SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (14 page)

  
I remembered our first time so perfectly that it almost felt like
a recent memory. His hands had fumbled at my clothes, we had bumped our noses
together more than once, and our teeth had grated together when we kissed. We
had been so nervous that day once we realized what was happening, once we
realized we were actually going to go through with it.

  
I had been nervous then, but at some point during our fumbling,
once we were naked and staring at one another, the nerves had melted away.
Suddenly instinct had taken over and that instinct told me that I could trust
Dylan. A similar feeling engulfed me as Dylan’s fingers slipped inside me and I
realized that I could trust him. I could trust him to see beauty in my body, I
could trust him with my flaws, and I could be as vulnerable as I needed to be
because he would not hold it against me.

  
I could feel his erection hard against my thigh and it excited me
further. I turned into him and wrapped my hand around his hard-on. He moaned in
response and I felt a thrill of pleasure overtake me. My consciousness left me
with that moan and I explored his body the way he was exploring mine. When he
finally slipped inside me, I felt such a strange mix of emotions.

  
They were a serious of contradictions that left me feeling
confused and exhilarated. I felt as though I was coming home after a long absence,
I felt sad and happy at the same time. I felt as though I was holding something
precious in my closed fist but I knew that the moment I opened it, it would fly
away. He moved inside me, slowly at first and then a little harder, a little
more insistently.

  
It felt so amazing that it scared me. He was my first love; he was
the man I had trusted with my body and my heart. We had been so young when we
had first started dating that we had grown together, we had taught each other,
we had become two sides of the same coin. Dylan used to say that we were each
other’s reflections and I was only now beginning to understand what that meant.

“Dylan,” I whispered into
his ear.

  
The sound of my voice seemed to spur him on and he pushed into me
harder and faster until I was moaning, grabbing at the skin on his back, feeling
myself lose all control as pleasure ripped over me and I forgot about
everything that had separated us in the last decade. I could feel his breathing
get increasingly more urgent and I felt my body respond to him. Our hands were
entangled together over my head as we came.

  
We lay like that, letting our breathing climb down slowly. Dylan
shifted to the side so that his weight wasn’t completely on me. He looked down
at me and brushed his fingers against my cheek. “How are you feeling?” he
asked.

I nodded. “I feel… good,”
I said honestly. “Better than I have in ages.”

“Me too,” he said with a
smile.

“It’s … been a long time
for me,” I admitted.

He raised his eyebrows.
“Really?”

“Not since my divorce,” I
admitted.

“Oh,” he said and I knew
he wasn’t sure what to say at this point.

“It’s ok, Dylan,” I said.
“I know you haven’t been celibate this whole time. I never expected that you
would be.”

  
“Would you believe me if I said that all those other women … they
were just ships in the night for me. They were only ever a distraction so that,
for a moment at least, I could forget this broken world of ours.”

“That sounds … so sad,” I
said.

“It is sad,” Dylan
replied. “Which is why it’s so much better with you. Everything is better with
you.”

  
I realized suddenly how unbelievably easy it was to fall back in
love with him. It had already started to happen without me noticing a thing and
it had only been a few days. I sat upright and pulled my underwear on, trying to
catch a hold of my emotions before they got away from me. I had to be smart
about this. I was not a hopeful teenager anymore; I was a grown woman and I
needed to be realistic.

“How are things at home?”
I asked, once we were dressed.

  
Dylan poured us some wine and passed me a glass. “Difficult,” he
said. “Mom’s constantly crying and Tyler … well he’s constantly bitching.”

“Go easy on your
brother,” I said gently. “He’s probably going through a lot too.”

  
“I know he is,” Dylan nodded. “And I’d love to be there for him,
it’s just … he’s antagonistic all the time. It’s hard not to let that get to
me.”

“Why do you think he’s
like that all the time?” I asked.

  
“I think he believes that I took the life he wanted,” Dylan tried
to explain. “And he got stuck in this town having to look after our parents.”

I nodded. “I remember,” I
said. “Wasn’t he interested in joining the Navy at one point?"

  
“He was more than just interested,” Dylan replied. “He was
committed, he went for the meetings and he did all the tests. That was when we
found out about the diabetes.”

“I remember,” I nodded.
“He couldn’t enlist after that could he?”

  
“No,” Dylan said. “But I did… I think that affected him more than
he let on. He’ll never admit it, but I think that’s why he’s always so annoyed
with me. That’s part of the reason I wanted to get out of the house today. I
just couldn’t deal with everything on my own and I remembered that I never
really had to. You were always there with me whenever things got bad. And I
wondered if we still had that.”

“What do you think?” I
asked.

“We still have it,” Dylan
said, taking my hand and kissing it.

“I’m glad.”

  
“I want to see you again,” Dylan said directly. “I’m going to Austin
tomorrow for a couple of days to deal with some family business, but I want to
see you when I come back.”

  
I was too far in to this to display any sort of reluctance now. I
nodded. “When are you coming back into town?” I asked.

“Saturday,” he replied.
“Maybe we could do something on Saturday night?”

“I work Saturday nights,”
I said.

He looked at me
curiously. “You’re a librarian.”

I smiled. “I know that. I
have a second job at Dillard’s.”

“The pub downtown?”

“That’s the one,” I
nodded. “I waitress there and some days I bartend too.”

“Wow,” Dylan said. “I
didn’t expect that.”

“You can meet me there at
nine on Saturday,” I said, enjoying the fact that I wasn’t as predictable as I
believed I was.

“What?” I asked, noticing
that Dylan was looking at me in a strange way.

“Nothing,” he said at
first. “It’s just that … three days seems a long time to go without seeing you.
Ironic considering …”

“I know,” I replied.

  
Three days did seem like a long time. I sighed internally,
wondering how I had let myself get involved so fast. I had thought that I’d
done a good job of getting over Dylan but as it turned out, those feelings
weren’t buried deep enough. They’d been lying in wait for years, waiting for an
excuse to resurface.

Chapter Fifteen

Dylan

  
“Let’s get a table out on the deck, boys,” Jason said in his usual
grandiose manner. “It has a brilliant view of the golf course.”

  
Tyler and I followed Jason out onto the deck where we were shown
to a table by the edge. It was a lovely view, but after almost three hours
playing golf I was just as happy to sit inside and not have to think about it.
We ordered quickly and the moment the waiter left, Jason turned to us with his
hands crossed together.

“Ok, boys,” he said. “I
think it’s time to talk about the hard stuff.”

  
Jason Sterner had been dad’s lawyer for more than fifteen years. He
used to come to the house every now and again, sit with dad, share a beer, and
talk about business and politics. I never understood why dad needed a lawyer in
the first place, but I was starting to understand.

  
“You’re father had assets,” Jason went on. “He had shares and he
had money tucked away in mutual funds. Now we need to figure out how to divvy
up those assets.”

“Didn’t dad do that
already?” I asked. “I mean, shouldn’t there be a clause in his will that state
which assets goes to which son?”

  
“Some parents do it that way,” Jason nodded. “Others don’t. Your
father’s will mentions that all and any money from bonds, shares and mutual
funds will go straight to your mother. But he wasn’t as specific with the rest
of it.”

  
Tyler leaned in. His face was clear of expression and completely
serious and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. “Ok … so what does
that mean?” Tyler asked.

  
“It means that you and Dylan will have to discuss everything,”
Jason explained. “You will have to come to an agreement and divide up the
assets between the two of you.”

“I guess the next
question is … what were dad’s assets?”

  
“Basically we’re looking at land,” Jason replied. “There is of
course the house you are currently living in which is a prime bit of real
estate and another piece of land on the outskirts of Bastrop. There is also a piece
of land in California.

“California?” Tyler
said.
 
“I didn’t know about that.”

“No one did,” Jason
replied. “It was a recent purchase your dad made. I knew he intended to leave
it to one of you boys, but I just don’t know which one.”

“Dad never mentioned it
to you?” I asked. “Even in passing?”

  
“I’m fairly certain he intended to include it in his will,” Jason
replied. “But he didn’t expect to die so soon. He didn’t have time to fill it
out and complete all the little missing pieces.”

“Which means we have to
figure it out on our own?” I said, hearing the weariness in my own voice.

“Yes,” Jason said
uncomfortably. “I’m sure you boys can come to an agreement. You’re brothers
after all.”

  
I tried very hard not to snort at that and I could tell Tyler was
trying to do the same. “Remind me again,” I said. We’re looking at three pieces
of land, two in Bastrop and one in California?”

“That’s right,” Jason
nodded.

“And once we make the
decision …?”

“I will do the necessary
paperwork and ownership of the land will pass to you,” Jason replied.

  
Instantly I saw it in my head. Land was exactly what I needed in
order to make my dream of starting a rehabilitation program come true. Even
after he was gone, dad was still lending me a helping hand. I felt that
familiar tug of pain in my gut every time I thought of him, but this time it
was dulled by a sense of gratitude.

  
“I’ll take the land in California,” Tyler said abruptly, catching
me off guard. “Dylan can have the land on the outskirts of Bastrop and mom can
decide who she’s leaving the family home to once she’s gone.”

I looked at Tyler.
“You’ve got this all figured out haven’t you?” I said, trying to contain the
annoyance in my voice.

“Sometimes quick decisions
need to be made,” Tyler replied.

“When there’s a cause for
it,” I countered. “We don’t have to make a quick decision now. We can discuss
it … together.”

  
Tyler’s expression soured and I sensed another fight on the
horizon. Evidently, Jason sensed it too because he excused himself and headed
off to the bathroom at a suspiciously fast pace. I turned to Tyler immediately.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.

“What?” Tyler asked.

“You didn’t even bother
to discuss that with me,” I said accusingly. “Don’t you think I deserve a say?”

“Fine,” Tyler said with a
dramatic sigh. “Let me guess … you want the land in California?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then why are we even
having this conversation?” Tyler demanded.

“Why do you want the land
in California?” I shot at him.

“I would have thought it
was obvious.”

“Explain it to me
anyway,” I said. “Treat me like I’m stupid.”

  
“I want to get out of this fucking town at some point,” Tyler
hissed at me. “I want to experience a different kind of life. I would have thought
you’d understand that.”

“I didn’t know you hated
it here so much,” I said.

“That’s because you
haven’t been paying attention,” Tyler shot at me. “You haven’t been paying
attention for eleven years.”

“Come on,” I said
defensively. “That’s not fair.”

  
“Isn’t it?” Tyler demanded. “You hightailed it out of here as fast
as you could. You had parents in this town Dylan, you had friends … you had a
girlfriend. You left them all and you didn’t look back once.”