by Cat Johnson
Chavez shook his head. “We’re the Department of Homeland Security. We’re not set up to run our own platoon of SEALs. That’s what the Department of Defense is for.”
“I’m not asking for a platoon. Just a small number of retired SEAL officers we can call on when needed who can lead a mission of multi-agency operatives.” Silas lifted one shoulder. “Start small with let’s say a dozen and see how it goes.”
The man pressed his lips together and remained silent. Silas could only hope it was because he was considering the idea.
Finally, Chavez said, “Something like this isn’t going to have a line in our budget.”
Money was one thing politicians loved to talk about—or rather complain about and use as an excuse for inaction.
From what Silas could see there was plenty of it to go around. It usually was just funneled to the wrong places. But this—the money—could be what would sink Silas’s plan, even with Chavez’s support for the idea.
“I understand.” Silas braced himself for disappointment.
“But,” Chavez continued. “There is some wiggle room in some of the budget lines for unspecified spending.”
His hopes rose. “Yes, sir.”
Chavez met his gaze. “The whole idea’s a bit unorthodox. It’s probably going to cause waves. We’ll be accused of overstepping.”
“Then don’t make it public. It can be a secret division,” Silas joked and then began to seriously consider the merits of the idea.
Chavez lifted a brow. “That’s a good plan actually. So you do realize, I can’t make a decision like this on the spot.”
“I understand. And thank you for hearing me out.”
“Of course. Only a fool wouldn’t listen to the man who, unarmed, took out three terrorists single handedly.” Chavez grinned.
“I wasn’t unarmed. I had a knife and a pack of matches.” Silas laughed.
Chuckling, Chavez shook his head. “Go home, Si. Enjoy your weekend.”
“Thanks. See you Monday.” Hopefully, he’d have an answer by then, but he wasn’t going to plan on it. Something like this could drag out for months, or more, but at least he’d gotten the ball rolling.
Resolved, Silas was happy to put work on the back burner and look forward to the next three blissful nights with Maggie.
He hadn’t even made it to her place in Virginia Beach yet when his cell vibrated with a text.
Silas glanced at the display and saw it was from Chavez.
He pulled over onto the shoulder and opened the text.
I crunched the numbers. We can swing it. You’ve got your secret division. Better come up with a name for it. You’ll be heading up this thing.
Chavez had found the budget for it. Holy shit.
Alone in the truck he resisted the urge to whoop for joy.
As far as the name, Silas had that covered. Having lunch with Zane and Jon and talking about stories from the old days back in BUD/S and their years in the teams had given him the idea for a name. A symbol that unofficially represented the SEALs.
He typed it into the text. Bone Frog Command.
The bone frog had been tattooed on Navy SEALs for decades. It seemed fitting it would represent this new DHS secret division that would give former frogmen like himself a second life.
His division, his idea, was about to come to life.
It was a sweet victory worth celebrating.
It was Friday and, even though a year ago he’d told Chavez he wouldn’t be doing the D.C. to Virginia Beach commute every weekend, he’d been doing it lately—happily.
He couldn’t get home fast enough that evening.
Home.
Okay. Not exactly. It was still Maggie’s home and he was just a visitor, but in the three weeks since they’d gotten home from Chad he’d spent more than a few nights there. He was happy to spend every second he could get with her. He was more than tired of living like a bachelor.
He was good at being married. They were good together. And tonight he got to not only see Maggie after five long days of being away from her while he was in D.C., but he also had the new Bone Frog Command to celebrate.
He’d have to decide what he could and couldn’t tell her about his new secret division, but he’d figure it out. As a SEAL’s wife she’d kept his secrets before. She’d keep this one too, but all that would come in time.
The euphoria of the day, from the meeting with Jon and Zane, to the text from Chavez, had Silas pulling into a shopping center on a whim.
He’d spotted the jewelers sign and couldn’t resist just looking.
It didn’t hurt to see what they had. Maybe pick Maggie up a trinket. Earrings or whatever.
Just because he walked right over and was looking at the diamond rings didn’t mean he was going to buy one.
“Can I help you?” the salesman asked.
“Just looking, thanks.”
“Of course. Take your time.”
“Actually.” Silas pointed to one. “Can I see that one?”
“The pink diamond pave?” the salesman asked.
“Um, yeah.” He didn’t know what the hell pave was but the ring he had his eye on had pink diamonds—and Maggie would love it.
He held the small band between his two fingers and remembered buying that first ring for her years ago. He’d known then just as he knew now, he wanted to live and die married to this woman.
That first time he’d been nervous buying the ring and asking that question that would change the course of both their lives.
He’d been foolish for feeling unsure then. They’d been head over heels in love. There was no question in either of their minds they’d get married.
But so much had happened since then. His nerves as he held this ring today were justified.
That didn’t stop him from thrusting it toward the clerk and saying, “I’ll take it.”
“Wonderful. Do you need it sized?”
“Probably.” But he didn’t want to wait. Now he’d made the decision, he wanted to do it tonight. “Any chance it’s a six?”
The clerk checked the tag and smiled. “It must be fate. It is a six.”
If he’d been looking for a sign, that might just be it. Fate, for once, was working in his favor.
“All right then.” Silas laughed and dug his wallet out of his pocket.
He made good money now and he couldn’t think of anything better to spend it on. He tossed his credit card on the glass counter and pulled out his cell.
As the clerk ran the card, Silas punched in a text.
Be there shortly. Need anything?
Her response came back fast and had his heart speeding.
Just you.
Silas blew out a breath, nerves kicking up a notch. No doubt about it. He was doing this.
Tonight he was getting down on one knee and making Maggie his again.
CHAPTER 18
Maggie answered the door looking beautiful in a dress and heels.
“Wow. You look great.” Silas stepped inside and leaned in for a kiss before asking, “We going out for dinner?”
She raised her gaze to him and gave a sly shake of her head. “No. We’re staying in.”
“Okay.” He grinned.
He didn’t object to his woman in a sexy dress, especially not when she looked at him like that, with heat in her eyes. She had incredible legs. And later, when the time came, that dress would provide some easy access when he sat her in his lap on the sofa when they watched a movie on TV.
Lacing her fingers through his, she pulled him toward the kitchen.
He inhaled the aroma as he walked inside. “Stroganoff?”
“Yes.”
“Mmm.” He peeked into the pot. “My favorite.”
“I know.” She poured red wine into a glass and handed it to him. “That’s why I made it.”
What he’d done to deserve such treatment he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to question his good fortune.
“How was work?” she asked
.
“Really good actually.”
She raised a brow. “Really? Good. I’m glad.”
“And how was your week?” he asked, mostly to change the subject to try and keep himself from spilling the beans to her about Bone Frog Command.
“Good.” She pinned him with her blue gaze. “Can we be done with small talk now?”
“Sure.” He nodded with a laugh. “Why? You starving? We can eat—”
She fisted the lapels of his suit, pulled him down to meet her and kissed him hard and deep.
Taken by surprise, he managed to get his wine glass planted on the table without spilling any before wrapping his arms around her back. She was hungry all right, but obviously not for food.
He could be on board with that. He stroked his tongue against hers happy to comply with whatever she wanted.
In fact, why were they standing in the kitchen when there was a sofa just feet away? Silas hoisted her against him, carrying her to the living room before he tumbled them both onto the cushions.
He still wasn’t used to being with her again after their year apart. It still felt a bit like he was a teenager about to get lucky for the first time as he hooked his fingers beneath her underwear and tugged them down her legs.
She wrestled to unfasten his shirt buttons as he moved on to his belt. They’d make it to the bed eventually tonight, but not yet. Right now, he couldn’t get inside this woman fast enough.
As he flipped her onto her back and kneeled between her legs on the sofa cushion, he said, “I promise, one day I’ll be able to control myself around you.”
“Don’t you dare,” she said, grabbing his ass with both hands and pulling him toward her.
Silas groaned as he felt her wet heat tease his tip. “All right. Whatever you want.”
He really did love all the many, many things they could—and had—done together but the urge to sink inside her, possess her, claim her, had ridden him strong since Chad.
Once he got that need out of his system tonight, they’d get to the other stuff. He’d make her come until she writhed against his tongue and begged him to stop. Later.
For now it was all he could do to keep his eyes open so he could watch her expression as he slid inside.
He hissed in a breath as the feel of being in her surrounded him.
One hand braced on the arm of the sofa and the other holding her hips up to give him a better angle, he stroked inside.
“I want to get married.” Her words had his hand slipping off the sofa arm as he nearly face planted into the pillow behind her head.
He managed to catch himself and stared down at her in shock. “Say again?”
“I want us to get remarried.”
A short laugh escaped him. This woman always could surprise him.
Still buried inside her, he obviously had some unfinished business. Since she’d just given him everything he wanted—her becoming his wife—he intended to celebrate, first by finishing what they’d started. Then by making it official with a proper proposal.
He smiled as he leaned low and pressed a brief but tender kiss to her lips. “Yeah. Okay.”
She returned his smile. “Good.”
Silas cocked up a brow. “Can we get back to what we were doing now?”
“Yes, please.” Her heavily lidded gaze drew him forward.
Cupping her face with his palm, he kissed her while they made love.
Slow. Fast. It didn’t matter. When he was with this woman she consumed him, body and soul.
He managed to hold on until he heard her breath hitch and felt her muscles tighten around him. She came, hard and loud, and he followed seconds later.
When he moved to get off her rather than stay and enjoy the aftershocks as her body gripped his, she groaned. “No. Don’t get up yet.”
“Give me one second, sweetie. I promise I’m coming right back.” He stood and pulled on his underwear and pants.
He’d be damned if he proposed naked even if the first part of this process had begun with him inside her.
Silas pulled the small ring box out of his pocket while she struggled to sit upright.
“What’s that?” she asked, her gaze moving from the deep blue velvet box in his hand to his face.
“It’s what I was going to give you tonight after dinner. But you went and stole my thunder.” He opened the lid.
Her eyes went wide as she looked from the ring to him.
“So, I think we’ve already covered this part, but humor me.”
It wasn’t exactly as he’d imagined. He was barefoot and his shirt was unbuttoned, but the timing still felt absolutely perfect.
Silas got down on one knee as Maggie straightened her dress and sat on the edge of the sofa, watching, waiting.
“Maggie O’Leary Branson, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She nodded, her eyes glassy with tears. “Yes.”
With the balance of power restored and his man card firmly back in his possession, Silas slipped the ring onto her finger. It slid on perfectly, as if it had been made for her. That seemed fitting, because he’d always felt she’d been made just for him.
She fingered the ring, watching the diamonds catch the light. “It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
Wiping a tear, she glanced up at him. “I love you.”
“And I love you. I always have and I always will.” Even with all that happened, all the many losses and changes in his life, that had never changed.
But something had altered within him.
For the first time in a long time, he wasn’t afraid to look ahead to the future and feel hope again.
EPILOGUE
Silas had never seen anything so frightening . . . and he’d seen a lot in his life.
He ignored the tremble in his hand as he took the small white plastic stick from his wife. She was smiling as she handed it to him.
Now the reason for her unannounced visit to his office in the middle of a workday made sense.
Why was she smiling when the sight struck cold hard fear in his heart?
One word, spelled out in tiny blue letters to fit inside the area that displayed the test results, was enough to have his knees weak.
Pregnant.
He raised his gaze to meet hers. “What does this mean?”
A frown drew her brows low over her sky blue eyes. “What do you mean, what does it mean? I’m pregnant.”
Yeah, he got that.
Hard to miss when it was right there in black and white. Or rather blue and white. But what did it mean to her? To him? To their life together?
He swallowed hard and handed the offending stick back to her. “Mags, we weren’t planning for this.”
She drew back. “What are you saying? You don’t want this baby?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. Not at all.”
He obviously should have considered this possibility and been a little more careful with his swimmers.
Although in his defense, there had been a lot going on in their lives the past seven months.
Their wedding. The birth of his own baby—Bone Frog Command.
She’d been on birth control for so many years, they’d both gotten used to not having to be careful.
When the doctor suggested she should really go off the pills after so many years, she had. But he couldn’t bring himself to start using condoms. This was his fault. At thirty-eight years old he was pretty set it in his ways.
But now that a baby was a reality, of course he wanted it. He just didn’t want to want it.
Time for honesty, with himself and with her. “I’m scared.”
“Scared of what?” she asked.
“What if something happens to him—” He stopped himself, realizing he was already connecting this baby with Jonas by assuming it was a boy. Already fearing a loss and what that would do to him.
Her expression softened. “It won’t.”
“It could. And what i
f something happens to you? We’re not as young as we used to be. Things happen.”
“Jeez, Si. I’m not that old. Women have babies in their late thirties and even their forties all the time.”
“I know.” It wasn’t just age he was worried about.
“You’re thinking about Jonas.” She laid one hand on his arm.
He let out a short bitter laugh. “Of course, I am.” He’d never stop thinking about Jonas.
Maggie shook her head. “It’s not going to happen again.”
“Just because I’m retired and stateside now?” He hated the harsh tone he heard in his voice. He met her gaze and said, “Sorry.”
She shook her head. “No, don’t apologize. I understand what you’re feeling, but it’ll be okay.”
He reached out and drew her against him, hugging her tight. Having her close quieted his racing pulse. “A baby. Wow.”
Of all the many changes in his life, that was the one thing he hadn’t even considered.
She laughed against his chest before she leaned back to look up at him. “Don’t worry. You have some time to get used to the idea.”
Good, because he was going to need it. But even during the last few minutes since she’d told him, the idea had begun to settle in.
He was calmer as the first wave of panic subsided. And now that he was no longer paralyzed by terror, the last place he wanted to be was at the office.
“Let’s go out and celebrate,” he said.
She frowned. “Don’t you have to work?”
Crap. There was that.
Bone Frog Command had added a huge workload to his job. And it wasn’t anything he could hand off to anyone else.
He remembered he had a meeting in—he glanced at the time on his watch—five minutes.
Double crap. Celebrating was going to have to wait.
He blew out a breath. “All right. How about this? I wrap up some things here at work and I’ll meet you at home. Then we can decide where to go for an early dinner. We could make reservations at that new Italian place in Alexandria you’ve been wanting to try.”
She’d transferred to the D.C. office right before the wedding and they’d made a new home and a new life together—a good life—there in Washington.