Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines) (48 page)

“Hey, bro, what are you still hanging
around for?” his brother asked him as they came up to the car. The trunk was
open and Lance took out Hanna’s shoulder bag.

Nick took the bag only to put it back
in the trunk. “Corporal Vincent, before you take off with my brother and Ty,
take Doctor Wallace’s luggage to my quarters. We’re going over to the Officer’s
Club for dinner.” He turned to Hanna for a quick inquiry. “Unless you’d rather
go into town.”

“The Officer’s Club is fine. Are your
quarters far from there?”

Lance and Ty Sharp laughed. Nick
scowled at them. “They’re within walking distance.”

“Last chance, bro,” Lance advised with
a grin as opened the back door of the staff car. Corporal Vincent meanwhile got
into the driver’s seat, intent on driving again. “Don’t be a fool and blow it.”

With that final order, Lance slid inside
the vehicle. Ty Sharp went around to the driver’s side and ordered Corporal
Vincent to slide over. “I’m in charge of the itinerary tonight, bud,” he
retorted. All three men rolled down their windows to wave at Nick and Hanna.

Nick walked up to the side of the car
and pointed at Lance. “Stay out of trouble, little brother. I’m not coming to
your rescue tonight.” Then he leaned down to look through the front passenger
window, past his young aide to his SEAL buddy. “Ty, don’t make me sorry I let
you show my little brother a good time.”

“Go enjoy yourself, Kelly. God knows,
you need it!”

NICK AND HANNA ATE AT THE OFFICER’S
CLUB, which was also within walking distance. But it was noisy and crowded on a
Friday night. As a result, they didn’t discuss anything serious, just what each
had been up to the past two months.

Hanna told Nick about her sailing
trip, going into detail about how challenging it had been and how much she had
enjoyed the adventure and the scenery. She wasn’t surprised when he chastised
her for going alone, but she was when he admitted how impressed he was with her
for sailing solo over such a great distance.

Nick told her about his training
adventures, his teams’ challenges, and the men he’d been assigned to prepare
for a particular mission. He couldn’t tell he what that mission concerned, of
course, but what he did tell her was fascinating. He had an amazing skill set,
and the Marine Corps used him to train and lead some of its best teams. As a
major and now more so as a colonel, he would be in command of greater numbers
of men and teams. Hanna wondered if he would finally be in the field less and
away from direct action more. Wasn’t it about time he got some safer
assignments? Some responsibility that entailed less personal danger?

As she listened to Nick talk and
watched his face across the table, she understood more fully how much he really
loved his life and career. While it had its drawbacks, he took real pride in
doing his duty to the best of his ability and in the fraternity he found with
his teams and many of his fellow officers. She knew the adventure of it all
appealed to him, too. He’d always been an adventurer. She couldn’t ask him to
give up the life he had carved for himself. She’d already thought long and hard
about whether she could be a military wife. She now knew the answer to that,
but she still had no idea if Nick intended to ask her to marry him.

“Shall we take a walk along the
beach?” he murmured against her ear as they left the club. His arm was wrapped
securely around her waist and Hanna was leaning slightly into his side.

“The beach first, huh? Not your
quarters?” she inquired.

Her teasing smile prompted a kiss to
her cheek. “I still have a few things I need to say, and then… if you still
want to….” He left the sentence unfinished.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll still want to,”
Hanna laughed and kissed him back, this time on his lips.

It was a short distance to the paved
pathway that led to the beach. After passing a couple of runners, several
bicyclers, and a very old couple walking slowly hand in hand, they veered onto
another pathway that led to a tunnel which ran under the Silver Strand Highway.
The footpath afforded foot travelers, bikers, and beachcombers the opportunity
to cross from the bay side of the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean side.

When they got to the beach, Hanna took
her sandals off and wiggled her bare toes in the sun-warmed sand. Nick sat on a
beached log and removed his shoes and socks, then fold his pant legs up past
his calves.

Setting their shoes side by side on
the log, they joined hands and walked toward the waves that surged against the
shore. The cold water lapping over her bare toes and ankles made Hanna laugh
and shiver. Nick helped her into her cream-colored sweater and hooked an arm
across her shoulders, pulling her close to his side as they looked out over the
ocean.

“When I saw you standing there with
Lance this afternoon, holding his hand, I thought for sure he had asked you to
marry him, and that you had agreed,” he confessed, turning her to face him and
looping both arms loosely around her waist. “It nearly killed me to think he
might have come down here with you to ask me to be his best man. All I could
think about was how was I going to go home again and watch the two of you
together.”

Hanna lifted her hand and stroked his
recently shaved cheek, her fingertips lingering lovingly over his square jaw
and the chiseled features of his beloved face. She decided to tell him exactly
how she felt about him. She figured the risk was worth it. He was worth it. If
he had been so distressed by the possibility of her marrying his brother, he
had to care deeply for her. Maybe she had protected her heart too long anyway.

“Nick Kelly, there’s never been anyone
but you. I’ve waited my whole life for you. You were my first date, my first
kiss, my first lover— my only lover. My heart has always been yours, only
yours. I’ve loved you since you rescued my kitten. And I’ll love you into
death.”

Her confession was made with such
vulnerability and candor it utterly and thoroughly humbled Nick. It made him
understand that her love had been something fragile and cherished that she’d
kept to herself all these years. In that instant, staring into her shimmering,
tear-filled, emerald green eyes, he saw her soul and knew that he was a lucky,
lucky man to have been loved so long by such a devoted woman.

“Hanna, why didn’t you tell me how you
felt three years ago, when we first made love?”

She smiled as tears trickled down her
face. “I was scared. I wasn’t sure why you had made love to me. I didn’t know
if you loved me. Men feel differently about making love, don’t they? I mean it
doesn’t have to mean anything....”

He put a finger over her lips. “It
meant a lot to me, Hanna. I made love to you that night because I wanted the
compassion and honesty you were offering— and I wanted you. It wasn’t just
about sex for me. We’ve been best friends for years, but there was always more
than that, it seemed to me. I’ve just never been home long enough to explore
it.”

“You wanted to be a Marine, like your
Dad. You love the Corps. I didn’t want to interfere with your dream. I still
don’t.”

“Oh, Hanna, had I known you loved me,
I would have found a way for us to be together.”

“But you left right after I came out
of my coma.” The tears just kept coming. “I tried to tell you that I loved you
after I’d been shot. I didn’t want to die without you knowing how I felt about
you.”

“Oh, sweetheart!” He folded her in his
arms and pressed her head to his chest, then eased away enough so that he could
look into her eyes again. He needed her to understand. “Lance told me that you
wouldn’t be happy living on one base after the other, away from your family and
career. I was afraid that was true, and that it wouldn’t be fair to ask you
give all that up to become a military wife.” His hands slid over her shoulders
to curl fiercely around her upper arms. “I love you, Hanna. I want us to be
together, as much as we can, for the rest of our lives. I hated these past two
months. I was miserable without you. Maybe it isn’t fair to ask you to marry
me. I may have to go back to Afghanistan, but I want you too much to walk away
from you again.”

Hanna couldn’t seem to stop the tears
from spilling down her cheeks, over her lips. She couldn’t seem to respond yet,
either.

“I’ll retire, if that’s what you want.
I’ve already made the request to my commander, although he’s deliberately ignoring
me.”

It stunned her to hear Nick say he was
willing to give up the Marine Corps for her. That alone told her how much he
really must love her. She felt immensely blessed. “Oh Nick! You’re all I’ve
ever wanted! If you want to stay in the Corps, then stay. I’ll deal with your
dangerous lifestyle.” She laughed. “I have for twenty years anyway. And I’ll
live anywhere, as long as it’s with you.”

“Marry me, then, sweet Hanna.” His
lips brushed over her wet cheek, then traveled to her even wetter lips, savoring
the salty sweet taste of her. After a few moments, it became something deeper
and more erotic. They clung to one another for a long time before Nick lifted
his head and eased his embrace.

“Tell me you love me again.” Hanna had
waited all her life to hear him say those words to her! She wanted to hear them
over and over again.

This time when he wrapped his arms
around her, he lifted her off the ground and whirled her around and around on
the sand. “I love you! I love you! I love you!” With each revolution, he
repeated his declaration. On the final spin, he dropped dizzily to the sand on
his knees, with Hanna locked tightly in arms. In between their mutual laughter,
he kissed her repeatedly. “Now put me out of my agony and tell me you’ll marry
me.”

“I’ll marry you!” There was no
hesitancy in her mind or heart or soul.

His kisses turned into one long
passionate possessive one. Kneeling together in the sand, with their arms
wrapped fiercely around one another, it went on and on until Nick finally rose
to his feet, lifting her with him. “Let’s go celebrate, pretty doctor.”

“Let’s go to your quarters, Colonel.”

Nick laughed and set her on her feet.
“Exactly where I had in mind for a celebration.”

HIS QUARTERS WERE DEFINITELY
BACHELOR’S QUARTERS. He lived on the first floor of a two-story complex that
housed single officers of both sexes. Senior officers got the best units, but
it was still just a very plain one bedroom apartment with a little kitchen, a
simple living room, and a single bathroom— all furnished by the military, all
very spartan and unadorned. The only thing that made it look lived in were his
clothes draped over some furniture, his brown leather bomber jacket on a hook
by the door, and some framed photographs of his family and hers.

To her surprise, there were several photos
of her. Hanna walked over to the bookshelf where they were displayed. With a
tiny cry of dismay, she picked up a small framed photo of their senior prom. My
God, they looked so young! There was another photo of her when she’d graduated
from medical school. Hanna remembered sending that one to him years ago. The
third photo had been taken three months ago, the first Sunday he’d been home,
in fact. She was wearing that wrap-around sarong skirt and silk blouse she’d bought
right after getting her hair cut and frosted. She remembered hoping her new
look would catch his attention. Boy, had it!

He came up behind her and slipped both
arms around her waist to nuzzle his face in hair. “I love that photograph of
you. Colleen sent it to me a month ago. You took my breath away that day.”

His big sun-browned hands were locked
over her tummy. She covered them with her own. Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Yes.
I was always such a looker.”

Turning her in his arms, he narrowed
his beautiful gray eyes on her in admonishment. “Guess you haven’t been
reminded much these past two months of how beautiful you are, have you, Dr.
Wallace?” His stern expression evolved into a sensual grin as his eyes zeroed
in on her mouth. “My fault— for listening to my brother’s dumb advice. Guess
I’ll have to make up for that— starting now.”

With one hand on her bare shoulder, he
steered her into the bedroom, managing to unzip her dress along the way. When
he got her to the edge of his unmade double bed, Nick spun her around to crush
her in his arms and give her a bone-melting series of kisses. Her little
sundress came off easily, and Hanna shivered in the dark, trembling with
anticipation as his hands and long fingers relearned every curve.

Reluctantly, Nick stepped back to
remove his own clothes. “God! You’re so sweet, and it’s been so damn long!”

Hanna could barely see him in the
darkened room. She reached down to the bedside table and turned on the lamp.
When she turned back to him, she saw that he was impatiently attacking his
boots and socks. He looked so adorable in his unrelenting haste, Hanna couldn’t
help giggling as he rose to rip off his shirt. “Want some help?”

He looked up at her and froze. “Gez,
woman! What is that you’re wearing?”

It was a lingerie set she’d bought
just before coming down here. It was a very sheer delicate white lace strapless
corset and a tiny pair of matching bikini panties. Not even the black silk set
Christine had bought her was as blatantly sexual as this outfit. She’d purchased
it as a gift to herself, for him. She wondered if it was too over-the-top? Too
outrageous? Too not her?