Beyond Limits (Tracers #8)(97)

Derek stopped in the parking lot. He didn’t need help getting to sleep. But the team thing got to him. It had been a hard tour, and he should end on a good note, especially in light of what he planned to do.

Cole smiled, because he knew he had him. He jerked his head toward his truck. “I’m driving.”

Derek climbed in for the short hop over to O’Malley’s. Cole found a parking spot at the end of a row of pickups.

Derek eyed the bar as he crossed the lot. It was loud and dirty. A young Marine sat on the curb outside, nursing a bloody lip. Not even ten, and already there’d been a fight. Some things never changed.

They reached the door, and Cole slapped him on the back. “It was a good tour, my friend.”

Derek narrowed his gaze at him.

“See you next week.” A smile spread across Cole’s face as he looked out at the parking lot.

Derek turned around. And there was Elizabeth.

She walked over as he stood there, speechless. So many days and weeks he’d been craving her, and now she was right there in front of him, her eyes smiling, her hair blowing around her shoulders. She glanced past him and waved.

“Thanks, Cole.”

“No problem. See you around.”

She stopped in front of him. “Hi.”

He pulled her against him and kissed her.





* * *





When he finally let her up for air, she was grinning. She couldn’t help it. She’d had the same dumb grin on her face since she’d landed in San Diego.

“You’re here.”

She laughed. “Yep. And you sound as out of it as you look. Long flight?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face, then blinked down at her, still without words.

“Come on,” she said. “I assume you want to go inside?”

“That’s the dead-last place I want to go right now.”

He wanted to go to bed, she could see it in his eyes. She wanted that, too, but not yet. “Let’s walk on the beach.” She took his hand. “I need to talk to you.” He let her lead him across the street. At the edge of the sand, she stopped to take off her sandals. She was in jeans and a loose white blouse, and she could tell he liked it by the way he kept staring at her.

“Damn.”

She smiled. “What?”

“I didn’t expect to see you tonight.” He pulled her in and kissed her again, longer this time, until her body started to throb. God, she’d missed him.

She pulled back and looked up into his eyes. Nerves fluttered inside her. “I have news,” she said, and at his raised eyebrows, she stepped back. “Whoa. What’s that look? I’m not pregnant or anything.”

“That’s not what the look was. Pregnant? I thought you were going to say you met someone.” His brow furrowed. “Did you?”

“No. God. I got a job offer. In D.C.” She looked up at him, trying to read his reaction. “It’s with Gordon Moore’s CT team. It’s a promotion, and it puts me very close to Virginia. Only a stone’s throw away.” She swallowed. “Would you consider moving to Little Creek, Virginia?”

He looked surprised, then confused. He rubbed the back of his neck. “You want . . . wait, start over. You’re saying you want me to move across the country?”

“I was thinking if you joined the East Coast teams in Little Creek, we’d see much more of each other. We’d see each other every time you have leave and while you’re stateside for training, too. And you’d still be a SEAL.”

“I thought you didn’t want me to be a SEAL.”

“I want you to do what you love. I want you to be happy.”

He didn’t know that? How could he not know? Her heart chilled at the thought. They started walking down the beach, and she suddenly felt worlds apart from him. She’d spent so much time while he was gone considering everything, from every possible angle, and she’d thought she understood him better now. Maybe she’d been fooling herself. She watched him in the moonlight. The moon was full, just as it had been their last night together.

“You remember that night at the dam?” she asked. “When Lauren was in the hospital?”

“The night you attacked me in my truck?” The corner of his mouth curved. “I think I remember it.”

“You told me that story about your first tour of duty, when Hill got hurt.”

“Yeah?” He clearly had no idea where she was going with this.

“I didn’t understand why you told me that. You’d always been so secretive about your missions, and I thought maybe, I don’t know, you were trying to impress me or something so I’d sleep with you. But then later, I realized what you were trying to tell me.”

She stopped and looked up at him. He towered over her, and she loved his height and his broad shoulders and the solid bulk of him. She loved the way he was looking at her, like she was a puzzle he wanted to figure out. She loved just being near him after so much time apart, and she dreaded the idea of him going back out there. But she’d accepted that if she loved him, it was something she needed to live with.

“Derek, I know there’s no ‘safe’ for men like you. There’s no guarantee. All you can count on for sure is your training and your brothers.” She squeezed his hand. “You put your trust in them, and I need to put my trust in them, too.”