Page 40 of SEAL's Secret

“What are you up to today?” Hudson asked the next morning, handing Layton a cup of coffee. She smiled as she took it from him, their fingers brushing. He’d learned that Layton would have exactly one cup of coffee each morning, not wanting too much caffeine given her pregnancy. Hudson knew she was thrilled to finally feel well enough to enjoy it, no longer dealing with endless nausea.

She crossed to the kitchen table and sat down, wearing a sexy little camisole and sleep shorts. It probably wasn’t meant to be sexy, necessarily, but she looked hot. Her breasts were growing bigger, pressing against the thin cotton. Her blonde hair was a bit of a tangled mess, but some of that was Hudson’s doing. He grinned as she realized he was staring at her, the blush on her cheeks cute as hell. He’d taken her slowly last night, savoring each moment. This morning, however, she’d clearly been feeling frisky. Layton had climbed atop Hudson, much to his delight, and rode him to ecstasy while he enjoyed the view of her breasts bouncing before him. He’d gripped her hips and thrust upward, easily taking control after she’d begun to tire. Feeling her pussy squeeze his cock had sent him over the edge, and they’d both been sweaty and panting when it was over.

Layton had warned him that her hormones were about to go crazy, making her sex drive sky high. He didn’t hate it. Making love to her was a thrill, and if she needed him more now, well, he’d just have to man up and suffer through it. He licked his lips, smiling again. Hudson couldn’t deny her anything, and as he’d told her a while back, he’d certainly never turn down an invitation in the bedroom.

“I’ve got a couple of homes to show a new client,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee. “Some people are only free on evenings or weekends, so we’ve got a couple homes to visit this afternoon. The woman is a professor here in Honolulu—or she will be. She’s moving over the summer, so I’ve got an entire lineup of houses to show her today.”

“You need me to watch Caroline?” he asked.

“She begged to have an afternoon with Emersyn,” Layton said. “Hopefully those two will start having kids. Ours could use some cousins.” She realized the slip of tongue. “I mean, our baby could use a cousin—”

“I know what you meant,” he said, his voice husky. “And I know you’re a single mom right now. We don’t live together. We’re not married.” He shook his head. “I’m just trying to say if we ever did get married someday, I’d definitely consider her mine, too.”

Tears filled her eyes, and Hudson crouched down, collecting her in his arms. “I’m not proposing right now—”

“I know,” she said, cutting him off. “It’s too soon. We’re too new.”

“It feels like we’ll get there though,” he said.

“It does. Everything about us being together feels right,” Layton replied.

“I haven’t felt this way before,” Hudson admitted. “I never had anyone to care about or someone to care about me.” Her hands cupped his face, and Hudson kissed her softly. Reverently. They stared at each other for a moment before he stood, moving back to get his own cup of coffee.

Layton’s phone buzzed, interrupting the silence in the kitchen, and she scanned over the text. “New prospective client. I just got a new work number with the local area code,” she told him.“I finally disconnected my old line. I was still getting calls from people in D.C., even though I’m nowhere near it. Then I started getting some hang-ups as well. I guess they were annoyed they couldn’t reach me, but honestly, I don’t have time for that.”

Hudson frowned. “Hang-ups?”

She shrugged, the movement briefly drawing his gaze to her chest. “I got a few hang-ups from different numbers. Some people don’t like leaving voicemails, so maybe they were annoyed they couldn’t ever get a hold of me. But there were a couple of messages with nothing there, just background noise. Anyway, it was a big time-suck having customers calling me who don’t even live in Hawaii or want to purchase a home here. Since people move around so much and keep their old cell numbers, I couldn’t really screen calls based on area codes.”

“It’s probably best you got a new number then. You haven’t had any more problems here though when showing homes, have you?” he asked.

“You mean the burglarized home? No. And it turns out, that situation was a jealous ex-husband who’d ransacked his ex-wife’s home with her new husband. How crazy is that? They listed the house to buy an even bigger property, and he couldn’t handle it and tried to sabotage the sale. People are absolutely nuts.”

“Wow, that is crazy. Guy needs to end up in prison for that. Just be careful,” Hudson said.

“I’m always cautious,” she promised. “I don’t think this female professor today is anyone to worry about.”

“Maybe not, but what if someone is hiding in a property? That guy gained unauthorized access, so you don’t know who else could. You never know what people will do these days. Even if it’s not some weird revenge thing, like in that case, it could bea robbery.” He swallowed. Or an abduction. Rape. Layton was a beautiful woman. He hated even the idea of her being in harm’s way, but the truth was, when she showed homes to people who were essentially strangers, she was vulnerable.

“I promise to be careful,” she told him.

As Hudson kissed her goodbye later, an ominous feeling washed over him. For whatever reason, he couldn’t shake the idea that something bad was coming.

***

“I love it!” Callie told Layton later that week, viewing the footage she’d just taken on her cell phone. The women had met outside Layton’s new real estate office, getting the sign in the background with Layton telling everyone on camera to come to her for their real estate needs in Oahu.

“Yeah, it looks good,” Layton agreed. “This was a great idea.”

“Should we show one of the homes?” Callie asked. “I can blur out the address if you want, given the homeowner might not want undue attention, but it might help draw more views. People have short attention spans, so it’s good to mix up the location sometimes.”

“Absolutely. Let’s do it,” Layton agreed.

The women filmed in a few different locations, with Callie explaining she’d upload it to her blog and social media channels. Layton was excited for the new exposure. While her name and photo were on her new real estate office’s website, the fact of the matter was, she was new in town. She didn’t have client referrals to work with. While customers from D.C. sought her out, shehadn’t been in Oahu nearly long enough for anything similar to happen here.

That evening, she swung by to pick up Caroline from day care and then stopped by Aaron’s apartment, where Em was still living. Her sister had offered to make dinner for them, and since the guys were in a late briefing that evening, Layton had happily agreed.

“How’s the progress on your place?” Layton asked, watching as her sister strained the spaghetti noodles in the sink.

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