SEALs of Summer 2: A Military Romance Superbundle (24 page)

“Not if they’re here for something more than a hit.” Dane shook his head. “They haven’t gone anywhere, except possibly back to their base of operations. They’re waiting for the right moment to do what they came here to do.”

He thought Ace would scoff, but the dude looked thoughtful. “You think they want to grab her?”

Dane didn’t like that thought at all, but it was the one that made the most sense to him. “Yeah.”

Ace’s chest puffed out. “If what you say is right, Ivy can’t stay here. She needs to be in protective custody.”

Ivy drew herself up then, her expression hardening. “No. No way. We’re here for a reason, Ace, and I intend to see that those bastards don’t make it to the mainland. This is far more important than any threats to me.”

Dane wanted to argue that point, but now wasn’t the time.

“We aren’t solving anything by standing here fighting about it,” Dane said. “We need to keep searching.”

“You’re going to get arrested, hot stuff,” Ace replied, his gaze sliding over Dane yet again. “People are waking up, and some little old lady is bound to take exception to the sight of your naked ass strolling through the resort. Take Ivy back to your bungalow and alert your team. If there’s anything to find, they’ll find it.”

Dane hated that the dude made sense. “You’re right. Ivy?”

Her chin was in the air. “Fine, yes, let’s go.”

She turned and started moving back down the path, but Ace called out one last time. “You’re wearing the shirt your ex was wearing yesterday. Don’t think I don’t know what this means, naughty girl. Don’t come crying to me when it all goes to shit, okay?”

Ivy flipped him the bird and kept walking. When they reached the bungalow, Dane did a quick check, then bolted the door behind them. The chain was still intact, but it was looser than before. Obviously, they couldn’t stay here.

“You should get dressed,” he said.

Ivy looked up at him with soft eyes that contained a hint of frustration and perhaps even fear. “Last night…” She dropped her gaze, and he knew he wasn’t going to like whatever she said. “It can’t happen again. It was… amazing—but we know how it’s going to turn out.”

He wanted to grab her, and he wanted to howl. He did neither. He’d expected this quite honestly. Because he knew her, and he knew she’d run. “So that’s it, huh? I’m a one-night stand now?”

This time she met his gaze, her green eyes flashing fire. “What do you propose, Dane? A new relationship? I work for the DEA, and you’re a SEAL. It could be months before we see each other again.”

He knew she was right, and yet part of him wanted to tell her it didn’t matter. That they’d figure it out. Because one thing he knew after a night with her was that he hadn’t stopped being addicted. Not at all.

But what good was an addiction to someone when you couldn’t make anything else work? He wasn’t giving up his career for her. She wasn’t giving up hers for him. They’d already risked enough by falling into bed together on a crucial operation. Best to put it behind them and move on.

“Whatever you want, Ivy,” he said, turning away from her and strolling over to flip the coffeepot on.

He heard the door to the bathroom shut, and then he retrieved his phone to dial his team leader. Before he could press the first button, the phone buzzed.

“Erikson,” he answered.

“We have intel on
Bad Medicine
,” Matt said. “Need you to get over here ASAP.”

‡

I
vy felt like
hell as she looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t know why she’d told Dane they couldn’t be together again, except that she’d looked at him standing there naked and ready to defend her, and her heart had thumped impossibly hard. Her stomach had squeezed tight, and feelings she’d thought she’d buried slid and writhed beneath the surface of her skin.

She was in danger of feeling too much, and she’d panicked. But it was the right choice, because she couldn’t go through the anguish. She couldn’t risk her heart again, knowing that she might not be enough for him. That he might get bored or fed up and leave her the way her father had.

Ivy lowered her head a moment and concentrated on breathing. She knew why her father had left. Her mother never said so, but Ivy knew it was
her
fault. A kid changed things, and he hadn’t been ready for those changes. When Ivy’s mother wanted to settle down in one place and raise her, give her some stability, her father wanted nothing of it. He’d used the Navy as his excuse, sailing away for months at a time. And then one day he left for good.

A rap sounded on the door and she jumped. “Yes?”

“We have to get over to Matt Girard’s cabin. They’ve got intel on
Bad Medicine
.”

“Be a few seconds,” she said before hurriedly cleaning up and pulling on the silk tank and cropped pants she’d left hanging on the shower rod last night. When she emerged, Dane was dressed and waiting for her. He looked lethal in his cargo pants, deck shoes, and a white T-shirt that molded to his impressive pecs. She knew he had a gun tucked away in an ankle holster and a knife strapped to his belt. He was handsome and virile, and her belly fluttered anew at the thought of all they’d done to each other in the night.

He looked up at her as she walked into the room. His eyes were chilly.

“Grab your gear, Ivy. We aren’t coming back here.”

She hurried to the room they’d shared last night, pointedly ignoring the rumpled sheets as she grabbed everything and stuffed it into her suitcase. When she reached the door, she paused to look at the bed one more time.

It was one night of sex. One damn night—and already she felt as hooked on him as she ever had when she’d been his wife.

When she turned to go, Dane was watching her. She didn’t speak, just stared back at him until he reached down and picked up his own bag, breaking the eye contact.

“Let’s go,” he told her.

They walked in silence to the cabin where HOT was meeting. It was still early, but there were tourists out now, walking the paths, going to the beach for sunrise views, getting an early breakfast, or hitting the gym. Some of those people looked happy, and Ivy envied them. What must it be like to be on a vacation with your lover, enjoying the amenities and having nothing more pressing to decide than whether to go to dinner or order room service because you were so into each other you couldn’t bother getting dressed?

She wouldn’t know. She’d never known because she’d never stopped panicking long enough to lose herself in the moment.

When they reached their destination, Dane opened the door and waited for her to go first. Several of the guys looked up when she walked in. She dropped her bag on the floor and kept on walking over to where someone had made a pot of coffee. She poured a cup, grabbed a donut from a tray, and took a seat beside Ace.

He gave her one of his concerned looks, but she shrugged it off and then patted his hand. He gave his head a slight shake, and she knew she was being chastised for sleeping with Dane. She deserved it considering how often she’d sworn to him that Dane had been a jerk.

Matt walked to the front of the room and started to speak. “We’ve had some intel that indicates
Bad Medicine
is going out today, but not for the usual fishing run. They aren’t taking on passengers, and the crew is made up of the men we have in our dossiers. They’re either making a practice run, or they’ve made contact with our sub.”

“We need to be out there.” It was Dane who’d spoken.

“Yes, we do. We’ve arranged to rent some fishing boats. We’re going sailing today like a bunch of tourists.”

“They can’t possibly be planning to offload a missile in broad daylight,” Chase Daniels said.

Fiddler, they called him. She wondered why. Did he play a fiddle? Or was it just a joke of some sort? She knew that call signs often were jokes or plays on the obvious. Dexter “Double Dee” Davidson—now that was obvious, though why they didn’t just call him DeeDee and be done with it she didn’t know. She understood Flash Gordon and Billy the Kid. Knight Rider for McKnight, Big Mac for MacDonald, Brandy for Brandon—wow, these guys weren’t all that original, were they? Iceman was one of those dudes who seemed cool under pressure, so maybe that’s where they’d gotten his name.

And she had no idea what Matt’s name was, come to think of it. Dane was Viking, which made sense considering his real name was so Norse sounding.

“No, probably not,” Matt said. “But they could be planning to get into position and troll the area all day. The sub will probably surface sometime after nightfall.” His gaze slewed over to Ivy and Ace. “You two will have to sit this one out. You aren’t trained for this kind of op.”

Cold anger fizzed inside Ivy’s veins. “We damn sure are. Who do you think confiscates drugs coming into the US? The Junior League of Key West? We’ve worked with the Coast Guard to apprehend smugglers. This isn’t our first dance, you know.”

“It’s dangerous out there,” Dane said.

Ivy swung around to glare at him. “You think I don’t know that? What part of ‘we’ve done this before’ don’t you get?”

She could see Ace grinning beside her, and she wanted to smack him. He was enjoying this far too much when he should be as incensed as she was.

“They can play tourists,” Big Mac said, shrugging. “Put them on a cabin cruiser and put Ivy in a bikini. It’s not like we haven’t infiltrated a secure compound before by using a woman in a bikini as a distraction.”

“And what a fine distraction your wife was,” Chase said. “Especially when she took off her top.”

“Watch it, asshole,” Big Mac growled. “Lucky’s not here to save your ass if I decide to kick it for you.”

Chase kept on grinning. “I’ll tell Lucky. You know she hates it when you get all macho about her role on the team.”

“Son of a bitch,” Big Mac muttered, but he didn’t take a swing at Chase.

Ivy thought she might like to meet this Lucky. She sounded like a hell of a woman if she could make that big man back down with only the threat of her learning he’d kicked someone’s ass on her behalf.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Matt said. “Worked the last time, didn’t it? Fine, Ivy and Ace can go on the cabin cruiser.”

“She’s not wearing a bikini,” Dane said to the room.

Ivy stood and popped her huands on her hips as she faced her ex-husband. “Stay out of this, Dane. I’ll wear my fucking birthday suit if it helps get those assholes before they can deploy their weapon.”

Dane looked militant. “You don’t need to be out there. Stay here and monitor the marina with Ace—”

“Fuck you,” Ivy shot back. She was aware the gazes of the men were bouncing between her and Dane like a Ping-Pong ball. No doubt they were highly entertained, but she was furious that Dane would try to shove her to the sidelines.

“Enough,” Matt barked. “Ivy and Ace can help. Tourists on the cabin cruiser, observation only. We can always use extra eyes on the perimeter. Wear a bikini or not, I don’t really fucking care. Now, can we get back to business, or do you two want to discuss wardrobe issues some more?”

‡

I
t was a
glorious day in the Keys, sunny and breezy, not too hot yet, with a sky so blue it hurt the eyes and a sparkling ocean spreading as far as a person could see. In the end, Ivy and Ace wound up on the cabin cruiser alone while the team split themselves between fishing boats. They were in the area, but not always visible. Occasionally she lifted the binoculars and spotted one of them, but she didn’t know which one.

Bad Medicine
had left the dock on Emerald Key earlier, but there was no sign of her out here. Ivy adjusted her bikini top—she’d worn the bikini, but she’d knotted a floor-length wrap over the bottoms—and lifted the binoculars again.

She thought of that moment when she’d walked onto the dock and Dane had seen her. His eyes ate her up, but then his jaw hardened and he turned away, pretending not to care. She knew it was pretense because she knew Dane. He cared—and she’d been both gratified that he did and angry with herself at the same time. Angry because she couldn’t stop reacting to him, angry because last night had felt so damn good. Angry because she’d told him no more.