valet gaped at his car. He may not have been driving a Lamborghini or a Bugatti—and probably never would, considering his SEAL salary—but he was proud of his Subaru WRX STI. Ruby, he called her. Ruby the Subi. And those who appreciated cars—including the valet, apparently—knew what she could do.
The STI had plenty of ‘giddyup,’ and the custom racing harnesses he’d installed the day he bought her meant he could push her to her limits without fear. It also meant he got to initiate a little contact with every date he had as he strapped her in. He had yet to meet a woman who could figure out how to buckle up without any help. Or who objected when he reached over playfully to show her how to do it. It was the perfect icebreaker.
He’d love to take a date out for a drive right now. Or just burn some rubber along the open road himself. Or be… just about anywhere but here, stuffed into a suit that never fit as well as his uniform, about to enter an event he’d been dreading all week. He was currently on leave—he had racked up about forty days of “use-it-or-lose-it,” which meant he would be out more than a month of time off if he didn’t take it because it wouldn’t roll over—and he would rather be doing just about anything else on this “forced” vacation instead of coming here. But he owed a buddy a favor, so any plans he was thinking about making over the next month would have to wait.
Jake undid his own harness and opened the door to find the valet grinning on the other side.
“Sweet ride, man,” he said, stepping aside so Jake could get out.
“Thanks, bro.” Jake started up the steps but turned around before the valet had shut the driver’s door. “Take good care of her.”
Jake was planning on heading straight to the bar, but he realized he should probably find Brody first so Brody would know he’d kept his end of the deal.
Jake had met Brody five years ago, at basic training. They were both from Southern California, and they had bonded over complaining about the crappy local Mexican food and Lake Michigan’s freezing water.
When Brody married Natalie, a proper Southern girl from what had seemed to be a well-to-do Georgia family, his life changed dramatically. Since Natalie had been raised to believe that money talked but wealth whispered, Jake hadn’t put the pieces together until their wedding.
Natalie’s family wasn’t just well-to-do; they were ridiculously wealthy. And as soon as Natalie had gained access to her trust fund, she’d started one charitable foundation after another, all of which generated a steady stream of exactly the type of high society social events Jake couldn’t stand. Jake had managed to avoid all the benefits the happy couple had hosted—until now.
It’s not that he didn’t respect what Natalie did—he’d happily give his time and money to help foster kids or cancer patients or homeless pets—he just wasn’t thrilled about donning a tux and sitting in a stuffy ballroom for three hours sipping watered-down Manhattans and eating overcooked filet mignon.
Jake couldn’t avoid the SoCal Turtle Conservation Mission’s First Annual Bachelor/Bachelorette Auction, though. Not after the debt he owed his friend from the time when his path crossed with Brody’s while they were both downrange in Jalalabad. Brody had contacts in Washington, and when Jake’s Afghan translator was threatened for helping “the Americans,” Brody had facilitated visas for his entire family.
So Jake owed Brody a huge favor, and he was happy to pay him back—until he learned Natalie wanted all of Brody’s single friends to fill out the crowd at the next fundraiser. Jake should have known there was a catch when Natalie had specified that all the attendees had to be single.
Jake sighed as he entered the ballroom. It was going to be a long night. After locating the bar, he scanned the crowd for familiar faces. He recognized several guys from the teams—the Navy was a small organization, the SEAL world even smaller—but he opted to find the host before commiserating with them about being forced to attend. It didn’t take long to spot Brody and Natalie. They were surrounded by ten or so people, who were all paying rapt attention to Brody. He appeared to be telling a story with plenty of hand gestures. Jake chuckled. Brody could captivate an audience regardless of whether he was talking about going on a safari or changing the oil in a car.
When Brody saw Jake, his eyes lit up. He excused himself to let Natalie finish the saga. She may not have had the same booming voice, but she could hold a crowd just as well. They really were perfectly matched in so many ways.
“I know, brother.” Jake patted him on the back. “Though I wish I was running into you anywhere but here.”
Brody laughed. “It’s not so bad. Good food, free drinks…” He held up his glass and winked. “Lots of talent.”
Jake glanced around, unimpressed. “Where?”
“All the bachelorettes are backstage, man.” Brody checked his Rolex—a gift from Natalie for graduating BUD/S. While completing the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL school certainly warranted a gift like a Rolex—roughly seventy-five percent of the guys who start BUD/S fail out—most of the newly minted SEALs and their families didn’t have the means for such a luxurious gift. “The auction’s starting soon. And I guarantee there are at least a few ladies you’ll want to bid on.”
“Doubtful.” Jake said. “Even if I meet a woman who’s perfect in every way, the day I buy a date is the day I become utterly pathetic.”
“You wouldn’t even buy a date to save the turtles?”
“I’ll donate to the cause, sure. But I will never exchange cash for a woman’s attention.” Jake shook his head. “I need a drink.”
Brody motioned toward the bar. “Knock yourself out.” He put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “But trust me when I say this. You’re in for at least one surprise tonight.”
“You think so?”
Brody nodded. “By the way, you still talk to Masterson?”
Tyler Masterson had gone through basic training, and later, BUD/S with Jake and Brody. Although he and Jake had remained close—Tyler was a fellow sports car enthusiast and had actually helped Jake install the harnesses in Ruby—he was currently deployed with his team, which meant they hadn’t talked in a while.
“Yeah, man, we’re still friends.” Jake said. “Haven’t chatted with him recently, though. He okay?”
“Oh yeah,” Brody said. “I was just wondering if you guys were still tight.”
“Why?”
Brody smirked. “No reason.” He turned to rejoin Natalie without another word.
Jake shook his head. Brody liked to keep people guessing. During conversations, he would often mention something that seemed to have nothing to do with the topic at hand. At some point, though, he would tie it all together. Maybe that’s how he could always captivate a crowd. Maybe people enjoyed following his breadcrumb trails and guessing where they led before Brody got to the point.
Jake wondered what Masterson had to do with saving sea turtles as he made his way to the bar. It was just another breadcrumb from Brody. It would make sense eventually. He wouldn’t worry about it until then.
“I’ll take a Manhattan neat with rye, please,” he told the bartender. He scanned the crowd while waiting for his drink. There seemed to be a lot of men there who were actually eager for the bidding to begin—none of them fellow SEALs, thankfully. He found the whole auction thing a bit off-putting, to be honest. If you can’t get a woman to go out with you for free, you should do some soul-searching to figure out why. You shouldn’t opt to pay for dates instead, even if it was for a good cause.
After Jake got his drink, he found a spot to the left of the stage where he could watch. The emcee had already started introducing the women, to the audible enthusiasm of some members of the crowd. It didn’t take Jake long to realize the guys in front of him were more than a few drinks in. They were talking about the ladies who were gracing the stage as if they were at a cattle auction.
“God, the things I would do to that ass.”
“You know she likes it rough.”
“Between those lips and those tits, I don’t know where to look. Or come.”
Jake was disgusted. He knew part of it was the alcohol talking, and part of it was grandstanding, showing off for each other—when a group of guys gets together and drinks, vulgarity always ensues—but he was also fairly good at reading people. And stone-cold sober, on their best day, he was still willing to bet that these guys were no good.
He sighed. Hopefully there were more honorable men in the crowd who would outbid these tools. If any one of these guys managed to win a date, the bachelorette would need a full security detail for the evening.
“Sold!” the emcee bellowed into the microphone. “To the gentleman with the powder-blue tie.” He pounded a gavel as the man who had bid on “rock climbing with Tasha” strode over to the stage. The bachelorette smiled when she saw him. As he helped her down the stairs, the emcee turned back to the crowd.
“Our next bachelorette is a licensed therapist with a master’s in psychology. When she’s not traveling the globe attending conferences in her field, she’s scouring bakeries along the SoCal coast in search of the perfect cupcake. She plans on taking her date out for drinks right here at Hotel del Coronado. Enjoy a cocktail at sunset with this beautiful and accomplished woman.” The emcee held out his arm. “Let’s give a warm welcome to Hanna Masterson!”
Hanna Masterson?
Jake shook his head. Surely he had misheard the emcee.
When he saw the next bachelorette grace the stage, though, he knew he hadn’t. Suddenly, Brody’s breadcrumb comment made perfect, horrifying sense.
Tyler Masterson’s little sister gave the crowd a warm smile. She was wearing a pale yellow dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. She looked even more stunning than Jake remembered.
“All right, boys, back off,” one of the rowdy guys near Jake told his buddies. “She’s mine.”
“Not if I outbid you,” his friend said. “She looks down for a good time.”
“And you think you’re the one who will give it to her?” the third guy asked. “Isn’t your nickname Thirty Second Sam?”
“Let’s start the bidding at five hundred dollars,” the emcee said. “Do I hear five hundred dollars for cocktails with Hanna?”
“Five hundred!” one of the raucous men said.
“Six hundred!” His friend topped his bid.
“Seven fifty!” the third man said.
“I’ve got seven fifty,” the emcee said. “Do I hear eight hundred dollars?”
“Eight hundred!” the original bidder said.
Jake realized if he didn’t do something fast, Hanna was going to have to spend an evening with one of these assholes. And that was the last thing he wanted. He told himself he was merely being protective of his friend’s little sister—stepping in only because Tyler wasn’t there himself to look out for her—but he knew it was more than that. After all, he and Hanna had almost shared a kiss. That was five years ago, but it felt like just yesterday. After finishing basic training, he’d met Tyler’s whole family, and later that day, when he found himself alone with Hanna…
Jake shook off all thoughts of Hanna’s full, pink lips. He had to focus.
“Nine hundred dollars!” he heard a man near the stage shout.
It may not have been one of the jerks in front of him, but there was no guarantee that the new bidder was any more honorable.
“One thousand dollars!” one of the creeps shouted. Then he turned to his friends. “And you better believe I’ll get my money’s worth.” They laughed.
Jake had had enough.
“Two thousand dollars!” he called. He knew doubling the bid would be enough to shut down the jackasses.
“I hear two thousand dollars,” the auctioneer said. “Two thousand from the man in the back.” Hanna squinted, no doubt trying to catch a glimpse of the bidder who was willing to shell out a hefty mortgage payment just to go on a date with her.
“Two thousand dollars,” the emcee continued. “Going once, going twice… sold! Come on up here, sir, and meet your date.”
The bidding had happened fast, but time seemed to slow down as Jake strode to the stage. He started wondering what he had gotten himself into. He’d be lying if he said Hanna hadn’t crossed his mind once or twice—or a hundred times—since their “almost kiss.” He wasn’t sure whether seeing her again would ma
ke things better or worse, though. Would it provide closure? Let him finally close the book on “what might have been?”
Or would it reignite the spark between them?
Chapter Two
The emcee motioned for Hanna to make her way to the other side of the stage so bidding on the next bachelorette could begin. As she stepped out of the spotlight, Hanna saw someone moving through the crowd, but she didn’t get a good look at the man who had spent two thousand dollars to have cocktails with her until she had already started descending the stairs.
There, at the bottom of the stage, was Jake Hendrix.
Hanna’s heart flipped over in her chest when he smiled up at her. Those dimples were to die for—just as they always had been.
She hadn’t seen Jake since her brother’s graduation. She’d made sure of that, after the way he’d rejected her kiss. But here he was, five years later, resolutely outbidding every other man in the room so that he could spend an evening with her. Did that kiss haunt him as much as it had haunted her?
“Hi, Hanna Banana,” he said, grinning widely.
Hanna cringed at her childhood nickname. That was the name Tyler—and sometimes his annoying friends—would use to rile her up. Her heart sank. Of course Jake wasn’t still thinking about that kiss. He was only here to fill the protective big brother role since Tyler was overseas.
When Jake held out his arms for a hug, Hanna just shook her head. Because of his overzealous—not to mention overbearing—bidding, she realized she had lost out on the chance to meet an eligible bachelor at the benefit. She had been hoping to make a connection with the man who bid on her that evening, and she had not anticipated Jake Hendrix getting in the way.
He certainly wasn’t interested in getting married—at least, not to her—and now he was keeping her from meeting other men who were.
“What’s wrong?” he asked playfully, still holding out his arms. “You’re not happy to see an old friend?”