Sexy SEAL Box Set: A SEAL's Seduction\A SEAL's Surrender\A SEAL's Salvation\A SEAL's Kiss (78 page)

“Maybe,” he said without even a hint of a smile. “But more to the point is that we both agree that we’ll give this one hundred percent. If you want the Professor’s mind at ease, it’s going to take focus and effort.”

Sage frowned. Neither of which he seemed to think she had. Needing a few seconds to process that, she leaned back, tucking her feet under her. The nubby fabric of the sofa scraped gently over her bare toes, contrasting with the silk of her skirt.

“This isn’t a whim, Aiden. This isn’t an experiment or a fun lark. This is my father.” She paused, as much to swallow the tight ball of fear in her throat as for effect. “I’ll do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to bring him comfort and to keep him from worrying. So if Mission Marriage is the answer to his peace of mind, consider me in.”

He gave her a look so intense and searching, she felt like he’d just scanned her every thought, delved into her secrets and checked her pockets for loose change.

If he could package that, TSA would pay a fortune.

Sage shifted, angling her feet under her butt to keep herself from getting up to run from that look. Or, more to the point, from discovering what he’d found. Or worse, what he hadn’t.

As usual, he didn’t say.

Instead, he shook his head, then instructed, “Let’s call it Mission Engagement. Neither of us is crazy enough to think we’re marriage material.”

Sage blinked a couple of times, trying to process that kick in the gut. She wasn’t marriage material? As in, he didn’t think she was marriageable? Or was she simply not what he wanted in marriage?

Not sure why she cared, since marriage—especially marriage to someone like Aiden—was the last thing
she
wanted, Sage frowned.

Whether it was intuition, that he caught the look on her face or he was just in a hurry, Aiden waved his hand as if turning the page. Then he followed it up with lifting two fingers in the air.

“Point one is that this is a mission. Which means point two is that we agree that to better ensure the success of the mission, the truth of the situation would be kept between just the two of us. Under no circumstances is anyone else to know that this is a fake engagement.”

“So you wouldn’t actually want to marry me, but you don’t want anyone to think you’d fake our engagement?” she clarified.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t want to marry you,” he corrected, pushing his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. His brow furrowed, a frustrated look in his eyes as he shrugged. “But wanting something doesn’t mean you should do it. That’s kindergarten one-oh-one.”

“I must have napped through that lesson.” Her own more casual shrug shifted the loose fabric of her dress so it slid down one shoulder.

Something flashed in his eyes as his gaze followed the silk’s slide. Something hot and wild and edgy enough to make Sage’s nerves tighten and heat swirl low in her belly. Then he blinked and the look was gone, leaving Sage wondering if celibacy was causing her to hallucinate.

The hot warmth between her thighs and the delicious tightening of her nipples weren’t just her imagination, though.

“So marrying me wouldn’t be so bad?” she teased, her words low and husky, a hint of flirty enticement in her smile.

“Of course it would.”

Huh?

“You said...” The words trailed off as she shook her head. Debating her many failings in his eyes wasn’t going to help them comfort her father. “Forget it. You were outlining the mission rules. Go ahead.”

“Okay,” he said, his gaze narrowed as if he were checking something off his mental list. He gave a short nod before continuing. “Rule three, the mission time frame is completely dependent on the health of the Professor. The mission is not complete until his health is completely recovered, or, well, until it’s no longer necessary.”

Nausea swam through Sage’s belly at his hesitation. Unwilling to acknowledge it, she tilted her head to the side, focusing instead on the way his shirt emphasized his biceps. Tight, hard round muscles that made her mouth water. That, she decided, was a much more enticing focal point.

“That means we’re both fully committed, Sage,” he said, his tone making it clear he didn’t think she was hearing him. Since he might have already recited the Gettysburg Address for all she knew, he had a good point.

“Fine, yes,” she agreed quickly. “We’re fully committed.”

“This might not be accomplished in one leave, or this month. Or even this year. I have to go back on duty, and you’re going to be, well, wherever you’re going to be.”

“Here,” she decided then and there. “I’m here until my dad is well again.”

“All the more reason to make sure you’re following rule three then.”

“Fully committed?”

“That means you’re pretending you’re engaged.” He paused, giving her an arch look. She was pretty sure she knew where he was going, but decided it would be more fun to make him spell it out. So she offered a blank look of confusion, adding a flutter of her lashes for good measure.

“I know this is going to be hard for you, but unless you can handle it, we might as well find an alternative now.”

Not so amused any longer, she ceased fluttering.

“Handle...what?” Hard and handling were giving her a lot of ideas.

“You have to be able to commit to keeping to the spirit of this engagement for the duration. That means no sex. You can’t keep bouncing from guy to guy.”

Bouncing? Sage was tempted to inform him that she was going on eight months with no sex and managing fine. But that wasn’t the kind of thing a girl wanted to admit to a guy who was currently making her wonder how many licks of his tongue it would take to get her off.

At least, not until they’d spent a little more time together, and she’d figured out what it was about Aiden that was suddenly making her hot and crazy.

“I promise, any sex I have will be within the accepted confines of our engagement,” she swore, one hand in the air.

“That’d be rule four,” he said quickly. “No sex.”

“I just said I wasn’t going to cheat on you. Even if the cheating was really fake.”

“I mean no sex between us.”

Sage was sure her jaw hit her chest so hard it bounced back.

“I beg your pardon?” He was kidding, wasn’t he?

Except he didn’t look like he was kidding. He had that serious, man-in-charge, military face on again.

“Sage, as tempting as it might be to get carried away by the pretense, we aren’t actually engaged. So no sex.” He said it so adamantly she had to wonder which one of them he was bossing around. “And no situations that might lead to sex. No scenarios that might give each other an idea to create a situation that might lead to sex.”

That’s it. She’d had enough.

He was only doing this for her father.

She got that.

He didn’t see her as marriage material, because wanting something didn’t mean you should have it. Whatever that meant.

Fine.

But if he thought he got to call the shots when it came to her and sex, he was sadly out of his mind.

Because Sage Taylor had a policy against letting any man tell her how, where or when she’d enjoy sexual pleasures.

Aiden had just offered up a tidy lesson on the merits of mission planning and strategy.

Now it was his turn to learn a thing or two.

Call it her way of saying thank-you.

Not sure what she was going to do, only knowing she was going to make damned sure they both enjoyed it, Sage slowly lowered her feet to the floor.

The move sent her skirt floating, sliding along her bare limbs like liquid. Aiden’s hazel eyes followed the fabric, settling for a long second on her bare toes before he yanked his gaze back to meet hers.

Sage smiled.

A slow, seductive smile.

Then in a sinuous move she’d learned from the belly dancers in Persia, she got to her feet, her fingers skimming her hips, up her waist before she teased them along the sides of her breasts and up to her throat.

Wetting her lips, she gave a deep sigh. Aiden’s gaze dropped to her breasts and his own lips tightened. If the fit of his jeans were anything to go by, something else was getting tight, too. He didn’t look too happy about that. But Sage’s goal was horny, not happy.

She stepped closer.

From the wild look in his eyes, she figured it was a credit to his SEAL training that he didn’t step back. Because he clearly didn’t want her body this tight against his. Or, he didn’t
want
to want her this close.

“You go ahead and set those rules,” she told him quietly, tapping one finger against his chest, then against his chin.

“You saying you won’t follow them?”

“Rules one through three? I’m one-hundred percent committed.”

He closed his eyes for just a second, then gave her an arch look.

“And rule four?”

“Babe, enforcing that one is all on you.” She gave one last tap, this one on the tempting fullness of his lower lip. Then, for good measure, she leaned close and brushed her own lips over that same spot before giving him a wide smile. “Good luck with that.”

4

A
IDEN
HAD
A
HANGOVER
.

Not the partying-all-night, drinking-too-much-booze kind of hangover, though.

Nope, this was a sex hangover.

The kind that came from being up all night—in every meaning of the term—obsessing over the sex he wasn’t having. Not the random, with-any-woman, getting-laid-felt-good kind of sex, though.

Nope. He’d been obsessing about sex with Sage.

Sex under the swimming pool’s waterfall at midnight.

Sex in the gazebo at the bottom of the hill at noon.

Sex on his bed. Sex on her bed. Sex in various hotel beds.

Missionary sex. Doggy-style sex. Up-against-the-wall sex. Sweet and reverent sex. Pornworthy sex.

Hell, by dawn, he’d been imagining the kinds of sex he’d barely been aware existed before.

Damn Sage.

And damn her daring him to enforce rule four.

He threw his car into gear, heading up the hill toward the Taylor house. He hadn’t seen his so-called fiancée since she’d offered a vague excuse of rejoining her friends, leaving Aiden and the Professor to have dinner alone together the previous night.

Just as well. He’d had enough trouble hearing the details of the Professor’s health issues—officially—from the Professor. Aiden knew it would have been even harder for Sage to hear it again. Especially as the Professor had taken the intellectual route, detailing the various options, side effects and prognosis statistics.

You’d have thought that information, the dire possibilities, would have filled Aiden’s head all night instead of the vivid fantasies of doing his mentor’s daughter.

Before he could sink into yet another one of those fantasies, his cell phone buzzed. Normally he’d ignore it. But desperate for a distraction, he pulled to the side of the road and hit talk.

“Dude, you on a beach covered in half-naked chicks yet?”

Aiden smirked. Leave it to Castillo to get right to the point.

“Nope. No beach, no naked chicks. What’s up?”

“Big mission.”

Aiden rolled his eyes. Castillo was as long-winded as he was subtle.

“I’m on leave.”

“You don’t wanna miss this one.”

That’s all the lieutenant said. Not because he was trying to be sly, but because protocol mandated that anything about the mission was classified. Even though Aiden was a part of the team, he wasn’t on duty, this wasn’t a secure line and he hadn’t been briefed by a commanding officer.

“No can do. I came home to some rough news.”

Castillo was silent for a second before clearing his throat and offering a rough, “Sucks, man.”

Despite the pounding in his temples and the stress of the situation, Aiden had to grin. The guy should be writing Hallmark cards.

“Without you, Banks is going to pull recon duty,” Castillo pointed out. “Last mission we did with him, he hotdogged the whole thing.”

“He’s good at his job,” Aiden pointed out fairly.

Still, he knew how Castillo felt. Banks had joined the team late last year, a replacement for Carter.

The sudden pain, the reminder of losing his buddy on that mission last winter, hit Aiden like a kick in the gut. Intellectually, he knew that was the risk they all took. Not just by putting their lives on the line, but by caring about the other guys who were right there with them. But for once, Aiden didn’t find any comfort in logic.

Still, that’s the way the military was. Nobody was irreplaceable. Even as specially trained and elite as the SEALs were, when one fell, another was there to step into his place.

Most days, Aiden accepted that as fact.

These days, it was just another fingernail on his emotional chalkboard.

“Don’t like working with divas,” Castillo grunted, pulling Aiden’s attention back to the phone call. The lieutenant was a guy who believed the old adage, there’s no I in Team.

“He’s good at what he does,” Aiden repeated. “He’s got solid recon training, and he’s a damned good medic.”

“Just because he’s got skills doesn’t mean he’s got heart,” Castillo said.

Heart was everything.

That’s what made a team, well, a team.

Aiden had only served one mission with Banks, but from what he’d observed so far, Castillo was right. The guy was a loner. That didn’t mean he didn’t have heart, though. Hell, Aiden was an integral part of the team and he wasn’t sure of his own heart anymore.

It was either gone or buried.

Dammit.

“I’ll call you in five,” he said, hitting the off button before he could give in to temptation and say more.

Aiden stared, unseeing, out the windshield, row after row of grapevines a blur.

Was he burned out? Was he just overwhelmed by the emotional impact of losing Carter, of facing the very real possibility of losing Professor Taylor?

Or was his brain blood-starved after an exhausted night of horny overload?

Aiden considered all of those valid reasons for his current stress level, and none of them necessary reasons for him to head back early. He was a dedicated SEAL, his entire life revolving around serving his country.