It was Saturday morning, and she was at Lundquist House on University Avenue in San Diego.  Kenna had a toddler on her hip and was talking to the child’s mother.

“They’re going to help me find an apartment,” she was explaining.

Kenna was trying to pay attention, but her phone wouldn’t stop vibrating.  It was making her purse shake.  She should have just turned the damned thing off, but she always worried that Austin or her mom might need her. 

“Excuse me, I need to check my phone, it might be my son.”

The young woman smiled and took her son from Kenna’s arms. 

The display said, unidentified caller.  It was probably the whack job, but still, it could be from one of Austin’s friends, or it could be an emergency about Austin.  She had to answer.

“Hello?”

“Mary Poppins, it’s about damned time you picked up!”  This time the raspy voice was loud.  But it still slithered.  He was disguising it.

Her thumb hovered over ‘END,’ when she realized Dex and Clint had told her to keep the creep talking.

She stepped away from the girl and her baby and whispered into the phone.  “What do you want from me?  Who are you?”

“Don’t play coy with me.  You think just because you’re beautiful you can ignore a man.”  Now he was quiet and scary.  They’d been right, the guy was a serious whackjob.

“Look, Dude, I ignored everybody who e-mailed me.  Don’t take it personally.” 

“You didn’t.  You’re seeing the sailor.”

“How do you know?”  Kenna saw the girl’s head jerk up.  She needed to take it down a notch.  “How do you know who I’m spending time with?” she asked in a quieter voice.

“I know a great deal about you.  I wish I could get as close to you as Smooches does.  I like to cuddle.”  The last was said with a grating laugh.

Kenna didn’t respond.  She couldn’t.  How could he know the name of Rosalie’s dog?  Who was this guy?  Oh God.  Austin. 

“Stay away from me.”

“You get it now, don’t you?  You’re worried about your son.  Don’t be.  I care about you, Kenna.  I wouldn’t hurt your child.  I want you to like me.  Now if you do something to make me angry...” he let the words hang out there.

“Stay away from Austin.  You stay away from my boy!”  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the little boy was now crying.

“Or what?” the man asked softly.

“I’m calling the police.”

“They couldn’t help Jean.”  The man laughed.  It was the evilest sound Kenna had ever heard in her life.

The line went dead.

***

Herbert Lundquist was standing over her in his office.  She had just gotten done making phone calls ensuring that Austin was safely at Denny’s house for the rest of the weekend.  She’d also convinced her mother to stay with her bridge partner Wilma until Monday.

“I’ll have my assistant drive you to the police station,” Herbert said.

“I’m fine to drive myself,” Kenna said.

“Please, beg my pardon, but you didn’t look well a half hour ago.  I think you need someone to drive you.”

There was a knock on the door, and then Clint Archer walked into the office. 

“Kenna, we have a problem,” Clint said at the same time as Lundquist asked, “Who is this?”

“I know.  He called me.  He threatened my son.”

“Hello, Mr. Lundquist.” Clint walked up to Herbert.  “My name is Clint Archer.  I’m providing security for Ms. Wright until her boyfriend arrives home this afternoon.  Could you give the two of us a moment of privacy?”

“Kenna, is this all right?” Herbert asked her.

Kenna nodded.

As soon as the door closed, Clint turned on her.  “Lady, what is your problem?”

“He threatened my son.”

“Why didn’t you call me as soon as your call with that fucker ended?  I called you Kenna.  You saw my number come up on your phone and you ignored it.  What the hell?”

“You saw the call come in.  You had the tracking device, hell you probably listened in.  You knew everything, Clint.  I trusted you to do your part.  I didn’t have time to take your call, I had to make sure Austin and mom were okay!”  She was shaking.

“When you weren’t taking my calls, what were you doing?” he demanded.

Kenna explained exactly what was said, and then told Clint how she’d arranged for Austin to stay at his best friend’s house for the weekend.

“God save me from amateurs,” Clint said looking up at the ceiling.  Then he looked down at his watch.  “Just two and a half hours and I’m off duty.”

“What are you talking about?  I took care of everything,” Kenna asked, confused.  She started toward the door; Clint stepped in front of her.  He ran his hand through his hair.

“Point one, you agreed to call me as soon as the whackjob called you again.  You didn’t.  Then when I tried to call you, you didn’t answer.  When I tracked you to this place, they wouldn’t put me through to you, they said you were in a conference with Lundquist.  I hauled ass to get over here.  I knew Austin had been threatened, I wanted to come up with a game plan with you.  If you had called me or taken my call, I could have picked him up immediately and gotten him someplace more secure than his friend’s house.  Let’s face it, if this whackjob knows the name of Rosalie’s teacup poodle, there is a good chance he knows about Austin’s best friend, Denny.”

Fear slammed into her.  She couldn’t take in air.  She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing would come out.  He was right. 

Clint saw the problem and put his hands gently on her shoulders.  “Let’s get into my truck and go pick up your son from Denny’s house, okay?”

She nodded.  It was all she could do.

***

“Who owns this place again?” she asked Dex.

“Jack Preston and his wife Beth normally live here.  They’re visiting his folks in San Antonio for ten days, so we’re staying here.”

“And he’s a SEAL?  Just how much do you guys make?” she asked as she opened the Sub-Zero refrigerator.

Dex smiled.  It was the first sign her sense of humor was returning.  When he had arrived back from maneuvers, Kenna had been a mess.  He didn’t know whether to thank Clint or punch him for scaring the bejesus out of his girlfriend.

It had been Clint’s idea to ask Jack to use his house.  They’d arrived five hours ago.  Austin had eaten half of the fridge’s contents, and Penny had sucked down almost a whole bottle of wine, so both of them were now in bed.  At last, he had Kenna alone, and he wanted to take her emotional temperature.

“Jack comes from money.  A few years back he invited me and some of the other guys from our team to his ranch in Texas.  It’s a huge operation.”

Kenna went back to putting dishes in the dishwasher.

“You can leave the dishes for tomorrow.  I’ll do those when I get back from taking you to work.  I have the next couple of days off.”

“I like doing dishes, it’s soothing,” she said as she rinsed off another plate.  He noticed she was taking pains not to look at him. 

“Kenna, talk to me.”

“I don’t want to talk.  I want to do something normal.  I want to do something that doesn’t include taking phone calls from psychos, being lectured by your friends, having to talk to the police or moving out of my house, okay?”  Her voice raised at the end as she slammed a mug into the dishwasher rack.

Dex winced.  “Kenna, I think we need to discuss what the police said.”

She shoved another glass in the rack.  “No, we don’t.”

As she grabbed a bowl off the counter, he tugged it out of her hands.  She finally met his eyes.  “I don’t want to talk.  If I talk, I’m afraid I’ll fall apart, and my mom and my son need me to keep my shit together.”

He grasped both of her hands, and pulled her out of the kitchen, into the small sitting room that had a loveseat.  He sat and drew her down close beside him. 

“Dex, I told you I didn’t want to talk.”

“Then don’t talk, just rest here for a little bit.”

Her stiff body eventually began to relax into his, then her head tipped up so that she could look into his eyes.  “I’m scared.”

He nodded for her to continue.

“When Sanchez told me that they were wrong about who they’d thought the killer was, it scared the hell out of me.  Especially when they said they think my calls could be coming from the same guy.”

Dex wasn’t scared, he was enraged.  He’d called Detective Warren before he’d left on maneuvers and given him Clint’s name and number.  He’d specifically said that if anything changed in the investigation, Warren needed to call Clint so that he’d have a heads up on ensuring Kenna’s safety.  Warren had known for twenty-four hours that they’d had the wrong guy.  He and Sanchez should have called Clint.  They didn’t.  That meant for the last twenty-four hours Kenna had been left unprotected.

“What are you thinking, Dex?”

“I’m thinking how good dinner was tonight.  I liked the meatloaf you cooked.”

“Bullshit.  You’re still pissed off.  I can feel it rolling off you in waves,” she said as she pushed away from him.

“Come back here.  I was thinking of meatloaf and cuddling.”

She was studying him closely.  He knew he wasn’t getting away with anything. Still, her next words stunned him.  “Your protective instincts are so deep, they’re in the marrow of your bones.  What happened to you?  What made you that way?”

“It’s what SEALs do,” he said glibly.

“Fine, don’t answer me.”  She deserved a better answer.  She deserved more.  She deserved the truth. 

Slowly, as if the words were torn from him, he said, “I couldn’t save him.”  Even now, after all these years, his voice got thick just thinking about Ricky.

“Who?” she asked softly.

“My brother.”

She reached out and brushed her hand over his heart.  Then kept it there.  He pressed his hand on top of hers, holding it close.  Needing it close.  Needing her close.

“Ricky was older than me.  He...he was everything to my parents.  They thought the Earth orbited around him.  I came eight years after Richard Edward Evans was born.  I was an accident.  They’d only wanted one child, so they didn’t give me any attention, but Ricky did.  He had my back from the day I was born.  I might not have been wanted by Mom and Dad, but I knew that Ricky loved his baby brother.”

Dex pictured his brother in his mind’s eye.  He liked thinking of him when he was sixteen.  Whole and healthy.  Ready to take on anything.

He looked down and saw Kenna’s empathetic and confused expression.  “You can’t even wrap your head around it, can you?”

“I can understand Ricky loving you and having your back,” she said slowly.  “But your parents?  No.  I don’t get that in the slightest.”

Dex sighed.  He still didn’t get it either.  It just was.

“What happened?” she asked.

“He was popular, and the parents gave him everything he wanted.  They never said no to anything.  Cars, vacations with his friends during the summer, anything he asked for.  He was just a kid, but our mom came from money, and they never denied him anything.  Whenever Ricky was gone, they’d send me to Gram and Gramps here in San Diego.”

“And?”

“When I got back the summer before his senior year, he’d changed.  I was nine.  All of a sudden, he didn’t have any time for me.  It hurt.  When I tried to talk to him, he yelled at me and told me to quit following him around like a goddamn shadow.”  Dex remembered that moment like it was yesterday.  They’d been in the backyard, and Ricky had screamed at him.

“It was then that I knew something bad was going on.  The Ricky I knew and loved would never have said that to me.”

“What did you do?”

“I spied on him.  I caught him shooting up in his bedroom.  I didn’t know it was heroin, I just knew it was drugs because I’d seen it on cop shows, so I knew it was bad.  I told Mom and Dad, but Ricky denied it, and they didn’t believe me.  They grounded me for telling lies.”

“There had to have been signs.  Didn’t they take it seriously?  Why would a nine-year-old boy lie about a thing like that?”  She was appalled. 

“Because he was their golden boy,” Dex sighed.

“If they loved him, they needed to take notice,” she protested.

“It didn’t work that way with them, Poppy,” he said sadly.

“What’d you do next?”

Dex smiled.  She knew him.  She totally got the fact that he hadn’t given up.  “I snuck into his room and found his stash.  There were needles and everything he needed to shoot up.  He had it hidden in his sunglasses case.  I brought that to my parents.”

“And then?”

“Hell Kenna, I could see how mad they were at me.  Somehow in their minds, I was the bad guy.  When Ricky told them it was his friend’s drugs, they immediately believed him.  That was when they arranged for me to be sent to boarding school.”

She ripped her hand away from his chest and used both hands to cup his face.  “Oh, Dex.  What happened next, Honey?”

“Ricky wouldn’t talk to me.  I begged him, but he just froze me out.  I was packed up and sent away within forty-eight hours.  Two weeks later, I was attending his funeral.  He’d overdosed.”

Her hazel eyes were swimming with tears.

“I’d fucked up.  I didn’t keep him alive.”

“No, Honey, no.  You were a child, you can’t actually think that.”

“When I got to the funeral and saw Gramps, I lost it.  I don’t know how I didn’t think to call him.  Even now I don’t know how I could have been so stupid not to have called him.  He would have fixed it.”

“What did your grandfather say when you said that to him?”

“He said that they wouldn’t have listened to him either.”

“You see?”

“But they would have,” Dex said stubbornly.

She stroked his jaw.  “You’re looking at this from the eyes of a nine-year-old.  Look at it today.  You still know your parents.  Look at them now.  Could the man you are today convince them or are they the type of people who only see what they want to see?”

Dex paused.  After he turned eighteen, he’d rarely spoken to his mother and father.  But the few times he had seen them, he realized that they were totally self-absorbed.  Even his dad said barely one word to his own parents.  It hurt Gram and Gramps, but they tried not to show it.  There was something missing in his mom and dad, the only love they’d had to give had dried up once Ricky had died.

“Honey?” she prompted.

He looked down at her and gave a slight smile.  “You’re right, I couldn’t convince them of anything.  They live in their own little world.”  His voice went hoarse.  “It just breaks my heart that I lost him like that.”

She rested her head against his chest, under his chin.  “He’s still with you.  He’s always with you.  It’s why you do what you do with Darryl.  It’s why my son admires you so much.  You take the love you have for your brother, and you spread that around, and he watches you do it.”

Dex closed his eyes.  He could see it.  What she said made perfect sense, it was as if a dark cloud had lifted, and peace filled him. 

But enough was enough. The corner of his mouth ticked up just a little. It was time to get back to cuddling.  Maybe even canoodling.

“You’re full of shit,” he said to her.

She shoved up and scowled at him.  “I so am not.  I was being spiritual and wise.”  Then her eyes lit up, she caught on to his new mood.

He pulled her back against him, swinging her legs over his so she was resting in his lap.  “Okay Miss Wiseone, tell me what’s on my mind right now.”

Kenna put her fingers against her temples.  “Dexter Anthony Evans is thinking he is being charming and can maybe get to second base.”

“Wrong.”

“I am not wrong.” Kenna’s eyes were dancing.

“Third.  I’m thinking I can get to third base.”

“Not next to the kitchen.  My son gets up in the middle of the night to snack.  There will be no baserunning for you.”

Dex laughed.  How in the hell did she manage to make him laugh?  He never did after the specter of Ricky came up.  “You so are Mary Poppins.  You have magic just like she does.” 

Kenna looked bewildered, and that was an adorable look for her.  He hugged her closer.

“You do, Kenna.  I have never come close to feeling as good and as happy as I do when I’m with you.”

“I don’t know how to respond,” she whispered quietly.

“Oh Poppy, I’m not looking for any particular response.”  He brushed back the hair from her temple, loving how she leaned into his touch. 

“Dex, can I be honest?”

“Always.”

“Um.”  She licked her lips, all teasing gone, she looked nervous.

“Kenna, what is it?”

She took a deep breath.  “Look, I’m just a dumbass okay?  I should have just got right back on the horse, you know?  Jaden was awful.  I let him fuck with my head.  I think I had offers.”  Her fingers trembled as she touched her neck.  “No, I mean, of course, I had opportunities.”  She took another deep breath and pushed against him, struggling to get out of his lap.

He kept her in place.  “You’re not going anywhere.”

“Let me up.  What I have to say is stupid enough, without saying it while in some man’s lap.”

“First, you’re not on some man’s lap.  You’re in my arms.  And sweetheart, let me see if I can make the second part easy.  You’re picky, and it’s been a while, right?”

She stopped squirming and looked up at him.

“Oh, let’s just call this out.  I’m not picky, I’m neurotic.  If I were a normal woman, I would have had a lover since Jaden.  I haven’t, okay?  I’m coming up on my ten-year anniversary of celibacy.  Do you really want to have a relationship with somebody that crazy?”  This time when she pushed against him, her hand hit his crotch.  She turned bright red.

“Seeing as how you just tested my level of interest, I think it’s safe to assume I want a relationship.” Dex smiled.

“Umm.”

“But Sweetheart, it’s more than that, okay?  I want more than just sex.  I want your time.  Your smiles.  Your neurosis.  I want to really get to know your son.  Your mom.  I want to know what you like to order at an Italian restaurant.  I want to know what your favorite movie is.  What you wear to bed at night.  I want to know why in the hell you would think that you’re crazy when you’ve done nothing but protect yourself from being hurt again.  But what I really want to know is if you will trust me with a little piece of your heart.”

Her eyes welled up with tears.  “Oh God, that’s beautiful.”

“No, you’re beautiful.” 

She sucked in a deep breath.

“Will you come upstairs with me?” he asked.

She nodded.

He stood up with her still in his arms.

“You’re going to carry me?” she whispered.

“I’m sure as hell not giving you a chance to get away.”

Her soft laugh tinkled like bells.  It also told him that she was with him. 

Thank God! 

Soon they were in the room that he had commandeered.  Kenna was clutching his neck so tightly he thought he might lose circulation.  When he looked into her sweet face, he could see panic laced with determination.  That was his woman.  No matter her fears, she would never back down, but that wasn’t he wanted for them.  For her.

Dex kicked the door closed with his foot, then went to the bed and sat down with her in his lap. 

“Lasagna.”

“Huh?” he queried.

“I always order lasagna.  With meat sauce.  I wear Navy T-shirts to bed with comfy shorts.”

His head went quiet.  The world stopped spinning.  “Why do you wear Navy T-shirts to bed?”

“My dad was in the Navy.  He wore dress whites when he married my mom.  I wear Navy T-shirts to bed.”

“Is that why you responded to my e-mail?  The dress whites?”

“That, and you’re a big brother to a boy who needs you and your eyes.  You have beautiful eyes.  I thought maybe you could be someone I could trust with a piece of my heart.”

“Ahhh God, you kill me.” He pressed a kiss against her temple, then feathered his lips down the line of her jaw until he could capture her lips.  So good, she tasted so good.  He laid her down on the duvet, strands of strawberry blonde hair fanned across the blue pillows.  Her hazel eyes looked mostly gray as they stared up at him. 

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I want this,” she whispered.

“I’m glad.”  Her fingers went to the buttons on her blouse, he brushed them away.  “I want to undress you.  I’ve dreamt of taking it slow, savoring every moment.”

Her voice was hushed.  “Really?”

“Truly,” he whispered the word against her lips.  His fingers slowly slipped first one, then another and then another button from their holes until he was able to part her shirt and look at the sensible white bra that encased her generous breasts.

It broke his heart when he saw her waiting for his judgement like there was a possibility that he would find her lacking.  “Lady, you take my breath away.”

A smile, like the sun cresting the ocean at dawn, broke over her face.  He dipped down for another kiss and was soon lost.  The woman was as potent as Kentucky bourbon.  He felt her hands under his T-shirt, her nails scraping up his back, and the caress was going to make this moment go a whole lot faster than he wanted.

“Off,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Your shirt off.  Now!”  Her nails bit deep, and he liked it.  He pulled it over his head and was gratified when he heard her sigh of satisfaction. 

“Now you.”  He eased her up, so he could pull off her blouse and unfasten her bra.  Thank God, he was lying down.  Otherwise, she’d bring him to his knees.

“Fuck.  You’re gorgeous,” he rasped.

She stilled.  Her eyes got wide.  Then she threw back her head and laughed.

***

“Woman, there better be a damn good reason you’re laughing.”

Kenna wound her arms around his neck and tried to pull him down for a kiss.  He was having none of it.  “You really think I’m beautiful,” she said grinning.

“No.  Get it right, I think you’re beyond beautiful.  I said you’re gorgeous.”

She laughed harder.  “Now kiss me.”

He looked put out.  She grabbed his ears and pulled.  His lips met her smile, and it was a glorious, beautiful, gorgeous kiss.  It was the best kiss of her entire life.  Each one of his kisses just kept getting better.  She felt his hands move up her ribcage, up and up, then he was cupping her breasts.  She closed her eyes even tighter so she could relish the sensation.  Tendrils of heat coiled outwards, her legs started moving of their own volition.  Her thighs squeezing together, trying to assuage the fire that Dex had started.

She didn’t know when her hands had moved, but once again she felt the strength of Dex’s strong back under fingers.  She pressed deep into his flesh, savoring the resiliency of his muscles.  Dex moved his mouth, she felt the rasp of his beard against her cheek, then he moved lower, and...

Gods, Yes!

His tongue circled her nipple.  Hot, wet, sublime.

“Dex,” she gasped.  “I need...I need.”

His eyes shot up and caught hers.  “I have you.  I’ll take care of you.  Always.” 

He bent back to taste her and she couldn’t think, she could only feel.  His flesh against hers, his arms beneath her back, she was wrapped up in the heat and scent of Dex, and she gloried in it. 

Kiss after kiss, caress after caress, and then she found herself lying on the bed without her jeans, looking at him wearing just her panties.  Her plain white cotton panties.

“No thong.”

“These are now my favorite type of panties,” he whispered.

His fingers traced the elastic of her waistband, back and forth, shooting tingles through her body.  Then he slid his hand underneath the cotton, and she held her breath.  His eyes met hers.

“Breathe Baby.”  One finger found her wet flesh, and she gasped for air. 

His eyes glittered with passion and tenderness as he coaxed a response that had been waiting just for him.  Just him.  He pressed and swirled and she arched against the heat of his hand.

Was that her making those sounds?

Then all thought flew out of her head as her release exploded.

He got off the bed and stripped.  Her eyes widened as she saw him naked for the first time, his body was a work of art.  But she saw scars.  Before she had a chance to fully comprehend what those meant, he had grabbed a condom from his duffel and whisked her panties off her body. 

“Are you okay with this,” he asked.

Where was her resounding ‘yes?’  She could only give a small nod.  But he understood, his fingers trailed down her cheek. 

“We’ll go slow.  Snail’s pace slow.”  Then his fingers continued a path to her breasts.

“Fuck slow,” she said finding her words.  “I need you now.”

He grinned.  “There’s my girl.”

She pushed up on her elbows and parted her legs, anxious to start.  He cocked an eyebrow, and cupped her breast, his thumb rasping against her nipple.  She gasped.  He bent down and sucked the other one, and she moaned.  Soon he had her writhing on the bed.  Thank God, his room was far from the others, was her last coherent thought as he slid down her body between her thighs.

He wasn’t.

He couldn’t.

His thumbs touched and caressed and parted her needy flesh.  Then his tongue was there, and she cried out his name as she found rapture.

Soon she was locked in his arms, her face smashed against his chest.  Her hand moved to his cock and found him sheathed. 

“Please, Dex.”  She moved her leg so that it circled his waist.

“Slow, Baby,” he admonished.

“Now,” she said as she guided him to her.  “Now, now, now.”

He thrust deep.  She winced.

“Goddammit, Kenna.”

“I’m good.”  She clutched him with both legs when he would have pulled away.  “It’s been awhile,” she reminded him.

He remained still, and she absorbed the fullness, the closeness, the intimacy.  She kissed the underside of his jaw and surged against him. 

She squeezed, then squeezed again.  He groaned. 

Gently he moved.  It felt good. 

“Again,” she pleaded.

He did, he kept moving, and soon they were locked in a rhythm that took her breath away.  It was perfect.  Every time she needed something, he gave it to her.  She stared up at him, hoping that she was providing even half as much in return.

“Hey, stay with me,” he admonished.

How had he known?

She closed her eyes and then felt lonely, missing the connection.  She opened them again.

“That’s it, Kenna, look at me.  I need you.”  She saw he wasn’t lying.  Their emotional link was as deep and powerful as the joining of their bodies.  He smiled, and she saw his pleasure, his joy.

She undulated against him.

“Again.  Oh God, Kenna, do that again.”

She did.  Their passion became frenzied.  He was taking her even higher than before.  How was that even possible?  Then she understood.  It was because they were together. 

“Kenna?”

“I’m here.  Please.  Now,” she cried out. 

She looked into the eyes of the man she loved and catapulted into bliss.