SEAL the Deal (23 page)

He couldn’t be in love with her, he
thought, remembering his conversation with Jack. Love was not part of his life
plan. At least not for five years or so.

How could he let himself get in this
position? She literally had him by the balls. And what was even more endearing
was that she didn’t even know it. Just moments ago, he could see the questions
in her eyes as she lay there in his bed. It killed him that he couldn’t give
her any answers. There was a part of him that wanted to climb back into bed
with her and assure her that he would be there for her every morning of her
life with such a satisfying wake-up call.

But he couldn’t tell her that. There
couldn’t be a happily-ever-after for them.

He knew what happened to women like Lacey
after sex. Suddenly, the hormones kick in and they start tearing out pictures
of wedding gowns, cooing over babies, and sizing up minivans. Mick couldn’t
give her any of that. He had seen too many marriages fail and families
shattered by the stress of Navy life, much less that of a SEAL. Some won the
battle, but too many were casualties.

Until now, he had never considered that
the risk might be worth taking.

No. Lacey deserved better than a high-risk
relationship.

Venting his frustration on a half dozen
eggs, he smashed them against the side of a bowl full-force and beat them mercilessly
with a whisk.

How ironic that he stands in front of classes
of mids every day droning on about honor, duty, integrity. What the hell was
the honorable thing to do in a situation like this?

Break it off now?

Break it off in eighteen months or so?

Above the sizzle of the eggs cooking on
the stove, Mick heard Lacey behind him. “I think you’ve beaten any life out of
those eggs,” she said awkwardly.

Glancing down, Mick saw spatters of egg on
the wall alongside him. Silently, he slid them out of the pan and onto a plate.
His eyes couldn’t meet hers.

“So what’s on your mind, Mick? Was this
was a mistake?”

Tentatively, he turned to her and took her
hand. Her fingers were like ice. “Is that what you think?”

“You tell me.”

Mick drew in a breath, and then
involuntarily let out a little laugh. “I can’t imagine sex that great could
ever be a mistake.”

Lacey smiled, and Mick saw some of the
tension leave her body.

“Lacey, I’m just terrified that I may have
used you.”

She burst out laughing.

Mick was puzzled. “That’s funny?”

“Yes. I show up on your doorstep begging
for sex, and you think you used
me
?”

Relief washed over Mick at the memory. “You
were
the instigator of this, weren’t you? That makes me feel better.” He
shook his head in reprimand. “No. I’m your friend and you were vulnerable. You
were upset about your sister and maybe you really just needed to talk it out.”

“Uh, no, Mick. If I had wanted to talk it
out, I would have gone home to Maeve and Bess. What I needed—whether I
knew it or not—was to have at least fourteen sequential orgasms in the
span of one night of sex.”

Mick actually felt his face flush. “Fourteen?
I guess I must have missed one or two.”

Lacey just smiled in answer.

He cleared his throat. “So I guess the
only question is, how frequently you might need this service again?”

“Are you volunteering?”

“Hell, yeah. Look, you know the deal with
me better than any woman I’ve ever known. You know where I’m headed and just
how little I can offer you in the future. But right now, you have me.” He took
her face in his hands. “You have my full commitment. If you want it, that is.”

Lacey’s eyes shone brightly against the
smudges of yesterday’s mascara. “I want it. My career is still the first
priority to me. Maybe a relationship with you—with the full knowledge
that it’s leading nowhere—is the only kind I can handle right now.”

Mick pulled her onto his lap and enjoyed
the feeling of having her so close.

She snuggled into him. “God, I’m trying to
build a real estate career here. I’d be the last person to want to have a
long-term relationship with a Navy guy who is only going to expect me to move. I’d
be kissing my career good-bye.”

Mick felt the oddest mixture of relief and
disappointment at her words. He had dreaded the idea of her broken heart, but
hadn’t fully considered the possibility of his own.

He soothed his confusion by pressing a
firm kiss against her lips. “Then we’re okay?”

Biting her lip, Lacey nodded.

 “Good, because I’m not sure which
I’d miss more. The friendship or the sex.” Mick kissed her again thoroughly,
tangling his hands in her silky hair and felt his own body respond. “Mm. I
think I know which now.”

The subtle movements of her lithe body as
she sat on his lap nearly sent him over the edge as she pulled his mouth back
to her own. One eye open, he glanced at the plate of eggs on the counter.

Hell with it, he decided. The eggs could
wait.

Again.

Cozy in front of Maeve’s fireplace, Mick
watched Lacey carefully place her T, E, and R tiles on the game board. “Wetter,”
she said, her eyes locked on Mick’s.

“Mm.” Mick responded, his knowing eyes
glimmering in the firelight. He pulled three tiles from his own stash. “How
about this one? Suck.” His meaning was apparent.

Lacey practically purred a response,
ignoring the presence of their friends.

Maeve groaned. “Oh,
God
. Will you
two stop?”

Jack took an angry chug of his beer. “Suck.
Yeah, this sucks all right. If you want a room, go upstairs, will you? Some of
us are trying to play a serious game here.”

Mick looked at Jack innocently. “I don’t
know what you’re talking about.”

Maeve glanced down at the board, reading
some of Lacey and Mick’s latest additions. “Suck. Wet. Big. Lucky. If I wanted
to play Scrabble with a couple teenagers, I’d call the kids down the street.”

“Okay, okay,” Lacey conceded. “We’ll keep
our hidden meanings to ourselves.”

“Yes, puh-lease,” Jack said with vigor
adding E and T tiles to the word “ball.”

Mick shook his head. “
Ballet
? Okay,
Nancy-boy. Guess that girlfriend of yours took your balls with her when she
left.”

“You’re not dating Lisa anymore?” Maeve
asked lightly.

“
Lissa
,” Jack corrected her pronunciation
for the umpteenth time. “She dumped me last week. She thought I was dating
someone else, which I wasn’t. Total paranoid.”

“Why would she think you were dating
someone else?”

“I talk in my sleep. Guess I said a name
that wasn’t hers.”

Maeve snorted.

Mick rose to check out the snow falling
outside, and leaned against the doorway leading to Maeve’s addition. The room’s
paned windows looked out to a winter-blooming magnolia, and Mick could picture
Bess’s child seeing her first snow fall here next year. For a brief moment, he
dared wonder what it would feel like to have a home of his own, one he intended
to fill with a lifetime of firsts for a child, rather than the kind of home he
left without looking back.

His eyes wandered to Lacey, and a strange
tug gripped his heart. The Navy was the only family he could have right now. “You
better watch that sleep-talking with your security clearance, Jack. Don’t want
to say something you shouldn’t.”

Jack shrugged. “I don’t think Lissa would
understand anything I said about nuclear engineering, anyway.”

“She didn’t seem too bright,” Bess agreed.

“When did you meet her?” Lacey asked.

“I bumped into them at The Buzz once.”

“I’ve never been there,” Mick said
blankly.

Lacey grinned. “You’re too old. It’s where
twenty-something singles go to get coffee. I don’t think they let you in if
you’re over thirty.”

Laughing, Bess patted her belly. “Yeah,
I’m the only pregnant woman I’ve ever seen there. I can’t even drink the coffee—it’s
way too caffeinated for me now—but I love just smelling it.” She added a P
to “lucky.”

“Plucky,” Jack nodded solemnly. “Not bad.”

Lacey sighed as she finished off a
two-letter word. “I should tell you that I had the letters to make the word ‘hard,’
but I’m sparing you all since you’re overly sensitive tonight. Does anyone need
anything from the kitchen?” she asked, waggling her empty soda can.

Bess reached over to hand her an empty
glass. “More juice, please.”

“As if she doesn’t pee often enough,” Jack
said with a sidelong glance to Maeve.

Still leaning on the doorframe, Mick gave
a little backwards nod toward the addition with its bare drywall still exposed.
“Your office is really coming along, Maeve. But when are you going to paint it?”
He would never let it slip around Bess that the space was destined to be a
surprise nursery. Still, he couldn’t help tease Maeve.

“Still can’t decide on a color,” she
responded, sending him a cryptic glare. She kept her eyes locked with his until
Lacey was out of the room. “Choosing a color is a commitment, Mick. What color
are your walls?”

Mick’s stony expression made it clear he
heard Maeve’s real meaning. “My walls are white. Same color as they were when I
moved in. Guess I have a hard time making a commitment.”

Maeve’s eyes drilled holes into Mick as he
sat back down on the couch. “I don’t want to see Lacey get hurt.”

He picked up three letter tiles. “I don’t
want that either.”

“Look. I think you’re great. I think
you’re great together. But I love her like a sister. She needs something lasting,
and you know you’re not it. Don’t lead her on.”

“I’m not, and I won’t.” Raising his head,
he looked at her pointedly.

Jack’s cheery voice broke in. “You know,
in his defense, officers aren’t actually allowed to paint the rooms in those
houses in the Yard.”

Mick looked down at the tiles in his hand,
seeming to hesitate before adding them to the board. Then, giving a nearly
imperceptible shrug, he placed them on the board.

Maeve, Bess, and Jack looked down at the
board at the three tiles Mick had added to the L. The tiles spelled “love.”

Maeve and Bess glanced at each other,
their eyes wide.

“Interesting word choice,” Bess said in a
near whisper.

“Damn. That V’s on a triple letter square,”
Jack commented.

Maeve shot Jack a look. “You’re so
oblivious.”

“No, he’s so
right
.” Mick rose to
help Lacey in the kitchen. “Fifteen points, Maeve. And stop thinking so damn
much.”

Stepping through the doorway, Mick saw Lacey
stooped over an open dishwasher, steam already frizzing the hair that had
fallen from her ponytail. “Let me help,” he said, stacking several clean plates
from the washer and putting them in the cabinet.

“Thanks.” Lacey passed a handful of forks
to him. Mick reached for them, and held her hand for a moment, frozen,
wondering how the simple act of emptying a dishwasher could seem to intimate.

“What?” Lacey’s eyes met his.

He held her gaze, at loss for words, then
shook his head. “We should have gone out to eat again tonight.”

“Why?”

“Call me selfish, but I’d rather be alone
with you.”

Laughing, Lacey nudged him aside as she
reached for the refrigerator door. “You’ve taken me out three times this week
already. I’m gaining weight from all the restaurant food. Besides, we’ve been
neglecting our friends.” She poured orange juice into Bess’s glass. “And call
me
selfish, but sharing you with a restaurant full of people is a lot less private
than playing Scrabble here.”

Standing behind her as she put the juice
back in the refrigerator, Mick rested his hands along her waist and pressed his
body to hers, hoping she could feel just how deeply he wanted her right now. “You’re
right. How about I make you dinner tomorrow night? It will have to be chili.
Extra spicy.” With a devilish grin, he turned her by her shoulders and pulled
her close again.

Standing tiptoe to raise her lips less
than an inch from his, her eyes sparkled. “The hotter, the better,” she
whispered, and tasted him.

***

Amid a sea of pillows, Lacey rested her
head on Mick’s chest, listening to the slow beating of his heart as he stroked
her hair.

Pure bliss, Lacey decided, savoring the
simple pleasure of having her skin pressed against his. Almost as satisfying as
the sex she had been enjoying just moments before.

Almost.

Mick traced the skin along her collarbone
and down her arm, and then lifted her hand to his lips. “Maeve’s worried about
you and me.”

Lacey raised her head. “Did she say
something?”