CHAPTER FIFTEEN
KIMBER SMILED AS Emma and Erika, the daughter of one of Dalton’s SEAL teammates, played together on the floor under the new kitchen table with their collection of Monster High dolls. Even though Erika was a few years older than Emma, they got along well, something Kimber was extremely grateful for. It had definitely made the move down to San Diego much easier for her daughter to handle. Not that Emma had made much of a fuss about moving. She’d been understandably bummed to leave her grandma and grandpa, but the idea of living with her father and exploring a whole new city full of zoos and aquariums had been more than enough to cheer her up.
“We should have had this party outside,” Dalton said as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle, pulling her back against him. “Our daughter has to play under the kitchen table to keep from being stepped on, and we don’t have nearly enough chairs.”
Kimber laughed and rested her arms on his, intertwining her fingers with his as she tilted her head to look back at him. “Our daughter is playing under the table because that’s what little kids do. And we couldn’t have the party outside because it’s a housewarming. That means you need to have it indoors. Besides, everyone is having a good time, even if they have to sit on the floor. So, stop worry about everything and be glad we didn’t try to do this in your old apartment or your teammates would be sitting in each other’s laps.”
Dalton chuckled. “True that.”
When she and Emma had first moved down there three weeks ago, the plan had been for them to move into Dalton’s place, but it had quickly become apparent his small one-bedroom apartment wasn’t going to work. While Emma was giddy at the idea of sleeping on the couch in the living room in front of the huge TV and game console, it hadn’t been practical. Emma needed her own bedroom, preferably one that wasn’t ten feet away from her mom and dad’s. Kimber and Dalton had five years of wasted time to make up for. It was hard being quiet all the time.
Dalton had waxed poetically about losing his bachelor pad, but in the end, he’d fallen in love with their new three-bedroom house in the Azalea-Hollywood Park area as much as she had. She liked the extra bedroom and the nearby elementary school. He liked the big backyard and the awesome playground a block away. It met all their needs and was close to Coronado and the tech firm Kimber would be starting work at in another week. They couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place for them to start their new lives.
She and Dalton were still standing to one side of the living room when Holden came over.
“Did you hear anything from the Feds up in San Francisco yet?” he asked. “I saw a news exposé about JASCO last night that implied Jasper Cole might not have died in that crash. Is that possible?”
Dalton shrugged, his mouth tightening. “They never found Cole’s body, so anything is possible. Then again, there are a lot of people from that yacht who are unaccounted for, including Li Jun Huang, two of his troops, and the captain. The feds and the local police think currents washed their bodies out of the bay and into the ocean, but that’s just a guess.”
Kimber shuddered at the thought of the man who’d tried to kill her still out there somewhere. It was Dalton’s theory that if Jasper was still alive, he had no interest in her any longer. She’d simply been a means to an end for him. Dalton was probably right, but that didn’t stop her from having nightmares anyway.
“What’s going to happen to JASCO?” Holden asked. “Any chance it’s going to stay in business?”
“I doubt it,” she said. “Jasper did a number on the company’s finances long before the Chinese figured out what he was doing. There were problems with 401k contributions, design patents sold to multiple buyers, equipment never paid for—the list of problems is endless. I can’t imagine anyone bothering to keep JASCO going when it would be easier to hire the people who worked there and start over.”
They were still talking about her coworkers at JASCO when Felicia Bradford came by with an excited look on her face. The fiancée of one of Dalton’s teammates, as well as a fantastic wedding planner, Felicia was quickly becoming her new best friend in San Diego, mostly because they were spending so much time together planning her own nuptials to Dalton.
“Two words,” Felicia said, holding her hands up in the universal sign for wait for it. “Napa Valley.”
Kimber exchanged looks with Dalton before turning back to her friend. “You found a place in Napa where we can hold the wedding on short notice?”
Kimber knew it was crazy trying to pull off a wedding in the middle of a move to a new city and a new home, all while getting Emma settled in a new school and her situated in a new job, but she and Dalton didn’t want to wait. They’d wasted five years and they didn’t want to waste another minute if they could help it.
But even though she wanted the wedding to happen ASAP, Kimber still wanted a standard fairytale wedding with a beautiful church, an outdoor reception, and a perfect honeymoon.
It had been a tall order for Felicia and her coworkers, but judging by the excitement in her eyes, it looked like they’d been able to make it happen.
“There’s a big bed and breakfast in St. Helena,” Felicia continued. “They have a huge yard in the back with a deck for dancing, rooms for twenty guests to sleep over, and amazing views of the mountains. Plus, there’s a quaint, little church nearby that is going to make you cry the moment you see it. And we have it all booked three weeks from Saturday.”
Kimber held her breath, her stomach quivering. This was actually happening. “And the rest—the caterer, the priest, the DJ, the flowers, the dress? You’re going to be able to make all of that happen in three weeks?”
Felicia smiled. “It will happen. I’m heading up there tomorrow to start advance planning. It’s all going to come together. I promise.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure,” Felicia said.
Grinning, Kimber threw her arms around Felicia, hugging her tightly. She couldn’t believe this was real. Or how incredibly lucky she was. Not merely getting a second chance with Dalton but having new friends like Felicia and the other women in the extended SEAL family who could help pull something like this off on such short notice. She was so happy, she wanted to do a Snoopy Dance right there.
She might have done it, too, if Nash hadn’t stuck his head out from the kitchen. “Hey. You’re out of beer in the fridge. Where do you keep your back-up stash?”
Kimber blinked. There was no way they could be out of beer already. She’d just stocked the fridge before everyone got there. She opened her mouth to tell Nash as much, but Dalton took her hand and led her toward the door that led down to the finished basement.
“We’ll go get more,” he said over his shoulder. “Back in a flash.”
“What are you doing?” Kimber asked.
“Going for beer,” he said. “You heard Nash. We’re out.”
“I’m pretty sure we’re not out,” she insisted. “And even if we are, do you really need me to go downstairs with you to get more? You may not have noticed, but I was having a conversation with Felicia.”
“Yeah, I know.” He held open the door to the basement for her. “But I could really use your help carrying the beer.”
She glanced sideways at him, not sure what the heck he was talking about. Since when did he need help carrying stuff?
When they got downstairs, she expected Dalton to head straight for the fridge/freezer unit, but instead, he stopped halfway across the room and turned to look at her, a wicked smile on his sinfully attractive face. That’s when Kimber realized something was going on. They hadn’t been out of beer at all. Dalton and Nash had set this up.
“Okay, what’s really going on?” she asked. “Because I know we didn’t come down here to get beer.”
His grin broadened. “Yeah, you got me there. I asked Nash to help me come up with an excuse to get you down here and beer was the only thing he could come up with. But you have to give him some credit. It worked.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “And why did you want to get me down here?”
He lifted a brow and gave her his best smolder.
“Forget it,” she laughed. “I’m as game for a quickie as the next girl, but we have a whole house full of guests upstairs, not to mention a curious five-year-old who’ll likely be on her way down here before long. You’re going to have to control yourself until later tonight after Emma is asleep. Then, if you still want to, we can sneak down here and do anything your devious mind can think of.”
Kimber could tell from the look in his eyes that her naughty offer had intrigued him.
“Deal. Because this devious mind of mine can think of all kinds of things we can do down here,” he said. “But to be honest, I didn’t actually come down here for a quickie.”
“You didn’t?” Okay, now she was confused…and a little disappointed. “Why did you drag me down here then?”
He slowly brought one hand out from behind his back to reveal a small, velvety black jewelry box. “So I could give you this. I was going to give it to you tonight after everyone left, but now that we have a firm date for the wedding, I thought maybe I should do it now.”
Kimber’s breath caught as he opened the box and an engagement ring with a round, brilliant cut diamond came into view. There were two smaller diamonds on either either of the main stone, all four set into a channel in the white gold band. It was beyond gorgeous.
“I have you. That’s all I’ve ever needed—or wanted,” she whispered, lifting her gaze to his. “I never even thought about an engagement ring. I thought we’d get simple gold bands for the ceremony and I would have been fine with that.”
Dalton carefully took the ring out of the box, then gently took her hand and slipped the beautiful piece of jewelry onto her finger. It fit perfectly.
“I know you would,” he said. “But it’s important to me that I do this right. We messed up the first time we were together and I don’t want that to happen again. I had this ring specially made for you with five diamonds, one for every year we wasted. I want you to be able to look at it and know how precious you are to me and that I’m never going to stop loving you. You and Emma are the world to me now.”
Kimber gazed at her hand, mesmerized as the diamonds caught the light and reflected them a hundredfold. It became kind of difficult to see thanks to the tears filling her eyes, but she decided it was the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen. It was perfect…like Dalton.
She went up on tiptoes to give him a long, slow kiss that was full of a lifetime of promises.
“And you’re the world to me…and to Emma,” she whispered. “And we’re both going to love you forever.”
She and Dalton probably would have stayed down there making out the rest of the day if it wasn’t for a curious five-year-old who stuck her head down the stairs, asking when they were coming upstairs.
“They’re bringing out the cake,” Emma said.
Kimber pulled away from Dalton with a laugh. “Come on. Let’s go before our daughter talks all those big strong SEALs up there into giving her far more cake than she should eat.”
Dalton chuckled and let her lead him upstairs. “You got that right. If anyone’s going to let her eat too much cake, it should be me. I’m her dad.”
Kimber smiled. And she couldn’t have asked for a better one for their daughter.
* * * * *
I hope you enjoyed Dalton and Kimber’s story!
Holden Lockwood is the next SEAL to fall in love.
His story releases August 2018 when he meets FBI agent Kendall Patton. Only he doesn’t know she’s a Fed. Or that she’s there to arrest him and put him in prison.
Here’s a sneak peek at SEAL to the Rescue, Book Six in the SEALs of Coronado Series.
One way or another…
Holden Lockwood never suspected the beautiful woman he saved from her ex-boyfriend during a drunken brawl was all a set-up. But he always was a sucker for damsels in distress, and if that means going the extra mile and letting her stay at his house to protect her…Now he’s falling head over combat boots for her and it seems she feels the same. But Holden has secrets, one in particular that rip their new romance apart like a land mine.
She always gets her man.
Undercover FBI agent, Kendall Patton, has orders to get close to Holden Lockwood—whatever it takes. Suspected of stealing a high-tech decryption device, Holden is considered a threat to national security. Little does Kendall know he’s a threat to her heart. The deeper her investigation gets, the deeper her feelings get. But when she’s kicked off the case and Holden is arrested, it will take a SEAL team, a little theft, and a lot of luck to save him.
Can their relationship be saved? Or has trust been tested beyond its limits?
CHAPTER ONE
San Diego, California
“I told you we’d be back in time,” Holden said as he and Chasen walked into the restaurant. He looked around for everyone else. Hayley had said something about reserving a back room for the rehearsal dinner. “I don’t why you ever doubted me.”
“Maybe because we made it to the church for the rehearsal with less than five minutes to spare.” Chasen scanned the crowded bar and grill. Obviously, he didn’t know where the party was being held any better than Holden did. “If we’d been any later, the priest would have charged us overtime.”
Holden chuckled. “I’m pretty sure priests don’t have overtime rates. Actually, I don’t think they have base rates. God doesn’t charge fees, so his priests can’t, either.”
Chasen considered that. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure Hayley mentioned something about a big donation to the church.”
Holden shrugged. “Can’t help you there. The guy is due whatever donation he can get.”
He glanced around again, hoping to catch sight of someone he knew. It would have been easier if he and Chasen had come there with everyone else after the wedding rehearsal, but the priest had wanted to talk with Chasen about marriage certificates or something so Hayley and the others had headed to the restaurant to make sure they didn’t lose the room she’d reserved.
Holden was about to pull out his phone and shoot a text to Wes asking where the hell they were when he noticed a server disappear down a hallway to the left of the bar with a big tray of drinks.
“I think that’s our party,” he said, motioning in that direction. “Unless there’s another group back there that likes to starts off dinner with Jagerbombs.”
Chasen chuckled and headed that way.
Holden followed, once more thanking God they’d all gotten back in time for the wedding. That asshole of a CIA handler had kept hammering at them for another day and a half nonstop, running scenario after scenario throughout the night until they could barely stand up straight, much less shoot straight. Then, out of the blue early that morning, he’d ended the exercise and told them to be ready for a helicopter extraction within the hour.
That was it. No after-action brief, no breakdown of how well they’d done or why they’d been doing it. Not even a word about what would happen next if that kind of terrorist situation ever showed up for real.
Hell, the friggin’ guy hadn’t even said goodbye.
“I told you I’m not having a drink with you!”
“Okay, so let’s just get out of here then.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, either!”
Holden didn’t make a habit of eavesdropping, but it was hard not to pay attention to the argument the couple at the bar were having, especially since he was standing two feet away. He wasn’t sure why he slowed to glance at them. But one look at the woman and he did a double take.
With long, blond hair and the greenest eyes he’d ever seen, in a word, she was gorgeous. It wasn’t merely her beauty that had made him come to a standstill. It was the mix of emotions on her face. There was anger for sure, along with a healthy dose of worry and embarrassment. All of it focused on the man casually sitting on the bar stool beside her. Holden couldn’t see his face because the guy had his back to him, but judging from her expression, he was from that very well-traveled part of the country known as asshole land.
“I’ll catch up with you in a few,” he said to Chasen.
His chief nodded and disappeared into the crowd.
By the time he turned back to the couple again, the blond beauty was getting to her feet. The guy immediately did the same, using his greater height to try to intimidate her. Holden cursed under his breath. He’d seen that same move dozens of times. And it always pissed him off.
“Why don’t you want to leave with me?” the man demanded.
Now that the a-hole was on his feet, Holden could see the man’s face and he automatically assessed him. The guy was tall and fit, maybe five years older than the woman, with a face that should have put her way out of his league.
“Because I’m meeting someone,” she said.
Tall, Dark, and Ugly didn’t seem to like that. “Oh yeah? Who?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“So, text him and tell him you met someone else.” The man gave her a smarmy grin. “Come on. Let’s go back to your place. It’ll be like old times.”
The woman stared at the annoying ass hat in disbelief. “This conversation is over.”
She started to brush past him, but he grabbed her arm.
Holden cursed again, this time out loud. He was done watching this train wreck. Time to put himself in the middle of it and fuck somebody up.
“Honey,” he said, swooping in and pushing the a-hole’s hand aside. He slipped an arm around the woman’s waist at the same time, tugging her close and putting his body between her and the man who’d been pawing at her. Then he flashed her a smile. “Sorry I’m late. Traffic on the 805 was murder.”
She immediately tensed in his arms, probably wondering if she’d gone from the frying pan into the fire, but after moving her gaze back and forth between him and the creep who’d been harassing her, she finally seemed to figure out what was going on. Visibly relaxing, she smiled at him.
Damn. He thought she’d been beautiful before, but when she smiled, he was sure his eyes bulged, his heart beat out of his chest, his mouth fell open and his tongue rolled across the floor like he was in some flipping cartoon. Obviously, none of that must have happened because the gorgeous blond wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in for a hug. He couldn’t help noticing her body was amazing, that perfect combination of firm and soft that drove him insane. She fit against him like she’d been made for him.
“No problem.” Still smiling, she pulled back to look at him. “Your timing is perfect.”
Holden turned to find Tall, Dark, and Ugly glaring at him, his face twisted up like he’d been sucking on a lemon.
“Mind if I borrow that chair?” Holden said, gesturing at the one the guy had been using. “Since you’re done with it.”
While Holden kept his voice even, he speared the other man with his gaze, imagining twenty different ways he could seriously damage the fool without leaving a single mark on him. The guy tensed as if he knew exactly what Holden was thinking. When Tall, Dark, and Ugly didn’t back down, Holden thought he might actually be stupid enough to start something. Finally, after giving him and the woman a glare, the jerk stormed off, muttering under his breath and heading for the exit.
Holden turned back to the blond to find her smiling at him again. Damn, a smile like that could make a man do some stupid things. Like charging to the rescue of a woman he’d never met before.
“I’m Holden Lockwood,” he said. “I didn’t mean to come on so strong, putting my hands on you like that. Getting grabby wasn’t my intent.”
She nodded. “Kendall Patton. And you didn’t come on too strong. I mean, yeah, putting your arm around me caught me by surprise, but in comparison to Issac, you’re good.”
Before Holden could answer the bartender showed up, asking if they wanted something to drink. Holden gave Kendall a questioning look, at the same time deciding the name suited her.
“A glass of white wine would be great,” she said.
He glanced at the bartender. “Beer for me. Whatever you have on tap.”
The man nodded and disappeared to grab their drinks.
“So…Issac, huh?” Holden murmured. “Seemed like a jackass.”
Kendall snorted, then laughed. “Issac is the kind of ex who makes a woman question her judgment in men.” She shook her head, her long, blond hair swinging around to feather across her lips in a way that made his fingers itch to reach out and brush it aside. “I don’t know why I ever dated him. I honestly can’t think of a single thing I liked about him now.” She fell silent as the bartender set their drinks down in front of them, waiting until he left again before adding, “I have no idea why I just told you all that.”
Holden shrugged. “It’s the face. It makes people want to confide in me. My coworkers are always telling me things they probably don’t intend to.”
“I can believe that,” Kendall said. “I’ve only known you a few minutes and I already feel like I should be telling you my deepest and darkest secrets.”
He chuckled. “You should probably resist the urge. Not that I won’t listen if you feel you have to spill, but I’m generally of the opinion that people should maintain the mystery as long as possible when they first meet.”
“I’ll do my best,” she promised, sipping her wine. He liked watching her purse her lips as she drank. It made him think things he definitely shouldn’t about a woman within the first five minutes of knowing her.
“This is going to sound like the worst pick-up line ever, but do you come here often?” he asked, dragging his gaze away from those perfect, plump lips. “Is that how Issac happened to run into you?”
Kendall fixed her gaze on the mirror behind the bar, eyeing the crowded restaurant in the reflection of the glass as if she was worried about Issac coming back.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever set foot in the place.” She looked at him. “I told Isaac I was meeting someone, but I made that up, hoping to get him to leave me alone. I was heading home from class and decided to stop.”
“Class?”
She nodded. “I’m working on my masters in political science at San Diego State. I’ve practically been living in the campus library for the past three weeks working on a project and came in here to unwind. I needed to hang out with people who aren’t buried up to their eyeballs in textbooks.”
Holden got that. Sometimes, after a particularly sucky deployment he’d go to the park or hang out at the beach simply so he could be around people who weren’t trying to kill each other. It was something he did to get his head back to normal, whatever the hell that was.
“I haven’t spent much time in a college library, but I understand what it’s like to get so deep into your work you forget what it’s like to be around other people.”
She regarded him curiously. “What kind of work do you do?”
“I’m in the Navy.”
He purposely didn’t mention being in the SEALs. In his experience, he got one of two reactions when he told a woman he was a SEAL. They were either stoked at the idea of being with a guy who had a mysterious, dangerous job, or they immediately shut him down, not interested in getting involved with a guy who had a mysterious, dangerous job. He’d prefer to put off finding out which way Kendall would go once she found out what he really did for a living.
“Do you like it?” she asked. “The Navy, I mean.”
He swigged his beer. “Most of the time. Some days, I love it and can’t imagine doing anything else. Other days, I wonder why the hell I even joined.”
“Which day is today?”
“The one when I love it and can’t imagine doing anything else.” He flashed her a grin. “Luckily, there are way more of these kind of days.”
That was true enough. He was about to ask Kendall about the political science program she was working on—because he didn’t have a clue what a person did with a degree like that—when her gaze darted to something over his shoulder. He spun, thinking it must be Issac, only to relax when he saw it was Wes.
“Chasen sent me out check on you,” Wes said, regarding him and Kendall curiously. “We’re starting to order dinner and he figured you wouldn’t want to miss out since he’s paying for everything.”
Holden chuckled. Chasen knew him well. Normally, he would have been doing everything he could to spend his chief’s money. But that was before he met Kendall.
“I didn’t realize I was keeping you from your friends,” she said, setting down her half finished glass of wine. “You should have said something.”
He gave her a sheepish look. “To be honest, after we started talking, I completely forgot about my boss’s rehearsal dinner.”
She looked at him like he was crazy. “How could you forget something as important as that?”
Holden smiled. “You’re kind of distracting, if you haven’t noticed.”
The compliment seemed to catch Kendall off guard and she stared at him for a moment before blushing and shyly returning his smile. Holden was doing his best not to lean over and kiss her when he heard Wes clear his throat. He glanced at his Teammate to see an amused expression on Wes’s face.
“Earth to Holden,” Wes said. “Standing right here and waiting for an introduction.”
Holden shook his head with a laugh. “Kendall Patton, Wes Marshall. He and I work together.”
“Nice meeting you.” Wes reached out to shake her hand, then glanced at Holden. “You’re going to ask her to have dinner with us, right?”
“Yeah, if you’d let me get a word in.” Holden glowered at Wes. He’d been going to ask his Teammate to tell Chasen and Hayley that he was going bail to have dinner with Kendall, knowing they’d understand. But inviting her to the party sounded like an even better idea. He looked at her. “What do you think?”
She shook her head. “I can’t just show up at your boss’s rehearsal dinner. I don’t even know him or his fiancée.”
“Yet,” Holden agreed. “But when you do, you’ll see that they’re really cool. The guys I work with and I are all like family. If you come with me, you’re family, too. You said you came in here to unwind. What better way to do it than at a party?” He grinned. “What do you say?”
Kendall considered that for several long seconds before nodding and giving him another smile. “I say okay. Let’s do this.”
SEAL to the Rescue
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Want more hunky Navy SEALs?
Check out the other books in the SEALs of Coronado Series!
SEAL for Her Protection
Strong Silent SEAL
Texas SEAL
Undercover SEAL
SEAL with a Past
SEAL to the Rescue
For more Military Heroes check out my X-OPS and SWAT Series!
X-OPS
Her Perfect Mate
Her Lone Wolf
Her Wild Hero
Her Fierce Warrior
Her Rogue Alpha
Her True Match
Her Dark Half
Exposed
SWAT (Special Wolf Alpha Team)
Hungry Like the Wolf
Wolf Trouble
In the Company of Wolves
To Love a Wolf
Wolf Unleashed
Wolf Hunt
Wolf Hunger
Wolf Rising
ABOUT PAIGE
Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy, romantic suspense and paranormal romance. She and her very own military hero (also known as her husband) live on the beautiful Florida coast with their adorable fur baby (also known as their dog). Paige graduated with a degree in education, but decided to pursue her passion and write books about hunky alpha males and the kick-butt heroines who fall in love with them.
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