“Very strange,” I admitted. “How did you find me?”
He just smiled. “I’ll get to that. First, I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner. I didn’t know about Mason. I may not be a fucking saint, but I wouldn’t ignore my own kid.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I tried to find you, but it’s like you don’t exist. Is Emory your real name?”
“Yeah,” he said, grinning again, “it is. But you won’t find me under that name.”
“Why not?” I asked, cocking my head.
“What do you do for a living, Tara?” he asked instead.
“I go to school. I want to be a nurse.”
“Well, my job is a little more complicated.” He leaned toward me, speaking low. “What do you know about the Navy SEALs?”
“Aren’t they, like, an elite special forces group or something?”
“Exactly. That’s my job. In particular, I’m assigned to a team that fights a Pakistani terrorist group called The Network.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds fake.”
He laughed. “It does, but I’m not lying.”
“Okay, so I couldn’t find you because you’re a spy or something?”
“Not exactly,” he said. “Our identities are protected because of the dangerous shit we do. I’m not in the public databases anymore.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. I guess that makes sense.”
“It’s also how I found you. Being a SEAL team captain means I have access to some pretty cool fucking tricks.”
“But if you didn’t know about Mason, why did you come find me?”
I watched his face fall for a second before quickly gathering himself. “Do you remember the night we first met?”
“Of course,” I said softly. I felt a thrill run down my spine.
“You’re just as fucking sexy as you were that night,” he said softly.
“Obviously,” I said, joking.
“Some hard shit happened to me after that night, but all through it I kept thinking about your delicious little pussy.”
“What sort of stuff happened?”
“Just a mission. But you put a fucking fire in my veins, Tara.”
“So you found me because you wanted to sleep with me again?” I asked, feeling slightly annoyed.
“Would that bother you if it were true?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Probably.”
He smirked that delicious smile and leaned back, crossing his arms. “I’m not the type of man to play games, Tara. If that was what I wanted, I’d take it.”
“You can’t just take whatever you want,” I said, annoyed.
“Sure I can. Especially when you want to give it to me.”
“I don’t want to give you anything.”
“Are you sure about that?” He leaned forward again, looking hard at me. “Are you sure you’re not dripping wet, squirming in your seat right now?”
“Positive.” I stared back at him, my face hard, even though he was absolutely right.
I was dripping wet. I didn’t want to be, but my body was totally betraying me.
It didn’t matter though. I wasn’t going to give this cocky jerk an inch of what he wanted.
“We’ll see about that.”
“You haven’t answered my question yet,” I pressed. “Why are you here?”
“I know I didn’t answer. I will eventually, just not right now.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you kidding me?”
“Sorry, princess. It’s part of the job.”
“So you’re here because you’re a SEAL?”
“Not exactly.”
I sighed, exasperated. “Try being a little more exact. I’m tired and I have a baby at home. Your baby.”
“You’re tough, aren’t you?”
“I don’t have time to be weak. I’m a single mother now.”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I get that. I don’t have time for weakness either.”
“But you’re still dodging my question.”
“How about this. When you give me what I want, I’ll give you what you want.”
I sighed and crossed my arms. “And what exactly do you want?”
“I want to see the look on your face as you slowly slide down my hard cock.”
I sighed and shook my head, completely annoyed. “I am not sleeping with you just to get one stupid answer out of you.”
“Your loss. I think you’d be getting the better deal.”
“I doubt it. Apparently you came all the way here just to try to get in my pants again.”
He laughed, grinning. “Okay, you got me there. That pussy is definitely worth coming across the country for.”
I wanted to say something cutting, but he suddenly sat straight up. He was looking out the window with this strange look on his face, half intense and half angry.
“What?” I asked him.
“We need to go,” he said, without looking away from the window.
“Excuse me? We haven’t talked about anything.”
He looked back at me. “I promise we’ll talk more, but you have to trust me right now.”
I stared back at his piercing eyes and felt something shift inside me. He wasn’t joking around anymore, and that cocky grin was gone, replaced with this intense stare and strange stillness, like he was completely in control.
“Okay,” I said, and I didn’t know why.
He stood. “Come on. Follow me. Stay close.”
I stood up and he headed toward the front door. I followed him and we moved outside.
“My car,” I said as we began to walk away from the building.
“Leave it,” he said. “I’ll get it later.”
I frowned but listened. We moved toward the back of the café and then down through the alley. He cut right at the end and we moved down a residential street. He kept looking around, his eyes sweeping the place.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“Just keep up.”
He cut down between two houses and I followed. We moved down their lawns and came out on another street on the other side. He turned left, heading away from my house, walking, but at a fast clip. I had to walk fast to keep up.
“I’m from Indiana too,” he said suddenly as we turned onto another street.
“Really?” I asked.
“Sure. Small town, just like this one. I’m a Hoosier, born and bred.”
“What is a Hoosier anyway?”
“Nobody knows.” He turned down another street. I felt like I was going to get out of breath soon, but he seemed like this was nothing.
“Did you go to school around here?”
“High school,” he said. “I went to the Naval Academy for some college but dropped out to enlist in my second year.”
“Really? Why?”
“School wasn’t for me,” he said. “I was more interested in the action. I had top marks in school too, but I just couldn’t stand all that sitting around shit.”
“That’s amazing,” I said. “You don’t meet a lot of people who really go for what they want.”