by Zoe York
He didn’t have any privacy where he was, so the rumored Skype sex she’d heard about from other Navy wives hadn’t happened yet. He’d sent her some suggestive emails, but it turned out that her downright filthy man was pretty buttoned up when Uncle Sam was screening communications. That was okay. In the year and a half they’d been together, he’d given her a lifetime of fantasies to thrive on.
The day they closed on their little three-bedroom bungalow, he’d carried her over the threshold and they’d christened the staircase. Then the loft bedroom, with her folded over the edge of the bed and Jared palming her ass from behind. She blushed as she thought about their first time on Christmas Eve morning—or second time, rather. He’d been such a quick study, and by the end of the holidays they’d had more sex than she’d had in the entire last year of her first marriage.
Her attempt to build a life with Mitch felt like a lifetime ago. And the love that she shared with Jared cast that first marriage as pale and anemic in comparison.
Her second wedding had been an understated affair on the base, a month before his first tour. She’d promised to wait for him, but Jared was having none of that. And belonging to him made the deployment easier on her as well. The Navy had more resources for supporting spouses than girlfriends. None of Jared’s closest friends were married yet, but one of his mentors, Drew Castle, was and came down from L.A. for the wedding with his wife Annie, who was pretty close to Cassie’s age. The pretty brunette had confided that Drew missed the San Diego area, and as soon as she finished her academic studies, they’d be moving back.
In the year that had passed since they married, Jared had left the country five times. Two long deployments, including the one he was currently on, but in between there had been…training missions he called them, but they weren’t all easy. Sometimes he couldn’t sleep for a few days when he got back. But he always handled whatever was in his head, and before long he was back to himself. Annie and Drew had come to visit a couple of times, conveniently timing their arrivals to just after Jared left until Cassie convinced them she was fine.
And she was. But 227 days was a long time to spend apart from the man she loved. Not that she was counting or anything.
The clinic room door swung open, jarring her out of her melancholy thoughts.
“Cassie, welcome back,” said her obstetrician, Dr. Canoglu. “Let’s fire up the ultrasound and see how baby is doing.”
Jared paced in the arrivals hall at Heathrow International Airport. Around him swirled a mess of sound and color, but all he focused on was the digital display in front of him. Los Angeles - Arrived. Any second now, Cassie would walk through those gates and he’d get to kiss her. Touch her belly and feel their baby move. Photos and video weren’t the same.
He stroked his chin, wondering what she’d think of his neatly trimmed scruff. He preferred to be clean-shaven, but he had a brutal tan and was sort of scared to shave off the beard completely. Two months in the desert hadn’t been kind to his skin, and even though he’d flown through Germany and had many hot showers between the sandpit and London, he knew he didn’t look like the same man she’d kissed goodbye two-and–a-half months earlier.
Each long deployment he got a decent-sized chunk of time off in the middle. Last time, they’d gone to Bali. The memory of Cassie swimming naked in their private pool stirred his arousal in a way that wasn’t particularly helpful in the middle of an airport concourse.
But damn, his wife was beautiful. And naughty.
For this leave he’d insisted they meet in a modern city with excellent health care. Cassie had been through so much to make this pregnancy happen, he didn’t want to do anything to risk her health or the baby’s.
He’d already checked into their hotel, so the only thing he carried was a massive bouquet of flowers he’d picked up from a florist down the street from the hotel. He bounced on his heels, nervous and excited to see her come through those doors. The flowers might have been a mistake—he’d just drop them when he hugged her. And that brought him full circle to wondering how big her belly was now. She didn’t look big in the pictures at all, but she said she’d started to feel the baby.
His baby.
He couldn’t get over how much his life had changed in the last year, or the peace that becoming a father had brought to his thoughts about his own parentage. He’d never be able to understand how a man could walk away from this responsibility, but without a doubt, he knew he never would. That was all that mattered.
In front of him a youth football team arrived, and mayhem broke out as parents and girlfriends descended on the entrance gate. It took a minute for security to get people moving again, and when the crowd broke up, there she was.
His blonde angel in a bright blue sundress, pulling a suitcase. She locked her gaze on him and smiled, a million watts of sunshine. He slid through the crowd as if no one else was there.
She dropped her suitcase when they collided—gently—and he let the flowers tumble onto it. Her hands went straight to his face, but she didn’t get a chance to say anything before his lips were on hers and he was swallowing her happy sigh.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she said with another sigh as they broke apart. She rubbed his cheek. “You’re my mountain man now.” Her fingers danced across the healing blisters on his cheekbones. “Were you on the sun?”
“Something like that.” He cleared his throat. “I can shave in a day or a two.”
“No, I might like it.” She rose to her toes and kissed his jaw, and as she stretched, he felt her belly for the first time—a hard, round press against his middle. He sucked in a breath and she pulled back. “Did I hurt you?”
He shook his head and dropped to his knees, not caring that they were in the middle of an airport. Screw everyone else. He had a baby to meet.
Cassie laughed as he pressed his cheek to her slightly rounded tummy.
“It’s so hard!”
“I know. Weird, huh?” She swung her small purse around, almost beaning him in the head. “Sorry. Here, I’ve got something for you.” She pulled out a small white envelope. “Dr. Canoglu had a pretty good look between baby’s legs at the last appointment. She wrote down the gender…”
He took the envelope as he stood up and pulled her close under his arm. “You don’t know yet?”
She shook her head. “I thought we could open it together. But maybe not right here.”
He carefully tucked the envelope back into her purse, although letting go of the paper made his fingertips tingle. He’d missed all her doctor’s appointments and the first few symptoms. “Come on, we’ll get a cab.”
Outside, he handed over her suitcase to the driver of a classic black London cab and helped her into the spacious back seat. She settled into his side as soon as they were off, and it was like they hadn’t just spent eleven weeks on opposite sides of the globe. Like he hadn’t just come out of a war zone. He pressed his face into her hair and breathed in her scent. She tipped her face up to look at him and he tunnel-visioned in on her mouth.
“Kiss me,” she whispered.
He complied, keeping it sweet and light, but lingering, and when they reluctantly parted he needed to shift to accommodate a new friend.
“I’ve missed him almost as much as you,” she murmured against his ear, her hand sliding up the inside of his thigh.
“Stop looking at my cock,” he muttered with a restrained grin. He wouldn’t stop her if she wanted to grope him in the cab. He wouldn’t have stopped her if she’d tried to have phone sex with him, either, even though he knew Big Brother was always listening. He had no limits when it came to Cassie, and he never would.
It took forever to arrive at the hotel, and when they did, he threw more pound notes than required at the driver and hustled her though the lobby and into the elevator. He waited with thinly veiled impatience for the doors to slide shut before he pressed her against the wall and took her mouth again. And this time, there was nothing sweet or light about his kiss.
“First thing we’re doing inside our room is opening that envelope. Then we’re getting naked and staying that way for a good long while.”
“My boobs still hurt. Be gentle with them.” She chased his mouth for another kiss, but the elevator car slowed and he pulled back regretfully. Their room was at the end of the hall, which would be nice for privacy, but it felt like the longest walk ever with Cassie shooting him heated looks every two steps.
She pressed into his side as he worked the swipe card—why did those damn things always take three tries to turn green?—and as soon as they were inside, she was tugging his shirt up his body. He winced as her fingers grazed a bruise on his ribcage and she stilled immediately. “What happened?”
He knew she wasn’t asking for details. One of the many things that he loved about Cassie was that she implicitly understood the rules about being married to a special operative. “Got into a fight with a rock. It might have won.” After a tumble down a mountainside, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. “I’m fine.”
“I worry.” Cassie handed Jared the envelope again as she ducked her head around his back and kissed all his owies. It killed her not to ask about them, but she really didn’t want to know what her husband did that would cause such bruises and, in at least one spot, recent scars that looked like they’d needed stitches.
He didn’t seem to care, though. “Okay, ready?”
She nodded and hummed against his back, then came around his other side as he ripped into the envelope and extracted a piece of paper that he unfolded. The doctor’s handwriting scrawled across the middle of the page, Congratulations, it’s a boy.
“A boy?” He tossed the paper in the air and whooped, picking her up and spinning around in a circle.
She grinned at him. “A boy. Jared Junior?”
“Jason? Jasper? Jude?”
“Maybe we could consider other letters of the alphabet, too,” she teased, climbing onto the bed.
He nodded at her dress. “Naked time.”
She took a deep breath. Under the cute sundress lay a different body than he’d said goodbye to almost three months earlier. Here goes nothing, she thought. He loved her. He’d accept her in whatever shape she grew into as she gestated his baby.
Acceptance wasn’t really the look on his face as he took in the totality of her nude form, though.
It was pure desire. Her heart almost exploded at the hot gaze he raked down to her toes and back up—all the way up. “You’re so curvy,” he groaned. “You sure I can’t touch your breasts?”
All of a sudden, she wasn’t sure of anything. Her nipples ached for his mouth. Her thighs were desperate for his hands. “Maybe. Just be gentle.”
He stripped off his clothes in a heartbeat, then joined her on the bed, sitting on his heels. He stroked her with feather-light touches, and when she rose up to wrap her arms around his neck, he swept her onto her back and settled beside her. He kissed and licked until she was begging for him. And when he slid deep inside her body, she spurred him on—she didn’t need gentle any more. She just needed him.
Second Epilogue
The following Christmas
If you enjoyed Fall Hard, I’m thrilled to share that the SEALs Undone series continues!
SEALS UNDONE
Fall Out
Fall Hard
Fall Away
Fall Deep
Fall Fast
Fall Back
Fall Dark
Fall Dirty
* * *
The next story, Fall Away, is next!
* * *
Nothing is more awkward than waking up next to a woman whose name you can’t remember...
* * *
Navy SEAL Trick Novak knows he needs to find a better cure for his insomnia, but a warm body and a pretty smile worked just fine until he met Gaby Ellis—his latest conquest’s roommate. Now he’s not sleeping, and he’s definitely not getting laid, but that just means he’s got more time to plot ways to win over the beautiful and stubborn kindergarten teacher.
* * *
Except maybe falling in love with one who'd rather not know yours.
* * *
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER AND BE THE FIRST TO HEAR ABOUT NEW BOOKS: www.smarturl.it/ZoeYorkNewsletter
Fall Away
About This Book
Nothing is more awkward than waking up next to a woman whose name you can’t remember... except maybe falling in love with one who'd rather not know yours.
Navy SEAL Trick Novak knows he needs to find a better cure for his insomnia, but a warm body and a pretty smile worked just fine until he met Gaby Ellis—his latest conquest’s roommate. Now he’s not sleeping, and he’s definitely not getting laid, but that just means he’s got more time to plot ways to win over the beautiful and stubborn kindergarten teacher.
Chapter One
Nothing is more awkward than waking up next to a woman whose name you can’t remember. Trick Novak should know—this wasn’t his first time. The next five minutes would be a subtle dance of generic statements and sneaky attempts at getting her personal information—hopefully for the second time.
Although it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he hadn’t bothered to get her name the night before.
He racked his brain. He’d been dead-tired. His team had gotten home from a pretty routine extraction mission that had gone off without a hitch. The high of a job well done coupled with Dumbrowski turning twenty-seven meant that everyone had been eager to cut loose.
Before heading to The Wave, a popular bar, the other guys had racked out for a few hours.
Trick had jerked off and taken a hot shower, but sleep had eluded him, as it had for a few months now. So he went out, had a few rounds with the guys, and left with the first soft woman he could find.
He needed to find a better way to deal with insomnia than anonymously fucking his way through the female population of Coronado Beach. It was going to bite him in the ass one of these days.
The blonde with the curvy hips and tiny red panties stirred next to him as her phone let out another quiet bleat. Who has a fucking lamb alarm? He squinted against the midmorning sun and peered around the room. Maybe the same person with white eyelet lace curtains and framed prints of ballerinas on the walls. Okay, so she was a good girl. That could go either way.
She sleepily patted her side table for her phone, hit the snooze button, then rolled toward him, still holding her phone in her hand.
Trick scanned her pretty face as she snuggled deep into her pillow, eyes still shut. A trickle of guilt slid through his gut. He definitely didn’t know her name. And he was pretty sure that it had been her friend who had caught his eye the night before.
Damn.
As a Navy SEAL still looking at more than a decade of service—at a minimum—Trick loved one-night stands. A bit of physical release, a few laughs, a warm bedmate. Zero strings. And since he’d started struggling with sleep, that post-orgasm cuddle was better than Nyquil.
It wasn’t that he was allergic to commitment, but it would take a rare girl to put up with his work schedule. And to find that kind of understanding in a woman with whom he might find the kind of sparks that lasted a lifetime?
He wasn’t holding his breath. If he stumbled across love, he’d take the leap. In the meantime, he was happy with temporary hook-ups.
But he didn’t like the idea that this woman hadn’t had his full attention the night before. And now that he was thinking too damn much, she wasn’t going to have the good kind of attention this morning, either. He needed to make a quick exit and head home.
He snagged her phone out of her hand. No password. Oh, the innocence. He clicked on her Facebook app. He wouldn’t snoop, he just needed her name. Lila Jovan. And her friend’s name was…didn’t matter. Wrenching his thumb away from the screen, he clicked out of the app instead of scrolling down her list of contacts.
For whatever booze-and-fatigue-induced reasons, he’d chosen t
his woman last night and until he said goodbye, she was the only woman who got his attention.
He slid the phone back into her hand. With a sigh, she rolled toward him, then squeaked as her palm slide across his bare abs.
“Hi there,” he said quietly.
She cleared her throat, angling her face away from his. “Hi.”
“I’ve gotta get going, but I didn’t want to sneak out.” Sneaking out was never cool.
“Okay. Thanks for last night.”
“I’m sure the thanks should be all mine.” No hesitation. That was key. Set the tone as polite but finished, and she’d pick up on it. From the way she’d eased away from him, she already had.
Her alarm went off again before she could say anything else, and with a shriek, she leapt out of bed, then dropped out of sight, reappearing wearing a t-shirt from the floor. “I totally slept through my alarm, I’m so sorry. I’ve gotta get to work, but there’s coffee in the kitchen if you want something, and the door automatically locks, so just let yourself out. My roommate is probably here, so make sure you’re wearing pants.”
Jesus, what kind of guys did she normally hook up with if they just wandered around her place with their junk hanging out? At least he didn’t have to worry about her clinging to him like a wannabe girlfriend. He watched her gather some clothes and disappear into the bathroom, but from her frantic pace, he didn’t think he could get up and out before she reappeared.
He didn’t have to be anywhere until the evening, so he lay back and enjoyed the uncommon luxury of relaxing on a girlie bed covered in pillows.
Trick loved pillows, and there were only so many a dude could have on his bed before his buddies started to make fun of him. And since his roommate, Miles, had zero boundaries, he couldn’t even keep a pillow collection private.