Her Loyal Seal (13 page)

“So good, you feel so good, Clint.” Her nails bit into his back. Resting one arm over her head, he smoothed her hair from her mouth, and kissed her lips, as he eased in further. He read only pleasure on her face as she canted upwards, and then he felt her body give a pulse of wet welcome. He started a gentle tempo she matched, but soon she shoved against him in eager awkward thrusts.

His hand slid down her hip and guided her. Soon they were meeting one another in a rhythm that launched them ever upwards.

“Please.” She shuddered.

He hit the spot, the one he touched before with his fingers, in and out. She clamped down on him and they came together in a shower of ecstasy.

Lydia looked at him with a dreamy expression, and he knew he was wearing a silly grin on his face.

“Don’t move a muscle.” He went to the bathroom. He got back in time to see her stretch her body and he groaned.

She curled around one of the pillows and looked at him.

“I’ve never felt better in my life.”

He walked around the bed and got in behind her. She stiffened, but stayed where she was. He laid a kiss on her shoulder and started tracing the ridges of her scars.

“Do they hurt?”

“Sometimes they do,” she said quietly, “not recently.” His breath shuddered in. He’d known what to expect. He’d asked Darius. But knowing and seeing were two different things. She rolled over, exposing the entire expanse of her back to him.

“Baby, you should have told me, you should never have been lying on your back when we made love.”

“Clint, I only felt your touch.” He brushed kisses and traced the network of marks that marred her skin. He wasn’t surprised when he tasted the salt of his tears.

Lydia fell asleep and he pulled her close covering them up with the comforter.

“I love you, baby. You’re mine.”

Chapter Eight

They made it to the safe house a couple of hours ago. Finn arranged for a three bedroom, two story house a mile from the beach. Clint thought it was perfect because it was at the end of a cul-de-sac.

Lydia pressed end on the phone and turned to Clint.

“Beth learned how to ride a horse!”

Clint looked at Lydia’s beaming face, momentarily diverted from his computer screen.
Score one for Jack Preston.

“So Mama Bear is feeling a little bit better?” Clint teased.

“Yes I am.”

Lydia got up from the dining room table as the buzzer rang in the kitchen. She took out the casserole she put in for dinner.

“So that takes care of Beth, but you didn’t tell me how your conversation with your parents went.”

Clint closed his laptop. He wanted to show Lydia what he found on Guzman, but he could tell she needed to talk.

“I honestly don’t know what to think.” She looked at him, and then touched the glass dish without using the oven mitt.

“Ow.”

In seconds he had her hand under the faucet, running cold water on the burn.

“It’s no big deal. Really.” He kissed the top of her head.

“Let me take care of you. I like doing it, okay?”

She leaned into him. “Don’t tell anyone, but I kind of like it when you take care of me too.” Now didn’t that deserve another kiss? He continued to keep her hand under the water, but he used his other to tangle in her mass of black curls and tip her head for a fierce kiss that left them both breathless.

Reluctantly he let her go.

“Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“Not really. They’re just them. In five more weeks, this will all be over.”

She straightened. “Help me find where the plates are.”

They scrounged in the cupboards and found the dishes they needed to set the table. “This is a really nice house. Do you know who it belongs to?” Lydia asked as they sat down.

“Nope. Finn arranged it. The man is amazing. He has contacts everywhere. You mention you need something, and voila, it just shows up.”

“Does he use computers too?”

“I’m sure he does but it’s not like we do. It’s more just e-mailing a bunch of friends and calling in favors.” Clint laughed.

He waited for her to pick up her fork. Then he did the same, anxious to try the food that had been tantalizing him for the last half hour while it cooked. He took a bite of the succulent corn and chicken dish and sighed with delight.

“I love this.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“How’s your hand?” She seemed to be holding her fork okay.

“Fine. So what did you find out while I was talking to Beth?” she asked as she took another delicate bite of her food. Damn, she was sexy when she ate. Okay, he admitted to himself, she was sexy when she did anything as far as he was concerned.

“I’ve been accessing the dark web.”

“Makes sense. That’s where most of the information about drug trafficking goes on.”

“Something weird is going on. I wanted you to take a look at it. Guzman seems to be dumping his product at a fast rate. Almost like he is having a fire sale. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Hmmm.” Lydia put down her fork after only a few small bites.

“Nope, you have to finish a hell of a lot more before you get to play with my computer.” She gave him a dark look.

“I have my own damn computer.”

“Yeah, but it would take you an hour to get to the site I found. If you’re a good girl and eat all your food, you could be looking at the fun stuff in under twenty minutes.” She stuck out her tongue at him.

He choked out a laugh and her eyes twinkled.

“You’re perfect for me, you know that, don’t you?” She blushed and picked up her fork.

“I’m serious. When we get done with this shit, I want to take you to Colorado to meet my family.”

She took a slow bite of her food and swallowed. “Tell me about them. Your family I mean.”

“It’s pretty normal. Mom, Dad, my sister Jenny and my brother Robert. They all still live in Denver.”

He watched as she started to push food around on her plate.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” God, he hated that answer.

“Lydia, please talk to me.”

“Normal sounds so good. You’re lucky.” She set down her fork and took her plate to the sink. Dammit, she had barely eaten. She started cleaning up the kitchen while he finished the rest of his meal. She looked so sad. How had they gone from her joking with him, to this?

He went into the kitchen with his dishes and put them in the dishwasher. She avoided looking at him. He couldn’t stand it a second longer. He trapped her against the edge of the counter.

“Clint, what are you doing?”

“Trying to determine what made you sad.”

“Nothing.” That damn word again.

He put his hand on her forehead.

“No fever.”

She knocked his hand away. “You’re being silly.”

“You’re not being honest with me.” She looked up at him with confused brown eyes.

“I’m not trying to be dishonest.” He saw only truth.

“Baby, tell me what you’re feeling. I hate when you shut me out.” He did. He hated it a lot.

“Normal. You called your family normal.” She almost spit out the word. Now he was wearing a confused expression.

“The Hidalgos are never going to be normal again. You need to run away from me Clint. I’m trouble.” He pressed her against the cupboards.

“There isn’t a chance in hell I’m going to run. And, there is no way I’m going to let you run. I have no idea where this is leading, but we are going to find out.” She twisted, trying to get away from him, but he was more than happy to use his strength to keep her in his arms.

“Are you listening to me?”

“Are you listening to me, Clint? We’re on the run from one of the most notorious drug cartels in the world. My father worked for that drug cartel. We will all have to go into the Witness Protection Program. We left normal three Twilight Zone episodes ago.” She shoved at his shoulders. “Let me go.”

“No.”

“Are you threatening me?” If he had seen the slightest bit of fear on her beloved features he would have let her go, but he saw only anger and frustration.

“I’m not threatening you, I’m telling you that you don’t get to leave this discussion until you bring up some sort of rational argument.”

“You are a horse’s ass! You need to get the hell away from me. You have a normal happy family. You are one of your country’s heroes. The last thing you need is someone like me in your life.”

“That’s it. You’ve officially gone off the rails.” His hands tenderly framed her face, and he used his thumb to rescue her bottom lip from her teeth. She grasped his biceps and her lower body softened, providing him a cradle to lean into.

Her breath caressed his lips as he dipped in to taste. He could feel her conflict, and he wasn’t going to allow it. He thrust his tongue deep and she gasped, arching into him. He moved, one arm tilting her up, the other lifting her up, so she was seated on the granite countertop. She pushed him away with one arm, and pulled him closer with the other. This was not going to be how they would spend their time together.

He pulled her right leg around his waist, so even through their layers of clothes they could feel each other’s heat. She relaxed and stopped trying to push him away.

Clint drifted kisses down the side of her neck, loving how she always smelled of honeysuckle.

“This won’t change anything. We’re still wrong for one another.” Her fingers dug deeply into his scalp. He loved it.

“Nobody else will put up with Nerd King.” She gripped his hair and pulled him away. Tears were swimming in her big brown eyes.

“I’m serious.”

“So am I. I’m the furthest thing away from normal you could imagine. I need you. Please just keep yourself open to the possibility.” She gave him a look so filled with hope and fear he had to trace her lips with kisses.

“And another thing.” He tipped up her chin so she was looking him in the eye.

“What?”

“When I ask you what’s wrong, I’m begging you. I’ll get down on my knees if I have to. Please don’t say ‘nothing’. That answer just scares the piss out of me.”

She giggle snorted. “Hand me a paper towel you fool.” Lydia blew her nose. “So now do we get to play on the computers?”

****

“How old were you when you started playing with computers?” Lydia asked. They were sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the coffee table in the den. Each of them were in front of their respective laptops. They spent a half hour arguing over the better operating systems, the better hardware, and game controllers. Now they were settling into the business of investigation. Clint liked to call it spying.

“I took apart my first motherboard when I was nine. What about you?”

“Eight.” She smirked. She glanced over at his screen and he angled his computer so she couldn’t see it.

“No cheating off of my paper.”

Lydia fought down a yawn but Clint saw it. He got up and left the room. He was soon back with pillows from a bed, and a plate of cheese, crackers, and fruit.

“Stand up.” Lydia didn’t even bother to ask why, she just stood. He pushed the table closer to the couch, then positioned the pillows so she could sit on them and rest against them while still working with her laptop. He helped her to sit back down.

“You hardly ate anything at dinner so you need to eat this. If you don’t, I’m going to say no more computer games for you tonight.” Lydia reached for a cube of cheese and saw the slight trembling in her hand. Clint didn’t say a word, he just got up and left the room. Damn, she knew he had seen that.

“Here’s a full glass of water, and another one of grape juice. You have to finish both of these as well.”

Part of her wanted to give him a bitchy comment, but he was right. She’d be all up in Beth’s business if she wasn’t taking care of herself. She leaned against the pillows and sipped the beverages and ate the food.

“So you were a computer prodigy but still feel the need to cheat off my work?”

“You’re the one who calls this
spying
.” She grinned. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t look at all the angles and information available to me.”

“So you cheated in school?”

Her hand jerked involuntarily as she was bringing the grape juice to her lips. Liquid spilled down the front of her white top. “Of course not! Cheating in school is wrong.” She saw Clint laughing at her.

“You sure are fun to tease.” He popped a cracker into his mouth.

“You’re an ass.” She grabbed the last cracker before he could get it.

“Okay, so when did you start your investigation on Guzman.”

“It’s really kind of weird. I was already investigating his organization before I knew Papa ever worked for him. It must have been serendipity.”

“Why were you investigating him?”

“It was part of my criminology course. Me and two classmates decided we could impress our professor if we did a paper on an active investigation. Manuel’s uncle worked for the coroner’s office so he got some information on a hit done in the Tepito neighborhood. It was perfect because my family used to live there when I was in grade school, so I still had friends there.”

“Isn’t that a high crime area?”

“Yes.” She looked at Clint, but didn’t see any judgment on his face.

“Mason’s fiancé, Sophia, had some problems in a bad part of San Diego. Her little brother ran away, and she was out looking for him in the middle of the night. She still does volunteer work in a mission down there, and he always worries when she’s there and he can’t be with her.”

“Many good people live in high crime areas, but they live good productive lives. Sometimes they also need help. I think it’s wonderful Sophia volunteers some of her time at this mission.”

“Did you ever run into problems there?”

She tried to push up from the pillows, but her hand hit the floor instead and she hissed in a breath.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s nothing.” Her head jerked up. “I mean I hit my hand in the same place I burned it. Look I need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” Clint lent her a hand up, and she damn near raced out of the room.