Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action) (17 page)

Shane had managed to put his hands everywhere on her body, including inside her jeans—jeans that he had quickly removed. When Nevin saw the panties come off too he was glad he had taken up watch where he had. Shane had shifted enough to give him a fabulous view of her private area. “Givin’ it up to a SEAL, huh, darlin’. But I bet you wouldn’t give it up to me; would you? I bet you’d put your nose up in the air just like them.” He had said those words in anger as he watched them. He let one hand slide down to his throbbing sex. “Enjoy it while it last, Shane. Because you don’t have too many more peaceful nights left.

Tomorrow he would plot his entry into Shane’s home. He didn’t know how yet, but he would get in. He would find a way to show him that not even he, the Great Shane Maxwell, could beat Nevin DuPont.

Alyssa managed to get her pants on, but she had to borrow Shane’s button down shirt because he had thrown her shirt down on the ground. There was no way that she was going to go in search of it in the dark in the Arizona desert where a scorpion or a rattler might have already found a home in her discarded clothes. They watched the sky a little while longer until she fell asleep in his arms. She wasn’t sure what time he had gone to sleep because she was sure he was still wide awake when she started dozing off. The sun cresting over the mountainous valley awakened her was. “Oh my goodness,” she nearly squealed. Shane mumbled something as he rubbed his eyes and sat up. It didn’t take long for awareness to be etched on his face. The man was too good at waking up without hesitation. She gathered that had a lot to do with his former career. Sleeping soundly could get a man killed in his line of work.

“I’m going to be late,” she fidgeted around the truck, looking for the hairclip that Shane had pulled from her hair last night. He liked her hair loose and flowing. He seemed to like running his fingers through it. She liked it when he did it too. There was something comforting and relaxing about having him stroke his big fingers through her hair. Suddenly she had acute awareness of what else those big fingers had stroked just hours earlier.

“Relax,” he said. “You’ll be on time. It’s not even seven o’clock yet.” Shane had a point; the sun was rising earlier so it wasn’t really as late as it felt. But, she also knew what she needed to do before she could open the store. She had to take her shower, change her clothes, and take the new pieces down to the store. She would have taken those down last night, but she was out on a date with the sexiest man in her Arizonan world.

“I have to set up the new pieces in the store this morning,” she told him as she scrambled to get down from the truck. He placed one big hand on her ankle and pulled her backwards. She yelped. “What are you doing you crazy man!?”

He simply laughed. “Saving you from getting down in the dirt barefooted. In case you forgot, you left your shoes in my truck…and, there might be some scorpions waking up down there as well.”

“Oh,” she nodded. “You have a point. Unfortunately, you threw my shirt down there.”

He shrugged. “I’ll shake it out after I get you in the truck.”

“I am not putting that thing back on until it’s spent a few rounds in the washing machine. I hope you have an extra shirt in your duffle bag there because you’re not getting this one back.” He wasn’t going to get it back ever. She liked the way it felt on her body, it was like being wrapped in Shane Maxwell and she wanted to take this baby home and sleep in it every night.

He jumped down off the truck before walking over to her side and stretching his arms out for her. She smiled at him, willingly reaching out to him and letting him lift her out of the truck and into his arms. After he set her down inside she put her shoes back on while he wrapped the blankets up. When he started the engine she assumed he was taking her home, but he hadn’t—at least not to her home.

“Um…” she looked at him, puzzled. She really did have to get back to the store. Then again, maybe he didn’t want to deal with the waste in gas on making several trips. He needed to get ready for the day ahead of them too.

“I’m going to show you my place,” he took her hand in his. “Then I’m going to shower. Then I’ll take you back to your store.”

She followed him willingly. His home was beautiful. He had land, space that she wished she had herself, and the actual ranch style structure was gorgeous. He kept it groomed on the outside and meticulously neat on the inside. “Do you spend a lot of time here?” She laughed.

“I run a tight ship,” he said. “I like things in their place.”

“See, we could never live together. I always hang my underwear in the bathroom to dry and that would probably drive you crazy.” She wasn’t sure why she had mentioned living together. Several dates and a phenomenal orgasm did not equate to moving in status.

“I’ve seen your underwear,” he grinned. “And trust me; having those hanging around the bathroom wouldn’t bother me.”

“Really?” She asked skeptically. “I think it would drive you crazy.”

He shook his head no. “Knowing what you like to wear under your clothes, having your underwear hanging in my bathroom will just enhance the fantasy of what you might be wearing when I get you out of your top clothing articles.”

She laughed and gently nudged his shoulder with her own. “You can get me out of my clothes anytime you want, sailor.” She said in a classic old Hollywood vivacious vixen voice before winking at him. He leaned in, placing one tender kiss on the side of her neck and said, “I’ll have to remember that.”

“How about now?”

“I don’t have any condoms in here either.”

She nodded. “You should buy some. I don’t know your size or I’d buy them for you.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Baby, I can show you the package right now if you want to know what you’re getting.”

“You show me now and I might just have to take what I want. So I think we’d better save the show and tell for another time.”

“Show and use, baby,” he grinned. “I’ll let my boy make his own impression in you.”

She shivered just thinking about his words. When he was holding her in his arms she could feel his erection and she knew whatever the package was it was going to be something well worth waiting for. “Go take your shower,” she laughed. “I’ll wait right here.” She pointed downward to the spot she was standing in. He had shown her around the downstairs enough for her to see that his entertainment room was large enough for a small social party. The hardwood floors were a deep cherry in color and the walls were nice shades of pale blue and ivory in most of the downstairs rooms. The kitchen looked as if it belonged to a gourmet chef with stainless steel appliances, two wall unit ovens and a dark wood crescent shaped island in the center that had a marble top. She could get lost in a kitchen like that. The kitchen was the only room, thus far that had granite tile flooring, everything else was hard wood. She imagined he probably made the switch so that any spills wouldn’t tarnish the floor like it would a wood floor. He had great taste and his home was amazing. All the times they had spent the night having dinner on his property she hadn’t gone inside his home. She had waited in the truck while he picked up the meal they were planning to eat. And when it was her turn to bring dinner she had picked that up from her place before they even left. Shane had always insisted on driving, which meant he always had to take her home, except last night, and the first night, where she had slept under the star blanketed sky with him. This was the first time she was seeing the inside of the place he lived in and she liked it a lot.

“Make yourself at home.” He said before rubbing her shoulder and leaving her standing in the quaint after dinner room. It was the kind of room a person could retire to, curl up in the big leather recliner near the fire place and read a book before bed.

She ran her fingers over the intricately designed cobblestone fireplace. She loved design and detail and right now the design of his home was inspiring some ideas for new jewelry pieces. She wished she could spend the entire day up in her place making new designs, but she couldn’t. She had to work today. She could, however, sketch the designs out while she had some down time in the store. The lull between customers would be the perfect time to sketch out a few pieces. Of course she knew the lull in activity would be few and far in between today.

“Why wait?” She mumbled before reaching into her purse and pulling out a small notebook that she carried with her. It wasn’t exactly sketchpad material, but paper was paper. She pulled out a pen, because she didn’t have a pencil with her, and she sat down in that big leather chair and started sketching her designs. Some were inspired by his place, some by the meteor shower they watched on their first date, and some by the things that happened beneath the darkened sky last night. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she hadn’t even heard him come into the room. She hadn’t even realized it had been that long until he broke the silence when he asked, “are you ready to go now?” She wasn’t ready to go, but she knew they had to.

“Sure,” she said, grabbing her purse and putting her notepad back inside. “Would you like to have dinner with me tonight at my place?”

“I can’t,” he said. Was she misreading him? She thought he was still interested, but maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was looking for an easy way to let her down. “Leo’s coming in tonight so I’m going to pick him up from the airport. He hasn’t found a car worth renting yet,” he shook his head and laughed.

“I thought he wasn’t due in for another week or so.”

He shrugged. “I had a voicemail on my phone from him. He’s getting in tonight. I could kick his butt for making me have to turn down a perfectly good invitation for dinner with a beautiful woman.”

She smiled. “There will be other dinners,” she said. “Bring him by the store in the morning. I’d love to meet him.”

He nodded. “Just so long as we have one thing clear before then.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re mine.” Alyssa looked at him, totally floored by that proclamation of ownership. “At least I want you to be. And Leo, well he’s like a Hawaiian-Japanese god or something and I don’t want you to fall for him.”

She understood now where his head was. He wanted a serious relationship with her and he was afraid she would take one look at Leo and fall for him. She wouldn’t do that. After what they shared last night she couldn’t imagine being with anybody else. It wasn’t just the orgasm he gave her, it was the conversation, the way he freely opened up to her as much as he could. There was vulnerability in him last night that she found alluring and sexy, and it made her connect to him in a way she didn’t think she would allow herself to connect to anybody else. Her heart had already latched on to this man and there was no turning back.

“I wouldn’t ditch you for your friend, Shane. I…” she tried to think of the right words. Saying she loved him would be too quick, or at least she thought he might feel that way, but what she felt, what she thought she felt, was stronger than like and lust—it was love. “I really care about you. I wouldn’t hurt you.”

He smiled. “Well, if you and Leo hit it off then I’d step aside.” He stopped abruptly. “What the heck am I talking about?” He asked astonished at himself. “I’d kick his behind back to Hawaii. I would definitely fight for my woman, even if he can kill me without breaking a sweat.”

She laughed. “Now, now…no fighting. You already have me. Trust me; I’m yours. And I hope that you’re mine too. I’d like for us to belong to each other.”

He approached her in a smooth even gait and pulled her into his arms. “We do,” he assured her before squeezing her closer to him. She loved the feel of him, of his body pressed against hers, of his arms wrapped around her. She didn’t want to move from that spot, but she knew they had to. She had to get home and get ready for work. Oh, but come Sunday, raining or not, she was going to spend the day in bed with that man. His friend would just have to take in the Arizona charm on his own that day because she and Shane had some unfinished business to see to, and she planned to spend the entire day getting to know every curve, every hardened muscle and every scar on his body. Inside and out, she wanted to know the infinite depth of Shane Maxwell.