All rational points in one direction. I can’t take my eyes away. I have her right where I want her. That dumbass Durnin gave me everything by merely existing. Now to figure out how to make her forget him completely. Aara is sitting on the stairs of the pool, her bikini top visible, the rest of her body hidden under the cool water. “Have you ever seen drones up here?” Her chin tilts to the sky after she asks. Something she’s wondering because drones caught Aurora and Henry, surely.
I grunt. “That would be a death wish. No. Never.” There’s a couple feet between us, as we speak, ignoring the blazing fire that ignited when we kissed. What kind of absolute sexual massacre is going to end up happening between us? We both compartmentalize so well because it’s required in our profession. What happens when we stop fighting it? What happens when the hair-thin control we’re exerting is snapped?
She dips her head back and wets her dark hair, exposing the hollow of her neck. My mouth waters. Wringing her hair, she leans back up and meets my gaze. I swallow hard. “There’s security and stuff, but how safe are you up here? Couldn’t anyone walking down the beach on either side get onto your property? Walk up the stairs, take a dip in your pool, have a drink at the cabana, walk through your house, then decide to take the ‘54 Mondial for a spin?”
I snigger and get hard at the same time. Has that ever happened before? That can’t be normal. “There are motion detectors and cameras everywhere. That’s what I pay security for. He sees everything. Even when I’m not here, he’s making sure my house is secure. The ‘54 will never grow legs and walk away.”
She cocks her head to the side. “What are you afraid of?”
You. Falling for you. Loving you. Losing you. Hurting you. “That’s a pretty stupid question.”
Aara presses her lips together. “Humor me.”
“When you have possessions, others might not have, it’s safer to have security. It’s less to do with being afraid and more about protecting what I have.” Protecting you. “And it’s just the way it’s always been. I moved into this house when I was a kid.” I blow out a breath to control my rapid thoughts. “It’s merely a consequence of who I am.”
Her hair drips over her shoulder, trickling over the swell of her breast. “It’s why I never bring up your…lavish life. I get it. I do have one question though.”
I nod once, eyes glued to her chest. “Shoot.”
“He sees everything? Even your bedroom?”
The water rocks against her as I take a step in her direction. It splashes up on her face. My dick continues to harden. “Bingo. You nailed the only place he can’t see. Leveling with you right now. He turns off cameras in other living spaces if he sees anything too personal happening.”
She scoffs and flashes a sarcastic smile. “That is such a lie! How do you know? I wouldn’t turn off the camera. I would watch.”
I match her grin and see when her gaze lights on my mouth. I lick my lips. “Because you’re a super perv.”
“Perv? Really? I am so far from a perv, I’m talking normal human behavior here. How bored must security be watching monitors all day? Then a porno starts on screen number six. You really think he isn’t watching? Taking notes? Grabbing a bottle of lotion? You’re not that naïve, are you?”
She’s entirely entertained right now, face alight. I could ruin the moment and tell her if that’s the truth, then he’s watched most people in my family have sex. That makes me cringe.
“Crass, Dempsey. Really crass. Trust. That’s all I need. I trust him.”
Aara has also planted a tiny seed of doubt. We kissed in the living room, a controlled space viewable by several different angles. I know that he’s been with my family for years, that he’s been loyal in every way you can hope for. What if something happened to him? Could he be compromised?
Aara stands so we’re chest to chest. She wants to be close to me. “It’s Dempsey when I use man humor. Noted.” Her eyes challenge me. “Need another breath-holding competition?”
“You don’t have to convince me that you can play with the boys. Maybe I just like that I can call you by your last name.”
“That’s sort of weird, but okay I’ll let you have it.” She lets her arms float to the sides on top of the water. “You know that Liam adopted me, right? That my biological dad is Aaron Gilcher?” She looks away. “It’s sort of a weird thing to bring up, but if we’re getting to know each other.” She pauses and sighs. “It’s…something. I’m not quite sure what, but it’s something.”
“I know. My dad told me. I remember you from when Liam moved to the West Coast Teams. We were kids. Aaron was getting out of the military to start…” I let my words trickle off as I remember exactly why he was getting out. Aaron Gilcher was never the same when he returned. A prisoner of war for a long time, the real world spun madly on without him. A fact that destroyed him more than his time spent in captivity.
Aara grabs my sides, thumbs stroking my abs, her hands warm compared to the chill of the pool. “To start his real family—his second try at life. You don’t have to sugarcoat anything for me. He wasn’t the same person anymore. My mom, Natalie, moved on with Liam and he has always been the constant. For both of us. We moved to the west coast for a fresh start. Aaron met Rochelle and got her pregnant.” She clears her throat. “That’s when Mom and Liam decided to make the change of scenery happen. No looking back.” She moves her hands against my body and doesn’t let her gaze stray from my midsection. “He had another daughter. Kelsey is her name. His do-over daughter. And a son, next. Also, you actually remember me as a child?”
I grin. “What’s to forget? You were one of a kind then, too. And looking back never changes anything,” I say, cradling her head in my hands.
Her smile turns sweet when she sees me gazing at her. I recall the first real encounter with Aarabelle. She was at my house for a Team party, outside with my mom’s goats and chickens getting incredibly dirty. When her parents finally got her inside, she was mooing obnoxiously holding a bull sign on her forehead. I was annoyed, and in an attempt to combat her crazy, I gave her the bull sign back. She laughed so hard, like I was the irrational one. There’s no way Aara remembers now, and I love that it’s all mine.
“Do you talk to him now?” I ask.
“Almost never.” Aara shrugs. “You can’t miss what you never had. Liam has always been my dad. He was the one up at night when I was sick as a child. He was the one flipping pancakes, singing Sinatra on Sunday mornings when he was home, and picking out the perfect birthday gifts every single year.” She raises both of her brows. “Seriously, he picks out the perfect gifts. I wish I had an ounce of that talent.”
“The takeaway is I can’t imagine Liam Dempsey singing and flipping pancakes.”
She splashes water by tapping her hands on the surface. “It should be that he’s a great father.”
I hold her hands. “I’m sure you can’t imagine Maverick Hart baking snickerdoodle cookies in my mom’s pink apron either. Both real things. Burned into the memory of their children for the rest of time.”
She laughs first, and I follow. “You know, it’s been said I’m a pretty awesome gift giver myself.”
Aara smirks, running her tongue along her bottom lip. “No one can beat my dad. Sorry. He is a master at thoughtfulness.” She looks away. “The Phoenix Series. That’s our thing. When I was a tween he would read to me every night before bed. Even when he was deployed he’d take a copy of whatever book we were on. He’d call around bedtime when he wasn’t out on an op. I’d listen to him on speakerphone and follow along in my copy at home.” Her smile gets dreamy. “For my fifteenth birthday, he gave me signed copies of all of the books. The author wrote little messages that were personal to me and Dad. Those books are one of my most prized possessions. I even brought them to the Naval Academy even though I don’t read those copies. Looking at them makes me happy.” Cheeks full and eyes sparkling, she quirks a brow. “He can’t be beat. That’s merely one example.”
�
�That a challenge? Challenge is my favorite sport,” I return. Liam is good. I admit.
Her fingertips skim the low waistline of my swim trunks and my skin prickles. “I’m not telling you to buy me things. I’m not really into things. I’m more into actions.”
“Oh, I can deliver actions. That’s easier than buying a gift.”
“Like inviting me to stay here. Thanks again. I’m sorry if me coming over forced your family to go away.”
“Nah, my sister wanted to get back home because she had a date with some boy. Dad wanted to scare said boy, which is something I think you can imagine him doing quite well, so they took off early.” Leaning down, I brush my lips across the tip of her sun-kissed nose. “You’re welcome for the action. I’m happy to give you more action if you’re so inclined to accept it.”
Tilting her head up so her lips meet mine, her kiss is warm and lit with a passion I feel throughout my body. Mostly my cock. But everything else reacts, too. I’m not used to feeling this out of control with a woman. Calculated risks are part of my job. Aarabelle causes my brain to misfire. There’s no algorithm to help me here. I’m swimming in a sea of emotions and Aarabelle Dempsey is the water—surrounding me from all angles. She presses her stomach against mine, and with my eyes closed, it’s easy to imagine we’re naked. It takes great effort to break away, and hold her at arm’s length, my hands on her hipbones.
Eyes up to the cloudless sky, clearing my head seems impossible. “We should circle back to the rules. Our rules.”
I hear the water rustle and splash as she gets out. I still don’t look in her direction. “When people find out I’m spending time here they’re going to assume something is going on between us. I have a meeting with Lt. Williams tomorrow morning. A weekly check-in where I tell her about any concerns and she adds new rules, gives me a stern look, and tells me how much responsibility I have on my plate. How the future of my gender in the SEAL/s rests squarely on my shoulders.”
I look at her and she’s standing at the top of the rocky staircase that leads down to the beach, back facing toward me. I exit the pool to get closer to her.
“I have no idea how I’m going to explain this Henry crap to her. And living at your house because of it. She’s going to sniff out the bullshit within the first ten seconds. Nothing slips past that woman. She’s a living breathing Naval Guideline rule book.”
“Tell her it’s an apartment on my property. That’s essentially what downstairs is, anyway. If you have to mention it at all.” I have a thought. “Have you told Liam you’re going to stay here?”
She grabs her head on both sides, covering her ears, shoulders slumping. “No. He’ll ask why I didn’t go to their place if I didn’t feel safe. This isn’t even about safety, I mean a little bit maybe, but it’s all about me wanting to be with you.” She turns, arms hanging limply by her sides. “I can’t stay away from you and it’s frustrating. If I’m not with you, I’m thinking about you. When I’m not thinking about you it shocks me into thinking about you again.”
“Remember that guy you think watches us fuck?”
“We haven’t fucked, Luke.”
I bite my lip. “Yet.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I sigh. “I have security. Liam won’t bat an eye if you tell him you liked the security aspect at my house.”
She purses her lips. “You’re underestimating the overprotective nature of men and their daughters. Even adult daughters. Like Maverick and your sister. You’re known for your, uh, womanizing ways.”
“And your dad is going to think you’d throw it all away for me?”
She swings her hips from one side to the other. “No. I guess not. Let me call him now.” Aarabelle watches me over her shoulders as she walks back into the vaulted patio, grabs a towel from a leaning stack, and then disappears into the house.
Toweling off, hair first, I find her in the glass corridor, phone pressed against the side of her head, sitting on the towel on the floor. She senses me immediately, turning her head. “Dad, I mean Liam, wants to talk to you.” Aara extends her iPhone up in the air toward me, evil glint in her eye. “Told you,” she mouths.
Ah, fuck. “Hey sir. How are you doing?” He breathes heavily once. Double fuck.
Her eyes turn to slits when she hears my voice change into respectable work mode. It was something I adopted early on in my career.
“Hart, I don’t know what you’re playing at with Aarabelle but you need to disengage, son. Dis-en-gage.” Liam’s voice is a threatening rasp, every syllable of the word enunciated clearly. “Maverick is my good buddy and I’ll never assume the worst, but she’s my baby girl, and laws are laws.”
“I’m helping her, sir. Nothing more.” My stomach drops at the lie. The phone smells like her perfume. I gulp. “My house offers more protection than anywhere else. Jonas watches several monitors and controls who comes in and out. She’s locked away. Safe from prying eyes. From…any exes or whatever.” If I kept going, he’d know I knew too much about her personal life.
“I may be old, but I’m not stupid. I remember when I was your age. Listen, I’d never doubt Aara’s sensibilities, but I also know how, ah, persuasive men like you can be. Don’t fuck her over, Hart. Do you hear me?”
“Sir, I want to help her. Teammate to teammate. When she feels that the media frenzy has died down, she can do whatever she wants.”
“Don’t ‘sir’ me right now. She’s living with you. We both know that even though she’s a SEAL, she doesn’t look like the ones you’re used to.”
I swallow hard and turn away from Aarabelle. The strawberry confection scent that seems to be all over her phone reminds me of that. “We are friends. I offered her the same thing I’d offer any of my friends. There’s plenty of space. Come over and see for yourself.”
“I’ve been to the party place when Maverick and Windsor lived there when you were a kid. I know exactly how bewitching that house can be.”
I chuckle. “I promise,” I start.
“You promise to keep your hands off her? That’s what you were about to say?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Aarabelle comes from behind and rips the phone out of my hand before I can lie to the man. Or tell him the truth? I can’t be certain what was about to come out of my mouth. Damn. My heart is pounding.
“Dad, stop, okay? I’m fine. I’m an adult. When have I ever disappointed you?”
I’m sure he says something about Henry Durnin, or London because she blames the Navy’s timeline and compares it to being the only unplanned, reckless thing she’s done. There’s some banter back and forth that I can’t follow because she’s wandering around and I’m trying to eavesdrop without looking like I’m doing it. I hear her tell him more about the security, cameras, and about what happened in her parking lot with the media and her ex. Then I overhear her talking about Marissa, which should have been her first friend choice to stay with, obviously.
There’s no blatant lies passing her lips, just the thinly shadowed corners left without shining a beacon. At this point, it’s a couple of kisses, anyway. Surely that’s still in the realm of friends. Or not. Probably not. It won’t stay at kissing. There’s no possibility of going back from here. “I’m going to geek out over his cars.” I hear mumbling, “Okay, Dad. Tell Mom to call me.” A few breathy sighs. “I’m not giving him the phone again. It’s just for a bit.”
Stepping backward, I vanish into the kitchen. The risk of having to talk to him again balanced with needing to know what she says to her father. Aara finds me a second later, her phone clutched in her hand.
“You really are a right fine whore, aren’t you?” she asks, her free hand perched on her towel-clad hip. “He wouldn’t question this so much if he didn’t know of every woman you’ve ever screwed.”
Liam doesn’t know that number, but we’re a tight-knit community so it’s not a stretch that he knows or has overheard something about my…sport. Leaning down, I grab protein powder and set it on the counter island. “You say
to-mate-oh, I say to-mah-toh. It’s a matter of definition. Whore is a strong word. My companions are well versed in expectations, or the lack of them.” Avoiding eye contact is hard because I sense her gaze burning a hole in the side of my head. “You can’t blame me for things in my past.”
“Uh, my dad can. It’s why he doesn’t trust me in your presence. He thinks you’re going to use your cars and dimples to get into my pants and then lay waste to my obviously fragile heart.”
Pressing my lips together, I turn and shiver as the AC jet streams onto my damp skin. It’s a question. I see it in her posture—the way her head is tilted, and how she holds her distance. My answer means something to her.
I lean my back against the counter, pinning her hands behind me. I tell her what she wants to hear and what I also believe as truth. “I’m not going to break your heart, Dempsey.”
“Do you even know what that means? Do you understand how not to break a heart?”
I swallow hard. “Maybe that’s in our rules. No heart breaking.”
“That’s a huge thing. A huge, ginormous promise!” She opens her arms wide to the side and goes up on her tiptoes for effect. “That rule is too huge and ambiguous. You have no clue what this is between us or if it will work out. The odds aren’t in our favor.”
“You gonna break my heart, Little Dempsey? That why you don’t want to make it a rule?” Her face is glowing—illuminated by the setting sun.
Aara scowls. “You’re serious? That is not even in the realm of possibilities. What you call an athletic sporting endeavor, well, I’ve rarely dabbled in it. I don’t date often, and I’ve never broken up with someone before.” She pauses. “How many breakups have you had?”
“Real relationships or like bad endings to mediocre dates?”
“I bet most of the women you’ve been with in any capacity have been hurt by you. No one wants to feel used. No one wants to feel like they aren’t good enough to keep around. No woman my age is dating recklessly because they enjoy it. They’re looking. Searching for a person who they want to be kept by.”
Legacy: A Salvation Society Novel Page 14