Heated Pursuit (Alpha Security #1)(79)
“Maybe we should start charging tickets,” Rafe teased before allowing her to slide down the front of his body. By the time her feet touched the ground, he was hard everywhere. Keeping his arms wrapped around her, he held her close enough for her to feel the erection pushing against her stomach.
Charlie shuddered. “Forget the tickets. Just do…that…somewhere else. Bloody hell, this is a place of business. Or at least it will be if Navy ever gets on the ball with these renovations.”
Vince, now standing between Logan and Sean, shot her a glare. “Vince would’ve been done a long time ago if some snooty little English girl weren’t so damn picky.”
“You know what? You lot are off gallivanting for weeks at a time. If I’m going to be stuck inside these four walls more than the lot of you, then I’m damn well going to make sure it’s something I want to look at,” Charlie growled right back. “Get the windows done or I’m going to hire the Beau brothers to finish the job.”
“Like hell. You just want to hire them so you can watch their asses while they work.”
She shrugged. “Your point is what?”
Trey stepped between Vince and Charlie moments before suspected bloodshed. “All right, kids. Don’t make me put the two of you in separate corners.” With a small smirk, he dropped a kiss on Penny’s cheek. “Congratulations. I think this calls for a party by the lake. What do you think? Swimming, beer, and barbeque?”
“That sounds great.” Penny looked up at Rafe, her smile mirroring his. “I want to call Dr. Phillips and see if Rachel would be okay coming out with us. Is that okay with you?”
Rafe gently guided her mouth back to his. “It would be more than okay, baby.”
Penny squeezed him tighter. God, she loved him with every inch of her being. He’d been by her side, her mountainous support as they found both medical and emotional help for all the women that had been trapped in the warehouse bunker. He and Charlie had helped her find Carlotta’s family…who lived in New York…and who hadn’t named her Carlotta, but Nora.
And thanks to Alpha’s connections, Rachel was in a government-sponsored rehab facility less than an hour away. It would be a long recuperation process, her battle with Freedom sometimes needing to be fought minute to minute…but if anyone could fight it—and win—it was her. Knowing that both Fuentes men died in Honduras and couldn’t hurt another soul helped the darker times seem just the smallest bit lighter.
It would be a long road to normal—Penny’s new kind of normal, one that involved a new family and a new job. As a trauma psychologist, she’d help the people Alpha saved after the bullets stopped flying. It was an exciting new chapter in her life, and she couldn’t wait to get started.
Penny lifted to her toes and kissed Rafe until her head went dizzy. “Can you and I have our own private celebration when everyone goes home?”
“Red, we can have our own private celebration every damn day of the week. As a matter of fact, I encourage it…demand it even.” Rafe feathered his mouth against hers.
“Jesus. Get a hotel room,” Trey grunted to the chorus of everyone else’s chuckles. “That’s basically my little sister you’re groping in front of me, Ortega.”
“Learn to look away, brother, because there’s no way in hell I’m ever going to stop touching her or let her venture out of my sight. And speaking of…we’ll meet you guys out at the lake.”
Before Penny could ask what he meant, she found herself thrown over Rafe’s shoulder like an economy-sized bag of potatoes. This time, there were no gag, no handcuffs, and no blindfold. This time, she could see exactly where she was going…or would have if Rafe’s smackable ass weren’t in the way.
And that was straight into the future with the man she loved.
Nurse Elle Monroe never expected to see her one-night stand on the steps of her clinic. But Alpha Security operative Trey Hanson isn’t back for a repeat performance. He’s come to save her from heavily armed guerillas—and maybe to steal her heart…
A preview of Holding Fire follows.
Elle stared, transfixed, on the clock behind the airport’s claims counter. Each twitch of the second hand took about five years off her life. Being a month shy of her birthday, she estimated she had roughly ten and a half seconds until the coroner needed to be called. Twelve max, with a little bit of luck, but luck seemed to be in short supply.
Her normal patience was at an all-time low, sucked into a black hole right along with her personal hygiene and her luggage. Twenty hours in flight time from Thailand to New York was to blame for the first. The latter was entirely the fault of the airline.
“Next.” Behind the counter, the gray-haired hospitality worker never bothered looking up at the next traveler.
One more person. One more step. The closer Elle got to the cracked yellow Formica counter of the claims department, the more that surface looked like a goose-feather pillow. To leave or not to leave.
Jeans. Shorts. Granny panties. All cotton, no sexiness. Everything in her suitcase could be easily replaced by her modest paycheck and the nearest discount store. She could call it a loss and find the nearest hotel, be damned the health department reports.
With a deep sigh, Elle looked around the open room. People littered the airport, bulky suitcases bouncing behind them as they scrambled to their destinations while others coveted blankets and pillows and looked to be settling in for the duration. On the left, two children tackled the legs of a tall, slender woman dressed in desert camouflage.