A table for ten, p.3
A Table for Ten, page 3
I frowned, turning to her, but the few lines on her face from before were gone, and her face was smooth again.
Too smooth, and too much like a mask for my liking. A mask I knew all too well, because it mirrored my own.
I opened my mouth to respond with a smart comment or something light, but for the second time in a few moments, her words gave me pause.
Because those words echoed something my ex-commanding officer had said, years ago, before he left the Army. Laced with too much truth to brush off, I couldn’t make light of them. That was Joker’s department.
And since I couldn’t ask her, couldn’t risk becoming involved, when I opened my mouth the next time I gave her a piece of my truth.
“Everyone comes home different. Don’t listen to what they tell you. No one leaves the desert unchanged.”
Hadleigh nodded, turning to face me. “Thank you for feeding me. And tea. And...furry cuddles.” She smiled, and I thought it was her real one. Maybe.
“She’s getting spoiled.” I shook my head, unable to hide my grin.
Hadleigh raised an eyebrow. “Getting? That ship has long since sailed, boy.”
I huffed a laugh. “It’s been a while since someone called me ‘boy’. You’re full of surprises, Hadleigh Rawson.”
Her lips pursed, but there was no disguising the mischief in her eyes. “Is that so? Then I’ll give you another.” She rose onto her toes, and brushed her lips across mine in a chaste kiss.
Well, it might have been chaste if it hadn't sent a double-edged bolt of desire rampaging through me. Hadleigh’s sharp inhale told me that door swung in both directions. My hands tangled into her hair, pulling her into me as her nails dug into my shoulders.
A tiny, soft noise originated somewhere in her throat and it broke me, that soft, needy sound wrapped in restraint.
So I let mine go.
Her body fit flush against mine as I bowed her back slightly with the force of the kiss. My heart slammed into my chest as I unwound my fingers from her silky hair, stroking my fingertips down her back in a cautious request at permission.
Hadleigh tore her mouth from mine, leaving my head in a swirl of mint and green tea. “Would you stop being so damn gentle with me?” Blue eyes sparked at me, lit with her own desire.
I smiled to cover my own need and brushed my mouth over hers in an achingly sweet kiss. “If you have to be so demanding.”
Hadleigh’s brow drew together, her pink lips open in a puffy ‘o’.
I gave her that reprieve, a moment to reflect on what she’d asked. That knowledge seemed to sink in around the time I backed up a step and swung her around to pin her to the wall of the house.
A soft cry that could have been a moan built in her before I tore it from her mouth in a savage kiss she returned full force.
Soft hands slipped beneath my shirt, nails scraping over my abs. Hadleigh traced her way up my chest beneath my shirt, and paused over the trio of dots in the centre of my chest.
She broke our kiss a second time. “Is that—”
“Yes,” I growled. My fingers hit denim. I ran my hand over the curve of her perfect ass, pulling her tight to me. “Anything else you need to know?”
Undeterred, her hand moved up, over a long scar that ran straight over my shoulder. “What happened here?”
“Can we do show and tell later?” My mouth travelled along her throat, finding all those sweet little spots that earned me a soft run of moans.
Hadleigh curved her arms beneath mine, hooking her hands over the back of my shoulders to pull me down to her. One knee lifted over my hip, and she ground herself against my denim-covered cock.
I swallowed a curse, sliding my hand beneath her hip to stroke along the seam of her jeans. Heat emanated against my hand. She wriggled against my touch, gasping hotly into my mouth and I hardened to the point of painful.
I am not fucking a girl I just met outside the house on Christmas.
Especially when said house was full of men I worked with every day. She deserved so much better than that.
It was my turn to break the kiss. The soft little whine that left her swollen lips was a sound I burned into my memory for playback later. Likely for when everyone else had gone to bed, and I was alone in mine.
“Lincoln?” My name tumbled from her lips a second time and I swore something horrid inside my head.
“I’m not fucking you out here, Princess. Tell me you don’t have a husband to go home to tonight.” Not that it mattered. She lived over two thousand miles away.
“Pity,” she murmured. “An no. No...attachments.”
My gaze narrowed, zeroing in on her. “And tell me this isn’t a regular for you.” I bit the words out, the major’s tone entering my voice. “The boys will never respect you if you go around like this, girl.”
“What happened to princess?” Her chin tilted back, and her eyes sparkled at me but...something was missing.
I dipped my forehead to hers. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s better.” She tapped my lips with a finger and gave me a cheeky grin. “There’s a first time for everything.”
For her tarting up or for me apologising? No matter how I rearranged that one in my head, it wasn’t going to come out right, so I left it there to look at another time.
“You liked Princess?” I murmured, brushing my mouth over hers, though I released her hip reluctantly.
Hadleigh nodded, her arms still wound tight around me. “Yes.”
The admission sliced through me as I pressed both hands against the wall of the house. Cold, and unyielding.
Not soft, full of curves and sweet as hell temptation.
“You need to let go, Princess. I can’t be involved with...” Someone as stunning as you. I’d break her heart doing something, whether it was my skewed sense of morals or by inadvertently dying. “Anyone.”
Hadleigh nodded, trailing her fingers down my back. She passed a dozen more puckered scars on the way out of my shirt but didn’t ask about a single one.
I stepped back and inhaled a long, steadying breath.
Mistake.
That long breath inhaled Hadleigh’s scent tinged with her arousal. My jeans tightened again.
Her lips pursed as her eyes sparkled properly again. “Let’s try this again, shall we?” She ran her hands over her hair, playing with a curl she wrapped around one finger.
I shoved my hands in my pockets as she stepped into my space, lest I find us back where we’d started, sans clothes this time.
Hadleigh raised onto her toes and brushed her lips across my cheek. “I’ll be seeing you again, Major.”
I blinked as she stepped back, still smiling.
“Thank you for giving me a memorable Christmas, Hadleigh.”
Her laugh was my only answer as she disappeared around the side of the house, her heels clicking a smart pace over the path. Then the sound disappeared altogether.
Shaking my head, I stared into the shadow, but there wasn’t a hint of movement. My feet moved before I put conscious thought into it, but by the time I reached the road, there wasn’t a person in sight. I stared around, but I couldn't remember if Hadleigh arrived in a car, or if she’d walked. How far had she come?
I hadn’t even thought to ask where her family lived.
My phone rang in my pocket. I extracted it, still searching for any hint of motion along the pavement. “Merry Christmas, sir,” I answered, running a hand over my head. That not-so-tiny kiss had more than ruffled me.
A splash of neon light from the club across the road rippled across the black top. Tiny drops hit my face, streaming down my cheeks. How long had it been raining that I hadn’t noticed?
“Kelly, I didn’t want to have to make this call. But tell me you didn’t give that agent anything she didn’t already know.”
Ridgell’s words sent my heart plummeting to the base of my gut and raised my Christmas dinner to around the realm of my throat.
“What?”
“Manners, Kelly!” Ridgell barked.
I managed a wry grin despite the worms roiling in my gut. Apparently you could put the Army boy into politics, but you couldn’t drive the brat out of him.
“Yes, sir,” I snapped back, regretting the lack of decorum in an instant, though my mind whirred off in another direction altogether as I scanned the street level.
“Don’t make me charge you, Lincoln Kelly. Z Unit has a speckled history already.”
“I know that, sir. It would be great if you could let me know what I’ve done.” The words came out strained between clenched teeth and I didn’t care about decorum.
“The woman you've been flirting with all night. Did you leave her alone at any point? Did she get into the office? I’m getting sick of saving your neck, Kelly.”
You didn’t save my neck. My dog did. You hauled us out two hours too late.
Ridgell would likely hang that one over me for the rest of my career.
His words collided with my brain in a trainwreck.
Hadleigh.
I ground my teeth together. She hadn’t been alone at any point during the night, had she? The thought slammed into my Christmas dinner in an unpleasant train smash.
She was an agent...but for who, or which organisation? I had no doubt Ridgell had done his homework, just as I should have done mine. After I’d eaten her cover story, which had clearly been a fallacy designed for our Christmas-themed consumption, I hadn’t given her access to sensitive files a second thought.
How many times had she walked out of the room unattended? She’d helped me serve the table, and she’d visited the bathroom. And she’d gotten upset after we’d gone around the table to honour those we missed. Had that been her opportunity? How long had she been away? Long enough to do any damage? The computers were locked down. Maybe.
I groaned silently into the blackened night sky.
I hadn’t wanted to let her into my life, or unbalance the status quo. What a ridiculous concept. She hadn’t unbalanced it—she completely unhinged it.
Was she international intelligence? A spy from another nation? Had I given away the secrets I was meant to protect? Betraying one’s country, even if it was unintentional, came under the banner of treason and its own world of hurt. But that was nothing compared to the snake that drew its way around my heart, strangling it in a drawn out breath.
This is what comes from having fun and getting involved with someone.
A sigh gusted between my teeth. I forced my jaw open in an attempt to speak normally. “Fine. Who is she?”
If Hadleigh was even her real name. It probably wasn’t. Was any of it real?
“ASIO. One of Australia’s finest intel officers. She was on an audit, I’m told, like it was a Sunday picnic.” Ridgell snorted down the line, though static distorted it. “No, I'm not going to charge you. But consider it a wake up call. You're far from invincible, Kelly.”
He hung up before I could argue my case, though to be fair, my position was fairly weak.
Right back at you, sir.
I’d bought Hadleigh’s story, the obviously fake ID she’d shown without a second thought. Ridgell would never send us a care package; he’d be more likely to blast the unit from the face of the country. The only package I’d taken note of was the one wrapped up in a pretty smile, a cute red top and those white, cut-off jeans.
I lowered my phone, and squeezed it tight in my fist until it creaked under the pressure.
The thing buzzed, and I nearly wet myself.
When I read the message from an unknown number, it was a close thing.
Thanks for Christmas dinner. It was almost as good as a Sunday picnic. I loved learning your stories, Ace.
The little minx had been listening in on my call.
I huffed back a laugh, and turned my phone off before I hit reply and did something else questionable. Instead, I walked back through the doors of Fairview House, grinning like an idiot.
The boys slumped in their chairs, playing a lacklustre hand of poker. Queen wiggled his fingers at me, while his brother snored in his seat beside him.
I had a dawn pack march to plan, and the night's event gave me reason to bring the date forward...to tomorrow.
Thanks for reading Ace and Hadleigh’s Christmas story!
Continue Ace and his unit’s stories in Sofia’s super fast-paced steamy Aussie military romance series
Z BOYS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
USA Today Bestselling author Sofia Aves writes fast-paced police romances, suspenseful mysteries, steamy cowboys with a Montana backdrop and the occasional cheeky god. She loves reading Indie authors and hides her collection of college romance books beneath an ever-growing TBR pile.
Sofia is a mum of three crazies and an overly large fur baby who thinks she’s a teacup puppy. She loves orchids but can’t always keep them alive. Sofia lives near Brisbane, Australia.
www.sofiaaves.com
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Read Sofia’s Series
Blue Blooded Brothers
Red Hart Ranch
Texan Devils
Christmas Romance
Shortbread Shakedown
Secret Santa
Paranormal Romance
Trickster’s Law
A Portrait in Ash & Lace
BLUE BLOODED BROTHERS
Read Sofia’s popular complete Australian cop romance series
COLLISION
book 1
POLITICS & PAPERWORK
Novella
BLINDSIDED
book 2
SENTINEL
book 3
IMPACT
book 4
RECKONING
book 5
Sofia Aves, A Table for Ten
