Locked-Down Heart (Combat Hearts Book 3)

by Tarina Deaton

  “What’s stopping you?”

  “When we’re together, it’s great. I’m in the moment and I can pretty much ignore all the other crap, but when we’re apart…”

  “When you’re apart you question whether it’s real or if it’s the adrenaline or the situation or just horniness.”

  Denise pressed her lips together. “Yeah. How did you figure out it was real?”

  “I listened to you.” Bree smiled.

  “What the hell did you do that for?”

  “It made sense at the time.”

  “And now?”

  “And now I think you should listen to your own advice.”

  “I don’t think I could take it if he walked away again.” The bottom dropped out of her stomach at the mere thought of giving him another chance and him choosing his job over her. “If I go all in and it doesn’t work, what then?”

  Bree rested her head on her hands and mirrored Denise's position. “Not every relationship works. You run that risk no matter what. But you have to give it the chance to work first. If you go in from the very beginning with the idea that it’s going to fail, then you’re doomed before you even start.”

  “It’s hard not to think the current circumstances are driving our relationship right now.”

  Bree raised her eyebrows. “So you admit you have a relationship?”

  “We have…something. It’s not like we can do normal relationship stuff.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like go on a date,” she said.

  “Do you want to go on a date?”

  “Kind of,” she admitted.

  “Then ask him on a date,” Bree said.

  “Just like that?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “I don’t think it’s the right time with everything going on at the moment.”

  Bree raised her head and rested her chin in her hand. “That’s just an excuse. Kimber and Kaden are with your parents until tomorrow night. Now’s the perfect time to go on a date. You don’t have to worry about a sitter, which I would totally be willing to do, by the way, and you can pick what you do.”

  Denise rose onto her elbows and picked the cuticle of her thumb. He had already kind of asked her out. Hell, he’d even asked her dad for permission to date her. All she was really doing was setting the date.

  But that meant putting herself out there and opening herself up to the possibility of being rejected and hurt. Maybe not immediately, but a few weeks or months down the road when he left again. Could she deal with that? The twisting feeling in the center of her chest told her she’d have a really, really hard time with it. This thing with Chris, whatever it was, felt big. Important. It loomed around the edges of her life and she knew if she let down her walls it would overwhelm and consume her.

  What she really had to decide was whether that would be the worst thing in the world.

  She nodded a couple of times. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  She looked at Bree. “Why do you sound so surprised?”

  “I thought for sure it was going to take more convincing than that. I didn’t even have to pull out any Disney quotes. I’m kind of bummed.”

  Denise grinned. “You’re a dork.”

  “You love me.”

  They heard an engine coming down the hard-packed dirt lane and they both turned to look.

  “Speak of the devil,” Bree said.

  Denise shifted her weight and picked up the rifle, holding it out to Bree. “Here. There’s five rounds left. May as well shoot them while we have the last bit of light.”

  She took the binoculars and adjusted the focus as she stared through them at the target. Bree shot the last few rounds in quick succession, forming a small grouping below the main target. She lowered the binoculars and smirked.

  “You mad at Jase about something?”

  Bree grinned. “No. I just like to keep him on his toes.” She rose to her knees and cleared the rifle before handing it back to Denise.

  Denise pushed up to her knees as well. “I don’t think it’s his toes Jase is going to worry about.”

  Bree raised her eyebrows and smirked, then headed toward the truck and Jase.

  Even without the crunch of footsteps, Denise would have known Chris was close behind her. It was the cheesiest thing in the world but she could feel his presence.

  He squatted down next to her, balancing on his toes and picked up the binoculars. “Nice grouping,” he said. “Who shot off the poor dude’s penis?”

  “That would be Bree,” she said. “Her humor can be a little twisted sometimes.”

  “Remind me not to piss her off.”

  “I think it should go without saying you shouldn’t piss any woman off.” She stood, cradling the rifle in her arms. “What have you guys been doing?”

  He rose as well. “Sitting around with our hands in our pants. You know. Guy stuff.”

  She grinned. No doubt they’d both fallen asleep watching some game on TV. “What are you doing later?”

  “Don’t have anything planned. Why?”

  She dropped her gaze to the vee of his green t-shirt. “Would you like to get dinner?”

  “No.”

  She exhaled sharply, her heart plummeting. She nodded, not trusting her voice to say anything.

  He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “You’re not stealing my thunder, Denise. I’m doing the asking. I’ve already got something in mind for tomorrow—if you’re free.”

  Pressing her lips together to keep the stupid, sappy grin from breaking free, she nodded again. “Other than unpacking, I don’t have anything going on.”

  “Can you give me a lift back to my truck?”

  She shrugged, more than a little disappointed that he didn’t want to take advantage of Kimber and Kaden spending the night with her parents. “Sure. Where is it?”

  “Jase’s house.”

  Her brows pinched together. “Yeah, sure.”

  “I need to get my jacket from your house, too.”

  “My house at the rescue? My house as in Sarah’s house? Or my house as in Bree’s house?”

  He chuckled low, the rumble sending a shiver coursing down her back. “You have a lot of houses. Are you going to remember where you need to go tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know. It may take me a couple of days before I figure it out.”

  “Bree’s house.” He tucked a small strand of hair behind her ear. “I took it off when we started moving all the books on our last trip.”

  “Okay.”

  He shoved his hand into the pocket of his cargo pants, pushing them dangerously lower. “And I was hoping I could convince you to feed me.”

  “You smelled the chicken.” She’d taken the slow-cooker over the day before and asked Bree to set it up so she wouldn’t have to worry about scrounging for food after moving all day.

  “I smelled the chicken.” He stepped closer. “I’m willing to make a trade for some of that spicy chicken,” he said next to her ear.

  A nervous flutter spread from her belly. Chris would be at her house. With no kids and a bed nearby. “Hmm. I’m sure we can work something out. I have a lot of boxes to unpack.”

  “You do, huh?”

  “Tons of boxes. It’ll probably take all night.”

  “Guess it’s a good thing I brought an overnight bag then.”

  “Guess it is.” She winked and stepped around him to put her rifle in its case. With her back to him, she finally let the goofy smile lose.

  She had a date.

  “I’m so close,” she whispered. Her head fell back as one of Chris’s hands moved down the center of her body, from her neck to where she sat astride him. Her hips rolled as she rose and fell, his thick erection buried impossibly deep.

  “That’s it, Denise. Fuck yeah. Squeeze me tighter, baby.” He rubbed his thumb between her folds, wetting it then rubbing the hood of her clit.

  “Oh, fuck.” Looking down at him, she braced her hands on his c
hest. That sweet tension gathered in her core like flood waters behind a dam, ready to burst.

  He bit his lower lip and thrust up with his hips. “Christ, Denise. I’m holding back as best I can. I want you to come.”

  She took his thumb and moved it millimeters to the left. “Right there.”

  “What do you need?”

  “Small circles. Hard. Fast,” she told him. “There. Right there. Oh, God.” Her head fell back again and she jerked her hips faster as she came, an explosion of starbursts behind her eyes following the pulse coursing through her body.

  He flipped her onto her back, stealing her breath. Hooking his arms under her knees, he spread her wide and drove into her. He buried himself deep and his whole body shuddered. Unhooking his arms, he wrapped her legs around his hips and continued to thrust. Softer now that he’d come, but no less intense.

  Turning his head, he nipped her neck. Shivers shot down her body and she groaned.

  “Unless you can go again, you need to stop doing that,” she said.

  He stilled. “I’m pretty sure I’m dead. There’s no going again for a while.”

  She smiled and ran her hands up his back. “That’s what I figured.”

  He rubbed the bridge of his nose along her jawline, then kissed her briefly. “Be right back.”

  “‘Kay.” Waiting until he’d gone into the bathroom and shut the door, Denise grabbed her robe from the hook on the closet door and used the kids’ bath in the hall to clean up then fixed two glasses of water.

  Chris was asleep on his back, his chest rising and falling evenly when she returned. He’d pulled the sheet up only to his waist.

  Setting one of the glasses on the table next to him, she took a moment to admire all the glorious muscles and tattoos on display in her bed. It was definitely something she could let herself get used to.

  She threw the robe on the end of the bed and lay down on her side in her normal position, facing away from Chris. It felt weird to cuddle up next to him while he was asleep. Plus, she wasn’t much of a cuddler.

  In that moment between being fully awake and asleep, he rolled over and pulled her back into his front, jarring her awake again. Her arms shot out and her whole body jerked at the movement.

  “Shh. ’S okay, baby. I gotch you.”

  Her heart thundered in her chest. Not only from how abruptly she woke, but also from what he said. She could tell from his slurred words that he wasn’t fully awake. They said the most honest people were drunks and kids, but people on the edge of sleep fell into that category. One reason they used sleep deprivation as an interrogation technique.

  It was such a simple statement, but it said so much.

  She adjusted her head on the pillow and wiggled into his embrace. She could learn to be a cuddler. Her eyelids eased closed, a small smile on her lips.

  “I want you to be my person,” he mumbled.

  Her eyes snapped open and stayed that way for a long time.

  Chapter 23

  “Hey, Denise?” Nick, one of her employees, called from the reception door.

  “Yeah?” She closed the kennel door and took the leash to hang up on the pegs along the wall.

  “I just got a call from the county shelter that there’s an abandoned dog. They think it might have been hit by a car. They’re full.”

  Shit. That was their code for “the dog will be euthanized if we get it.” She glanced at the clock. There was no way she’d have time to go get a dog, bring it back here, and make it home in time to meet the school bus.

  Damn it. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. They needed to hire more people. She’d cut back on her afternoon hours to be home for Kimber and Kaden, but everything in the rescue was starting to back up.

  “Do you need me to go get it?”

  She dropped her hands. “You’d do that?”

  Nick pushed through the door and walked toward her. “Sure, why not?”

  “It’s not something you normally do.”

  He shrugged and crossed his arms. “It’s true, you’ve always picked up any dogs we get calls for, but you also lived here and had no life.”

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much.

  “You’ve got a family now. They should be your priority.”

  “You don’t mind?” she asked.

  “Not at all. Should I bring it back here or straight to Doc Abbie?”

  Normally, she made that call, but it was time she release the stranglehold she had on every facet of her life. “Make the call when you see the dog.”

  He stood up straighter. “Really?”

  Jeez, had she really been that much of a control freak? “Yeah. I trust your judgment. Just call Doc Abbie’s office first so they know you’re coming.”

  “Wow. Yeah. I will. Is there anything special I should take?”

  She helped him pack a kit with the equipment she normally took with her on pick-ups. After he left, she looked through the appointment schedule to see whether anyone needed to be rescheduled. It meant more back-to-back appointments the rest of the week, but it couldn’t be helped.

  Note to self: look through all the office manager applications tonight.

  Rubbing the center of her forehead again, she sighed. She’d work with a couple of the dogs she absolutely had to, clean the kennels, feed everyone, and hopefully get out of there on time.

  After rescheduling her clients, she glanced down at Sprocket. “You staying here or coming with me to the barn?”

  The dog raised her head, groaned, and laid it back down again.

  “I don’t think so.” She bent and patted her on the side, scratching the base of her tail for good measure. “You’ve done nothing all day but lay around. You can walk your lazy butt over to the barn with me and lay down over there. Come on.”

  Sprocket lumbered to her feet, a low whine protesting the effort.

  “Whatever.”

  Her phone pinged as they crossed the yard.

  Chris: Busy?

  That’s rhetorical, right?

  A few seconds later, her phone rang, Chris’s name flashing across the screen.

  “So, that’s a yes?”

  “Yeah, that’s a yes.”

  “What’s going on?”

  She lifted the latch on the barn door and stepped through, leaving it open for Sprocket to follow.

  “Well, Nick had to go get a dog so I had to reschedule all my afternoon appointments so I can take care of everything and still get out of here in time to pick up the kids.” She tucked the phone into her shoulder to grab the stack of metal food bowls in what used to be the tack room, now used to store food and equipment.

  “Who else is there?” Chris asked.

  “Just me.”

  Sprocket began barking from the main area of the barn. Denise turned in that direction as if she could see through the wall at what had set her off.

  “What do you mean, just you?” Chris asked.

  The phone beeped in her ear. For fuck’s sake. She pulled it away to see who was calling.

  “Hang on, the school is calling.”

  “Denise—”

  She switched lines. “Hello?”

  “Hello. Ms. Reynolds?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is Alicia from the front office of Springer Elementary.”

  The barking had grown louder with several other dogs joining Sprocket and she closed the door to the tack room. She’d find out what set them off after the call.

  “Yes?” An acrid smell permeated the air and she twitched her nose to get rid of the itch it caused. What is that?

  “We’d like to know if Kimber and Kaden will be returning to school after their dental appointment.”

  Her gut contracted. “What do you mean return to school? They should be at school now.”

  “No, ma’am. Their father signed them out for their dental appointment before lunch.”

  She dropped the bowls, the clatter of them hitting the concrete floor adding to the cacoph
ony of the dogs’ barking.

  “There’s a no-contact court order against their father, who is a wanted felon, so would you mind explaining to me how the fuck he signed them out of school?” she shouted.

  No. No. No. This is not happening. Adrenaline and a heavy dose of fear coursed through her.

  “I—”

  “Fuck!” Her skin tightened as goose bumps rose from every pore of her body. Her vision narrowed, then expanded.

  She switched back to Chris and wrenched open the tack room door.

  “Chris—” Smoke billowed around her and she coughed as it wrapped around her head.

  Every dog was barking or howling. Sprocket stood in front of the now closed barn door, snarling and barking.

  “Denise!”

  “I’m here. He took the kids. The barn’s on fire.”

  Thick, black, oily smoke billowed up from the bottom of the door. Flames danced and crackled within the smoke, reaching halfway up the wall. A quick glance at the other end of the barn showed a similar situation, although the fire hadn’t progressed as much.

  That old barn’s probably got some really dry wood.

  Fucking Eddie.

  No fire or smoke was visible from the sides of the barn. Probably because the chain link enclosures kept out whatever asshole had started the fire.

  “Where are you?” Chris asked.

  “In the barn. Sprocket, come.” Hackles raised and a snarl still played at her mouth but the dog obeyed.

  “Fucking hell.”

  “Pretty much.” She went back into the tack room.

  “Why are you so calm?”

  She tossed storage containers off the shelf, looking for the one that held the promotional merchandise. “Would you rather I be hysterical, suck in a bunch of smoke, and pass out? I don’t really have time for that right now.”

  “Son of a bitch. I’m fifteen minutes away.”

  “How are you fifteen minutes away?” In a shoe box-sized container she found the I heart Wiggle Butts bandanas she’d had made for an adoption event and grabbed two.

  “I was already on my way. Fire department is on the way as well and I’ve got a team working on the kids.”

  He must have radioed it in. At least that was one less thing she had to do.