“Work?” he questioned.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “The house is empty. It looks damn big, too. I absolutely refuse to have the wedding anywhere else but the backyar—” She couldn’t finish the sentence because he shot off his knees and his mouth was clamped onto hers.
Laughing into his mouth, she felt him scoop her up again and set her in his lap. When their lips eventually separated, she looked up at him through her lashes and continued. “I also insist on the right to walk around at will. You will wreck your back by carrying me everywhere. I need that back in full working order. It’s attached to those lovely hips that come in very useful regularly.”
He laughed into her neck as he nibbled on it. “I’ll work on it. No promises.”
“I also need you to take this thing out of my butt. I have to take a Fleet tomorrow, you know,” she insisted.
“I know, Baby Girl,” he mumbled into her hair. “That’s why I used it. Makes it easier for you.”
She leaned back from him until she could see his eyes and raised her eyebrows.
An entirely masculine grin spread across his face at her look of disbelief.
“That, and the fact that I really like doing it for you,” he purred.
Epilogue
The mass in her breast turned out to be just that, a “mass”, not malignant, not even a cyst, just a “mass”.
The doctors were relieved to be able to bring good news to the dark giant pacing in the waiting room. His laser eyes had speared them going in to surgery. “Take care of my lady.” His rumbling command held a faint threat. It was an involuntary primal reaction to back away from him and the look on his face.
The folks with him all sat back and let him prowl, only safe thing to do actually. After they wheeled her away, he’d gone nuts. No one could get close to him. He just snarled and paced back and forth. His face strained and set in a fierce scowl.
The others with him all looked normal enough, except for one, the silent one sitting with his back to the wall. He was too big and fierce. It made a person nervous just to look at the blond sentinel sprawled in deceptive casualness across two little hospital chairs.
That morning Gray expected Dave and Marisa to show up at the hospital. However, it was a surprise when Remington Morgan glided into the room. He supposed it shouldn’t have been. Rem was the quintessential intelligence-gathering machine. The big Florida native always showed up when you least expected him. Uncanny in his knowledge about when you needed him as well.
Gray didn’t know whether to be insulted or amused as he saw his long-time friend and sometimes partner enter. Obviously, Rem was keeping tabs on him and Gray hadn’t been aware of it. Rem was unbelievable at uncovering information. The only one better was Gray himself. Rem knowing about Prin’s surgery, his knowledge of the time and location even though Gray hadn’t known about it until Saturday, begged the question of how long Rem had been keeping tabs on him.
“Rem,” Gray greeted him as the two men shook hands. “Been watching my back long, buddy?”
“Only since you got lost in the glades, my man,” Rem answered back with a smile. That incident happened when they were eight, and it was the only thing they disagreed on. Gray insisted he hadn’t been lost, Rem just grinned and shook his head when it came up.
Now Rem sat there on guard duty. The large golden man with his startling black eyes caused an instinctive shiver regardless who it was looking at him. The nurses could hardly take their eyes off the almost feline features of his face—the men instinctively knew a predator when they saw one. Though he sat quietly in contrast to Gray’s pacing, a field of nearly visible energy sparked around him.
Gray wouldn’t have admitted it, but Rem calmed him on several levels. Rem was a familiar security measure. He’d been at Gray’s back almost all their lives. Not following him, but moving in tandem. From their wild childhood in the Florida Everglades to combat on the Special Forces Team, Rem was a constant. They’d been two halves of a powerful whole that barely needed to speak to function as one. Moving like the avenging hand of God with a three hundred and sixty degree field of vision.
Rem was the one who never believed the State Department statements about Gray’s “death” two years ago. It was Gray’s final mission and he was sent in solo. The political landscape changed overnight, as it often does, and Gray was “lost” in enemy-controlled territory.
Rem and the boys never stopped searching for him. When Rem uncovered a hint, a mere wisp of intelligence on Gray’s possible location, he gathered their disbanded team and went in. There was no backup, no support personnel. In fact, they made sure no one in any official capacity had any idea what Rem and the boys were up to.
The boys, all civilians now, had gotten together and taken a “vacation” to South America. Returning with a breathing Gray caused a stir in official circles, however. The government hurriedly backed off its demands for an official investigation of the “vacation” into restricted territory when five sets of hard eyes turned on them.
The government was informed that an investigation would be welcome. It would bring to light how a highly trained government specialist was abandoned in the field, even declared dead without a body being found, among other things. The “among other things” part was delivered while all five men grinned in an identical menacing fashion.
This conversation took place in the hall outside Gray’s hospital room shortly after his return. The government decided to leave well enough alone. The boys were a bit more difficult to convince to do the same. At the time, fresh off a recovery mission that was personal, they’d been hungry for blood. The realization that the government itself had trained them with the very skills they needed to find the administrative malfunction and eliminate it, did not exactly escape the government’s representative. His recommendation had been for someone to take an early retirement. Preferably in Nepal.
Amazingly, the doctor’s good news turned Gray’s face a ghastly shade of white, he sat down hard in a chair. His head sank into his big hands and he shuddered.
“Do you need something, sir? A glass of water?” the doctor asked worriedly.
“Ah, no.” Gray straightened then stood up again as the doctor continued.
“The surgery went well. All the tests were good. She will be in recovery for about an hour and then they will take her back to her room. You can see her then. We want to keep her overnight for observation and we’ll probably release her tomorrow morning. As far as her recovery, she needs rest for about ten days, another two weeks after that and she’ll be able to go back to work. There will be some pain and soreness for about six weeks. She’ll have a pain prescription to deal with that. So, she looks great. We couldn’t be happier with the outcome of this procedure.” The large Mr. Winston shook their hands and the two doctors left with some relief.
Both doctors had a chuckle back in the scrub room. When this guy came in for a baby delivery with that little woman, he was going to be a mess. There was no question that it would happen either. Virility rolled off him in waves. Every nurse in the place found a reason to peek in the waiting room just for a glimpse of all that masculinity in motion.
Gray’s face was the first thing Prin saw when she opened her eyes back in her hospital room. Confused from the sedatives, she frowned. This was an unfamiliar face to her. He was smiling over her, tears slipping silently down his cheeks.
Gray laughed at her confusion. “These are happy tears, Baby Girl,” he assured her. “Everything is going to be fine.”
Her hand tightened on his. “How am I supposed to know the difference?” she whispered.
“You just have to be there, Princess. You’ll know the difference,” he assured her.
Prin surrendered back into sleep. If Gray said it was fine, that was good enough for her. Worrying was a waste of time, he did enough of that for both of them. This time there was a slight smile on her lips as she surrendered into dreamless slumber.
Two weeks later, Prin laughed to herself
as Gray brought breakfast to her in bed again. At this rate, even she would believe they’d amputated a leg instead of taken a mass out of her breast. Her recovery time in his house had been spent being carried around wherever she wanted to go. He’d never left her side. Not even the night she’d spent in the hospital. He’d spent it staring at her from the chair. Every time she opened her eyes, he’d been looking at her.
The only time he’d been away from her was the hour he spent going to her place to pack some of her clothes and personal items. He hadn’t even wanted to do that, insisting she looked great in his shirts, right up until Rem agreed with him while admiring her legs as she sat on the couch. Gray had gotten up, directed Marisa and Dave to take care of her, grabbed Rem and driven straight over to her place.
Taking Rem had been a security measure and made her laugh even more. The man was obviously making fun of Gray with his comment. Rem had been nothing but sweet and brotherly since she’d met him. In fact, she knew she owed him a debt as he quietly found himself a bedroom and camped in the house with them. He’d been there to do whatever needed doing while Gray hovered over her.
Rem was the guy who found a decorator that magically understood her taste from a remarkably short conversation. Gray had insisted they didn’t tire her. Rem had grinned and taken the man from the room.
The next day, after a morning of trucks coming and going, the den and kitchen were fully furnished, as was the patio and several guest rooms. The decorator’s ideas for the formal dining room and parlor were so lovely she’d simply nodded. Rem and his monied background seemed to know exactly how to make things happen with the least amount of fuss.
Prin smiled at her soon-to-be husband and kissed his cheek as he settled the tray across her lap. “Thank you, darling,” she murmured having learned days ago it was useless to argue with him that she was perfectly fine to get up.
“So how long do you think Rem will be staying with us?” she asked as she sipped her fresh-squeezed orange juice.
“Right up until he decides I won’t lose my mind if you cough.” Gray grinned down at her as he admitted that. “We are part of a unit, honey. Get used to the boys dropping by. Especially if they think something might be wrong. Rem might be the only one here, but believe me, the rest are getting daily reports.” Gray shook his head. “You’ll meet them all at the wedding. Until then you’re not allowed to look at them.”
Prin laughed. “What, you don’t trust me looking at handsome men?”
Grays eyes twinkled. “It’s not you, Baby Girl. Believe me, it’s not you.”
About the author
Hello everyone. If you’re reading this, I hope it means you’ve enjoyed reading one of my books. If you have some other opinion of them, feel free to lie to me anyway. I hereby absolve you from all possible guilt and consequences for flagrant, adjective, saturated lying to the author.
I’m a chronic fantasizer. Every good romance novel ended too soon. After a while, I started making up stories when I had a few minutes to while away. So now, instead of sitting around with a blank look on my face, I’ve taken to writing them down.
Because of my father’s job, we moved every three years in my early life. My first memories are of Bermuda, and then we were in several African countries. It was a wonderful childhood. I gained a rich cultural background in the world community, but never learned to spell. As an adult, I avoided writing at all costs, embarrassed over my limitations.
But the writer will not stay silent forever. She broke out, and insisted on learning the mystical world of grammar and spelling. Haven’t mastered all of it yet, but they let me write for you anyway. Bless every editor on the planet. They give dreamers a place to send fantasies and save us the embarrassment of owning our shortcomings.
Gail welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337 Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, OH 44224.
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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