by Jen Talty
“She’s a smart woman.”
“Oh, I know that, it’s just that she’s also very trusting and not the best with money management.” She pushed open the truck door and slid from the seat, her legs still weak from the accident.
Gripping the handle, she steadied herself on her good leg.
Ace looped his arm around her middle. “Lean on me,” he said.
She wasn’t about to argue considering how bad the pain was that shot up her thigh when she put her full weight on it.
“Shasta is going to go nuts,” he said. “Hopefully she won’t jump.”
Lexi laughed. “That dog is such a spaz.”
She looped her arm over Ace’s shoulder, trying not to let him know how much her fingers appreciated the strength in his shoulders.
Or the soft, subtle skin on his waist as her hand accidentally ended up under his shirt.
When they got to the bottom of the porch stairs, Ace bent over, tucked his arm under her knees and scooped her to his chest.
“What the? What are you doing? Put me down,” she protested.
“When we get inside. I don’t want Shasta jumping on your leg and opening one of your wounds. Can you unlock the door?”
She dug into her purse and pulled out the set of keys her mother had given her earlier and unlocked the door. Shasta yelped, her ass and tail wagging so hard she nearly fell over as she raced through the door, running around Ace, then lifting up on her hind legs.
“Down,” Ace commanded.
Shasta whined, then ran past them, down the stairs and did a few circles as if she were chasing her tail, before speeding up the stairs and back into the house, stopping right in front of them by the door.
“Sit,” Ace said.
This time the dog did as she was told.
“Well, I’ll be damned. I think that’s the first time that dog has done anything anyone has ever asked her.”
“Only happens every ten commands.”
Shasta barked once, still wagging her tail, following them into the family room.
Lexi didn’t want to admit that she’d prefer to stay in Ace’s arms as he gently laid her on the sofa in the family room. She half hoped he’d sit down beside her, but instead Shasta jumped up next to her.
“Get down.” Ace took Shasta’s collar and gently eased her from the sofa. “Do you need anything? Water? Food?”
“I’m good, thanks.” She fluffed up one of the pillows and shoved it under her knee.
He stood in the middle of the family room, his hands on his hips as he glanced around. “All right, then. I’ll let you get some rest.”
Shasta grunted as she lay down on the floor, dropping her snout to the floor.
“I’ll show you out.” Lexi shifted, trying to stifle a groan.
“You stay put. I’m going to go do some fishing. I’ll check on you when I get back.”
Shasta’s head popped up and her tail thumped the floor the second she heard the word fishing.
“You don’t have to do that.” Lexi patted the dogs head.
“I’m going to be walking right by.” He looked from her to the dog.
Shasta looked up at her as if to ask permission.
“You can go.” Lexi kissed the dog’s nose.
Shasta jumped up. If a dog could skip, then that’s what she did on her way to the front door.
“Do you want to come?” Ace asked.
“Thanks, but I think I’m going to stay put.”
“I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Lexi sat on the sofa for a good five minutes after Ace had left, staring at the ceiling, fanning herself.
The man had made her skin turn to molten lava.
Chapter 3
IT HAD BEEN THREE YEARS since his short-lived marriage ended and in that time Ace hadn’t met a woman that fascinated him to the point that she’d crept her way into his dreams.
When he’d woken up this morning, the only thing he could think about was the visions of Lexi dancing in his mind.
The dream hadn’t been anything spectacular as dreams go. He’d taken Lexi and the dog out on his boat. There was light conversation, hand-holding, but then out of the blue, he’d pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips firmly against hers.
The kiss had been what jarred him from his sleep. The last time he’d felt a stirring that deep had been with his ex-wife.
That ended badly.
The first time he’d felt a rousing that rocked his core had been with Sarah. He blinked his eyes. The haunting memories of the house that had been burned to the ground, killing everyone inside.
He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and reached for the faded picture. Fifteen years had passed since he had kissed Sarah on the front porch of her parents’ home for the very last time. Had he known, he might not have left that weekend with his buddies for a fishing trip.
Running his finger over the top of her head in the picture, he allowed the memories to flood his mind like a kaleidoscope of the best and worst year of his life.
“I’m going to find who killed you and your family and I’m going to make them pay. I promise,” he whispered. He kissed the image, and then put it back in his wallet.
Shasta whined, bringing his mind to the present, and the dark, haired woman who currently made him question his desire to stifle anything remotely close to a potential relationship.
He blinked. The dream about Lexi had disturbed him so deeply that when he pulled into the marina, he almost didn’t stop at the office, but that would have been rude and Mrs. Aberdean would have wondered why. He expected he’d be relieved that Lexi was nowhere to be found, but instead he felt a little deflated. He hadn’t seen her since he’d dropped her off after yesterday and part of him wanted to take her up on her offer for dinner.
The afternoon sun beat down on his face as he pulled the boat into the marina. Shasta stood on the bow, her tail wagging feverously, which always made Ace smile. The life of a dog was a simple one and Ace had strived to make his life as unpretentious as possible, devoting his time and energy to work and fishing.
“Yo, Ace!” Hunter, one of the crew, and a senior firefighter from his unit on the base waved from a yacht three docks down from where Ace kept his.
Hunter had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had anything and everything he wanted that money could buy, but there was an uneasiness to Hunter that no amount of money could satisfy.
“Catch anything?” Hunter asked.
“A couple of snappers. Enough for dinner.” The team of fire protection specialists he worked with were the top gun of firemen. Some of the best men he’d ever worked with in the Air Force.
“Why don’t you bring them on board? I’ve got a bunch of other fish we can grill up. Brodie, Declan, and Jax are here,” Hunter said.
Ace rarely socialized with anyone, much less the crew, which he often got shit for from his commander. He pushed the throttle to neutral, letting the boat drift into the slip.
Shasta yelped a few times as she jumped from the boat to the dock, her toenails skidding across the wood planks.
“Relax, girl,” Ace said, but Shasta took off toward the boat house. That’s when Ace saw Lexi hobbling down the dock and her dog racing toward her. All Ace could picture was Shasta jumping on Lexi, hurting the cuts on her leg, or knocking her off balance and sending her into the ocean.
“Shasta! Come.” Ace jumped from the boat, quickly securing the vessel, keeping an eye on Lexi and the dog that almost never listened. He jogged down the dock. “Shasta!”
Lexi held onto one of the posts, as if to brace for impact.
Thankfully, Shasta slid to a stop a few feet away.
“Sit,” Lexi said, holding up her hand.
Ace got to Lexi and the dog just as Shasta rose up on her hind legs.
“Oh no you don’t.” Ace reached out, grabbing the dog around her shoulders, pulling her to his chest, scratching her belly. “No jumping on pretty ladies.”
Shasta
whimpered as he set her paws down the dock.
“Thank you. She jumped on me three times this morning, once landing right on my stitches.” Lexi patted the section of her thigh that was covered with a gauze pad. “But I have to admit, she’s a lot calmer and listens better than she used to. My mom says that’s all thanks to you.”
“She’s a good dog.” Ace patted Shasta’s head. “You look better today.”
She laughed. “I still look like someone used my face as a punching bag.” She cupped her cheek.
He contemplated for a split second on commenting how beautiful she looked but that would have been stupid since he’d essentially already done that. He understood that women felt vulnerable about their appearance so it was best not to shower them with compliments, since they’d only assume they weren’t genuine. “What are you doing down here? You should be resting.”
“I was in the marina, talking with my mom and the potential investor and I saw you coming in. My mom thought I should invite you up for dinner.” She spoke clearly, but with the pace at which the words flew out of her mouth, he wondered if she had a little nervous energy.
The thought pulled at the corners of his mouth.
“Your mom thought? Or you thought?”
Shut up, Ace.
He’d never been good at flirting, so why should he try it now?
“My mom suggested it, right before she informed me she had a date.” Her smile made his breath hitch. “But I still haven’t thanked you properly.”
“You have.” He glanced over his shoulder, his Air Force buddies stood on the back of the yacht, staring at him. “I’m supposed to have dinner with those lug nuts.” When he turned to face her, he couldn’t look her in the eye. Lying hadn’t been something that came easily to him and he had no idea why he fudged the truth, other than she turned him on and petrified him at the same time. He looked past her, off into the parking lot where he saw two men getting into a dark sedan.
One of the men looked a little too familiar.
“Is that the investor? What was his name?”
“Hudson Nally, but it turns out he works for the actual investor, not the investor himself.”
“Which one is Nally? Who is the other guy?” Ace pointed toward the car.
“Nally is the one about to get into the driver’s side and the other guy’s name is Michael Santoro.”
Neither name rang a bell, but the Santoro guy looked a little too much like Richie Hernandez, who was the muscle for Alberto Ferro, one of the largest drug traffickers in all of Texas. Only what would he be doing in Florida using an assumed name?
“Your mother hasn’t signed anything yet, has she?”
“No. Why?” Lexi’s fingers curled around his biceps, shocking his body with sparks flying from his head to his toes, but he stifled his reaction.
“Hang on.” He pried her fingers off his skin and took off his arm and took off in a full out jog toward the car, cell phone in hand.
The two men had climbed inside the vehicle, but before they moved out of the parking lot, he’d been able to snap a picture of the license plate and send it as a text message to Tex.
Ace: Find out whatever you can on this plate, specifically if there is a connection to Ferro.
Tex: got it!
Ace turned, glancing between the marina’s main building and Lexi, who limped in his direction with a scowl on her face and a dog at her side.
“Mind telling me what that was all about?” She stopped a few feet in front of him with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed.
He minded all right, but only because he didn’t want to scare her if he was wrong.
On the other hand, maybe she should be frightened.
“I honestly don’t know, but don’t let your mother sign anything with those people until I can do some more digging,” he said with a stern tone, which he wished he could have taken back.
“Do you know them?”
That was a loaded question and one he really didn’t want to answer, but by the way her glare burned his skin, he figured he needed to give her something.
“The man you say is Santoro looks an awful lot like a man wanted for arson in a different state. I just want to make sure I’m wrong.”
“Arson?” Both her brows shot up. “You’re joking, right?”
“No, ma’am, I’m not.” He opted to leave out the fact that many federal agencies were watching Ferro and his organization, trying to nail the bastard on anything. “It’s probably not the same guy, but better safe than sorry.”
Lexi wrapped her arms around her middle. “I have to admit, I got a bad vibe from them.”
He pressed his hand on the small of her back, his thumb gently rubbing near her spine. “I’ll walk you up to the house while you tell me why.”
She cocked her head, looking at him with a narrowed stare. He didn’t know if her reaction was from the way he touched her, or the situation.
He went with the latter, not wanting to believe that his hand on her would cause a look of confusion, or maybe it was disgust.
“They go for the hard sale and had assumed they would walk out of there today with a deal.”
“Is the deal a good one?” He glanced toward the waterfront. Hunter stood on the back of his boat, tossing his hands to the side.
Ace gave him nod, indicating he’d be back down, though the only reason would be hanging around for dinner would be so he could stay closer to the marina and keep a watchful eye over Lexi and her mother.
Without having to share the same space as Lexi because he might do something stupid like kiss her.
“It’s a little too good to be true, and it concerns me that they are investing in a place like Mothers, too.” Lexi’s leg obviously bothered her as she continued to limp, leaning against him.
He curled his fingers around her hip, helping her to take some of the pressure off. “Did they leave you with the paperwork?”
She nodded. “What bothers me the most is my mom told them she needed to discuss this with me, so when we told them we needed more time to look everything over and had a few other questions, they mentioned how they had limited funds and had other businesses in the area beating down their doors, so tomorrow the offer might not be there.”
“How did you leave things?” he asked as they stood at the bottom of the porch steps. Placing his hand on her other hip, he turned her to face him.
“That we’d discuss it and get back to them after speaking with some of their references.”
He watched her lips move, painfully aware that his hands were on her body and his mouth wanted to devour hers, which was completely inappropriate considering the topic. Taking a step back, he dropped his hands. “Do you mind if I take a look at the offer?”
She glanced up at the house as the front door swung open and Shasta raced inside.
“Hello Ace,” Mrs. Aberdean said with a bright smile. “Care to come in for a drink?”
“Thanks, but I’ve got plans tonight.”
“Oh, well that’s too bad. Maybe another time?”
“Absolutely,” he said a little too enthusiasticlly.
“Mom, can you get the paper work with Mr. Nally’s offer? Ace has some concerns and I think it would be good to have another set of eyes on it before we consider anything, including having a lawyer look at the proposal.”
“I think this is a decent enough deal,” Mrs. Aberdean said with a scowl. “I’m really thinking about moving forward.”
Lexi looked between him and her mother and he suspected she contemplated telling her mother his thoughts about who Hernandez might be.
He gave his head the slightest of shakes, hoping she caught the movement.
Lexi squeezed his biceps. Her warm hand burning his skin with fiery passion. “It can’t hurt us to have Ace look at the offer. You trust him and since we’re both on the fence, maybe he can add some insight.”
“All right then. I’ll go get the papers they left behind.”
He kept his fo
cus anywhere but on the woman standing in front of him with her fingers electrifying his skin.
“Looks like I owe you another big thank you.”
He shook his head, letting his eyes avert to hers. The pull she had over him made his insides melt, but it tore his heart in two.
“No. Seriously. I know it’s not much of a gesture, but, please, let me take you out to dinner, or something else. Whatever you enjoy doing. It would mean a lot to me.” Her dark eyes pleaded with him like sad puppy eyes that no decent human being could possibly say no to.
But he would have to.
“I’ve only got another day off and then back on duty and my schedule is pretty intense.” His skin cooled the second she dropped her hand.
“Oh. I see.” The hurt in her tone sucker-punched his gut, but it was the hint of sadness that radiated from her hickory-rich-as-the-earth’s-soil eyes that made his heart beat a little faster.
“I really do appreciate the offer, and if I had more time—”
“Here you go, Ace.” Mrs. Aberdean appeared, handing him a thin folder. “Sure you don’t want to have a drink with us?”
“How about tomorrow evening when I return the papers?” He smiled at Lexi, hoping she’d smile back.
Well, a slight smile was better than nothing.
“Perfect,” Mrs. Aberdean said.
“Good-night, Ace.” Lexi turned and hobbled up the stairs, leaving him standing at the bottom, feeling like the utter idiot he was.
Dumb ass. How hard is it to have one fucking dinner with a woman? It wasn’t like she was after him to get married or anything.
***
The moon danced across the dark sky, casting a white glow over the water as Lexi stared out into the marina at the boat with Ace and his buddies, which was all lit up and with faint music echoing in the night. She could only see silhouettes of the men aboard, but she knew exactly which one was Ace.
The one sitting at the table, nursing a longneck, with papers in his other hand.
Lexi wrestled with the cork screw until the cork popped off and the smell of dry pears filled her senses. Nothing like a good dry, white wine.