SEAL The Deal (6 page)

Why not?

“Go call ‘em.”

“When do you want them here?”

“Yesterday.”

Marc announced that several of the men on SEAL Team 3 would be coming up, including their LPO, Kyle Lansdowne. Nick was glad to know that Cooper had said he’d come, since he’d practically been born under a tractor in Nebraska. and knew how to fix anything. Nick hoped Coop could fix several rototillers and mowers Sophie used to rent out, but that no longer started. At this point they’d been sitting around so long they were also rusty as hell.

She also had a vintage vegetable truck in the back with four flat tires. He knew Coop would get that thing running in no time.

Now he reviewed the disclosure statements Devon had left and had some questions, so he gave her a call.

“Hey, Dev.”

“Devon.”

“Miss Brandeburg. How’s that?”

“Nick, can we just stop this? Just call me Devon, okay?”

“Fine. So, I have questions about these disclosure papers and was wondering if I could go over them with you.”

“Sophie has to fill them out.”

“Well, she’s not getting out of bed today. I think, under the circumstances, I should fill them out and she can sign.”

“You have to know about the property.”

“I’ll leave blank the things I don’t know. I can ask her about those.”

“That would work. So, what questions do you have?”

“Well, I thought we could kill two birds, sort of do it over lunch, like a date? I think it would make her happy if we did that.”

“Our first date?”

“Our very first.”

“Okay. Why don’t we meet at the Italian place on Fourth Street next to the bookstore? Mama’s.”

“Perfect. Say in an hour?”

Mama’s was packed with a lunch crowd. The quaint restaurant was “noisy intimate” like some of his favorite places in San Diego. The food was tasty, with free bread sticks and supposedly the best pizza north of San Francisco. He was watching the mostly young crowd around him, waiting in a booth for Devon to show up.

When she walked in, his heart thumped so hard it made his ears ring. She wore her hair up in a clip but loose, so that silky strands fell about her shoulders and neck. She studied the room, starting on the right at the bar, and moving her gaze across the dining room until their eyes met. He tried to suppress a smile, but it was tough.

He acknowledged her with a lift of his hand while trying not to grin like an idiot. His mouth was dry even though he’d tried to swallow several times. He ground his teeth and locked his jaw. Something about her was all the right kinds of haughty and sweet. Her sexual energy was bigger than the room.

She turned every male head as she made her way to him with long strides on a straight trajectory. Best of all, she never took her eyes off his. For a second, he thought perhaps he’d been wrong about her experience with men. She was fucking killing him.

He almost forgot himself, but at the last minute stood as she slipped into the booth. Nick had no idea what to say. His tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said as she picked up the menu without checking his reaction.

“I’m always early,” he said and noted the croak in his voice like he was fifteen-year-old dork…again.

“And I’m usually late.” She was looking over the cream and red plastic menu. Her dark eyes were made up more heavily than yesterday. He would have to say sultry. Siren. She had on her work demeanor too, another nice suit of dark blue with a sheer white blouse and a virginal schoolgirl bow under her chin. Oh the things he thought about doing with her and that bow. The places he could tie her up. The body parts he could restrain. If she was aware he was staring at her with his tongue hanging out, she didn’t show it.

Nick didn’t like feeling he wasn’t in control. Usually after he’d spent this much time with a woman she’d be drooling all over him, hinting about going for a drive or a picnic in the woods. Sliding up to him, giving him little hints of the feel of her body. But Devon was strictly hands-off. He was going to have to play it that way, for now. He just couldn’t stop his dirty mind from getting creative, conspiring with that certain body part that always gave him a hard time.

She finally looked at him and dished out a generous smile. White teeth, plump lips, and red again, with a sparkle in the eyes and tiny laugh lines that broke the intensity of her presence.

God almighty. You toying with me, kitten?
Just looking at her sent his libido into high gear. Half in a state of panic, he realized he was nervous.

Nervous? WTF?

This had never happened to him before.

“So, what are you having?” she asked.

He noted she took a quick glance from one side of his shoulder to the other. He very carefully sat up straighter and took a deep breath, enlarging his ribcage. He rubbed the back of his head, exposing his right bicep.

She watched every second of it and then tore her eyes away.

“Was sort of thinking about a pizza. What one do you recommend?”

“I don’t eat pizza.”

“Interesting.” He found himself smiling with half-lidded eyes, even while trying to reel in his reflex to pounce and possess. “What do you eat?”

That got a reaction. Her brown eyes flared and the frown lines between her brows made a brief appearance, and then disappeared.

“Green things mostly.”

Nick noticed how quickly she’d taken it out of the sexual realm and made it about neutral things like spinach salads and healthy food. He was definitely thinking about steamy, sexual  things. And definitely not vegetables.

“No protein?” he said as he glanced up at a young waitress passing by. The girl blushed and giggled.

Devon noticed his pass and the girl’s blush. She arched her eyebrow and scanned the room. Nick knew there were more than a few women looking his way, but he kept his eyes on her in spite of the distraction. He watched the arch of her neck, the way the tiny hairs behind her ears were slightly darker and curlier than the floppy loose curls at the top of her head. Her scent was the same as yesterday, some perfume he’d not experienced before. He wondered how it would taste on her skin.

Turning back to him, she said, “Are we ready?”

He didn’t answer except to nod silently. Oh, yeah. He was ready, all right. This one was special. He was going to have to work very hard to win her trust.

He loved a good challenge.

After their lunch was served they began the obligatory small talk. Devon knew about Nick’s parents, of course, but Nick learned she had also lost her parents in high school, in a private plane crash. She’d known his sister originally through student government, even though Sophie had been two grades ahead. She said she remembered Nick too, but he was sad to admit he didn’t remember Devon at all. That bothered him a bit.

Devon told him she and Sophie became friends through a Pilates class. Sophie had just gotten her real estate license when Devon came in one day and asked to be mentored.

“So what’s the deal with my sister? Why hasn’t she settled down?”

“I think all the economic uncertainty of your parents’ passing made her feel like she wanted to get her career in order first, get stable. I completely understand. I’m the same way,” she said.

“I guess I missed all that. I was just a kid finishing up high school. There was no college fund, so I got the Navy. Not that I’m complaining.”

“Would you have gone?”

“To college? I don’t think about that at all, Dev—Devon.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

“Does that mean I get a treat?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

That spark of connection between them was brief, but very intimate. He had the urge to push his luck. He cleared his throat and tried to clear his mind.

“Is this so difficult now, being with me?” he asked.

She smiled. “No. Not what I expected.” Her voice became a whisper. For a second he felt like he was in the presence of a delicate bird. Something he wanted to protect.

“I’ll take that as a good sign, then.” He sat back and hoped he wouldn’t get a smart-ass comment in return. Hoped she’d follow along. Let him lead her just a little bit closer, and eventually into his arms.

“I think you’re a nicer person than I realized. Sophie said to give you time to show your better side.”

He had to look away. Did he have a better side? Why was it so important that he make a good impression on her? What did he really want? A hookup? That brought on all sorts of visions. A portion of his brain was working overtime like dancers in a Bollywood movie.

She waved her hand in front of his face. “Hello? We have some work to do, remember?”

The plates were cleared and he pulled out the disclosure paperwork. But he quickly tired of trying to explain things upside down.

“Can I sit there next to you? It would be easier,” he asked.

She tilted her head, gave a lop-sided smile, and then scooted over and made room for him on the burgundy vinyl bench seat. He loved sitting on the warm spot her beautiful butt  had occupied.

Her intense scent was making his nose itch, but every other part of his body was cheering with more intensity than a Stanford vs. Cal game. His thigh was close enough to hers that, even with the fabric of his canvas cargoes between them, he could feel the hairs on his legs stiffen and rise to attention. And they weren’t the only things rising, either.

“Here,” he said as he pointed out a couple of questions and boxes he was supposed to check off. “I’m not sure what they are asking. The place is old. How would she know if any of these things work or not?”

She leaned in and her shoulder brushed his. He let the feeling warm him for a moment, then backed away to give her space. She angled her head to look at the question, and that beautiful swan’s neck came so close to him he could have leaned forward only inches to give her a kiss there. And he really wanted to.

“She just has to say what she knows. She can’t be responsible for what she doesn’t know. Fill it out with what she thinks is correct. Find out if she has any old reports, and I’ll go back and check the old files. When she bought the property I don’t think there were any reports given. She bought it in foreclosure.”

“Speaking of that, have you asked Sophie if she’s current on her payments?”

“Well, it’s a question on this statement. You’ll have to ask her.”

“But do you know if she is?”

“No. You think she is?” Her brown doe eyes pulled at his heart and made it ache. Their lips were close. He wanted to put his arm up on the top of the booth, but then he’d be looming all over her and he knew it would scare her again. Besides, he’d been sweating and that was always a turnoff to women. Suddenly his arms, hands and legs were awkward appendages and he couldn’t find a comfortable place to put them.

“She’s gotten some nasty notices. She was trying to hide them from me.”

Devon sighed. He felt it run through her body though they were barely touching. “I was afraid of that. I’ll have the title people check to see if any notices were filed. This is something, unfortunately, we have to disclose to a potential buyer.”

“Dev—on,” he stumbled and noticed her smile again. It was getting easier to get her to do that. “There are some things I can discuss with my sister, but her financial status is not one of them. She’s pretty much shut me out for years. And I’ve been telling her she’s killing herself with all this folly with the nursery. She pretty much forbids me to ask about any of that stuff.”

She nodded.

He pulled out the delinquent power bill. “I’m going to go by this office and pay this bill today.”

Devon looked from the statement to Nick’s face. “That’s nearly a thousand dollars.”

“I’ve got savings.”

She grinned again.

“What’s so funny?”

“She thinks you buy toys all the time. Guns and trucks and equipment.”

“I do. But I don’t spend it all.” He paused and focused on her mouth. “I live a simple lifestyle.” If he knew her better, he’d have told her a big bed with fresh sheets and lots of pillows and a bottle of red wine wasn’t expensive, and was about the only thing he could think about right now.

She had focused on his mouth too, and, for just a second, there was the possibility of a kiss. He was hungry for it.

“Anything else I can do for you guys?” the cheerful high school-aged waitress chirped.

Nick noticed Devon had composed herself quickly, retreating into professional realtor mode. He sighed and reached for his wallet and gave the waitress his credit card. “No, thanks.”

I think you’ve done enough.

Chapter 7

Devon could hardly breathe all afternoon. Being so close to Nick’s body heated her blood and her pulse was pounding like she’d had three cups of coffee.

She nearly got into an accident on her way back to the office. After daydreaming in front of the computer for an hour, she realized she wasn’t going to get anything done. Since she had no appointments, she decided to leave early and pack her suitcase for the stay at Sophie’s.

Was she doing this for Sophie, or did she secretly want to be close to Nick? The way he moved, the way his voice sent a shiver down her spine, were all tantalizing recollections as she moved with zombie-like slowness, picking out her tops and jeans, a pair of old running shoes she knew she’d need for working in the yard, plus sunscreen and all her shampoo sample bottles.

She went to her underwear drawer and exposed the bright pink rabbit vibrator amongst her lacy things. She’d won the device at a bachelorette party. The new feelings she was having as a result of being so close to Nick were like those first stolen moments when she dared to turn the thing on and let it touch her. Closing her eyes, she imagined what it would be like if he touched her there.

With a shudder, she scolded herself to finish her packing and get over to Sophie’s. Inquiries were already coming in about the property, and if Nick was right and Sophie was in foreclosure, they’d have to hurry to get it sold in time. It would be the worst thing in the world for her to have to watch the bank take it back. Devon decided she would not let that happen.