by Dale Mayer
“Hey,” a cheerful voice called out to them. “I resent that.”
She peered around Jackson’s chest and smiled at the sight of Max. “I wasn’t sure what to think when you showed up at the apartment. You were so angry.”
He nodded. “With good reason. But all is well that ends well, and I am sorry for treating you so roughly. And, of course, contacting my own commander before coming your way helped us all out. I wasn’t heading into that scenario without some backup behind me.” And then the smile fell from his face as he watched the ambulance lights drift farther away. “This has been a huge shitstorm over nothing but greed.”
“It all worked out in the end. Mason just called to say they found the prototypes hidden in James’s secondary storage unit in the complex,” Jackson said. He glanced at Max. “And thanks for coming to her rescue.”
“You mean, thanks for coming to your rescue,” Max said with a grin.
Just then Kanen walked over. He’d been standing to the side, talking with the cops. “You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital and get checked over?” he asked Jackson.
Jackson shook his head. “I’m going home to a hot shower and then to bed.”
Kanen shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ll be here for a while with the cops. I’ll stop by tomorrow morning and see how you’re doing.” He glanced over at Deli. “Good work tonight.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t do anything except call you,” she said on a broken laugh. “Thanks for coming and rescuing us.”
Kanen nodded his head slowly. “But, from the looks of it, neither of you needed rescuing. You both did good.”
Someone behind Kanen called his name. He raised a hand, turned and walked back over to the cops.
Max said, “I’m heading home. I’ve got a wife and kids looking for me. I think it’ll be a long time before I leave the house again.” He gingerly made his way to his vehicle, obviously still sore. Max turned, motioned at them. “Come on. Get in. Your ride is leaving now.”
They scrambled into the back of Max’s vehicle, and soon enough he dropped them off in front of Jackson’s place.
Deli stood on the sidewalk. “I didn’t think. I should have asked him to take me home.”
“No,” Jackson said. “We’ll go in, have a nap and then regroup to see what the hell is going on in our lives.”
She laughed at that. “I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on in our lives. Chaos swept in, destroyed it and has now left us with the aftermath.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, tucked her up close, dropped a kiss on her forehead and said, “Sure, but what is this aftermath?”
“It’s whatever we make of it,” she said seriously. “So the question is …” Her voice fell off as he opened the front door to the apartment building and ushered her inside. Once inside, she turned to him. She studied his face, hating to see the fatigue on this big strong man. But he’d been through a hell of an ordeal too. And what they’d done to him had probably been way less than what he’d done to himself by worrying about her. She pushed the button to bring the elevator to the first floor, and, once the elevator door opened up, they stepped inside.
He continued to watch her all the way to his floor. When they stepped out, he reached out a hand. She eagerly put hers into his, and they walked to his apartment.
“I’m so tired,” she said, “but I’m still on a high.”
“That’s the adrenaline,” Jackson said. “When it drains away, you’ll crash.”
“That’s likely already in progress,” she said with a laugh. “I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“You’ll probably have a good night’s sleep and feel much better, just be very tired tomorrow.”
“As long as I get some sleep, that’s good.” She headed toward the kitchen, pulled two glasses from the cupboard and filled both with water. She drank hers thirstily and then reached for the other glass. She turned to offer it to him.
He drank it down and then said, “I’m heading to the shower. Are you going back to bed?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m so done.”
She watched as he headed toward his room. Moments later she heard sounds from the other side of the door, then the water was turned on.
She sat in the kitchen for a long moment, wondering what she was doing here. She should be in bed, already out. But she didn’t want to be alone. She didn’t want to be away from him. Waking up to find Max in the house and Jackson kidnapped had been the last thing she’d expected to find. Like part of her was wrenched away. Missing. Potentially with the thought of never getting Jackson back again. It had been heartbreaking. And it made her realize just how important he was to her.
So what the hell was she doing in his kitchen? She glanced down, realizing that, for all of her running around, she felt sticky, hot, and dirty too. She tossed the idea back and forth for all of thirty seconds and then smiled, walked into his bedroom, stripped down and stepped into the en suite bathroom.
Taking a deep breath for courage, she called out, “Is there room in there for two?”
The shower door opened, and his surprised face poked out. He took one look at her, and his eyes opened wide. But a welcoming grin followed. He pushed the door back. “Always.”
She stepped into the shower, loving it as the heated water poured onto her body. She moaned in delight.
“Is it too hot?”
Warm hands and a bar of soap slid up the skin of her back, gently massaging her muscles, easing away some of the pain and stress and fear she’d had. “It’s perfect,” she murmured.
She stood off to one side, intending to share the water, but he tugged her back into the main stream and gently worked her body over with soap. She gasped when his hands slid over her breasts, gently weighing, cupping, measuring, checking out the fit. She chuckled. “Are they big enough?”
He dropped a kiss on her nose. “They’re perfect.”
“Good,” she said, “because I’ll never be one of those women who pays for fake boobs to make my real ones look bigger.”
His lips curled in laughter right before he kissed her gently, his hands moving to her hips and her waist, gently sliding around in the hot, slick water to cup her buttocks. And then, in a surprising move, he pulled her tight up against his wet, heated skin. She gasped at the full-body contact, her body arching against his. He cupped her buttocks and pressed her belly against his hard and long ridge.
“You’re perfect,” he whispered, dropping more kisses along her temple and her ear.
She wrapped her arms tight around his neck and just held him close. “I was so scared when I woke up to find out you were gone,” she whispered. “It’s only then I realized how much you meant to me.”
His arms crushed her tight. “I’m here. I’m safe,” he said.
“But you almost weren’t.”
“And you almost weren’t,” he whispered back. “We’re even.”
That brought a garbled laugh to the surface. “So, because we both almost died, we’re even?”
“Potentially,” he said. “But we won’t focus on that. Let’s focus on the here and now.” His hand slid up her back, his fingers kneading as they went. “And on the fact that we both survived.”
Her eyes closed, letting his skilled hands work magic on her tensed muscles. When he reached her shoulders, he stopped and kneaded for a long moment as she leaned against him.
“We’ll do your hair first.” He reached for the shampoo, lathered it on his hands and then stroked them through her hair and massaged her scalp.
“Wow,” she whispered on a gasp. “That feels so good.”
He massaged for another few minutes, then gently tucked her head back under the full force of the water and rinsed her hair out again.
“Conditioner?” he asked.
She nodded.
He repeated the motion, gently smoothing the conditioner through the strands of her hair.
She opened her eyes, staring up at hi
m. “So is that lots of experience showing up here?”
“No,” he said. “First time I’ve ever washed a woman’s hair.”
She gazed at him in surprise.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “You can’t go by reputation all the time with a navy man.”
She thought about that. There was such a reputation to these men. Particularly when they were SEALs. But all navy seamen had a reputation for being womanizers. She just nodded. “There’s always a stereotypical attitude, isn’t there?”
“Of course.”
She grinned, her hands stroking up and down his shoulders. Then she found the bar of soap he’d put back in the cubby. “It’s like being a mechanic. Everybody thinks you’re good with tools and engines.” She stroked lower and lower before she came to his erection prodding against her hip. “There is one thing about it. We learn very quickly, and I’m certainly good with some tools.” Her hand closed around his erection, gently stroking up and down, sliding against his soft skin, feeling the heat of him in her hands.
He groaned, pressing against her. “You can play with my tools anytime,” he whispered.
She chuckled. “Tools in the water. Sounds like a mechanic and a SEAL got together tonight.”
“Don’t kid yourself,” he said. “This SEAL plans to stay with this mechanic. This isn’t a five-minute recuperation under the water. This is the start of something beautiful.”
“Well, we did start a few days ago,” she said, kissing him, feeling the pressure and tension coiling inside her, tightening to the point where she wanted to be out of the shower and into his bedroom right now. She pulled back ever-so-slightly. “Are you done here? Can we carry this on in the bedroom?”
He nodded, shut off the water, opened the shower door and reached for the towels. He wrapped her up in one towel, and she grabbed another, drying off her hair as she watched him. With their gazes locked on each other, she stepped out, dried her legs down to her feet so she didn’t track water through the bedroom.
As she bent over, he slipped a hand up her buttocks and down the soft crack showing. She gasped and straightened. He gently squeezed one plump cheek and pivoted around and crushed her against him. When his lips came down hard on hers, she realized they’d made it out of the shower, but that was about it. She was suddenly seated on the vanity, her legs wide and him right against the heart of her. She moaned deep in her throat as his hands found the soft moisture between her legs, and he slid one finger inside, followed by another. She groaned, her back arching, her hips thrusting against him.
Before she realized it, he was there, replacing his fingers with his erection. And suddenly he was in and home, stretching her wider and wider. It was almost too much, and she shifted her hips to accommodate him.
“Are you okay?”
She shuddered and nodded. “Yes,” she whispered.
He grabbed her hips and pulled her up tight, giving her a moment to adjust. She shuddered in his arms, her body on overload just from his entry. And then he pulled back and so-very-gently entered again.
She wrapped her legs tight around his hips as he slipped in and then pulled out. She couldn’t do a whole lot in her position but hang on for the ride. And she was never more grateful for that chance to just experience everything exploding through her.
And then suddenly she was picked up, an arm hooked under her bum, and she was carried into the bedroom, lowered to the soft blankets, and he came down fast on top of her, his movements never stopping as he pounded into her again and again. She matched him beat for beat, twisting in his arms, crying out until finally he reached a hand between them, caught her little nub with his fingers and pinched, gently rolling his finger around the top of it. She gasped, grabbed on tight and slammed up against him several times, reaching for something and finding it as her world exploded.
She fell onto the bed as he grabbed her hips once again, held her tight and poured himself into her. Slowly he collapsed beside her and held her close. She lay trembling in his arms, realizing how sweet this union was after all they’d been through. With his hands stroking her back, the two of them cuddling in the bed, she whispered, “I’m so glad we made it this far.”
He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “So am I. Now sleep, sweetie. Just sleep.”
She gripped him tight. “I want to, but I’m so afraid that, when I wake up, you won’t be here again.”
His arms tightened around her, almost painfully so, and then slowly he released her, grabbed the blankets, pulled them up and over the two of them and said, “You don’t have to worry about that. Not ever again. I’m never leaving you.”
She tilted back, looked up at him, feeling the tears clog her throat and her eyes as she whispered, “Promise?”
“I promise. You’re not getting rid of me that easy.” And he dropped a kiss ever-so-gently between her eyes.
She slid her arms around his neck, one hand gently caressing his cheek. “I don’t plan to get rid of you at all,” she said. “Kanen is right. You are a keeper.”
Jackson chuckled. “He meant, you’re the keeper.”
“Did not.”
“Did too,” he whispered. “Now sleep.”
She closed her eyes, and, in the comfort of his arms, the two of them fell asleep, knowing that the danger was over and that their future had never been brighter.
Epilogue
A week later, Kanen Larson studied Deli and Jackson, cuddling on the couch, wondering how Mason’s magic could have spread for so long and so far. Kanen was happy for his friend. Hell, Kanen was surrounded by men who were so damn blissfully happy it was almost enough to make a guy sick.
But Kanen wasn’t jealous—that wasn’t part of who he was. Maybe envious. He wouldn’t mind finding his soul mate. … But it wasn’t why he was here. It wasn’t why he was friends with all these men. They were good men—the kind of men to call on when in trouble. The best kind of men to spend time with, whether at work or when it was time to play. He was blessed; and he knew it. These were great guys. And the women they’d met, wow, they were something else. Talk about raising the bar.
Mason had started everyone down this path. They were all helpless to do anything but follow him. And the thing was, not one of them seemed to mind.
Jackson looked at Kanen and raised an eyebrow.
Kanen just shrugged. “You two look good together.”
Jackson smiled, wrapped his arm around Deli’s shoulder and hugged her up close. “Feels good together too,” he admitted.
Just then Kanen’s phone rang. He pulled it out and saw it was his friend Lisa, calling from England. He lifted the phone to his ear and, in a happy cheerful voice, called out, “How is Lisa doing? Trying to whip all those little kids into shape, make them sit up and pay attention?” he teased.
A broken sob was his only answer. He straightened. “Lisa, what’s wrong?”
Another sob came and then an attempt to speak. But nothing came out.
“Take it easy. It’s all right. I’m here. What’s the matter?”
Her voice broke as she whispered, “Kanen.”
“Yes, I’m here,” he said. “What’s the matter?” He could see Jackson staring at him, a frown forming between his eyebrows. Kanen shrugged, not sure what was going on yet. What he did know was Lisa didn’t get upset over the little things in life. He hopped to his feet and walked around on the living room carpet. “Lisa, talk to me,” he urged. “What’s happening?”
She cried again, her tone raspy as if she’d been crying a lot. And it was a tone he recognized. Her husband had been one of his best mates when they’d both served in the navy together for years. But Blake had been killed almost a year ago, and Kanen had talked to her all the time in the beginning to deal with that loss. She’d had a tear-soaked voice all that time then too. But he’d never heard her like this. “You need to tell me what’s going on,” he urged quietly. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”
Suddenly she shrieked, then sobbed loudly.
> “Lisa,” he cried out in horror. “What’s happening?”
A stranger spoke in a deadly voice. “Lisa can’t talk right now. If you want to see her alive again, I suggest you listen very carefully.”
Kanen’s heart froze. His chest seized. What the hell was going on?
He spun to look at Jackson, who even now stood in the middle of the living room, his hands planted on his hips over a wide stance, ready to jump in and help. And he didn’t have a clue yet what was going on.
“Who is this?” Kanen barked. “What did you do to Lisa?”
“Did you hear me?” the man mocked. “You need to listen to me. And you need to do exactly what you’re told to do.”
“What do you want?” he asked. “If you hurt Lisa, I swear to God, I’ll hunt you down like the dog you are,” Kanen growled.
“But that won’t really work for me.”
“You have no reason to hurt her. Lisa would never hurt a fly.”
“No, she probably wouldn’t,” the man said with casual negligence. “But you, on the other hand, Kanen, would do a lot to save her.”
Kanen stared at the phone. He held it out between him and Jackson. It was on Speaker as it was, but the two of them hovered over it. “How do you know who I am?”
“Oh, I know a lot about you. You’re one of those who thinks you’re better than everybody else. Asshole SEALs. But Lisa’s husband never made the grade, did he? He was just a lowly seaman.”
“He was a naval officer,” Kanen barked. “He was happy to be who he was.”
“But he’d have loved being a SEAL with you,” the man said mockingly. “But, of course, you didn’t stay behind with him, and he couldn’t stand up with you, so you moved on ahead of him.”
“What’s this all about?” Kanen asked, trying to calm down. The shriek that Lisa had let loose earlier had chilled Kanen to the bone. It was obvious she was in bigger trouble than he had originally thought. “What’s this got to do with any of us?”