In the Line of Fire: Hot Desert Heroes, Book 1 (16 page)

“You would not believe the smarm coming off that guy,” she said, disgust hardening her voice.

“And when Morgan basically told him that a little town outside of Quebec is hardly the definition of cosmopolitan, he told her she needed to eat more sandwiches.” Delaney started laughing. “Like that’s the best thing he could come up with? A gorgeous, intelligent, talented woman needs to eat more sandwiches?”

Morgan laughed right along with her. “I know, right? If I knew the guy and cared about his opinion, that might have stung a little. But I don’t know him, and I don’t care what he thinks. Besides, I eat sandwiches. Look at me now, eating a muffin.” She took a big bite and mumbled around it, “My agent’s gonna have a conniption when I put on weight from being home, but since I do every time I make it back to Tucson I guess he’ll get over it.”

Delaney jostled her shoulder against her sister’s and finished off her own muffin.

“You trying to be a good example for your younger sister?” Lily asked. “I noticed you didn’t get your usual.”

Delaney tried to look indignantly righteous. “I’ll have you know I don’t always get the carrot cake muffin. Sometimes I’m health conscious.”

Her sister and friends laughed.

Okay, so maybe a muffin that had bacon and cheese in it wasn’t quite as health conscious as it should be. And she did miss the taste of that yummy cream cheese frosting. “Maybe I’ll just get one to go,” she added amidst renewed laughter. Delaney stood to go for another coffee when her cell phone trilled “Hanging by a Moment” by Lifehouse. “Excuse me,” she said to the others who looked at her with knowing grins. Now she knew what it meant to quiver from excitement because her insides were break dancing. “Hey,” she said softly into the phone as she walked away from the group.

“What’s this I hear from Gabe about the brakes on your car failing?” Beck’s voice was
not
quiet.

“Um…” She decided maybe outside was a better place to have this conversation if his opening was anything to go by. She pushed open the door and walked into the humidity of the monsoon season, making sure she stayed in the limited shade provided by a narrow awning. “The brakes on my car failed.”

“I know that, sweetheart. What I want to know is why I had to hear it from Gabe and didn’t hear it from you.” He sounded even unhappier with her than before. “You knew I had my phone back.”

She frowned. “I wanted to call you, Beck, but you couldn’t have done anything because you weren’t here. I’m just lucky Gabe was able to drop everything and help us out.”

“Damn it.” Underneath the anger in his voice she heard frustration.

She thought she understood. He was more upset that he hadn’t been around when she needed him than he was that she hadn’t called. “We’re okay, honey,” she soothed.

“You should have called me. Let me know what was going on with you.”

“Next time I will.”

There was a moment of silence then his voice came across with wry humor. “I really hope there
is
no next time, baby.”

“Oh, right,” she whispered. There she went, being a dork.

“Be right there,” he said, and from the way his voice was muffled, she could tell he was talking to someone else. “We’re about to board our flight, Laney,” he told her. “I should be at TIA by six tonight.”

“Do you want me to pick you up?”

“Would love it, babe, but I left my SUV at the airport. So I’ll see you at home, yeah? And we’ll have dinner together. Something simple, like pizza. So don’t cook.” His voice dropped an octave when he added, “I want you well rested for what comes after dinner.”

So did she. As fire started burning low in her belly, she squeezed her thighs together to try to douse the flames. “Okay.” Then she remembered something and for the first time in her adult life felt disappointment that her sister was in town. “Um, Morgan’s here.”

“I know. Gabe told me. It’s no problem; she can have dinner with us too.”

“You don’t mind?”

“What’m I gonna do, tell her she’s on her own?” By the tone of his voice she could tell he was grinning. “It’s fine. But after dinner, she’s definitely on. Her. Own.”

“Okay,” she whispered, getting even hotter at what she knew would happen after dinner.

“All right, I gotta go, baby. I’ll see you around six thirty or so.”

“Okay. I—” She stopped herself. Automatically she’d been about to tell him she loved him. She wasn’t ready for that, and she was pretty sure he wasn’t ready to hear it, either, not after only a matter of weeks together. “I’ll see you later,” she finished, letting out a sigh when he gave her a quiet goodbye. She ended the call and went back into the coffee shop. The cool air was a welcome relief from the sticky heat outside.

“Beck’s coming home tonight,” she announced to her girls as she retook her seat.

“That explains that cat-with-the-cream look on your face,” Rachel teased.

An idea struck, a fabulous idea. “Why don’t you all come over for dinner?” She’d love to see her friends as well as her sister interacting with her guy. Plus, truth be told, she was a bit nervous about being alone with him again. He’d been gone longer than the amount of time they’d actually been together. What if something had changed? She needed someone there as a buffer.

Well, she thought she might.

The women looked at each other; then Lily said, “Uh, don’t you think Beck will want you all to himself? I mean, he has been gone awhile.”

Delaney felt a blush spread across her cheeks. “That’s for
after
dinner,” she whispered. “We’re just going to order pizza. Besides, Morgan will be there.”

“No, I won’t.” Her sister crossed her arms. “You give me a key to the condo and I’ll let myself in. Like, after midnight when I can be fairly certain you two have done the nasty and are resting.”

Delaney’s face flamed even hotter. “You can’t get into the building,” she reminded Morgan primly. “The key only works the door to the condo. For anything else you have to use the biometric scanner or be buzzed in.”

“I forgot about that.” Morgan thought a moment then held up an index finger and announced, “I’ll check into a hotel.”

“You will not!” Delaney shook her head. “You’re my sister. You stay with me.”

“I appreciate that, sweetie, but Beck might not want me there. It
is
his place.”

“No, it’s
our
place. I’m sure if I want my sister to stay with us, he’ll be fine with that. After all, he’s expecting you for dinner.”

Her sister snorted in a very unmodel-like fashion. “Expecting me for dinner and expecting me to live there are two different things.”

Just as Delaney opened her mouth to rebut Morgan’s statement, Andi jumped in. “Look,” she said, “I have a spare bedroom. Why don’t you spend the night at my house? I know my daughter would love to see you.”

“Done!” Morgan grinned. “I thought maybe you’d bring Emma with you. Where is she?”

“She’s with her dad. He’ll be dropping her off later tonight.”

Andi had gotten a divorce at around the same time that Delaney had, but she and her husband remained on amicable terms, mainly because of the daughter they both loved to distraction.

“How old is Emma now?” Morgan asked. “Five?”

“Six,” Andi said with the proud look of a mother. “She’s in first grade.”

“Wow.” Morgan sat back against the sofa. “She must be so big now.”

“Big for her britches,” her loving mother returned with a laugh and a shake of her head.

“So it’s settled, then,” Morgan announced. “I’ll stay with Andi tonight. That way you and Beck can have uninterrupted reunion time.”

Heat flooded into Delaney’s face all over again. She knew her sister and friends were all quite aware that her relationship with Beck had progressed to a physical one. She just wasn’t all that comfortable with them
talking
about it.

“Well,” she said as she bounded to her feet. “I really hate to break this up…” She didn’t, not really. Not when they all looked like they were about to start talking about her and Beck’s relationship and just how physical it might be. “But I thought I’d take Morgan for a drive through the Sam Hughes District to look at houses. Maybe even try a couple of the other historic neighborhoods.”

“You should definitely try Barrio Santa Rosa off Sixth,” Lily offered. “They have some Sonoran row houses that are just spectacular.”

“All righty then.” Delaney raised her eyebrows at Morgan, who was still sitting on the couch. “Why are you not moving? We have places to go.”

Morgan grinned and stood. “It was good to see you all again.”

“Yeah.” Andi looked at Delaney. “I took a drive by your building the other day,” she said with a waggle of her brows. “You’re doin’ all right for yourself.”

“It’s
Beck’s
building.” Delaney heaved a sigh and looked at her sister. “Are you sure you won’t have dinner with us?”

“I think Beck’s homecoming needs to be private. I’ll meet him tomorrow.”

Delaney looked at Andi. “Morgan will be over at around five or five thirty, if that’s okay.”

“Fine by me,” her friend answered.

Delaney did the whole hugs and air kisses with her friends while Morgan stood back smiling. Then with a jaunty wave, she and her sister left the coffee shop and headed to the rental car.

“I hope there are some houses for sale that have information flyers out,” Morgan said as she buckled her seat belt. “I’d really like to be in a bungalow.”

“Well, I guess we’ll see,” Delaney mumbled inanely. What she really wanted was for it to be six thirty and for Beck to be home. She glanced at the clock display set into the dash. Only another six and a half hours. “After we look at houses, do you want to grab some lunch somewhere? Maybe get a sandwich?”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “Yes, but I’ll have a salad, thank you very much. I know I’ll put on some weight, but I can’t afford to put on too much or they won’t work me. It’s amazing how these designers can sniff out ounces, I kid you not.”

In less than ten minutes Delaney guided the car slowly down the streets of the Sam Hughes District. At Morgan’s insistence, she pulled over in front of a brick bungalow. “This one’s not for sale,” she told her sister as she put the car in Park.

“I know. But how much do you think it would be if it were?”

Delaney shrugged. “Probably close to five hundred grand. I’ve looked at online realty sites, and just for shits and giggles checked into the historic districts. Most of the houses in this neighborhood, unless they’re fixer-uppers, go for upwards of four hundred thousand dollars.” She peered at the bungalow. “This one looks like it’s in good shape, so I’d think at least four fifty. Probably more.”

Morgan sighed but a smile curved her lips. “I like it.”

“Me too.”

They sat there awhile longer before Morgan motioned her to go on.

Over the next two hours they toured the rest of Sam Hughes and, following Lily’s advice, drove around the Santa Rosa neighborhood too. The homes there were an eclectic collection of styles, ranging from 1950s brick ranches to turn-of-the-century territorial to the Sonoran row houses with their brightly painted doors that Lily had mentioned.

They grabbed lunch at a place with a salad bar. Delaney figured it would be good for her to eat healthy for once. Plus she didn’t want to have too much on her stomach because she knew the closer it got to Beck’s return, the more her nerves would kick up. He’d left town right after they started dating. Tonight might feel like they were starting all over again.

Chapter Thirteen

Delaney added the last swirl of frosting to the two-layer chocolate and vanilla cake she’d made in celebration of Beck’s homecoming just as she heard the key in the front door. She set the knife in the sink and walked into the foyer, hard-pressed to keep from bouncing, she was so excited.

“No, come on in. You can have dinner with us. Besides, Quincy, I want you to meet Laney,” Beck was saying as he walked in.

Dear God, he looked good. He had two days’ or so of beard growth that just made him look hotter than he normally did. Dressed in jeans and a worn T-shirt, the only kind he seemed to have, with his Harley boots and leather belt with a big silver buckle. His T-shirt was caught behind the buckle but remained otherwise untucked. He was the epitome of the typical American warrior, even in T-shirt and jeans, and he made it look so sexy.

Her heart banged behind her ribs, its beat echoing in her throat. She stopped herself from jumping on him because right on his heels was a man she’d never seen before, followed by Rafe and Ty. Her smile fell. The private homecoming she’d envisioned obviously wasn’t going to happen, at least not until later. Shoot, her friends should have come over. That way at least the testosterone would be balanced by some estrogen. As it was, she wasn’t sure how she’d be able to get through dinner with Beck and the hot bunch he’d just led through the door, because the newcomer was just as freakingly handsome as the others.

His dark-blond hair, worn a little on the long side, curled over the collar of the button-down shirt he wore. He was as tall as Beck, with a long torso and long legs, and big feet encased in cowboy boots. Bright-blue eyes gleamed in his tanned face.

Even though to her Beck was the best looking of the bunch, she had to battle through encroaching shyness that being around hot guys always brought. With a smile she said hi and gave a little wave as she walked toward them. When she reached Beck she stopped. “Hey,” she whispered. And right there bashfulness won the fight. She couldn’t kiss him in front of his friends the way she wanted to, so she went up on her tiptoes and brushed his cheek with her lips. “Welcome home.”

His eyes went as soft as a misty dawn. “Uh-uh, that won’t do,” he murmured. He dropped his duffle bag and drew her close in a hug. “Christ, you smell good.”

“Thanks,” she said. He felt good. Warm and strong and alive.

He grinned then, one big hand at her nape, the other at the small of her back. He slanted his mouth over hers. It was sweet; it was hot.

It was also short. She appreciated that he wasn’t going for the gusto in front of his buddies, but she couldn’t deny she was disappointed at the brevity of it. Some of that disgruntlement must have shown when he let her go because his grin was fit to split his face. “Babe,” he muttered.

“I still don’t know what you mean when you say that,” she muttered back at him.

He touched her lips with his again then moved to her side. “Laney, this is Solomon Quincy, the final member of my former squad who’s coming on board at REG. He hooked up with us on this last job.” He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Quince, Delaney Murphy.”

She held out her hand and received a brief, firm handshake. “It’s nice to meet you…Quince, is it?” she asked with a sidelong glance at Beck.

“Friends call me Quincy or Quince. I don’t care which.” His deep voice held a wicked drawl that betrayed his Southern roots. “Nobody calls me Solomon, not even my mama who gave me the ridiculous moniker.”

“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. “Um, well, it’s nice ta meetcha.”

She got identical grins from all four men and rolled her eyes. Yes, she got that she was being a dork. She didn’t need their unspoken commentary on that fact.

Beck tightened his arm around her waist and bent until his lips were at the side of her face. “You’re cute,” he murmured in her ear, “but you need to relax.”

As he straightened she frowned at him. “It’s not as easy as you telling me to do something and I automatically am able to do it, you know.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“Because,” she said, “it just isn’t.”

He did that lip-twitch thing but didn’t say anything. With the arm around her waist he turned her and walked with her into the kitchen. “Make yourselves comfortable,” he said to the guys over his shoulder as he pulled his cell phone from the back pocket of his jeans. “I’ll grab some beers and order the pizza.” He looked at Delaney. “I just realized, where’s your sister?”

“She decided to spend the night over at Andi’s.” And that was all she was going to say on the subject, with three other men hanging around within hearing distance.

“You want me to send these guys on their way?” he asked. “Until he can get furnishings, Quince is bunking with Rafe. They can all eat next door at Rafe’s place as easy as here. I figured Morgan would be here, so I didn’t think it would be a problem having them stay for dinner.”

“You haven’t eaten and neither have I,” she said. “And they’re here, so go ahead and order.”

“You sure?”

She nodded. She’d gotten her wish for a buffer between her and Beck, though not the one she’d wanted, so she could settle down and get used to him again. But she wasn’t sure how settled she’d really feel surrounded by his buds. She hadn’t been around these men much, had just seen them at the coffee shop with Beck. Hopefully they wouldn’t expect her to carry the conversation.

Getting to know these men who had his back in dangerous situations was a good thing,
she told herself.
She’d feel better about him being away if she knew the men with him.

“As long as you’re sure,” he said softly.

“What’re you going to do? Go out there and tell them they have to leave?” she asked in a whisper.

“Yeah.”

She was shocked that he seemed to have no problem with being rude that way. “No you’re not,” she said. “Order the danged pizza.”

He grinned, fiddled with his phone then pressed a button and put the phone to his ear.

Delaney realized what he’d been doing. “You have a pizza place in your Contacts list?” she asked disbelievingly.

He shrugged. “Order pizza a lot. Saves time.” Then he started speaking into the phone, ordering a couple of “extra-large pies with the works” as well as a big order of wings. Just as he added two of their pizza-sized chocolate chip cookies, Delaney told him, “You don’t need to order dessert. I made a cake for you.”

He stopped and stared at her a moment, then without taking his eyes off her, he said into the phone, “Never mind the cookies. Just the pizza and wings’ll do.”

“And a two-liter of diet,” she prompted. “I don’t really like beer.”

“Add a two-liter of diet soda,” he told the pizza dude. “Anything else?” he asked her.

She shook her head.

He told the guy that he’d pay cash upon delivery and ended the call, then fetched four longneck bottles from the refrigerator. Delaney went with him into the living room and watched as he passed out the beers. He set his on the coffee table and took her hand to lead her down the hallway. “Food’ll be here in thirty,” he said loudly enough she knew he was talking to his friends. “We’ll be right back.”

She followed him into the bedroom, only because he had her hand in a firm grip. When he closed the door behind them, she said in a fierce whisper, “We are
not
having sex with your buddies practically right outside the door.”

He dropped her hand and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close. Bending his neck, he stared into her eyes, his own gleaming. “No, we’re not,” he agreed. “But we are going to properly greet each other after I’ve been away from you for twenty-three goddamn days.”

He’d counted the days. Her ire disappeared under a swelter of sweetness. “Oh.” She wet her lips. “I can do that.”

His lips tipped up at the corners. “Yeah,” he whispered against her mouth, “I figured you could.”

As Beck dropped his mouth onto hers, she lifted her hands, curling one around the back of his neck, fingers in his hair, and the other around his back, palm curved over his shoulder blade.

Christ, but it had been too long. Passion took over. He opened his mouth over hers, his tongue spiking out, pushing into her mouth, giving her a very hard, very deep kiss.

She tasted like chocolate and something fresh that was all Delaney.

Fuck him.

Keeping one arm locked tight around her waist, he slid the other one up her spine and to the back of her skull, fingers tangling in her silken hair, tipping her head to the side. He’d dreamed of her while he’d been gone, the first time ever he’d had a carnal dream about a woman he was dating.

The reality was far fucking better.

He bent forward slightly, arching her over his arm, forcing her lower body closer to his. She gave a soft moan, one he felt against his tongue. He felt it in his dick too.

God, this was what life was about. What his job was about. Trying to make the world a little safer so he could come home to this.

Beauty.

His reward.

Her fingers tightened in his hair and she pressed closer, her tongue sparring with his. And he took it, pushing her gently against the door, forcing her soft curves to mold to his frame.

Only when he felt his control start to slide, did he stop. He tore his mouth away and rested his forehead on hers. He opened his eyes to see hers drifting open in a sultry flutter.

Fuck.

Beck slid his hand out of her hair and clasped it with the one still at the small of her back, and put some distance between them. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, and said in a low voice, “Okay, baby. Now that we’ve greeted each other…” He paused to savor her big grin. Christ, it was good to see her losing her shyness with him. He knew it’d be back in full force when they hit the living room, and he’d deal with that in a minute. But he had something much more important to talk to her about just now. “Tell me about the brakes on your car.”

Delaney rolled her lips between her teeth and her eyes darted to his shoulder. “You already know what happened. They gave out on the way down Mount Lemmon.”

“And you called Gabe.”

She nodded. “He came right away, had a tow truck with him, and we had my poor car delivered to my mechanic and then I rented a car to use until mine’s fixed.”

“Don’t need a rental, Laney. Turn it in and use my Audi.”

Her eyes lit up before slender brows drew down as she met his gaze. “Won’t you need that for work?”

He smiled. “Baby, I have the company SUV for work.”

Her lips curled up into a smile. “Seriously? You’ll let me drive your Audi?”

And she was back to being adorable. But it pissed him the hell off to think she could get so excited about such a little thing. Made him want to pay a visit to both that mama and ex-husband of hers. If she’d been treated right, it wouldn’t be a surprise to her that the man she was with would let her borrow his car.

Needing to touch her skin, he brought up one hand to cup her jaw and rubbed his thumb along her soft cheek. “Seriously. It probably won’t take them long to fix your car. I’ll call your mechanic tomorrow and see what’s going on.”

She tipped her head back and to one side while her eyes narrowed slightly. “Why do you need to talk to my mechanic? It’s
my
car.
I’ll
talk to him about it, like I have every other time I’ve had to have it in the shop.”

It amazed him how someone who could be so incredibly shy at times could at other times have so much goddamned backbone. And it was remarkable how often it appeared when all he was trying to do was look out for her. “Because that’s my job where you’re concerned, baby,” Beck said as gently as he could. “Making sure you stay safe.”

“I can handle repairs to my own freaking car,” Delaney snapped. “And it’s not like you can do your job for me when you’re not even in the freaking country because you’re doing your job for someone else, now, can you?” She took a breath and he heard it shake. “You have no idea what it’s like, careening down the side of a
freaking
mountain with
freaking
brakes that don’t
freaking
work, your sister next to you, a sister you love and hope to God you aren’t about to get killed, surviving that, and then being unable to call the one
freaking
person on the
freaking
planet who makes you feel safe. Because at that moment, even as you just cheated death, you feel as
freaking
unsafe as you ever have in your entire
freaking
life.” She put her hands on his chest and gave a shove.

It was easy to see she was still worked up over the experience, and he understood that. The biggest thing he got from her rant was that he made her feel safe. His chest expanded. That was so big, so important to him that for a moment he couldn’t move. Then he chose not to move, sensing that if he gave her physical space, she’d take emotional space too. And after having been separated from her by a couple of continents and three weeks, he wasn’t giving her either. “No, I don’t know how that feels exactly, Laney, but I have faced death before. I’ve watched men in my squad, good men, die right beside me.”

Her anger seemed to melt away, turning into tears that made her eyes glisten. “I was so flipping scared, Beck,” she whispered. “And I really wanted you to be there.”

He drew her back into his arms, holding her tight against him. When Gabe had told him what happened and Beck realized she could have died, he’d been livid. And felt guilty for not being there. But even if he had been in town, he couldn’t have prevented the car’s brake failure.

Though he could have been the one to get her and her broken-down car off the mountain. And that was what she’d wanted. The fact that he hadn’t been able to didn’t sit well with him, either.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he soothed. While she wasn’t making any noise, he could feel her tears wetting his shirt, as well as the small quakes of her body when her breath hitched. He wrapped her up as tight as he could in his arms. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”

He’d like to say it wouldn’t happen again, but he wasn’t going to lie to her. He couldn’t make that promise, not yet. Maybe not ever.