Hot SEALs: Her Special Alpha (Kindle Worlds) (X-OPS 3.5) (5 page)

Yeah, he’d definitely figured that out. “What about the not-so-obvious stuff?”

“Well, I heal from wounds quickly. I can see in the dark. And I can hear a person’s heart beating from across the room. But none of those things really matter that much. For most people who learn my secret, it’s all about the claws and fangs.” She gave him a sad smile. “Those are the things that tend to freak them out.”

Damn. He couldn’t believe Eden was insecure about her unique gifts, especially since she was so amazing. Although, now that he thought about it, he supposed it wasn’t so difficult to believe. It had to suck not being able to tell anyone about a secret like the one she was carrying around. Hell, she hadn’t even told her family. And while society as a whole liked to think they were accepting of those who were different, there were people in the world who’d treat Eden like shit. The thought alone was enough to piss the hell out of him.

“You know what?” he said. “If your claws and fangs freak people out, screw ‘em. They’re stupid, and you don’t need them.”

She eyed him skeptically. “So, you’re telling me that my claws and fangs don’t bother you even a little?”

Travis took Eden’s hand and pulled her out of her seat, then tugged her forward until she was sitting astride his thighs. “Your claws and fangs don’t bother me even a little. Is that so hard to believe?”

She wiggled around until she got comfortable in his lap, then draped her arms around his neck. Of course, all that gyrating went a long way to making him uncomfortable, but he’d survive.

“Actually, it is a little hard to believe,” she admitted softly. “You’re the first man who has ever kissed me after knowing what I look like when I shift. The only other people who even know what I am are the people I work with, and most of them never look at me the same after the fact.”

He grasped her hips and tugged her higher up on his lap until her jean-covered pussy was pressing against his hard-on. She obviously noticed the piece of lumber he was hiding in there because her eyes widened a bit.

“I’m looking at you the same.” He slid his hand in her long, dark hair. “And if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m interested in doing a lot more than kissing you.”

Eden’s lips curved into a sexy smile. “I noticed. Kind of
hard
not to.” She rotated her hips, grinding against him and doing crazy things to his cock. “Is all of that for me?”

“And then some.”

Tightening his hand in her hair, Travis tugged her forward for a kiss. He wasn’t sure if it was her shifter nature, or because he’d simply never kissed a woman this beautiful before, but either way, Eden’s tongue was sweeter than anything he’d ever tasted. And if she was worried earlier about whether he was seriously into her, she must have figured out just how into her he was because now she didn’t hold back. She grabbed a handful of his hair, letting out what sure sounded like a purr as she kissed him.

The hand he had on her hip took it upon itself to reach around to grab her ass. Her curves flexed teasingly beneath his fingers as she did her little gyrating dance on his lap. She had one tight ass, that was for sure, and he couldn’t wait to see it without all these damn clothes getting in the way.

Travis groaned and yanked her against him even harder. But Eden didn’t seem to mind. She simply moaned softly and lifted her feet from the floor to hook them around the back of the chair, pressing every ounce of her weight completely down on his cock.

Then suddenly, she lifted her head to look at him, her breathing ragged, a hungry expression on her face, and her eyes glowing a clear, vivid green that shown bright even in the well-lit room. His gaze traveled down to her lips and he saw that her fangs were peeking out. They must come out when she got aroused. And they were damn sexy, just like the rest of her.

Eden leaned closer until her forehead was pressed against his, her beautiful green eyes scant inches from his.

“Are you completely sure you’re okay with this?” she whispered.

She was testing him, he realized, trying to see if he’d get squeamish at the last second. He slipped the hand he had in her hair along her jaw to cup her chin, pulling her down to kiss her softly and carefully. He might think her fangs were sexy, but he was also smart enough to recognize that they were sharp. A little danger added spice to the bedroom. A trip to the emergency room, not so much.

He gently ran his tongue over the tips of her fangs, feeling a little quiver of excitement pass through her as he did. He groaned in appreciation, wanting to make sure Eden knew how much he was enjoying it, too.

Travis pushed up the bottom of her T-shirt and was just moving up her perfectly toned stomach when Eden’s cell phone rang.    

She pulled her mouth away from his with a growl of frustration. “I’d better get that. It could be Kendra.”

She twisted around on his lap, practically killing him in the process, and snatched the phone off the table. “Hey, Emily. Everything okay?”

Travis stopped toying with the buttons on Eden’s jeans when he felt her tense. A moment later, she frowned.

“Emily, calm down,” she said. “I’ll be over there in a few minutes. Just don’t do anything crazy until I get there, okay?”

Travis tensed, too. He’d only heard Eden’s end of the conversation, but it didn’t sound good.

“What’s wrong?” he asked when she hung up.

She ran her hand through her hair. “I’m not sure. I’m hoping this is just pre-wedding jitters, but Emily is in full-on freak-out mode about marrying Brandon. I’m sorry to put this,” she pointed down between their bodies, “on hold, but I need to go talk to her.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said as Eden climbed off. “Something tells me this,” he pointed down at the bulge in his jeans, “isn’t going anywhere for a while.”

She smiled and leaned over to pick up her phone, giving him a quick kiss at the same time. “Good. A girl likes to know she’s wanted.”

Oh, he definitely wanted her.

Eden darted for her car the moment they got to the parking lot, giving him a wave and saying she’d call as soon as she could. Then she jumped in her car and sped away like a whirlwind.

It was a pretty apt description, he supposed. She had certainly blown into his life out of nowhere and tossed him around like nothing he’d ever felt. Hopefully she didn’t leaving him lying on the ground afterward with a mouth full of dirt for his troubles.

Chapter Five

“All you have is vanilla and chocolate?” Eden asked as she opened Emily’s freezer and perused the boring selection of ice cream inside. With all the flavors available now in the supermarkets, why would anyone bother to actually buy those two? Chocolate was what you gave to five-year-olds, and vanilla was like a give-up flavor. Actually, it wasn’t even a flavor…it was the absence of flavor.

When Emily didn’t answer, Eden turned around. Her sister was sitting at her small kitchen table, poking at her bowl of chocolate ice cream with a spoon like she was trying to torture it.

Okay, maybe this was more serious than Eden thought. When Emily called saying she wanted to call off the wedding, Eden had been sure it was some kind of crazy pre-wedding jitters. Eden didn’t have any personal experience with the subject since she’d never had to deal with a relationship longer than a few months much less one serious enough for marriage to become a topic of conversation, but she understood the concept. More importantly, she understood her sister.

Sighing, she grabbed the vanilla ice cream and a bowl from the cabinet, scooped out enough to fill half of it, then stuck the container in the freezer and plunked down in the chair across from her sister.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Eden asked.

When Emily still didn’t say anything, Eden started to think she might have to pry the information out of her sister with a crowbar.

Emily was two years younger than Eden, but they’d always been close since they were kids. While a lot of Eden’s friends had hated their younger siblings hanging around, she’d never felt like that. Maybe it was because they’d moved around so much while their father was in the navy. Regardless, the two of them had always been friends as well as sisters. True, it was harder to stay in touch now that Eden worked for the DCO and Emily had a job working in the finance department at the Naval Operation Center in Norfolk, but Eden still liked to think they could talk to each other about anything. Well, not the whole shifter thing, of course, or what Eden did for a living, but anything outside of that. That’s why it worried her to see Emily so withdrawn now. It wasn’t like her.

“Emily?” Eden prompted softly.

Emily looked at Eden, her blue eyes glistening with tears. “What if I’ve made a mistake?”

Eden pushed both bowls of ice cream aside, then reached out to take Emily’s hands in hers. “About marrying Brandon? Why would you think that?”

Did her sister’s sudden doubts about her future husband have anything to do with what had happened outside the restaurant the other night? Had Emily learned something to make her think her fiancé was involved in something bad enough to get him targeted by the kind of people who’d been in that alley? Kendra had been so sure Brandon was clean and that the whole fight had been about Tim’s gambling debt. Hell, Eden had figured that was probably the deal, too. Maybe they were both wrong.

“How do you know if the person you’re with is the right one?” Emily looked down at their clasped hands then back up at Eden again, and the look of panic in her sister’s eyes nearly tore out her heart. “How can I be sure Brandon is the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with?”

“Emily, why are you even asking something like that? Did he say or do something to make you doubt him?”

Emily shook her head, the tears that had been gathering in her eyes running over and spilling down her cheeks. “No. Yes. I don’t know.”

“Honey, what do you mean?” Eden asked.

Emily was completely in love with Brandon since she’d met him. If something had changed that, it had to be serious. Eden didn’t know if this had anything to do with the wolf shifter and his pals, but if Brandon had done something to hurt Emily, Eden would go straight to his apartment and claw his balls off.

Emily pulled her hands out of Eden’s and tried to wipe the tears away, but more took their place. After a bit, she gave up. “It’s nothing, really. Stupid even. But after the thing that happened at the rehearsal dinner…”

Eden’s stomach dropped. “What about it?”

“Brandon said it wasn’t a big deal, but I can tell it’s been bothering him. He’s been unusually quiet since it happened, and today at the country club, it was like he was a million miles away. Whenever I ask him what’s wrong, he just shuts me out and tells me it’s nothing.”

Eden started breathing again. Okay, maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. Brandon’s reluctance to open up and share would be a problem if he was a woman. But Eden worked with enough alpha males to know that few of them would ever sit around and chat about their feelings. Most of them would rather scrape off their testicles with a rusty spoon than share anything deep and meaningful with their significant others. Brandon had gotten his ass handed to him out there behind the restaurant and Eden doubted he was thrilled that a random stranger and his fiancée’s sister had been the ones to deal with the situation. His silence might be nothing more than wounded pride.

“Maybe’s he just being a guy?” Eden suggested. “You know they don’t like to talk about stuff like that.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I don’t know him nearly as well as I thought I did.” Emily let out a frustrated sigh. “We’ve been seeing each other for over a year and a half, but do you know how much time we’ve really been together? With all the temporary duty trips he’s been on, plus that four month float he and Tim went out on to certify that new ship, we’ve really only been together about nine months. Can you honestly get to know a man well enough in nine months to decide if you want to marry him?”

Eden almost laughed with relief. This was sounding less about Brandon being involved with something shady, and more about her sister having too much time to think right before the wedding. Eden shouldn’t be surprised. Emily had always been the analytical thinker of the family. When she encountered a problem, she dissected the heck out of it and tried to analyze her way to the absolutely perfect solution. Now, she was actually counting the number of days she and Brandon had spent together, as if that meant anything. Emily was getting nervous and had fallen back on her old ways, trying to use her head to make sure she was doing the right thing instead of her heart.

While Eden was never going to be a poster child for Match.com, she was smart enough about romance to realize that you had to go with your instincts when it came to love. And instincts were one thing Eden definitely knew.

“Emily, what’s Brandon’s favorite color?”

Her sister looked confused. “Blue, but why does that matter?”

Eden ignored the question. “And what’s his favorite food?”

“Pizza.”

“Favorite Beer?”

“Miller Genuine Draft.”

Eden hit Emily with about a dozen more questions, everything from what Brandon’s favorite pro sports team was to the names of his parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, even his childhood pets. Emily never had to hesitate before answering any of them.

“Okay, last one.” Eden said, holding up a finger when Emily would have interrupted again. “This one is simple. If Brandon could retire right now, what would he want to do with his life?”

The corners of Emily mouth curved into a smile. “He’d want to buy a boat so the two of us could sail around the world together. He has a picture of his dream boat tacked up to the wall in the bedroom.”

Eden lifted a brow. “Seems like you know your future husband pretty damn well to me. Better than some people I know who have been married for years.”

Emily regarded her in silence for a long time, then nodded slowly. “I guess so. But if this isn’t about how well I know Brandon, why the hell am I feeling so freaked out all of a sudden?”

Eden took his sister’s hand again, giving it a squeeze. “Maybe it’s because your whole life is about to change. Even if it’s a change for the better, it’s still a big change. That’s enough to rattle anybody.”

Emily considered that. “Do you think I’ll be able to pull it off as well as mom did?”

“Pull what off?” Eden asked, wondering if she’d missed a turn somewhere along the path of their conversation.

“Being able to keep a family going when Brandon is gone on fleet duty? Like mom was able to do with us?”

Eden smiled. Something told her they’d accidentally stumbled over the real crux of her sister’s anxiety. Dad had been gone a lot when Eden and Emily had been growing up. Schooling, temporary travel assignments, ship deployments, you name it. There were times when she and her sister felt like they didn’t have a father, and their mother was raising them all on her own.

And Mom had been amazing. Even as a kid, Eden had recognized she was like a force of nature as she dealt with all the problems that came along with being married to a man in the military completely on her own. Mom had handled their moves back and forth across the country, gotten her daughters in and out of schools, kept her husband’s military career on track, and somehow found time and energy to always be there not just for them, but also for the families of friends and relatives. Eden didn’t think she could ever handle that kind of responsibility.

Apparently, Emily was having those same doubts. Eden could certainly understand why. Her sister wasn’t just marrying a guy in the military. She was marrying into a way of life that put a lot of burdens on a newly married couple.

“Of course you’re going to be able to do it,” Eden told her. “It’s going to be hard and you’re probably going to be scared to death that you’re going to screw everything up. You’ll do some things differently than Mom would have done them. You’ll make mistakes and you’ll learn from them. But ultimately you’ll raise your own family just as well as Mom did. And you know why?”

“Why?” Emily asked, almost looking amused now.

“Because you and Brandon love each other.”

Emily smiled again. “Yeah, we do. I’m just being silly.” She gave Eden a sheepish look. “Sorry for dragging you all the way over here to listen to me whine.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Eden said. “You can call me to whine anytime. It’s what sisters are for.”

“Deal.” Emily sighed. “Still, I feel bad making you come all the way over here. What were you up to when I called anyway?”

Eden had to fight to keep a silly grin from spreading across her face as she thought about exactly what she and Travis had been up to before her sister called. Even now, she could almost feel his erection pressing against her. The fact that he was so aroused even though he knew what she was just made everything even hotter. She’d never been so turned on with a guy before and had no doubt that they would be in bed naked right now if Emily hadn’t called.

Just thinking about that possibility made heat settle between her legs. The urge to reach down and touch herself through her jeans was practically impossible to ignore, but she couldn’t do it with Emily sitting across from her.

Which reminded her. She hadn’t answered her sister’s question yet.

“Nothing really,” she said. “Just hanging out in my hotel room with a friend.”

“You met up with one of our friends from school?” Emily asked, surprised. “Who was it?”

Eden shook her head. “It’s not one of our friends from school. It’s a guy I met recently.”

Her sister lifted a brow. “A guy. When did you meet a guy?”

Eden almost laughed. “The night outside the restaurant where we were having the rehearsal dinner.”

Emily’s eyes widened. “You mean that big, hunky guy who helped you out in the alley?”

“You shouldn’t be calling other men hunky,” Eden scolded with a laugh. “You’re about to get married.”

“Just because I’m getting married doesn’t mean I’m blind to other guys around me. I still know a sexy hunk when I see one,” Emily pointed out. “So, are you two sleeping together yet?”

Eden felt her face heat as an image of her riding up and down on Travis while he was sitting in the chair in her hotel room flashed into her head. She bit back a moan and redirected her focus to point out the obvious to her sister.

“We just met a few days ago. We were just talking.”

Eden looked at her doubtfully. “Uh-huh. My face always turns that cute shade of pink when I think about
talking
with Brandon.”

“I am not blushing!”

“Of course you’re not,” Emily agreed. “So, when were you planning to introduce me to him? You know I never did get a chance to thank him for helping save Brandon’s and Tim’s butts. You should ask him to come with you to the wedding. I know guys can get so freaked out about going to them, but I’d love to meet him.”

Eden almost told her that Travis was already coming, then thought better of it. If she admitted that Travis had already agreed to be her date to Emily’s wedding a few hours after they met, her sister would almost certainly think something serious was going on between them. And her sister would be right. By all accounts, that should have been terrifying since she’d just met him a few days ago. But it wasn’t scary at all. For the first time, she was with a guy she could finally be herself with. And it was a breathtaking feeling.

“I’ll ask him,” was all Eden said.

Emily pushed Eden’s ice cream bowl back in front of her, then grabbed her own and dug into the melted mess. “Well, tell him I hope he comes. There’ll be plenty of food and drink, and if he doesn’t want to drive back to his hotel after the reception, the country club is offering rooms to the wedding guests for the night at a fantastic price.”