CHAPTER SIX
I TOLD YOU to pace yourself,” Holden said, a knowing smile on his face as Kendall pushed the paper plate full of food away from her with a sigh. “The idea is to take a little nibble of each taco so you can try a lot of different kinds. That way you can vote on your favorite. You weren’t supposed to eat the whole thing.”
Kendall looked down at the three tacos of beefy goodness on the plate and shrugged. “The first one was so good, I couldn’t stop myself.”
When Holden had suggested she eat a light breakfast that morning, she hadn’t understood why. Even after he’d said they were going to meet some of the guys from his team in Golden Hill Park for the 4th Annual Tacotopia, she’d still been at a loss. What the hell was Tacotopia? But at soon as they’d arrived at the big outdoor venue and she’d seen the acres of food and beer tents, the stages for live music, and the games set up all over the place, she realized he’d brought her to a monstrous festival with more than sixty taco vendors from all over southern California and Mexico. The whole thing was supposed to be a competition, but who the hell could eat sixty tacos? Even if you took a single bite of each, it was still too much.
On the other side of the table, Kimber and Kyla looked as full as she was, something Holden, Dalton, and Wes seemed to find amusing.
“How are you going to vote on the best taco here?” Wes asked with a laugh. “You’ve barely eaten anything.”
“You can eat my share and vote twice,” Kyla said, giving him a smile.
Wes returned her smile, but didn’t say anything. After moment, he looked away. Though Kyla tried to hide it, Kendall saw a flash of what could only be called pain in the girl’s eyes. Kendall thought that after last night, the two of them would have gotten past their shyness. It was obvious to anyone who saw them that they liked each other.
Wes cleared his throat and stood, jerking his head toward the food tents. “I’m heading back for seconds. Anybody else?”
“I’m in.” Holden glanced at her. “You want anything?”
Kendall shook her head. “I’m good, thanks.”
“You and Holden seem to be hitting it off,” Kimber said as Holden and the other guys disappeared into the crowd.
Kendall was surprised when she felt her face color. Crap, she never blushed. “Holden’s an easy guy to like. In fact, he’s pretty damn amazing.”
“I won’t argue with you about that.” Kimber’s mouth curved. “My daughter is alive today because of him. Dalton was awesome, of course, and I love him like crazy. And Wes did more than I can ever thank him for, too. But if it wasn’t for Holden and everything he did to help us break into the company where I worked we would have never gotten her back from those kidnappers.”
“I remember you guys talking about that at the rehearsal dinner,” Kendall said. She needed to tread carefully here since she wasn’t supposed to know what Kimber was talking about. “I didn’t really understand it all, though. Did your daughter seriously get kidnapped by terrorists?”
Kimber nodded, telling her how Emma had been grabbed by a bunch of Chinese foreign nationals in a wild plot to get their hands on a piece of high-tech computer technology her company had been developing for the Department of Defense. Kendall had read the FBI reports, of course, but it was completely different hearing about it from a mother’s perspective. She could feel the terror in Kimber’s voice as she described how she’d felt when she realized her daughter had been taken, then the nervous excitement as she talked about breaking into the high-security facility to steal the chips so they could exchange them for her daughter, and finally, the relief when she had Emma back in her arms.
“And Holden was the one who came up with the plan and the equipment to crack the security on that high-tech facility?” Kendall asked casually. “Wow. I never realized breaking and entering was something they taught people how to do in the SEALs.”
Kimber laughed. “I’m pretty sure Holden possessed those particular talents long before he became a SEAL. The things that happened while we were in San Francisco makes me think he had a very unique upbringing.”
Even if that matched with what little Kendall knew of Holden’s late teen years, she still found herself leaning forward with interest. On the other side of Kimber, Kyla looked just as intrigued.
“Well, don’t leave us hanging,” Kendall said. “Spill.”
“I can’t really say for sure because Holden doesn’t talk that much about his past, but I do know that there was some kind of trouble after everything was over,” Kimber said. “I think it had something to do with the favor he owed whoever loaned him the gear we used to break into my company.”
“What kind of trouble?” Kendall prodded.
“Holden and Wes were gone for a long time picking up the stuff and when they came back, it looked like they’d both been in a fight.”
Kyla’s eyes went wide. “A fight?”
Kimber nodded. “Neither of them talked about what happened, and Dalton refused to even ask. Some kind of stupid bro code or something.”
Kendall had a hard time containing her excitement. That was the night before someone had stolen the Key from the NSA. The timeline was too perfect to be coincidence. And the part about Holden doing a favor for the person who’d provided the gear they’d used to break in was extremely interesting.
Something told her it might even be the key to everything—no pun intended.
Not wanting either woman to notice how interested she was in the whole thing, Kendall changed the subject, asking where Emma was today.
“She has a play date with Erika.” Kimber smiled. “That’s Trent and Lyla’s little girl. She’s a few years older than Emma, but the two of them have quickly become BFF’s.”
Kendall vaguely remembered meeting a little girl with long, platinum blond hair at the rehearsal dinner. Trent and Lyla had only stayed a little while before needing to go because the girl had fallen asleep on her daddy’s shoulder. But she remembered the kid as being cute as a button.
She was about to ask if Trent and Lyla had a crazy romantic story about how they’d gotten together—like Kimber and Dalton—when Holden and the other two SEALs returned with their second helping of tacos and beer. If anything, it looked like they had more food this time then they’d had before.
“You keep eating like that and those six-pack abs are a thing of the past,” she teased softly as Holden sat down beside her.
He snorted as he picked up one of the tacos he’d brought back. “Please. I’ll work these calories off before eight a.m. tomorrow.”
As she regarded all the food on his plate, Kendall had a difficult time believing anyone could work out that much. Then she caught the smolder in his dark eyes as he glanced at her and she found herself wondering exactly what kind of exercise he had in mind.
* * * * *
“Weren’t you afraid you’d get arrested?” Kendall asked as they strolled through the park an hour later. “I mean, you had to know that was a possibility when you decided to break into a high-security facility like the one where Kimber used to work.”
Holden slipped his arm around Kendall’s waist and tugged her closer. He told himself he only did it to keep her from getting forced off the sidewalk and into the muddy grass by the crowd of people moving around them. But in truth, he liked being near her as they walked. The way her hip brushed his thigh was sexy in a way he had a difficult time describing.
“Yeah, I knew getting arrested was something that could happen,” he said. “It wasn’t very likely, of course, since I do actually know what the heck I’m doing when it comes to stealing stuff. But truthfully, I didn’t give it a lot of thought before or after. Dalton said he needed help, so I helped.”
“Just like that?” She glanced at him. “Your teammate says he needs your help and you violate a dozen laws, no questions asked?”
“Pretty much,” he said without hesitation. “Dalton is like family to me. All my Teammates are. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them.”
Kendall stopped walking right in the middle of the crowded sidewalk, forcing people to flow around them as she turned to face him. He couldn’t see her eyes because she was wearing sunglasses, but he got the sense that she was regarding him thoughtfully. He expected her to say he was crazy, that real people didn’t risk going to jail for their coworkers. Instead, she continued to study him, like she was trying to figure out what his major malfunction was. He wasn’t sure what she finally decided, but it must have been something that satisfied her because she took his hand and starting walking again.
“What about your real family?” She glanced at him. “Do you break into high-security buildings for them, too?”
He snorted at the memories those questions stirred up. “I’ll admit to breaking a few laws for my mom when I was younger, but that was a long time ago. I never broke into any high-security facilities for her, though. Then again, it was a long time ago. I may have forgotten.”
They stepped out of the way of a big group of college guys drunk off their asses, stopping alongside one of the food tents. Even though he’d eaten enough tacos for four people, the delicious aromas wafting out of the place made his mouth water.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked, those vibrant eyes looking right through him. “You’ve been doing this kind of stuff since you were a kid?”
He shrugged, not sure why he was getting into any of this with her. He usually didn’t talk about his past to people, not even his teammates. But there was something about Kendall that made him want to tell her everything. Maybe it was her open and honest face. More likely, though, it was that she was so friggin' hot he’d tell her all his secrets simply for a chance to be near her.
“I grew up in about the crappiest part of San Francisco you could ever imagine,” he said quietly. “Dad was a dirtbag who was in and out of prison half a dozen times before I even started middle school. One day he made parole and never came home. I barely noticed.”
He appreciated that she didn’t look at him like he was a kicked puppy. That was the usual response he got on those rare occasions when he told people about his childhood. He hated that.
“So, your mother raised you on her own?” she asked softly.
“Not so much,” he murmured, smiling even though he didn’t feel like it. He watched the people moving around the park, not because he was interested in what they were doing, but because it gave him something to do —besides look at Kendall. “My mom was addicted to meth a good part of her life, and I ended up taking care of her more than the other way around. Paying the bills and being a responsible adult at the age of fourteen can be a little tough.”
“So, you started stealing stuff,” Kendall said softly. It wasn’t a question. “Did you do it on your own or were you in a gang?”
He glanced at her sharply. That last part had been seriously astute…for a college student. But then he remembered Kendall was used to digging through mountains of data and pulling out vital tidbits on a daily basis at her job. Still, it was a far cry from crunching numbers at an investment firm—which he was pretty sure she did for a living—and this. It was almost like he was talking to a shrink…or a cop.
“I was on my own for a little while,” he admitted, remembering those crazy days when he’d do anything he could to come up with enough money to pay the rent and keep food on the table. He even used to swipe money out of vending machines. Buying groceries with piles of nickels, dimes, and quarters had earned him some bizarre looks. “After a while, I ended up on the radar of one of the gangs and they recruited me. I didn’t really want to be in a gang, but it wasn’t like I had much of a choice. It helped pay the bills.”
Kendall trailed her hand up his arm, casually resting it on his shoulder and encouraging him to move closer. Ignoring the crowd of people around them, he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. His cock immediately perked up at the proximity of her body. Well, the proximity of one particular part of her body. He mentally smacked his erection down, telling it to behave.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but since you were in a gang, I have to know,” she said curiously. “Are you like covered in gang tattoos under those clothes and did you ever get busted by the cops?”
Holden chuckled. Okay, that caught him completely off guard.
“No gang tats,” he told her. “I always thought it was pretty stupid to advertise your criminal associations for the world to see. And no, I never got arrested. I was too good for that.”
She laughed and Holden almost groaned when he felt her stomach tighten and flex against his. Damn, what he wouldn’t do to get his fingers—not to mention his tongue—on that toned tummy right about then. Mr. Stiffy perked back up at that.
Down, boy.
She leaned in, her mouth grazing his as she pressed into his hard-on. Something told him she knew exactly what she was doing to him and didn’t care if they were in a crowded public park.
“What happened after that?” she asked. “How’d you get out of the gang?”
Try as he might, Holden couldn’t avoid the rush of memories that question brought with it. Some of them were good, but most weren’t. While he loved talking to Kendall, he didn’t feel like going that far down memory lane. It was deep, dark, and depressing as hell.
“Someone a little more…organized is the best way to put it, I guess, saw the stuff I could do. He got me out of the gang and brought me into his organization. That’s where I learned how to do the stuff I did up in San Fran.” Holden felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “I learned a lot of stuff from him actually.”
“Is he the reason you ended up in the SEALs?”
Holden considered lying. It would definitely be easier. But the thought of being less than honest with Kendall seemed wrong. He decided to go with a half-truth. “Not really. But he could have made things difficult and refused to let me walk away from the organization. He didn’t. I’ve always appreciated that.”
“Why the SEALs?”
Holden chuckled. That was an easier question to answer. “I like to swim. I figured I’d get a chance to do that a lot as a SEAL.”
He waited for Kendall to comment on that, but instead, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, gently pulling him down for a kiss. He groaned, his cock hardening so fast it was almost painful. Kendall let out a little moan.
He thought back to last night and how difficult it had been trying to sleep on the couch knowing Kendall was lying half dressed in his bed only a few feet away. He’d heard her moving around several times during the night and it had been damn tough not getting up to see if there was something else she’d rather be doing than catching some Z’s.
Kendall was the one who finally broke the kiss. Which was probably a good thing because there was no way he was going to stop otherwise.
She gazed up at him with an expression of pure amazement on her face. “I’m not sure if you realize this, but you’re kind of incredible.”
His chuckle turned into another groan as she surreptitiously wiggled against his hard-on. She was just as turned on as he was. Maybe it was time for them to stop playing around and acting like they both didn’t know exactly where this was going. He’d been taking his time because he thought that was what she needed. He realized now that she didn’t need to be handled with kid gloves.
“You ready to get out of here?” he asked.
She grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Chuckling again, Holden turned to lead her toward the park exit and just about ran into Wes.
“You weren’t answering your cell,” he said. From the look of amusement on Wes’s face, he knew exactly what he’d interrupted. “Figured you wouldn’t want to miss them announce the winner of the taco competition. Come on. We have a place saved up near the stage.”
Giving them a grin, Wes took off in that direction.
“What do you think?” Holden asked. “Should we bail on them?”
“And leave before we find out who the winner is?” Kendall countered with a look of mock horror. “I could never handle the suspense of not knowing.”
Holden laughed. As they walked hand in hand across the park toward the stage, he couldn’t help but wonder how he’d stumbled over someone so incredible. She was perfect for him.