“Hell, Tuck. What’s stopping you? I mean Kyle says you’re paying for a vacation chaperoning the Team all over Baja next month. Some vacation. Why don’t you just re-up? Come back to us.”
“Because I’m thirty nine, Brawley.”
“So am I, nearly.”
“But I’ve been doing other things. I’m just not sure I could get through BUD/S again.”
“They’d have to give you a pass on that,” Brawley barked.
“Nope. I already checked.”
The two of them sat in the few seconds of quiet while the ladies searched for another station. In San Diego, there would be crickets on a night like this, even in February. Tucker had heard an owl earlier, but no crickets.
Brawley turned, speaking to the side of his face. “Well, you just confirmed what I’ve been thinking for the better part of five years now. Don’t deny it, Tucker. You want back in.”
He wasn’t going to make a big objection to Brawley’s remarks because that would make him look guilty as charged. But his friend had nailed him fair and square. That little confidential talk with Collins about whether or not the Navy would consider a re-entry for him was kept under wraps. But he had to go open his big mouth tonight and tell Brawley he’d checked. He wondered if he’d done it on purpose.
Wouldn’t that be something if I could do it?
Brawley stood up and positioned the entire blanket around Tucker’s shoulders and gave him a gentle pat on the back. “I think I’m going to go out there and rescue Dorie before someone gets hurt.”
Tucker nodded. “Think I’ll do the same,” and stood to join him.
Brawley grinned like he’d been told a dirty joke.
“What’s so funny?” he asked the newlywed.
“I think everyone’s gonna get laid tonight.”
Chapter 10
“We should have taken a week off, Tucker. I had no idea there was so much I wanted to see.” Brandy was folding her clothes when Tucker made his way into their sheeted cubicle. He’d been stacking wood and making sure the fire was fully stoked so they didn’t have to wake up in the morning to a cold building.
“Next time. I promise.” He pulled her to him, fingering the red lace bra she’d bought for the trip. “Where on earth did you get this dangerous device?”
“You like it?”
“Turn around. Let me think about that for a couple of minutes.”
She loved taking direction from him. She peered over her shoulder. “Like this?”
“Keep going.”
Brandy slowly kept moving until she was facing him again. “Should I take my bra and panties off now?”
“I can’t make up my mind.”
His smile was bringing on a wave of hot, wet lust she could smell.
“Is it my imagination, or are these lovely lace things even more sexy looking when they’re so—so—ample?” He darted a worried look her way. “Did I just make a huge mistake?” he said as he winced. He bit his lower lip and, in spite of his enormous size and white beard, looked like a little boy about to be punished.
“I used to let things like that bother me.” She slowly slid her panties down her thighs. “But—”
“Don’t touch that!” he whispered.
Brandy had her hand on the front clasp of her bra, ready to peel it away and stand before him naked. Instead, she splayed her fingers over the satin and eyelet lace, squeezed her flesh and took two little steps until their bodies touched.
“How is it that I’m always the one who’s naked first?” she asked, her lips just barely touching his. She could hear his heart pounding in tandem to hers and took a gentle moan from him as they kissed.
“I guess it’s because I always like to watch, and I forget myself,” he whispered.
“I think it’s healthy to forget yourself now and then, don’t you?” They kissed again, but deeper. “You want me to leave it on or take it off?”
“I think you should leave it on for now. I’ll get to it in about an hour. I have other things I want you to do first. Is that okay with you, Brandy?”
She watched him remove his jeans and underwear, his erection bouncing with anticipation. She held him between her palms like she was praying.
“It’s perfect.”
It was past midnight when she awoke, grateful Tucker held her tight because the room was freezing. Someone in one of the other spaces was snoring up a storm and would have rattled the windows if there were any.
Her heart was still racing from their urgent lovemaking. He’d played her body like an instrument, hard, and incredibly deep, expressed both in body language as well as their frantic whispers. It had been so intense, at one point she broke down in tears and Tucker thought he’d hurt her somehow.
But in a way he had. She was forever altered as if she was a willing participant in her own destruction.
It was hard not to notice a man as tall and strong as he was. But now that she knew him better, had kissed every inch of his body and answered his need with her own, she understood that everything he did he was the master of, except sometimes finding words. But he loved with abandon, never holding back, pushing her to the edge, and then just a little further, until she’d collapse in his arms. The coiled, cloud-of-butterflies-feeling in her belly were physical manifestations of what she knew to be true in her heart. She was falling in love, as she never had before. She also knew this came with risks, since there would be no getting over that kind of intense love. In fact, it was delicious and painful at the same time, even with the absence of a breakup on the horizon.
She tried not to think about where it all was going. She’d been included in the community of brothers, felt herself blend in with the ladies who were lucky enough to also be loved by one of these warriors who turned their worlds upside down. Brandy just took the waves of emotion and passion as they engulfed her and tried not to focus on what it all meant. She knew that was a rabbit hole.
It hardly seemed possible they’d known each other for such a short period of time. He’d been the missing piece she didn’t even know she’d been missing. If she ever had to be without him, life would never be the same.
She thought about Amy and Zak, who was nearly killed on his first deployment. Shannon had lost her first husband, T.J.’s best friend. She’d also heard stories about the women who couldn’t handle the lifestyle, the intensity of their play and their hearts. Still, it was a family, a community of brothers and the women they loved.
But one thing bothered her. Tucker had been talking with Kyle and Brawley, and she knew he missed being a SEAL. What would she do if he decided she wasn’t the right one? What if he tried to re-join his team and failed? How could she ever make up for that incredible loss he would feel.
Or, what if she never could keep him happy enough to stay? Could she meet him halfway, match his energy, and carefully tend to him if he ever fell apart? She wasn’t sure she was cut out for it, any of it.
Try to sleep. You have to rest. You’ll drive yourself crazy with all these thoughts.
“Everything okay, Brandy?” His words startled her.
“I’m sorry, did I wake you?”
He sifted his fingers through her hair. “Yes.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“That happens to me sometimes too when I drink too much. It’s like I’m over-drunk.”
She lay on her back and enjoyed the feel of his large callused hand caressing her breast. The plank beams on the ceiling were barely visible in the reflection of moonlight. Brandy waited, trying to notice some sign her eyelids were heavy and her mind was quieting, but that sign never came. She inhaled and tried to sigh very carefully so he wouldn’t detect her worry. But even that was unsuccessful.
“Talk to me, Brandy.”
“I don’t want to do it here.”
“Hot tub?”
They threw on some clothes and took their towels, discovering that they were able to be alone under the stars. The warm water helped Brandy put her thoughts into words.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and floated with her arms about his neck. The white in his hair and beard made him appear to glow in the dark.
“Is it that bad?” he teased.
“What?”
“Whatever it is you don’t want to tell me.”
“No, Tucker.” She paused and thought carefully before she spoke. “Let me ask you a question. Does the speed of all this scare you just a little?”
“You mean does it fall somewhere between skydiving at midnight and getting my ass shot off by a sniper? That what you mean by scared?”
Now she felt ridiculous. “I got the impression you weren’t the kind of guy who just jumped into relationships.”
“Oh. Okay. So now we’re talking relationships. Is that what this is?”
She would have been worried but saw the goofy grin on his face. “Watch it. Don’t you make fun of me. I don’t like that, as you know.”
“Well, you’re right about me. I don’t do this. I’ve never done this.”
She didn’t want to look at him in the eyes, thinking he might begin to get uncomfortable. The last thing she wanted to do was put him on the spot. But she wanted to know where she stood. And maybe that was the right way to put it.
“Tucker.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Would you be able to give me some indication of where all this is leading? Like, do I fit into your life anywhere other than in your bed?”
He tilted his head and stared back at her without smiling, and her heart fell to the bottom of the hot tub.
“First, if you’d have asked me that about ten years ago, I’d be gone by now. Maybe even five years ago. But, believe it or not, I’ve mellowed. When I went to the wedding on New Years Eve, my goal, and remember I told you I didn’t want to tell you what it was?”
“I remember.”
“My goal was to keep my hands to myself and to not rank or otherwise check out the ladies at the reception.”
“Okay. And how did that work out for you?”
“I didn’t even come close to achieving my goal. I sat there in the church, and I watched as you walked down the aisle, and into my life.”
Brandy was stunned. It wasn’t what she’d expected at all.
“I’ve been watching you when you were sleeping, talking to other people and didn’t know I was looking. I watch you from across the room and out of the sides of my eyes when we go places. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t ever want to spend a day when you are not a part of my life.”
She scrambled to her feet, separated herself from him and stood with her back pressed against the other side of the hot tub. Her heart felt like it was going to jump right out of her chest and go running down between the vines.
Tucker just waited. And then that grin overtook his face. “Oh my God. You’re scared.” He approached quietly, relentlessly, and without hesitation gently took her head in his hands and kissed her. “It’s just like skydiving, sweetheart,” he said between kisses. “You put your arms out to the sides, and fly. And I’ll be strapped right there behind you. I will never let you fall. And I’ll never stop loving you.”
Sharon Hamilton
True Navy Blue
Prequel to Zak
Book 1 of the True Blue SEALs Series
Sharon Hamilton
Chapter 1
The red lights flashed, pulsing dangerous images across her white skin as she lay unconscious. Was she dead? He hoped not. Paramedics were pouring over her with care, asking hushed questions, obviously looking for some kind of response. And then, thank God, he heard her whisper something back and cry.
Where am I?
They were rougher with him. Zak Chambers was used to people around him making up their minds before they got to know him. Santa Rosa used to be a small town, back when his father was sowing his wild oats. Half the cops in town were kids of the same cops who used to arrest his dad for pranks he was legendary for doing—things like throwing pumpkins into the Redwood Motel pool at Halloween, making the headlines in the local newspaper. His father still had the article hanging on his garage wall.
And what was so wrong with pouring red Jell-O into the fountain at Santa Rosa High School? They were his high school colors and they’d just creamed Santa Rosa’s football team 47 to 6.
Why am I thinking about all this stuff? Where the heck am I? What’s happened?
This time, however, was no prank. His father’s Camaro, a twisted and partially melted hulk in front of him, looked even more ghastly because of the red flashing lights, this was no prank. This wasn’t about Jell-O or pumpkins or anything that could be construed as a high school caper. This was a first-class grown up tragedy, getting worse by the minute. He didn’t have a clue what he was doing here or how he got here.
“Can you sit up, Chambers?” the gruff uniformed man with a badge and white plastic gloves asked him.
Where are the pretty nurses? His dad always got lucky with the nurses.
He tried to right himself, but the blow to his head had him confused. And he’d had a glass of wine, but just one…
“Need your permission to take a breath sample, son.”
Fuck me. The guy looked younger than Zak did.
“No. Not going to happen,” Zak mumbled.
“Oh, it’s gonna happen. Either here or down at the station, but you better cooperate or you get an automatic suspension.” The guy squinted. He had pimples. He looked like one of the boys he’d hassled in school.
“Do I know you?” Zak asked. The word “suspension” was rattling around in his head like a bad idea. He tried to focus on it, but nothing came.
“Oh yea, you do. You used to buy our booze with your fake I.D. when I was a freshman.”
It was beginning to come back to him now. Little flashes of color. Painful things. Things he didn’t want to remember.
“Except one time, you kept the money. You freakin’ robbed us, man. Ain’t life a bitch, Zak? Look at us now, dancing here on the pavement with your wrecked souped up Camaro your dad probably spent his year’s pension on, and me here with my badge and gun and all. Oh yea, life is a real bitch sometimes.”
Zak remembered him. Had an upper crust name like Dawson, or Drew or…
“I remember you, Dirtbag.” It was what Zak always called him, not because he was a real dirtbag, because he worshiped Zak for the ladies he got to hang with. But it was given him because he was unlucky enough to be named Dirk by his parents. And Zak didn’t want to be anybody’s idol. He wasn’t that fake. He just didn’t deserve it. In those days, Zak was still a promising football player courting a couple of full ride college scholarships. He’d walked away from it all.
But what the hell am I doing here?
The kid administered the breathalizer and Zak saw the instrument yanked from the kid’s hands.
“Still scoring points with the authorities, I see.” An older man with a nasty gravelly voice and a nastier-looking face peered over the top of his head and blinked down at him, upside down. It made Zak dizzy. “And you’re drunk,” he said looking at the device. Instead of showing it to Zak he placed it in a plastic bag and shoved it in his large jacket pocket. “Works for me.”
“Sir.” Dirtbag stood up. “Should I test—”
“Yeah. He’s drunk,” the older officer said. “He needs to be taken in until we can figure it out.”
It occurred to Zak he knew the man but couldn’t remember his name.
When they stood him up, that’s when Zak saw the other vehicle, a vegetable truck loaded with melons. Half of them were escaping over the freeway, bouncing like a girl’s oversized tits with an agenda of their own. Cars were swerving and Zak expected to hear another crash any minute.
The older deputy barked some instructions. Two Highway Patrolmen took off with their lights flashing, while someone lit flares and started to direct traffic slowly in one narrow lane taking up part of the shoulder.
Ginger had not really been his date, but she w
as going to be his fuckbunny for the night, sure as shit. He’d made the mistake of letting her long lip lock go a little too long, distracting him enough to miss the overloaded melon truck swerving into his lane. The impact was on her side. As he heard it, he noticed the seatbelt firmly pressing into her chest, and like a dog, he had a second or two of turn-on before he realized they’d been hit.
Seatbelts were a good thing. In this instance, it probably saved Ginger’s life.
“He hit me,” Zak tried to protest as he was led, handcuffed, into the back of the patrol car. His shouts were falling on deaf ears as they closed the cruiser’s door after shoving him into the rear seat. He saw the ambulance leave in a blaze of red and blue flashing lights ahead of him. He felt bad about not saying goodbye to Ginger before they took her away. He hoped she’d be okay.
The dark-skinned truck driver had a child clinging to his side. Zak noticed he wasn’t being handcuffed and carted away like Zak was.
No, this wasn’t going to wind up being a very good day.
The worst thing about getting taken down to the station was that his mother had to come down and pick him up. They’d not fingerprinted him or taken pictures, just put him in a cell with about twenty others, mostly drunk drivers, which made for a very uncomfortable sleep on a metal bench with a full-on fluorescent light buzzing overhead. But he didn’t have time to tell her. She looked at him like road kill.
“I wasn’t drinkin’ Ma.” He insisted. It was almost the truth.
“Zak, you’re just one good time after another,” she said, dragging on her electric cigarette.
“Where’s Dad?”
“Sleeping. Right now that’s a good thing.”
He’d known that was the answer before he’d asked. He’d seen his dad down at the Irish Pub, rubbing shoulders with the computer nerds and yuppies who worked for Medtronic and Agilent. His dad was still better looking than he had a right to be, and though twice their age, could occasionally chat himself into someone’s bed. Zak was glad he’d made it home. Now there was a real alcoholic, Zak thought.
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