Kitabı oku: «At Her Service: His Baby! / Major Attraction»

Strong. Proud. True.

These military heroes are the

kings of seduction!

At Her Service

His Baby!

Maureen Child

Major Attraction

Julie Miller

Two classic, sinfully sexy soldier stories

from two favourite authors!

www.millsandboon.co.uk

His Baby!

Maureen Child

About the Author

MAUREEN CHILD is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. The author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur. Visit Maureen’s website at www.maureenchild.com.

One

In the moonless night, bullets bit into the ground and snatched at the bushes and trees around him. Jeff Hunter knew the enemy was firing blind. They sure as heck couldn’t see him, hidden as he was. But that didn’t mean that one of them couldn’t get lucky.

He kept his head down and a tight grip on his weapon as he used his elbows and knees to move closer to shore. To the boat that was waiting for him. The rest of his Recon team was already on board, he knew. He was the last man out. As always.

As the next in a series of explosions rocked the night, Jeff grinned briefly and kept going. Elbows, knees, through the plants, closer to escape. He didn’t look back. Didn’t have to. He knew his job and did it well. Everything was blowing up right on schedule. Flames lit the darkness, and flickering shadows jumped around him like shadows of the damned. Mission accomplished, he thought and shifted his focus from the job to the matter at hand—getting the hell out of Dodge.

Belly-crawling faster now, he ignored the slap of bullets, the roar of the inferno behind him and the frantic shouts of the enemy as they searched for him. Slipping out of the tangled undergrowth to the sand, he rolled, came up onto his feet and crouching, dashed the last few feet to the boat. Here it was most dangerous. Here he was unprotected by the foliage. A straight, clean stretch of beach lay between him and safety, and Jeff set a new world’s record in running while bent nearly in half. Instinct drove him and he ducked as a couple more charges were detonated, crashing into the hot night air.

Even as he rushed clumsily through knee-deep water and dived headfirst into the safety of the rubber Zodiac boat, the outboard motor was firing up. Eager hands reached for him, grabbing hold of his Kevlar vest and yanking him the rest of the way into the boat. He lay flat for a long minute, catching his breath. Safety. His team members. His friends. Hell, his family.

“Called it close enough that time, Gunny,” Deke muttered, shoving the throttle forward and sending the Zodiac into a screaming takeoff that left white foam plumes of water in its wake.

Damn, but that engine sounded good. They’d had to row in when they’d arrived, but now, it didn’t matter how much noise they made. Get in quiet—get out fast.

He slanted the other man a look and smiled. Shouting to be heard over the full-out motor, he said, “Yeah, yeah. Quit whining. You ladies were safe in the boat while I’m out saving the world for humanity.”

Deke laughed, throwing his head back and whooping a little just to celebrate surviving.

“Oh, I like that,” J.T. quipped loudly, “here we sit around waitin’ for him—lookin’ like targets a boot recruit couldn’t miss and he insults us.”

“Yeah,” Travis drawled, keeping his mounted gun trained on the retreating shore to cover their escape, just in case some of the enemy survived all of the explosions and were just a bit testy. “Sounds to me like the Gunny’s getting a little cocky in his old age. Maybe we ought to throw him out and make him swim.”

Deke steered for the ship waiting just out of sight around a point of land a few miles off the starboard bow. “Nah,” he countered, gaze locked ahead, “some shark would take a bite out of him and get poisoned. Doesn’t seem fair to the fish.” Jeff chuckled to himself and lay back. The other guys had it handled. In a few short minutes, they’d be picked up by the ship, and five days from now, they’d all be on leave. Their first leave in way too long. The moon peeked out from behind a trail of clouds, and in the brief flash of silvery moonlight, Jeff looked at the faces around him. Camouflage paint obscured their features as well as his, and their eyes and teeth shone weirdly against the darkness. Jokes aside, he’d trust any one of them with his life. And had. Too many times to count.

Then his gaze shifted to the other man in the boat. The reason for the team’s presence. The man they’d been sent in to rescue.

Some diplomat who’d stayed too long in an unfriendly country and worn out his welcome, he’d been taken hostage a month ago. No doubt he’d given up hope of ever going home again. Until Deke had slit open the back of the guy’s tent and whispered, “U.S. Marines.” Hell, the man had nearly wept and Jeff was pretty sure if he’d been able to, he would have given them a brass-band welcome.

Now he sat, leaning forward in the boat, as if reaching toward home would get him there faster. And that was okay by Jeff, since he was in a hurry to get back to the States, too. It had been eighteen months since his last real leave. Eighteen months since he’d last seen Kelly.

In the darkness with only the hum of the engines and the distant roar of explosions breaking the silence, Jeff relaxed for the first time in ten hours and let his mind wander. Back to that night. The last one he’d spent with the woman who now haunted his every dream.

Kelly reached for him and he pulled her close, relishing the feel of her warm, naked flesh against his. It had been a hell of a two-week leave. Starting with that first day, when he’d pulled her, unconscious, from the ocean after a loose surfboard conked her on the head.

Once on shore, he’d given her mouth-to-mouth and they’d pretty much been that way ever since. He’d never experienced anything like it before.

Such a rush of emotion. Such a tangle of feelings. Such incredible want and need.

And now it was their last night together. He’d be shipping out in the morning, headed who knew where. And when he’d be back, even he didn’t know. He held her tighter, closer, in response to that thought and tried to block out the image of goodbye.

“These two weeks went so fast,” she murmured, and her breath dusted across his skin. Her fingers trailed through the dark hair on his chest, and his breath caught at the fire in her touch.

“Yeah,” he said, inhaling the light, flowery scent of her hair, “it did.”

She tipped her head back to look up at him. “How early do you have to leave?”

In the soft haze of candlelight, her long, curly auburn hair looked golden, streaks of light and dark color coming together to blend into a whole that made him think of fires at night. So soft, so … “Early,” he said. “Have to be on base at six.”

She looked past him at the digital alarm clock on her bedside table. “It’s only midnight. We still have hours.”

“Not nearly enough time,” he said, knowing it for fact. But then if he had fifty years at his disposal, he didn’t think it would be enough time.

There was something about this woman that made him want to forget everything else in the world existed. He’d like nothing more than to lock them both inside this room and stay there.

But that just wasn’t an option. So instead, he resolved to make the most of what time they had left. To not waste it in wishing for what couldn’t be. He cupped her face in his palm and stroked the pad of his thumb across her cheek. Then shifting, he rolled to one side and levered himself up over her. He looked down into those forest-green eyes of hers and asked, “You gonna miss me?”

One corner of her mouth twitched into a crooked smile. “I might,” she said softly, running her hands up and down his back with feather-light strokes that fired the need coiled dangerously inside him. “But maybe you should remind me again just what it is I’m going to miss.”

“Oh,” he said, sliding one hand down to cup her breast, “I think I could do that.” His thumb and forefinger tugged at her nipple, and he smiled when she arched into his touch, tipping her head back into the pillow.

“Okay,” she said on a sigh, “it’s coming back to me now.”

The words hung in the air for a long minute, and he waited until her eyes were open again and she was looking at him. Then he said in a low, throaty growl, “I’m coming back to you, too, Kelly. Not sure when. But I’ll be back.”

She took his face in her hands and pulled him close. “Promise?”

He turned his face into her hand and kissed her palm. “Oh yeah, baby. I promise.”

Then he kissed her, drowning in the taste of her, silently telling himself to remember. Remember it all. Her scent, her touch, her taste. He wanted it all so clear in his mind that no matter where he was or what he was doing, he’d be able to bring this moment back.

She sighed and he caught that small, escaped breath and drew it down deep inside him, taking a part of her into himself. Tongues met and clashed, tangling together as the fire grew and threatened to devour both of them.

His hands moved over her curves, defining them, burning them into his memory. He felt her slide one hand across his back, down along his spine to his butt, then around, to cup him in her palm. His eyes squeezed closed and his back teeth ground together as he fought for control. But her hands on him were too much and she damn well knew it. When she shifted, encircling the length of him with her fingers, he growled from low in his throat and caught her hand, drawing it up to the pillow beside her head and pinning it there.

“Problem?” she asked, with a spark of knowing innocence in her eyes.

“No problem here,” he told her, and moved to cover her body with his.

“Glad to hear it.” She moved beneath him, parting her legs, lifting her hips in welcome.

Jeff accepted that invitation and pushed himself into the deep warmth of her. As her body surrounded him and her hands came up to encircle his neck, he rocked his hips against her. Retreat and advance. He moved within her, pushing them both higher, faster as they rushed together toward the completion that lay just out of reach.

He’d found something here. With her. Something unexpected. Something he wasn’t quite sure what to do about. Something he knew he didn’t want to lose, yet something he was going to have to leave.

His brain raced; every nerve ending in his body hummed. Then she clutched at his shoulders and held on for dear life, and he felt her body tremble and convulse just a moment before his own world erupted. And in that blinding flash, Jeff knew that being apart from her would be the most difficult thing he’d ever done.

And it had been. It had been a hell of a long eighteen months. But he was going back. He was keeping that promise to return. He only hoped she gave a damn. Wouldn’t it be a kick in the ass if he’d been thinking about her all this time and she hadn’t given him a single thought?

The Zodiac gun boat collided with the side of the destroyer, and the solid bump jolted Jeff from his wandering thoughts.

A rope ladder dropped from above, and as J.T. and Travis helped the diplomat clamber to safety, Deke looked over at Jeff and asked, “Thinking about that woman again, Gunny?”

Jeff shot his friend a look. Shouldn’t be surprised at the comment, he thought. The guys had heard plenty about Kelly on those long nights of inaction while waiting for the hoo-ha to start.

“Beats the hell out of thinking about you guys.”

“Guess so,” Deke acknowledged with a grin. Then he asked, not for the first time, “At least the way you tell it. So, this redhead of yours have any sisters?”

“Don’t know,” Jeff said, silently admitting that they’d never really gotten around to talking about family. They’d been way too busy with each other. “But I’ll let you know.”

“Good enough,” Deke said, and grabbed a handful of rope. “Five days and a wakeup and we’ll be stateside again.”

Jeff glanced at his watch. Ten minutes past midnight. “Four days and a wakeup,” he corrected, and slung his weapon onto his back before climbing the ropes. Four more days, he told himself. Then he’d wake up, grab the first flight to California and be knocking on Kelly’s door.

He swung his legs over the rail and clambered aboard. Good to feel solid ship under his feet again. Then, as he helped the swabbies pull the Zodiac out of the water, his brain started that slow wander again.

After eighteen months of sending her postcards and one too brief phone call, he’d be able to hold her, kiss her, taste her again. And he figured this time, maybe he would lock them both into her bedroom and not come out till they were starving to death.

Kelly Rogan stared at the latest postcard from Jeff Hunter. It had been mailed more than two weeks ago—from where, she wasn’t sure. He never told her where he was. Apparently that was a big no-no, militarywise. But occasionally she could figure it out from the picture on the card. Like say, the one she’d received with a lovely shot of the Eiffel Tower. But this one was simply palm trees and sandy beaches. Heck, that could mean anything from Hawaii to Fiji to Vietnam.

But it didn’t really matter, did it? It was what he’d written on the back that was important. She flipped it over and read again the words she already knew by heart.

Coming home. Be there by the end of March.

Have thirty days leave. Can’t wait to see you.

Jeff

End of March. That meant he’d be here any day now. And Kelly wasn’t at all sure how she felt about that. After all, his last two-week leave had changed her life forever.

Too many times in the past eighteen months she’d played the what-if game. What if she hadn’t gone surfing that day? What if Jeff hadn’t been the one to save her? What if she hadn’t looked up into those blue eyes of his?

What if—?

Well, that was a pointless game anyway. She had gone surfing. She had nearly drowned. Jeff had rescued her. And for the first time in her noneventful life, Kelly had given into spontaneity.

She’d lived in the moment. She’d had a two-week-long, incredibly passionate affair with a tall, dark stranger. And the rest, as they say, was history.

All that mattered now was facing Jeff and telling him what she’d been unable to tell him for so long. And hope she could get the words out before one of her brothers killed him.

Two

Jeff left his borrowed car in the parking lot of the Shore Breakers hotel and walked the five blocks to Kelly’s house. In this tiny beachside town, most of the residential streets were one-way and it was almost impossible to find a parking spot. And besides, it felt good to walk down quiet streets without having to worry about watching his back. He smiled to himself as he realized not for the first time that going out on those dangerous missions to every far-flung corner of the world never failed to make him appreciate the simple freedom of taking an afternoon stroll.

A car horn honked, the driver shouted and Jeff chuckled, preferring the everyday noises to that of gunfire pinging over his head. But even as that thought rushed through his mind, he pushed it on and out. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking of the job. For the next month, all he wanted to think about was Kelly.

He’d been looking forward to this too much to spoil it now.

A cool breeze scuttled down the length of the narrow street and carried the scent of the ocean along with it. Jeff walked with the wind and felt it pushing him along, though he didn’t need any encouragement.

Hell, he’d checked into his hotel room, dumped his bag on the bed and left, headed for Kelly’s house. He didn’t really need the hotel room, of course. He could have stayed on base. But when he was on leave, Jeff liked to get completely away from the job. He had a lot of unused pay stored up and besides, after eighteen months of roughing it in some very uncomfortable spots, he figured he’d earned a few luxuries. Like that giant Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom.

He smiled to himself and quickened his step a bit. Oh, yeah, he wanted to get Kelly into that oversize tub, turn up the heat—on the water, as well as Kelly—and do a little experimenting beneath the pulse of those jets.

His body stiffened instantly. Man. He rolled his shoulders and shook his head. Better watch the direction of his thoughts, or he wouldn’t be able to walk. But it seemed the closer he got to Kelly’s place, the more difficult it was to think of anything but her. Of putting his hands on her, feeling the brush of her breath on his face.

And that just naturally made his body sit up and take notice.

A whoop of laughter shattered his thoughts as a group of kids on skateboards and scooters raced by. Their voices hung in the clear air like pictures of innocence. Hell, Jeff didn’t even remember being that young. That carefree. He pulled one hand from his pocket and scraped it across his jaw.

He’d gone from his last foster home directly into the Corps and had never looked back. Hadn’t seemed to be much point in remembering the past. It hadn’t been much fun living it, so why the hell would he want to waste time on memory lane?

Jeff glanced over his shoulder to make sure the street was clear, then loped across the narrow road, easing his way between two parked cars. The houses here were crouched together on skinny lots with postage-stamp-sized yards. But he supposed living less than a block from the beach was compensation enough. Most of the places were at least fifty years old, though some had been remodeled recently, going up two, sometimes three stories. Kids and dogs littered the street, the whole place looked like a fifties movie set and ordinarily it was exactly the kind of place Jeff would have avoided like the plague.

“That’s a hell of a note,” he muttered, smiling. “When a man feels more comfortable on a battlefield than in a neighborhood.”

Still, seeing Kelly again would make it all worth it. If she was home. If she was still interested. If she even wanted to see him. “A whole lot of ifs in there,” he told himself, and locked his gaze on the house just ahead. Kelly’s place.

It looked like a miniature fairy-tale cottage. Complete with rounded turret. She’d told him her late grandmother had left it to her, but Jeff couldn’t imagine anyone but Kelly living in it. It suited her, from the neatly trimmed hedges and flowers to the slate-gray tiles on the roof.

And now that he was here, he wasn’t going to waste another minute admiring the damn house.

Lifting the latch on the gate in the pale yellow picket fence, he pushed it open, smiling again at the familiar creak. He slid a quick glance at the driveway, noting the navy-blue Explorer. Did she have visitors, or had she bought a new car while he was gone? Hell. Maybe he shouldn’t have just left a message on her answering machine saying when he was coming over. Maybe he should have actually talked to her. For all he knew, she didn’t have any interest at all in seeing him.

But it was too late now, he thought. If she was busy, he’d leave. And as he recalled, she didn’t have any trouble speaking her mind, so if she didn’t want to see him, she’d say so. But he’d waited too long to head back to the hotel now without even a glimpse of her. And if her visitor was a new boyfriend? Hell. He’d face that bridge if he came to it.

Decision made, he moved up the walk, took the two short steps to the porch and reached for the dragon’s-head knocker on the heavy oak door. Lifting it, he smacked it twice on the pewter plate, then stood back smiling and waited.

When the door opened, his grin faded. He’d been expecting—hoping—to see a short redhead smiling up at him.

Instead, a Marine with dark brown hair and narrowed green eyes glared at him. “You Jeff Hunter?” he asked.

Instinctively, Jeff went on full alert. His own gaze narrowed in return. Okay, so this little reunion wasn’t starting out just the way he’d planned. He tried to see past the man into the house, but he was taking up the whole damn doorway.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The Marine stiffened. “I’m asking the questions here. You Jeff Hunter?”

“Yeah,” he said, “what’s th—?”

The big man moved so fast, Jeff didn’t have a chance to react. Before he could get out of the way, a fist plowed into his face, snapping his head back and filling his mouth with the coppery taste of blood. Pain exploded inside his head and his ears rang with it.

Damn, it had been years since he’d been blindsided like that. And generally, when he was punched, he had some idea why.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you,” the guy said, and stepped out of the house, swinging that ham-like fist again. This time, though, Jeff was braced and ready. Head still pounding, he ducked under the blow and came up fighting.

His fist slammed into the other man’s belly. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded even as he threw another punch after the first.

No answer. Just a forearm around Jeff’s neck and a quick, flying trip to the tidy front lawn.

He rolled and came up on the balls of his feet, crouched and prepared for attack or defense. This was what he’d been trained for, after all. But he usually liked to know just who the hell he was fighting.

And somehow, it didn’t sit right, pounding on a fellow Marine. But he didn’t have much choice when the other man charged him, head down and bellowing like a bull. He got in a good shot and Jeff hit the ground. “That’s it. Marine or not, you’re goin’ down,” he promised as he jumped to his feet.

Their bodies crashed together with a thud, and as a series of punches landed on his jaw, stomach and chin, Jeff sucked in the pain, buried it as he’d been taught and gave more than he took. He swung a hardened fist at the big man’s face and felt the sting of satisfaction ripple up his arm when it smacked the guy’s head back.

“Had enough?”

“Not nearly,” the other man answered.

Absently, Jeff noted the sound of birds and the far-off roar of a lawn mower. Unreal, he thought. This shouldn’t be happening. He hadn’t come here as a warrior, but as a lover.

“Who are you and where’s Kelly?”

“Kelly’s none of your business.”

“I say she is,” Jeff snapped, and threw a short, sharp jab at the man’s chin.

“You’re wrong,” the man shouted, and landed a good shot to Jeff’s jaw.

They circled each other warily and when he saw an opening, Jeff made a move to end this little battle. He threw a flying tackle his old high-school football coach would have been proud of. He took the man down and when he was flat on his back, Jeff grabbed hold of the neck of his uniform blouse, bunched it in his fist and lifted the other one menacingly, just inches from the man’s nose.

“Okay,” he said, dragging air into heaving lungs, “you want to tell me what we’re fighting about?”

“You son of a bitch,” the man muttered. “The fact that you don’t even know is reason enough to keep fighting.” He reached for Jeff’s throat.

“Are you nuts?” A familiar female voice shouted from the porch, cutting the man off mid-speech, and Jeff swung his head around to look at Kelly.

His opponent used the distraction to plant one more solid punch to Jeff’s jaw. Stars flashed in front of his eyes.

“Blast it, Kevin!” she called, racing down off the porch and across the lawn. She stood over them, hands at her hips, glaring at the man on the ground. “Stop hitting him. I warned you … no fighting.”

Jeff wiggled his jaw back and forth a couple of times, ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth checking for loose teeth and, thankfully, found none. Then he turned a feral smile on the man still glaring at him. “I owe you for that one.”

“Anytime,” he countered, breathing hard as Jeff released him.

What the hell was going on around here, anyway? Why was a fellow Marine ready to pound his face in when as far as Jeff knew, they’d never met before?

“I don’t believe this,” Kelly muttered, glancing up and down the street, obviously looking to see if any of her neighbors had witnessed the brawl.

Pain flickered through his body in a series of stings and aches, but despite it all, he felt his blood go thick and hot at the sight of her. Damn, but she looked good, Jeff thought and felt his body stir.

She wore a soft green skirt that fell to her ankles and swirled around her legs in the cool wind. Her long-sleeved yellow blouse clung to her upper body, outlining her small, perfect breasts and made Jeff’s hands itch to touch them. Long auburn curls flew into a wild dance around her head, and her green eyes sparkled with what looked like pure temper. Yep, he thought, wincing with a new twinge of pain. Damn good.

“Hi, Kelly,” he said, and felt the full impact of her fury when she shifted her gaze to him.

“‘Hi Kelly’?” she repeated. “That’s all you have to say? I find you brawling in my front yard with Kevin, and all you say is ‘hi’?”

“Go inside, Kelly,” the other man said. “This is between him and me.”

She kicked him, then winced as her bare toes connected with his hipbone. “For heaven’s sake, Kevin,” she snapped. “Stop acting like the puritan father in an old movie.” “Damn it, Kelly …”

“I told you I wanted to talk to Jeff alone.” “Just who the hell are you, anyway?” Jeff interrupted, glaring at the man he’d just been pounding into the ground.

“Kevin Rogan. I’m Kelly’s brother.” Brother. Well, that was good news, anyway. Sort of. Probably wasn’t the best way to impress a woman you hadn’t seen in a year and a half—beating up on her brother. But on the other hand, at least he wasn’t a boyfriend.

Jeff pushed himself to his feet and waited while Kevin did the same. Tension still rippled in the air between them, and Jeff sensed the other man’s eagerness to continue the fight. Fine with him, he thought, already taking a step toward him. Then, before either of them could start up again, Kelly stepped between them, placing one hand on each of their chests.

“Obviously, an overdose of testosterone. Play nice or leave,” she said, looking from one to the other of them.

“Fine,” Kevin said flatly. “But I’m not leaving.”

“Neither am I,” Jeff told him. “I just got here.” “Yeah,” Kevin said with a derisive snort, “but you’ve been here before, haven’t you?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “You bastard, if you’d—” “Kevin …” Kelly interrupted her brother with one word and a long warning look.

Then, turning her back on him, she smiled at Jeff. “It’s good to see you.” Kevin snorted again.

“Got a cold?” Jeff asked, then ignored the man and reached out to touch Kelly’s hair, blowing wild and gorgeous in the breeze. He had to see if it was as soft and silky as he remembered.

It was.

“Good to see you, too,” he said, knowing it for the understatement of the century. It was worth a few bruises and what felt like a cracked rib or two to see her smile. Damn, but he’d missed her.

“You going to introduce us, sis?” Another male voice spoke up, and Jeff glanced at the porch. Lined up like a wall of muscle with bad attitudes, three men—identical men—stood with arms crossed over wide chests. And each one of them wore a scowl fierce enough to fry bacon.

Specifically, Jeff guessed, his bacon. What was going on around here?

“More brothers?” Jeff muttered, more to himself than to Kelly.

“Yes, but the triplets are the last of them. Four older brothers.” She blew out a breath that ruffled the loose curls lying across her forehead. “Lucky me.”

Yeah, Jeff thought, glancing from the triplets to Kevin, still glowering at him from the lawn. He was starting to feel real lucky himself.

She lifted one hand and with a sigh, pointed to each of the three in turn. “Jeff, this is Keith, Kieran and Kincaid.”

If anything, their scowls got blacker. Interesting, Jeff thought, wishing that he had Deke, J.T. and Travis backing him up. He was badly outnumbered.

“They Marines, too?” he asked. “No, just Kevin. Keith’s a policeman, Kieran’s a contractor and Kincaid’s a—” She paused, cocked her head and looked at her last brother. “What would you call it? A spy?”

For the first time, Jeff saw a chink in the wall of muscle as Kincaid smiled at his sister. “FBI, Kelly. Hardly a spy.”

She shrugged. “Well, whatever. So why don’t you guys get lost while I talk to Jeff?”

“Not hardly,” Kevin muttered, and walked past her, pausing just long enough to glare at Jeff again. Then he nodded to his brothers, and the four of them went into the house.

No doubt, Jeff thought, to lay an ambush for him. Man, what had he done to get all four men so damn mad? Hell, he hadn’t even been in the country for the past year and a half!

“I tried to get rid of them,” Kelly was saying, “but once they found out you were coming, they wouldn’t budge.”

“I don’t care about them,” Jeff said. “I’m here to see you. It’s been a long time, Kelly.”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling up at him, “it really has.”

“You look great,” he told her, and for the first time in eighteen months, reached out and cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand. God, she felt good. Soft, warm and so damn smooth. Just the touch of her skin was enough to set off a back fire in his blood. And if she didn’t have a platoon of brothers just a stone’s throw away, he’d show her just how glad he was to see her. As it was, he’d have to wait or take on all four of them.

She pulled in a long shaky breath, telling him silently that she was just as affected as he was. A flush of heat filled her cheeks, and her eyes went that deep, smoky green that he remembered so clearly.

But there was something else. Something … different about her. She looked rounder. Softer. Hell, the plain truth was, she looked good enough to eat. And he was a hungry man.

“What?” she asked, tipping her head to one side and looking up at him.

“Hmm?”

“You’re looking at me a little … strangely.”

“I’m just trying to figure out what it is that’s different about you.”

“Different?”

“Not different bad, honey,” he said, pulling her close enough to kiss. “Just … different.”

Kelly flattened her palms on his chest and leaned toward him. A soft ocean wind slipped past them and lifted her hair off her neck. He felt the warmth of her hands clean through to his bones and for the first time in too damn long, he felt alive again.

The scent of her surrounded him, and he lost himself in it. So many nights, he’d dreamed about this moment. Having his hands on her again. Feeling the soft brush of her breath against his skin. Cupping her face in his palms, he stroked her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs and let his gaze move over her features. She was even more beautiful than he remembered.

She reached up and covered his hands with her own. “Jeff, I’m sorry about Kevin. He’s just—”

He grinned down at her. With her right here beside him, he couldn’t have cared less about a handful of brothers with bad attitudes.

“Kevin who?” he asked, and bent his head to claim the kiss he’d waited so long for. She leaned into him, lifting up onto her toes to meet that kiss and do a little taking of her own.

Softly at first, as if reminding himself of the taste of her, Jeff quickly gave into the thrumming need inside him and deepened the kiss. He parted her lips with his tongue and explored her mouth as his hands moved up and down her spine, pulling her harder, closer against him.

Kelly clung to him, and gave herself up to the wonder of having him back home. Alive. Safe. The magic of his touch shimmered throughout her body, and she told herself that she hadn’t imagined it. It had been so long, she’d almost convinced herself that what she’d felt in Jeff’s arms couldn’t possibly have been real. Yet here he was, and once again her body was on fire and burning from the inside out.

The shriek of a child’s laughter finally shattered the spell, though, and Kelly reluctantly pulled free of his arms. After all, what with the fight and now this kiss, they’d given her neighbors enough of a show for today.

Besides, there were still a few things that had to be said.

“Jeff …”

“Yeah?” His hand slipped from her cheek to her neck, and his thumb rested on the pulse point at the base of her throat.

“Come on in the house,” she said, and reached up to take his hand in hers.

He laughed shortly. “With that bunch? Am I allowed to fight back?”

She grinned at him. “Don’t worry about them.

I’ve been dealing with them for years. Their barks are worse than their bites.”

Jeff rubbed his jaw. “Honey, if that’s his bark, I don’t want to see his bite.”

“Hey,” she countered, “are you saying a Recon Marine isn’t tough enough to handle three civilians and a Gunnery Sergeant?”

“If that’s a challenge, honey,” he said in a low growl, “consider it taken.”

Three

The inside of the house was just as he remembered it. He’d always thought it looked a bit like a child’s playhouse might. The rooms were small, cozy. Fresh flowers dotted every table, and brightly colored pillows were stacked on all of the chairs. It was cool, welcoming, with the faint scent of lavender flavoring the still air. Pale blue walls gave the impression of a soft summer day, and the overstuffed furniture invited people to settle in and stay for a while. And there was nothing he would’ve liked more.

However, the four huge brothers glowering at him from across the room took the edge off his homecoming.

He had no idea what he’d done to deserve all the hostility, but he was damned if he’d back off. Jeff’s spine stiffened and he lifted his already bruised chin. His body still humming from that kiss, he was prepared to face down whomever he had to to get Kelly to himself.

Unconsciously, he mirrored the brothers’ stance. Arms crossed, legs braced wide apart and a defiant glint in his eyes. One at a time or all four at once … Jeff was ready for them.

“Kelly,” Kevin said, “I think we should—”

Jeff’s gaze shifted to Kevin and he felt a brief spurt of satisfaction at the other man’s split lip and already blackening eye. On the couch in front of him was a Smokey Bear hat, and Jeff knew that Kelly’s older brother was a drill instructor. He should have guessed when he heard the man talk earlier. His voice was rough from too much shouting, and he was talking to his sister as if he were giving orders to a boot recruit.

And from what Jeff remembered of Kelly’s temperament, her reaction should be worth watching.

He was right.

“Kevin,” Kelly spoke up, interrupting him, “I think you’ve done enough for one day.”

“Hey, this wasn’t Kevin’s fault,” one of the triplets said.

“Really?” she asked, turning on him like a snake. “Who punched whom?”

The big guy actually backed up a step, and Jeff hid a smile. Man, it was good to watch her in action. For such a small thing, she had enough fire in her for three women. And seeing her set loose that temper on her overbearing brothers was damn entertaining.

However, he wasn’t going to stand there and keep quiet while she defended him against her own family.

“Whatever your problem is with me,” he said, staring straight into Kevin’s flat gaze, “I’d be happy to settle it with you.”

The other man tensed. “Anytime, Gunnery Sergeant.”

“Fine,” Jeff muttered, already gearing up to finish what had been started outside. “Let’s go.”

“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Kelly snapped, looking from Jeff to her oldest brother.

“Kelly,” Kevin spoke up again in that drill instructor growl of his. “We’ve been waiting to talk to him for a long time.” “So have I,” she retorted. “Well, I’m standing right here,” Jeff said, looking from Kevin to Kelly and back again. They were all so busy talking around him and about him, no one was talking to him, and a tiny thread of warning unraveled inside him. Something was definitely up, and he wanted to know just what it was. “How about somebody tells me what’s going on around here?”

Kelly turned toward him, and for the first time he noticed a slight tension etched into her features. She looked worried. But about what?

Kevin opened his mouth again, but Kelly gave him a look that could have toasted a lesser man and he scowled, but kept quiet.

“This isn’t going at all how I planned it,” she said, turning back to Jeff, her wide eyes focused on him as if he were the only man there. “I want you to know that. I tried to get rid of them earlier, but they just wouldn’t move.”

Jeff ignored the brothers, which wasn’t easy since they took up so much space in the small room. But if she could do it, he sure as hell could. Keeping his gaze locked on her, he said simply, “Forget them, Kelly. Just talk to me.”

She inhaled sharply and blew the air out in a rush, ruffling the loose curls on her forehead. How many times had he thought of that little gesture of hers? How many nights had he dreamed of being right here … in this house … with her? Well, here he was, but so far the reality was nothing like his imagination.

“You’re right,” she said, nodding. “This is between you and me, no matter what they think.” She gave her brothers a warning look, then stepped forward, took Jeff’s hand and led him into the hall toward the two tiny bedrooms.

He felt the combined gazes of those brothers boring a hole into his back, but he did his best to ignore it. The last time he’d walked down this hall, he remembered, Kelly had been in his arms, nestled against his chest. If he tried, he could almost feel the beat of her heart against his again. Enjoying the memory, he let it unfold, recalling how he’d carried her into her bedroom, laid her down atop the bed and then fell into her welcoming arms.

It had been their last night together. A night that had lasted until morning. A night that had been burned into his brain with such clarity that even now, with her brothers hot on his heels, he felt a rush of desire so strong it nearly swamped him. But, he reminded himself, that was then and this was now.

A tinkle of music drifted toward him, along with a scent that he really didn’t recognize. It was soft and pleasant and faintly familiar, though he couldn’t place it. Behind him, he heard the heavy footsteps of the four men who were following after them and Jeff wished again he had either a weapon or his team with him.

But Kelly’s fingers were warm on his, and rather than waste any more time thinking about her brothers, he concentrated instead on the woman in front of him. His gaze dropped to the sway of her hips as she walked, and another sharp, sweet jolt of desire rocked him. Whatever was between them was damn strong, he thought. That he could respond to the mere fact of her presence while surrounded by her hostile family was proof enough of that.

Time was wasting, he thought, wanting only to see whatever it was she had to show him, then get on with the reunion. That one kiss they’d shared had only whetted his appetite, and he knew he wouldn’t be satisfied until he was buried inside her body, feeling the warmth of her ease back all the darkness within him. She was the only woman who’d ever been able to do that, he thought. It was only with Kelly that he’d been able to find the kind of peace that most people took for granted.

Jeff wasn’t a man to plan on forever. He’d learned long ago to count on nothing but now. Today. Planning for tomorrows that might not come was useless. But for however long this lasted, he wanted to cherish the time with Kelly. Revel in all he found with her so that when it was over, he’d be able to dredge up the memories and recall a time, however brief, when he wasn’t alone.

She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a smile that lit up his insides like a firefight at midnight. And every thought but one fled from his mind. All he wanted, all he needed, was her. The feel of her. The taste of her. His insides shook with the need to touch her. So, he told himself, let’s get this show on the road, and then send those brothers of hers packing.

Then she opened a closed door and pulled him into a pale yellow room where his sexual fancies died a quick death.

He noticed the crib first. Something clutched tight in his chest. But before he had time to wonder why in the hell Kelly had a crib in her house, the baby inside that crib grabbed hold of the bars with two tiny fists and pulled itself to its feet. There it stood, dark hair, blue eyes, wide grin and drool running from the corner of its mouth. It looked at them all, bounced a couple of times, then giggled and fell backward onto the mattress.

His mouth dried up. He shot a look at Kelly. “What?” Words failed him. What the hell was he supposed to say? She was a mother? Was she married, too? His gaze flicked down to her bare ring finger, and knew he should have felt relieved. But there were still too many unanswered questions for relief to come into this yet. If she had a baby, where was the father? And just what kind of reaction was she expecting from him? Couldn’t she have prepared him just a little for this?

“Jeff,” she said, her voice soft, intimate, “meet Emily.”

“Emily,” he repeated, and silently congratulated himself on getting his own voice to work. A knot of some unidentifiable emotion lodged in his throat, and Jeff choked it down. There was more coming. He knew it. He could feel it. And he braced himself for it.

And even when he was braced, her next words rocked his world right out from under him.

“Your daughter,” Kelly added, and the final blow hit him hard to the chest. Air rushed out of his lungs, and he wasn’t at all sure he’d be able to pull more in. All right, this he hadn’t expected. But it sure as hell explained her brothers’ attitudes toward him.

If this baby really was his, the four of them probably wanted to murder him. And he couldn’t even find it in him to blame them.

A curl of foreboding settled in the pit of Jeff’s stomach. His baby! Good God, Jeff thought wildly. He couldn’t be a father. He was a Marine. And father to a girl? What the hell did he know about girls—except, of course, for the grown-up version? No. There had to be a mistake.

“My daughter?” he repeated, even knowing that he was beginning to sound like an echo.

“Damn right, your daughter,” Kevin said from the doorway. “And what are you going to do about it?”

Okay, understanding the anger was one thing; putting up with it was another. Jeff turned on him. “Well, hell, why don’t you give me more than ten seconds to get used to the idea, huh?”

“What’s to get used to,” the other man argued. “You have a child. Unless you’re going to try to deny her.”

“Damn it, Kevin,” Kelly said, and rushed at her mountain of a brother. Planting both hands on his broad chest, she shoved for all she was worth and actually succeeded in backing him up a step or two before he dug in his heels and held his ground.

“This is family business,” one of the other brothers said, keeping his voice carefully neutral. “We have the right to hear what he has to say.”

When she would have argued that point, Jeff said, “He has a point. They do have the right to talk to me about this.”

Surprise flashed across Kevin’s face, but he nodded, clearly pleased. Until Jeff continued.

“But first, Kelly and I are going to talk. Alone.”

“Exactly,” she said, and waved both hands at her brothers, herding them toward the door. “You guys get lost so Jeff and I can settle this between us.”

One of the triplets spoke up then. “Fine. We’ll go. But this isn’t over.”

Now, that, Jeff thought, was putting it mildly. But as he turned back to face the crib, he pushed Kelly’s brothers out of his mind and tried to focus on the shift his life had just taken.

He had a daughter.

It never occurred to him to doubt Kelly’s word on this. She wasn’t the kind of woman to lie about something this huge. If she said he was the father, then that’s just what he was.

But how had this happened?

When he and Kelly were together, they’d been careful. They’d used protection. Hell, he’d gone through enough condoms in that two-week period to justify buying stock in the company. So how did they manage to create a baby? This kind of thing didn’t happen to responsible adults. Surprise babies happened to high-school kids with more hormones than sense.

Swiveling his head, he stared hard at Kelly for a long moment, looking for some sign that she was somehow kidding. Maybe she was baby-sitting, a small, hopeful voice inside him said, completely discounting the fact that the room was a magazine version of a perfect nursery. One last chance here, he told himself. It was a joke. A bad one. But there was no laughter in her eyes. Only the same tension he’d noted earlier.

So much for a last-minute reprieve.

The baby gurgled again, and Jeff forced leaden feet to carry him farther into the room. Pale yellow walls glimmered in the afternoon sunshine streaming through the windows. Teddy bears and baby dolls littered the floor, and a mobile of sea horses dangled over the crib, dancing weirdly to the tinny tune he’d heard earlier.

Dread crashed down around him. A baby. In Kelly’s house. A baby with black hair and blue eyes. A baby that looked—except for the lack of a five-o’clock shadow—too much like Jeff for comfort.

He stood in front of the crib, gripped the top rail in two tight fists and stared down at the baby through eyes glazed with confusion and just a hint of panic. The tiny girl kicked both legs, lifted her arms toward him and gave him a smile that both terrified and touched him more deeply than he would have thought possible.

A child.

He had a child.

God help the poor little thing.

With her brothers gone, Kelly drew her first easy breath all evening. It was hard enough telling Jeff about the baby without the added factor of four men ready and willing to beat him into the ground.

But now that it was just her and Jeff, a wave of discomfort rippled through her. This was so much more difficult than she’d thought it would be. He looked, she thought, like a man who’d been hit over the head with a two-by-four. And she couldn’t blame him.

“I’m sorry this is such a shock,” she said, and winced at the inadequacy of the words.

“Shock?” he muttered, shaking his head. “Good word for this.”

“I would have told you sooner,” Kelly went on, walking across the room to stand beside him, “but I had no way to get in touch with you.”

She looked down at her daughter and felt her heart melt as it always did with one look at Emily.

Amazing how such a tiny person could engender such great amounts of love.

From the moment she’d discovered she was pregnant, Kelly had loved her child with a fierceness she hadn’t thought she was capable of. And she’d wanted to tell Jeff about the baby. But he’d told her in the beginning of their relationship that he was in the Marine Force Recon. Always on the move. Always involved in some covert action, stealing in and out of hostile situations.

She had every postcard he’d sent her over the past year and a half. But there’d been no return address. No way to reach him. And when she’d contacted the base, trying to get in touch with him, she’d been told simply that he was in the field.

“But I called you—” he said, glancing at her briefly. “six months ago, I telephoned you from Guam.”

“A five-minute phone call, Jeff,” she said in her own defense. “Five minutes on a static-filled line.”

She remembered that phone call all too clearly. The sound of his voice, so faraway, so faint. The bursts of white noise that slashed at their tenuous link. She’d wanted to tell him so badly. Wanted him to know about Emily. But how could she have done that to him when he was so far away, going into who knew what kind of danger?

She hadn’t wanted to distract him. Hadn’t wanted to be the cause of his getting hurt or killed on some mission or other because his mind was on something other than the job.

His hands tightened on the crib rail until his knuckles went white. “How long does it take to say, ‘We have a baby girl’?”

A flush of anger swept through her. “Longer than five minutes,” she said. “I couldn’t just announce Emily’s existence and then not be able to talk to you about it.”

“Damn it, Kelly, I had the right to know.” “Yeah, you did. But how was I supposed to track you down to tell you?”

He pulled in a long, deep breath and slanted her a look. “Okay, fine. Maybe there was no way to tell me before. But tell me now. How did this happen?”

She drew her head back and looked at him. “How? For heaven’s sake Jeff, we made love nearly every day for two solid weeks.” “And used condoms,” he pointed out. “Apparently, one of them didn’t work.” “Didn’t work?” he demanded. “How could they not work? That’s their only job!”

Kelly laughed shortly. Hadn’t she asked herself those very questions when she did that first pregnancy test? But asking how wasn’t going to solve a thing now. It was a little late to worry about the inadequacies of condoms.

“Yeah, well,” she said softly as she smiled down at her daughter, “that’s not really important now, is it?”

He sighed and followed her gaze back to the child staring up at them with wide blue eyes. “I guess not. But damn, Kelly. This wasn’t exactly the kind of reunion I was expecting.”

“I know,” she said, and reached out to lay one hand atop his.

A short, choked laugh shot from his throat. “Well, at least I know why your brother tried to tear my head off.”

He didn’t know the half of it. Since telling her brothers that she was pregnant, all four of them had been just itching to get their hands on the man responsible.

“I’m sorry about Kevin,” she said, “but my brothers have always tried to protect me—even when I didn’t want them to.”

“Can’t blame ‘em,” Jeff said, and reached out to touch her cheek before letting his hand fall to his side. “If I were in their shoes, I’d be pretty damn mad at me, too.”

“As much as I love them,” Kelly told him, “it doesn’t matter what they say in the end. Emily is our daughter. We decide what to do and where to go from here.”

“You’re right,” Jeff said, nodding and straightening up to full attention. “And where we go from here is to the closest justice of the peace we can find.” “Huh?”

“We’re getting married.”