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He chuckled. “Of course.”
“I’m sorry, Sam, for doubting you. I got so scared about my family and what could happen if Diego got caught with bad records. I didn’t know he was a drug trafficker. I just thought I could smooth it over, hire him, and then there wouldn’t be any question about the shipping orders,” she said in a rush, releasing a hard breath. “I so regret it.”
He bet she did. She had been in rough shape when he found her. The bruises on her face had faded, along with the ones on her body. He only wished he could go another round with the bastard.
“Can you forgive me?” Mari lay still in his arms for a split second, then she rose up on her elbow and looked down at him, her hair creating a waterfall of black silk. She stared at him, her face revealing her remorse, and her eyes full of hope.
“I’ll forgive you,” he answered quietly, “if you tell me you love me again.”
She met his gaze, direct and fiercely sincere. “I love you, Sam. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her body against him. “I love you so much that I told my father I was quitting. That I wanted control of the Golden Grain coffee shop in San Diego, to manage it and roast coffee until my heart's content. What do you think of that?” She smiled against his skin. “It felt so good to stand up for myself. To take what I wanted. I told him to put the headquarters in LA. I’ll just turn the second floor of the building into lofts.”
He pushed up so that he could face her. “Seriously?” He smiled so broadly that his mouth hurt. He closed his eyes and hugged her hard, feeling as if he could take his first deep breath in weeks. “Damn, girl, that just makes my day.”
“What did you want to say?”
“Only that it’s difficult to be with a SEAL. I’m gone most of the time. I’m in danger most of the time. It’s not going to be easy, or simple. It will take a strong person with a tough heart and mind to be with me.”
Mari tilted her head, her brows lifting. “Are you trying to talk me out of it?”
“No!”
She chuckled. “I was kidding you. You’re so easy,” she said with a glint in her eyes. “I’m with you, Buck, come what may.” She rubbed her hand over his chest. “Anything more to say?”
“Nothing more to say, Mari. I want you in my life. I was going to fight for that, but here you are, making everything damned perfect.
“I think you’re damned perfect,” she whispered, and she kissed him to seal the deal. This was it. The woman he had been waiting for, the one that made him whole, sacrificing and committed to his SEAL life in a forever love that would last them a lifetime.
* * *
Mari served the last customer of the busy morning, then breathed a sigh of relief. She turned back to her machine, taking a moment to wipe it down and clean up the counters.
“Wow, it’s been busy,” her new employee, Melissa said. Mari nodded. Ever since she’d opened a month ago, it had been non-stop business. The location she’d picked had been golden, just as Buck had said. Melissa was a godsend. She was so confident, competent, and reliable.
Damn she missed him. He’d been deployed for two months, so long that she handled moving them out of his townhouse and into their new loft above the shop, then she’d opened the Golden Grain in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter. Her father offered her management of the other four shops in San Diego, and she took that offer.
She’d loved his place, but they made the decision to make it easier for her to oversee her investment, and work at roasting her coffee. Buck was now renting out his townhouse to D-Day.
She missed her family, but her plan was to go back as often as she could manage it. She did have the benefit of seeing Carmen often. She was living with her grandparents and going to school at San Diego State University for hospitality management with a minor in business.
“Coffee, black,” a deep voice said.
She smiled and turned around. There was Buck looking tired, but so deliciously good in his black T-shirt and jeans, sporting his cowboy hat on his head. He had that dark, dangerous gunslinger look going, his jaw strong and unshaven, his eyes narrowed in a steely-eyed squint. On the surface, he looked as hard as nails and almost threatening, but it was the glint in those forest-green eyes that got her every time.
“Is that a real cowboy?” Melissa asked under her breath. “Wowza, he can rove this range anytime he wants.”
Mari smiled. “Very real, and my boyfriend. You’re going to see him rambling around in here.”
Buck indulged them in their whispered conversation. He often made an impact on females everywhere. He braced a big hand on the counter.
“As I’ve said before, you, sir, have no imagination.”
He gave her a slow, soft smile, a trace of amusement in his eyes. “You’re pretty damn cute, do you know that?” She came out from behind the counter and threw herself into his arms, unable to wait another damn minute to hug him. He leaned down and kissed her, his mouth warm and moist, and open against hers. She looked up at him, at the bruise near his eye and the small cut above his eyebrow. She brushed gently over the bruise. “You doing okay?”
“Yes, darlin’,” he whispered huskily. “I’m fine.”
“The guys?” These are the only questions she asked him. She knew he couldn’t talk about his work, where he had been, or what he was doing. But he called her every chance he got, and that worked. Being in it for the long haul with a SEAL was challenging, but having Buck in her life was priceless.
