by Sandra Owens
“Pink pikes,” he muttered.
Judging by his tone, he wasn’t happy. “Word games again?”
“Go inside, Sugar.” He stared straight ahead.
“Okay, but please don’t be sorry you kissed me. I’m not.”
He finally looked at her. “I’ll pick you up at eight to take you to your car.”
All righty then. He wanted to act as if it hadn’t happened. “Thanks again.” She opened the door and the wind slammed it closed. “Well, hell.”
Needing to get away before she begged him to kiss her again, she pushed hard on the door and scrambled out of the car. Having lost her umbrella, she put her purse over her head and ran to her condo. Once inside, she peeked out the window just in time to see his taillights disappear into the downpour.
“Meep.”
“Hey, Junior, my boy. Guess what?” She picked him up and carried him into the kitchen, setting him on the counter. “Since you’re not going to hear a word I say until your belly’s full, I’ll wait to tell ya my news.”
Opening a can of cat food, she spooned it into his bowl, then poured herself a glass of wine. In the living room, she turned on her stereo and curled up on her couch to wait for Junior. As she sipped her wine and listened to Adele, she studied the room.
It had taken the past year to slowly decorate the condo the way she wanted, with a mix of contemporary and odd things that caught her interest. She was renting it, but some day, she’d like to buy the place if she stayed in Pensacola. Of course, it depended on whether or not she continued to feel safe.
She glanced at the silver frame holding the picture of her make-believe parents. Pretending they were her mom and dad was kind of stupid if she thought about it too hard, but sometimes she would look at the couple holding the hands of the child between them as they walked along the beach and remember the good times, before her mother died and her father started drinking.
One day her mother had been fine and the next, she was gone, an aneurysm at the age of thirty-three. Ten-year-old Hannah had come home from school and found her mother sprawled on the kitchen floor, and life had never been the same after that.
She had not only lost her mother that day, but her father as well. In his own personal grief, he’d all but forgotten he had a daughter. One he’d used to lovingly call his sweet sugar. Two years later, the bank had foreclosed on their home, the only one Hannah had ever known, and her father moved them to public housing on the wrong side of Charleston’s Calhoun Street.
Junior jumped gracefully onto the couch and began studiously washing his face. Glad to have her depressing thoughts interrupted, Sugar picked him up and sat him on her lap. “Forget about your bath, I have something important to tell ya. Are you listening?”
He blinked green eyes at her, and she took that as a yes. “Okay, so get ready ’cause the most amazing thing happened tonight. Jamie kissed me. Yeah, I know. Surprised the hell out of me, too. But, Junior, it was sooo incredible. I wasn’t sure I’d like it . . . you know, because of Rodney.”
Rodney’s slobbery kisses had disgusted her to the point that she never thought she’d want to be kissed again. Then she’d met Jamie and started wondering if it would be different with him. She could now truthfully say: hell yeah.
“He didn’t slobber all over me, and he tasted like lemon drops.” She was going to buy a supply of the candy so that all she had to do to recall Jamie’s kisses was pop one in her mouth. She’d probably end up spending a fortune on the things.
“Oh, and I think I’ve figured out his word game. He doesn’t curse, but when he wants to, he says whatever comes to mind.”
Junior apparently didn’t care as he curled into a ball in her lap, tucked his nose under his tail, and went to sleep. “Okay, you’re not impressed, but I sure as hell am. I just need to figure out how to get him to kiss me again.”
Jamie pulled up in front of Sugar’s condo a few minutes before eight the next morning and turned off his car. He moodily stared at her front door. Because of her, he’d not had a decent night’s sleep. He still didn’t know why he’d kissed her, and he wished he hadn’t. What was it about kissing her that made him feel like he’d climbed Mt. Everest, exhilaration pouring through him as he stood on top of the world? He would like to believe it had been a onetime thing, but all he’d thought about was having his mouth on hers again.
At precisely eight, Sugar opened her door and sprinted down the sidewalk to his car. A point to her then for being on time. A light rain still fell, the remnants from last night’s storm, and it struck him the women he normally dated would have an umbrella over their heads to protect their hair. Sugar acted like she didn’t care. He kind of liked that.
“Hey, you,” she said, water dripping from the tips of her eyelashes.
“Morning.” He handed her a cup of coffee with extra cream and sugar. She wore a white silk blouse, and her eyes were blue. The white lace of her bra peeked from the edges of the shirt’s vee. His doom sat next to him, a shy smile on her face as she accepted the cup.
“Thank you,” she said with a breathiness that seemed to imply gifts were rare in her life.
It was just a cup of coffee, not a big deal in any way. She took a sip, closed her eyes and sighed, the sound very much like what she’d made the night before when he’d kissed her. Blue butter. Jamie threw the car in reverse and stopped himself just in time from peeling out of the complex. He needed to get her out of his car.
“It’s perfect,” she said, turning her thousand-watt smile on him. “Lucky guess?”
“No, I’ve seen you make it at work.” Too much information. It sounded as if he paid attention to her. To keep from talking, he concentrated on driving. Unfortunately, he could smell her, and her scent made a man think of burying his face between the valley of her breasts and licking her.
To take his mind off her very fine breasts, he subtly studied her hair. Dampened from the rain, it was a darker shade, closer to the color of her eyelashes. He couldn’t see any darker roots though. Maybe she didn’t color her hair and it was just lighter than her lashes.
She craned her neck. “You just passed the turn to the Booby Palace.”
As if he’d let her get behind the wheel of her car on wet roads. “I know.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll ask Maria to run me over at lunch.”
“I’ll take you to work tonight.” Jamie was at a loss to explain the need to protect her.
“You’re starting to make me feel bad, playing taxi driver for me and all. I know ya must have better things to do, and I really can take care of myself.”
It was only the discipline he’d developed as a SEAL that kept him from snorting at the last part of her statement. Someone needed to keep an eye on her, and after the way things had ended with Jill, he actually didn’t have anything better to do.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot at K2. She gave him a look that said she couldn’t figure him out, and he wished her luck with that. He’d not known what he was about since she’d picked him up at the airport.
“Trust me, I have bigger things to worry about than you. Thanks for the ride.”
What did that mean? As he started to get out of the car, she suddenly disappeared from sight in front of his hood. He hurried to her and found her pushing herself up from the pavement.
“What happened?” he asked as he offered her his hand.
“I tripped.”
A quick survey around her turned up nothing that would have put her facedown on the pavement. “On what?”
She grabbed hold of his hand and pulled herself up. “Hell if I know,” she said, sounding so irritable he wanted to smile.
“You okay?”
“Everything’s good but my pride.”
“So we’re just going to ignore your skinned knee?” When she tried to pull her hand away, he held ti
ght.
“Right now, I’m wishing you’d ignore all of me.”
“Not a chance, Sugar,” he said, and found he meant it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jamie spent the morning with Jake Buchanan planning an extraction of four kidnapped aid workers—one woman and three men—from Syria. Once they’d picked the team, they brought in Stewart, who would be the lead.
“Our intelligence reports that one of the men is sick and the other two aren’t in much better shape,” Buchanan said. “Ryan O’Connor comes on board tomorrow, and he’ll be a part of your team, Elaine.”
Jamie glanced at Stewart to see his reaction to having a team member he’d never met before.
Nicknamed Elaine because he was head over heels in love with Elaine on Seinfeld, Stewart shrugged. “I’ve heard good things about Doc. If we’ve got sick hostages, then I’m glad to have him. The woman’s in good health?”
“As far as we know, she wasn’t tortured like the men.” Jake handed Stewart the dossiers on the aid workers.
As the two of them went over the files, Jamie turned his mind to Doc. He looked forward to seeing his friend again. It had been over a year since they’d last met and almost that long since O’Connor’s wife had died. They’d talked on the phone a few times, but their conversations had been awkward. Once a happy man, deeply in love with Kathleen, he’d seemed to close up tighter than a clam after her death.
It would be good for Doc to be back with the team, and with him coming to work for Kincaid, only two of the original six of their SEAL team would be missing. Jamie was aware the boss had also offered Cody Roberts a job. If Dog accepted, they’d all be together again except for Evan Prescott, who’d been killed on their last mission in Afghanistan.
“Let’s take a lunch break,” Jake said, bringing Jamie’s attention back to the present.
“Sure.” At the mention of food, he realized he was hungry.
Stewart stood and stretched. “I’m gonna pass. I need to run by the bank and sign the papers on my car loan.”
Jake snorted. “Bet you had to promise your firstborn, too.”
“Your firstborn for a Corvette sounds fair to me,” Jamie said.
“Nah, just my paycheck for the next twenty years.” Stewart stopped at the door. “I’ve dreamed about owning a candy-apple red Vette since my older sister dated a guy who had one. Only reason she went out with him. Car’s a babe magnet.”
“How old are you again? Seventeen?” Jake asked with a roll of his eyes.
Stewart flipped them a finger as he left.
“I want to check and see if Maria’s free to go to lunch with us,” Jake said. “Meet you out front.”
Jamie made a pit stop and then headed for the lobby. He’d expected Jake and Maria to be waiting for him. Sugar, not. She glanced over and smiled, and his step faltered as a funny flutter tickled his chest at seeing her. What was wrong with him? It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her only a few hours ago.
“Where to?” he asked, stopping next to her.
“Maria wants to go to Captain Jack’s. That good for the two of you?” Jake asked.
“Works for me.” As Sugar passed, he caught her scent. Pink pansies, she smelled good.
“I’ve never been there, but I love seafood,” Sugar said.
Jake unlocked his new Jeep Sahara, and Jamie opened the back door for Sugar, then walked around to the other side.
“Nice ride,” he said, eyeing the black, soft-top Jeep’s interior. “Like it better than your Challenger?”
Jake met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Mostly. Maria does, for sure.” He waggled his brows. “Says there’s a lot more room in the backseat.”
“Jake!” Maria punched him.
Everyone laughed, and it struck Jamie that since the death of his parents, he’d built a wall, shutting out anyone who tempted him to have fun. Even with the team, he held back, not letting any of them get too close. What had he been afraid of? That if he had fun, he’d slip back into his old ways?
In the beginning, it would have been a strong possibility, so the rules he’d put in place had kept him on track. Yet, as the years passed and he’d matured, he could have eased up a little. Until one bad driver with violet-blue eyes, he hadn’t been tempted.
She scared him. She excited him. Did he dare give into temptation, take a time-out from his wife search and just have a bit of fun for a change? He glanced at Sugar, and when he caught her looking at him, she gave him a smile that almost seemed shy. His heart did a funny little thump.
Once seated in the restaurant and after their orders were placed, he sat back and listened to the other three discuss a movie they wanted to see. His mind was still a jumble of conflicting thoughts: the angel on one shoulder counseling Saint to ignore his base needs, the little devil on the other tempting him with promises of pleasures long denied.
“Well, hell.”
Conversation at the table came to an abrupt halt and three pairs of eyes fell on him.
“What?” Why were they staring at him all wide-eyed?
Maria grinned. “Saint just said hell.”
He’d cursed and even spoken the word aloud? His gaze slid to Sugar, who stared back at him in false innocence. There was nothing innocent about her; she was a sin he wanted to indulge in. She would be his downfall, but suddenly, he didn’t care.
“Interesting,” Jake murmured.
Jamie pretended not to notice the way Jake’s all-too-seeing eyes darted back and forth between him and Sugar. Heat crept into his cheeks, and if he was blushing, he’d never forgive her. Before he could think of something to say to get their attention away from him, the waitress appeared with their food.
The conversation turned back to the movie and before Jamie realized what was happening, he’d agreed to make it a foursome to Saturday night’s showing.
“Why don’t we meet at our house for dinner, then we’ll catch the one starting at nine,” Maria said.
“What time should I be there?” Sugar asked.
No way was Jamie letting her drive around late at night. “I’ll pick you up.”
She studied him a moment, then shrugged. “Okay.”
At some point since meeting her, his mouth had apparently disconnected from his brain.
Saturday morning, Sugar emptied her meager closet in an attempt to find something to wear. It wasn’t like Jamie had actually asked her out on a date, so it really shouldn’t matter what she wore, should it? She considered calling Maria to ask what she was wearing, but that seemed so high schoolish.
Although when she did shop, she tried to buy nice things that would last, she didn’t spend a lot of money on clothes. After paying the rent, buying groceries, and covering small, miscellaneous expenses, the rest went into one of her money market accounts. If the day came when she had to run, she had determined early on that she would have access to money.
When she’d left Rodney’s house, she had three hundred dollars to her name. It would have been easy to steal more than she needed from bad cop and bad cop, but then she would have been no better than them.
On the floor in her closet was a packed duffel bag with clothes, toiletries, and five thousand in cash. Also in the bag was a new identity under the name of Nikki Swanson. But she’d grown to like Sugar Darling and didn’t want to have to become someone new.
Shaking off the unwanted thoughts, she decided to splurge on a new outfit for the evening to come. Leaving Junior asleep on top of a pile of clothes on her bed, she grabbed her purse and keys, and slipped on her sunglasses. As she walked down the sidewalk, she noticed a man knocking on the door of the condo Jake used to own. He turned to look at her, his gaze following her as she walked to her car. Dressed in a suit and holding a briefcase, she pegged him as a salesman, probably peddling insurance, or magazines. Glad she’d be gone when he made it to her door, she headed for t
he mall.
Three stores later, she was on her way out with her purchases when she spied Victoria’s Secret. Not that she expected anything to happen between her and Jamie, but she decided on the spot that it was time to buy some sexy Sugar things.
When her doorbell rang, Sugar took one last glance in the mirror. “Whatcha think, Junior?”
“Mowwl.” He yawned.
“That good, mmh?” She brushed her hands over the gauzy, colorful skirt, loving the soft feel of the material. The rose-colored camisole felt silky and sensual against her skin, and the strappy sandals were a perfect match to the camisole. Upon spying them in the shoe department, she’d let out a little squeal of delight.
Although she’d reminded herself a thousand times it wasn’t a date, her heart picked up speed with each step she took toward the door. Even though no one but her would see them, the silk bikini underwear and lacy bra she wore made her feel sexy. She’d only intended to buy one of each, but the colors were all so pretty, and when she couldn’t choose, she’d splurged, buying seven matching panties and bras, one set for each day of the week.
“Hi,” she said after opening the door. “Come in, I’ll just be a minute.” Her mouth had gone dry at the sight of Jamie standing in her doorway, drop-dead gorgeous in a blue button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and black pants. She rushed into the bathroom and lapped water from the faucet.
All the guys at work, including Jamie, wore T-shirts, cargo pants, and boots most days. He looked hot in what she thought of as the K2 uniform, but the man standing at her door could have walked off the cover of a magazine.
Glad she hadn’t settled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, she grabbed her purse and after touching up her lipstick, she took a deep breath and returned to the living room.
“Junior, no!” Her cat was doing his figure-eight thing around Jamie’s legs.