Page 31 of Rescued By the SEAL

“And what’s that?” Her eyebrows knot together as she tries to work out what we’re doing here. I could say anything and I think that might make her nervous. “Uh-oh, I don’t know if I like that look on your face. What are you thinking about?”

“Our parents.” Shit. Her face drops, but I do think that this is important. “I think I need to have a visit with my mother, just to see if there is anything there we can salvage. I don’t think you should move anywhere without seeing your dad. Iknowthings were shitty and the things he said to you before were awful, but I think you should try one last time.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” She shakes her head hard. “I don’t know if I should spark that fire once more. He’ssomad at me. Like, angrier than he has ever been before. I don’t know if he’s ever going to be able to look at me again. He told me that he never wants to see me again, and that wasn’t that long ago. I don’t think he will have calmed down.”

“You don’t want any regrets.” I lean down and kiss her on the head to let her know that I mean this from love. “You don’t want to feel bad if anything ever happens to him. I’m telling you this from my own perspective after what happened.”

“But what if he yells some more?” She clutches her chest. “I don’t know if I can take another argument. I can’t stand the idea of his being so full of rage at me anymore. It was too much. It might break me if it happens again.”

“You can’t be broken if I’m here to fix you, to pick you up and help you through whatever you need help with. I just think that one last attempt, even if it all goes wrong, will make sure that you don’t have any regrets. You don’t want to wonderwhat if?”

She’s quiet for a beat too long, which makes me nervous for even suggesting this. I should have known that it was too soon to talk about her father after what had happened before. He must have hurt her more than I realized.

“You might be right… I guess.” Heather doesn’t sound convinced, even as she agrees with me. “I don’t know, it still makes me nervous, and I don’t think that he will want to speak to me again. I think he really meant that he didn’t want to deal with me again. That look on his face when he said it…” She shakes her head sadly. I can almost see her defeat. “He meant it.”

“There is no way he meant that, Heather. Not a chance in hell. He said that out of hurt. You know that. He might seem a little overprotective and too much for you, but it all comes from a good place. He does it out of love.”

“But is it love to trap me in a box? To never let me be free? To not let me make my own mistakes?”

I pause before I answer, trying to make my next words the right ones. “He does. But thinking about what happened to your mom… it’s obviously affected him deeply. I don’t think you should just run away without letting him know.”

She sighs heavily, but I can see that she’s considering this and accepting it. I’m going to do the same with my mother. I’m going to see her, to see if there is anything that I can do for her, but then I’ll also be letting her know that I’m off, that I’ve found a new life for myself and I’ll be following it. I don’t want to upset her and make her feel lonely with my father gone too, but she’s never needed me before, so I don’t think it’ll change now. I’m sure it’ll be fine for the both of us once we have closure.

“Okay, I’ll do it. Whenever you’re ready to go and see your mom, I’ll face my dad. But I can’t promise that I won’t come out of the meeting without tears running down my face. My dad might have me crying all over again.”

“Then I’ll pick you up,” I reassure her. “I might cry after seeing my mother too. We can save one another.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Heather nods, and we hold on to one another. “That’s true. We’re in this together. We can do this, can’t we? We can get through the finale of this, then move on to the next stage of our lives… together.”

27

HEATHER

It really does scare me. The idea of speaking to my father is terrifying, but somehow, Landon is making it seem okay. He just has thiswayabout him which makes anything seem possible. I don’t know how he does it. He makes me feel invisible.

“Do we have to go right now?” I ask Landon while running my finger lightly down his chest. “Is Max kicking us out now?”

“Nah, not at all.” He grabs onto the back of my head and grins. “Max will give us the time that we need.”

“Ah, okay.” I shoot him a playful wink, letting him know that I’m on fire. “So, you think we have enough time for this?”

I kiss him hard, my mind twisting off into a pleasurable place where all I can think about is how fucking lucky I am to have such an amazing man by my side. One who really does love me and has for years, even with our being apart for all those years. I might have been through a lot of struggles in my life, but it’s all worth it just to be here with him.

“Mmm, so we’re going to make the most of the safehouse while we have it for one more night, huh? I like that.”

“Well, we might as well, right?” I shrug and take his hand. “And I’m just trying to work out which room we should explore.”

“The living room?” Landon joins in. “Oh, no, we’ve already christened that room. The bedroom too. Not the bathroom, of course, because that would be gross… but what about the kitchen? We haven’t soiled that room just yet, have we?”

“Or what about outside?” I’m feeling naughty, and at least we know that no one will see us here. We’re in the middle of nowhere in this remote safehouse, and I’ve never explored that side of my sexuality. “In the garden. We have a nice garden.”

“Under the moonlight.” His eyes light up with delight. “I like the sound of that. That could be fun.”

I drag him outside, both of us giggling like teenagers in lust, and I press him up against the brick walls of the house to kiss him hard and fast. My hands run all over his body, and he’s feeling me too. His hands are eagerly trying to touch every inch of me, and damn it, I want to let him. There has always been an intense passion between me and Landon, a chemistry like no other, but ever since we told one another we love each other, it’s intense and overwhelming. I love it.

The kiss deepens, his lips and tongue claim me completely, and I’m in heaven because of it. Fireworks are already erupting in the pit of my stomach, the butterflies grow in size and flap wildly until I can hardly cope any longer. My knees are knocking together, my legs jellified. I don’t even know how I’m holding myself up anymore.

“Come here, you,” Landon growls as he spins me around and presses me up against the wall face first. I splay my palms wide, my fingers itching to grab on to something to keep me standing as his fingers dive into my underwear and he plunges deep within me. A guttural scream rises within me and explodes like an erupting volcano as he massages and explores me in a phenomenal way. Thank God no one can hear us out here. I would definitely get us caught.

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