Latched (Coronado Series Book 1) (16 page)

They finished breakfast and she cleaned up the kitchen, “Do you want me to put the sheets on?”
 

She looked over at him and was struck by how handsome he was standing there in her sunny kitchen. He was dressed in his uniform and he took her breath away. He had slipped under her defenses and was working his way into her heart and there was not a thing that she could do about it. “No, I’m going to stop and get a mattress cover for the bed and then I will put it all together when I get home.”
 

“Why do you need a cover for the mattress?”

“Because we are not using condoms and we are going to get the mattress wet. I don’t know how to say this, but you have a lot in you.”
 

He was laughing and couldn’t stop, “Birdie you were so polite about that. You forget that I have been in the Navy for a long time and there is nothing that I haven’t heard or probably said.”
 

She gave him a disapproving look and shook her head. “Well I am not going to be rude, just because you are.”

He kissed her, “The good thing is that when we want to have kids it will work in our favor.”
 

She kissed him back and patted his arm, “Let’s wait until the second week of dating before we plan out our children.” She turned and walked into her office and started gathering her paperwork.

Mark went upstairs to grab his bag,
At least she didn’t lose her mind when I brought up children.
This could be going better than he expected.
 

They walked outside and Mark dropped his bag in his truck, “I will call you later to tell you my schedule, do you want me to pick up dinner?”
 

She was walking to her garage and she opened the door with her remote, “Let’s decide when you know more of what your day is like.” He looked into the garage and saw a very nice Volvo SUV: it was navy blue and looked fairly new. She opened her door, put her briefcase in and turned around and kissed him. “Have a good day, thank you for the weekend.”
 

Mark hugged her and kissed her back, “Have a good day. I’m going to tell everyone that I have a girlfriend today.”
 

“That will liven up the morning chatter, everyone will assume that I put a spell on you.”

He made sure she was in and buckled up, “You have me bewitched. Does that count?”
 

She kissed him again, “I think it might.”

********

Mark drove to the base and met his platoon in the hangar. The company that developed the new equipment was there and everyone was trying to figure what went wrong. Mark walked up to the group and Frisco filled him in on the progress, “It looks like we are going to take it out again. Tell me when you want to schedule a training op. I think we should do it out in the desert this time.” Mark walked over to the lead designer and started talking to him, he wanted to make sure it was worth taking the platoon out for three days. He didn’t want a repeat of last week. The guy seemed to understand what went wrong and was confident that he’d made the fix. He offered to go along and be available if there was any more glitches. Mark agreed and made his way to his office to work on the logistics of getting the team out to the desert. Frisco and Sam followed him in and they started figuring out what they needed for the three day op.

Blake walked in and sat at his desk, “Let’s put the two platoons together for this training op. I think it will give us a better idea if this equipment will be worth anything out in the field. Hey, how was your weekend, did it work out the way you wanted?”

Mark finished up what he was working on, then turned around and smiled at Blake, “Well I believe it was the best weekend of my life. Birdie agreed to be my girlfriend.” Blake was shocked and let his mouth hang open - he couldn’t find words. Mark looked so damn happy, he had never seen him like this. “I am as gone as I can be, and this woman has me completely under her spell. I think this might be it for me.”
 

Blake got up and went over to his good friend and shook his hand, “Congratulations man! You are damn lucky to have found her and I can’t believe she is willing to take you on. How did you convince her?”

Mark was starting to get angry, “It’s not like I had to drug her to get her to agree to be with me. I am not that bad. I admit, it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped, but it all worked out and the important thing is that she is mine now. I don’t have to worry about another man trying to get at her.”

Josh walked in and heard the last part of the discussion, “Are you serious about my cousin? Is this for real? A man can’t even go on his honeymoon without something happening.”

Mark got up from his chair fast, it rolled out and almost hit the wall. He was mad and let his temper go. “I am going to say this once and that is it. Birdie James is now my girlfriend and it took a lot for her to agree to it. She was planning on using me as a slump buster and then she was going to get rid of me. So if you assholes want to be worried, maybe it’s me you should be worried about. She is always trying to get rid of me, and is the opposite of clingy. In fact, I would not mind it if she tried to hold on a little. This is probably it for me. She is going to be the mother of my children, so you all can just back the fuck up. I’m going to marry this woman. Any questions?”

Blake, Josh, Frisco and Sam stood there and watched Mark loose his mind, they had never seen him like this before. Mark was happy about it though, lucky son of a bitch. Frisco and Josh stepped forward and shook his hand, Frisco looked at Mark straight on “Does Birdie know about all of these plans yet?”

Mark didn’t look quite as confident, “She knows she is my girlfriend, but doesn’t know about the rest. I have to ease her into it, I’m sure it’s all going to work out. Hell, I have my own toothbrush at her house, it sits right next to hers.” The men nodded in understanding - a toothbrush was no small thing. “You know for someone so smart, Birdie does not understand about the toothbrush, it kind of surprises me.” They all stood there and shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads at the same time.

********

Birdie sat at her desk in the office, she heard the phone rang and the shrill noise startled her. She picked up and it was Mark, “Hey baby, I’m on my way over. Are you still hungry? Do you want me to pick up something?”
 

She smiled at hearing his voice, “I had a sandwich at 5:00, so I’m not hungry. I can make you one if you want when you get here.”
 

Hearing her voice made his world tilt in the right direction, “Sounds good, see you in a few.” She got up and stretched, she had been at her desk for several hours and her muscles were sore. She went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine and started making Mark’s sandwich. A few minutes later she heard the bell and went to answer it. When she caught sight of Mark, her heart skipped a beat and her tummy flipped. He walked in, dropped his bag and gathered her in his arms and breathed her in. She squeezed him around his chest and kissed him right over his heart as she laid her head down. “Hi baby, how was your day?” He could feel her laughing and she looked up at him and smiled.

She took his hand and led him into the kitchen, “I had a good day. What did the guys say when you told them you were off the market?” She walked around to the other side of the counter, opened the fridge and pulled out a beer to go with his sandwich.

He sat down at the island and admired his very pretty girlfriend. “They congratulated me. They wondered how I got you agree to take me on.” She laughed and set his food in front of him and grabbed some chips to add to his plate. “Thanks for doing all of this for me, I appreciate you taking care of me. I usually just pick up drive-through on my way home.”

She sat down next to him and grabbed her wine, “I am happy to take care of you. I was taking a break from the project I’m working on and I started organizing your files so I could go through them. Who pays your bills when you are deployed?”
 

He was eating his sandwich, then wiped his mouth and took a swig of beer. “I pay them. Sometimes it gets screwed up, but I can usually fix it when I get back. Are you ready to take it on for me?”

“Well, I have thought about it and I guess I can do the same thing that I do for the other guys. We figure out what the monthly outgoing is and then we set up a separate account that gets that amount deposited into it. I pay bills out of that. I only have access to the money that will pay the monthly bills, I have given most of the guys some ideas on how to manage the rest. Talk to Frisco and see what he thinks and then you can decide if it’s something that you want to do.”

He finished eating and turned to her and took her hands, “I don’t need to think about it. Can I just give it all to you? I just want to put it into your very capable hands and then I won’t have to think about it.”

She got up and made him a plate of brownies and fruit, “I told you, I can’t have access to all of your money. Let’s just start with your monthly bills and then I can give you some ideas for investments for the rest. Leaving all the money in a money market is not a good idea, we can make you some money on low risk investments.” She was rinsing the dishes and swore she heard him mumble about how it wouldn’t matter after they got married. She was going to be taking care of it anyway. She looked up, he was eating his brownies and just smiled at her. Maybe she imagined it…. that couldn’t be right.

He finished and got up and put his plate in the dishwasher. “Baby, I’m going to be gone for three or four days on a training op. I want to give you a key to the condo and a credit card in case you need anything.”

“I won’t need anything.” She walked over to her office and grabbed an extra set of keys to her house and handed it to him. “In case you get back late, you can just let yourself in.” He looked down at the keys in his hand and felt the thump in his heart. It was a feeling that he was used to now and welcomed it.
 

“Thank you for trusting me and for allowing me in - I will not disappoint you. I will probably screw up and make mistakes, but I will not disappoint you. You are mine now to protect and take care of and I take that very seriously.” He lowered his head and let his mouth fall to hers and let all of his feelings pour into the kiss. He could feel her fall into him as she kissed him back. He thought he could feel moisture on his face, so he pulled back and saw tears fall down her face. He took his big hand and gently wiped the tears off her face, “I hope that’s from happiness.”

She looked up and nodded, “Nobody has ever said that to me before. I believe you are actually capable of doing the things you say. I’m going to close up my computer and I will meet you upstairs. Are you going to take a shower?”

“I need a shower - you probably already noticed. I will meet you upstairs.” He leaned down and kissed her again because he could. He figured he was never going to be able to kiss her enough and should take every opportunity that came his way.

She walked into the office, stacked her files and shut down her computer, then got everything ready to take to the shop tomorrow.
How she ended up with a boyfriend after three days was mind boggling. She just wanted someone to break her rut. Well he’s here now and I don’t actually mind it. He is a force to reckon with and I need to keep remembering that.
She walked out of her office, turned off the lights and headed upstairs.

She walked into the bathroom after she changed into her nightgown. Mark was still in the shower and had his head down under the water. His hand was against the wall, she took a moment to admire him, the muscles in his back were standing out in relief and his huge arms were flexing under the water. The man had a very fine ass - she had never seen anything so delicious in her life.
Who am I kidding, I am damn happy he came after me. I never would have had the guts. He is the best sort of man and I will probably never get over him.
She walked over to her sink and started on her nightly routine. She heard the water shut off and Mark came out of the shower and started drying off.

He walked over to her, “Why are you wearing a nightgown? You don’t need it… I will keep you plenty warm.” He grabbed his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth. She looked over at him and was shaking her head. “Why are you shaking your head at me?”

She rinsed and wiped her face, “I put on my night gown because it is habit.” Then she slipped her finger under the strap and lowered it, “Do you want me to take it off?” She continued to play with the strap. He let out a low growl and lunged for her. She slipped out of his hand and ran for the bed. He caught her with one big step, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
 

“Baby girl, are you trying to torture me? Because if you are, it’s working.” As he dumped her on the bed, his towel slipped and she saw the effect she was having on him. He came down on top of her and started kissing her all over her face while his hand gathered the nightgown and whipped it over her head. He looked down at her and was very satisfied when he noticed that she didn’t have any panties on. He closed his eyes and took a breath to gain some control. She was gazing up at him with her big eyes and he could feel his desire returned with the way she looked at him.
I think she may be catching up to me a little, but there is no way she is ever going to feel as much as I do.
He dropped his lips to hers as his hand moved down her body, then he started gently opening her folds with his big fingers. He wanted her to be as mindless as he was.