Her Fierce SEAL: Midnight Delta Book 6 (8 page)

“Now that’s a question I can answer.”

***

A
ngie was impressed how Finn didn’t make her feel uncomfortable.  For the rest of the evening, they were able to find plenty of other topics of conversation.  They both had a lot of interest in the foster care system.  He explained about Rebecca, the girl his mother had taken in as a foster daughter last year.

“She’s remarkable.  I can’t believe how resilient she is, and it pisses me off how easily she fell through the cracks.”

“Unfortunately, I’ve seen some of my client’s children end up in the foster care system when the spouses are slinging mud against one another.”

“What do you mean?” Finn asked.

“Last year both spouses were saying that the other spouse was sexually abusing the two children.  There weren’t any other relatives for the kids to go to, so for six months they had to go into foster care while the courts figured out what the hell was going on.”

“You have got to be shitting me?”

“I’m not.  It was pathetic.  I was finally able to assist the father in proving the mother’s boyfriend had a history of pedophilia.  The dad got custody back.  Unfortunately, the kids ended up separated, and the little boy was put into three different homes in the six months he was in the system.  It was because he was acting out so badly.  Normally that wouldn’t happen, it was just a bad set of circumstances all the way around.  The boy is still in therapy.”

“Rebecca’s story definitely had a happy ending.” He smiled.  “What kind of cases do you normally have?”

“Because we have been in business almost fifty years here in Austin, we have an established clientele.  I’m on retainer with three different corporations, and that makes up seventy percent of my business.  So it’s really boring.”

“Really?  You have a gun in your desk.”

“I’m a Texas girl.  Do you know how many of us have carry and conceal?”

“A lot?”

“You could say that,” she grinned. “Anyway.  The cases that aren’t boring are really not boring.”

“Dangerous?” he asked as he took a sip of his dessert coffee.

“There have been a couple that have been dicey over the years.”

“How much training have you had?”

“I’m an expert marksman.  I’ve had extensive martial arts training.  I take this seriously Finn.”  She watched him give her an assessing glance, especially looking over her arms.  She held up her right arm and flexed.

“Satisfied?”

“Not really.  But it’s not bad.”

She rolled her eyes and picked up her purse to pay.

“I’m paying.”  He already had his card on the table.

“This is business.  I can write this off.”

“I checked out your cleavage.  Therefore, I’m paying.”  She looked up at him from under her lashes.  She hadn’t been sure if the chemistry had all been one sided or not.  Apparently not. 
Good.

***

F
inn was of two minds as he led Angie up the walkway to her door.  He was still mentally kicking himself and reminding himself that he did not mean for this to be a date. 

And if this was a date...really?  I checked out your cleavage?  What, was he?  In fucking junior high school?

Then there was the other part of him that wanted to take her in his arms after hearing all the things that she had told him.  Like when he had heard the story of her parents not visiting her in Paris, and her Dad basically deserting her to run the business alone, he’d begun to see a pattern.  As tough and capable as she was, there was a part of Angie that had been abandoned. No wonder she always felt she needed to be strong and tough. 

He unlocked the door for her, and she checked her alarm system which was secure. 

“Would you like to come in?” she asked shyly.

“I better not.”

“Okay,” she bit her lip and gave a bright smile. “So, maybe the day after tomorrow will be a better time to discuss the reports?”  He watched her hands twist her little red purse.

Dammit, he’d just rejected her.  What was he thinking?

He reached out and dug his hand into the curls like he had wanted to three days ago.  God, her hair was as soft as he had imagined.  As he bent close, he smelled strawberries.  Was it her shampoo?  Her lip gloss?  Damn, when she had reapplied the gloss in his car, he had almost drooled. 

He touched his lips against hers.  So soft.  She flowered open and sighed.  Her hands stopped twisting her bag, and instead crept up and circled around his neck. He tasted the sweetness that was Angie, loving the way that melted against him.  He felt a little sting at his neck, and realized her nails were biting into his nape, he reciprocated, by tugging at her hair.  She groaned and pressed closer.

There was something so fresh and freeing about Angie.  She brought a little bit of light to some of the dark places in his soul.  He pulled back so he could look into her brown eyes, needing to see her desire.

“Finn,” she whispered.

He dipped back down and trailed kisses from her jaw to her neck.

“So good,” her voice was just a puff of air.

He had to look at her again.  It was a deep seated need for him to make sure she was with him every step of the way. 

“What?” she asked.

“Do you want this?  Really want this?”  He watched as she bit her lip. 

“Tell me, Angie.  Tell me true.”  A phrase from his childhood.

“Yes.”  She paused.  “No.”  Another pause.  She looked up into his eyes.  “I don’t know.  I’m so sorry.”

“Shhh.  Lady, it’s fine.” He bent his head, touching his forehead to hers.  “Nothing is more important to me than honesty.  I wasn’t planning on this either.  I don’t think I’m ready, and now that I know you’re not one hundred percent with me, I
know
I’m not ready.”

He saw her relieved look.  He brushed back the hair from her face, luxuriating in the softness of her curls. 

“I love your hair.”

“That’s because you don’t have to tame it every morning.”

His eyes glinted.  “I notice you haven’t cut it, Ms. Donatelli.” He smirked.

“God save me from perceptive men.”

“Okay, get inside.  I’ll wait out here until you’ve locked your door and set your alarm.” 

She shook her head. “Paranoid much?”  An echo of Declan’s words.  Interesting.

“I prefer to think of it as cautious.”

He watched as she closed the door, and he listened for the lock and the arming of the alarm.  He took a deep breath before walking down the walkway to his car.  For a moment a smile hovered.  He had forgotten what is was like to be so hot and bothered by a woman.  Then pictures and events slammed through his mind, and all the good feelings that Angie had evoked, fled.

His hand fisted on the top of his car.  Dammit, what was he thinking?  He shouldn’t be touching someone as good and kind and wonderful as Angie Donatelli.  He slammed his fist down on the steel.  The pain felt good.  He deserved pain.  He got in the car and drove into the night.

––––––––

A
ngie waited until Thursday to have time to process the reports.  Then she called Finn.  When she got voicemail, she left a breezy little message about the files and asked him to call her.  By the next day, she couldn’t decide if she was pissed or hurt he hadn’t called back. But because she believed in honesty, she had to admit she was eighty-three percent hurt.

“Who peed in your Special-K?” Sarah asked as she handed Angie another set of completed notes that she’d entered into the database.

“Sarah, the term is ‘pissed in your Wheaties.'”

“You say it your way, I’ll say it mine.  I’m betting it was Finn.  I’ll be right back.”  Angie watched as Sarah left the office, knowing what was coming.  Seconds later, in came the Tupperware. 

“You didn’t,” Angie said as she reached for the container.  Sarah handed her a spoon.

“Honey, you
so
need sugar.  Especially with your mom in Ireland, you haven’t had anyone to cook for you.” They looked at one another and laughed.  The idea of Emily Donatelli cooking was pretty damn funny.

“Well, they seem to be enjoying their time, even though dad isn’t placing well in the tournament.”

“Bet your mom is still managing to find things to buy.”

“Undoubtedly,” Angie agreed.

“So tell me what’s going on between you and Finn.”

“Nothing,” Angie said quickly.

“We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.”

“What’s the hard way?” Angie asked curiously.

“The next time Brad calls, I’ll tell him you secretly want to get back together with him, and you’re just playing hard to get.”

“Sarah!”

Sarah gave her an evil smile.

“You wouldn’t actually do that, would you?”  Now Angie was curious.

“No, I wouldn’t.  The man is dumb as rocks and needs to go back to his wife and daughter.  The two of you were over years ago.  He’s just run into a hiccup in his marriage and thinks that he can call you up. He’s a dumbass.”

“I don’t get it.  He wasn’t always.  He was so sweet when we were engaged.”

“You didn’t dump him for being stupid?”

“God no.”  Angie bit the end of her pen.  “Well, maybe a little.  I don’t know.  There just wasn’t that spark.  Pops loved him.  When Pops went to buy a new computer, Brad helped him install all the software that he wanted.”

“I remember.  Your grandfather would snap his fingers, and he’d come running,” Sarah said as she snapped her fingers.

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Yes, it was.  He did it on purpose, he wanted you to realize that he wasn’t the guy for you.  He had jellyfish tendencies.”

“What?”

“He was spineless.”

“Stop.  I was engaged to the man for two years.  He was funny, nice, and way back when he was loyal to a fault.  Yes, he was and always has been, a follower.  That doesn’t mean he’s spineless.”

“Bullshit, one of the reasons you fit so well together was that he was looking for someone to make his decisions for him.”

Angie dropped the food container on her desk, the spoon clattered.

“Well, I hated it! It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had just once in a while asked about my day and been there for me when I needed him.  Instead, it was always about his needs.”

“How’d you end up breaking up with him?”

“I told him we weren’t ready for the same things.  Apparently, I left a window open.”

“A window he keeps trying to crawl through.”

“He’s married for God’s sake!” Angie cried.

“His wife kicked him out of her window.”

Angie looked at the dessert.  The peach cobbler had lost its appeal.  “I can’t eat anymore.  Thanks for bringing it in, though.”

“Angie, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to bring you down.  I was just teasing about Brad.”

“I know, but I screwed up with Finn too.  Do you realize it’s been almost a year since I’ve been on a date, and I can’t even get the man to call me back?  And, and, and...”

“And what?”

“And, I sound like a junior high school girl.  For God’s sake, we agreed to talk in two days.  It’s been three.  Here I am stressed about it.  I’m a dumb shit.”  Angie sighed.  “Okay.  That’s what was really bothering me.  Not so much that Finn didn’t call, but that I was bothered by it.”

“So you like him.  There’s no harm in that.  Like you said, you haven’t gone on a date in over a year.  I’ve watched you, Angie Donatelli, since Brad, you’ve been really picky.”

“I’m not picky.  Nobody has been interested.”

Sarah snorted.  “Seriously?  You’re seriously going to say that to the woman who has to field your phone calls?”

“Okay, nobody suitable has asked me out.”

“So we’re back to picky.” 

“Anyway,” Angie interrupted and tried to change the direction of the conversation.  “I’m just saying, I’m an idiot for getting so twisted up about not getting a call.”

“I don’t blame you for you feeling a little rejected that he hasn’t called.  But your instincts are right, it’s no big deal.”

“Okay.  Thanks, I still feel dumb for needing reassurance.”

“I’m just excited you like him.  So tell me about the date.”

“Well first we kind of agreed it wasn’t a date, but then he kissed me.”

“If there was a kiss, then it was a date.  Tell me more.”  Sarah pushed some of the papers out of her way and propped her elbows on the desk.

“We went to Ray’s Steakhouse.  When I tried to pay for the meal, he said he’d pay because he’d checked out my cleavage.”

Sarah laughed.  “So our boy Finn has class.”  Angie rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, he told me later that checking out cleavage constitutes a date, so he kissed me.”

“You already told me that, and we’ll circle back to it.  I want to hear more about what went on during dinner.”

“We talked about the case.”

“Not that kind of stuff.  Tell me about the date part.”

“He’s young.”  Angie looked down to where she was biting the tip of her thumb again.  She shoved her hand under her desk.

“He looked over the age of consent to me.”

“That’s not funny.”  And it wasn’t.  Five years was a big deal.  Not if the guy was older than the girl, but it sure as hell was a big deal if the girl was older than the guy.

“I’m sorry, honey.  Okay, how much older are you?”

“He’s twenty-nine.”

“You have to know that’s really not a big deal.  You mentioned he was a Navy SEAL.  That’s not some small time career.  That is someone who has been through the fire.  It ages you.  I’m not sure you can really just say he’s twenty-nine.  Because, honey, you’re not just thirty-four either.  He needs a grown-up, and you need a grown-up.”

She looked at her friend and saw the sincerity on Sarah’s face.  It settled her down.  The woman had a point.

“What else?”

“I invited him inside.”

“Going right for it, were you?”  There was no judgement, just a friendly smile.  God she loved Sarah.

“But he asked if I was really ready, and I told him I probably wasn’t.  He said  we should wait until I was.”  Sarah cupped her chin and sighed.

“I think I’m in love for you.”

“I know, right?”  Angie’s eyes glowed.  “But now the jerk hasn’t returned my phone call.  He said we would talk yesterday, so I called yesterday.  I still haven’t heard from him.”