His Baby Secret - A Second Chance SEAL Romance (Once a SEAL, Always a SEAL Book 1)

by Layla Valentine

  Dominic had wanted to kiss Hannah for years.

  He should’ve done it sooner. Would’ve, in fact, had it not been for Harvey and how protective he was of his twin sister. Dominic understood. He really did. He was protective of Hannah, too. There was a reason she’d never really had an actual boyfriend—it was the unstoppable tag team of Harvey and Dominic, running interference to keep any of their classmates who seemed interested from making a move.

  Harvey did it because, for a significant portion of his and Hannah’s lives, all they’d had were each other. Harvey had spent years sticking up for Hannah as the siblings bounced around the Arizona foster care system before finally getting placed in a foster home that didn’t just give up on them. It made sense that he remained protective of his sister. They didn’t have parents to do it for them.

  Dominic’s reasons for scaring off all parties showing interest in Hannah were a little more complicated than Harvey’s. First of all, he knew for a fact that none of the boys at their school were worth a damn. Hannah deserved so much better than what any of them could offer her in terms of a boyfriend. Dominic heard the way they talked about the girls in bathrooms and locker rooms, and it raised his hackles. The idea that he would let any of them try doing any of the things they bragged about to Hannah was actually laughable.

  Dominic had always wanted Hannah. Not to demean or take from, but to cherish. That’s what the other guys in their class didn’t understand. Women weren’t notches on belts or bedposts or whatever. They were human beings, too, and deserved to be won over and treasured. The only problem for Dominic was that he’d spent years trying to figure out how to win Hannah over so that he could treasure her.

  All of his carefully made—and eventually discarded—plans had flown out the window when he’d simply kissed her, like he’d always wanted to. It was a pity that it came after they graduated, that he’d squandered all the years he’d had with her. Dominic was pretty certain where his future was taking him, but he was less sure about how Hannah fit into it. He really, really wanted her to fit into it.

  “Think fast!”

  Dominic didn’t have time to think at all as a dripping wet Harvey shoved him into the pool. His body held air for him instinctively, and he surfaced to laughs and whoops. The pool writhed with bodies, mostly boys flipping and twisting into the water to impress the bikini-clad girls perched around the side, who were pretending not to watch.

  Hannah was among them, her blond hair piled on top of her head, her body lithe and athletic. The top of her bikini was a different pattern from the bottom, but it worked together in an artful way rather than clashing. Her attention darted from the group of girls chatting and giggling around her.

  Hannah never was much of a giggler. If Dominic had it his way, she’d never stop laughing, but he knew there were reasons for it. He was sure if any of the other girls here had spent the first part of their lives in an orphanage, they wouldn’t be nearly as silly or carefree. It was a difference between Hannah and the rest of the pack that made her stand out, seem more mature. Aloof, some might say—or stuck-up, others would pin onto her. Though those others were usually the same boys Hannah shot down herself, unwilling to go on dates with them.

  Dominic would find a way to bring all of the laughter in the world to Hannah, all of the laughter she didn’t already have.

  Her blue eyes found Dominic’s from across the crowded patio and packed pool, and her face simply lit up, her mouth curving upward in a small, pure smile. It wasn’t the usual smile she plastered on her face to fit in, to avoid being called standoffish. It was real. Something she was giving Dominic—or maybe even something he’d given to her.

  Maybe she was thinking about the kiss. He sure as hell was.

  He caught another gaze just beyond Hannah—eerily similar blond hair and blue eyes, watching the two of them. Harvey. Looking suspicious. Eyeing him.

  Dominic barely took the chance to fill his lungs with air before dunking his head under the water, vaguely aware of the temperature of his face—hot. Harvey couldn’t know about this. He’d step in and ruin everything that was so precariously under construction. And if Harvey thought he had an inkling about what was going on between his best friend and his twin, it would be over before it even had a chance to get started.

  Dominic stayed under until his chest ached for oxygen, then surfaced, pulling himself out of the pool and dripping on the concrete patio.

  “You’re not done swimming yet, are you?” Harvey was immediately at Dominic’s shoulder. “You just got in.”

  “Made me realize how hungry I am,” Dominic said, the lie coming easily, like it had just been waiting to pop out of his mouth. “I’m going to go order some pizzas. Any requests?”

  Harvey studied him for a long minute before snorting. “You’re like a bottomless pit. Eating all the time.”

  “It’s the workouts. High metabolism.”

  “I told you if you’d just drink, you wouldn’t be so hungry.”

  “Empty calories,” Dominic said, patting Harvey on his shoulder. “Not what I need.” Especially when he was building the strength and stamina to become a Navy SEAL.

  “Boring,” Harvey retorted, shaking his head. “If you’re going to get pizza, pepperoni. And don’t pay for it yourself. This is Ronnie Kurtz’s party. I’m sure he has his parents’ credit card number memorized.”

  “I’m pretty sure he has his own credit card,” Dominic said, sauntering away, careful not to glance at Hannah even as he kept her in his peripheral vision.

  He was painfully aware of Harvey watching him as he snagged a random towel draped over the back of a chair before going inside. Out of sight, though, Dominic sagged a little. That was close. Harvey couldn’t know about how he felt about Hannah. He was too protective of his twin.

  Most of the action was outside, around the pool, but there were still a significant number of people inside. That’s what Ronnie Kurtz got for inviting all two hundred members of the graduating class. Amorous couples had commandeered chairs and love seats and couches dotted around the first floor, and Dominic wondered what it would be like to have something like that with Hannah, not caring who saw them together.

  He found the house’s landline, but no Ronnie Kurtz. It didn’t matter. Dominic hadn’t been planning on shaking down the host for pizza, anyway. It had just been an excuse to get away from Harvey’s scrutiny, but he really was hungry. Planning on taking up a collection before the pizza arrived, Dominic put in the order and returned the phone to its cradle.

  Hannah was waiting for him when he turned around, still in her bikini, but wrapped in a towel. It was only luck that kept him from jumping clear out of his skin.

  “Hey,” he said. “What are you—”

  “Shut up,” she whispered, ruthlessly cutting him off.

  “Okay. Sorry.” He lowered his voice to match the volume of hers. “Why are we whispering?”

  Her cheeks flushed red. It made her look even more adorable. “Because I don’t want anyone to hear.”

  “Hear what?”

  She stood on her bare tiptoes—painted silver, he dimly registered—to get her mouth closer to his ear. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you before. I…like you.”

  Dominic grinned—the same easy, wide smile he’d been having trouble shaking ever since his lips had touched hers.

  “Well, I’m awfully glad to hear that. We’ve known each other, what, ten years now? I’m happy you’ve decided you like me. Must’ve been painful to go a whole decade seesawing on a decision like that.”

  Hannah’s face twisted into in involuntary smile as she whacked him in the dead center of his chest—right where his heart was in the middle of overflowing with emotion. “Don’t make this harder than it already is. You know what I mean.”

  “Do I?” Could he be blamed for making it at least a little difficult? He wanted to be sure—and he wanted Hannah to be sure. Because Dominic didn’t like doing anything halfway. If they were going to do this, he w
as all in.

  “I mean that I have feelings for you,” she said so softly he almost missed it. “And that I’ve had them for a while now.”

  “Hannah…”

  “Please don’t make a joke.” She was so close to him, close enough for him to smell her perfume. Her blue eyes were deep enough to get lost in, wide and clear and sincere. “I don’t know if I could take a joke from you right now. Not after what I just said.”

  It would’ve taken nothing at all to kiss her. He’d barely have had to lean forward to do it. Just dip his head down and seize those lips, claim them for himself. That way, if Hannah still had any doubt in her mind that he didn’t feel the exact same way, that he hadn’t liked her in that manner for all this time, all of it would be banished, driven out in the wake of his passion.

  Right now, though, it seemed like she really wanted him to use his words.

  “I more than like you,” Dominic said, gently butting her forehead with his. “I love you, Hannah. Always have.”

  Her eyes went wide at that, and Dominic had the briefest notion that maybe it had been too much, too soon. They’d only kissed once, and here he was, telling her he loved her. It was more than just a simple kiss that had freed these feelings, though. It was the compilation of all the years and experiences they’d shared. The sense of those moments coming to a close, and the next phase of their lives beginning.

  He didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to make sure Hannah knew exactly how he felt, and if the words hadn’t done it, well, he’d let his actions do the talking.

  Dominic took her by the chin, lifting her face up as he dropped his, and kissed her. Again. Twice in one night. If it were up to him, he’d never stop kissing her, not even to come up for air. They could time their inhales and exhales so that they breathed for each other, their heartbeats falling in sync. The same fireworks he’d experienced upstairs exploded again in his head. It was good. So, so good.

  The patio door slid open beside them and startled them apart. Dominic blinked slowly, feeling like he was suspended in something sticky and thick like molasses, and watched as a dripping wet classmate staggered drunkenly between them, probably so muddled he didn’t realize what he’d interrupted.

  Hannah huffed a laugh, covering her towel-clad chest with a hand. “God, I thought it was Harvey, storming in here to separate us.”

  “Don’t worry about your brother.”

  “You’re not?” She gave Dominic a dubious look. “You should. I definitely am.”

  “What’s he going to do?” Dominic asked, even as his imagination created wild scenarios to answer that simple question.

  He’d kick Dominic’s ass, first of all. Or try to. Whisk Hannah away and never tell him where she was. Lock her up in the tallest tower and throw away the key. Enter her into a witness protection program, or a nunnery. Make it so Dominic would never get the chance to be with Hannah ever again, and then cut Dominic out of his life, too. And just like that, Dominic would be alone, bereft of the woman he loved and his best friend, all in one fell swoop.

  That was what Harvey could and would probably do if he caught the two of them together.

  “I have to see you,” Dominic blurted out, interrupting Hannah in the middle of a shockingly similar thought process. “I have to see more of you tonight.”

  “I don’t know if we’re going to get the chance to here,” Hannah said, wrinkling her nose as a couple enthusiastically whacked a couple of full plastic cups of punch onto the floor as they made out against the kitchen table. “There’s so many people.”

  “I want to be alone with you,” he said. “No interruptions.”

  It went without saying that he didn’t want to jump apart every few seconds, listening hard for Harvey’s distinctive bellow of a laugh so they didn’t get caught together.

  “Then come to my house after the party’s done here,” she said. “After my brother’s passed out.”

  He’d done it before, sneaked into Marnie’s house long after all the lights were out. But it had always been to hang out with Harvey. Hannah had simply come along with the package, if she was still awake, blinking sleepily over comic books illuminated by flashlights, a warm, comforting presence at his side. This would be the first time he’d be breaking the rules to see only Hannah.

  His only regret was that he hadn’t thought of doing it sooner.

  “I’ll knock on your window,” he said. “Lightly, so no one else will hear. You’ll be listening?”

  “I’ll be there,” she said, biting her bottom lip, teeth white against the red, velvety-soft skin there.

  Dominic had tasted them twice, now. He knew just how lush they were. He looked forward to enjoying them like he had all the time in the world. Like they didn’t have to rush, or sneak. Maybe, someday, even Harvey wouldn’t mind the two of them together. He’d embrace it. And then Dominic could kiss Hannah whenever and wherever he wanted. For however long he wanted to. Like right now. Again.

  “Where the hell’s the pizza?” Harvey demanded, stumbling in through the same patio door they’d been so leery of. Dominic was glad he hadn’t acted on the impulse to kiss Hannah again, because Harvey definitely would’ve noticed, then.

  “What pizza?” Hannah asked, and the doorbell rang.

  “That pizza!” Harvey crowed. “Ronnie! The pizza you ordered is here. Open the safe! Cough up your credit card!”

  A general cheer rose through the house, and Dominic figured he could wait a couple of hours for Hannah, especially as she gave him a meaningful look and moved away. They’d be a painful couple of hours, but he’d been waiting years. Hours, he could do.

  Chapter 3

  Hannah

  It felt like a dream, really—everything that was happening. Graduating high school was the first dream. The misery of public school, erased by tossing her cap into the air along with hundreds of others, letting it get lost and forgotten, not caring whose she picked up afterward.

  Kissing Dominic, though, had really taken the cake, in terms of big dreams. Not once, but twice. Kissing and realizing that the feelings that had surged around inside of her mind and body were reciprocated within his. There wasn’t a better drug than that—loving and being loved.

  Because, even though she hadn’t touched a drop of the stuff her classmates had the gall to call punch, Hannah felt drunk. The rest of the party passed in a blur around her, especially once the pizza got there. It was something of a feeding frenzy, everyone snagging pieces out of the boxes until they were soggy, greasy, and empty folds of cardboard.

  It was hard to pay attention to anything or anyone around her, even as Hannah kept herself carefully apart from Dominic. Harvey was too suspicious of the two of them tonight, and with Dominic confessing his love for her, Hannah wasn’t even sure whether she could trust herself to behave around Dominic. She didn’t need to give Harvey any more ammunition, or reason to suspect something was going on.

  She loved her twin. She really did. They had a relationship that no one would ever understand, no matter how hard they tried. But she often hated how protective Harvey was of her. It was suffocating. She wasn’t a child anymore.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Harvey asked, protectively cradling to his bare chest what had to be one of the last slices of pepperoni pizza. “Who pissed you off?”

  You, Hannah wanted to say, but she bit her tongue. “Nobody. Nothing. Why?”

  “You had this bitchy look on your face.”

  “Harvey, so help me God, I will twist your nipple right off your chest.”

  “Why?” he complained, covering himself, forgetting about the pizza so that the oily cheese slapped against his skin. “Dammit.”

  “Don’t call me bitchy. That’s why.”

  “Okay, jeez.” He eyed her before taking a giant bite of his pizza, apparently not caring that it had been plastered to his skin. “You’re acting weird, though.”

  “Am I?” Hannah figured that was about par for the course, after kissing Dominic, whom sh
e’d more or less grown up with. “Probably just tired.”

  “Probably because you’re not drinking.”

  She scoffed. “You’re the one who told me not to drink in the first place.”

  “Well, yeah,” Harvey said, as if it should’ve been obvious. “But if you had, and if you did it at the right pace, it would’ve kept you alert.”

  “What, alert like you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re plastered.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “And you better hope Marnie’s already asleep by the time we get home.”

  “Not a word to Marnie, so help me God,” Harvey said, pointing a threatening finger at Hannah.

  “Point that somewhere else.” Dominic walked over, fully clothed, and swatted Harvey’s hand back down. Hannah held her breath. “I’m out of here.”

  “What?” Harvey cried.

  “Why?” Hannah cried at the same time.

  Dominic shook his head. “You two really are twins. Freaky.”

  “You can’t leave,” Harvey protested. “This is a party to celebrate our freedom!”

  “From school, maybe,” Dominic reasoned. “Not from the drill sergeant.”

  “Your dad’s here?” Harvey groaned with as much dread as Hannah felt.

  “He will be if I’m not home by one sharp,” Dominic said. “And he made sure I knew that staying out even that late was pushing it.”

  “Not fair,” Harvey said. “One of these days, I’m going to tell him exactly what I think about him.”

  “And that’s how we all know you’re drunk,” Dominic told him. “Because you just said you were going to go up against the drill sergeant, and we know how that would turn out.”

  “Badly,” Hannah said helpfully. “He’d send your body parts to Marnie in little boxes.”

  “I’ll see you later,” Dominic said, bravely pulling the greasy, sticky, wet Harvey into a quick hug. “Watch out for this one,” he told Hannah, giving her the same hug he’d given her twin.