Never Forget: A Novella in the Echo Platoon Series (16 page)

She angled the light so she could take in Curtis’s pale face, his pursed, blue lips testifying as to how chilled he was and in how much pain. He flinched from the light, then looked back at her.

Maya’s throat closed up. Lying that way, her growing boy struck her as utterly helpless. Injured as he was, he wouldn’t have been able to climb toward the high opening to call for help. Crawling back the way he’d come wouldn’t have helped him either. He would have died there if not for Draco.

The dog had saved his life.

“I’m right here with you, honey,” she said, all but sobbing with the need to hold her boy. “It’s going to take a little time to find the right tool, but you’ll be out really soon.”

“I’m okay, Mom,” he said, sounding stronger in answer to the wobble in her voice.

“Yes, you are. You’re just fine.”

Chapter Sixteen

‡

A
T SIX O’CLOCK
in the morning, with a bright sun already scaling the face of her condo, Maya and Rusty climbed the stoop to her front door, while Draco watched them from the back window of Rusty’s car. They’d left Curtis sleeping peacefully in a hospital room where he would be monitored for another twenty-four hours. His collarbone had been set, and his arm put in a sling. Given his excellent prognosis, the nurses on staff had suggested Maya get some sleep herself, so Rusty had driven her home.

She assumed he would want to get back to his retreat and his many guests, but as she reached for her keys, he stood there, watching her every move, appearing to be waiting. She was reminded of the end of their date—good God, was it only the previous night? It seemed as if it had been a lifetime ago. But, yes, only last night he’d murmured goodbye and walked away.

Her pulse quickened when it occurred to her that he might kiss her this time.

And why stop there? She’d realized over the course of the night that she both needed and wanted Rusty in her life, permanently. It was time to show him, not with words but with actions, that she accepted him, visitations from the dead and all.

Inserting her key into the lock, she lifted her gaze to his as she opened her front door. “Why don’t you fetch Draco and come in, the two of you? There’s no reason why you can’t . . . rest here.”

One dark auburn eyebrow rose higher than the other. “The dog, too?”

“You’re a package deal, aren’t you?” She glanced over at Draco’s muzzle now sticking out of the cracked window. “Besides, I love that dog.”

“You
love
him,” Rusty repeated. His eyes took on a distinct twinkle.

“He saved Curtis’s life last night,” she continued. “And so did you,” she added, holding his gaze to convey the depth of her gratitude.

“So, if the dog gets your love,” Rusty reasoned in a careful voice, “what do I get?”

She noted his expanded chest. “Are you holding your breath?”

“Yes.” He nodded several times. The eager look on his face made her throw her head back and laugh. God, that felt good! Throwing her arms around him, she demonstrated just how much he’d get by crushing her lips to his.

As he locked her in a possessive embrace, exhilaration soared through her, heightening the sensual pleasure of their mouths fusing. In mere seconds, their kiss morphed into a deep, passionate exchange of longing and need.

But they couldn’t undress each other on her front stoop. Maya pulled reluctantly away and assessed him carefully. She still didn’t know what his intentions were.

“Curtis and I are a package deal, too,” she said. “I need to know if you intend a long-term arrangement, or if I’m just a passing interest to you.”

His expression became incredulous. “Do I strike you as a player?”

The descriptor couldn’t be more inaccurate. She laughed, then responded with a resounding, “No.”

He sighed and took her hands. “I never married when I was a SEAL because I didn’t think it was fair to a woman to ask her to give everything to a man who might not come back to her.”

His reference to marriage sobered her immediately. She swallowed hard and listened.

“But I’m retired now.”

It hadn’t occurred to her that he might have been waiting to marry and start a family of his own, but it did so suddenly. What if—

“If you want a family,” she said, shaking her head regretfully, “Curtis is my one and only. I had to have a hysterectomy years ago.”

He squeezed her hands. “I’m sorry.”

His compassion made her realize she’d never grieved the potential loss of future children. She’d merely accepted it and moved on.

“That makes no difference to me,” he assured her. “I have my hands full with the retreat. And if Curtis is okay with having me for a stepdad, I’d be proud to call him my son.”

Tears flooded Maya’s eyes. “I can’t imagine he’d complain. But right now, I think we’re both a little punch-drunk from lack of sleep. It’s probably not the best time to plan our entire future together.”

Rusty frowned, probably thinking she was giving him the brush-off. Quickly, she added, “So get the dog and come on in.”

T
HIRTY MINUTES LATER,
with dirty breakfast dishes left by the sink and Draco stretched out on the kitchen floor, his belly distended with eggs and sausages, Maya offered Rusty the use of the bathroom upstairs, then disappeared into her bedroom. He noted that she left her door ajar as she shut herself into her
en suite
.

Once in Curtis’s bathroom, Rusty regarded the face in the mirror and marveled that he didn’t look like a man who’d been up all night. Yes, there was a trace of bristles on his jaw and his auburn hair stood up in places. But his face shone with a radiance he hadn’t seen—or felt—in years. Maya had practically agreed to marry him!

He grinned sheepishly as he stripped off his clothes to wash up. Whether they slept together that morning or not, he still smelled like the manhole that he had climbed out of carrying a grim-faced Curtis over his shoulder. That had been no easy feat for either one of them, but Rusty was used to dragging around wounded men almost twice his size. And Curtis had shown remarkable composure and bravery considering how much pain he was in.

Taking a quick hot shower, Rusty wondered as he soaped up whether his compact, muscle-corded physique would live up to Maya’s expectations. And then he dismissed his worry. He wasn’t Ian, but she already knew that and seemed to like who he was just fine.

When he descended the steps a short while later, Maya’s open bedroom door caused him to drift toward the soft scent emanating from within. Intent on the woman waiting for him, he barely registered the décor except to note its understated elegance. Given her decorating taste, she would like his bedroom, too. How long before she’d be willing to share it with him on a nightly basis and let him wake up next to her every morning?

Wondering whether to sit on her bed or tap on her bathroom door, Rusty was crossing the room when his gaze glanced off and then returned to an oil portrait that occupied a prime position. Halting in front of it, he tried to decide if it captured the true essence of Ian Schultz. Suddenly, the door to Maya’s
en suite
opened, and she emerged, wresting his attention to her petite figure adorned by a gold, satin teddy with possibly nothing underneath. His mouth went dry.

“Will that bother you?” she asked, having caught him looking at the portrait.

Her comment sent his blood pressure spiking. She
was
going to sleep with him for sure.

He couldn’t stop staring. Wearing no makeup, with her tumble of golden curls and her pale, soft-looking skin, she resembled an angel. He swallowed hard to find his voice.

“Doesn’t bother me. Ian already gave me his blessing.”

“Oh?” Her smile struck him as skeptical. “What did he say?”

Rusty had trouble remembering with the tips of Maya’s breasts visible through the sheer fabric of her teddy.

“Well, nothing, actually. I asked if he minded me asking you out. He shook his head. Then I asked if he thought I could win you over, and he smiled like he knew something I didn’t.”

Maya’s smile faded. “My God,” she said.

His stomach clenched. “What?” Had he said something wrong?

“That’s exactly how Ian communicated. He never talked if he could get his point across with a smile or a frown or a gesture.”

Rusty didn’t want to talk about Ian.

He took two steps in her direction. “I’d like to make a few points with body language,” he proposed. “Do you think I can get my message across that way?” he asked, trailing the tips of his fingers from her wrists to her shoulders.

“I’m sure you can,” she said, in a breathier voice. “But I don’t mind if you also want to use words.”

“Good,” he said cupping her face with his hands, “because I have something to tell you.” He brushed the pad of one thumb lightly over her lower lip, watching as her pupils dilated.

“What?”

“I love you,” he stated. He had thought the confession might be difficult but it flowed from him with the ease of water flowing downstream.

Her lovely green eyes grew brighter, and a tremulous smile curled the edges of her mouth.

“I think I fell in love with you last year when I came to your office. I’d never met a woman as strong and beautiful as you are. But you didn’t like me much,” he recalled.

“On the contrary.” Tears of joy now welled in her eyes. “I liked you too much, and it frightened me.”

“Are you still afraid?” Lowering one hand, he traced the slope of her shoulder to the swell of one breast and lightly outlined her nipple with his index finger, causing it to harden instantly.

“Not at all,” she told him.

“Do you think I’m crazy for seeing ghosts?”

Her tiny frown conveyed puzzlement, and his worries returned. But then she shook her head.

“There’s obviously something to that,” she said, measuring her words with care, “something I don’t understand. All I know is if Ian hadn’t talked to you last night, you and Draco would never have come back here, and Curtis would still be stuck down in that sewer hurt and freezing to death.” She shuddered at the memory of how helpless he’d looked.

“He’s safe,” Rusty reminded her, slipping his hands to her tiny waist and tugging her close.

She nodded, visibly shaking off the recollection. Then, with a look of lusty resolve, she slid her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his, bestowing on him a kiss—the sweetest and sexiest kiss of invitation imaginable.

“I love you, too,” she murmured against his lips. To his surprise, he felt her hands slide to the fly of his khaki pants, which he’d been loath to put back on after his shower, stained as they were from their trek through the storm drain. “Take these off,” she ordered.

He obeyed her eagerly, shucking off the dirty pants while leaving his boxer briefs on—not that they disguised his eagerness to be with her. Pausing only to close the door between them and his dog, he pulled her modest curves close once more, basking in the feel of her pliant softness pressed so trustingly against him.

They kissed until the room seemed to spin in a lazy circle. Then he lifted her off her feet, keeping their lips fused as he deposited her gently on the bed. Tearing his lips from hers, he stretched out alongside Maya, looking down at her lovely face with wonder.

What had he done to deserve this moment? He didn’t know, but this was undoubtedly one of the highlights of his arduous life.

She reached up and touched his cheek, and silently, he pledged to give her everything he had, to make her happy, to make up for the years of her loneliness, to be the only man she would want for the rest of her life.

Nuzzling the length of her neck, Rusty took his time as he kissed the soft slope of her shoulders, the fragrant plane between her breasts, and then grazed his teeth lightly over each erect peak jutting against the fabric of her satin lingerie.

Her breath hitched, and her spine arched at his ministrations. Glancing at her face, he intended this to be a highlight for her, too. He would make this momentous occasion last as long as possible.

Slowly drawing one spaghetti strap off her shoulder, then the other, he revealed, inch by inch, her full, pale breasts and the pink buds that crowned them. “You’re so beautiful.”

Her dubious smile melted him.

With his tongue, he proceeded to flick her pearled nipples, each in turn, before sucking gently, persistently, until her quick, indrawn breaths turned to whimpers.

Then he moved languorously down the length of her lithe body, performing a thorough reconnaissance of her perfect form by taking in every curve and hollow he came across.

By the time he’d nibbled his way from the backs of her knees to her inner thighs, Maya’s skin burned like hot silk beneath his lips. He lifted the hem of her teddy, following its ascension toward the warm mystery between her legs. She parted them while sending him a look of such carnal anticipation that he could not deny her.

He buried his face in her golden curls like a starving man who’d finally found a feast. Trying to ease her yearning without pushing her over the edge too soon, he parted her sensual, swollen lips, sought and found the heart of her pleasure, and lightly blew on it. She bucked under him, and he smiled, feeling the answering throb of his own need.

Neither of them was going to last long—at least, not the first time.

Deftly he circled her pink nubbin with the pad of his thumb, watching her response. Her eyes melted shut. The tip of her tongue appeared to wet her slightly parted lips.

Rusty lowered his head and replaced his thumb with his tongue.

Her moan of approval made him smile again. Inhaling her sweet woman’s musk, he devoted himself to finding out what pleased her most—flicking her lightly while stroking two fingers inside of her silky-slick opening.

Her thighs trembled as she strained toward his touch. He would have been content to pleasure her that way for as long as it took, when she suddenly sank her fingers into the hair on his head and issued a keening cry that brought the dog running toward their closed door. Her hips bucked and her inner muscles clenched his fingers.