Crazy for Her (A K2 Team Novel)

by Owens, Sandra

  The next morning, he made a quick trip to the grocery store and then settled down at his desk, a cup of coffee in hand. At his best when he had a well-thought-out plan, Logan outlined a schedule for their time in Pensacola, along with notes on how to act and the things he needed to do. One thing that had caught his attention in Dani’s book was how much Elena loved Jonathan’s scent. Logan gave that a lot of thought.

  For years, because of what he did, he had strived to have no scent at all. No one on his team was allowed to smoke, as the smell or the glow of a cigarette could result in being dead. They had also never used cologne, aftershave, or scented deodorant. But Elena loved Jonathan’s scent, so Logan made a list of some things to buy. Maria had given him a bottle of cologne one Christmas, and he could give that a try.

  When he finished, he read over his notes and grunted his satisfaction. If his team knew he was planning a courtship with the precision and detail of a SEAL mission, he would be the butt of their jokes for years to come. He didn’t give a damn. Already he was having the time of his life and couldn’t wait to start.

  Inclining his head, he listened to Regan cry. He smiled and shoved his courtship plan into a desk drawer. “Let the games begin.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Dani pulled a chair to the picture window and settled in to nurse Regan. “Enjoy, my little stinker, because starting tomorrow your breakfast is coming in a bottle.”

  Regan gurgled her answer. Dani looked down and experienced a bittersweet moment. This was the last time she would nurse her daughter. “You’re growing up, sweetheart, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

  Regan grinned back at her without letting go of the nipple.

  “You’re rotten, you know that, right?”

  Someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” she said, expecting Mrs. Jankowski. Logan walked in with a cup of coffee in one hand and a yellow rose in the other.

  Regan’s gaze shifted to Logan, and she let go of Dani and gave him a flirty grin. Dani lifted Regan and whispered in her ear. “You’re a little tease, but I really don’t blame you.”

  “Gan,” Regan said, and reached for him.

  Logan handed Dani the flower, and accompanied it with a gentle kiss on her lips. “Good morning.”

  Oh, my. She smiled at him. “Good morning to you.”

  “Trade you.” He pulled a table next to her, put the cup on it, and took Regan from her.

  Dani swirled the rose, pleased by the gesture. For sure, the man was worming his way into her heart, and the silly thing was letting him in despite her mind arguing against it. She sipped her coffee. “Hazelnut,” she sighed, savoring the rich flavor of the coffee. “I was going to ask you to stop by the store today to pick some up.”

  His gaze settled on her, his look curling her toes. “I know it’s your favorite, so I went out this morning and got some.”

  “Oh. Well, thanks.” How sweet was that? Coffee and a flower delivered by a hot man. Great way to start the day.

  “How’s my favorite girl?” He lifted Regan in the air and blew on her stomach, making her giggle.

  “Are you asking me or her?”

  He set Regan on the floor and came to Dani’s chair. Putting his hands on the back, enclosing her in, he stared at her lips. They tingled in anticipation. Slowly, so achingly slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers. She wrapped her fingers on the arm of the chair to keep from putting her hands behind his neck and yanking him to her. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but soft and tender, one promising there was more to come.

  Lifting away, he brushed his finger over her bottom lip. “I was asking the baby. I’ll get to you later.”

  The air swished out of her lungs. God, she wanted to jump his bones. She’d always liked sex in the mornings, and if Regan hadn’t been playing at their feet, she would have probably dragged him to the bed.

  Then she noticed something else. Other than when he’d showered using her bay soap, she’d never smelled a scent on him. “You smell nice.”

  His smile was secretive, as if he knew something she didn’t. He picked up Regan. “I’ll entertain this one while you get dressed. If you like, I’ll show you around K2 this morning.”

  “I would like that.”

  “Good. Mrs. Jankowski will have breakfast ready in about thirty minutes.”

  Dani finished her coffee and worked to get her breathing back to normal. When she thought her legs could support her again, she stood and glanced around the room. Spying a small vase on the dresser, she filled it with water in the bathroom and put the rose in it, setting it on the night table.

  She dressed and headed downstairs. Logan’s house was amazing, and when she’d toured it the night before with Maria, she hadn’t been able to appreciate the incredible views from each room. It must be totally awesome to live right on the beach.

  The first floor was open, with no walls between the great room, dining room, and kitchen. The furniture was classically simple; the off-white walls and accent colors of teal and peach were perfect for a beach house. Her favorite feature was the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  The house and furnishings were obviously very expensive and not what she’d expected. Logan was full of surprises. She turned to the kitchen to see him watching her from a bar stool at the granite-topped island. Regan sat in front of him on the counter, banging a wooden spoon on it.

  Lord help her. He was stealing his way into her heart, and she still didn’t know if she was ready for more than a romp between the sheets. Before she could allow their relationship to go past a hot affair, she needed to know if he involved himself in dangerous missions. She hoped to learn the answer when they toured his company. Taking a deep breath, she joined him at the counter.

  Dani studied the nondescript brick building devoid of any signage. “I’m guessing the company name’s not on the building because you prefer to keep a low profile.”

  “Correct. It’s not that someone can’t find us if they want to, but no need for the locals to wonder what K2 does.”

  It was the same for the black Chevy Malibu with tinted windows they were in—not a car anyone would pay attention to. But she’d seen the classic Mustang and another Harley-Davidson in his garage.

  How many women had he taken for rides in the convertible sports car or on the bike? For sure, she’d been way off base in her assumption of his financial status. Although she didn’t care if he had money, it eased her mind to know that they were on more equal footing than she’d thought.

  When she reached for the door handle, he touched her arm.

  “Wait.” Exiting, he came around the car, opened her door, and offered his hand. When she was standing in front of him, he twirled a lock of her hair around his finger and brought it to his nose. “You smell like flowers today.”

  “Gardenias again.” He was behaving so courtly all of a sudden.

  “It’s very nice, but I still like the apple pie one best. When you wear it, all I can think about is tasting you.”

  Well then. Certain her leg bones had melted, she put her hand on his waist to steady herself. If he kept doing things like this, she just might decide to keep him.

  Clasping her hand, he laced their fingers and led her to the entrance of K2. At the door, he stopped, and with his free hand he took his cell from his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. “Mrs. Jankowski,” he said. He answered and listened, then looked at Dani. “She wants to know if you would mind if she takes Regan with her to the grocery store.”

  “That’s fine.”

  After hanging up, he grinned. “Mrs. Jankowski doesn’t need a damn thing from the store. She just wants to show Regan off to her friend who works there.”

  “Regan will love the attention.”

  They entered the building, and it struck her that no one driving by would ever guess at the interior. Groupings of black leather couches and chairs and g
lass-and-chrome coffee tables sat on white, thick shag area rugs in the lobby. A receptionist sat behind a tall, red-tiled counter. The artwork on the walls was ultra modern, slashes of black, red, and yellow paint. Yellow and white orchids in chrome pots were scattered about the room.

  “Wow, you have a great decorator.” The pleasure in his eyes at her comment caught her attention. “You?”

  He nodded.

  Another thought occurred to her. “And your house was also you?”

  His cheeks turned beautifully pink. “Yes, but if you tell a soul, I’ll have to kill you.”

  Oh, how marvelous, he was embarrassed. She let go of his hand and turned to face him. “My God, Logan, why not take the credit? Do you have any idea what it would have cost to pay a decorator to do this and your house?” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the receptionist watching them with rapt fascination.

  “Because . . .” He glanced at the woman before pulling Dani to a far corner. “Because the guys would never let me live it down. And I didn’t just come up with the ideas on my own. I pored over every decorating magazine in the fucking world and tore out the pages of the rooms I liked. Everything you see is an idea stolen from someone else. What the hell would I know of good taste considering where I came from?”

  Dani’s heart turned to liquid, and though she longed to cup his face with her palm, she was aware of their audience. This dangerous, intelligent, self-taught man still carried deep inside him the little boy unsure of his place in the world.

  She leaned forward and whispered, “Even under threat of having my fingernails pulled off by a pair of pliers, your secret’s safe with me.”

  The tightness at the corners of his eyes eased and his gaze lowered to her toes, which today were a bright red. “Toenails, too?”

  She gave a slow, sad shake of her head. “Sorry, but those get threatened and I’m a blabbermouth.”

  When he laughed, the receptionist stared at him as if she’d never seen him before. Good Lord, had the woman never seen the boss laugh? Come to think of it, Dani hadn’t seen him laugh much—even before Evan died. Sometimes he broke her heart. She could easily sink to the floor and cry a thousand tears for him and that little boy.

  He took her hand. “Come on.”

  At the counter, he took the pink message slips the receptionist handed him and put them in his pocket. “Barbie, this is Dani Prescott. If she ever stops by asking for me, notify me immediately.”

  “Absolutely, boss,” the girl replied.

  He leaned close to Dani, and in a stage whisper said, “You want to be nice to Barbie. She’s always got a gun on her and can shoot an acorn out of an oak tree from a hundred paces.”

  Seriously, a gun-packing, blond bombshell named Barbie? There was definitely no gun hidden inside the silk blouse, and Dani didn’t see any bulge in the pencil skirt. Barbie must have seen her doubtful look because she grinned and lifted the skirt to show a gun strapped to the inside of her thigh.

  Dani leaned over the counter to get a better look. “Wow, I want to be you.”

  “Honey, there can only be one me in this world.”

  Dani could believe that. She considered whether she should be jealous. The woman was drop-dead gorgeous with curves that would drive a man wild, but she sensed no sexual chemistry between Barbie and Logan. She was also pleased to see a wedding ring on the woman’s finger.

  Logan’s cell phone vibrated and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Kincaid.”

  While he talked, Barbie scrutinized Dani. “You’re the first woman he’s brought here, and from the way he looks at you, you must be special. You even got him to laugh, and for that, I like you. But if you hurt him, honey, I’m gonna kill you.”

  Holy moly. “You know what, Barbie?”

  The Barbie-doll assassin raised a finely arched brow. “What?”

  “You scare the hell out of me.”

  That was apparently the right thing to say because the woman gave a hearty laugh. “Then we understand each other?”

  “Oh yeah. Under no circumstance hurt the boss.”

  Logan finished his call, walked to the door, and put his index finger on a pad. A green light flickered on, and he punched in some numbers. “Welcome to K2,” he said.

  As she took in the inner room, she saw it was totally different from the lobby. It was what she imagined a government situation room would look like. Maps covered one whole wall—some with different-colored stickpins in them. Were those places he had operations going on? Opposite the map wall were offices, all with glass windows, though some had the blinds closed.

  Several men wearing headsets sat in the back, watching what looked like a team of soldiers in some kind of jungle on a huge screen. One of the men looked behind him and did a double take at seeing her. He leaned over and said something to the man next to him. The screen went blank, and they got up and went into one of the offices, closing the door and blinds.

  “I didn’t mean to disrupt whatever it is they’re doing,” she said.

  Logan put his hand on her lower back. “No problem, they have a smaller screen in the office.”

  She liked the feel of his hand there. “What were they watching?”

  He hesitated as if deciding what to tell her. “Here, I’ll show you.”

  He led her to a large table in the middle of the room, to a digital map of South America, and pointed to an area near Ecuador. “Some missionaries were kidnapped and are being held for ransom. The team you just saw on the screen is going to try and rescue them.”

  “I didn’t know you did things like that. Who kidnapped them?” She wished they hadn’t turned off the feed in the main room, as she would’ve liked to watch the rescue.

  “Drug lords. They want ten million to release them, and their church doesn’t have that kind of money.”

  A shudder went through her. Drug lords were ruthless killers, and it was highly probable the team she’d just seen were former SEALs. This was the kind of danger Logan put himself in when he went on a mission, and what would keep her from committing to a permanent relationship with him. She refused to bury another man she loved.

  His hand caressed her back. “Are you cold?”

  “No, I was just thinking about the danger those guys are walking into.”

  He tilted his head and studied her. She didn’t try to hide the emotions roiling inside her. If she hadn’t asked him to come to Asheville, would he now be in that jungle with his men? Would this be the day he died? Tears burned her eyes and she turned away. She had already shown him too much, and she didn’t have the right to ask anything of him.

  From behind her, he sighed. “Come with me,” he said, and took her hand.

  He led her to the back corner of the room, stopping in front of a tapestry hanging on the wall. Woven with gold, burgundy, and brown threads, it featured a scene of a desert in full moonlight. An oasis was visible in the far distance, the obvious destination of the man and woman dressed in flowing robes. Between them, holding each of their hands, was a child of about six, and following them were two camels. There was a loving smile on the woman’s face as she looked down at the child. Knowing Logan’s background, she understood why the tapestry had appealed to him.

  “This is beautiful,” she said. “Did you bring it back from Afghanistan?”

  “Yes.” He put his palm on the wall next to it and it started to move.

  Startled, Dani squeaked. He chuckled and pulled her into the room. She looked around. “Oh my, did you decorate this, too?”

  “Yes.”

  The room, obviously his office as there was a massive desk of what she thought to be mahogany, was understated elegance. Mahogany bookcases lined one wall, and a deep-brown leather couch sat along another. Sand-colored Berber carpet covered the floor, and the coffee table looked like a large piece of driftwood, highly varnished. She went to it and slid
her fingers over the glossy surface. “This is awesome.”

  “It’s my favorite and cheapest piece. I found it on the beach one day, and all it cost was the varnish and base.”

  “It’s incredible.”

  “Come and sit.”

  Dani sank onto one of the soft leather chairs in front of his desk. Logan turned the other chair to face her and sat. Steepling his fingers under his chin, he regarded her as though her thoughts were stamped on her forehead for him to read. She resisted the urge to squirm.

  “The men you saw on the screen are facing a dangerous situation and that upsets you, especially because of what happened to Evan. Now I think you’ve decided to worry about me.”

  All right, so he was a mind reader. She scrubbed at her forehead as if she could wipe away the words written there. “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Listen, this is important. Before we go on a mission, we research, plan, research some more, and plan some more. I have men who do nothing all day but sit at their computers and dig for information. We talk to anyone and everyone who might have the slightest scrap of knowledge that could help us, and then we plan some more. We practice and train until we’re performing the operation in our dreams.”

  He gestured behind him. “Beyond this wall is a warehouse big enough to set up mock villages. In a remote area not far from here, I own over a hundred acres where we also train. And all of that happens even before we get the intel from my government contacts.”

  “Like the CIA? Because I have to tell you, those three letters scare the hell out of me, Logan. Their games are deadly, and they don’t give a damn about you when all’s said and done. Rescuing missionaries is admirable, and I’ll even admit going after terrorists is necessary, but I wish it was someone besides you doing it. All your planning and training is impressive, but it didn’t save Evan, did it?”

  Hurt flashed in his eyes before his face blanked. Oh God, she shouldn’t have brought that up. It sounded as if she blamed him and she didn’t. But maybe she did, a little, along with Evan for staying in the SEALs, and the military for sending him on the mission, and herself for not being enough to keep her husband at home.