Chapter Four
Davin followed the directions Alma gave him through town and was surprised when she asked him to stop outside Teresa’s house.
“You’re staying at Terry’s place?” he asked as he cut the engine.
“I’ve rented it from her. Apparently, she has a few rental properties. Do you want to come in?”
“Yeah.” He hadn’t expected her to ask, but then, he hadn’t expected anything about this evening or about Alma – or Alexis – to turn out the way it had.
He followed her up the path to the front door and once they were inside, she smiled at him. “I’d offer you a drink – you’ve certainly earned one but …”
“Yeah, I can’t while I’m driving.”
“Do you have far to go?”
“No. Clay’s place is just out near the end of Main Street but …”
“I wasn’t trying to persuade you to have another, I was just curious.”
He nodded. “Mind if I ask you something that I’m curious about?”
She smiled. “I think, after the events of this evening, you’ve earned the right to ask just about anything. Fire away.”
“You stumbled over your name in the gym. Then, you said that the guys know you as Alma, but Gordon called you Alexis. Which is it?”
“My name is Alexis Marston. You know how it goes in our old line of work. People rarely use their own names. I went by more aliases than I can remember. Every time I worked with Cal I was using a different name. He was the one who came up with Alma – it didn’t give away my full name, but it made things a little simpler.”
“You don’t look like an Alma to me.”
She smiled. “I never really liked it, but it came in handy.”
“I can see that.”
“I told Gordon my real name when I met him because I was back in the real world – the world where I didn’t need an alias anymore. I …” She shrugged. “I thought that he was going to be part of my real life. I wanted … to be myself.”
Davin could understand that. “You get to be yourself, but he doesn’t get to be a part of it. What are you going to do about him?”
She sighed. “I’ll go over to the resort tomorrow and find him. Send him packing.” She gave him a rueful smile. “As much fun as it was to hide like that from him, that’s not how I want to handle the situation. It’s just … honestly, I reacted before I stopped to think about it. I had such a lovely evening with you. When I saw him, I didn’t want him to spoil things. Didn’t want him to overshadow the good time we’d had.”
Davin chuckled. “He didn’t. I didn’t know what was going on at first, but I don’t mind telling you that I had fun hiding like that. Do you need any backup when you deal with him?”
“No. Thanks. I’m not looking forward to it, but I just need to spell it out for him – slowly and clearly, that he’s wasted his time following me here.”
“Okay. I’ll give you my number, though. You can call me if …”
“Thanks. I will call you, but it’ll be to see when you want to go out again; I can handle Gordon.”
He told her his number and watched her tap it into her phone. His own phone buzzed with a text, and she smiled. “Now, you have my number, too.”
“Thanks. I’m covering the next couple of evenings at work, but are you free on Thursday? Want to go out for dinner?”
“I’d love to.”
“We could go to Giuseppe’s. Have you been there yet?”
“I haven’t been anywhere yet. Well, I’ve been out to the barn to get the horses settled and as you know, I’ve been to the grocery store but that’s it.”
“Well, I’ll be happy to show you around, and if you need any info or a hand with anything, call or shoot me a text.”
“Thanks. I will.”
“You have horses?”
She smiled. “I do now. It’s a long story, I should probably save it for next time. If I start telling you that one, I’ll have you here all night.”
Davin swallowed. He wouldn’t have any complaints if she wanted him to stay the night. He’d spent the night with Zoe the first time he met her, but this felt different.
Alexis – he couldn’t think of her as Alma now that he knew her real name – waggled her eyebrows at him. “That wasn’t a hint – not for tonight anyway.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t think it was. I should go. I told Alec that I was just going to the grocery store at six-thirty. You can tell me about the horses on Thursday.”
“Okay, and you can tell me more about yourself, too.”
He nodded and made his way back to the front door. “And I meant it, if you need a hand with Gordon – I’m not saying that you can’t handle him, but if it’d make life easier to tell him that you’ve met someone else …” He shrugged. “I’ll happily volunteer to be your new guy.”
“Thanks.”
He smiled. “I didn’t realize what I was saying until I heard it come out, but it’s true, and I don’t just mean for Gordon’s sake.”
Her smile hit him right in the chest as she came to him and slid her arms around his waist. “I wasn’t looking for this …”
He closed his arms around her. “Me neither.”
“But I think we might be onto something here.”
He nodded and lowered his head. She gripped his shoulders and her body slid against his as she reached up to meet him. The second their lips met, an electric current shot down his spine. He held her closer and kissed her deep and hard. Their tongues dueled and her hands came up to cup the back of his head, pulling him down to her as they devoured each other.
He grasped her ass and held her against his aching cock. Her low moan as she rocked her hips against his drew a matching sound from him. He turned her so that her back was against the wall, and he rested his weight against her, bending his knees so that he could press into the heat between her thighs. When she lifted one leg and curled it around his waist, he tangled his fingers in her hair and tugged her head back. When he dragged his mouth away from hers, they were both breathing hard.
“Damn! I should go now or else …”
She gave him a rueful smile. “You should, while you still can. I …” She shook her head. “I don’t do this, but if you don’t walk out that door in the next few seconds, I will.”
He chuckled. “You don’t know how tempted I am, but …” He forced himself to step away from her. “I can wait.”
She rolled her eyes. “And here I was, hoping that you couldn’t.”
He palmed her cheek. “I didn’t say that I want to wait, but I will. You’re worth it.”
She went up onto her tiptoes and pressed a peck to his lips. “Go on then. Go. I’ll see you on Thursday. Will you need to go back to work afterward?”
“No. If you want me to stay, I can stay.” He frowned. “But we can decide that then – you can change your mind. This isn’t … I don’t …”
She laughed. “You worry too much. I’ve already decided. Unless you change your mind, you’ll be staying here after our date.”
He gently cupped his hand around the back of her neck and claimed her mouth in a deep slow kiss. He had to end it before he was ready, had to make himself step back and open the front door.
“I’ll shoot you a message tomorrow – see how you’re getting on.”
She smiled. “I’ll be fine.”
“I know. That’s just an excuse. I want to talk to you anyway.”
“In that case, good. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”
He stepped outside.
“Davin?”
He turned back around. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for tonight. I really enjoyed it.”
He hurried back to where she was standing in the doorway. Wrapping his arms around her, he dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Thank you. I enjoyed it, too.” He gave her a rueful smile and stole one more peck. “Now I have to force myself to let go of you again.”
She nodded. “Go on. I’ll let you leave this time.”
He walked backward up the path, his gaze never leaving hers as they both grinned at each other.
He stopped when he reached the gate. “Goodnight, Alexis. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Alexis?”
“Yeah. To me, you’re Alexis.”
She nodded happily. “I like that. Goodnight, Davin.”
He climbed back into his truck and waved before he pulled away. She was still standing there, watching him go when he checked the rearview mirror. He would never have imagined that this evening would have turned out this way but now, he couldn’t be more thankful that he’d called Zoe earlier and that she’d ended things with him. He would never have gone to dinner with Alexis if he’d still been involved with Zoe in even the most casual way. Now, he was free to explore whatever might happen between them.
He adjusted the front of his jeans – his cock couldn’t wait to explore what could happen after dinner on Thursday.
~ ~ ~
When Alexis woke the next morning, she lay there in bed staring up at the ceiling as the events of last evening came back to her. When she’d left the grocery store, she’d thought that she was at the end of a miserable, if uneventful, day. She shook her head with a smile. She’d thought that her brief encounter with Davin had been the highlight of the day. She would never have guessed that he would go on to provide her with a few more, far more intimate highlights in the way that he had. Damn, the man could kiss. She pressed her thighs together when heat pooled between them at the memory of how he’d pressed her up against the wall while he kissed the hell out of her. When she’d wrapped her leg around his waist, she’d been more than ready to take things to the next level. She would have brought him up here to bed … and that was not like her. She hadn’t lied to him – she didn’t do that kind of thing. She was more of a fifth date kind of woman. That was something she’d been taught as a girl and it had suited her – until now, until Davin.
She made a face when the evening’s other events came flooding back in around the edges. Gordon. Ugh. Perhaps she had known more than she’d admitted to herself about him, even from the beginning. She hadn’t slept with him until after more than a dozen dates. She hadn’t felt that spark – although she had thought that it would grow. She’d only finally gone to bed with him when she’d felt guilty about his disappointment. The sex hadn’t been bad, but it had never been great.
She certainly hadn’t been overcome with an all-consuming desire like she had with Davin. Then again, she couldn’t remember having felt that way with any of the men she’d been with in the past. Some of her relationships had been more passionate than others, but she couldn’t remember feeling as desperate to get naked with a guy as she’d felt with Davin last night.
She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Just remembering the feel of his mouth on hers, and the feel of his hard length pressing into the heat between her legs was enough to make her want to stay in bed and enjoy the fantasy of what could have happened. But hopefully, she wouldn’t have to make do with just a fantasy – she’d get the reality on Thursday evening, and she’d rather save herself for that.
In the kitchen, she brewed a pot of coffee and checked her phone. She wasn’t surprised to see a text from Gordon.
Gordon: I know you were in the restaurant last night. I don’t know where you disappeared to, but I want to see you. You owe me that. Meet me there for lunch at noon. We can work this out. If you really want to move here, that’ll be okay, I’m prepared to stay if that’s what it’ll take.
Where did he get off? She was tempted to reply and ask what part of I don’t want to be with you anymore he didn’t understand. She didn’t because if she got into it with him now, he’d only call her and then she’d have to deal with him all morning. Instead, she sent him a brief reply.
Alexis: I’ll see you there at noon.
She watched the screen, dreading that it might light up with an incoming call. It slowly faded to black, and she relaxed. Good. That meant she had the morning to go about her business as she’d intended, and that meant going out to Lily’s barn to see the horses.
~ ~ ~
Adam gave Davin a puzzled smile. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?”
Davin looked up from his spot at the desk to where Adam was standing in the doorway.
“Why? What’s going on with me?” He knew he had a big smile on his face, but there was nothing he could do to hide it.
“Before Alec left, he told me that you might need cheering up today, that you and Zoe ended things last night. I know you kept saying that whole thing with her wasn’t a big deal, but … I didn’t expect to find you acting so chipper. Had things gone bad between the two of you? I didn’t think you’d seen much of her, but if you’re this happy to be done with her …”
Davin chuckled. “Oh, yeah. No. I asked her if she wanted to come spend the weekend with me and she turned me down. In fact, she called the whole thing off. I was a little down at first – that’s what Alec saw, but … let’s just say that things have taken a turn for the better since then.”
Adam came into the room and sat down on the sofa opposite Davin. “What things? What’s going on?”
“I … I met someone last night.”
Adam grinned. “You did? Who is she? Tell me all about it.” His smile faded. “That is, if you want to.”
Davin felt bad. He hadn’t told Adam about Zoe until after he’d been seeing her for a while. He didn’t really know why. Well, maybe it was because deep down, he knew that it would never develop into anything real. Zoe was a nice girl, but she wasn’t someone he could see taking over to Adam and Evie’s place for dinner.
“Okay.” He had no qualms whatsoever about telling Adam about Alexis. More than that, he was eager to share with his friend – and the difference between that and the way he’d kept quiet about Zoe wasn’t lost on him.
“It turns out that she’s a friend of Cal’s. She just moved here. She used to work in intelligence. I first saw her in the parking lot at the grocery store. She dropped a box, and I picked it up for her. It was only afterward that I realized how attractive she was – and that I was attracted to her – but she’d gone by then. I was still down about Zoe at the time. Then, I went into the gym and was just hanging out with Lucky and Echo, and she came in there.”
He smiled. “Get this – Echo went to her and led her straight over to me.”
Adam laughed. “Uh-oh! Sounds like this could be the real deal. You know Echo’s reputation for being a matchmaker, right? She got Dalton and Taryn together. She picked out Dee for Lucky, and she even gave Damon and Jo a helping hand.”
Davin nodded happily. “I know!”
“Okay, so tell me more; what happened in the gym?”
Davin told him about having dinner with her at The Boathouse. Adam laughed when he told him about sitting next to her so that they could both keep their backs to the wall. Adam didn’t look as amused when he told him about her ex showing up.
“When I came out of the bathroom and saw her running low and keeping her head down as she came around the corner from the restaurant, I didn’t know what the hell was happening. I thought the worst, that maybe there was an active shooter situation or … I don’t know what.”
“Why do you think she ran from him?”
He shrugged. “She said that she just didn’t want to have to face him. That she’d enjoyed our evening so much that she didn’t want to spoil it.”
Adam cocked an eyebrow.
“What?”
“I don’t know, hiding in the men’s room using you – or at least your feet – as a decoy, is a bit excessive if she just wanted to avoid a confrontation.”
Davin pursed his lips. “I don’t think so. She just didn’t want to have to face him. From what she said, it sounds like he’s the kind who just sucks the life out of her.”
Adam nodded slowly.
“What? I was hoping you might be a bit more enthusiastic than this. I thought you’d get a laugh out of the whole hiding in the bathroom deal.”
“I did, I just … I don’t know. Sorry, bud. I can see you’re excited about her. I’m just a bit wary. The whole deal with the ex and … I dunno.” He smiled. “I don’t mean to be a downer. And you know what, I bet Evie will be enthusiastic enough for the both of us. She wants you to come over for dinner on Thursday. It’s been a while.”
Davin felt bad. When Adam first got together with Evie, he used to have dinner with them at least once a week. Evie loved having him around. She knew how close he and Adam were and she’d told him herself that she loved feeling like they were all family. After all the years they’d served in the unit together, he considered Adam to be his brother – and that made Evie his sister.
But as time went by, he’d started making excuses more and more often. He was happy for his friend, but it was hard to see how happy Adam was with Evie and know that although he’d love it, there was nothing like that on his own horizon. When he first met Zoe, he hadn’t talked to Adam about it because he hadn’t felt great about it. Yeah, he was seeing someone, which was more than he’d done in a long time, but it wasn’t as though she was someone he could see himself taking around them.
“What’s up?” Adam asked. “Did I lose you? Did you even hear me? You’re coming for dinner on Thursday – no excuses this time.”
He frowned. “I can’t. It’s not an excuse. I’m taking Alexis out.”
Adam held his gaze for a long moment. “Okay. When do we get to meet her?”
He shrugged. “Hopefully soon. I’m not putting you off, bud. I just – I only met her last night.”
Adam nodded. “Okay. I’m in your corner – you know that. But I’ll be watching your back, too.”
“Thanks.” Davin wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to, but he would never say that. They’d had each other’s backs for decades – even if one of them didn’t perceive a threat, the other watched out for him anyway.