“Whenever she’s ready.” He was silent for a moment. “My girl got a piece of that bastard, didn’t she?” He brushed his fingertips along Gracie’s back.
“Yeah. The police said shed bitten his arm and done a pretty fair job of ripping it up. He must have beaten her off with something, stunned her maybe, shoved her into the bedroom and closed her up. Piper’s checked her over twice to make sure she’s okay.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t kill her.”
Zach had wondered about it, too. “He needed one of them to bark so Piper would think everything was okay when she came in. Trouble couldn’t.”
Master Chief’s clenched a fist. “Bastard! Goddamn bastard!”
Tom and Teresa came up from the beach with their two children to say their good-byes, saving him from dwelling on Henderlight. He’d done it enough already. Alana struggled to rise from the lounge, and Zach went to offer her a hand. She smiled shyly and thanked him. “I’ll go in and get little Armando,” she said. “Thank you for having us.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.” Armando focused on Zach. “You’ve done more for my sister and our family than any of the rest of us were man enough to do.” His features crumpled in pain and he dropped his head. He struggled to maintain his composure. “Thank you for saving my sister. For ending this for us.”
“I was just in the right place at the right time.”
Armando shook his head. “Piper loves and needs you. Please take care of yourself.”
“I will.”
Armando offered his hand and Zach shook it.
He tried to turn loose of his anger with Armando. It did no one any good to hold on to any enmity for past deeds. He’d said it to Piper when he talked her into this get-together. Armando and Teresa had been the most viciously vocal about Piper’s supposed culpability in her father’s death, and it was good to know Armando was obviously regretting it.
Zach wandered back to the Master Chief. “You know you have a forty-minute drive with a beautiful woman back to the facility. Guys like us have to seize our opportunities when they present themselves.”
Flynn’s wide grin was answer enough.
Zach leaned forward in his seat. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“Name it.”
“Call Piper now and then, just to check in on her.” He didn’t want her to mope or be lonely once he was gone.
“Gladly.”
Twenty minutes later Carlotta came out to collect Master Chief Flynn. Zach walked next to Flynn with his walker through the house to the car. Piper came out to say good-bye and give the master chief a hug. Zach helped him get into Carlotta’s Altima, shook his hand, and closed the door.
When Carlotta hugged him, he automatically put his arms around her. “Please be careful.” Her eyes were bright with tears when she released him, ducked her head, and got into the car.
He turned to go back into the apartment. Piper stood at the door, thinking again that the red sundress she wore wasn’t her normal style. It left her shoulders, arms and legs bare. He wondered when she bought it.
Trouble wandered up to the door, Gracie at his side. He was still unable to lift his head or bark, but in the week since the attack, the swelling had greatly reduced, and he actually wagged his tail to greet Zach when went back in.
Zach knelt before the retriever so he could see his face while he carefully stroked his head, back, and shoulders, avoiding the tender areas. “You’re a good boy, Trouble.” The dog wagged his tail in answer, licked his cheek, and laid his large head on his shoulder. He continued to pet him until he pulled back.
It was useless to be angry at a dead man, he reminded himself. But it would be a long time before the feelings of rage passed about the dog’s treatment at Henderlight’s hands.
“He’s doing much better. He actually ate a little of his dry food. It’s just going to take some time.”
Zach rose to his feet. “If it’s less traumatic from him to stay here during the day, you have a key, and the bills are automatically paid out of my account.”
“I think I’m going to continue to take him and Gracie to work with me for awhile. He’s a little anxious about being alone.”
“Understandable.”
“Did you see Kathleen today?”
He nodded. “She came over for a few minutes while you were gone to the market. Callahan’s back home, and he came with her.” His sister hadn’t held it together too well, and he hadn’t wanted her to get Piper worked up. Hell, she’d almost gotten him going. Callahan finally managed to maneuver her out the door after half an hour. He was going to buy him a case of beer the next time he saw him. “She said she’d call in a couple of days, and the two of you would go out and do something together.”
“Okay.” She brushed at a strand of hair that lay against her cheek and he tucked it back behind her ear.
“I still can’t believe Tony was involved in the Master Chief Flynn’s attack and the break-ins. He’s worked for us for almost a year. He’s great with the dogs.”
The call from Sherman stunned her, and she’d been dwelling on it for the last three days.
He ran his hands up and down her arms. “I know you’re disappointed and upset about it. But don’t take responsibility for what he did, Piper. You weren’t the only one who trusted him. No one else at the office had a single suspicion about him either.”
“Only Gracie.” Vindictive anger lit her eyes. “I wish she’d bitten a hunk out of him.”
He laughed. “No you don’t. Then she might be in trouble.” He drew her close. “He’ll pay for what he did. Him and the others involved. And the dogs they found will be returned to their owners.”
She nodded.
He grasped her hand and tugged her toward the kitchen, then out the back door. Trouble and Gracie followed, and he left the door cracked open wide enough for them to go back in if they wanted to. He sat down on the lounge and drew her down between his legs. Piper guided his arms around her and placed her own arms atop his.
Trouble took a place next to the lounge and lay on his side. Gracie snuggled close against him and rested her head atop her paws.
“Do you think she senses he needs her support? She’s very attentive to him these days.”
“She probably does. I know she’s missed him while he’s been at the vet’s office. She hunted the apartment and your house for him the whole time he was gone.”
“I’ll have to arrange play dates for them when Master Chief Flynn gets well enough to take her.”
Zach gave her a squeeze. “Honey, I think you’re going to have to arrange play dates for us.”
Piper laughed. “You’re right.”
He pressed his lips to her temple and breathed in her jasmine fragrance. “I love you, Piper.”
Her hands tightened on his arms. “I do you, too.” She turned on her side to press as tightly to him as possible. “Since that first weekend.”
“Me, too.”
If she cried… “Let’s go to bed. I need to be as close to you as I can get.”
She nodded and slid down to the foot of the lounge to get up, but kept her face turned away.
Gracie scrambled to her feet and Trouble followed a little more slowly. The dogs trotted into the apartment ahead of them.
He remembered wanting to put his hand against the small of her back the first day they met. He did it now as they walked down the hall to his bedroom.
Piper’s hands shook while she unbuttoned his shirt and peeled it off his shoulders, just as they had the first time. He had said it, but he wanted her to know he meant it. He cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Piper.”
“Zach.” Her mouth took his and her tears wet his face.
He kissed her over and over until she calmed. “It’s going to be okay, honey. You have to trust me.”
“I do. With my heart, my body, my love.”
He wanted to touch every inch of her, feel every
inch of her skin against his own. He took his time undressing her. “You looked beautiful tonight. This red is perfect with your coloring” He released the buttons at the base of her neck to the lower curve of her back, then eased it forward and down, brushing his fingertips against the peaks of her breasts, teasing the already-budded nipples.
Piper pulled her arms free and let the dress slide to her feet. She wore no bra, and the white lace panties she wore were barely a scrap of fabric.
“If I’d known this was all you had on under the dress I wouldn’t have been able to think about anything else.”
“The dress and the panties were a gift from Kathleen.”
“I’m going to text my sister later thanking her.”
Piper laughed, and the sound eased the ache inside him until he smiled. He took great care while he slid the panties down and let them drop to her feet. He urged her to sit on the edge of the bed and knelt to slide her feet free of her sandals and place them on the floor.
He ran his hands up the backs of her calves and brushed a kiss on her knee.
Piper smoothed his hair back from his forehead. “You’re still dressed,” she reminded him.
He stood, and she reached for his belt and unfastened it. He loved the way she always took her time sliding down his zipper and baring him. It was as though she was savoring the moment. He shed his T-shirt in record time.
When Piper leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his stomach, right below his navel, an electric current of need raced downward, making him harden almost painfully. He rushed to kick free of his deck shoes, shorts and briefs.
Piper slid back on the bed, and he followed her. He touched the fragile peaks of her collarbones, the weight of her breasts, the shallow hollow of her stomach, memorizing the texture of her skin, the slender grace of her shape. Piper’s hands were a brush of arousing sensation as she did the same to him. She traced the defined muscles of his stomach and they tightened.
He bent his head and kissed her, just where she had kissed him, and he felt her sharp, indrawn breath and knew she felt the same electric need.
“Come inside me, Zach,” she murmured, her voice breathy and soft.
He did. No condom. Nothing between them.
The ripe, moist heat of her caressed him, and he held his breath while he fought for control. He wanted to stay like this for as long as he could. Feeling her hands caress his back, her lips against his throat, his shoulder. The tender way she held him. Her whispered, “I love you,” with the throb of pain and joy in her tone. The way her lips clung to his with both tenderness and passion. When his control threatened to break and he had to move, only then did he withdraw, slide a condom on, and began a tender dance to drive them both to completion.
Afterward they lay for hours, clinging to each other until he could no longer stay awake.
*
Piper laid her head against his chest and listened to the strong, steady rhythm of his heart, willing the sound to soothe her to sleep. But sleep wouldn’t come. All the sweet, loving things he had done played through her mind. All the protective courage he had shown in every instance. It had all been done with love. To know it gave every act a greater dimension for her.
At four, Zach woke and reached for her. They made love again, this time with a desperate intensity that left them both sweaty and spent. She finally drifted off until five, when the alarm went off.
She rose with him, and while he took a shower, she slid into the shirt he’d worn the day before. Instead of the two large dog beds they’d purposely bought for them to sleep in, the dogs both slipped guiltily off the leather sofa and greeted her. She hadn’t the heart to scold them this morning, and instead gave each one a generous rub, then urged them into the kitchen. She opened the door and let them out, watching them until they returned to the door.
She fed them, and while they crunched at their breakfast, she turned her attention to Zach’s. It would be the last thing she could do for him before he flew away from her. She wanted to care for him in some way.
She made coffee, poured juice, and whipped eggs for a three-egg omelet of shredded ham and cheddar cheese. She slipped three slices of bread in the toaster.
When he entered the kitchen dressed in his BDU’s, he brought the energy of purpose with him. It was what had clung to him the first time they’d met. What she’d admired about him then. What she loved about him now.
“It smells wonderful, Piper,” he said. He sat down at the table and she placed the food before him. He gave her waist a squeeze. Those few words triggered a memory.
While he ate, she got a small zip-lock storage bag and slipped back into the bedroom. She collected the panties he had taken off her the night before and went into the bathroom. She found the spritzer she used, sprayed the panties with her scent, and sealed them in the bag.
She slipped her robe on and stuffed the bag in the pocket.
When she returned she poured a cup of coffee for them both and sat at the table.
“The guys will be here to pick me up any time now. I’ve put the key to the storage unit in the top dresser drawer in the bedroom, in case you need my SUV.”
“I’ll be okay, Zach.” She felt calmer than the day before. Knowing he loved her helped her hold her emotions in check. She prayed it would last.
“I know.”
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway was followed by the toot of a horn. He stared at her and she at him. He reached for his juice to wash down the last bite of food and shoved to his feet.
“I have something for you.” She withdrew the plastic bag with the panties in it from her pocket and offered it to him. He studied the contents for a moment then a smile lit his face. “They have my scent on them. When it fades, email or call, and I’ll send you another pair.”
He unbuttoned his shirt and stuck the bag inside it, then buttoned it back up. “I love you.”
Her heart rose to into her throat, and tears burned against the backs of her eyes. “I love you too.”
He reached for her and kissed her hard. She clung to him with an answering fierceness. Lifting the heavy sea bag he’d packed the day before, he settled it over his shoulder and opened the door.
He stepped out onto the front stoop, then paused to look back at her. The early morning sun touched his hair, still damp from his shower, with deep red highlights, and his eyes gleamed a bright, clear green. “Wait for me, Piper.”
Her heart swelled with both joy and love. “I will, Zach. Always.”
Books By Teresa J. Reasor
MILITARY ROMANTIC SUSPENSE:
Breaking Free (Book 1 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)
Breaking Through (Book 2 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)
Breaking Away (Book 3 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)
Breaking Ties: A Seal Team Heartbreakers Novella
Building Ties (Book 4 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)
Breaking Boundaries (Book 5 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)
Breaking Out (Book 6 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers)
PARANORMAL ROMANCE/Urban Fantasy:
Timeless
Whisper In My Ear
Deep Within The Shadows
HISTORICAL ROMANCE:
Highland Moonlight
Captive Hearts
To Capture A Highlander’s Heart: The Wedding Night
(A Highland Moonlight Spinoff Novel)
To Capture A Highlander’s Heart: The Trilogy
(all three parts of the Highland Moonlight spinoff series in one book) Print and ebook
SHORT STORIES:
To Capture A Highlander’s Heart: The Beginning
(A Highland Moonlight Spinoff)
An Automated Death (A Steampunk Short Story) Paranormal
Caught In The Act (A Humorous Short Story) Contemporary Romance
NOVELLAS:
To Capture A Highlander’s Heart: The Courtship
(A Highland Moonlight Spinoff)
CHILDREN’S BOOK:
Wi
lly C. Sparks: The Dragon Who Lost His Fire
ANTHOLOGIES HER WORK HAS BEEN INCLUDED IN:
Malice, Mischief, and Men (Breaking Free)
SEALed With A Kiss: Heroes With A Heart (Breaking Free)
Dangerous Dames (Building Ties)
Breaking Out (Military Romantic Suspense) (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 6) Page 42