Chapter 35

If someone had told Audrey this morning that she’d come home from a lunch meeting with her manager in San Jose to find Gabriel Bristow swimming in her slice of the Pacific, she would have called them crazy.

“Gabe?”

She walked out to the end of the dock, sure she was dreaming. She had to be. He’d starred in her dreams every night, and they all began like this. She’d come home to find him begging forgiveness for being a class-A asshole, then one of two things would happen. One, she’d yell at him, call him a bunch of creative four-letter words, and then kick him out with the righteousness of a woman scorned. Or two, she’d fall into his arms and make wild, passionate love to him for hours before they lived happily ever after.

It was still a toss-up which dream she liked better.

Maybe she fell asleep on the bus ride home? But she didn’t feel like she was sleeping. This was all too vivid, and as good as an imagination she had, she didn’t think she could conjure up the feel of the salty ocean breeze playing with her skirt or the hot sun burning her cheeks. Plus, if she were dreaming, the air, soupy with summer humidity, would not be making her dress stick to the sweat rolling down her spine, and her hair would not be a frizzy mess right now.

So he really was here.

“Gabe?” she said again, so stunned she couldn’t find any other words for a solid five seconds. She shook her head. “What are you doing?”

Treading water, he looked up at her. His hair was slicked back, and his long eyelashes spiked around wary golden eyes. “Well, uh, I’m swimming.”

“You came all the way to Costa Rica for that?”

Rata playfully bumped his side, and the smile that spread over his face was so genuine it melted the ice wall she’d tried to build around her heart to ward off his memory. He stroked the dolphin’s head and then took hold of a rope and ball dog toy she’d never seen before and chucked it into the waves. With a happy chirp, Rata dove after it.

“Had to,” Gabe said. “There are no dolphins in D.C. You promised me a swim with dolphins, woman.”

She choked, caught somewhere between tears and laughter. And here she’d thought he was too out of it to hear anything she said during that long, horrible night. “You remember that?”

“Hmm. Vaguely.”

Her heart did a backflip that would have made her dolphins proud, but she couldn’t bring herself to relive that night and dredge up all the bad memories. Not yet. Not when seeing him again, alive and well and here, made her so freaking happy she struggled to hold back tears.

Instead, she took off her sandals, sat down on the end of the dock, and dangled her feet in the water. She watched her dolphins fling their new toy around with so much excitement she feared it might break.

“You brought them a toy.” And if she weren’t already in love with him, she’d have fallen hard just then. “Thank you for that.”

Gabe swam toward her, strong arms slicing through the waves with ease. Goodness, he was even more graceful in the water than out of it, fast and lithe like her dolphins.

Reaching the dock, he folded his arms on the edge and kept his lower half submerged, but he was definitely sans swim trunks under the water.

“Well,” he said with a mock-serious expression, “this amazing woman I once knew told me—several times—that I needed to learn manners. Apparently, it’s rude to come calling without a gift.”

“Very true.” She smothered a laugh. “Gabriel Bristow, are you skinny dipping?”

“Like I said.” He grabbed hold of her legs and pulled her over until he was propped between her thighs. His hands slid under the skirt of her sundress, kneading her soft flesh. “It’s rude to show up without a gift. The dolphins got the toy. You get me.”

Oh, that did it. The tears she’d been fighting spilled over, and she threaded her fingers through his wet hair. “I do, huh?”

“For as long as you’ll have me. You’re it for me.”

“Then why did you walk away?” And hurt me so badly. Although she didn’t say that part aloud, it was there, hanging in the air between them, palpable as if she had said it.

“Hell, I don’t know. Stupidity?”

“I won’t argue that.”

“And, uh…” He hesitated and cleared his throat. “And fear.”

Her SEAL, afraid? Somehow, she found that very difficult to believe. “Nothing scares you, sailor.”

“You do. Or what I feel for you does. It makes me raw. Exposed in ways that… Christ, I can’t even put it into words. I was terrified of keeping you. Terrified of losing you. I, uh, still am.” He lifted a hand to show her the slight tremor in it. “I’ve never been so goddamn frightened in all my life, but I couldn’t stay away. I’ve been miserable.”

Really, she shouldn’t be so petty that his confession made her giddy with a spiteful kind of glee. But she was, and it did. He’d been just as miserable this past month as she had, which almost made all the tears she’d spilled over him worth it.

Almost.

But she’d need ice water in her veins to stay mad at him after a confession as heartfelt as that.

“I tried to find you,” she told him. “When Bryson got out of the hospital, I went to D.C., and I even attended one of Raffi’s plays in New York, hoping he’d tell me where you were. He wouldn’t, buthe did say he’d talk with you.”

“Talk?” Gabe snorted. “Is that what he called it? Man, he reamed me a new one for walking away from you.”

“Hm. I like Raffi even more now than I did. And I liked him a whole lot before.”

“I knew you would. But it was actually Quinn who gave me the push I needed.”

Audrey didn’t bother hiding her disbelief. “Really?”

“He called me a coward, and he was right.” He pulled himself up further to wrap his arms around her waist and laid his head in her lap. “I wanted to come right away, but I had to take care of some business things first. I wanted at least a solid week with you without interruptions.”

God, that sounded like heaven.

“How’s your brother doing?” Gabe asked.

She sighed. “He’s back to normal, throwing himself into work. I suppose I shouldn’t complain. He does make a conscious effort to be there more for his sons. And for me. He even came to my show. But…. I don’t know. After everything, I expected more of a change, I guess.”

“Change is a hard thing to do.”

“Yes,” she agreed, “it is.”

And yet Gabe was willing to change his life by letting her into it. Oh God. She was not going to cry again.

Not. Going. To. Cry.

Instead, she forced herself to sound casual as she said, “Raffi mentioned that word’s getting out about your team’s success.”

Gabe winced and nuzzled her leg. “I wouldn’t call it a success. We still don’t know who was pulling Jacinto’s strings. No way he came up with the abduction all on his own, but the EPC has publicly denied involvement, and so have the other guerrilla organizations.”

“But you got the bad guys and saved my brother and started making a good reputation for your team. I’d call that a success.”

“Yeah, guess so.” He didn’t sound convinced. “We’ve been flooded with contract offers. Mostly private security gigs, but I haven’t accepted any yet and won’t for a while. The guys are going through some serious training first. They’re all at SERE school right now, except for Quinn. He’s setting up our new office in D.C.”

“SERE school?” She lifted an eyebrow at the relish in his tone. “Do I even want to know?”

“Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training,” he explained.

“Oh, that sounds… horrible.”

“It is. The guys’ll hate every second of it, but it will make them stronger as individuals and a team.”

She poked his side with her index finger. “So why aren’t you there with them?”

“Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and sure as hell don’t wanna do it again.”

“Says the oh great and fearless leader.”

He made a noncommittal sound and nuzzled her thigh again, kissing her through the skirt of her dress. “Besides, I have other things to do.”

“Hm.” She couldn’t wait to hear this. “Like?”

“Like comb through the flood of resumes I’ve gotten for new guys, figure out an easy-to-remember name for the team—I’m not going with HORNET—and set up an international office.”

“Oh.” Didn’t that just deflate her bubble? She’d thought for sure he was thinking more along the lines of taking her to bed for the next, oh, fifty years. “Well. I like HORNET.”

He lifted his head to give her a dark scowl. “You would.”

She bopped his forehead with her palm, intending to shove him back into the water, but with his arms still wrapped around her, the jerk dragged her in with him. She broke the surface, sputtering, cursing him in English and Spanish. He laughed, and the man who didn’t know how to cut loose yanked her under again.

Having not taken a decent breath before going under, she struggled to get to the surface, but he held her tight, and his mouth covered hers. He gave her his air, then licked the inside of her mouth, igniting sparks of pleasure in her belly.

They broke the surface, and she gasped, clinging to him, her legs around his waist. He was fully erect, probing against her entrance.

“Gabe,” she breathed, her voice laced with need. His lips descended on hers in a powerful, possessive kiss that made her toes curl. The water around them seemed to boil with the heat he generated, and she felt a dizzying rush of desire. She pulled her underwear to the side, wiggled her hips and?—

Oh, yes.

He filled her up, thrusting deeply into her, fierce and possessive. The heat of him, the power of him overwhelmed her senses and she clung tighter, nails digging into his muscular back.

Gabe walked them toward shore, careful not to break the contact of their mouths or bodies, and each step pushed him deeper, deeper, deeper, hitting a spot inside her that made her see stars.

He dropped to his knees in the surf, and his body slid from hers as he laid her down in the shallow water. She missed the fullness of him inside her, but he was quick to remedy that. The skirt of her dress floated out around them in a pale yellow cloud as he scooped his hands under her hips and ripped off her panties. He tossed them aside into the sand, a wild look in his eyes as he regarded her stripped beneath him. Her body tingled with anticipation as he wrapped a hand around his thick cock and guided it back into her. He hooked one of her legs over his shoulder and angled himself just so, hitting yet another sweet spot which made her cry out in pleasure.

She clung to him as he claimed her again and again, the waves lapping around them, their wet bodies moving in a rhythm as old as the sea itself—a rhythm that was achingly slow at first, then gradually more frantic. His muscles strained under her hands, and his eyes were bright with desire.

Every hard thrust, every gasping breath he took, made her desperate for more, for all of him. She felt his body tense, saw the vein on his neck pulse more prominently, and knew he was close.

He slowed and stopped moving altogether, his breath sawing from his lungs. She could feel him pulsing inside her with the need to release, but he still held himself back. She was so close to edge herself, all her nerve-endings tingling, her sex throbbing around him, making her whimper with need.

“No, don’t stop.” Desperate, she bit his bottom lip, drawing a moan from him. Her hands slid lower to cup his muscular butt, urging him to move.

When he still resisted, she resorted to pleading. “Please. Gabe. Please...”

“Shh, I just want to look at you.” He cradled her face in his palm, his thumb tracing her lips before sliding down to tease her nipple through the wet fabric of her dress. Her body bowed at the delicious pressure and his cock hit that spot inside her again that made her gasp.

She needed to be fully naked. She needed to feel every inch of his skin against every inch of hers. With a quick, impatient jerk, she tugged at the thin straps of her dress, pulling it down to reveal her bare breasts to him. His eyes darkened, his gaze devouring the sight of her. He cupped her breasts, thumbs rasping over the already-hard peaks.

The way he looked at her, as though she were the most precious thing in the world to him, made every fear she harbored about him leaving again evaporate like a mist in the sun. He was here, with her, loving her as though his life depended on it.

“I’ve missed you,” he murmured, the words resonating deep in her soul. His gaze locked onto hers, and in that moment, she saw everything he felt for her laid bare. “I’m so fucking in love with you, Audrey. Have been practically since minute one.”

Emotion rose in her throat, choking off her breath. She had fantasized about hearing those words from Gabe’s lips more times than she could count. But reality was so much better than any dream. It was overwhelming and humbling to be the recipient of such raw, unfiltered emotion.

She reached up to run her fingers through his cropped hair, tugging him down so that their lips met again. “I love you, too. Now move.” She tightened her legs around him, digging her heels into his ass, and he groaned against her mouth.

“Yes, ma’am. You feel…so…fucking…good.” A slow thrust punctuated each word.

There was no hurry in his movements. He made love to her slowly and deliberately, savoring every moment, every touch, every gasp he wrung from her lips. He knew exactly how to touch her to make her writhe beneath him, to turn her into a whimpering mess of need.

She nuzzled his neck, opening her mouth over the strong beat of his pulse. His skin tasted like salt and sand and her man, and she adored the way he shuddered when she kissed him there.

Gabe’s breath hitched, his grip on her tightening almost painfully as control slipped from him. His thrusts became erratic, desperate. “Audrey…”

The sound of her name like a prayer on his lips was her undoing. Her body clenched around him, back arching off the sand as the tight knot of pleasure uncoiled inside her. It was a soft release, stretching out into oblivion, sweet and lovely, like floating on a cloud.

He tangled his fingers in her hair to tilt her head up and kiss her forehead, her nose. Before taking her lips, he drove in deep one last time and growled her name against the shell of her ear. His body went rigid above hers, his grip on her turning into a vise. He buried his face in her hair as he spilled himself inside her with a raw groan.

When the tremors finally subsided, Gabe collapsed onto her. She welcomed the weight, wrapping her arms around him and nuzzling the crook of his neck. His heartbeat was strong and steady against her chest. It all made her feel safe and cherished.

They lay together, entwined in the sand, for a long time, the ocean lapping gently at their feet as the sun sank toward the horizon.

Audrey traced lazy patterns on Gabe’s back, her fingers dancing over his trident tattoo. “Stay with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He shivered under her touch, pressing himself even closer to her as if he could somehow fuse them—skin to skin, heart to heart.

From the water, one of the dolphins chortled. It sounded a lot like laughter, and Gabe lifted his head to scowl at the animal.

“Except,” he added and scooped her up into his arms, “to bed, where we don’t have an audience.”