by Zoe York
He looked at his watch. After a minute and a half of observing that in fact she was just replying to emails, clearing out her inbox and not actually mid-thought, he reached over her and closed the laptop. Leaping out of bed, he ignored her shriek of protest and stashed the laptop on top of his dresser.
“Never give a SEAL a timing you don’t intend to meet, gorgeous.” He prowled toward her with what he hoped was a menacing look.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Or what?”
“Or you’ll be punished with extreme prejudice.”
“I don’t even know what that means, you dork. Ahhh!”
He grabbed her ankle and yanked her down the bed before climbing on top of her. “It means we need to go to your parents for Thanksgiving dinner.”
She laughed. “Right, dinner. It’s barely mid-afternoon. And yes, spending time with my family when you’ve just done the big, bad wolf thing and I want to be ravished instead…that sounds like an awful punishment, one I surely don’t deserve.”
“Maybe I’ll let you plead for leniency.”
“Oooh, yes.” She wiggled beneath him. “Let me! What can I do?”
“Get your cute little ass in the shower.” He hauled her up and pushed her into the bathroom. “Tell me more about the travel writing workshop.”
She sighed, a happy little sound that worked its way right into his heart. Now he knew what Jared and Trick meant when they said they came undone for their women. It was hard to be cold and reserved when your partner in everything melted into a puddle of goo at sappy commercials and free blogging seminars.
Piper was rubbing off on him, and he didn’t mind a bit.
“I’ve been doing it all wrong!” She laughed as she hopped into the shower. “I mean, my blog is too basic. It’s a good start, but I need to figure out more of a niche. And I was thinking that the travel writing part of it needed to wait until I actually went on a trip, but the best tip I got was to be a local travel writer. So I need a whole new section on the blog for Southern California!”
“That’s genius.” He stepped into the water as well and grabbed the soap. “Turn around.”
“And you know I haven’t used my trip to Europe yet, other than in broad strokes…” Another sigh, this one more languid as she stretched under his soapy hands. “But I think it would be a good travelogue. You’ll have to read it to make sure I don’t inadvertently say too much.”
They’d gone over the rules so many times he doubted she’d misstep. She could talk about dating someone in the military. No pictures, no discussion of his service beyond the most generic, and no active warfare locations, ever. But Germany was fine. That there had been a medical emergency was allowed. What caused it was off-limits. “I can’t wait to read it.”
Back in his bedroom, they bumped into each other as they got dressed. Half her clothes were now in his closet, that one drawer he’d cleared out for her had morphed into half the dresser exploding with cute t-shirts and yoga pants. But there was a good deal of spandex and lace and cotton panties with cheeky sayings on the butt, too, so he wasn’t complaining in the least.
In fact, he wanted to talk to her about that before they headed to her parents’ place.
Tackling her gently, he snuggled them together on the bed.
“I thought we had to go?”
“Soon. I wanted to talk to you about something.”
— —
Piper wiggled closer, happy to soak up a bit of Miles’s calm, warm energy before the storm that was her family during a holiday meal. Her sister and sister-in-law would grill Miles with thinly veiled questions relating to their relationship and his commitment to her. Her brother would glom on to Miles and want to talk about guy stuff—which was actually better, but still annoying. And her parents would just be intense. Either intensely approving or disapproving or both together at the same time.
That was her future. They weren’t ever going to change.
But now she had Miles to suffer through it with her. Love was awesome.
“Piper, focus.” He laughed, his chest shaking beneath her cheek.
“Yep. Talk.”
“Trick and Gaby have bought a house.” Miles’s roommate was out of the country for a few months, and he’d proposed to his girlfriend before he left. “So I need to figure out what to do with this place.”
Oh, he had her attention now. She’d practically moved in, but his bedroom wasn’t big enough for both of them. Would it be weird to ask your boyfriend if you could be his roommate? Her clothes could live in the other room. And his boots, because those size thirteen monstrosities took up a lot of real estate.
“And I could get a new roommate, there are always new guys on the teams—” Piper’s heart fell. “—but I was thinking I might be ready to buy a house. Something small, so there wouldn’t be too much yard work for you when I’m gone.”
Piper wasn’t sure her pulse could handle the ups and downs of this conversation. The abrupt change in emotion was making her a bit dizzy. “Wait, yard work? A house?”
“What do you say? If I got a house, would you want to live with me?”
“Can you afford a house?” Coronado Beach wasn’t cheap.
“I’ve got savings. Enough for a good down payment on a small house. In the end, it wouldn’t be any bigger than this apartment, really, but maybe more conducive to cohabitation.”
“Cohabitation,” she repeated, grinning. “That sounds great. I kind of love the idea of living in sin with you. It’ll make my dad’s head explode.”
He laughed and pulled her close. “I was looking at some places online. Do you want to check them out?”
“Definitely.”
He reached for his laptop, perched precariously on his bedside table, and handed it to her. She twisted around so he was spooning her and set the computer on the mattress so they could look at it together. His hand tightened on her hip as the screen lit up, his last browser activity already on the screen.
“These aren’t houses,” Piper said softly, her heart hammering in her chest.
“Do you like them?” Miles asked, brushing his lips against the curve of her ear.
“Well, yeah.” She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. Had she just ruined a surprise? She blinked at the diamond rings glowing on the computer screen. “I mean, what girl doesn’t like…” She trailed off as something smooth and cool to the touch rolled over her forearm. Her mouth dropped open as Miles dropped a ring on the blanket in front of her. She could feel his grin against her shoulder as he peeked at her. “Diamonds!”
“Will talk of weddings make Thanksgiving more or less stressful?”
She picked up the ring, a simple solitaire set in white gold. “Wow. Um, I don’t think I care either way.”
“I know you said you liked the idea of living in sin, but I had a different idea. Think I could change your mind?”
In a New York minute. “That sounds terribly respectable.”
“We could find a way to still be scandalous. You could tell everyone that I proposed during sex.”
“We’re not having sex.”
“We will be in a minute.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Are you going to say yes?”
“Definitely.”
“Yeah, then we’re having sex.” He rolled her onto her back, covering her with his body. “Because I’ve wanted you to be my wife for a long time, Piper Harrington.”
“How long?”
“Maybe since the first night I saw you in Hastings.”
“Maybe?”
“No. Definitely.”
THE END
If you enjoyed Fall Deep, you’ll love Fall Back and Fall Dark, two new SEALs Undone stories coming this summer!
HAVE YOU READ THE ENTIRE
SEALs Undone Series?
Fall Out - Drew and Annie
Fall Hard - Jared and Cassie
Fall Away - Trick and Gaby
Fall Deep - Miles and Piper
Fall
Back - Cade and Mel
Fall Dark - Vince and Larken
CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING
— —
And if you like military romance, try my Pine Harbour series. Turn the page for an excerpt from Pine Harbour #1, Love in a Small Town.
Six years. Two break-ups. One divorce.
They should be over each other…
— AN EXCERPT FROM —
LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN
(PINE HARBOUR #1 - small town military romance)
IT was bad enough that after going through a very public divorce from the man Olivia still loved, she had to serve him breakfast four times a week. That she looked forward to those mornings…well, that wasn’t great either. But Rafe worked two jobs and lived in a tiny one-room apartment. And the other option for eggs and bacon was his mother’s café.
Liv shuddered at the thought of spending even one morning a week with her ex-mother-in-law. So she couldn’t fault Rafe for keeping his regular stool at the diner she worked at, even if it didn’t help the official party line held by all six hundred people in their small town of Pine Harbour—that their split had been her fault and Rafe was completely innocent.
The former point was true. The latter was not. Parsing the difference with the town busy-bodies was a futile effort though, so she let the whispers slide. They just added to the steaming pile of crap that was her life.
But the absolute worst was that today, Rafe had brought a date to breakfast.
And she’d serve him eggs and paste on a smile, but then she was calling a real estate agent. Whatever cosmic joke had made her fall in love with Rafe Minelli had delivered its final punch line.
He wasn’t in uniform today—either of them—but he still looked achingly good. Faded blue jeans that she recognized from the irregular rip on one of his solid thighs. Old enough that she’d washed them many times. The denim would be soft, and when he turned around, his wallet would be clearly imprinted in his back right pocket. And even though she wanted to grab a butter knife and gouge his heart out, first she wanted one more look at his magnificent ass.
Because she was a glutton for punishment, and Rafe delivered in bucket loads. Tall, dark, and handsome didn’t do him justice. Olivia grabbed a washcloth and wiped down the counter as she watched him guide his date to a booth under the window.
No! She wanted to shout. You sit at the counter and ask me if it’s been busy. I bug you that you need a haircut and we both remember that time I gave you a trim in the bathroom. How you slid your hands under my shirt and teased my nipples while I squealed for you to hold still. The walk down memory lane cut sharper than usual because it wasn’t shared. Even though she knew she needed to move on, let go of Rafe and start dating again, she wasn’t prepared to see him do just that. And the pretty blonde woman sitting across from him twisting the shit out of a sugar packet was wearing one of his plaid shirts, so Olivia couldn’t even pretend it was a breakfast meeting—not that Rafe would ever have business that needed to be discussed in a diner.
He was a full-time police officer and a part-time soldier. Had been a full-time son and a part-time husband, too. No room for a wife, definitely no room for a side job. No, this was definitely a morning-after-a-sleep-over breakfast and Olivia had to serve him fucking coffee. She wrenched the carafe from the warmer, grabbed two menus from under the counter, and pasted on her sweetest eat-shit-and-die smile before squaring her shoulders and approaching the couple.
“Coffee?”
They both nodded and Olivia silently lifted each of their white ceramic mugs and poured. For someone who just got laid, Rafe didn’t look happy. His eyebrows were pulled together, hooding his gaze, and he had faint dark circles under his eyes. Maybe he was realizing just how awful a human being he was to bring…
“Do you need to see a menu, Natalie?” His voice sounded strained too. He dumped two creamers in his cup and stirred roughly.
Natalie, huh? Olivia swung her gaze to the other woman. She looked nervous. Had he told her that he used to be married to their waitress? Used to wake her up with his tongue and his hands and his love, but not as often as he didn’t—he’d have to be home for that—and now they pretended to be friends a few times a week?
“I’ll just have some toast, please,” she said quietly.
Rafe sighed. “Don’t be silly.” He looked up at Olivia, his dark brown eyes unreadable. “Two breakfast specials please, one with bacon, one with—” He broke off and turned back to Natalie. “Sausage? Ham?”
“Sausage, I guess. Look, I can just wait for my friend outside, we don’t need to have breakfast.”
“It’s fine.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand before looking back at Olivia again. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“We’re swamped,” she said breezily, waving at the mostly empty diner. “I’ve got ketchup bottles to refill and napkins to stack, so—”
“One minute, Liv.” He pushed out of the booth and towered over her. “In private.”
He didn’t wait for her to respond, stalking to the small office behind the washrooms like he owned the place. Well, he could wait. She had a job to do, even if it wasn’t exciting or overly important.
“Natalie, is it? How did you want your eggs?” Rafe wanted his over-easy. At some point in the future, she’d forget all the stupid little things she knew about him. She hoped. Hadn’t happened yet.
“Scrambled. And rye toast if you have it.”
“Sure thing. Be right back.” She went straight to the pass-through window, dinged the bell and tacked the order up on the carousel. Frank gave her a knowing look from his perch at the grill. “Shut up,” she told her boss without malice. “I need five minutes.”
“I’ll holler if anyone comes in, I guess.”
If anyone came in, they’d pour themselves a cup of coffee and wait. She wasn’t worried. It wouldn’t be the first time Pine Harbour had heard Rafe and Olivia Minelli have a knock-down, drag-out fight. Probably wouldn’t be the last. Another reason she needed to leave. This couldn’t be her future—petty jealousy and tension-filled terse conversations with her ex. She took a deep breath and shoved the office door open.
CONTINUE READING LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN RIGHT NOW!
— ABOUT THE AUTHOR —
Zoe York lives in London, Ontario with her young family. She’s currently chugging Americanos, wiping sticky fingers, and dreaming of heroes in and out of uniform.
www.zoeyork.com