Chapter 3
M ASON LAUGHED, TAKING another swig of his beer from their table in the back of Anchors. Music blasted from the stereo, loud conversations filled the air around them, and they were all on their second round of beers.
“She was into you, man,” Hunter said with a chuckle, watching as a scantily clad woman walked away, pouting.
“Totally,” Emma agreed from beside him. “Women don’t just throw themselves at men like that unless they think it’s a sure thing.”
“Kind of like when we met, huh?” Hunter asked, waggling his eyebrows.
Emma flushed as she laughed in embarrassment. “You were hitting on me at the pub! Mason was there. Mason, tell everyone that Hunter is unequivocally making that up.”
“I don’t know,” Camila purred from beside Colton, brushing her long, dark hair back from her face as she leaned closer to him. “Colton threw himself at me, and I was anything but a sure thing.”
The rest of the table howled with laughter as Colton shook his head good naturedly. “It’s different with a woman—it’s never a sure thing.”
“Unless you meet her on the street corner,” Hunter quipped.
Colton chuckled. “We met at the airport—and Camila did her damnedest to brush me off without a second glance.”
“I had to play hard to get, no?” Camila asked innocently. “Where’s the fun in throwing myself at a man?”
“It would’ve been fun for me,” he quipped as the others burst into rowdy laughter once more.
Colton was casually leaning back into his chair, his arm securely around Camila.
Emma was perched beside Hunter, delicately nibbling on her hamburger.
Hunter had already wolfed his down earlier, and he was nabbing fries from her plate.
Ryker was silently scanning the restaurant, and Mason followed his gaze. He hadn’t heard back from Taylor after texting her earlier but tried to shrug it off. She was a big girl.
That still didn’t explain why she’d apparently missed another shift at Anchors though.
The hair on the back of his neck prickled a moment later, and he abruptly looked up, his gaze sweeping around the restaurant.
“What’s up, man?” Colton asked, noticing his sudden change in demeanor.
“I just thought—yep, there she is,” he said, nodding at the front of the restaurant where Taylor had suddenly walked in.
He clenched his fists, resisting the urge to rise and go over to her.
Taylor worked here. She was just arriving for her shift like every other waitress who came in.
And furthermore—she wasn’t his. No matter how badly he wanted to walk over and see her, flirt a little, watch her flush as he teased her, and ask her why she hadn’t been around lately, he needed to let her start her shift.
Her cheeks were pink, her dark ponytail swinging back and forth as she immediately looked toward his table.
She had on her usual tee-shirt and jeans uniform that the rest of the wait staff at Anchors wore.
The snug-fitting shirt did little to conceal her curves though.
He noticed the swell of her breasts, her narrow waist and the slight flare of her hips.
She flushed slightly as their eyes locked, looking away from him.
Mason frowned.
Had he been reading her wrong?
But no, she glanced over at him again and gave him a smile, her eyes lighting up as he grinned at her. She paused, her eyes locking with his for a moment longer, and then she was talking to her manager, gesturing toward the front door.
Mason’s gaze swept over, half expecting someone to walk in after her. A friend? Roommate? Boyfriend?
His jaw tightened.
But no, she wasn’t the type to give him her number and lead him on if she had a boyfriend.
Which made it all the more strange that she’d seemed somewhat elusive lately. He suspected she was the type of woman who didn’t give out her number very often. Hell. He’d been in here week after week with his buddies before she felt comfortable enough to give him her number.
For such a seemingly small thing, he sensed it was probably a big deal to her.
“I wonder why they said she called out tonight,” Colton said as they watched her talking to her manager. Another waitress walked by, giving Taylor a quick hug. Apparently she really hadn’t been around much lately.
“Maybe she’s been avoiding Mason,” Ryker said with a smirk.
“And avoiding her paycheck along with it?” Mason asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Doesn’t add up. Besides, she could’ve easily just told me she wasn’t interested, and I would’ve backed off.
She knows that. Hell, she could’ve told any one of you guys that she wanted me to leave her alone. We’re in here all the damn time.”
Ryker shrugged, his gaze trailing after two women walking by their table. Each had on a cropped top and a short skirt that barely covered their ass. Mile high come-fuck-me heels. Mason would’ve been all over that type of woman when he was younger, but now?
His gaze was drawn again toward Taylor.
Those tight jeans and snug tee shirt did more for him than those women flaunting their bodies.
Hell.
When had he turned into such an old man, anyway?
“Excuse me,” Ryker said, abruptly standing up from the table. “I’m going to go buy those ladies a drink.”
“Both of them?” Hunter asked, grinning. Emma had finished eating and was snuggled up against him, and he absentmindedly caressed her shoulder.
“If I’m lucky,” Ryker said with a smirk. “Don’t wait up for me, fellas.”
The table chuckled as he sauntered away.
“He’s never going to change, is he?” Emma asked glancing up at Hunter.
“That’s a negative, princess,” Hunter said.
“Not a chance in hell,” Mason agreed. He watched as Emma nonchalantly took Hunter’s hand and almost shook his head in disbelief. A couple of months after they’d met her in London, and those two were head over heels.
He never thought he’d see his SEAL team leader anxious to settle down with a woman, but the truth was stranger than fiction sometimes.
Emma had moved in with Hunter—flown across an entire ocean to be with him—and they were happily together now.
They had the house. The lovey-dovey looks.
All they needed was a dog and the two point five kids to be living the American dream.
“Ryker seems rather happy chasing after women, no?” Camila said from her seat beside Colton. “Men like that have no reason to change.”
“Somehow you changed this guy,” Mason said, nodding toward Colton. “He wasn’t going to let us leave Colombia without you.”
“Can you blame him?” Camila teased, pretending to pout at her boyfriend. “Look what he’d be missing out on if he’d left me behind.”
Mason smirked in amusement, but Colton’s jaw tightened. They joked about their relationship now, but Colton and the rest of the Delta team had rescued Camila from a sex-trafficking ring in Bogota. No one wanted to think about what would’ve happened if they hadn’t gotten to her in time.
It killed Colton and the rest of the guys even now knowing there were other women still being held down there.
Not to mention all the other women being trafficked world-wide.
There wasn’t a hell of a lot one SEAL team could do to rescue every single woman in harm’s way though.
Mason’s mind had been occupied enough with Taylor recently, trying to solve that puzzle.
The conversation continued on around him, but Mason’s gaze was again drawn to the front of Anchors as Taylor walked out from behind the bar with a pad and pen in one hand.
Her dark ponytail swished back and forth, her hips swayed slightly as she moved, and then Mason was instinctively rising.
Walking over toward her.
Her lips parted in surprise as she saw him approach, but she paused, waiting for him to get to her.
He noticed the rise and fall of her chest, her breasts pressing against her form-fitting tee shirt.
Hell, there were plenty of women in here wearing significantly less than that, but Taylor in a snug shirt and tight jeans was sexy as hell.
A long silver pendant was around her neck, and he saw she had tiny silver hoops in her ears.
Nothing about her was flashy or attention seeking like the women who were quite obviously trying too hard, but she sure had his attention every time he walked in.
One glance at her always had his heartrate increasing and his libido rising.
“Long time no see,” he said in a low voice, loving the flush that spread over her cheeks as she gazed up at him. At six-foot-two, he towered above her petite frame. Something about that made her all the more appealing to him though. He felt protective of her. Attracted to her.
And definitely interested in getting to know her better.
Preferably intimately, but he’d settle for taking things slowly. At the rate they’d been going, it would be another few weeks before she even agreed to go out with him. It had taken long enough just to get her number.
“You disappeared for a while,” she said with a small smile. Her chest rose and fell slightly as she spoke, and he realized she was nervous with the way she was clutching her order pad in a death grip.
He wanted to reach out and caress her bare arm. Feel that soft skin beneath his fingertips. Assure her that she had nothing to worry about with him. Not now and not ever.
She was working though.
And they weren’t out on a date or at a party getting to know one another.
He shouldn’t be wanting to reach out and comfort her at all.
Not here anyway. Not right now. “That I did,” he agreed.
“And now I’m back. Nature of the job,” he added with a shrug.
“They send us out, and we never know when or for how long.”
“Yeah, I wondered since I hadn’t seen you around....” Her voice trailed off.
“We were sent out on an op,” he said in a low voice. “Unfortunately, we don’t get much notice, or I would’ve let you know you wouldn’t see me in here for a while.”
“Oh.”
A hint of amusement trailed through him at her uncertainty. Did she really think he hadn’t been interested?