SEAL in a Storm

by KaLyn Cooper

  Well. Damn it. So was he. But his misery was not interested in company.

  The person dropped to the sand about thirty feet away and rested his forearms on drawn-up knees.

  Unhappy with the stranger’s close proximity, Dex considered slipping into the small copse behind him and returning to his room. Both could have privacy then. But he had been there first and claimed that spot.

  What a ridiculous thought. He needed to be solving the problem of how to find the hostages. As he started to come to his feet, thankful he was downwind of the intruder and the strong breeze coming off the ocean would carry away any noise he might make while escaping, he caught a whiff of something very feminine, fresh, and enticing.

  Glancing toward the figure on the beach, their hands worked at the back of their neck. With a shake of the person’s head, lengthy black hair lifted on a salt-laden gust as though it were reaching out to him. Long thin fingers combed through the strands after massaging her scalp.

  Like an ethereal mermaid calling to him, Rayne sat alone on the beach. Dex had been connected to this woman in a way that he never had with any woman before or since her…not even with his wives. She had created a special place in his heart twelve years ago.

  Then she’d smashed it all to hell.

  His emotions swung from one end of the pendulum, loving her, to the absolute opposite end of hating this woman more than anyone else in the world. Mostly, she confused him. She had hurt him like no one else ever could, or would, again.

  They’d worked endless hours together pouring over research, sorting through tips, trying to pin down the elusive terrorist leader, Aahil Mohammed Jaja. Sitting hidden together for hours, watching a house, a business, and even once a wandering caravan, they’d waited for the man who at that very moment was somewhere on that island with fourteen hostages.

  It suddenly hit Dex that Rayne wanted this man more than he did. She would have taken tonight’s failed attempt personally.

  Decision made, he closed the distance. “We’ll find them,” he tried to reassure her.

  In a blur of long black hair spinning through the air, Rayne was on one knee, her gun in firing position, pointed at his head.

  “Whoa.” Dex threw his hands up in the air. “Rayne, it’s me. Don’t shoot.”

  She released a long audible breath and lowered her gun. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  He grinned. “You need to go back and change your clothes?”

  “Fuck you,” she snapped and holstered her weapon.

  There was just something so sexy about a woman with a gun who knew how to use it. The way she twisted her body to put her gun away emphasized her breasts even in the baggie utilities. With her last words echoing in his head, he missed their casual bantering.

  He wasn’t surprised at his growing erection. She’d always had that effect on him. In his mid-forties, though, he wasn’t sure if he should be proud that he could be ready so fast or be disgusted with himself that he couldn’t control his dick.

  “So, you want to fuck me?” He gave her what he thought of as his panty-dropping smile. “If that’s what you want, I could be convinced.”

  She shook her head. “You’ll never change, will you?”

  Enjoying this nonwork conversation more than he thought he would, he kept poking the bear. “Oh, I’ve changed, in many ways.” Obviously, though, not where she was concerned. His body still wanted her. Or maybe it just needed to get laid in a post-adrenaline testosterone spike. “I’ve gotten better with age. I’ll be happy to give you a demonstration of the improvements.”

  He moved in closer. He’d liked to pull her to him, tease her with kisses running down her neck, then continuing as he stripped her out of camouflage, exposing that soft skin, nipping and nibbling. When he reached her core, he would gently separate her wet folds and suck on her clit until she screamed his name. Exactly like he had twelve years ago. The one and only time they had shared their bodies.

  “I take that back, you have changed.” She gracefully came to her feet. “You seem more relaxed. You used to be constantly…tense…hyperaware to the point of it almost being a nervous tick. I think retirement has calmed you.”

  He chuckled. That certainly wasn’t the line of thought where he was headed, but he could change conversational directions. He had no business thinking about sex with this woman anyway. Picking up on the flow, he noted, “I’ve been on more missions since I retired than I did in the last five years in the Navy. As commanding officer of over a hundred SEALs, I swear all I did was sign papers and go to meetings.”

  “That’s what I love about my job, most of the time I’m actively on duty,” she explained. “As head of the Speaker’s detail, I have to make a schedule and a few other personnel kinds of things, but mostly I guard Congressman Sedgwick.”

  “That’s good that you like your job. I got to the point where I hated mine,” Dex admitted.

  “Why? What happened to the forever and ever career man?” Rayne glanced longingly down the beach. “Do you mind if we walk?”

  He started to walk away from the well-lit villas. “Sure. I need to stretch my legs.”

  In amiable silence, they walked side-by-side, not close enough that their arms accidentally touched. The wind seemed to blow harder with every step as the sound of the waves rushing to shore increased in volume.

  “You never answered my question,” Rayne pinned him.

  “What question?” He volleyed back as though he’d forgotten.

  “What changed your mind about a thirty-year career?”

  He let out a long breath as he considered his answer. “Politics…on every level imaginable.”

  She walked closer to him. “Did you say politics? Your voice got lost in the wind.”

  “Yeah. Politics. They are everywhere at that level.” He shrugged. “By the time you’re looking at getting promoted to captain, the ring knocker club pulls in a tight net.”

  “Ring knocker club? What the hell is that?” She stepped a little closer to him and tried to match his stride in the shifting sand.

  “I didn’t go to the Naval Academy, nor did I belong to any national fraternity.” He didn’t want her to get the opinion that he gave up on the dream, just that the dream changed, as did he. “The higher rank you get promoted, the more the selection board looks at everything you’ve ever done. I never commanded a ship. I was never in charge of multimillion-dollar airplanes. The SEALs run a lean team compared to an air squadron or as the captain of a small ship. Usually, the higher the rank the more people you command and the more costly the equipment.”

  His smile was wry when he continued, “I had only ever been responsible for just over one hundred men as a commander. Compared to a fighter jet, rifles and bullets are cheap.” He shrugged. “All I ever wanted to do was be a SEAL. I was lucky, though. For twenty years I got to be a SEAL. Very few sailors can ever say that. Many are only in that specialty for one or two tours.”

  Another gust of wind passed over them.

  “Then I got to retire. I’m only forty-four years old, and the government pays me for breathing.” He thought about some of the other benefits of military retirement. “And I have damn good health coverage.”

  They came to a chain-link fence with concertina wire on top. Dex thought that might be a little overkill, but it wouldn’t stop any of his men, so perhaps it was necessary. Wordlessly, they turned and headed back.

  “So, now that you retired,” she giggled, “or will be retired when you finish this mission, what are you going to do with your life? What’s on your bucket list?”

  Fuck. Dex had never thought about his bucket list. “I want to fish. A lot.” He smiled over at Rayne. “You like to fish? I have a boat. I can take you fishing.” For the first time since he left Smith Mountain Lake and boarded the helicopter for D.C., he wondered where Reel Peace had been taken. He was sure that Si had it put in a safe place.

  Her broad smile touched his heart. “You want to take me fishing?” She lau
ghed. “The Dex Carson I knew might ask me to join him at the shooting range, but fishing? Is that what you did for entertainment with your wives?”

  “Fuck. No. They didn’t want to go.” Back then, he used fishing as a way to escape the house, and his wife. During both marriages. He couldn’t remember asking them if they wanted to go along. He’d just pack up early in the morning and head out for the nearest stream or lake. No. Neither of his wives was ever interested in a day on a lake drowning bait.

  Glancing over at Rayne, though, he could see her sitting in his bass boat. She was adventurous, unlike his exes.

  “So, it’s a date. When we get back home, we’ll go fishing.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “I’m going to be the one to cook the fish,” Rayne insisted. “Unless you’ve taken cooking classes.”

  Dex was a little insulted. “I can throw some butter in a pan and put a filet in there or cook it on the grill. I’ve even learned how to microwave potatoes.”

  Her light laugh touched the part of him that had been empty for a long time. “Like I said, I’m going to cook them. I’ll let you chop off the head and peel off the skin though. Just the thought of that grosses me out.” She shivered dramatically.

  “Deal.” He stopped and held out his hand so they could shake on it. When she slid her soft palm against his, he was tempted to pull her to him and seal the deal with a kiss. Instead, he shook it once and let her go.

  “Besides fishing, what else is on your bucket list?” She asked.

  “Oh, no. Your turn. What’s on your list?” He wasn’t going to move until she told him at least one thing she wanted to do in her lifetime.

  Rayne stared out at the turbulent sea. “I want to go to a place like this when I’m not working.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “When I was first assigned to Congressman Sedgwick, his wife, Bette, had just been told her cancer was inoperable, and more chemotherapy wouldn’t help.”

  She swallowed hard.

  “I guess she liked the beach vacations on the Virginia shore, and he preferred to go to the Blue Ridge Mountains, so they compromised with one week in each location every year.” Rolling her lips in, Rayne seemed to fight her emotions. Dex wanted to hold her in his arms, giving her the strength to go on. “Bette asked her husband to take her and Callie to a Caribbean island where they could be together as a family one last time.” Her voice broke.

  This was a tough subject for her.

  She let out a long slow breath. “We weren’t far from here. We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Resort in Puerto Rico. A beautiful place. We took turns guarding the family, technically Congressman Sedgwick since he’s the only one who qualifies for Secret Service protection. It was easy duty. His office had arranged for an exclusive villa for the family, and there was one for us next door. The view was magnificent, but I couldn’t enjoy my downtime lounging on the beach or having a mojito. That would’ve been totally inappropriate.”

  The thought of Rayne in nothing but a string bikini laying on the sand at their feet painted an image in his mind he hoped never would go away until it could be replaced by the real thing.

  “That will only take a couple weeks. What are you going to do after you get tired of looking at sunsets and your body has turned golden brown?” He hoped to refocus her mind on happier bucket list items. “What’s next on the list?”

  She giggled. “You’re going to think this one is silly…or possibly a bit strange.”

  Dex mentally prepared himself for anything she could possibly say. “Hit me with it.”

  “I’d like to see an X-rated movie,” Rayne confessed. “I’ve never seen one. To be honest, I’ve never been brave enough to walk in by myself to watch a movie like that.”

  It took everything in him to hold back his laughter. She was blushing. The woman he’d watched bust through a door and kill three Boco Haram terrorists, was fucking blushing.

  “Uhm, isn’t that something women do together? Like in a big group?” As though the idea had just struck him, he blurted, “You know that you can get X-rated movies on television, right?”

  “Yeah, but that’s like watching porn,” she retorted. “I’m talking about the movie theater affect. Seeing…everything on the big screen.”

  “You watch porn?” He asked the question before he thought better of it.

  “Don’t you?” She volleyed back as though they were discussing bacon and eggs for breakfast.

  He wasn’t going to admit to his viewing preferences.

  Giving it only a quick thought, he hadn’t watched pornography in years. His television viewing was limited to Jeopardy while eating supper, then he flipped over to the National Geographic or Smithsonian channels while his food settled. Within an hour, he had a book open. He was currently on a kick of reading about the early Presidents.

  He needed to change the subject, and fast. “Name something else on this list of yours. How about skydiving?”

  “I’ve already done that. It was fun, but I don’t think I need to do it again. It’s your turn,” she encouraged. “Tell me something that you want to do before you get too old.”

  Dex had to think about it. As a Navy SEAL, he had jumped out of an airplane at 30,000 feet and dived a hundred feet down into the ocean. He’d gotten to do so many fucking fantastic things in his life. There had to be some challenges left. “I used to want to raft the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and camp along the way. I’ve slept in the dirt enough in my life, so, maybe I’ll just go see the Grand Canyon and stay in a nice hotel with room service.”

  Rayne nodded in agreement. “I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon, either.” She smiled over at him. “Thanks. That’s going on my list. And I’m with you on the hotel with room service.”

  A gust of wind picked up loose sand and tossed it at their ankles. Lightning leapt between clouds on the horizon. Dex could see the resort lights about a quarter mile away. They should easily make it back before it started to rain. “Next item on that bucket list of yours.”

  “You’re going to think this one is ridiculous because I could do it any time, but I’d like to see every display at the Smithsonian.” She slowly shook her head. “I spend most of my day less than two blocks away, yet I’ve never taken an hour to walk through the National Museum of Natural History.” She reached out and touched his arm. “Did you know that the Hope Diamond is there? It’s like the United States has its own crown jewels.”

  Heat radiated up his arm. With the next beat of his heart, it was as though she were in his veins, spreading throughout his body. He liked it. There was something so right about that feeling of Rayne being part of him. He couldn’t stop his smile as he looked at her. “So, you want to go see all the fancy gems?”

  She squeezed his arm slightly and she infused him with her excitement. “Yes, but I want to see everything they have, from prehistoric animal fossils to the dresses of the first ladies.”

  When she started to lift her hand off his arm, he grabbed it and intertwined his fingers through hers. Half expecting she would jerk away, he was extremely pleased when she held on tight. “Most people have trips to exotic places on their list. Do you?”

  “Of course, but that’s under a different category,” she proclaimed. “I want to go to New Zealand, when it’s wintertime in D.C., and I’d like to buy a handcrafted Maori bone.”

  Dex had no idea what the significance of that would be, but if that’s what Rayne wanted to do, she was welcome to it. The idea of going somewhere warm in the midst of a freezing cold D.C. winter sounded like a great idea, though. Inwardly he smiled. He could go there, now that he was retired. Nothing was forcing him to suffer through sleet, slippery roads, and overcast skies. Maybe he’d go someplace warm for the winter.

  “What are some of these other categories that are part of your list?” He might have to start a list of his own.

  “I have a few adventurous things that I’d like to do, a couple things dealing with nature and wildlife, I have a category for entert
ainment, one for food.” She shrugged. “And some things that just don’t belong in any one category.”

  They approached the end of the shadows cast by the trees and Dex came to a stop. Light spilled from the villas beyond, but he wasn’t ready to let go of Rayne. There, in the darkness, it felt as though it was just the two of them. The moment they stepped into the light, they would return to the reality of terrorists and hostages. He wanted to hold on to the peace he had found with her for just one more moment.

  “When we get back, we’re going fishing.” With his free hand he ran his fingers through her hair next to her temple. Slowly, giving her time to pull away, he lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers.

  With the wind at her back, her long hair enveloped him. It was as though part of her was wrapping around him, binding them together.

  Rayne let go of his hand and lifted both of hers to his face. She pulled him down and took over the kiss. Her lips were demanding, seeking more.

  He pulled her body tight to his just as the clouds opened and poured buckets of water over them. He ignored the fact they were getting drenched and concentrated on the feel of her lips on his, their tongues tangling in a dance as old as time.

  Both of them were breathing hard as they separated at the same time. Dex dropped his forehead to hers.

  She tilted her head slightly and gave him a quick kiss. “Thank you.”

  “What? Why—” He didn’t understand, or perhaps he hadn’t heard her correctly over the smack of rain hitting the leaves on the trees behind them.

  Her smile was warm and sincere. “Kissing in the rain was on my bucket list. I had just never imagined it would be you.”

  Water droplets fell over her face as she turned it up toward the sky, her eyes closed. She had never looked more beautiful. He dropped his lips to hers, tenderly kissing her one more time.

  There was nothing better than Rayne in the rain.

  His satellite phone rang and they both jumped apart as though they were teens caught necking.