AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When she’d been invited to Buck and Mari’s wedding, she was glad to get a chance to talk to him. The guest list was small, just the SEALs and friends. Mari looked amazing in her simple satin gown and Buck in his uniform. After the toasts, she got him onto the dance floor. He was quite good, but in her experience, SEALs excelled at so many things.
“Congratulations. I’m so glad everything worked out for you.”
“Me, too. I heard you turned down quite the job offer.”
She waved her hand. “I’m not leaving Wicked and he's not moving to DC, so that was an easy one, along with putting in my papers for the CIA.” She paused as his brows lifted in surprise. “What wasn’t so easy was finding out I’m pregnant.”
His eyes lit up. “Congratulations to you, too. That’s great Kat, but we’re going to miss you on the team.”
“About that. I wanted to apologize to you about the whole situation with Mari. I’m sorry you got caught between your duty and love. That had to have been hard for you. I regret my part in it.”
He nodded. “Thank you for that, but everything did work out for us. We’re glad you and Wicked were able to attend.”
After that, Kat had confided in Mari about her pregnancy and leaving the CIA. She said she wasn’t sure what she was going to do between enrolling in classes and her resignation for the CIA. Mari asked if she had ever thought about becoming a barista. Now, she was working for her, and they were becoming close friends.
* * *
D-Day wasn’t sure about returning to Wyoming, not sure whether Helen would be there for the wedding, but Buck had asked him, and saying no wasn’t an option. They had been side by side during the worst of times. He damn sure was going to be by his side during the best of times.
But then, there was Helen. His body warmed with a familiar lust he’d been fighting since the moment he’d met her, followed closely by annoyance and guilt. He wasn’t quite sure why he couldn’t stop thinking about her, wanting her. It just didn’t seem to register to him in those moments that she was Buck’s sister and off-limits.
Frustrated by the entire situation, along with his unwanted attraction to Helen that made everything all the more complicated, he forcefully pushed his thoughts back to the wedding…well, more of a reception since Buck and Mari were already married. Kat, Wicked, and the guys had attended, Buck naming him as his best man. It had been a small gathering. But he was sure that their reception here wasn’t going to be small at all.
Buck’s family welcomed him with open arms, and he was back at it with Wyatt and Cole, riding the range, and helping out wherever he could. The day of the reception was crazy as all hell. They cleared one of the unused barns on the property, moving in chairs and tables from a rental place in town. Buck’s mom and Daisy decorated the rafters and tables with a traditional hoedown feel, and there was going to be some tasty BBQ.
D-Day dressed up in his cowboy best, including a black cowboy hat, and walked down to the barn, the scent of cooking meat—sausage, ribs, steak, and chicken wafted on the sweet smoke-scented air and made his mouth water. When he entered, it was packed with people—Buck’s family and friends. He and Mari were out on the dance floor kicking up their heels in a line dance. She had been embraced fully by Buck’s family, and she had embraced them, even wearing a fringed leather skirt, brown suede cowboy boots, and a brown cowgirl hat on her head.
D-Day smiled. He so loved it here.
He walked over to the table of food and drinks and got himself some punch.
“Hey there, stranger,” a woman said from behind him.
He would know that voice anywhere. He heard it in his fever dreams. He turned to find Helen standing there, looking so beautiful in a pretty yellow flowered dress that clung to her curves, the waist just outlining the flare of her hips. The memory of her body spiked his heart rate and thickened his dick. He cursed the feverish heat and undeniable hunger Helen generated whenever she was near him. Damn her fucking beautiful soul.
“Hi, yourself.” He met that direct, sultry gaze of hers that never failed to unnerve him. He felt as if she could look into his soul, ferret out all his secrets and for that reason, she scared him. It drove home to him he had to keep his real emotions for her under wraps. They had decided it was for the best.
She looked him up and down, and her gaze felt so personal, as if she found him much too intriguing to give up. “They’re determined to make a cowboy out of you yet.”
He laughed, but his chest was tight. “Yeah, I was in a boot store with Wyatt and Cole for like half a day.”
She smiled. A slow, sensual smile that affected him like a blow to the gut, and just like that he wanted to kiss her mouth, devour her, and taste every hot, sweet womanly place. “My idiot brothers always have to have the perfect boots. Cole says his boots have to speak to his soul. Whatever that means.”
“They’re not wrong,” he said, showing off the black cowboy boots with the metal at the heel and toe.
She made a soft sound and looked away, running her fingers through her permanently tousled, chin-length honey-blonde curls, combing them away from her face. She looked flushed and his dick went even harder. Taking a deep breath, she returned her attention to him, amusement dancing in her eyes. “I have to agree.”
A tall, good-looking guy came up to her and tapped her on the shoulder. “Dance?” he said. D-Day’s jaw clenched tightly.
She nodded and said, “I guess I’ll see you around.”
Yeah, around, he thought, seething as the man took her arm. He scrubbed his hand along his jaw. Helen was so under his skin, he couldn’t get her out of his mind, his erotic dreams, his life, no matter how hard he tried. She nearly devastated his senses and destroyed his restraint. Yet when he was with her, he was drawn to her warmth and genuine caring, especially when she talked about her job.
He watched them dance and grabbed something harder than punch, enjoying the burn as the whiskey ignited a fire from his throat all the way to his gut. The dance ended and D-Day was relieved until the guy pulled her against him. His temper flared at the man’s jerk move.
“Someone should rescue my sister from that asshole,” Wyatt said.
Cole came up beside him, grinning with keen male insight. “Yeah, someone.”
