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She giggled. “Tell me.”
“Yes, it does. My dad gave it to me when I graduated from BUD/S.”
“Oh, Easy,” she said softly, her heart in her eyes. He dragged her against him, kissing her, then deepening the kiss, plunging in his tongue and giving in to his raging need to consume her.
She met his assault with one of her own, taunting and teasing him with her tongue, showing him that sexy, confident woman she had been in Venezuela. She pressed her hips into his just as he heard. “Son? How is that GD sprinkler—”
She broke off the kiss abruptly, then smiled broadly, peeking around his shoulders. “Mr. Hitchcock,” she said, her voice filled with joy and enthusiasm, striding forward with an outstretched hand. His dad took Astraea’s hand. She shook it vigorously and he could tell his dad was a bit nonplussed.
“Son, who is this beautiful angel?” his dad asked, with an unmistakable twinkle in his eyes. She charmed the hell out of him. No surprise there.
He choked on the word angel, and Astraea turned to give him a narrowed-eyed warning. He gave her a guileless smile and shrugged sheepishly. Her features smoothed out as she turned back. “I’m Astraea Devers. I’m the woman Matt saved from a terrible life-threatening fate. He is strong, smart, skilled, kind and gentle. You should be so proud.”
He met his dad’s eyes and there was everything a son could want in those proud depths. Belief in him as the man he was, certainty that Matt would never let him down, and the kind of support, respect, and deep, abiding love that Matt would always cherish. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Astraea.”
Easy groaned as his sister, mom, Logan, and Tamara filled the doorway, all grinning, taking in the whole scene with his randy neighbors, the hot pink Porsche, Astraea, and him.
“Bro,” Logan murmured, and fist-bumped the air.
Astraea laughed softly. She turned to look at him again. “I’m also the woman—” She continued as she came to him, her face going dead serious. “—who is deeply, utterly, and hopelessly in love with him, but not for just that, but for the amazing man you raised.”
Without missing a beat, Easy settled his mouth against hers softly, tenderly, with a poignancy that came from his heart and a heat that seared clear to his soul. “I love you, too, Astraea. My life would be empty and barren without you.”
He drew her even closer, brushing a soft, sensual kiss against her hair. “You are everything to me,” he whispered. A shiver coursed through her, and she turned her head toward his caress, her voice weak and breathless when she responded, “You’re everything to me, too.”
Her words turned his pulse thick and heavy, and he trailed his lips to her temple, his breath suddenly erratic. Astraea whispered his name. She kissed him again and in the quiet of their stunned response, Chrissy piped up, “I think this occasion calls for a cake.”
They dragged Astraea into the house, and they all had dinner, a laugh-fest full of a lot of stories about him in his youth. Over dessert, she kept giving him sultry looks when his parents weren’t watching. It was getting harder and harder, no pun intended, for him to keep from getting a full-fledged boner. He kept going over baseball statistics in his head to keep a lid on his other insistent head. She took every opportunity to touch him, like she couldn’t get enough of him, and he was okay with that.
They had moved to the living room and were comfortable on the couch, while his dad talked about some of their diving trips. Astraea was intrigued, but her touch was driving him crazy. After his dad wound down his story, Easy said, “You must be really tired driving from Dallas to Florida.”
Her eyes flashed and she yawned right on cue. “Yeah, I should probably get to my hotel room.”
“You could leave the Porsche here, and I could drive you over there and pick you up tomorrow,” Easy offered casually.
“We have a spare room. You could stay here,” his mom said.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“It’s no—”
His dad touched his wife’s arm. “We can expect you for breakfast tomorrow.”
“Our breakfasts are epic,” Chrissy said.
His mom looked at his dad with a frown. His dad raised his brows, and the light went on in her eyes. “Yes, we go all out for breakfast.”
He rose and started for the door with Astraea right behind him, thankful his dad got it. He wanted to be alone with her. It had been almost six weeks since he’d seen her. The memory of the hospital room came back to him in dreamlike bits and pieces. The pain had been dulled by morphine, but not the weakness or the sense of disconnection between his mind and his body. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t gather more than the urgency. The words bounded around his head like beach balls. The frustration exhausted him.
So many people in and out, but not the person he wanted. He couldn’t even voice his need for her, to see her solid and whole. He could still hear the way she frantically called his name back in that jungle with Ramos grabbing her and pulling her away from him, leaving him fiercely fighting against those men who had him.
Then her voice, her hand touching him, soft lips and whispers of love. He thought he had imagined it, but now with her here and her hands on him, he realized it wasn’t a dream.
She stopped him and attacked his mouth twice before he made it to his dad’s car.
Just to feel her soft length against him was enough to make him so damned rock-hard. He couldn’t think. Could barely drive to the hotel, a blur of lights, elevators, people.
When they were finally alone in her room, he dragged her against him, holding her tightly for a few minutes.
