Dagger's Edge (SEALs On Fire) (2 page)

Two bare feet connected to perfectly shaped calves appeared in his peripheral view. Knowing all too well a triangle of delicious goodness hovered only inches from his face if he lifted his head, Dagger trained his gaze to the floor. “Seriously, Mia. Don’t you have a robe or something?”

“I thought Navy SEALs were tough and not afraid of anything.” She squatted, placing her mouth next to his ear. “Are you sure you’re really a SEAL? You seem awfully chicken to me.”

Dagger’s back muscles tightened and his pulse quickened. Both clear signs his involuntary defense mechanism had kicked into gear. Fight or flee. Kill or be killed. Luckily his military conditioning, which was as much a part of him as breathing, overrode the powerful urge to strike back, or worse, to lie her flat on her back and taste every inch of her.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you need to stop.” His lowered voice sounded exactly as he’d intended, intimidating and full of deadly warning. He’d been in enough bar room verbal scuffles to know just how effective his tone could be.

“I think you do know what I’m doing and I won’t stop. I refuse to let you ignore me anymore.”

Moving faster, he continued to pluck up broken ceramic and fern pieces and arrange them into a neat pile. “Ignore you? What are you talking about?” he asked, feigning ignorance. If she hit on him any harder, she’d knock him unconscious. “I could be fishing with my buddies or driving around the Atlantic on jet skis while I’m on leave. Instead, I’m here to see you.”

“Don’t act as if you don’t understand. You know damned well I’m telling the truth. Since we were kids, you’ve purposely pushed me aside and never gave me the time of day. In high school, you went out of your way to pretend I didn’t exist, even though you sat only three desks behind me. The last time you were here, you avoided me like I had some rare disease. But we’re all alone this time, Dean.” She breathed in to his ear. “Just you and me. No way you can overlook me today.”

He chanced a glance up, finding her intense green eyes, then immediately regretted taking his focus off the downed plant. Lust, longing, and something else lurked behind those emerald jewels. If he didn’t do something to get away from her and make it fast his secret reasons for not getting involved with any woman wouldn’t be enough to stop him from finally kissing her pert mouth and testing the firmness of her round breasts.

Dagger stood, then pulled a beach towel from the back of a whicker chair. “Here,” he grunted, tossing it back in her general direction. “If we’re going to have a friendly chat, which we are and nothing else, then you can at least look decent.”

Her audible and thoroughly peeved
huff
provided a small degree of satisfaction.

Score one for the SEAL.

While Mia covered herself, Dagger rooted around in the kitchen and found a beer. Drinking one of his two allowed alcoholic beverages per day here, instead of on the beach or out with his friends, grated his nerves. But things were going from bad to worse by the second. He had anticipated resisting the urge to bed her during this social call, but he hadn’t expected needing to fight her off. Doing so felt unnatural, like walking backward. And looking as fine as she did, Mia certainly didn’t fight fair.

Sucking down a cold one now and seeing her with something on would at least take the edge off his spiking libido. He opened a second beer and set it on the counter, steering clear of any scolding she’d probably hit him with about his manners.

She padded into the room, the towel wrapped tightly around her petite frame as though it were a cocoon. On an adorable scale, Mia’s pouty lips and tousled appearance would easily merit a rating of eight. No doubt she’d hit a score of nine or ten after a night of sex, when her hair would be disheveled and her mouth would be slightly swollen from a good dose of kissing.

Cut the shit, man. Take another drink and get those thoughts out of your mind.

Before she had a chance to throw any more accusations at him, he advanced with a preemptive strike. “You’re right about what you said out there, Mia, and I’m sorry about the way I’ve treated you. But the last thing two young guys want is to hang around a little sister.” Her mouth opened as if to rebut his comment, but he held up a finger to stop her and pushed on. “When we grew up, and I’m just being honest here, you seemed to go out of your way to say something specifically meant to piss me off.”

Not to mention you are the hottest, smartest girl I’ve ever known and I would have given my right nut to have dated you if I wasn’t so afraid of hurting you. Oh, and let’s not forget that you’re so damned sassy.

“Didn’t you ever wonder why I did that?”

“Did what? Purposely piss me off?” Dagger shook his head. “Nope. Never. I’ve always thought being annoying was your personality. Part of your DNA.” A cringe stole over him as soon as the words left his lips. Acting like a prepubescent fifteen year old boy was not his style. Not at all. If he caught any of his buddies behaving this way, he’d call them out for it.

So why am I carrying on like this? Next thing you know, I’ll be pulling her pigtails.

She rolled her eyes and huffed again. “The male species are truly a boneheaded lot.”

“You’re not helping your case.”

Color bloomed on her tanned cheeks. She balled her little hands into fists and thrust down her sides. “I was trying to get you to pay attention to me, you insensitive baboon. Even negative attention is better than none.”

Despite himself, her strong reaction only wanted to make him tease her again. But he was damned near thirty, too old for childish games. Mia was trying to make a point. He understood said point and also understood where she wanted things between them to go.

In another world where she was just another pretty face in a crowd, he’d happily travel down that road with her, even knowing she possessed a wicked tongue. For all her brassiness, she was the smartest, most intriguing woman he knew. She had balls, spunk, and was funny at times. To top off the list, her packaging was seriously “all that.” Too bad she also happened to be his best friend’s little sister.

Dagger drank deeply from the beer, savoring the sweet hoppyness of the dark brown liquid, then placed the bottle down on the counter with a
thunk
. The time had come to man up and set things straight for once and for all. No point in belaboring what he knew he had to do.

“Mia, I’d be lying if I told you I’ve never thought about you. I have more often than I really care to admit.” She leaned forward, pressing herself against the side of the kitchen island that separated them. “I hope you believe me when I say I’m sorry if I’ve ever hurt you.” He breathed in a lungful of air, preparing for the next few words, then he caught a whiff of her. Coconut oil mixed pleasantly with salt water from the pool. She smelled like summer. Man, did he love summer. “But you and I can never be more than just friends.” Dagger swallowed hard, doing his best to block her scent from infiltrating his senses. “That’s the way it has to be. End of story.”

He gauged her reaction, half expecting she’d crawl over the island, whip out some vicious cat claws and tear him to shreds. The thought wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

Instead of appearing disgruntled, angry, or even sad, a sly smile raised the corners of her saucy mouth and a devilish glint shone in her sparkling eyes. Dagger sensed the wheels and cogs of her brain twirling, formulating something he most likely wouldn’t like, nor have a weapon to protect himself against.

Mia made her way around the kitchen island, taking her time. When she stood within an inch of him, she looked up. Before he knew what she was doing, she raised herself on her toes and licked the tip of his nose.

“That is not the way it has to be.” She slid her hands down his chest, stopping at his waist. “We’re all alone in this big house, and we’re grown up. I’m old enough to take what I want. What I want, what I’ve always wanted, is you.”

Chapter Two

Mia might be many things, but she was not, nor would she ever be a fool.
You and I can never be more than just friends.
Oh please! That he even attempted to use that kind of line with her bordered on being offensive. But as badly as she’d like to call him on the carpet and tell him to stop being such a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal, Mia bit her tongue and held back. Clearly name calling and smart aleck remarks hadn’t worked in the past. Dean had made it very apparent that quite the opposite was true. If she was going to finally get him to pay attention to her in the manner she wanted, new tactics were needed. Instead of salt, she’d pour on some honey.

If that doesn’t work?

She tossed the thought aside and focused on Dean’s rather nice bulge behind his shorts and his breathing, which had become uneven since she stood before him, and placed her hands on his muscle-bound chest. He had jerked the tiniest bit when she’d said she’d wanted him.

That particular reaction might mean one of two things. Either he was slightly repulsed at her confession or a little bit turned on by it. Hard to tell how to interpret the movement just yet. His other body language outside had spoken an easy to read message since the moment he’d seen her in the pool. He wanted her, too. Didn’t he?

And as long as he was in town, she wouldn’t stop pursuing him until she finally knew his feelings about her for sure. If he didn’t come around this visit, she would throw in the towel. Wasn’t twenty years of being hopelessly in love with him long enough? Time had come to settle down, start a family, and get moving on with the next phase of her life. Spending the next twenty years saying no to men, potential possibilities, while waiting for him to finally love her back wasn’t an option anymore.

Listen to yourself. Are you crazy? Even if everything goes like gangbusters today, he’ll be gone before long. It’s not as though he’s living on the island and the two of you can start dating regularly. He’ll take off like he always does, and you’ll never know when you’re going to see him again.

Mia bit the inside of her cheek, trying to get herself back into the moment. She had to focus on today and let tomorrow take care of itself. He was here
now
, be here
now
.

Dean carefully removed her hands from his hips and held them. “Mia, you’re my best friend’s sister. You don’t seem to understand what that means.”

It means my mother and father had sex at least one other time than when Brice was conceived. And here we go again with the bit about being Brice’s sister. When will that lame excuse ever stay dead and buried?

The comeback quickly formed in her mind and damned near flew from her mouth. Luckily she stopped the flippant wise crack and censored her words before she spoke. “It means Brice cares about us both and has an interest in seeing that we’re happy. I can tell you right now, spending a day naked in bed with you would make me extremely happy. There’s your end of story, bub.”

Waving his index finger like an annoyed librarian, he retorted, “No. It means you and I will never be a ‘we,’ a ‘them,’ an ‘us,’ or any other sort of couple thing. I’m not going to have Brice want to cut off my nads because I couldn’t control myself around his sister. He might be the male version of America’s sweetheart, but you and I both know he can be downright mean when he’s ticked off.”

What a huge load of malarkey. Like Brice would even give a hook up between us a second thought.

Dean’s mighty words about Brice’s wrath and his admonishing finger might be saying
no, no, no
, but a hint of something—sadness? regret?—haunted his handsome features. Surely, he didn’t mean the nonsense he was babbling. Searching his eyes for more clues as to what lay hidden below the surface, she found herself getting lost in those dreamy baby blues.

How could it be no woman had ever called Dean hers? The big lug with legs as sturdy as tree trunks was utterly irresistible. Black shaggy hair that curled just beneath a strong square jaw, massive arms that were perfect for holding a girl tight, and a body so covered in cut muscles even other men stared at him with awe, Dean was the epitome of a manly man. Yet, to her knowledge, he had never been seriously involved with anyone. In high school, he didn’t date. Instead, he spent hours either fixing boat motors to help support his mom or hanging out with Brice.

That was then. And now?

Was he a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy? Did he have a woman in every port like so many of the other SEALs she’d heard stories about? With his good looks and funny charm, he certainly could have. What woman in her right mind would be able to resist him?

Her gut told her no, he would never bounce from one girl to another. Not after all the love and care she’d seen him dote over his single mother. Plus, he’d always been respectful to women. With the exception of his having ignored her since the fateful day he’d met Brice, he went out of his way to be helpful and polite to the fairer sex, unlike so many testosterone-oozing cretins. But then again, what did her gut know? She’d been so wrong about so many things in her life. Why would her instincts about Dean be any different?

Right now, her gut told her if she was going to get past his feigned aversion to ticking off Brice, which wouldn’t happen even if her brother caught them in his bed, she needed to poke just a little bit more at his pride. Lord, how Dean loved his pride. So what if her attempt at using honey hadn’t lasted very long. Could she help it if salt came so naturally?

“Oh, I get it. So you’re afraid of Brice.” The prod was so easy to think of. Surely he wouldn’t be able to resist this carrot.

To her delight, his hand still holding hers tightened. Deep furrows dug into the skin between his brows.

“I’ve never been afraid of another man in my life.” True to form, his voice dripped with indignation.

“Then kiss me.”

The challenge tumbled from her mouth as any glib remark might—little emotion, all quick banter. Her expectation for his accepting the goad was low. He wasn’t exactly known for doing just anything when provoked, especially when the poke came from her.