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Bree stirredthe next morning before the alarm went off, her body sated and her mind clear of the worries she’d had yesterday before she’d tussled with Blitz. And what a delicious tussle it had been. All she could do was think,wow, the man was just as good in bed as he looked like he would be out of it.Wow.
She stared out into her apartment, which looked the same but felt so different with the warmth and hardness of his body curled around hers, her breathing synchronized to the even rise and fall of his chest. Shaking off the last dregs of sleep, she absorbed the feel of him against her and the rhythm of his breathing for a moment. Normally, she didn’t lay around in bed. She was up, doing her workout, getting a shower, and heading out for the day, but they had been given a reprieve from the constant missions. How long that would really last was anyone’s guess, so a few minutes enjoying the man who she had fucked hard for most of the night was a luxury she was going to snatch, a man she had fantasized about for almost the length of time she’d been deployed to the embassy in Niger.
Careful not to disturb him, she fumbled for the off button on the alarm and eased up. She raked her hair back from her face, then leaned against the headboard, a strange kind of protectiveness unfolding in her as she gazed down at him, sleeping so peacefully.
He had shifted to his back, one arm sprawled above his head, his palm open and vulnerable, the other hand at his waist, looking big and capable with those well-formed, long fingers. The sheet was pushed down just past that delicious Adonis belt, the light playing across his wide chest and beautiful abs, all of him curved with nothing but sexy muscle. The strong angle of his jaw was accentuated by a stubble of beard, the burnished skin across his cheekbones drawn smooth. So handsome.
Unable to stop herself, she combed her fingers through the chocolate thickness of his hair, gently drawing it back from his forehead. Absently fingering the silky texture of Blitz’s hair, she stared off into space, aware of his soft breathing, her thoughts weirdly shifting to her mom. Maybe it was because Blitz served in the armed forces or maybe it was just a random thought. But she often thought of her mom with her dad, how they had been so young when her mom had gotten pregnant with her at sixteen, how her father had never faltered, and the often-blurred memories of him.
“What are you thinking about?”
Attuned as she was to his every breath, Bree hadn’t any warning that Blitz was awake. She smiled softly. “I should have guessed that I would have no idea when a Navy SEAL wakes up.”
He opened those piercing green eyes, giving her a slow, lazy smile as he reached up and tugged her down into his arms. He gathered her firmly against him, his cheek resting on the top of her head, the rough stubble of his beard catching in her hair. She slipped her knee between his and snuggled down, savoring the quiet pleasure of being close to him.
She felt the pressure of his lips against her hair as he murmured softly, “We’re always ready for direct action, babe.” He sighed. “I do know that you’re much nicer to wake up to than a bunch of smelly guys.”
For some reason, his words stirred a profoundly poignant feeling in her, and she gazed up at him, her world tilting way too much off its axis. This felt like the beginning of something powerful, something special, but she couldn’t allow herself to give in to it, as tempting as it was. This was temporary and they both had already agreed.
His expression softened, and his warm gaze seduced her as he said huskily, “What were you thinking about?”
She gently caressed his mouth with her fingertips, her voice even more husky than his. “My dad, actually. Maybe it’s all the terrorist stuff or the fact that you are in the military. I don’t know.”
“What about him?”
“I think about them…my parents, so young and in love, and how hard it was for her. There are only blurred memories of him,” she whispered unevenly.
He stared at her for a moment, then hauling in a breath he closed his eyes and tightened his arms around her. His voice was gruff when he said, “Tell me about him.”
His hold on her remained fierce and unrelenting, and Bree closed her eyes, trying not to get too emotional about it. “He’d already enlisted in the Marines when he’d turned eighteen. He swept my mom up into his life, took her to base with him, helped her finish high school and raise me.”
“You lost him in Mogadishu, right?”
“Yes. The mission was supposed to take an hour. Instead, a large portion of the assault force, including my dad, was stranded through a long night in a hostile city, surrounded and fighting for their lives. Two Black Hawks downed, the pilots dead or dying, the warlord who had perpetuated the battle in the first place, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, lost a lot of people that day but gloated at the victory. They even celebrate the date as a national holiday.” Her gut clenched at the thought of that. “They killed my father and celebrate his death.”
His expression darkened with a troubled frown. “That’s truly fucked up.”
She nodded. “Terrorists, in any form, need to be put on alert and kept on alert. The world isn’t going to tolerate it. We can’t rest until we get justice, justice my father never really got.”
His gaze was unwavering, and his voice was steady as he asked, “That’s all intertwined, isn’t it? Your dad, the way he died, your mom, and 9/11.”
“Yes. I wish I could have known him. And yes, his death feels hollow.”
“A warrior’s death is never hollow, Bree. He fought and died for his country. It doesn’t matter about the circumstances. Although it sucks that the perpetrator of the inhuman acts of Mogadishu was never brought to justice, your dad did his job. That is irrefutable evidence of who your dad was,” he said gently. “How about your mom?”
She hesitated as she considered his question, her eyes connecting frankly with his. “She’s a survivor. Driven and unrelentless, she developed a career as a fashion buyer for major department stores as she worked her way up to a corporate job at Michael Kors as I told you, she’s still there.”
“That is impressive.”
“I rarely saw her as a child, or teenager and even now as an adult. We have a good relationship, as I learned early to separate myself from her and be self-sufficient.”
“That explains a lot.”
She gave him a wry smile. “I told you about the reasons I went into the FBI, but not all of it. One was 9/11.”
“And the other one?”
