“I’ll take the bed closer to the door, Crystal,” Bane said, dropping his luggage on the floor by the bed.
Instead of answering him, she merely nodded and rolled her luggage over to the other bed. Figuring that she had missed dinner, he’d stopped at an all-night diner to grab orders of chicken and waffles. Then he had driven four hours before finally settling at this hotel for the night. During that time she hadn’t said one word to him, not a one. And her silence bothered the hell out of him. How could she be upset with him for wanting to give her a better life? How could she think he’d deserted her? It now seemed that not keeping in contact with her had been a mistake, but what she failed to understand was that she was his weakness.
She said she would have been satisfied with him just the way he was. Flaws and all. But she deserved more. Deserved better. No matter what she thought, he would always believe that. He would admit he had been separated from her longer than he’d planned, and for that he would take the blame. Five years was a long time to expect her to put her life on hold. But that was just it. He hadn’t expected her to put her life on hold. He had expected her to make something worthwhile out of it, like he had been doing with his. And she had. She had finished high school, earned both bachelor and master’s degrees and was now working on her PhD. All during the five years he’d been gone. Why couldn’t she understand that when he’d decided to go into the navy, he’d believed that he was giving them both the chance to be all that they could be, while knowing in the end they would be together? They would always be together. Although he’d loved her more than life, he had been willing to make the sacrifice. Why hadn’t she? Had he been wrong to assume that no matter what, their love would be strong enough to survive anything? Even a long separation?
“I need to take a shower.”
His heart nearly missed a beat upon hearing the sound of her voice again. At least she was back to talking to him. “All right. I figure we’ll check out after breakfast and head south.”
“South?”
“Yes, but that might change depending on any reports I get from people I have checking on a few things.”
“Is that what that Code Purple was all about?”
So she had been listening. “Yes. That’s a code for my team. It means one of us is in trouble and all hands on deck.”
“Oh, I see.”
She then opened her luggage and dismissed him again. He placed his own travel bag on the bed and opened it. The first thing he came to was the satchel containing all the cards and letters he’d saved for her over the years. He had looked forward to finally giving them to her. But now…
“You haven’t heard anything else about my home, have you?”
He looked over at her. Although she’d taken several naps while he’d been driving, she still looked tired and exhausted. However, fatigued or not, to him she looked beautiful. “No. Flip has everything under control.”
She nodded before gathering a few pieces of clothing under her arms and heading for the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Deciding he would really try hard to not let her attitude affect his, he took the satchel and walked over to place it on her bed. It was hers. He had kept it for her and had lived for years just waiting for the day when he could give it to her. He wouldn’t let the bitterness she felt keep him from giving it to her.
His phone beeped, letting him know he’d received a text message. He glanced at his watch. It was two in the morning. He pulled his phone from his jacket and read Flip’s message. All quiet here.
He texted back. Let’s hope things stay that way.
He tried to ignore the sound of running water. He could just imagine Crystal stripping off her clothes for her shower. He would love being in there with her, taking pleasure in stepping beneath the spray of water with her, lathering her body and then making love to her. He would press her against the wall, lift her up so her legs encircled his waist and then he would ease inside her. How many nights had he lain in bed and fantasized of doing that very thing?
To take his mind off his need to make love to his wife, he glanced around the hotel room, checking things out in case they needed to make a quick getaway. This room was definitely a step up from the one they’d shared on their wedding night. He’d taken her to a nice enough hotel in Utah, but tonight’s room was more spacious. The beds looked warm and inviting and the decor eye-catching.
Crystal had accompanied him inside when he’d booked the room. He could feel her body tense up beside him when he’d told the hotel clerk he wanted one room. He’d then heard her sigh of relief when he’d added that he wanted a room with two beds.
He lifted a brow when his cell phone went off and he recognized the ringtone. It was a call from home. Dillon. He pulled his phone out of his back pocket again. “Yes, Dil?”
“You didn’t call to let us know you’d made it to Dallas. Is everything okay?”
How could he tell his brother that no, everything wasn’t okay? “Yes, I made it to Dallas. Sorry, I didn’t call but things got kind of crazy.”
“Crazy? Were you able to find Crystal?”
“Yes, went straight to her place but…”
“But the warm, cozy, loving reception that you had expected isn’t what you got.”
He shook his head. His brother could say that again. “I figured we would have to work through some issues, but I didn’t expect her to open the door with a loaded gun in her hand, her luggage packed and a bunch of bad guys trying to kidnap her.”
There was a pause and then Dillon said, “I think you need to start from the beginning, Bane.”
* * *
Crystal toweled herself off and tried not to think of the man on the other side of the door. The man she had shared her first kiss with. Her body. The man who had been her best friend. The one who’d defied her father’s threat of jail time just to be with her. And the man who was her husband.
She glanced at herself in the mirror. Did Bane see the changes? Did he like what he saw? She couldn’t attribute her figure to spending time in the gym or anything. The changes had just happened. One day she was thin and then the next, right after she’d turned twenty, the curves had come. The guys at college had noticed it, too, and tried causing problems. That was when she wished she’d had a wedding ring on her finger that would have deterred their interest. Instead, she had this, she thought, glancing at her locket.
She brought it to her lips and kissed it. It had been what had kept her sane over the past five years. She would look at it and think of Bane and remember the promise. Even on those days she hadn’t wanted to remember or thought he’d possibly forgotten.
Her heart began thumping in her chest when she recalled how he had looked at her a few times tonight. The last had been when she’d told him she was going to take a shower. Nobody could turn her on quicker with a mere look than Brisbane Westmoreland. When he had leveled those hazel eyes on her, she could feel her skin get flushed. He was the only one in his family with that eye color, which he’d inherited from his great-grandmother.
She slid into a pair of sweats and then pulled on an oversize T-shirt. Looking into the mirror again, she nervously licked her lips as she thought of Bane. What a man. What a man. She even used her hands to fan herself. A number of times on the ride tonight she had pretended to be asleep just so she could study him without him knowing she was doing so. If his eyes weren’t bad enough, he had an adorable set of lashes. Almost too long to be a man’s. He had taken off his jacket and she couldn’t help but appreciate the breadth of his shoulders. Bane was so well toned that it was obvious he lifted weights or something. SEALs were known to stay in shape. If it was required of them, then he was passing that test with flying colors.
Knowing she had spent more time than she needed in the bathroom, she gathered up her clothes in her arms and slowly opened the door. She saw Bane sitting at the desk staring at a laptop.
A laptop? How many times in the past when she’d tried showing him how to surf the net had he claimed he was technology challenged and just couldn’t get the hang of using a computer? She sniffed the air and picked up the smell of coffee. Evidently he’d made a pot while she was taking a shower. Coffee was something she’d never acquired the taste for. She preferred hot chocolate or herbal tea.
Crystal cleared her throat. “I’m finished.”
“Okay.”
He didn’t even turn around, but kept his back to her as he stared at the computer screen. Shoving the clothes she’d taken off earlier into the small travel laundry bag, she turned to put it into her luggage and saw the satchel on the bed. She picked it up. “You left something on my bed.”
It was then that he looked over his shoulder at her and at that moment she wished he hadn’t. Having those hazel eyes trained on her was sending spikes of desire up her spine. “I put it there. It’s yours.”
She lifted a brow. “Mine?”
“Yes.” He turned back to his computer.
She glanced down at the satchel. “What’s in it?”
Without turning back around to her he said, “Why don’t you look inside and see?”
* * *
Bane returned his attention to the computer screen, or at least he pretended to. He’d known the moment Crystal had walked out of the bathroom. Hearing the door open had sent all kinds of arousing sensations through him. The last thing he needed was to glance over at her. His control wasn’t all that great. Going without her for five years was playing havoc on his brain cells. Although he kept his eyes glued to the computer, he could hear her ease the leather strap of his satchel open. His wife never could resist her curiosity, and he’d known it.
“There are cards in here. A lot of cards and envelopes,” he heard her say. Yet he still refused to turn around.
“Yes. I remembered your birthday, our wedding anniversary, Valentine’s Day and Christmas every year. Although I couldn’t mail them to you, I bought them anyway and tucked them inside my satchel. I knew one day, when we got back together again, I’d have them for you.”
He could hear her shuffling through all those sealed envelopes. “There are letters in here, as well,” she said.
“Yes. Most of the other guys had wives or significant others to write home to, but again, I couldn’t do the same for you. So I got in the habit of writing you a letter whenever you weighed heavily on my mind.” He hoped she could tell from the number of letters he’d written that she’d consumed his mind a lot of the time.
“Thanks, Bane. This is a surprise. I hadn’t expected you to do this…for me.”
This time he couldn’t help but turn around when he said, “I would do just about anything for you, Crystal.”
It never ceased to amaze him how easily he could make her blush. At least that hadn’t changed. He could actually feel her gaze moving across his face as she held his stare and he wondered if she could feel him doing the same thing. Suddenly, she broke eye contact with him while drawing in a deep breath. He could see the nipples of her breasts pressing against the T-shirt she had on. It was supposed to fit large on her, but she still looked sexy as hell wearing it.
She glanced back down at the satchel. “I can’t wait to read the cards and letters.”
He nodded and then turned his attention back to his laptop just when the shrill ring of his mobile phone got his attention. He grabbed it off the desk. “This is Bane.”
He nodded and his jaw tightened as he listened to what his friend was telling him. Nick Stover, who used to be a member of his SEAL team, had decided to leave the field and go work for Homeland Security when his wife gave birth to triplets. Bane appreciated his friend’s inside scoop. But what he was telling him now had his temper rising.
When Nick was done, Bane said, “Okay. Thanks for letting me know so I can get in touch with Flip.”
He clicked off the phone and immediately called Flipper. There was no doubt Crystal had stopped whatever she was doing to listen to his conversation. He would have to tell her what was going on. But first, he had a question for her. He turned around and saw her staring at him.
“Is there anything in your home you want saved?”
She frowned. “What?”
“I asked if there’s anything in your house that you want to save.”
He could tell by the look on Crystal’s face that she was trying to figure out why he would ask her such a thing. Before he could explain himself further, he heard Flip pick up the phone. “This is Bane.” He knew Nick had already relayed the same information to Flip that he’d just told him.
“Yes, there are some things she wants to save.” Since Crystal hadn’t answered his question, just continued to look at him like he’d grown a set of horns or something, he said to Flip, “I know for certain she’ll want to save all the photographs on her fireplace mantel.”
Crystal crossed the room to stand next to him. “Hold it! Why are you telling him that, Bane? What’s happening to my house?”
Bane spoke into the phone. “I’ll call you back in a sec, Flip.” He then clicked off the phone and placed it back on the desk.
He regretted having to answer her question, but knew he had to. “In a couple of hours or so, your house will get burned down to the ground.”