Page 9

He issued a low rumble. The wind snatched the sound, but it echoed back through the rustle of tree branches. And as he drew closer, the crackle of the fire met his ears.

She didn’t know he was watching her, which gave him a few more seconds to study her. She wore her hair a bit shorter, falling to the tops of her breasts with a part down the middle, but it had the same soft, thick texture that made his fingers clench just looking at it.

She had on a thick jacket that hid her shape, but he knew every curve. Every silky inch of her drop-dead sexy body. She was just sitting there, looking relaxed. But he saw her tell—the way her hands were stuffed in her pockets instead of casually resting in her lap spoke volumes.

She was concealing her nerves from everybody else, but she couldn’t hide them from him.

Except she hid more than nerves. For all these months.

She wasn’t holding the baby. A quick glance around the group revealed the pink bundle in his brother Colt’s arms.

Seeing his brother holding the child— his child, if he was right—made his heart squeeze with a sharp pain. He overfilled his lungs with air in an attempt to calm his nervous system, SEAL style.

Denver was ten steps away from the fire, still in the ring of shadow beyond the flickering light. But at that moment, Rhae looked up and saw him.

Her gaze fastened on him. For a heart-throbbing moment he thought he could read everything in her eyes. All the things she never could show him before when they were having clandestine meetings.

Her chest heaved, and she stuffed her fingers deeper into her coat pockets.

“Denver. Glad you could join us,” Willow called out from her seat next to Rhae.

Everyone swung their heads to look at him, tossing out greetings and nods. He ignored all of them and grabbed a lawn chair on his way to Rhae.

There wasn’t much of a gap between her chair and the one Willow was in, but he carried the chair straight to the gap and made it fit. The arms touched. The chair was wedged, but it would work.

He felt Rhae stiffen as he plunked into the seat. His forearm brushed hers, and she drew it tight against her body.

“I would have moved.” Willow smirked.

“No need.”

All the guys and his brothers were staring.

His gaze fell on the baby. The guy they called Dutch held out his arms to take her from Colt, and his brother passed her over.

Denver’s throat thickened.

Deliberately, he leaned over and made eye contact with Rhae. Direct. Full of purpose.

“Take a walk with me. Talk with me.”

Those misty blue eyes traveled over his face for a long heartbeat that he felt to his toes.

He held out a hand, half expecting her to refuse. But she took it.

The warmth of her fingers clasped in his own did things to his body he wasn’t prepared to analyze, but it did worse things to his goddamn heart.

He pulled her to her feet, and he ignored all the questioning stares as he led her into the darkness.

He didn’t let her go, and she didn’t pull away. His brain felt like he’d just walked into the thick fog of a flash-bang used to disorient enemies, and his head ached like always. Somehow, he managed to guide them far away from the fire.

The black shapes of cattle grazing in the pasture and the silhouette of the mountain soaring high into dark sky were their only witnesses.

He stopped and turned to her. Christ, she was even more beautiful than he remembered, even from the memories etched in his mind. She fisted her hands, as if holding back a flood, and inched them toward her pockets.

His stare locked on hers, fierce and unyielding. “Is there a man in your life?”

Her eyes widened a fraction, but it was enough for him to catch. She shook her head, hair brushing on her coat. “No.”

He took an abrupt step closer. “Christ, Rhae. Where did you come from? How did you get here?”

She leaned in, and her face tipped up.

Unable to stop himself, he cradled the back of her head, fingers threading through her silky hair, and lowered his lips to hers.

Her hands moved to his chest, but not to push him away. His heart thundered under her touch.

The kiss wasn’t gentle. It was raw and unrestrained. Months of longing filled him with desperation. His lungs burned with a growl of ownership he couldn’t release.

Angling his head, he deepened the kiss, plundering her sweet mouth and pulling little cries from her, the same noises that haunted his damn dreams.

He yanked her against him, pouring unasked questions into the kiss and receiving no answer in return, but she was here. With him.

She melted, going on tiptoe, delving her fingers into his hair that was longer than it had been in a decade or more, as if he might vanish if she let him go.

His lips moved across hers with an unwavering knowledge of her body, and she responded with the hunger of a woman who had been starved far too long.

A soft gasp against his mouth made him tighten his hold on her as he swallowed the sound and deepened the kiss even more, bracketing her face with his hands.

When they finally broke away, he was breathless and she was trembling. Hell, he might be trembling too, if he could ever admit a man like him was capable of such a thing.

Dropping his forehead against hers, he stared into her eyes, glimmering in the faint light of a moon tucked behind a shield of clouds.

“You’re here,” he whispered again.

Her thumb brushed the spot on his cheek that felt like it belonged to her—over the dimple that appeared when he smiled. His brothers-in-arms liked to tease him about it, but he always told them the ladies loved it.

Only one lady mattered.

“You’re here,” she whispered in response.

A quiet cry cut through the night, shattering the delicate spell between them. Rhae whipped around at the sound of her child—their child. Her instinct was as sharp and palpable as a SEAL’s.

His hand slipped from her waist, and he looked toward the glow of the fire.

“That’s Navy.”

He took her hand. “I’ll walk you back.”

He didn’t let go of her hand, even when the firelight grew brighter and they stepped into the circle in full view of his family and the ranch guys. The laughter surrounding them faded as they watched Denver and Rhae take their seats they’d abandoned in such a hurry.

Rhae looked to her baby cradled in Willow’s arms.

“She just woke up when I took her from Dutch. She’s settled now.”

Willow’s stare landed on him. She shifted the baby toward him, brow arched in question.

“Not right now.” His voice came out gruff. “I’m holding Rhae’s hand.”

Willow nodded but thankfully said nothing.

For the first time in years, Denver felt as if time had slowed down. Here, it wasn’t like the military where they were always in hand-to-hand warfare against the clock. There was no urgency to move, fight or survive. He wasn’t just grabbing moments.

He was living them.

The only good to come out of his military medical discharge was this…

Time to figure things out.