Exposed (9 page)

Carmela waved a dismissive hand. “Mom invited Ethan’s teammates a few weeks back when she heard they might be coming to Miami. They’re all nice guys, don’t worry.”

She wasn’t worried about them, she was worried about Ethan.

Carmela lifted the foil on the dish, made a hungry sound. “Mmm,
tostones
.” She grabbed Marisol’s hand and towed her toward the sliding glass doors. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the guys.”

With no choice but to follow, Marisol trailed after her.

****

Ethan shuffled some burgers around on the grill and listened half-heartedly to the questions his mom was throwing Tuck’s way. His team leader didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the not-so-subtle interrogation.

“Heard you’re getting married,” his mom said.

“I am, yeah.”

“So when’s the big day?”

“Sometime this fall. We haven’t nailed down a date yet. Our work schedules are still up in the air, makes it hard to plan anything.”

His mother snorted. “I would think that getting married would take top priority. Surely the FBI can spare you for a couple of weeks, let you tie the knot and go on a proper honeymoon.”

Ethan smirked at the outrage in her voice. “Don’t hold back, Ma,” he said to her. “Tell him how you really feel.”

“Well I can’t help it,” his mother protested. “You young people these days, always too busy with work to settle down.” She shot Ethan a pointed look he was all too accustomed to receiving.

“Oh, I’m settled,” Tuck drawled, his Alabama accent easy on the ears. “Settled as I’ve ever been. As soon as we can pin down a date, it’s on.”

His mother beamed. “Will it be a church wedding?”

“No. More than likely we’ll just elope. Easier that way.”

His mother started to make a face, then stopped herself. “Do you have a picture of her?”

“Sure do.” Grinning, Tuck pulled out his phone and started shuffling through his photos.

Her face lit up. “Is she Puerto Rican? She looks Puerto Rican.”

“Cuban.”

“That still earns you major points with my mom,” Ethan told him. “You about done nosing around in Tuck’s personal life, Ma?”

She shot Ethan a mock glare. “Showing interest isn’t nosing around. God knows you’ve got no romantic life to tell me about, so I’m getting my fix elsewhere.”

Ethan shook his head good-naturedly and put more burgers on the grill. His mom meant well, but he was happy to avoid the hot seat for once.

She couldn’t help herself and tended to mother everyone, including his and Carmela’s friends. Nothing would make her happier than having both her children get married and having half a dozen kids each so she could spoil them all rotten. Unfortunately for her, he and Carmela were busy with their careers and weren’t looking to settle down anytime soon.

“Anyway, Brad, you were saying?” she prompted Tuck.

Ethan kept part of his attention on her conversation with Tuck as he manned the grill. She already knew better than to bug Vance about his personal life, since he was pretty tight-lipped about his split from his former fiancée just over a year ago. Ethan had also warned her beforehand not to pry into Blackwell’s business, no matter how well-meaning she might be.

He wasn’t sure what the deal was since Blackwell was private about stuff like that, but from what Ethan gathered, his teammate’s marriage was on its last legs. Their high-tempo workload and schedule, the constant training and traveling sure took a toll on their personal relationships. It took a really special woman—strong and independent, but supportive—to make things work with one of them long term. Ethan hadn’t dated a woman yet that could handle it.

Marisol seemed just as career-oriented though, he mused as he moved the nearly cooked burgers to a cooler part of the grill. He’d bet she could handle it.

As soon as that thought took shape in his mind, he deleted it. The attraction between them couldn’t go anywhere. He’d decided that last night, had kept reminding himself of that throughout the day today.

Over in the corner of the yard, Schroder stepped away from where he’d been talking with Evers and Vance and headed toward him, eyeing the grill with interest. “Any bacon going on these babies?”

Their medic was a total bacon whore and everyone knew it. “Yup, it’s inside. Got you covered, man.”

“Awesome.”

“What about you, Nathan?” Ethan’s mom asked, shading her eyes with one hand as she peered up at him. “Have you got a young lady in your life?”

A wide smile broke over Schroder’s face. “Do I ever.” The former PJ shooed Tuck out of the lawn chair beside her and sat down to show her his phone. “Her name’s Taya.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

Ethan smirked. Oh, his mom was going to love this one. He busied himself with placing a slice of cheese on the cooked patties. “It’s a great story, Ma. Go ahead, tell her, Doc,” Ethan told him.

“Well now I definitely want to hear it,” his mom said, her expression full of interest.

While Schroder began the tale of how he and Taya had met in Afghanistan five years ago, Ethan basted the chicken breasts with a final coat of barbecue sauce. He picked up his non-alcoholic beer—technically they were still on the clock and if the call came in about Alvarez, they’d have to rush back to headquarters, so no drinking for any of them. As he set down the bottle the sliding glass door off the kitchen opened up.

Everything inside him stilled when Marisol stepped out onto the deck with his sister. Her long, dark hair was loose, spilling past her shoulders in soft, dark-chocolate waves. The white and blue dress she wore showed off the shapely curve of her breasts and left her bronzed, sexy calves bare to his gaze.

She walked across the patio with Carmela, stopping to meet the guys sitting there. Ethan suppressed the instinct to go over and stand between her and the others, because it was ridiculous. All his teammates were spoken for except for Vance, and if his best buddy so much as looked at her wrong, Ethan would set him straight real fast. Soli was off limits.

The intensity of the possessive thought surprised him. He wasn’t normally like that around women. For some reason Marisol revved the caveman part of his brain.

She was smiling at Blackwell as she shook his hand. Ethan set down his metal spatula and closed the lid on the grill before heading her way. She glanced over at him, her body stiffening slightly as he approached. Almost as if she was gearing up to face him.

He didn’t like knowing that she felt the need to do that.

“Glad you could make it,” he said.

Her skin practically glowed under the light from the setting sun. This close to her he could smell the fresh, clean mix of light perfume and soap that clung to her. It made him want to lean in and press his nose to the side of her neck, breathe her in. Would she shove him away? Or would she grab his shoulders and gasp, go still as she waited to see what he’d do next?

Her cheeks flushed a little at the way he was staring at her but she met his gaze squarely. “Me too. Carmela was just introducing me to your teammates.”

“I’ll do it,” he said to his sister, and took Marisol’s hand. She didn’t resist as he led her down the two wooden steps and introduced her to everyone she hadn’t met yet. Tuck, Bauer, Evers, Blackwell and finally Schroder. Their medic stopped talking to Ethan’s mom and stood to shake Marisol’s hand, then offered her his lawn chair.

“Had enough of the hot seat, huh?” Marisol teased as she sat down and crossed her gorgeous legs at the ankles.

Schroder grinned at her. Ethan’s mom gasped and playfully batted her on the shoulder. “I’m just getting to know them. I want to know about the men who my son entrusts his life to on a daily basis, is that such a crime?”

Ethan handed Marisol a chilled bottle of sweet tea, her favorite. “Food’s just about ready. You hungry? I’ll get you a plate.”

She peered up at him, gave a little smile that did strange things to his insides. “I’d like that, thank you.”

He nodded, trying like hell not to stare at the way the dress pulled taut across her breasts, or how smooth and toned her legs were. The hem rode a few inches above her knees, exposing a hint of thigh. He had a sudden image of his hand on her bare knee, slowly inching it up beneath the soft fabric. He could almost feel her skin against his palm, warm and silky smooth.

Off limits, remember? Now feed her.

Jerking himself back to reality, he stepped up to the grill and grabbed a plate. He set a chicken breast and a heaping mound of salad on it. She’d never liked beef that much.

“Here,” Carmela said, placing a casserole dish and the plate of cooked bacon down on the table beside him. “Soli’s mom cooked
tostones
.”

“Great.” Ethan dished up a few more sides onto Marisol’s plate and carried it to her. She accepted it with another smile and a murmured thanks, then turned back to Schroder.

That warm smile made him question why he’d decided she was off limits.

“Taya’s still in North Carolina with her dad but I’m hoping she’ll come to Virginia soon,” Schroder was saying.

Tuck sauntered up and helped himself to a plate, held it out to Ethan with a grin. “You serving?”

“Just this once, so don’t get used to it,” he teased, and dished out food while all the guys lined up. When everyone was served he made himself a plate. His mother got up to go inside and Ethan seized his chance to sit beside Marisol.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as she cut into her chicken. “This is really good, thanks.”

“Welcome.” Everyone else was either busy or involved in their own conversations, giving him and Marisol a semblance of privacy. “So,” he began. “How are you doing? Any new developments at work?”

“You mean about the phone call?”

He nodded.

She shook her head. “I talked to the head FBI agent again this afternoon. Still no leads as to who the caller was. And before you ask, yes, I’ve been careful. I got myself a rental car and I’m staying at a friend’s place for the time being. I circled the block a couple times before parking down the street, just to make sure no one had been following me.”

He barely kept from asking whether it was a guy friend or a girl friend’s place she was staying at. “That’s good.”

“What about you? Things okay at work today?”

“Yeah, they’re good.” Word was the Bureau’s contact was closing in on a location for Alvarez. And from what Ethan had heard, Fuentes seemed close to agreeing to take a deal.

His mom came back a moment later and though Ethan didn’t want to move from Marisol’s side, he got up anyway and gave her his seat. By way of thanks she snagged the back of his neck with one hand to pull him down and plant a smacking kiss on his cheek.

“See this?” he called out to Vance, who looked over at him from where he was seated on the deck. “This is the treatment you get when you’re her blood—and favorite, I might add—son.”

Vance’s mouth twitched. “Whatever. I already got my kiss before dinner.”

Ethan’s mom laughed and pushed at his shoulder. “Don’t be jealous, Ethan. You know my heart’s big enough to fit all of you in it.”

“It’s okay, I know you love me best,” he murmured, sharing a smile with her and giving her a smacking kiss on the cheek. Before he’d even straightened, she’d launched into a conversation with Marisol, giving her an easy out.

He stood beside her and ate his dinner. When she showed no sign of letting up in her conversation with his mom, he wandered over and shot the shit with Blackwell for a few minutes, then Bauer. No surprise, the former SEAL’s plate was piled high with two burgers, two chicken breasts and all the sides.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Marisol get up and follow his mother toward the deck. Ethan tossed his empty plate into the garbage can next to the grill and scraped the grill clean. He eyed Marisol as she made her way into the kitchen with some empty platters, appreciating the sexy sway of her hips as she moved.

“Wow, so subtle,” Carmela said sarcastically as she came up beside him.

“What?” he demanded.

“You’re damn near stripping her with your eyes from all the way over here.” Carm shook her head. “Since when have you been interested in her that way?”

Since she jumped out of a tree into my arms
. “I’m not.”

His sister threw him a bland look. “Whatever. Listen,” she said as she spooned the leftover Greek salad into a container she’d brought from the kitchen, “just a friendly heads up then, because I love you. You might want to rethink your strategy here.”

Ethan turned to face her. “Meaning?” Carm rarely stuck her nose in his business, and the few times she had, he’d learned to listen to what she had to say. He raised his drink, took a big swig.

“If you’re looking for a hookup, think again.”

He scowled as he swallowed the mouthful. “Whoa, that’s—”

“Oh, please. That’s
exactly
how you were just looking at her, and don’t deny it.”

He felt a flush creep up the back of his neck. “I’m not looking to hook up with her.”

Okay, so he’d fantasized about it. Didn’t mean he’d act on it, and even if he did, he sure as hell wouldn’t make her feel cheap. He knew how to treat a woman right, and with Marisol he’d make damn sure he saw to her every need.

She was too important to him to just fuck and walk away, even if she was interested. They had too much history together and he didn’t want to ruin a twenty-year friendship over a one-night stand.

So what
do
you want then?

Fuck if he knew. He just knew the attraction he felt wasn’t going away, and that he couldn’t touch her if he couldn’t offer her more than a fling while he was in town.

“Well, good,” his sister said. “She deserves better.”

Ethan drew his head back, taken aback by his sister’s comment. “What the hell, Carm?”

“I’m just saying, I’m glad you’re not going to try anything. She’s not anywhere near as, ah, experienced as you.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Meaning?” He took another pull from the bottle.

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Carm rolled her eyes at his apparent stupidity and leaned in close so that no one else would overhear her. “I mean she’s a virgin, dumbass,” she murmured.