Sexy SEAL Box Set: A SEAL's Seduction\A SEAL's Surrender\A SEAL's Salvation\A SEAL's Kiss (82 page)

“Worrying about your dad?”

“Yeah. About my dad, and about this whole engagement thing,” she said, setting the dishes in the sink. Before she could rinse, he was there with the salad bowl and mostly empty casserole dish.

She eyed his still-flat belly. Where did he put all that food?

“You cooked,” he told her. “I’ll do the dishes.”

“You’ll...”

“Yeah, don’t worry about them now,” he said, wrapping his fingers around her upper arm to gently move her away from the sink. “Let’s get this engagement issue nailed down so you can relax.”

Relax?

Well, if they nailed it—or he nailed her—the way she wanted, she’d definitely be relaxing.

6

S
AGE
MULLED
OVER
the different ways she’d like to work up to relaxation while brewing coffee. She’d insisted, since she wanted a few minutes to think before they had their little conversation. Stepping through the kitchen, her hands filled with her favorite brew, she took a deep breath.

The living room, like the kitchen and the rest of the small house, was just this side of bare, with only enough stuff in it to claim that it wasn’t vacant.

Even bare, though, the house had charm. Rough-hewn high-beam ceilings, plaster walls and arched doorways gave it a cottage feel. The tiny kitchen with its antique stove and butcher-block island, the cozy living room with the windows flanking the wide fireplace.

Facing that wall was a long, hand-me-down couch she remembered from his parents’ house. Remembered jumping on like it was a trampoline, to be exact. She gave it an assessing look. Those cushions might still have some good bounce in them.

Excitement swirled in her tummy and her breath hitched a little.

Time to find out.

“Coffee?” she asked, lifting the tray. “I brought my favorite roast, and a few different flavored oils in case you wanted to try something exotic.”

Oh, please, let him be down for trying exotic. Or kinky. Or, heck, she’d settle for just a little naughty.

“Black is fine. I don’t like any of that strange stuff with my coffee.”

Booooring. Sage wrinkled her nose, but poured him a plain ole, nothing-exotic coffee. She handed him the drink. Their fingers brushed, giving her enough of a tingle to make up for the lack of excitement in the cup.

She added a hint of hazelnut and a dollop of whipped chocolate to hers, then joined him on the couch. The cushion gave just a little bounce when she sat, making her smile.

This could definitely get interesting.

“Some of my friends already asked about the ring,” she said before sipping her coffee.

“What’d you tell them?”

“That you were still searching for the perfect one.” She held out her left hand and wiggled her fingers. “I said you’d probably find one in some exotic locale while on duty, and that would make it extra special.”

He gave a laughing sort of shake of his head, then nodded to let her know he’d go along with the story.

“Okay, so how did we get engaged?” he asked, his tone making it clear that he was humoring her.

“Well, it needs to be realistic,” she decided, sipping her drink. She paused to lick the whipped chocolate off her upper lip, liking the way his gaze followed her move.

She was tempted to do it again. But if she moved too fast, Aiden would figure out her seduction plans. With some guys, that was okay. They’d either take it as a compliment, let it stroke their ego, or immediately reciprocate.

Aiden, she figured, would get up and walk away.

Not the kind of seduction reaction a girl usually aimed for.

Better to take a page out of his book. To go for some stealth seduction. A little recon, a little strategy, then move in for the hit.

“What if you were on leave on a beach somewhere, maybe Borneo or Fiji. You’re walking along the water at sunset, and you see a woman resting on the sand. Facedown, nude, sleeping so peacefully that you slow so as not to disturb her.” Sage shifted, arching her back as if she were feeling the setting sun on her bare skin. “Then, you feel this energy. This recognition deep in your heart.”

She ignored his eye roll, curling one leg under her as she got into a comfier position to weave her fantasy.

“Before you can decide whether to say something or move on, she lifts her head. Her hair slides over her face, but you recognize her. Your eyes meet. Sparks fly. Instantly, you both realize that this moment, this place, is everything you’ve been waiting for.”

“Right.” He rolled his eyes again. “That moment?”

“And that place,” she confirmed, smiling over his amused sarcasm. “So happy to see each other, you run together, hugging tight.”

“But she, I mean, you are still naked, right?”

Oh. Sage wrinkled her nose. Good point.

No problem. She could still make it work.

“The emotions quickly change, moving from excitement to seeing each other to excitement to do each other.” She waved her hand between their bodies, as if he needed clarification of which other he was doing. “Passion overtakes common sense. You fall together to the sand, rolling, kissing, exploring each other’s bodies.”

“In the sand?”

This time she was the one who rolled her eyes.

“Okay, fine. You fall together onto her beach blanket, rolling and kissing and exploring. You get so carried away, you make love there on the beach, as the sun sets over the ocean.”

“We’re paying attention to the sunset during all of this?”

“Well, you are a SEAL. You have some kind of internal sensors that tell you when these things happen,” she tossed back.

He snorted, shaking his head before gesturing that she should go on.

“Afterward, even though your knees are weak with the power of our lovemaking...” She paused to thump him on the back when he choked on a swallow of coffee. “You wrap me in the blanket, carry me back to your room and we spend the rest of the week in a frenzy of sexual delights.”

“Your father is going to love this story,” he said in a contemplative tone. “Too bad we didn’t have pictures to share.”

“The camera fell in the hot tub or we would have an album full.”

“Nice.”

“Okay, fine,” she said waving her hand to shoo away his objections. “So this is the naughty, detailed version our friends hear. They aren’t going to share the sex stuff with my dad. But their smirks will go a long way toward convincing him, don’t you think?”

“That we had sex, maybe.”

She shivered at the way he said that, the words husky and low. Good. He might not be loving it, but at least he wasn’t unaffected by her little scenario if his voice was any indication. And his voice was all she had to go on, given that he was an expert and keeping the stoic face. And he was sitting sideways in loose slacks, damn him.

“Okay, but the sex was so good, so mind-blowing, so amazingly out of this world—”

“We’ve covered the sex part,” he interrupted.

Sage’s lips twitched.

“Okay, on to the engagement part. So, you were completely heartbroken over the idea of tearing yourself away from me, even after a week of constantly being inside of me, that you couldn’t leave. Oh, you told me you were. I was brave, holding back my tears until you were gone,” she said, lifting her chin and looking as brave as she could. He rolled his eyes, making her laugh.

“Because you know tears would make it harder for me to leave?”

“No, because I get all splotchy when I cry. There’s no way I’d want the last view you had of me before you went back on duty to be my face all swollen and mottled with a red rash.”

“Gotcha.”

Sage took a sip of her coffee, then pressed her palm to her chest in her most dramatic fashion. And smiled when his eyes followed the movement, his gaze darkening at the sight of her nipples beading beneath the silk of her tank top. The nubs tightened even more as she took a deep breath, the fabric gently sliding over them as she imagined his fingers would.

“So, splotchiness aside, what next?” he prodded after clearing his throat.

“Next?” Next she wanted to rip her clothes off, lie across the coffee table and invite him in for some covert operations.

“Yeah. You are crying, thinking I’m gone. Then what?”

“Um, then what...” She took a deep breath, trying to pull her focus off the coffee table and back to the fantasy. “Um, okay, so then I’m having dinner, alone at a small table on a restaurant balcony and you show up.”

“You weren’t so brokenhearted that you lost your appetite?”

“I never lose my appetite.” For anything. “So you show up, you sweep me into your arms and, over my delighted giggles, you carry me across the beach, up the side of a mountain where you set me down and point to the sand.”

Aiden opened his mouth as if to protest, then shook his head and gestured that she keep talking.

“Spelled out in rocks across the beach are the words,
Sage, will you marry me
,” she finished in her most dramatic tone. Which probably lost a little of its edge when she giggled at the end.

Aiden stared for so long, she wondered if he was running some kind of top secret mental background check of her personal history to see if she’d ever actually been proposed to like that. Since Sage had spent most of her dating life making sure the guys she went out with were more commitment-phobic than she was, she knew the answer he’d find was a big fat no.

“As interesting as that would be,” he finally said, his voice gruff enough to assure her that he was very, very interested. “I don’t think anyone is going to believe I’d go AWOL to carry you to the top of a mountain.”

“No?”

“Let’s try something just a little more traditional.”

Pulling a face, Sage set her coffee on the burl table and shrugged.

“Okay, fine. You took me to dinner at a nice restaurant, toasted me with pricey champagne, and hid the ring—which I still don’t have, by the way—in a slice of cake that was served for dessert.”

“I said traditional, not cliché.”

Oooh, interesting distinction.

She leaned one arm along the back of the couch, the nubby fabric rough against the soft flesh of her underarm. Her fingers were centimeters away from his shoulder, but she didn’t touch. Not yet.

“Why don’t you tell me what you consider traditional then,” she invited quietly.

The setting sun cast a warm, orange glow over the room, highlighting his features as he looked at her. His eyes were intense, but a smile played around the corners of his mouth.

“I consider a traditional proposal to be romantic. Not something that can be copied from a movie,” he said, his shrug just a little uncomfortable. As if admitting that he’d ever seen a romantic proposal in a movie put his man-card in danger. “Romantic is something that suits the couple. You know, it’s personal.”

“What kind of proposal would suit us?” Unable to resist any longer, her fingers trailed along his shoulder, soft as a whisper. “If we were a couple, of course.”

“A coded letter sent from an aircraft carrier to a commune on a mountain in Tibet?” he suggested.

“Try again,” Sage suggested with narrowed eyes, not sure if he was actually teasing. “I think you might have missed the romance angle with that scenario.”

“What if it was a secret code using romantic movie titles?” he asked, frowning.

Sage gave an amused groan. She knew that look wasn’t because she’d dissed the romance of his scenario. Nope. This was what Aiden did. He got an idea, then he obsessed with it until he found a way to make it work.

Which meant that somehow, some way, this code was going to be a part of their engagement story. Her dad would like that. So they might as well make it a fun one.

But, later.

She shifted, making a show of setting her cup on the table and surreptitiously inching just a little closer so their knees brushed.

Right now, she had other things she wanted to clarify.

Like how good her hotshot SEAL was with his hands. His mouth. And any other parts of his body that she might get her hands on.

* * *

A
IDEN
WAS
PRETTY
SURE
that Sage wasn’t deliberately trying to kill him. She might be flighty and a little self-absorbed from time to time, but she didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

She did, however, have a whole lot of gorgeous, sexy bones, covered with enticing silky flesh. Temptingly soft hair that slid like a golden waterfall over her shoulder, trailing down to curl at the tip of her breast. A breast he wanted to touch. To weigh in the curve of his hand before tasting.

And now, on top of all of that, she was talking sex with him? Painting a fantasy about the two of them, a week-long love-fest on the beach? Hot-tubbing?

She might not be trying to kill him, but his body just might if he didn’t do something—soon—to relieve a little of the pressure she’d stirred up.

Which meant she needed to leave.

“Dinner was great, and the coffee the best I’ve ever had,” he said, draining his before toasting her with the empty cup. “But we should call it a night. I’m still dragging a little, and could use some sleep.”

Damn.

Aiden knew the words were a mistake before they’d finished crossing his lips. He didn’t need her eyes lighting up or to see the delighted smile spread across her face to know he’d just opened the wrong door.

“I’ll bet you are,” she said, patting his knee gently, her fingers lingering long enough to make sure he appreciated the loss of them when she pulled away. “You travel so much, do you even get jet lag anymore? Or are you simply accustomed to setting your own time zone?”

Grinning, he gave a rueful shake of his head. He should have known better than to expect Sage to do the expected.

“I traveled from Coronado to Villa Rosa,” he reminded her. Of course, he’d traveled from Africa to San Diego two days before that, but that was need-to-know information. “The only difference in time zones is going from military time to Pacific time.”

“Ahh, so no jet-lag issues, just general tiredness. I can see how you’d be needing to rest up, given how hard you’re always pushing and working.”

Aiden shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal. That was his job, after all. But something inside him warmed, softened. Had anyone ever understood that before? His need to decompress, to take a few days to step out of his role as a machine and learn to be a man again?