“I shouldn’t have missed,” she said angrily.
“It could happen to anyone,” he told her. “Your hands were wet and you were startled.”
Her eyes met his in the mirror. She was pissed. “You wouldn’t miss. You’re trained to do nearly everything while soaking wet, I imagine.”
“Yes.” He said it simply because it was true. As a SEAL, he was expected to spend a lot of time in the water. He was as comfortable there as he was anywhere. “But you aren’t a SEAL, Ivy.”
She sniffed. “Did you find where he broke in?”
“The back door’s open, but it doesn’t look forced. Did you check it when you came inside?”
He could see the color creeping into her face. “No. I had a lot on my mind and I… didn’t.”
He knew that admission galled her. Ivy was proud and—usually—thorough. In school, she’d been the one who wrote her papers weeks before they were due while he was usually floundering on the last day.
“You can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
Ivy spun to face him. “And what do you propose I do? Go home? Not happening, mister.”
“That’s not what I said,” he grated, his voice rough. “You need to move bungalows. And you shouldn’t be alone.”
Her mouth fell open a little. “In spite of what just happened, I can take care of myself. I was caught off guard this time, but it won’t happen again. No resort Peeping Tom is going to scare me a second time.”
Dane wanted to grab her and shake her. “And what if it wasn’t a Peeping Tom? What if this is related to that threat you got back in DC?”
Ivy blinked. “How could it be? Unless someone is following me everywhere, or they’ve tapped my phone—which they have not, by the way—how could it be related? And why? It’s not like I’ve discovered the holy grail to taking down the Ruizes and they need to stop me. I’m a thorn in their side, but no deeper or more annoying than I’ve ever been.”
He knew that had to pain her to admit. Fighting drugs was often like playing Whac-A-Mole. Stop one conduit and others sprang up in their place. Ivy, being the meticulous sort, wouldn’t like that one bit.
“You can’t ignore the possibility. You need to move. And you need backup.”
Before he could say anything more, voices he recognized came from inside the bungalow. He gave Ivy a hard look and then left her alone so she could get dressed. Some of his new teammates clustered in the living area, weapons drawn, while others still came in from the rear door.
“It’s okay, guys,” Dane said. “The area is clear.”
Ace shot toward him, looking about as pissed off as a fighting rooster. “Where’s Ivy?” he demanded. “And what the fuck happened here?”
Dane resisted the urge to wrap his hands around the little fucker’s throat, but only barely. He didn’t like the guy, no matter that he seemed to care about Ivy’s welfare. Probably because he had what Dane didn’t, which was a relationship with Ivy that wasn’t combative. He got to be with her and see her smile, hear her laugh. Dane hadn’t heard her laugh in years.
And he damn sure hadn’t been the recipient of one of her smiles in ages.
“Ivy’s fine. Someone busted in here and startled her while she was showering. No sign of the intruder.”
Ace puffed up. “Are you sure it wasn’t you, asshole? Trying to get a peep at the ex? Get your jollies for old times’ sake?”
Dane growled and took a step toward Ace, but Flash was there, wrapping a hand around Dane’s arm and squeezing. He hadn’t had a lot of time to get to know these guys, but they’d absorbed his presence like he was one of them. They had his back, and that meant a lot.
“Not helpful,” Flash said in a low voice. “Focus on the task at hand.”
“Shut the fuck up, Agent Martin,” Matt said, “or you can be sent home on the next plane out of here. You’re here to observe, not comment, got it?”
Ace grumbled something, but he turned away and went over to flip through the resort flyers sitting on the table. Dane didn’t think he was really seeing the brochures so much as he was doing something to keep himself from exploding. But still, Dane hoped the asshole booked a shark cage tour in a faulty cage…
Focus.
“We have to move her,” Dane said.
“Agreed,” Matt replied. “Big Mac and I will swap with Ivy.”
Kev MacDonald nodded in agreement. Someone had told Dane that Kev’s wife was part of the team, which he found fucking amazing since women weren’t allowed to be SEALs, but she wasn’t on this op. She was in DC, working on an intel assignment. Nick Brandon’s fiancée was a member too—a fucking sniper of all damn things.
“She can’t stay alone.” Dane didn’t like the idea of Ivy being by herself, even if she was proficient with a weapon. She was no damn sniper. You don’t really know that, dude.
Yeah, yeah he did. Otherwise they’d be cleaning up a body instead of wondering who’d broken into her bungalow and where the asshole had gone.
Ace snorted as he turned back to them. “And who’s going to stay with her, buddy? You? Like hell.”
“No one is staying with me,” Ivy ground out.
Everyone turned as she walked out of the bathroom. She was wearing a long, body-hugging black dress and sandals. Every sweet curve was evident, and Dane’s throat tightened. Jesus, how could he still be so attracted to this woman?
“I’ll change bungalows, but I don’t need a babysitter.”
“No, you don’t need a babysitter—but you do need a bodyguard.”
She whipped her head around to glare at Dane. “You don’t get to have an opinion about my life anymore, Dane. You gave up that right years ago.”
Dane wanted to punch something. “This isn’t personal, Ivy. It’s fucking common sense. You need someone watching your back.”
“And that someone is gonna be me,” Ace said, walking over to stand beside Ivy. “She’s my partner, and we take care of each other.”
Matt’s eyes narrowed as he studied them all. “No, it’s not you, Ace,” he said coolly. “This is my operation and you’re an observer. You’re staying with Fiddler.”
Chase Daniels nodded, his expression brooking no argument. “That’s right, man, you’re with me.”
“Dane, you’re with Ivy,” Matt said. “Try not to kill each other, you hear?”
“If you want that, then you shouldn’t put us together,” Ivy snapped.
Matt turned to look at her. “Sorry, Agent McGill, but it makes the most sense. You two know each other, you don’t like each other, and there’ll be no awkwardness about staying in the same bungalow. You’ve seen each other naked, and you’re both apparently done with that part of the relationship. If I stick one of my other guys with you, who the fuck knows what will happen? I can’t afford any distractions—not to mention that Dane might explode if he thought someone else was making moves on you.”
“Why the fuck would I care?” Dane asked.
Matt snorted. “Dude, we always care. You might not want the lollipop anymore, but you don’t want anyone else having it either.”
Ivy’s eyes widened. She popped her hands on her hips. “I am not a lollipop, and I won’t be ordered around like my opinion doesn’t matter—”
“But it doesn’t, Agent McGill,” Matt said. “You’re an observer, and you observe at the pleasure of Colonel Mendez—to whom I report. If you don’t like what I’ve told you to do, there’s a plane back to DC with a seat for you. Your choice.”
If eyes could shoot laser beams, Ivy’s would have done so right about then. Dane didn’t think he’d ever seen her so pissed, even when she’d been glaring at him and telling him that he could be a SEAL or he could be with her. She’d made him so fucking mad, he’d told her he’d rather be a SEAL than put up with her shit another minute.
Yeah, what a great day that had been.
“Fine,” Ivy said, drawing herself up to her full five foot four inches. She somehow managed to look down her nose as if she were
about six inches taller. It was a helluva trick. “But don’t you dare blame me when this turns out to be a bad idea.”
“It won’t be… will it, Viking?” Matt arched one eyebrow expectantly.
Dane forced himself to smile. He could back out and let someone else guard Ivy… but damn if the Army guy hadn’t figured him out after all. He didn’t like the idea of someone else staying with her. Didn’t trust that another man wouldn’t be so blinded by her charms that he might not pay as much attention to her safety as he should.
No, it had to be Dane.
“Not at all,” he said. “I’m a professional, and I take my job seriously.”
“Excellent,” Matt said. “Now let’s get moving.”
CHAPTER NINE
Oh, this was a bad idea. No matter what Dane had said, it was bad.
Ivy stood in the living area of the bungalow she now inhabited with her ex-freaking-husband and gazed at the two bedroom doors sitting side by side. They were both open, and Dane was moving around on the other side of one of them. Ivy strode over and peeked in. When she saw which room Dane was in, she took the opposite one.
It didn’t take long to hang her clothes and put her toiletries in the bathroom—the shared bathroom, for heaven’s sake. She thought about closing the bedroom door and locking it for a while so she could lie down and think, but that wouldn’t work because how could she think with Dane next door?
Ivy chafed her arms as she returned to the living area. When she’d first seen that man in her bathroom, she’d had a split second of hoping it was Dane. But of course it wasn’t—and that was a good thing, really. She didn’t need to have sex with her ex-husband, which she would have wanted to do pretty badly if he’d been the one who’d walked in on her in the shower earlier.
Because it had been him she’d pictured while she touched herself. His hands and mouth she remembered. His cock entering her body.
“You doing okay?”
She spun to find Dane watching her. Her heart skipped a beat as she let her eyes slide over his face. Oh, it was so unfair he was that pretty. That damned appealing.
“I’m fine,” she said, trying to infuse her voice with starch instead of honey. Because the honey wanted to drip into her tone for some reason, which wasn’t appropriate anymore with him.
“Matt sent someone to inquire about the resort staff. It’s entirely possible he was there for some maintenance and got distracted when he saw you in the shower.”
Ivy snorted. “Yes, he came through the back door, heard the shower, kept on going, and opened the bathroom door when it was clear someone was in there. He was very startled. Probably sucking down a Jack and Coke somewhere and trying to recover.”
Dane spread his hands. “Hey, I don’t believe it either, but we have to check all the angles. If he was a maintenance man with a penchant for spying on guests, that’s better than nothing. It would also mean that whoever threatened you isn’t here looking for you.”
Ivy frowned. She didn’t think the Ruizes had come for her in the Keys because the timing was wrong for that, but what if they had? What if they were crazy enough to make a move now instead of at any other point in the past few years? Maybe they blamed her for their lost submarine, or maybe they thought she’d lead them to it.
Ivy shook her head. That was craziness right there.
“I put nothing past the Ruiz brothers, but even this is a bit too far-fetched for them.”
Dane shrugged. Then he went and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. When he held out one for her, she took it.
“Whoever it was, they’ll have to go through me now,” he said, his expression hard.
She knew he meant it, and it made her shiver deep inside. “Why would you risk yourself for me?”
Because he hated her, and it made no sense. But he was here, offering to do just that. Or maybe he planned to open the door and let them have her…
Ivy shook her head. That wasn’t Dane’s style. He really was here to protect her.
“It’s what I do,” he said, shrugging.
Heat blossomed in her cheeks. “So it’s the job. No other reason.”
His blue eyes were steady. “That’s right.”
She pushed her long hair back over her shoulder and took a sip of water. Her fingers still trembled, though not as badly as before. She shouldn’t have missed the target when she’d fired her weapon.
She’d been distracted. That had to be the issue—and what was distracting her was standing a few feet away and looking as delicious and tempting as ever.
“I still don’t understand why it had to be you. Any of those men could watch my back—and it would be a lot less awkward.”
“And what if it was more so? You’re a gorgeous woman, Ivy. Another man might be distracted by you—and that could prove dangerous, don’t you think?”
She heard what he didn’t say—that he would not be distracted at all.
“Not every man on earth is attracted to me, Dane. Not to mention, several of those guys are in relationships.”
“That doesn’t stop some.”
A sharpness pierced her. “Would it have stopped you?”
The instant she said it, she regretted it. It was too personal—and too far in the past to even think about.
He straightened, his expression hardening. “When I was married to you, you were the only woman in my life. I’d have never broken the vows I made to you. Never.”
Her heart thumped and her stomach tightened. “I shouldn’t have asked. It doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”
He came around the kitchen island and stalked toward her. But he stopped before he reached her, and her body trembled with excitement. God, if he would only sweep her up into his arms and—
No.
“It matters to me. It matters if you think my integrity is so meaningless to me that I’d have thrown it away the first time we were apart.”
“I didn’t say that.” Her voice was little more than a whisper.
“You didn’t have to. But the one thing you never seemed to understand is that I’m not like your father. He might have screwed around on your mother before he left, but I’d have never done that to you. Our marriage vows meant something to me.”
She wanted to reach out and touch him. Wanted, more than anything, to dial back the clock and return to a time when there wasn’t so much anger and hurt between them.
But that was impossible. Ivy dropped her gaze to the floor, her chest aching with unshed tears and a truckload of regrets.
“I’m sorry, Dane.”
He took a step toward her—and then he blew out a breath and turned away, put distance between them. She looked up again, watched him retreat. Her heart hurt in a way it hadn’t in a very long time. It was like someone had ripped the bandage off a wound just when it was starting to heal.
“Come on,” Dane said over his shoulder. “We’ve got a team meeting to attend.”
CHAPTER TEN
He must have been insane to agree to stay in the same space with Ivy. Dane leaned against the wall in the bungalow they were meeting in and listened to Matt and Big Mac talk about the plan. It was a little strange not being in charge of an op for once, but these guys were good. In fact, they were so good that his mind was mostly on Ivy.
She was sitting on a chair a few feet away, one leg crossed demurely over the other, the slit in her dress revealing a tanned calf and part of a thigh. A couple of the other guys glanced at her from time to time, and it made Dane crazy.
It shouldn’t make him feel anything at all, and that pissed him off even more. Why did he care who looked at his ex-wife or what she did with that sweet little body of hers anyway? He hadn’t made love to her in years, and he knew she hadn’t been celibate. Neither had he.
But right now, if he could strip her naked and explore every inch of her body with his tongue and fingers and cock, he’d be a happy man.
Which was crazy, because Ivy didn’t make him happy at all. She knotted him up insid
e, made him feel like his skin was too tight, like if he didn’t do something physical—fuck, punch something, run until he was exhausted—he’d explode.
He thought of the conversation he’d had with Matt earlier when the other man had taken him aside.
“I realize asking you to stay with her isn’t ideal,” Matt said, “but I get the impression pairing her up with another operator would make it worse for you.”
Dane scoffed. “Don’t know why you’d think that. We’re divorced. Ivy can do what she pleases.”
Matt looked at him for a long moment. “My best friend growing up was a girl. We went everywhere together, did everything—and then we hit high school and things got weird. I did shit I shouldn’t have done. She did shit too. It was a bad time in my life. I didn’t want her for my own, but I didn’t want anyone else to have her either. Then I left town. Didn’t see her for ten years.”
“So what happened when you saw her again?”
Matt grinned and put his hand over his heart like a love-struck girl. “I’m marrying her, man. Can’t live without her.”
“Can you do that, Dane?”
Dane gave himself a mental shake. Everyone was looking at him. Everyone except Ivy. She was studying her lap and her tightly clasped hands.
“Can you repeat that?” he asked.
Matt looked amused. “Sure. I need a happy couple to check out our friends with ties to the Freedom Force at the local nightclub. Dinner, dancing, observing who comes and goes. Can you and Ivy do that? Or should I assign someone else in your place?”
“Yeah, I can do it. Ivy?”
She glanced up, seemingly startled that he’d spoken to her. Her dark eyes fixed on his, and then she looked away. “Yes, I can do it with Dane.”
Do it with Dane.
Jesus, the pictures that brought up in his head.
“Good. Y’all can go tonight.” Matt lifted an eyebrow. “I guess I don’t have to explain that we need you to be a happy couple, right? You don’t have to do anything except smile at each other and pretend you’re dating. No need to carry it too far.”
“Got it,” Dane said.
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