Chapter 11

eleven

The scent of cinnamon pulled Seth out of a deep sleep. Before his eyes were open, he reached for Autumn but found the bed empty. Weak sunlight peeked from behind the blinds. He hadn’t slept in like this for…well, months. He had been on edge since he separated from the Navy. Heading up Team Bravo hadn’t been easy, even if it was something he loved. The TFH ‘ohana had made it easy. Seth hadn’t realized how stressed he had been since settling in Honolulu.

Of course, he knew the biggest stressor had been the woman who had spent the night in his bed. And she had left him alone…but that didn’t explain the smell of cinnamon.

Sitting up, he glanced around the room, noting that her dress was on the chair in the corner, so she hadn’t left. All of a sudden, he felt lighter and happier.

Yes, he was rested, and it made sense. The mind-blowing sex had a lot to do with it, but still, they had been up a lot throughout the night. He was sure he hadn’t gotten as much sleep as usual. He felt fantastic. He wondered where Autumn was and why his house suddenly smelled like Christmas.

He slipped out of bed, went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and pulled on sweatpants. Padding barefoot and topless, he went in search of Autumn. It was easy to see her when he stepped into the living room. She was at his stove, cooking something. And she was wearing one of his shirts.

He swallowed as something shifted inside of him. He had never been a man who believed in falling so fast.

Lust? Yeah. Been there, done that. A lot.

But this…was different. Seth wanted this morning for the rest of his life. It had nothing to do with what she was doing, but it was her being here, her hair a mess of curls, wearing his shirt.

His shirt.

“Are you going to keep standing there like a goober staring, or are you going to come in here and help?” she asked, her voice full of humor. She didn’t even turn around to look at him, and he was a goner.

“I was trying to figure out what you were doing.”

Autumn grinned at him over her shoulder. His world shifted. “That explains why I had to order things to cook this morning. Like, how do you survive on protein bars? Gross.”

Then she turned around as if it was just ordinary for her to stand there in his shirt and cook him breakfast.

He approached her, unsure what to do with all the feelings bombarding him. Panic rode alongside the need, now twisting in his gut.

“So, you do cook.”

She slanted him a sly look. “Of course I do. I’m especially good at French toast, which I hope you like because I would hate to sit in front of you and eat it all. Made coffee.” She nodded to his coffee pot.

He poured himself a mug as he watched her. The thick bread sizzled in butter in his very seldom-used skillet.

“I just assumed you couldn’t cook.”

“I told you I could cook. Did you not believe me?”

“Sometimes you say things just to fuck with people.”

There was a beat of silence, and then she threw her head back and laughed. The sound filled the kitchen with even more warmth.

“You do know me well. Also, if you tell anyone, I’ll call you a lying bastard.”

She grabbed one of the plates she had set out, piled a few slices, and handed it to him. Then she made a plate for herself. He waited for her to sit at the bar, then sat beside her.

Autumn didn’t wait for him to eat. She dug into her food with wild abandon—after drowning it in syrup, of course.

When she realized he was just watching her, she looked at him. “What?”

“I like watching you eat.”

She rolled her eyes. “I have to sustain a high metabolism, and after last night’s activities, I’m worn out. I knew you would be good, but you have the stamina of a sex god.”

He felt his cheeks flush, and she giggled.

“Oh. My. Gawd. Did I just embarrass you?”

Seth chuckled. “You’re plain speaking.”

“I thought guys liked that.” Now she was frowning, her eyes looking worried. She looked so damned vulnerable, something he wasn’t used to seeing. He thought back to everything she’d told him. She had been raised in a bubble, without regular interactions outside of the cult. He was sure she sometimes had difficulty understanding all people, not just men.

“I do. It’s just that I’ve never been compared to a god before.”

“A sex god. Not just an ordinary god.”

He shook his head and started eating before his food got cold. The moment the custardy confection hit his taste buds, he moaned. He wasn’t a foodie, but damn.

“I’m good. Say it.”

He swallowed his bite. “Damn, why don’t you want people to know you can cook like this?”

Autumn sighed. “It goes back to my upbringing. Joseph didn’t think women could be good at anything other than the household things. Cooking, cleaning, having babies…he said we were too stupid.”

“What an asshole.”

“Exactly.”

“So you decided to go into law enforcement. Was that to spite him?”

“It was to find him.”

He blinked. “You’ve always thought he was alive? I thought they found DNA at the compound.”

She shrugged. “I know it makes me sound like a nut, but they said he was there taking care of the people. That was never a thing he did. He would let other people do all the work, even die if need be. He would not go down with the ship. So, after talking about it with Sam and Ian, I decided to go into law enforcement. Sam wanted me to enter MI-6, but I didn’t want to do spy work. Too dirty for my tastes.”

He frowned.

“Don’t worry. I know I sound like a nut, but with what happened with Jin and the Alana Kim case, I feel he’s still out there.” She shrugged. “He was always into drugs, especially synthetics.”

“You’re telling me he was a drug dealer.”

“Yeah, well, among other things. Joseph was a cheap conman in the truest sense. He scammed people out of their life savings, whether it was preaching to them or selling them drugs. We’ve?—”

“We?”

“Sam, Ian, and I. We went through his history. Joseph wasn’t even his real name. Donald Reynolds. That was his real name. He did just about everything he could to make people earn money for him.”

“Just drugs?”

“Nope. He was a pimp too. Great guy, my mother picked to shack up with, huh?”

He wanted to dig deep into her thoughts and not just because of work. He wanted to know more about her, and whether she liked the fact or not, Joseph was a big part of her life. But he could feel her retreating back into the Autumn she showed other people, and he didn’t want that. He wanted the teasing woman who made him one of the best French toasts he had ever had.

“What are your plans this weekend? Are you doing anything with Sam?”

She shook her head. “It takes him a bit to acclimate to time change, so he’ll relax. I took a couple days off next week to hang out with him.”

Which was a good thing since she was a workaholic, but now he was jealous of the man who was a surrogate father.

“How about we spend some time in bed ourselves?”

She blinked, then her mouth curled into a smile. He did that. He made her smile. For some reason, he felt as if he owned the whole damned world.

“Are you proposing we have sex all day?”

“In between napping. We aren’t on call this weekend, and I know we could get called out at any time, but we have our cells.”

“I expect lunch and dinner.”

“Of course,” he said before shoving the last bite of his French toast into his mouth.

“Then you have a deal.”

Her voice was lighter, and he wanted to do that more. He needed to make her feel like it was okay to tell him things, and, in the end, it didn’t change how he felt about her. Although he didn’t want to put a name on it, he had a feeling this wasn’t just a weekend fling.

“I’ll clean up,” he said, taking her plate and rising to his feet.

“I cook, so you clean?”

“Yes. You sit there and drink your coffee.”

“And admire your amazing body and the fact that you decided to wear grey sweatpants?”

“What is up with that? Women online are always going on about them. He rinsed off the plates and put them in the dishwasher, along with the silverware and bowls she’d used for prep.

“There is just something about the way they look on a man. I mean, they don’t hide anything.”

He felt his cheeks heat again, which was disconcerting. How was this woman making him blush? He was a former SEAL, for God’s sake.

“You’re blushing again, aren’t you?”

He shook his head and finished up. When he turned around, he found her smiling at him over her coffee cup. The sunlight filled the kitchen and brought out the red highlights in her hair. She was wearing one of his white shirts, and he wanted this just like when he first saw her this morning. He wanted her smiling at him like that every day for the rest of his life.

He waited for the panic to rise. But it never arrived. Instead, he realized that nothing had ever felt this right in his life. It should worry him. No woman had gotten under his skin this fast.

But he pushed that aside. He wanted to make sure he didn’t freak her out. So, instead, he smiled.

“Now, let’s talk payment.”

One eyebrow rose.

“ That was payment. For your breakfast.”

“Tsk, tsk, Ms. Bradford. You didn’t negotiate that. I said I would do it, not why I was doing it.”

She must have read the intent in his gaze because she let out a squeal of delight before she took off running. Seth knew she could run faster than she was, so she was letting him catch up to her. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her bridal style into his bedroom, then into his bathroom.

“What do you have in mind, SEAL?”

Her voice was breathless as he dropped her on the vanity. It was a double vanity with a space between the two sinks, giving him all kinds of ideas. Cupping her face, he leaned in, brushing his mouth over hers. She kissed him quickly, willingly, making those little mewling noises that sent heat soaring within him. His cock was hard and dripping, and that told him he should get them both in the shower.

He turned the water on, then tugged her off the counter and into the stand-up shower. One of the reasons he wanted to rent this house had been this shower. It was large with one of those raindrop shower heads. After shutting the door, he positioned her so that she sat on the bench.

“Getting kind of pushy, SEAL.”

God, he loved her voice when she was happy. It was one of the best sounds in the world, but he knew the sounds he liked better.

He dropped down and leaned forward to kiss her stomach. He saw a small scar.

“What’s this?”

“What’s what?”

He traced the incision scar with his tongue. “That.”

She didn’t hesitate. “Knife wound. Bad op.”

He wanted to ask her more, but not right now. Right now, all that mattered was making her come. He placed a hand on each of her thighs, moved her legs apart, and decided it was time for another treat. Licking her slit from the bottom all the way up to her clit, he hummed. God, she was delicious. It was as if she were every dream he had ever had and a few more he didn’t know he had. As he slipped his tongue between her pussy lips, she moaned.

Fuck. He couldn’t remember ever having a woman respond to him this way. As she slipped her fingers through his wet hair, he pressed a finger inside of her as he teased her clit with his teeth. It only took him a minute or two before he had her screaming his name. Her voice echoed off the tiled walls.

He pulled her up off the bench and reversed their positions. Then he realized he’d forgotten a condom. Before he could say anything, she climbed on his lap.

“Wait.”

She looked down at him. Her hair was a mass of wet curls. Water dripped from her nipples. He was surprised he didn’t come right then.

“Condom.”

“Are you clean?”

He nodded.

“I am too, and I take a shot.”

“Thank God,” he said as she took his cock in hand and positioned herself over it. She sank down on him, her inner muscles clinging hard around his shaft.

He took a nipple in his mouth as she continued to ride him, hard and faster, until he felt his orgasm approaching. He reached down between the two of them to tease her clit, once more sending her over the edge. She came a second before he did. He thrust up into her and held her tight against him, his orgasm seemingly endless.

They were both breathing heavily as she collapsed on top of him. After a few moments, he turned off the water, lifted her off him, and dried them both off before they stumbled back to bed.

She snuggled up against him, her head on his chest above his heart, as they drifted off to sleep.