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CHAPTER 1
June 1
Cal Sinclair didn’thave the heart to interrupt Sky Lambert, the woman he was going to marry in two weeks’ time. He halted near the cedar stairs to their master bedroom on the second floor of his Virginia home he’d built himself over a seven-year period. The cabin sat on a hill surrounded by Douglas fir, oak, maple, elm, and beech trees. There, in the alcove where the bay windows looked out over the pristine meadow below, he watched Sky sitting and drawing with her pastel chalk set on her easel.
Weeks ago, she’d discovered all his drafting tools and accessories he used to build his two-story cedar home down in the basement. Cal smiled a little, wrapping his arms across his chest, watching her intently. The morning sunlight poured through the cathedral windows that stretched skyward on the eastern side of their bedroom. He loved this woman who had stolen his heart and fed his soul like the sunlight drifting silently through the bedroom. They had both lost so much in the past, and Cal felt incredibly grateful it was behind them. He enjoyed watching Sky choose certain pastel colors and apply them to the paper attached to the easel, capturing the beauty of the meadow and stream beyond the bay windows.
His mouth twitched as he remembered looking for Sky and finding her rooting around with eager curiosity through every drawer and shelf in the basement. Along one wall, he’d placed all his sketched drawings, some in ink, some in pencil, and others in pastel chalks, that he’d imagined his dream home would someday look like. It had been a seven-year vision spanning five years when he was in the SEALs, and two years with Shield Security in Alexandria, Virginia. Any time between missions had been spent building it. Sky had discovered the colorful box of chalk and had been transformed into an excited child, finding sixty pastels, touching them as if they were precious jewels. She carried his easel, the paper, and chalks up to her favorite place, the bay windows that overlooked the meadow and stream north of where the house sat.
Cal’s heart opened powerfully as he watched Sky working intently, her blond brows drawn down in concentration, trying to capture the meadow where deer crossed it daily at dawn and dusk. Sky had a special connection with the dark green velvet settee that sat facing those windows. After he’d brought her home from Cusco, Peru, from that hellish challenge to get her out of there alive, Sky had settled in with him on Valentine’s Day. And over the past months, he’d watched her make his home her home. It was something Cal had wanted desperately for Sky because her childhood had been a nightmare existence. Now she was at peace. He could see it in her oval face, the way her incredible, turquoise-colored eyes shined with happiness. Sky WAS happy. Hell, so was he. He loved her. And for whatever reason unknown to him, she loved him just as fiercely in return.
Rousing himself, Cal deliberately made enough noise to catch Sky’s attention. He’d been a Navy SEAL and could walk silently with the best of them. Only, it scared the hell out of Sky to be walked up behind and she didn’t hear him approaching her. Cal knew it was because of her past, when Vladimir Alexandrov, the other foster child in the Zimmerman family where she lived, had hunted her like the sadistic sexual predator he was. At seventeen, Vlad had trapped Sky in her bedroom and nearly raped her. He’d stalked her for a year previous to that, and it had made her a frightened shadow in the family. Frowning, Cal tucked her terrifying past away. He saw Sky turn, surprise in her expression.
“Cal! I thought you were going into the hardware store?” She halted her progress, pink chalk between her fingers.
“I am,” he murmured, allowing his arms to fall to his side as he moved from the stair landing toward her. “Got breakfast going. Interested?” and he grinned as he saw the colorful chalk dust all over her hands, some sprinkled down the front of her bright yellow tee that lovingly outlined her body. A body he never would tire of making love to.
Groaning, Sky looked at her watch. “Oh, crap,” she muttered, “I’m sorry, I lost track of time.” And then she gave him a childlike grin. “I got carried away,” and she pointed to her large chalk drawing on the easel.
Cal wandered over. “Hmmm,” he said, lifting his index finger and gently removing a purple smudge on the tip of her nose, “you’ve really attacked this project,” and he held up his finger that now was purple with the chalk dust. He heard Sky’s husky laugh, going straight to his lower body. Cal thought about scooping her up into his arms and carrying her over to their unmade king-sized bed and taking her slowly, pleasing her once more.
“Well,” Sky said wryly, setting the chalk in the tray, “I get lost in the drawing.” Giving him an apologetic look, she picked up the damp cloth sitting on her easel and quickly wiped off her fingers, the colors smearing across them. “Is breakfast ready?” she asked.
“Almost,” Cal murmured. Looking across her shoulder, he studied her efforts. “Nice. You’ve captured the morning shadows across the meadow really well.”
Groaning, Sky said, “You’re just saying that Cal.” She launched herself against him, curling her arms around his broad, thick shoulders. “Because you say nicest things about my struggling amateur efforts,” she whispered against his mouth. “And you have nothing but praise for my poor attempts.”
Her whole body went from simmer to boil as his arms swept around her, his mouth opening, curving, and hungrily taking hers. A soft moan of satisfaction caught in her slender throat as she felt his large hands move sinuously from her shoulders, down across her long spine and cup her cheeks, embracing her against him. Sky smiled as she broke the kiss, feeling his erection pressing strongly against his Levi’s. “I thought you got enough earlier?” she teased. They had left Cusco, Peru months earlier and Sky had found herself nearly insatiable for him, unable to get enough of Cal in every way. She saw the glint in his narrowing gold-brown eyes. She knew that look. The more gold she saw in his eyes, the more turned on, the more he desired her.
Grunting, Cal reluctantly released her. “I will NEVER get enough of you, Sweetheart,” and he placed a swift kiss across her wet, smiling lips that he could drown in forever. And that was exactly what was going to happen: he was going to marry Sky in two weeks, on June sixteenth, in Coronado, the SEAL training center, with San Diego right across the bay. She would be his forever.
Sky eased away, slipping her fingers into his large, calloused hand. “I’m hungry, too, and I need some physical fuel to run on.” She gave Cal a wicked, teasing look. “Fuel? You know? For us mere mortals who aren’t godlike SEALs, Supermen in disguise? You must take pity upon me,” and Sky pulled him along toward the stairs that would lead to the the kitchen and living room below.
Cal preened silently beneath her praise. Yeah, he used to be a SEAL and yeah, they all thought of themselves as impervious to normal human complaints and weakness. He liked that Sky saw him in that way. It made him feel good about himself. “Okay,” he offered grudgingly, releasing her hand and allowing her to go down the stairs first, “I’ll bow to your need for food.”
Sky gave him a merry look, skipping down the gold and red cedar stairs. Cal had hand-shaped every one of them. This gorgeous house, that could easily be on the front page of Architecture Magazine, had been patiently created. “What are you making for us?”
Cal watched Sky move gracefully over to the black granite island, snooping around for clues. She filled out a pair of jeans like no other woman he’d ever seen. As a SEAL, he’d had as many women as he wanted, but she was the prize and perfect for him. Sky was tall, graceful, and hot. The way her hips swayed made his aching lower body feel scalded and needy. The woman could incite a riot, Cal decided darkly, with that sweet movement of hers. Sky wasn’t built lush and curvy. She was slender, reminding him of a willow being orchestrated by some invisible breeze. Her hands were long and spare. She had small breasts that pressed sweetly, teasingly, against her yellow tee she wore to perfection. Best of all, Sky’s once short blond hair was now being allowed to grow. The wheat, caramel and gold strands gleamed, almost touching below her delicate ears as she moved across a slat of sunlight beaming silently through the room.
“I’m making pancakes with walnuts and dried cranberries in them. Interested?” he baited, moving around the island to the Wolf stove against the north wall. Behind the appliance, Cal had fashioned, ground and polished large, thin pieces of flagstone as a backsplash. The colors reminded him of Sky’s short, streaked blond hair. She never dyed her hair, and he found it amazing that the colors he’d chosen so long ago for the backsplash contained the same colors of gold, caramel, and burnt sienna found in the strands of her hair.
“Mmmm,” Sky sighed, “my favorite.” She poured them coffee and handed him a bright red ceramic mug. “How can I help?”
He pulled out a black leather stool from the the island counter for her. “Sit down, look beautiful, and keep me company.”
Sky set the mug on the island and then stood on tiptoe because Cal was six foot five inches tall to her five foot seven inches of height. She gave him a quick kiss. “Okay, SEAL god, go to work. I’m starving!”
Chuckling, Cal moved around the island and got serious about making them pancakes. “I wonder why you’re always starved,” he said, slanting a teasing glance across his shoulder as he poured the batter into an awaiting hot iron skillet.
Sky pouted playfully and then sipped her coffee. “Well, you woke me up out of a perfectly wonderful, deep sleep earlier this morning, for starters.”
He grinned. “Couldn’t help myself, Sweetheart. You’re candy and I just can’t keep my hands off you.” He flipped the cakes expertly with a spatula. “Besides,” Cal growled, giving her a baiting look, “as I recall, you rather enjoyed it. What? Three orgasms? Oh, wait… I think you had four?”
“You’re jealous because you can only have one at a time.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, that’s me, all right.” Cal gave her a mocking look, “But I had very willing and hungry company this morning. I don’t recall you being a shrinking violet or telling me no.”
Sky colored over his gritty words, seeing that primal look linger in Cal’s eyes. “I swear, Sinclair, you could turn a rock on with just that steamy look you give me.”
