Turbulent Desires (Billionaire Aviators Book 2)

by Melody Anne

  Suddenly she missed her mom and dad something fierce. She even missed her very over-protective brothers. Lindsey just hoped Maverick wasn’t scared off by the lot of them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Maverick’s nerves were slightly wound up as they turned off the road and shot down the long, tree-lined driveway. He’d never actually met a girl’s parents before. Of course, he wasn’t meeting them, meeting them. He was just going to dinner with a friend.

  As he had that thought, his mind immediately went to Lindsey’s bedroom a few nights ago and how she’d moaned as his mouth was devouring her. Yeah. She was a bit more than a friend.

  Even if she were more right now, though, it wasn’t something that either of them wanted to last past a few weeks, a month tops. He had to get back to work soon—his arm was already much better. And Lins, well, she was doing great and soon wouldn’t even need him. He’d already seen an amazing transformation in her.

  She’d been afraid for a long time but that was because no one had shown her she had nothing to truly fear. There were bad people in the world, but if a person chose to live his or her life in fear, then those monsters were the ones who won.

  He had seen too many bad men during his time in the Air Force. He didn’t want to give them any more victories than they already had. And Lindsey was too good a woman to let anyone hold her down.

  “We’re here. Are you ready?” she asked as he pulled up to the huge ranch-style home and parked his truck.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said with a grin.

  He was Air Force. He didn’t fear anything, except maybe parents—okay, okay, and rats. They were creepy little beady-eyed things. No one knew that, though, not even his brothers. Luckily he lived in a place where you didn’t see too many rats unless you went to a pet store. Anyone who chose to own one as a so-called pet had to have a screw loose.

  “No one is ever ready for the chaos of my family.”

  She opened the door, and he put his arm out to stop her. “What are you doing?” Looking confused, she waited. “A gentleman always gets the door for a lady,” he finished.

  The confusion went away. In its place, a beaming smile took away any shadows of fear about the upcoming visit. He wanted to haul her over the center console and kiss her breathless. Knowing she had five brothers who were probably waiting on the other side of that door stopped him—but just barely.

  “You make me want to do dangerous things, sugar,” he whispered as he leaned across the console and gave her a quick kiss, unable to help himself.

  She blushed before looking down. “I don’t know what you mean,” she mumbled.

  He chuckled as he jumped down from the truck and ran over to her side, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her from her seat, the two of them partially blocked from the house by his open truck door.

  “You know exactly what I mean,” he corrected her. Then he leaned in and gave her a far-too-short kiss. Her taste lingered on his lips as he pulled back, and the glow in her cheeks had him wanting to haul her off to bed.

  “I better get you inside before I do something foolish and end up getting myself shot,” he said before taking her hand and moving away from the truck.

  The second they hit the bottom step of her parents’ massive porch, the front door opened, confirming his suspicions that they had an audience. Seven people piled out of the house. Lins hadn’t told him how large her brothers were. It wasn’t that Maverick was afraid. Hell, he was about the same size as them. But he sure as hell was outnumbered at the moment.

  “You’re late,” one of the men said with a scowl aimed at Maverick.

  Mav didn’t break the eye contact, but he nodded at the man. The message was well received. The guy was telling him he’d better not be screwing with his sister. Mav could respect that.

  “We are not, grumpy,” Lindsey said.

  But it was odd because as they drew closer to her family, Lindsey scooted just a tad bit tighter to his side. What was going on with that? She wasn’t afraid of them, was she?

  Maverick checked out the group with a bit of a wary eye. She’d never said anything about abuse. Matter of fact, when she spoke of them, she only said good things. Sure, she said they were overwhelming, but she said it with love.

  “I’m so glad you’re here, baby girl. It’s been a while,” the woman who was obviously her mother said. She stepped closer, and Lindsey’s hand tightened in his for a moment before she released him and moved over to her mother, giving the woman a hug.

  Mav saw the surprised elation in the other woman’s eyes, and it nearly broke his heart. How long had it been since Lindsey had allowed her family to show her affection? He didn’t want to think about it.

  She kissed her father on the cheek, and then she moved right back over to Mav’s side, her hand finding his. He squeezed her fingers, but he didn’t fail to notice the suspicious look her brothers were sending his way.

  “Thank you for having me over for dinner, Mrs. Helm. I truly appreciate it,” Mav said to break the tension.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Maverick. Lindsey told me all about you the other day on the phone and of the fun adventures the two of you are having. I will have to correct you, though, because I don’t like being called Mrs. Helm. You just call me Ma or Leila. Your choice. All the kids’ friends have always called me Ma ’cause I think I fed an army while they were growing up.”

  Maverick instantly liked the woman. His manners wouldn’t allow him to call her by her first name, though, and he was a bit too uncomfortable to call her Ma, so he just tilted his imaginary hat at her and didn’t call her anything.

  “I’m Darren, this clan’s dad. It’s a pleasure to have you over, son. This here is Brett, Kellan, Dante, Erik, and Seth in order of ages,” the man said as he pointed to each of the boys, all of whom were looking at Maverick with suspicion despite Lindsey remaining plastered to his side.

  “Why don’t we go inside and get something to drink?” Leila said. Maverick was grateful for the invitation. Standing on the large porch being eyeballed wasn’t exactly the most comfortable thing, though he was sure it wasn’t going to get much better inside.

  Then again, it was rare for Mav to ever meet someone he couldn’t get along with. Lindsey’s family was just being protective of her. As soon as they figured out he meant her no harm, they’d be his new best friends, he was sure.

  “Want a beer or something harder?” her father asked as they made their way into a large family room with ample seating and a burning fireplace.

  “A beer would be great,” Mav told him. “I rarely break into the whiskey.”

  “I like a good bourbon myself, but I usually only have one on Friday nights these days. The wife doesn’t like too much drinking.”

  “No I don’t,” she said with a smile. She sat down next to her husband after getting him and Mav a beer.

  “I do have some excellent cigars if you’re up for one after dinner,” Darren said. Mav wasn’t sure if this was a test or not. “A man who didn’t appreciate a good cigar just wasn’t trustworthy” was something his own father used to say.

  “That sounds like a pretty dang good dessert to me, sir,” Mav told him.

  And just like that, most of the tension left the room. Lindsey stayed by his side for the first half hour, but eventually she got up and went somewhere with her mother. He was left alone with all the guys. He was sure they’d been waiting for just this moment.

  Though Lindsey was back to showing physical affection with her mother, and a little bit with her father, he’d noticed she hadn’t touched her brothers. Maybe it was just harder with guys. Why she was so much more open with him, he didn’t understand.

  It wasn’t something he was going to question, though. He wanted her to feel comfortable with him. He wanted her to feel a lot with him, if he were honest.

  “I’ve noticed Lindsey seems to be clinging an awful lot to you,” her father said, pulling Maverick from his thoughts. The words wer
en’t exactly spoken with malice, but there was a trace of suspicion in the protective father’s voice.

  “I care about Lindsey. I think she understands that . . .” He stopped. He wasn’t sure what to say to her family about their touching—innocent and not so innocent.

  “I’m glad to see she’s trusting someone. I sure as hell hope you don’t hurt her.” Now there was the threat he’d been waiting for.

  “She’s not a plaything,” her oldest brother, Brett said, but he’d toned down the alpha-male routine.

  “I know that. I respect her. I’ve been through some of my own stuff during the war and I just want to . . . to help her,” Mav told them as sincerely as he could.

  “From what I’ve seen in the past hour, it appears you’re doing just that. That makes you a pretty hell of a guy in my book,” Darren said.

  With the approval of their father, the five brothers relaxed. The final bit of tension that had been left in the room evaporated, thankfully.

  “Dinner is ready,” Leila called.

  Maverick walked into the massive dining room with Darren and Lindsey’s brothers. He took a seat next to Lindsey and the sweet smile she sent him made his heart race.

  “What do you do for a living, Maverick?” Leila asked.

  “I fly F-18s for the Air Force,” he told her.

  “Dang! That is cool,” Lindsey’s youngest brother Seth said from the other side of the table.

  “I thought so, too, which was why I decided to make the military a career instead of a hobby,” Maverick told him.

  “I bet you’ve been to some great places,” her next to oldest brother, Kellan, said as he wolfed down enough food for three.

  “Yeah, I’ve been on tour twice. I pretty much stay at home base now teaching the new recruits. I’m lucky that I’m based near my family. I was away for several years when I first joined,” Maverick told them. “I might be retiring soon.”

  “You’re pretty young to retire,” Brett told him. They had to be close to the same age.

  “I’ve made some smart decisions in life. It might just be time to focus on other things.”

  Lindsey squeezed his hand. He watched her brothers look at each other. It was obvious they were trying to analyze him. Maverick wasn’t going to bring up his wealth. It was no one’s business, but he also could understand how her family wouldn’t want her with a man not willing to take care of her.

  “If you do stay in, do you plan on moving bases?” her dad asked. That was a loaded question if ever he’d heard one. Lindsey’s father was fishing on how serious their relationship was and if Maverick was planning on taking her away.

  “It’s highly unlikely, sir,” Maverick told him.

  What he should probably say was there was a good chance he’d be shipped off at any minute. That way her family would discourage her from dating him and there wouldn’t be a messy breakup at the end. He couldn’t make himself say it, though. He couldn’t say anything that would jeopardize his time with Lindsey.

  The inquisition slowed down after that, and the rest of the evening was actually enjoyable. They finished the delicious home-cooked meal, laughed, had another drink with their cigars, and then reluctantly pulled themselves away.

  They were both quiet as they made their way back to Lindsey’s cottage. Maverick was worried about what their future together held, and he was sure Lindsey was thinking about her evening at home with her family. They were a bit overwhelming. But they were obviously loving as well.

  Mav didn’t want to hurt Lindsey, didn’t want to hurt her family. He’d best figure out what in the hell he was doing and figure it out soon. If this was nothing more than a fling to him, then it would be best for him to walk away. But even having that thought nearly ripped him in two. He didn’t know what to think or what to feel, so he sat there silently, focused instead on driving.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Rain started pouring down as Maverick and Lindsey drove on the freeway away from her parents’ home. She hated to see the evening end, but she didn’t hate being alone with Maverick again. She didn’t even need conversation to feel comfortable with him. She just needed to be in his presence. She enjoyed their drive together as she sat back and listened to the sound of water splashing off the windows of Mav’s truck.

  “Want dessert?” he asked, and she immediately perked up.

  “I wouldn’t mind ice cream.” She considered ice cream to be a meal, not a dessert. So many people didn’t take ice cream seriously enough.

  “My philosophy has always been that no matter how full a person is, there’s always room for ice cream because it just melts anyway and slides around all the other food,” Mav told her. Such insightfulness made her think he must be her soul mate.

  “I would have to agree with that,” she told him. “Of course, when you add the peanuts, hot fudge, and cherries, it becomes a little less liquefied.”

  “Nah. As long as it’s touching the ice cream, it’s all good.”

  They pulled up to a Dairy Queen. She got the Peanut Buster Parfait, while he got a chocolate-dipped cone so he could still drive.

  Then he surprised her. Instead of turning toward her cottage, he drove up the mountain and pulled off to park. The rain had tapered off, so they had a view of the city with all its lights sparkling below them.

  “I’ve never been up here before,” she told him, enjoying the warmth of the truck and the coolness of her sweet treat.

  “Over the years, I’ve come up here a lot with my brothers to go hiking and skiing. I like this spot because of the view.”

  “You’ve lived here your whole life then?”

  “Yep. We took vacations pretty often, and I’ve been all over the world, but this has always been home,” he told her. “Has it been for you?”

  “Yeah. I grew up in that same house we had dinner in with my parents tonight. But after my oldest brother went into business and made a lot of money, he had the place remodeled to make it a lot bigger. My mother told him she didn’t need all that space with the kids almost grown, but he told her she would have grandbabies someday and might want the extra rooms. Once he said that, she told him to make it even bigger. She wanted a house full of screaming kids on Christmas morning,” Lindsey shared.

  “My mom would probably like the same. Our home was strict, so there wasn’t much screaming, but my brothers and I got into some loud fights once in a while. We’d get in trouble pretty quickly, though, so we learned to keep it outside as much as possible. Ace was the worst at that. He had a quick temper. I guess we all did, but he was the youngest so he’d get the blame most of the time,” Mav told her.

  “You sure miss him a lot, don’t you?” she said as she finished her dessert and turned to look at him.

  “Every single day. I know he’ll come back, I just don’t know if I’ll recognize the man he’s turned into.”

  Maverick said this with so much sadness she couldn’t help but reach across the seat and pat his hand.

  “I’m sure he’s turning into a great man, Maverick. I’ve always heard that it takes guys a whole lot longer to mature than it does women. So by the time he comes home, he should be just as perfect as you are,” she said before she could take the words back.

  “You think I’m perfect, huh?” he said as he tugged on her hand.

  She was both grateful for and a bit irritated by the divider between them. At the moment she was embarrassed, but oh how she wouldn’t mind being in his arms.

  “You’re close to perfect. I’m sure there are a lot of flaws you’ve kept hidden from me, though,” she told him with a nervous laugh.

  “You can’t take back something like that once you’ve already said it,” he told her.

  “Well, tell me more about yourself, and I’ll be the judge on whether you fit the ‘perfect’ profile or not.”

  “I’m an open book. What do you want to know?”

  So much! But a lot of the things she wanted to ask him were personal questions about his past relati
onships, and she wasn’t going to go there. It wasn’t her business how many women he’d dated, or if he was dating anyone else besides her right now.

  Not once had he tried to deceive her or tell her that they were in a relationship. She just wasn’t that dating-a-new-guy-every-week kind of girl. Before the attack, she had been busy a lot and didn’t go out with too many men, but when she did, she normally was in a committed relationship. Having an undefined relationship status was all very new to her.

  “Are you where you want to be in life?” she finally asked, knowing she had to say something.

  “What do you mean?” he responded.

  “I know you love your career, but back when you were in high school and pictured where you would be right now, is this even close to where you imagined yourself?”

  His head tilted as if he were really thinking about the question.

  “No. I was too selfish back then to picture anything beyond the moment. We had money, so I never thought twice about needing to make any of my own. I was arrogant, self-centered, and didn’t really care about the next day, let alone ten or twenty years down the road.”

  That hadn’t been at all what she was expecting.

  “What about you, sug? Are you where you wanted to be?”

  “Yes.” She didn’t even have to hesitate. “I wanted to be a nurse from the time I was very young. Then after doing it for a while, I wanted the challenge of being a nurse practitioner. Any one of my brothers would have paid for med school if I had wanted to be a doctor, but I love being a nurse. Don’t get me wrong, I have total respect for doctors, but I wanted to be able to really spend time with patients in a way I’d never be able to as a doctor,” she added.

  “Yeah, I understand loving a tough job. Even if I sort of fell into the military, it’s something that shaped me.”

  “How long will you be in?”

  “Don’t know,” he said. Maybe he really was planning on leaving. Before she could ask, he continued. “My turn again to ask something about you.” He paused as he looked at her in a way that had her a bit worried. Then he smiled. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to delve too deeply.”