Table of Contents
Burning for Nero
Copyright
Dedication
PRAISE FOR AUTHOR
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
About the Author
Coming Soon
Also Available
Thank You
Burning for Nero
by
Cerise DeLand
Book Two
SEALs Going Hot
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Burning for Nero
COPYRIGHT © 2014 by Cerise DeLand
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contact Information: [email protected]
Cover Art by Diana Carlile
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
PO Box 708
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708
Visit us at www.thewilderroses.com
Publishing History
First Scarlet Rose Edition, 2014
Digital ISBN 978-1-62830-469-5
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
For my own military man, Steve.
PRAISE FOR AUTHOR
Cerise DeLand
AND HER BOOKS
PARIS EXPOSE
“Sinfully hot!”
~Romance Junkies
“Bring a fan, and plenty of ice water, you’ll need it!”
~Long and Short Reviews
POWER POSITION
“Prepare yourself for a wild, hot ride. The steaminess never lets up as they rock, glide and slide their way to ecstasy. Amanda and Jack are as opposite as they come but they find a way to make each other vulnerable, needy and sexy all at the same time. Amanda is dealing with a new lover after the death of her husband. Jack is dealing with uncontrollable hunger for his boss. The scenes are well-written and will leave the reader wishing they were one of the characters in the book if only to get some relief.”
~You Gotta Read Reviews.com
Chapter One
Tony Nero toed his duffle on the floor of the helo, itching to jump out of this bird. Four-day leave at his parents’ home meant the highs came in multiples. He had braced for the lows, too.
His parents were part of the highs. Their annual Fourth of July bash at their home on the Severn River. His smart ass little brother, if the kid got leave from Camp LeJeune. His sister, Tessa, who always invited a gaggle of her sorority sisters.
A smile crept across his face. Memories of past Fourths revved him for the stay. Dad’s killer barbeque. Mom’s ability to make everyone feel comfortable. A rear admiral with a second class midshipman. A congressman with his former opponent.
Tony shifted in his seat, craning his neck to view the serenity of blue water hugging the emerald Maryland shore below. Jostling his arm and the brace, he grit his teeth and silently cursed.
Don’t think about your hand. Or the physical therapy that isn’t improving your use. One of the lows of this weekend would be to report that to his family and friends. They wouldn’t be disappointed in him. An accident, his dad said when Tony had called four weeks ago to tell them the news he’d broken bones on his latest SEAL mission. Thank God you’re still with us, his mom added.
“Your folks’ house, right?” Bingo, his buddy, asked as he piloted the chopper closer to the earth in preparation for touchdown.
“Yeah.” Tony nodded. Then took care to stretch and look below. Hopping a ride out of Dam Neck into Bainbridge Air Station meant he could get a panoramic view of the places where he’d spent his teenage and college years. Annapolis. The State House. The Naval Academy where he’d graduated number three in his class. The Chesapeake Bay where he’d sailed his first boat solo. His parents’ sprawling red brick home along the Severn River where he’d grown up, learning to be the man he had become. And where he returned whenever he needed a dose of objectivity about who he was and how lucky he was to live the way he did.
Too high above his house to see many details, Tony detected a figure below reclining in a white lawn chair. That would be Mom, reading a novel. Walking across the green expanse of lawn was another figure, tall with salt and pepper hair in khaki and white. Dad, wearing his signature huge aviators, paused to stare up at the chopper, then hail it with wide swaths of his arms. He looked like a flagman on a naval carrier.
Laughing, Tony didn’t stop himself from glancing next door.
His gaze slid to the ranch house beside his folks’ home and got the usual sucker punch of grief. His best friend of half his life wasn’t there. Hadn’t been last year, either. But StingRay’s parents would be. Maybe his two younger brothers. Tony scoured the lawns, the shore, the boats. None of them was out enjoying the summer sun and the breeze off the bay. Not Ray’s five-year-old son, either.
Not even Ray’s widow.
Tony blew out a sigh of relief. He wouldn’t have to watch his every move around Ray’s gorgeous wife. He could enjoy himself. Oh, right. Instead, he’d spend his time wondering how she was, asking about her…and hoping no one saw his regret she wasn’t here to dress up his days and tempt him to do bad things to her.
“Hey, Ton. What say, we give old Caesar a buzz?”
“No.” Caesar was the nickname midshipmen gave his dad, indicative less of the family name and more of the man’s hard ass teaching methods. “Damn, pal. He’ll bark at me if you raise a shingle on his roof.”
“Gotta keep up my rep.” He winked, then turned back to his panel to dip the chopper over his father’s boathouse.
“Really?” Tony shook his head, grinning. Bingo had been the bad boy of his year. Short-sheeting upperclassmen was not a wise idea for a plebe who wanted to survive the rigors of the Academy social ladder. But Bingo had tried more than that and lived to graduate and get his commission. “You riled him enough in engineering classes.”
“Bet the old man still talks about me, huh?”
Tony rolled his eyes. “More than.”
“You got me! Glory never dies. How long since you’ve been home?” He lifted his chin to indicate the brace on Tony’s left wrist and forearm.
“Five months.” In February, he’d visited for a few days before shipping out for Afghanistan. Turned out to be an abort. He and his team had come home, only to turn around and execute the same plan in mid-May. That was when he’d miscalculated his agility on a thirty-foot drop and jammed his wrist. Broken three small bones.
“You wrecked up pretty bad there?”
Tony set his jaw. If the physical therapy had healed him more rapidly, he might have considered the breaks more routine. But the nerve damage riled him. He resented showing his disappointment to anyone, even an old classmate like Bingo who knew Tony was a SEAL. “Not my first. I’ll re-coop.”
“Sure you will. Glad you’re here, bro. I heard about StingRay. Bad joss. Sorry. Know you two were always tight.”
“We were.” And there it was. One big low Tony wished he could recover from before he touched down, went home and learned whether he’d deal with a bigger one. Because if Sting’s widow had come for the weekend with their little boy, Tony had to be on his game. “Sting was a good man. Good SEAL.”
/> Sting’s team and Tony’s had run a joint op in northern Helmand province over a year ago. They neutralized the two Al-Qaeda they’d targeted, big boogies who ran two dozen cells along the Pakistani border. They’d gone in hot, extracted just as hot, guns blazing, grenades popping. Sting was their dust and clean up man, last out, covering their rear. For that, Sting gave the ultimate sacrifice. The two teams brought him home in pieces.
Tony chewed at the inside of his bottom lip.
“Hey, Ton, didn’t want to kick your ass. Tough loss. I’ll shut up.”
“No sweat, Bingo.” A gentleman always forgave. Even if it was just lip service.
Static filled the cockpit. Radio control barked out permission for landing. Bingo responded, centering the bird over the pad and descending like he was rocking a baby. “I’d say your mom and Caesar are gonna hug your guts out, man.”
“Got that right.” Visits were rare since he’d joined the SEALs six years ago. But in the past eighteen months, he’d been through shit and back so often, he needed the relaxation that days with his folks always brought. These next four days, he wanted that more than ever. His injury and his failure to respond to PT quickly meant it was time to analyze his future.
Hell. He swiped his left hand across his mouth. He needed more than a rest. He needed a beer. A laugh. A woman.
But that he definitely was not about to get. Not here. And not the woman he really needed.
****
“Take it easy, Bingo!” Tony leaned toward the pilot as he set the bird down on the tarmac at the rear runway.
“Any way I can get it, Nero!” The pilot powered down the engine. “You be good.”
“Much as I can. Thanks for the hop.”
“No problem. When you’re ready for a ride back, call traffic control and have ’em ask for me. If I’m here, I’d be happy to ferry The Great Nero back to Dam Neck.”
Right. Tony squeezed Bingo’s shoulder with his good hand. Great men have the use of both. Especially if their MOS requires a steady aim and deft trigger finger. “I will. Happy fourth.”
Nero bent to hop out of the bird, slipped on his hat and slung the pack over his shoulder. A hot pain sliced up his arm. Tony clamped his jaw. Like the brace won’t give the disability away, dickhead?
Turning, he headed for the guard box and the gate. Once outside, he’d catch a taxi to his parents’ home. He picked up his pace, antsy to stretch his legs and jog toward the exit. The sooner he got home, the better he’d feel. Past the guard, he strode out onto the leafy shade of the sidewalk—and he stopped short.
Across the street, leaning against the headlights of a white convertible, her arms crossed, stood the willowy golden blonde he’d looked for a few minutes ago on the lawn of the Phillips home. His gut clenched. His blood heated. Why was she here? Alone? Anyone else at the compound could have come to pick him up. But he’d instructed them not to come. His mother, he supposed, had spilled the beans to her mother-in-law about when he would arrive, how and where.
Still, why did they send her? Everyone knew he hated surprises. Any SEAL worth his shit prepared for all possibilities. He had dismissed the probability of this one.
Put your big boy pants on, Nero.
Smile.
His svelte chauffeur waved to him, her full cherry lips spreading in a grin, her short cap of yellow curls wafting in the hot wind off the water. She wore wrap-around sunglasses, obscuring her large doe eyes. But he felt her scrutiny, her notice of the brace. She shifted. Disguising your dismay at my condition?
Not what he had in mind to get her pity or rouse her grief. Cassandra Phillips seeing him with his wrist brace, reminding her that SEALs like him and her dead hubbie really were human. They bled. They blew up. They died.
Whatever emotion moved her, she changed her stance again, putting one long leg in front of the other. Her white dress caressed her shapely calves as if the flimsy fabric were Saran Wrap. He swallowed hard on desire just as her skirts caught the breeze and blew up Marilyn-style to reveal her trim thighs. He gulped as she brushed down her skirts with one hand. Didn’t matter. His mouth watered and his cock twitched. Christ, what he wouldn’t give to spread her over the hood and do her right there.
As if she heard him, she opened her mouth in welcome. He could see her tongue. Pink. Wet. What was it like to taste her mouth?
And what in hell went on with that dress? In the sunlight, dammit all, he could see through the gauzy cotton to the outline of her bra and panties. The rest of her was a tanned feast. Her elegant throat, her bare chest and toned arms were a satin expanse he’d longed for years to lick.
Hell, Nero. Be a good boy. Time for your Oscar performance. You and she are just friends.
“Cass, you know how to get to a man’s heart,” he told her as he strode across the street, his grin as friendly as hers and devoid of the need he had each time he saw her to strip her bare and jump her bones.
“I told them I’d give you a lift,” she said, smiling up at him and meeting his friendly greeting with one equal to his own warm one. “They’ve been working so hard for the party tonight and tomorrow. The least I could do for them taking care of Jonathan so well.”
“I hear you.” His mother had written that lately Cass had been looking for a job in Washington. When she went from Dam Neck for the trip north, she left her five-year-old son with his grandparents. The Phillips and Tony’s folks enjoyed the heck out of babysitting and treated the little boy to the joys of the combined loving family they made.
“How are you, Tony?” She walked into his embrace, his one arm going around her. Polite. Friendly. No breasts touching his chest. She hugged him, her affection discreet. She cupped his cheek, her hand sweet against his hot skin. “You look yummy as ever.”
“Glad you think so, babe.” He hadn’t seen her in far too long and he needed to look her over thoroughly to detect how she really felt deep inside. Her grief for Ray had gone long ago, exactly when he wasn’t certain. And the last few times he had gone over to her house to take Jon out, she had seemed distant. Today, the breezy white dress and her bouncy gold curls made her look happy. He had to be sure. “Take the shades off, lemme see how you are.”
She did.
And Christ, wrong of him to have asked. Her forest green eyes laughed up at him. Wisps of her brilliant hair grazed against her high cheekbones, framing her in a golden glow like a Renaissance Venus captured in candlelight. She got to him always—elegant, statuesque Cassandra. Lady with the flawless complexion and the classy looks of a Hollywood forties movie siren.
She arched a long, blonde brow, an uncharacteristic teasing gleam in her eye. “Do I pass inspection?”
“Done.” All too well. You’ve got me drooling, and we’ve barely said hello. “Drive me home. I’m in need of a beer and my mother’s bear hugs.”
“She’s wild to see you. Everyone is. Your sister, Tessa, brought two girlfriends with her. One is just your type and frothing at the mouth to meet dark, dangerous Nero.”
Like he ever saw anyone else but Cass. “Too bad I’m out of commission.”
“That I don’t believe.” She tugged on his good hand and led him to the passenger’s side. His eyes—traitors—adored the curve of her firm ass as he followed her to the car door.
She twirled and caught him ogling. “You like?”
He rolled his eyes, keeping his praise just good-old-boy lurid while his very rebellious cock stood at attention.
“Pilates. My devotion is an addiction.”
“I’m showing my admiration.”
She chuckled, looking complimented, not offended. “Get in, sailor.”
“New wheels?” He wiggled his brows at her as she shut the door for him. She’d always known he liked a woman with a tight bod. Any god-fearing Navy man did. He was no puritan. She was no nun. But from that first night when they met at a pub in town and StingRay moved in on her, Tony had never acted on his own attraction. “Love it.”
“Nice price, too. But it’s
the new me. Like a Peppermint Pattie with the wind in my short blonde hair. Out with the old.”
How much of her are you throwing out? “I liked the old.”
“Oh, she’s still there.” She waved a pale manicured hand in the air, dismissive of his fears. “But she had changes to make and I think you’ll still like her. Hope you will.”
That made his guts churn. He didn’t want to like her more.
“But you, Great Nero, are the first to grace the front seat. Aside from Jon, of course.”
Jonathan. Tony’s heartstrings yanked at his conscience that he hadn’t visited Sting’s little boy lately. Tony had promised to visit the five-year-old just before he’d left for his last mission and hadn’t. For months before, Tony had told himself he had to draw away from the child not just because he cared for the little boy’s mother and wanted to honor his father, but also because he wouldn’t do the child any good. Not in any way.
Building a better relationship with the child after StingRay died had filled a hole in Jon’s life and in Tony’s heart. Continuing to build that relationship with Jon a year after StingRay’s death was not a wise idea. Not if one day, Tony, too, came home in a box. So he had halted his weekly visits when they played ball or went to the beach.
And he stopped his agonizing practice of stuffing his feelings whenever he saw Jon’s gorgeous mom. He was killing himself every time he picked up Jon, acting like the family friend while the only thing he could think of when he was near Cass was kissing her blues away, getting her naked and banging her brains out. He loved Jon. Healing the little boy’s grief had been Tony’s mission and he’d done it until he couldn’t give any longer.
But seeing Cass so often made him crazy, horny, and frustrated. He’d stopped visiting because he was driving himself nuts, wanting a woman who had never wanted him. Except as a friend. Hell. He’d tried out for that mission years ago and failed.
After months of watching her sorrow over Sting’s death, he was not about to try again. She hadn’t given him any hints she could be interested in him. In fact, ever since Ray’s death, she acted more and more like a woman who wanted to build her own life with her son. Alone. He pushed away the nagging regret that he had found it necessary to break his regular dates with her sweet little son.
Burning For Nero (SEALs Going Hot) Page 1