Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
SAWYER
I woke to the scent of vanilla and lavender. Sometime in the night, Willa had shifted positions to face me. She slept like a koala, snuggled close against my chest, her head on my shoulder, an arm and a leg wrapped around me. It was adorable, but for the effect her warm breath against my bare skin had on things south of the border. My dick stood at attention, begging me to work down those bit-of-nothing sleep shorts she wore so we could get up close and personal before the knee that was perilously close to my balls twitched and did some damage.
Sunlight streamed through the sheer curtains, brighter than I would’ve expected. I lifted my head to check the clock and nearly jolted as a massive black head popped up on Willa’s other side. Roy blinked at me with big, golden eyes. I’d have sworn he arched one doggy brow at me, as if to say he wasn’t at all sure how he felt about sharing his bed with the likes of me. Or maybe it was jealousy that his mama was wrapped around me instead of him. I couldn’t blame him. The warm weight of her felt pretty fucking fantastic.
On the nightstand beyond, I finally spotted the clock. Nearly 7:30. Later than I’d thought, but God knew, she’d needed the sleep. I wondered how often she had nightmares. I gathered they weren’t infrequent, and I hated the idea of her having had to deal with those alone. Staying stuck in the fear because she couldn’t wake up or, worse, coming out of it with no one to comfort her. I mean, she had the dog, and I understood he was absolutely an emotional support animal. A damned good one at that. But it wasn’t the same as having someone take care of her. I liked being the one to do that. Probably way too much. Same as I liked being in this bed with her, just like this.
Willa stirred against me, and I held my breath as her knee shifted against the erection that hadn’t wilted one damned bit. Her palm flexed against my chest, almost like a cat making biscuits, then heavy-lidded eyes met mine and a slow, sleepy smile curved her lips. “Hi.”
What would it be like to be greeted by that smile every day?
“Mornin’. Sleep okay?”
“Like the dead. You’re apparently good at scaring away nightmares.”
I stroked the hair back from her face. “Anytime.”
Roy grumbled and head-butted her between the shoulders. With a laugh, she rolled over, removing the threat of her knee from my groin.
“Good morning, sweet boy. Are you ready to go out?”
With a woof, the dog scrambled out of bed. Willa swung her legs out of bed and lifted her arms high in a stretch that pulled her sleep tank tight across her breasts. That had my big boy brain jumping on the campaign for keeping her in this bed.
“I’ll let him out and start the coffee.”
“I’ll be down in a little bit.” After I’d done something about this reaction to her.
She snagged a light robe, sliding it on as she strode into the hall after a dancing Roy.
By the time I made it downstairs, I smelled bacon. The dog was hunched over his bowl, snarfing down his breakfast. Willa herself stood at the counter, cracking eggs into a bowl. I fought the urge to cross the room and slide my arms around her from behind, pressing a kiss to the little tattoo on the back of her neck. In the bright light of day, such things didn’t feel quite as possible. Instead, I moved to the coffeepot.
“You had yours yet?”
“Not yet. I wanted to get this started first.”
“I’ll make it for you. How do you take your coffee these days?”
“A little less sweet than back in high school. Cream, one sugar.”
I pulled mugs down from the cabinet and poured, moving over to hand her one of the blue speckled stoneware pieces I recognized as Mimi’s work. Those eyes met mine over her shoulder. Paired with that shy smile, it just hit me right in the gut, and I found myself smiling back. Damn it, I liked the domesticity of playing house with her. I liked everything with her, way too damned much.
Lifting my own mug, I kicked back against the counter. “So, what’s on deck today?”
“Well, I checked the weather report. That hurricane watch has been amped up to a warning. We’ve already got a lot of supplies here. Hurricane panels for the windows and the like. But we’ll need to take stock and go into town for other supplies. And while we’re there, I want to go ahead and stop by City Hall to see what Miles wants.”
“Not gonna put it off? As I recall, you never much liked him.”
“He’s an ass. That opinion hasn’t changed since high school. But it’s part of the gig as a Sutter. Given the impending hurricane, he’s probably going to be pretty busy, which means I should be able to get in and out pretty quickly.” She transferred bacon to a plate covered in paper towels, then turned back for the eggs. “My hope is that surprising him will catch him on his back foot, and I’ll have the upper hand in the conversation. I’ll take whatever advantage I can get.”
“Fair enough.”
We ate and drank our coffee at the kitchen table, and I did my best not to notice how her robe kept slipping off one shoulder, exposing a tantalizing stretch of creamy skin I wanted to trace with my lips.
“Where are all the hurricane supplies stored?”
“The hurricane panels are in a rack in the shed off the back of the garage. There’s a generator out there, too. I can show you after my shower.”
Do not picture her naked. Do not.
“I’ll just pop on out and take a look while you’re upstairs.”
“Okay. I won’t be long.” She shoved back from the table.
“Thanks for breakfast. I’ll get the dishes.”
There went that smile again. “Thanks for my grilled cheese last night.”
As she disappeared upstairs, I made quick work of the dishes, then strolled on out to the garage. The panels were, as she’d said, neatly organized and ready to go. I found the generator and started a mental list of tasks to prep the property in advance of the storm. The ringing of my phone interrupted me. Spotting Dax Gregory on the display, I answered. “Malone.”
“My man. How the hell are you? How’s the shoulder?”
“It’s better. Still a little twingey but getting there. You?”
“Busy. Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you.”
“Not a problem.” Honestly, this was a faster turnaround than I’d expected.
“Where are you? What have you been doing since you got out?”
“Well, it’s funny you should ask that. I’m back on Hatterwick. And… I just got married.”
“Holy shit. For real?” His voice shot up at least an octave.
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Uh, about six days ago.”
“Hot damn. Who’s the lucky lady?”
I paused. No way around this part. “Willa.”
“Like… Hollingsworth’s little sister?” Dax was quick. It was part of what made him good at his job.
“Yep.”
He crowed. “Ooo hoo! And what did Jace say about all this?”
“He doesn’t know. The situation is complicated, and that’s actually why I wanted to talk to you.”
I gave him the rundown, pacing up and down the driveway. “I need you to help create a backdated trail of communications that suggests we were involved over the last three years.”
“Sure, I can do that. It’ll take me a little time. I’ve got several things going on.” He hadn’t specified, but I suspected some of those things involved off-book, black-ops contract work. Dax hadn’t sat on his laurels when he got out of the Navy.
“I appreciate whatever you can pull off. What do you need from us?” As he spoke, I switched over to speakerphone and opened the notes app to jot it all down. “Got it.”
“So, you’re doing this as a favor to protect her. That I get. Makes sense.” This time it was he who paused. “Is she aware of how you feel?”
I regretted some of my honesty during that forty-two hours we’d been trapped behind enemy lines. But, well, when you thought you might die, you shared shit.
Automatically, I glanced toward the house, making sure Willa wasn’t within earshot. “It hasn’t come up, precisely.”
“Is this gonna be temporary, or are you going to take the opportunity to woo her for real?”
“Who the hell uses the word ‘woo’?” But I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about last night in the kitchen. I’d nearly kissed her again. No audience. No performance. Just because I’d wanted to. I regretted that I hadn’t. She’d tattooed something of me on her body. That alone told me this was more than simple attraction on both sides, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do about it. If I should do anything about it.
“That’s the word, brother. So are you?”
“It’s complicated. So that’s to be determined.”
“Well, good luck. I’ll send you a link for an encrypted upload of the stuff I asked for.”
“Thanks, man. I really appreciate it.”
“Absolutely. I owe you, so I’ll make sure this does the trick. By the time I’m done, nobody but the two of you will know it’s not the God’s honest truth. I’ll be in touch. My congratulations to your bride.”
Willa stepped out of the house just as I hung up, looking pretty as a picture in jeans and some lacy summer sweater thing with a wide neck that exposed more of those shoulders that were driving me wild.
Hands and mouth to yourself, Malone.
Shoving my phone into my pocket, I strode to meet her. “I just spoke to my buddy and got the list of things he’s gonna need to lay in a backdated electronic trail for us. He offered his congratulations, by the way.”
“Oh. Did you tell him why we needed all this?”
“I did.”
“And he didn’t think we’re out of our minds?”
“Dax isn’t in the habit of asking those kinds of questions. But he is very, very good at what he does.”
“Well, I’ll take all the help I can get. I’ve got a partial list of supplies here.”
“I’ve got one myself for out here.”
“Then let’s get on into town and get this done. It sounds like we’ve got a lot of work to do.”