Code Name: Kayla's Fire (6 page)

She straightened up and
looked at him squarely. “I don’t hold anything against you, Thane. I’m only asking
you to stop putting yourself in danger.”

A laugh bubbled up his
throat. “Um, okay, so should I just go back to work then?” he asked, a grin
tightening his lips as he rubbed his cheek against hers.

The sails in her mind
drooped, having to give way to his point.

Thane leaned his head back,
and peered into the heavens. “Kayla, I know trust must be the hardest thing in
the world to you.”

The statement had so
many spurs she didn’t know how to answer. “I suppose,” she replied, gazing at
the distinct, strong angles of his features.

“I read your note. I
heard you in my mind when things were the toughest.” He darted a quick look at
her, and then turned his attention upward again. “To be honest, I’ve had plenty
of notes over the years, but I only kept one—yours.” His forehead wrinkled
tight with his thoughts. “I actually laughed out loud reading it. The team
thought I’d lost my mind, but, I hadn’t lost it, I’d made a decision. I’d
annihilate an entire country to see you again.”

She stared at him not
knowing what to say, instead she covered his hand with hers, and he quickly
folded it in his warmth.

He drew her close.
“Kayla, leave your fear in my arms, and believe in me. It’s all I’m asking.”

With his body warming
hers, and his strength wrapped around her, her heart grew heavy. “I don’t know
why I’m crying.”

“Because you’re
frustrated. I know you want this over, and it will be, but until then I need to
know you’re safe,” he whispered against her lips, and followed the curve of her
mouth, kissing her with little nips.

Her heart thundered as
she broke their kiss. “You have to be the most stubborn man I’ve ever known.”

Thane chuckled, and
pulled out his phone. “Hey, Mace, you know the code on my back door?” He
paused. “Use it tonight.” Another pause, and he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you can
use the Jacuzzi but stay the hell out of my wine cellar.”

She laughed at that.
“Don’t hold your breath.”

“I know.” Thane twisted
and nudged his head over his shoulder. “Ever been to that restaurant over
there? Awesome Mexican, and you left that appetizer platter behind.”

Her stomach growled in
response, and she darted a look toward the ground.

The music reached out
to them as they walked across the field toward the colorful banners stretched
across wood beams. Torches flickered in the evening light, and created shadows
across the oversized puppets standing watch on either side of a stage. A couple
dressed in authentic Spanish costume danced around each other impressing the
crowd, who sat on small benches to watch.

“Thane?” They stopped
to enjoy the performers, and she leaned against his warm chest. His arms
wrapped her in a tight bundle. “Thank you.” She twisted her neck to look up at
him.

The lines on his
forehead relaxed, and an honest smile shone in his eyes. He spun her gently,
and suddenly all was silent being in her hero’s arms.

“Ms. Banks, no matter
how crazy things may get, we’ll hang onto each other and ride out the storm.”

“Who’s the captain?”
she teased, narrowing her eyes.

Thane’s cheeks puckered,
and then he laughed. “You’re always in charge, sweetheart. I’ll make sure of
it.”

“Let’s eat, I’m
starving.” She squirmed away from him, taking a step toward the restaurant.

With a quick swipe, he
grabbed her hand. “Not so fast.”

“What?”

“One little issue we
haven’t resolved.”

“Please, don’t—”

“Kayla, be serious,
you’re not going on a bloody vacation with him.”

Better to walk away
than start another fight.

“Nope, stand and
fight,” he growled, clinging to her hand. “What guy would let his girlfriend
get on a plane with some other guy?”

She yanked her fingers
from his, and thrust them onto her hip. “So you’re trying to tell me you’re my
boyfriend. Really! Tell me one boyfriend thing you’ve ever done.”

Thane’s shoulders
straightened with a jerk. “Well, there’s—you know.”

“I can walk into that
bar over there and get
you know,
and
he isn’t my boyfriend.”

“I’ve made you dinner,”
nodding his head sharply.

“Uh-huh, while I was
under house arrest.” She waved her hand at him. “Give it up. You can’t possibly
win this debate.”

“Fine, I just asked you
to go to dinner with me. That is definitely date material.” She opened her
mouth to argue… “I brought you flowers.”

Pursing her lips she
strategized. Thane’s index fingers slipped into his front pockets as if he were
reaching for six shooters. “Where was I born?”

“Kayla—”

“Where was I born,
Thane?”

“Ah…”

“Where did I go to
school?”

“Um…” He cleared his
throat.

“What’s—my—favorite—color?”

A deep sigh.

“Do I like chocolate or
vanilla, SEAL?”

Thane’s chin dropped,
and he stared at the ground, toeing the bark mulch.

“Hey, guys,” Mace
appeared beside them, and no surprise, he had his arm draped around the blonde
from the bar. “Great minds think alike—ah, shit, what’s wrong?” he asked
reading the air between them.

“Mace, what’s my
favorite color?”

“Huh?” Mace looked
warily between them.

“Just answer the
question.”

“Green.”

“Uh-huh, where was I
born?”

“Prince Rupert, well on
the way to Rupert, your mom was medevac’d out due to complications, and you
were born on a heloooo, oh shit.”

“What school—?”

“All right,” Thane
bawled. “I get it. I’m a lousy boyfriend.”

Mace’s brows perked up.
And just to hammer the last nail in the coffin…. “What’s my favorite movie,
Mace?”

Mace’s expression
crinkled with a sour look, eyeing the Captain. “If I get it right, am I
swimmin’ the bay?”

“Y—e—s,” Thane said,
showing all his teeth.

Mace gave the blonde a
playful look, and nudged her with his hip. The poor thing was thoroughly
confused. “
Act of Valor.
”

“Bingo,” she said, and
swayed her body in an “Oh yeah, I’m the man” move.

“Get over here,” Thane
barked, vaulting for her and dipping her back like he was Fred Astaire.
“Sweetheart, I might not know the little things, but I know one thing for
sure.”

Her heart hammered, and
she gave Mace and his girl an uncomfortable toothy smile from her perilous
position close to the ground, draped over Thane’s arm.

“Only a boyfriend would
kiss you like this.” Thane had all the tourists concentrating on them instead
of the performers. When he let her up for air, he murmured against her lips.
“Boyfriend, and all the strings attached, agreed?”

A five-point smile
appeared on his features, and she hated when he did that.

“And sweetheart?”

“Eh?”

“Chocolate.”

“
Doh
!”

Chapter Five

The alluring aroma made
her sit straight up in bed. “Mace, is that bacon?”

“Morning, Snow White,”
Thane called from the kitchen.

Kayla hadn’t seen him
in a week. He’d been working long hours with Manchester, but he called her four
times a day—every day—which was weird. Sometimes they only spoke for a couple
minutes, enough for him to ask her how her day was going. She grabbed the robe
from her chair and padded down the hallway, with a quick stop to brush her
teeth.

Thane was setting a
plate on the table covered with a napkin and delicious curls of bacon. Drool
collected in her mouth, but the man serving it had a bigger impact. A pair of
jogging pants slung low on his hips and his upper bare body, still sweaty from
his morning run, made her mouth go dry. Her eyes darted to the clock. It was
only six. The table was set, and he had made… “Waffles!” God, she could taste
them already.

Thane grinned, and his
sexy aura softened her like butter in the sun as he pulled the chair out for
her. He waited until she sat down then poured her a cup of coffee. “All right,
who’d ya kill this morning?” He leaned over and stole a slow, breathless kiss
from her. Keeping one arm pinned against her, not missing the chance to caress
her breast, he slid a bowl of whipping cream and another with strawberries in
front of her. She tried reaching for her fork, and he teased her by holding her
snug. “Don’t get in the way of a woman and food, SEAL.”

Thane nipped her neck.
“Just testing how patient my girlfriend is.”

Thane stuck that
“girlfriend” word into every sentence when they were off the base, or in the
privacy of his office, when he thought he could get away with it.

He sat down across from
her, and watched her load up, piling on the strawberries and sauce, layering
them with syrup, and then covering it all with a huge dollop of whipping cream.
Darting a quick look over the table at him, she shrugged.

His brows lifted with
humor. “Um, have you ever been fat?”

“What a question to
ask?” She nailed him in the chest with a strawberry. “I have a fabulous
metabolism.”

He shrugged, shot her a
quick smile, and filled his own plate.

“What’s going on that I
find you here with this glorious breakfast?”

He stuffed a forkful of
waffle in his mouth. “Not bad,” he mumbled.

“Not bad, it’s heaven,”
she said, taking another bite, and letting the flavors linger on her tongue.

“We’re taking the day
off, Kayla.”

“It’s my day off. You
haven’t had a rest for three weeks. You’re a machine.” She got up and threw
open a window. The February air meandered in, but it wasn’t enough, so she got
rid of her robe, dropping it on the couch on her way back. Thane’s fork stopped
halfway to his mouth. Guess he liked her new little outfit. Miss
Sweater-too-tight wasn’t the only one with a rack.

She’d dragged Mace out
to a lingerie store a couple days ago. Although he argued like hell on the way,
and turned a few different shades of red, she won out. Eventually he got into
it, especially since the store clerk was in her late twenties and all legs.

The brilliant little red
number was Mace’s favorite. The bodice she’d chosen pushed every bleedin’ thing
she had up to her chin. White lace strings crisscrossing between her breasts,
leaving a good visual of skin and a matching silk thong, no imagination was
needed to see what lay beneath. Thane’s fork still hadn’t made it to his mouth,
and he put it down.

“Umm.” He took a quick
scan behind him.

She leaned over the
table, palming the edge in the heel of her hands. “Mace didn’t come home last
night.”

“Umm.”

Reducing Thane’s
vocabulary to sounds made her grin, especially when his gaze darted to the
berries and whipping cream on the table.

“We can warm these
waffles up later,” she said. He could have cooked the bacon with the look in
his eyes.

“No,” he breathed out.

No
.
Now he was playing tough guy. A little embarrassed, she stared down at the
table. He gently took the fork from her, pierced a strawberry, and placed it in
front of her mouth. She tongued the berry from the tines, and his gaze seared
itself to her lips when she licked them.

“We’re going for a
ride,” he said. “On two wheels not four.”

“Who has the bike?”

“I do.”

“You never told me you
had a bike. I’ve never seen it.”

He prodded another
berry onto the fork, and presented it to her. “Keep it for relaxation. Haven’t
had much opportunity lately.”

 
“That’s because you’re doing things you
shouldn’t, like trying to catch a serial killer.”

Thane’s gaze roved
across her face. “Eat up.”

“Where’re we going?”

“Looking for treasures.
I thought we should take a tour across the border.”

“You, me, and a relaxing
day, I don’t think I can handle that.” She knew what he was trying to do. He
wanted to play normal, but their lives were the farthest thing from normal. He wanted
to show her what the future could be like. It wouldn’t surprise her if Mace
relayed what she’d said about leaving when the Shark was brought down.

A smile lit his
handsome face, and just seeing it, lit hers. Her warrior was a fearless rogue
with endless confidence in his veins. A man of valor, and she couldn’t, for the
life of her, figure out why he still hovered around her. She watched as Thane
slipped into the chair kitty-corner from her, and folded her hands in his.

“Kayla, there’s
something I want to ask you.”

Here it comes.
“Something’s wrong,” she stated, trying to retract her hands, but he only let
one get away. When Thane was close to her, he always wanted to touch her. Maybe
the undefeated warrior wasn’t the mountain of unwavering strength she thought.

He palmed her cheek.
“No, sweetheart, everything is fine. I’ve been thinking, once the Shark is
caught….” he cleared his throat. “At Christmas you refused me outright, but I’m
going to ask again, and this time you’ll have time to consider it before giving
me an answer.”

Her memories hummed,
but she wasn’t coming up with much, so she shook her head.

Thane took a deep
breath and stared into her eyes as if he was about to recite the declaration of
independence. “Ms. Kayla Katarina Banks I…I…” He laughed uncomfortably. “Kayla,
I want you—us—I mean, I want….”

He squirmed worse than
a first grader under deadly scrutiny from his teacher. “If it’s this hard,
maybe you shouldn’t say it.”

“It’s not that. I’m
just praying you don’t say no.” Closing his eyes, he leaned in and kissed her lips
softly, then opened them with intent. “I want to wake up every morning and feel
you in my arms. I want your toothbrush beside mine. I want to share lazy
Saturday mornings like this with you. Kayla, move in with me.”

She blinked, letting
the words catch up like an echo in her mind. Her heart squeezed tight. “Are you
insane?” she whispered. It wasn’t the correct response, but she didn’t have any
other answer than he’d lost his mind.

“Sweetheart, I know
it’s a big step for you, but I know what I want. Promise me you’ll just think
about it, okay?”

“I don’t have to think
about…” He shut her down with a hard kiss, and then hovered against her lips.
The man knew how to confuse her, and he did it on purpose. “Captain….” Another
attack of his sensual lips, and this time he swept her into his arms, drawing
her to straddle his lap.

“Stop arguing,” he
commanded, cupping his hands under her thighs, he lifted her, and headed for
the bedroom.

“You haven’t let me
finish a sentence,” she said as he dropped her on the bed and leaned over her,
his skin flexing with well-heeled muscles from toes to shoulders.

“I don’t need a
sentence. Just one word—yes.” His palm wrapped across her hip, his finger
sweeping across her skin, and feathering a gentle touch along the crease of her
thigh. “We’re going to have normal, one day soon. I promise.”

There it was. She knew
it.

“I don’t want you to
leave,” his brow wrinkled tight, and a despondent expression fell like a gray
cloud over his features. “You said yourself you don’t love Lapierre. This is
your home now. I want you to apply for permanent resident status. I’ll be your
sponsor.”

Mace was going to get
the ass-kicking of his life the next time she saw him. She sat up and pulled on
his hand. They curled around, and sat knee to knee. The dominant façade gone
from his features. This was the man inside the warrior, and he wanted her to
know he was there.

“Captain,” She paused
when his brow jerked tight, and his gaze shot down to their joined hands. He
didn’t like it when they were together, and she called him that. He’d tried a
thousand times to make her stop. “Thane—we haven’t openly talked about my past.
I know you haven’t pushed me because you think one day I’ll share it on my own,
but I won’t. When we’re together, we revert to sex instead of talking. That’s
fine with me. We don’t have to talk.”

“Make love,” he
interrupted, but he refused to look at her, and his Adam’s apple bounced in his
throat. “We talk all the time.”

“When I leave….” His
attention bulleted to hers. “It will be because I want to give you your life
back.” She bowed her head scouring the sheets. “You have no idea how scared I
was for you to find out about my past, and now you know. I thought for sure all
you’d see is the real me, the broken one.”

“Kayla, you’re not
broken,” he said gently.

She shook her head, and
he stopped her by squeezing her cheeks between his palms. “I wanted to start
over here in America. Cut myself off from my memories. I know that sounds
impossible, and probably stupid, but I was determined to do it.” A breath
escaped him as if he was going to interrupt her, but instead, seamed his lips.
“I don’t want to paint pictures of a future we won’t have.” She swallowed
tightly, and her insides soured. Damn, here were the tears again. What the
heck? Thane gently swept them away as they rolled down her cheeks. “Let’s just
appreciate each hour we have.”

He drew her tightly
into a warm embrace, and buried his face in her hair. She clung to him, happy
for the stolen moments.

Threading her fingers
through his thick dark blond hair, and giving him a whisper of a kiss on his
cheek, she said, “Now, how many treasures can I bring back on a bike?” Thane
raised his gaze to hers, but she didn’t expect to see him on the edge of tears.
He pulled away from her quickly, but not quick enough. “Thane?”

He rose, and turned his
back on her, swiping at his eyes. He cleared his throat. “I’m buying a set of
leathers for you first, and then we’ll head south.”

“Leathers, for one
ride?” It hardly seemed worth it.

 
Thane reached into his pants pocket, and
cupped something in his hands. “How many hours are in fifty years?” he asked,
kneeling in front of her.

Huh
?
She shrugged. “I don’t know, why?”

“That—Ms. Banks—is how
many hours we have left together.” Spreading the chain attached to his trident,
he slipped it over her head. His gaze burrowed into hers. “You will never take
this off again. I worked my ass off for it, and I will work twice as hard to
prove to you that I’m worthy of your trust, your past, and our future. I have
always appreciated every hour I’ve spent with you, and those to come. Now get
your beautiful rear end off that bed before I change my mind and we spend the
rest of the weekend between the sheets.”

She leaned back as he
came in for a close encounter.

“We only revert to sex
because you are the most exquisite creature I’ve ever made love to.” His aqua
eyes commanded her to believe him. “Made—love—to,” he stated firmly. She waited
for his full lips to take what he wanted, but he stepped away, and she almost
scrambled off the bed to stop him, but she anchored her butt to remain seated. Halfway
down the hall he yelled out, “I can’t wait to see your ass wrapped in black
leather.”

Did he always have to
have the last word? “No good, SEAL,” she muttered, but a smile cracked her lips
as she fingered his trident.

“With nothing
underneath except black lace,” he added from the kitchen.

Her
boyfriend
was getting a little
controlling, then again, when wasn’t he?

* * * *

Standing outside of the
motorcycle shop, clothed from neck to toes in leather, she scanned the street.
They’d outfitted her with a jacket, body-hugging pants, and boots that capped
at her knees. Thane appeared beside her, and his gaze slipped from her face to
drop a few stories to the pavement and back up again.

“Wow!” he said, a
wicked grin tightening his lips. “You are one damn sexy woman, do you know
that?”