Safe in His Arms (2 page)

“Yeah?”

She nodded, forcing the memories down. There was doubt in the boy’s eyes. “Sure, not too far from here, either.”

“You’re in the Navy?” he asked.

“Nope, not me. My brother was.” She adjusted her Navy cap, pulling the blue brim a bit lower to hide the marks on her forehead. Her sunglasses hid the blackened eyes, and her scarf took care of the bruises on her neck. On the surface, she looked like hell, but inside she didn’t feel anything, just a hollow ache where her emotions used to be.

“My brother’s in the Navy, too. He’s a pilot.”

She nodded again, and dug her hands into her jacket pockets. It was unseasonably cold but neither child wore a coat. The girl had on a sweatshirt, unzipped to reveal a pink baseball shirt, and the boy had on just a long-sleeved T-shirt.

“You kids better hit the road, it’s getting cold.”

They both seemed to consider that before nodding. “Okay, but will we see you again?” the little blonde girl asked. She was cute—a bit dirty from playing but her open face was compelling.

“No, not me. I’m on my way somewhere else.” Somewhere so vastly different from what she knew, the mere reminder of where sent a shock through her. Africa.

Would it be far enough? So far, she’d not heard from her attacker again, not after the last phone call threatening to kill Mac if she didn’t leave and never come back.

The little girl’s smile faltered but she nodded, very grown-up-like. “Well, it was nice to meet you,” she said. The boy smirked at her manners, but Mandy smiled.

“It was nice to meet you, too.”

She watched them race off, the boy, who must be her brother, she thought with a pang of sadness for her own dead brother, a step ahead of her.

Taking one more look around the playground, she sighed heavily, then turned her back on it, and her past.

Three days later…

Mac floored his truck through the red light and swerved to avoid the slow-ass Chevy Malibu in front of him. His head swam, his heart raced, but neither was from breaking the sound barrier to get to Lacey’s house.

She was gone.

Mandy.

He grimaced and turned the steering wheel sharply, taking the next corner so fast he burnt rubber. Two lane shifts later and one more turn and he gunned it again on the straightaway to Lacey’s house.

If Mandy had moved out of the house, she might have just gone to stay with Lacey for a few days. Maybe she’d gone there when his mission had lasted longer than he’d said.

Then why are you racing like a dumb shit across town?

The note. One tiny little scrap of paper had him racing across town.

‘Mac, I get it now.

Truly.

I will get in touch when I can.

Mandy’

Get in touch when she can? Get it. Get what? That he’d been dying to get home from the latest mission. That he’d said some seriously stupid things to her. That he’d hurt her when he’d not meant to had driven him nearly insane with the need to see her again and explain everything. Explain that… Fuck, he couldn’t live without her?

Pull it together, Mac. She’s at Lacey’s because you left with some dumb-ass words.

He smashed the heel of his hand down on the steering wheel as soon as he saw Lacey’s house. Mandy’s little blue Honda wasn’t out front. Shit. Shit. Shit.

He pulled in, killed the engine, and contemplated the dark house. Lacey was here, no doubt. He’d heard her dad was in the hospital after another operation on his cancer, but he’d also heard all had gone well. Lacey would be here. Maybe they’d parked Mandy’s car inside the two-car garage.

“Get your shit together. Just tell Mandy you don’t regret a thing other than not making her yours years ago.”

Fuck, why had he said such stupid shit after the best night of his life? Fear. Fucking fear that he was taking too much, too soon, and she’d one day resent him for it. The cold, hard truth of that thought sent his heart back to racing speed.

He’d never forgotten the feel of Mandy. Never got over how right she’d felt in his arms. Sex with her had been like something so alien to him he’d not recognised it as sex. Sex was sweaty, pounding lust to give his body and mind a break from the stress of being a SEAL. Sex with Mandy had been so warm and tender he’d come like he’d never done before in his life. It’d been so good sinking into her body and arms that he’d made love to her all through the night. He’d never felt so right before, so safe and at peace, in his life. When she’d curled up in his arms that morning, he’d felt like his whole messed-up life had suddenly made sense.

And he’d fucked it all up because he hadn’t been brave enough to tell her he loved her.

“Shit.” He opened the truck door and got down, quietly walking up the driveway to stand on Lacey’s doorstep, simply looking down at his hands. Rough, calloused, beaten up, his hands were the hands of a trained killer, not a man that felt the kind of desperate love he felt for one tiny woman.

Could he make her happy?

He reached up and rang the doorbell.

He’d make her the happiest damn woman in the world.

It took nearly three minutes for Lacey, looking sleepy and confused, to open the door. He knew at the first look at her that she didn’t know why he was there. Dressed in a blue robe and barefoot, hair rumpled, she grimaced at him like he’d woken her from sleep.

Hell, that’s exactly what you did do, asshole.

Still, he found himself demanding, “Where’s Mandy?”

Lacey blinked and rubbed her eyes. “Wolf? What? What’s wrong? Has Mandy been hurt?”

A shot of ice seemed to fill his chest at her words. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know, why are you here asking me about Mandy? She’s not here. I’ve not seen her since…” She paused and brushed her blonde hair—almost the same colour as Mandy’s curls—from her face. “Well, she came by to say she had an offer for a job, but she didn’t say she took it.” Lacey frowned up at him and tightened her hand on her robe. “Mac, she was upset, though, at you.”

“I didn’t do a damn thing—”

Lacey snorted and waved her hand at him in dismissal. His mouth snapped shut. Her dad was the toughest Navy SEAL ever born, and Lacey could be just as much of a hard-ass, even if she was only a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet.

“Look, save it, you’ve been stringing Mandy along for years. I’m going back to bed.”

“Shit, cut me some—”

“Don’t say it. Why should I cut you some slack if she finally won’t? Look, she’ll come back if she wants to. If not, she won’t. She’s a big girl now, Wolf, so maybe you just played with her too long.”

“Wait, what? What are you talking about? Shit, I never played with her—”

“Save it. Look, my dad is sick again and I need to sleep. I have to be up there early in the morning to talk to the doctors.”

“I’m sorry, Lacey. I’m real sorry about your dad. We all are, but give me something here.”

“Mac, are you drunk?”

“What? Hell no. I just want some answers. All her stuff is gone. All of it. What did she say, exactly, Lacey. Exactly.”

Lacey stared up at him, her blue eyes darkening until he almost turned and walked away, suddenly feeling like he didn’t want to hear what Mandy had told her.

“Fine, but you’re not going to like it, especially if she’s left and you can’t do anything about it.”

He grimaced but stood his ground.

“She was convinced you think she was a mistake. I think she used the words ‘pity fuck’ to describe what happened between you two.”

The ice that felt lodged around his heart rose to his throat, making it feel sliced raw. He stumbled back, saying something to Lacey, and walked to his truck. His legs felt weak, his body, built to be one of the finest killing machines in the world, barely able to keep him upright.

“Wolf? Wolf? Wait, wait.”

He heard Lacey, but he couldn’t wait. He felt the truth in Lacey’s words, the truth Mandy must have believed—that he’d used her and regretted it.

Hadn’t he said as much?

He made it to the nearest red light before he had to jerk the door of his truck open and cast up in the street until his body ached.

Mandy. Gone.
He wiped his mouth off, shut the door, and focused on the road ahead of him. He’d find her. Explain things. Remind her that he always kept his promises, and he’d promised to explain what he’d said.

First, though, he needed to find her. He was a SEAL, trained to find people. How hard could it be? He took comfort in that, and shifted the truck into gear, heading off to his first stop on his way to finding Mandy.

Chapter One

Five years later…

Mac practically ran down the luxurious hotel hallway. He slowed to a fast walk when an old couple came out of their room, but each step brought him closer to where he needed to be.

Near Mandy.

He still couldn’t believe Lacey had given him Mandy’s room number. Clearly Lacey was all about everyone being happy now that she was here, in Hawaii and getting married. Him chomping at the bit to get hold of Mandy must have been the key to convincing her he wasn’t going to blow this chance. Not with Mandy this close. That or she really believed Ace could kick his ass if he hurt Mandy, but still, he was seconds from seeing Mandy again.

Shit freaked him out. He was supposed to be one of the toughest, meanest guys out there, but the reality of it was he’d let Ace kick his ass if he hurt Mandy again.

He slowed down and saw the room across from hers first, ‘four-five-six-two’, then hers.

Fuck. He froze. After five years, that door was all that kept him from the one woman on this planet who owned his heart. He rubbed his hand through his hair and back over his neck.

Buck up, asshole, and face her.

He reached up and knocked on Mandy’s door, and waited, keeping in mind everything Lacey had said about Mandy needing time and his own promise to go slow. She’d been in Africa. Africa for nearly the entire five years. Helping victims of the wars there.

His heartbeat raced and he raised his hand to knock again when he saw the doorknob twist downward. A second later, Mandy stood there with a grin, already saying, “Hey, I thought—”

She cut off with a soft ‘Oh’ and backed up. Her big grey eyes rounded out. He couldn’t take in the details of her quickly enough. She seemed to soak him in, too. He watched her swallow, feeling suddenly dry-throated as well. How was it possible she was more beautiful now than she’d been five years ago?

“Hello, sugar. Miss me?”

She blinked, then seemed to realise he was pushing her back into her room because she tried to stop him with a hand on his chest. He used it to pull her into his arms, letting the door close behind them. Sensations too wild to make sense of rushed him. Both her hands were on his chest burning through the material of his T-shirt. Her pink lips were inches from his, open in shock, sure, but, still, they were right there. He soaked her up. Her grey eyes caught him, stealing his breath like a sucker punch to the gut. With a little hiss, she narrowed her gaze, hiding the flash of emotion he’d not had time to decipher with an angry glare.

“Mac, let me go!”

Grinning, he tightened his arms around her wiggling little body. “Damn, baby, the least you could do is say hello before you fall into my arms.”

She froze and rolled her eyes. “Give me a break.”

“We need to talk, huh?” he asked, slowly relaxing his arms. She quickly stepped away. When she reached the patio windows, she reached up nervously and tucked her shorter curls off her face, turning to the side when she did so she didn’t have to face him. He could see her pulse thundering along the slender column of her neck from where he stood two feet from her. Her body was tight, stress showing in the way she clenched her hands together and in the lines of stiff posture.

He did this to her?

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning with her arms crossed under her lush breasts to face him. “Wolf, Lacey is waiting for me.”

She never called him Wolf. She always called him Mac. Shit pissed him off.

“Mac.”

She squinted at him. “What?”

“Don’t call me Wolf. It’s Mac,” he murmured. “It’s always been Mac.”

“Okay,” she drawled, dragging the two syllables out with such sarcasm he felt his body tighten with the challenge.

“We need to talk,” he said. He watched the tension in her shoulders tighten. She scanned the room with an impatient look. She was going to argue with him. Mandy never, ever fought anyone. She avoided confrontations. She got around people, managed the hell out of them, but she never directly argued with anyone.

After a second of turning her back on him, she faced him. “Talk? Why should I? Besides, give me a break! You can’t just barge in here and make demands. Now—” She took a deep breath, adding to the battle he had controlling his reactions by practically taunting him with her barely covered breasts in some kind of hot bikini top, and continued, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go. Lacey is waiting and I know you don’t want Ace up here.”