Marg cranked the wheel. A second of relief washed through him when she barely missed the thing and then fear struck again as a smaller boulder right behind rolled straight in front of her.
“She can’t outrun it,” Pat heard himself yell.
Betty screamed from behind him as the road trembled under them. He kept the bike upright. His heart froze with fear, seeing the giant boulder careening down the slope straight at Marg. He couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t help her.
Cold, he went stone cold.
The smaller boulder came to rest in the middle of the road. With no time to avoid impact, Marg drove straight into it. The air bag deployed, and the car high centered on the boulder, the screeching of rock on metal tearing out her under carriage.
The convoy stopped. Thane was already off his bike and barreling toward her on foot, getting there first. Red hammered on the brakes and ran back with Lydia close behind. Pat thrust the bike into gear and roared up behind the car.
Marg gripped her right shoulder with one hand and fought to get away from the airbag as it deflated. Pat jumped off the bike and pushed through the team who’d gathered around her car.
“Marg! How is she?” Lydia yelled as she reached the group.
Pat couldn’t see with Thane bending over Marg. A cooler lay on the ground. Beer bottles, cracked and broken, streamed out onto the hot pavement. The other cooler had wedged itself between the dash and the passenger seat.
He forced himself next to Thane. “Marg?”
“Let’s get her out of the car.” Thane moved to open the door, but Pat pushed him aside.
“Marg, are you okay?”
She blew out her breath and turned a look at him that could dynamite a boulder. Her face red, but not from anger, he saw embarrassment.
“I nearly missed it,” she said, taking his hand.
Pat had almost forgotten what it was like to touch her. Electricity ripped through his veins. “Are you hurt?”
With a quick body check, he saw her right shoulder had an abrasion. The cooler must have hit her when it pitched through the air. Pat pulled her leggy but light body into his arms. He checked the area for hazards before he laid her down in a clump of dried grass, then knelt to one knee. Fear rampaged over every second of training he’d ever had as he moved his hands down her limbs looking for injuries.
“Marg, your shoulder is pretty banged up. Can you move it for me? ”
The rest of the team surrounded them.
“Here,” Lydia knelt across from him with some bottled water.
Pat gently thumbed the chafe on her left cheek. Thank God she had long legs and didn’t sit close to the steering wheel. His pulse evened out, seeing she wasn’t badly hurt. He gently brushed his hand behind her neck. The woman’s lips begged to be kissed. Too much temptation, it’s why he’d kissed her the first time. A spur of the moment—impossible to refuse—temptation.
Lydia removed her light overshirt and soaked it with water, dabbing it on Marg’s cheek, then holding it against her forehead. “Marg, sweetie, how do you feel?
“Stupid,” Marg answered, confirming Pat’s thoughts.
“What’s the condition of the road?” Red barked out.
“She doesn’t need a hospital,” Pat said. “She’ll be all right.”
As if to confirm his words, Marg’s lashes fluttered and her blue eyes set on him. “The rock, I couldn’t avoid it.”
“Can’t take on a rock and win, honey,” he said, watching her closely for a change in her condition. When she pressed her palms to the ground to get up, he gently restrained her. “Give it a second. You got the wind knocked out of you.”
“My car,” she said.
“Needs a tow truck and a good mechanic,” he answered, then allowed a small smile to edge his lips.
Marg sat up and shook her head. “Oh, no,” she said, looking in the direction of her Mercedes. “It’s toast.”
“Pretty much, but you’re safe,” he said, still watching for signs of trauma.
“We’ll make room in the van,” Lydia offered.
“She’s fine,” Betty said, standing next to Thane. “Let’s go.”
Pat held Marg’s hand, not wanting to let go of her long, soft fingers.
“Thank you,” she said, taking a breath. “I’ll have to call a tow truck to come get it.”
“We’ll worry about that when we get to Big Bear,” Lydia said, putting an arm around her shoulder, and pulling her away from him.
Thane gave him a look, and Pat jerked his gaze away from the unspoken words. Dump the tramp on your bike and take Marg. She was safer in the minivan with Red. She still could be a little shaken up, although she didn’t look it. That woman was sexier and softer looking than any woman he’d ever laid eyes on, but something told him she had a warrior’s heart and that worried him.
Marg’s father had stripped Pat’s desire and confidence the night of the party at her parents’ home. Alex Stines-Foster hadn’t warned him, he’d pleaded with him to leave Marg. To let her find a man who didn’t have a job where dodging bullets was a life changing career. After walking in the boots of an active SEAL, Pat rationalized her father was probably right, and a common complaint among wives of warfare operators.
“Let’s ride,” Thane said, putting a hand on his shoulder and rousting him back to reality.
Betty was already waiting by his bike. When he approached, she gave him a wink. “She isn’t hurt, she’s just looking for attention.”
He ignored the half-dressed woman with boobs barely covered by her flimsy shirt. Throwing his leg over the bike, Betty’s hands roamed down his chest toward his belt buckle, and he stopped it there. “Got to concentrate on the road. Might be cracks,” he said.
She withdrew, but gripped his chest and pressed her breasts against his back. He was used to girls like her. The girls he grew up with didn’t have a tight handle on their virtue. Even his sister had lost hers too young. Chalise been scared she’d become pregnant at fourteen. He took her to see a doctor at a free clinic in town, unbeknownst to his mother, and protecting her from his father’s drunkin’ rants where he called her a slut. They had both sighed with relief when the doc said the test was negative. They’d driven to the beach across from the base and Pat sat his little sister down in the sand and gave her the big brother speech on guys and their prime teenage directive to get in as many girls’ pants as possible.
Obviously the chick riding on the back of his bike never got that talk, and Betty was one of the well-known Frog Hogs.
“Hope you have room for me in your tent tonight, Pat,” she said over the wind noise.
A scorned woman on the back of a bike could be dangerous, so he let his hand settle on her leg, and it was enough for her. He’d break the bad news later. If he couldn’t share Marg’s bed, he wouldn’t be sharing a bed with another woman in front of her.
His indiscretion in Tokyo had been a near miss. The young girl, barely an adult, sat on his lap all night in the bar the squad had taken roost in for a couple days of R&R. When he staggered from the table, three quarters cut on rum, she followed him back to his room. He’d let her in, but even as drunk as he was when she lay on his bed, naked and beckoning him to join her, he stayed by the door. With the last ounce of good sense he had, he knew screwing her wouldn’t take away the memory of Marg. If he needed relief, he had his hand, and could keep his values intact.
When they reached Big Bear Mountain resort, the place was a stir of activity. The lodge sustained minimal damage with things falling off ledges, but no one had been hurt. In the main lobby, people were clustered around the TV. The news announcer reported the landslides were a result of the 6.5 magnitude quake. This occurring three hours after the Lander’s quake they’d felt just before leaving San Diego, now reported as a 7.3, the strongest quake felt in forty years. There’d been injuries and a lot of damage in the Landers area, but only three fatalities. Two of which were heart attacks. Basically lightening had struck twice, being only twenty-tw
o miles apart and very close to the San Andreas Fault.
“Do you think it’s getting ready for the big one?” Marg asked, as he stood in line at the lobby’s front desk.
“Hey,” he said, wrapping his hand around her arm. “How are you feeling?”
“Stupid. I saw the rock tumbling down the hill, but not the little one behind it. I have to use the pay phone and get a tow truck out there for my car. I told Grams I was coming out here this weekend, I don’t want a highway patrolman finding it and sounding the alarm.”
“Can I help you,” the desk clerk said, making them both turn. Having their attention, the frazzled man behind the counter gave the spiel about the rooms in the lodge and the campsites.
“One site, please. Just water, I don’t need electric hookup,” Marg said.
Thinking they were a couple, the man said, “The first four people are free in each site, after that there’s a charge for extra people. You’ve got the use of the pool and other facilities, as well as the shower house.” He efficiently circled the restrooms and pointed to the main lodge. “Your wife will prefer this site, it’s close to the washrooms.”
“Umm.” Pat darted an anxious glance toward Marg.
She didn’t bat an eye. “Where is the closest pay phone and grocery store? I had a bit of an accident and I have to replenish what I lost.”
“We have a store here, around the back side of the lodge. You can get the basics.”
“Thank you, and the pay phone?”
“Down that hall to your left,” the clerk said, pointing over their shoulders.
“Thanks.” She turned a look on Pat. “I still have my tent.”
Would that be enough, Pat wondered? Even if she were a few feet away, he wouldn’t get a lot of sleep knowing she’d be close.
Betty bounded up and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Did you get us a site, handsome?”
Before he could open his mouth, Marg turned to the clerk. “I’ll need my own site.”
“No, you won’t,” Lydia said, appearing beside them. “We’ve got room in ours. Please add her to site twenty-four.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The clerk turned to his box of cards and rifled through them.
Lydia had been a SEAL wife for many years. She knew about the Frog Hogs. Turning a biting look of disgust on Betty, she said, “Your group is over there.”
“I’m staying with Pat, as if it’s any business of yours,” Betty hurled back
Lydia’s blue eyes snapped before her tongue did. “This weekend is for SEALs and their families. Not a frat party with 1-900-call-a-slut.”
Marg’s brows popped with surprise. Lydia was a lieutenant’s wife, and the Frog Hogs knew which wife to steer clear of. Betty shot a questioning look at Pat. Not wanting to be part of the cat fight, he grabbed Marg by the hand and pulled her out of the line of fire.
“Let’s go find the phone,” he said, and guided her farther away from the second volley Lydia was about to launch on Betty. He could see in Lydia’s eyes it was going to be a kill shot.
“I’m not here to intervene on your party,” Marg said, but didn’t try to pull away from his grasp.
Anxious to touch her, he brushed her chaffed cheek with a caress. “You can share my site.”
The thought made his deprived cock jump to attention. He wanted this woman so bad, he’d thought of nothing else since arriving home.
Stepping off the plane, he would have driven straight to her place ready to apologize like she’d wanted him to, but if he did, they would have been a tangle of legs and lust. When he’d first seen her picture on the front of American Sweetheart, his body reacted as expected, but his heart exploded on impact. She’d worn a red, white and blue mini top that skimmed the bottom of her breasts. Her flat, tanned stomach and long legs stretched out on the beach wearing a pair of cut-offs, unwrapped his blinding mistake. Night after night, he held the torn cover in his dirty fingers. He wanted to take a step in her direction, but her life would be ruined.
“Aren’t you staying with Thane?”
His hand swept to her hip and he drew her closer. With a malleable pose, she draped an arm over his shoulder and curled her hand around his neck.
“Marg?”
“Hmm,” she nearly purred, their gaze tearing into each other.
“I’m hard as a fucking rock. I want you so goddamn bad.” His brow furled tight. “I’m sorry for being a son-of-a-bitch. Sorry for what I said to you before I left. And I know I must sound like a fucking asshole, but when it comes to you, I don’t have a stitch of patience.”
Marg tilted her head and sparingly touched his lips with hers. “You’re like the Rock of Gibraltar when it comes to patience and resisting me.”
“Not anymore, unless you don’t want me to kiss you, starting at your toes and end up between your thighs, making you scream my name.”
Their mouths came together in a crashing blow. He wanted to tear her clothes off right here and right now. Stroke her sweetness. Set her on fire. Her soft skin and long body made him painfully aware he was going to cum soon, even before being inside her. Passion had him thrusting her against the door of the men’s bathroom, almost pushing them right through it. Her pillowy lips drove him to distraction. Her tongue the sweetest thing he’d ever known in his mouth.
“Umm, sorry to interrupt,” Thane said from behind them. A severe expression on his face when they took a breath.
“What?” Pat growled, wondering if his best friend had interrupted on purpose. Not completely convinced Thane didn’t hold onto the memory of him and Marg, and regretted it.
“We’re leaving.”
“What?” They both barked at the same time.
“Two quakes in three hours and we’re sitting on the fault line. We’re heading west.”
“To where?” Marg asked, straightening her blouse rumpled blouse from his unrestrained assault.
Thane looked toward the group of SEALs and their families amassed in the lobby. He shrugged. “Where SEALs belong, near the ocean. Pismo Beach.”
“That has to be a five hour drive,” Marg said. “I don’t have a car.”
Thane eyed him. “Don’t think you have to worry about that. Leave your things in Red’s van and let’s get moving. We’ll have the hamburgers on by five o’clock.”
Marg searched the walls for the phone.
“I’ll wait for Marg. She’s gotta get a tow-truck to pick-up her car.”
“I’ll save ya a spot.” Thane gave him a lazy salute.
Picking up the yellow pages, Marg found the one and only tow-truck driver and told them where to find the Mercedes. The guy said they’d been contacted by the Highway Patrol already. Pinning the phone with her slender shoulder, Marg dug in her purse and made a note on a piece of paper. After hanging up, she quickly called the Highway Patrol to tell them what happened.
When she hung up, she said, “It’s going to cost more to have it towed to San Diego than having it fixed. The police said there’s a good body shop in San Bernardino.” She called the tow-truck driver back and instructed him to tow it to the repair shop.
“Damage was pretty severe, Marg, fixing it is going to cost a lot,” he said.
She shrugged and gave him a sheepish look. “Money isn’t a problem.”
“Guess not.”
As a model on the cover of American Sweetheart, she probably had a bank account ten times his size. Not something he could change serving Uncle Sam. The reminder of their financial gap threatened to squash his hopes.
* * * *
After telling the guys they were stopping in San Bernadino to wait for the car and they’d catch up later, he handed Marg the extra helmet. Lydia must have chewed a good one off Betty’s hide because she didn’t approach him again.
Marg eyed his bike with interest. “Will you teach me how to drive one of these?”
He shook his head. “No way.”
“Why not?” she said, her voice erupting with surprise.
Tilting his head an
d having one helluva time keeping his mind on the drive ahead with the ultra-beautiful Margaret Stines on the back of his bike for the rest of the day, stirred more than his hopes.
“Because.” Pat took a step closer and pulled the helmet from her hands, then carefully placed it on her head, securing the chin strap. “You’re too beautiful to die.”
She blushed and set her big blue gaze on him. “I think the same thing about you, but the Navy doesn’t mind risking your life.”
His brow furled tight. “It’s forever, Marg. I’ll be with the SEALs until I retire. That’s a lot of years of risk.”
He wasn’t asking her if she could handle it, but in a sense he was.
Marg wrapped her long arms around his neck. “Forever is a long time. Lots of things can happen in forever, but I’m not waiting for a proposal before you take me to bed. Stop being a gentleman, Zodiak, and show me how a SEAL makes love.”
The image of Thane pounced. Although pushed into the corners of his mind, the thought that if Thane was into settling down, she would have chosen him, stood and shook itself off. He swallowed thickly, his entire body heating up, prodding him to stop belaboring the negative thoughts. She wanted to be kissed. He could feel it in every cell, but if he kissed her, he’d be dragging her back into the lodge for a room. Then room service. Then new sheets, because he would make her body burn until she lit up like a Roman candle with his not far behind.
“Your car first,” he said, blowing out a deep breath. Marg threw a long, gorgeous leg across the saddle of his bike, her cheeks blushing. Damn, he wanted those pipes around his hips. One damn kiss couldn’t hurt. He grabbed her helmet and powered his lips against hers. A small moan crawled up both their throats. When he pulled away to breathe, he said, “Forgive me, sweetheart, I know I shouldn’t do this. Your father is going to string me up, but you’re worth a lynching.”
Marg’s arms yanked him closer. “It’s my life and yours, Petty Officer Cobbs. That is, unless you’ve found someone else.”
Code Name: Forever & Ever (A Warrior's Challenge series Book 5) Page 35