Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
The guys were kicked back at a table in the Salty Dawg, eating wings and drinking beer while they waited on the women to finish with their book club.
After what’d happened a couple of months ago, when Trey McCann and his hired men broke into the library to kidnap the women, the men stayed close.
Not only that, but they’d beefed up the library’s security system to make sure nobody could break in again.
If anyone breached those doors, six phones would squeal with alerts.
Wasn’t likely to happen ever again, but none of the guys were taking chances. The fact they’d loosened their holds enough to let the women meet in the library after that—as if they’d had a choice—was only due to the heightened security.
When eight o’clock rolled around and the women strolled into the Dawg, Ghost could see the collective release of tension in the faces of those around him.
Callie’s sister made a beeline for Nikki the waitress, and they performed some kind of complicated handshake thing that featured slapping and popping and waving in unison. It was their thing, started when they were christened Big Nikki and Little Nikki because of their shared name.
He thought for a minute that maybe Diana hadn’t come with them, but she appeared when the women split to go to their men. She’d been standing at the rear of the group. Ghost rose and took her hand, tugging her into his arms.
He told himself he did it for show, but the truth was he’d missed feeling her body next to his. He dropped his mouth to her ear.
“You survived it.”
“I did,” she said, turning toward him.
He took the opportunity to kiss her. She stiffened only a moment before melting against him. His dick began to throb, and he broke the kiss before it got any harder. He did not need a stiff dick in front of all these people. That was for Diana alone.
How had he gotten from wanting this woman to go away and stay out of his business to thinking about getting her naked and making her come at every opportunity.
“More of that later,” he murmured. “If you’re feeling up to it.”
She stepped into him, went on tiptoe, and whispered in his ear. “Can’t wait.”
It was everything he could do not to take her hand and pull her through the crowd to the rear door and then up to her apartment. He preferred his place for security, but hers was closer.
She sank into a chair beside him, and he put an arm across the back of it, daring any of his guys to say anything.
Naturally, they did not. There were no awkward silences, either.
The women had embraced Diana, and they included her in their chatter about the book they’d read and the one they’d chosen for next month.
She didn’t say much, but she smiled whenever anyone looped her into the conversation. She seemed to genuinely be enjoying herself, and not just pretending for the sake of their shared mission.
He wanted to tell her he’d talked to Gannon, that the dude was okay, if incredibly hung over, and that nothing more had happened as far as getting invited to another meeting. He hadn’t asked, and Gannon hadn’t offered. If it happened, it happened. If it didn’t, he’d find another way.
Because he wasn’t letting Athena fall into the wrong hands, and he wasn’t allowing any of the people he cared about to pay the price it would cost if he did.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” a male voice said to his left. “Colonel Bishop, how the hell are you?”
He swung his head around to encounter a face he hadn’t seen in a long time. And then he was on his feet, embracing the other man, slapping backs and laughing before breaking apart again.
“Asher McCrae. I’m good. No longer a colonel, though. What are you doing in this little town, huh?”
“Ash?” Rory said, standing up. “Is that you?”
Chance blinked at his woman. Asher’s gaze slid to Rory.
“Ror! Hey, girl—whoa, look at you.”
“Yeah, got knocked up by this Mr. Handsome Pants right here.”
Asher and Chance exchanged a look. Then Asher’s gaze slid across the men, recognition rocking him back a step. He focused on Ghost, and Ghost gave his head a little jerk. Asher nodded. He got it.
Blaze, Ethan, Chance, Kane, and Seth nodded back. They wouldn’t have known each other well, being on different teams, but they’d have crossed paths at HOT HQ. Hell, they might even have deployed to the same zones from time to time. Shared a ride in a military bird across the pond to get there.
“I’m moving home, that’s what I’m doing,” Asher said without missing a beat. “I’m from Angels Cove, across the river. Grew up coming over here for football games and scout meetings. And sometimes church stuff. Hey, EG,” he said when Emma sauntered back from the restroom.
“Oh my God, Ash!” she exclaimed, throwing herself at him. He put an arm around her and Rory both. Blaze and Chance went solid, but they didn’t interfere.
“You, too, huh?” he asked, dropping his gaze to her belly.
“Yep. This is my fiancé, Blaze Connolly.”
Blaze stood and shook Asher’s hand. Recognition passed between them but neither admitted it. Then Asher shook Chance’s hand, too. “Nice to meet you both.”
A round of introductions was made and Ghost asked Asher to sit with them. He shook his head. “I don’t wanna interfere with your gathering. Just thought I’d say hi. Couldn’t believe it was you.”
“It’s me. Everything going okay?”
There was no doubt Asher knew what he was talking about.
As one of the nine men of Strike Team 6, which had been captured and held for weeks by Sergei Turov when Mendez was on the run, Asher and his men had endured a special kind of hell at Turov’s hands.
Ghost had been part of the rescue team, and what they’d found had been men nearly broken by deprivation and torture.
Ghost had lied to Mendez about their condition when he’d called to report they’d retrieved the missing team, but he’d had no choice. Mendez had been waiting to find out if his woman lived or died after being shot by Dmitri Leonov. He’d been in no shape to hear the truth just then.
All the men lived, but not all of them had survived.
Three men had chosen to leave the service when it was offered.
Two had dropped off the radar completely, and one died when he stepped in to help a woman being attacked and got shot.
Six men had stayed active-duty, but they’d left one by one as their enlistments ended. Not one of them had chosen to re-up.
Asher nodded. “Doing great, thanks. Bout to open my own business. Heard there was a new range over here, but no idea it was yours. I’d like to check it out sometime.”
“You’re welcome anytime. You opening a range?”
Asher shook his head. “Nah. Going into private security. Got some buddies coming to help me out.”
“I know any of them?”
He grinned. “You know all of them. Cam, Austin, Lane, Reed, and Wilder.”
What was left of Strike Team 6. “Man, that’s good to hear. Going into business together, huh?”
“Yeah. Figured it was time. People need help, right?”
“They do. Be good to know you guys are close by. Wish you the best, Ash.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Nope, it’s Alex now. Come see me when you’re settled.”
“I’ll do that. Nice to meet everyone,” he said. “Ror, EG, good to see y’all. Glad you’re doing well.”
“Did you visit Theo yet?” Rory asked.
“Not yet. Just got here.”
“Come on, I’ll take you to the kitchen. He’s going to wet himself when he sees you.”
Asher laughed. “That was a long time ago, Ror.”
“I know, but it’s still funny. Come on, Idgy,” Rory called. “You know you want to see this reunion.”
“Damn straight,” Emma Grace replied.
Ghost dropped next to Diana again, pulled her chair closer just because he wanted the comfort of her warmth.
He was glad Asher McCrae was here. Glad what was left of the team was joining him.
Losing a HOT team to treachery from within their own government had been hard on those who’d known what happened.
You swore an oath and you worked your ass off, believing in your country’s ideals, and then someone who was supposed to be serving the nation was actually serving themselves when they gave you up to the enemy.
It was monstrous, and it shouldn’t have happened, but former Vice President Mark DeWitt had gotten what was coming to him. Justice prevailed this time.
They’d been sitting around shooting the breeze for probably another twenty minutes after Rory and Emma returned when Callie prodded Seth. He didn’t miss a beat.
“Gotta head out,” he said, standing and taking Callie’s hand as she got up with him. “Nikki has school tomorrow.”
Nikki was currently sitting at another table with a friend, but what did Ghost know about kids? It was approaching nine and the drive out to their place was a good half hour.
Beside him, Diana yawned behind her hand. Ghost seized on it. “Us too,” he said, standing.
She followed his lead, and they said their goodbyes.
He put a hand against the small of her back and guided her toward the door, giving Asher a nod as he passed.
Asher sat at a table with Theo Harper. They each had a beer, and they were laughing.
There’d been too many soldiers in HOT to know everyone’s background, which was why he hadn’t known Asher was from Angels Cove.
Nothing much over there they didn’t have here.
It was something of an artists’ colony, with little shops filled with paintings, jewelry, pottery, and other things that he personally had no use for.
It was more isolated than this side of the river.
Seemed an odd place to set up a security business, but maybe that was the point.
He didn’t know what it was like to have a hometown to return to, but he thought he could understand. Especially based on the greeting Ash had gotten from Emma and Rory. Like old friends.
He ushered Diana out the back door and down the steps. The night was chilly, but she had on a sweater. A soft as silk sweater that shaped her curves without clinging. He took her hand. She didn’t stop him, didn’t pull away.
“Your place or mine?” he asked as they walked.
“Mine’s closer.”
“Exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past hour.”
She laughed, the sound tinkling into his veins like music. “That long, huh?”
“Since the second you walked in, and I saw you. Hell, probably since I walked into the Dawg, if I’m honest.”
He caught her and spun her in front of him, tugged her in close and waltzed her in circles while she laughed.
Of course she knew how to waltz. He did because he’d learned as a young officer, knowing he’d be going to official events and not wanting to look like he didn’t have a clue.
He’d waltzed general’s wives, ambassadors, and at least one senator. It always came in handy.
But none of those times compared to the sheer joy on Diana’s face as she twirled and glided and laughed. He stopped spinning and pulled her into his arms, plastering her against him from breast to belly to hip. Every nerve ending in his body twitched alive.
“I’ve been patient, Diana, but I need to be inside you again.”
“I need it, too,” she admitted.
They hurried for the Sutton Building, unlocked the back door, and raced up the stairs.
He took her key and inserted it in the lock while he pinned her to the door and kissed her soundly, then caught her as the door flew open.
He pulled her inside, kicked the door closed and shot the lock.
When he turned, she was on him, ripping at his shirt.
He pulled her sweater over her head and dropped it.
They went for jeans, unsnapping and unzipping, pushing down hips, until he was naked, and she only had on a pair of lacy panties and a bra that displayed her breasts like they perched on his own personal shelf.
He tugged the cups down until her flesh mounded over them and attacked her nipples with lips and tongue.
“Alex,” she moaned.
“You make me crazy,” he growled before lifting her up and carrying her to the couch where he sat her on the back of it and dropped to his knees between her legs.
She cried out as he buried his face in her sweet, wet heat, her fingers curling in his hair, holding him to her.
As if he needed any incentive to eat her up.
Her ankles crossed over his back, her thighs falling open a bit more as her cries grew louder. He sent her over the edge without mercy, drove her to a second peak, and then straightened and would have slammed into her except for the lack of a condom.
“You don’t need it,” she said, knowing why he hesitated, her voice husky. “Unless you want it, or you need to protect me. I have an IUD and I’m not promiscuous.”
Hell, maybe he wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe she did that to him. But he stepped between those gorgeous thighs and drove in to the hilt.
“Jesus,” he gasped. “So fucking wet and hot.”
“Please,” she moaned. “I’m so close. Don’t stop.”
“I haven’t moved yet, Princess.”
“I know. Still close.”
He held her hips to keep her from tumbling off the back of the couch and drove into her again and again. Harder, sharper, sweeter, until she fell apart, her silky walls squeezing him tight as she came. He bent to suck a nipple into his mouth and fucked her stronger while she begged him not to stop.
She came again, her walls rippling down the length of his cock. Two more pumps and he came hard, his semen shooting deep inside her. He held her, her forehead laying against his chest, her breaths panting on his damp skin. His heart careened like a downhill skier, and his legs were rubber.
“I still don’t like you,” she said against his skin, her breath tickling him. “But you sure know how to show a girl a good time. Think I might put your number on the bathroom wall at the Dawg.”
He laughed and tipped her head back with a fist beneath her chin. “You do that, you might have to share this good time with other women. That what you want?”
Her eyes were twin pools of turquoise. Warm, inviting. Like a tropical sea. “Since you put it that way, no. Think I’ll keep having my way with you and enjoying all the spoils.”
He kissed her briefly, then pulled out so he could get a washcloth to clean her up.
The sight of his cum dripping from her slick heat sent a wave of possessiveness through him.
Instead of cleaning her, he swept her into his arms, carried her to the bedroom, and gave her as much good time as she could handle.
They fell asleep tangled together in her bed. Before he drifted off, she mumbled, “Still don’t like you.”
His arms tightened around her. Her face was against his neck, an arm and leg slung over his body.
“Still don’t like you, either.”
“Good,” she yawned. “I’d hate this to get awkward.”