Soldier's Secret Baby: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 53) Read online

  And I saw him look down at my left hand checking for a ring.

  No way. No how. Not unless it came from him.

  And now that he’s here I need to let him know that. I have to tell him.

  Because the way he’s looking at me tells me he feels the same, unless I’m delusional. Unless I’ve completely lost it.

  But you can’t lose what you don’t have, and I need to take a chance and tell him just how I feel.

  But I’ll let him get settled in first. He had a long seven-hour drive just to get here.

  Let him get something to drink and maybe even get some rest first.

  I need to figure out a way to get Vince out of the picture for a few minutes. And then I’ll tell him.

  Or maybe, just maybe, if I’m super lucky and my intuition is right…he’ll tell me first.

  CHAPTER 3

  Sean

  “Hot enough for ya?” Vince says as he hands me a glass of lemonade.

  “Eighty at eight. Ninety at nine. And unconscious by noon, right?”

  Vince looks at the thermometer. “Even worse. It’s ninety-one already and only ten minutes after eight.”

  “I love summer,” I say. “As long as there’s shade.”

  We both laugh and clink our glasses.

  I bring mine to my lips but just as I go to tip it back I miss my lips spilling some on my shirt.

  “Too sour for you?” Vince says.

  Too sweet as in your sister who’s standing in a white dress next to the house.

  “No, just…you know…reflexes are slow after driving all night.”

  “Mind if I join you?” she asks as she holds a lawn chair that she must have pulled from the shed around the side of the house.

  “Sure-” I say.

  “Boy’s time—” Vince says at the same time.

  We both look at one another.

  “I don’t want to interrupt,” she says. She turns to go back around the side of the house.

  “Not at all. Get over here,” I holler something inside me just forcing the command out.

  I don’t like to be teased and danged a chance to start my day off with the most beautiful woman in the world by my side, and then having it pulled away that is not going to happen. And before I’ve even had coffee? Talk about the easiest way ever to make me grumpy.

  She pivots on the toe of her thin white summer shoe and looks at us with a smile.

  Vince relents, his expression one of “all right then” and she literally skips over towards us.

  Of course when takes that first skip step I swear her chest pops up so high in that low cut dress that her breasts almost come flying out. I can see them bounce and the cleavage she’s showing and I’m immediately hard.

  She just looks so young and innocent and perfect and at the same time so damn grown up. That sure happened fast.

  And the way she moves her head just enough causing her hair to bounce even though the air is completely still without even a hint of a breeze on this scorching day.

  She raises the temperature even more when she sets her chair down next to mine…and away from Vince’s.

  It’s not enough to raise a red flag in Vince’s book yet, but it’s certainly laying the groundwork. I figure since I am the guest it’s natural for me to sit in the middle. At least that’s what I’m hoping and that Vince doesn’t catch on.

  She sits in the chair in a very ladylike way her manners and grace don’t do anything to help this raging erection that I’ve got going now.

  “I only made two lemonades, sis,” Vince says.

  “Here, you can try some of mine,” I say, offering her my glass. I do it partly because I do want to share and partly because it will help me try and re-adjust my groin in these jeans which are suddenly too tight.

  She reaches for the glass with two hands and in taking it her hand touch the outside of mine.

  I’ve been cupping that ice filled glass for a minute now and it’s made my hands pretty darn cool, but the minute she touches me that all changes. I feel the tingle on my skin and it shoots right through my arm and to my groin, my brain, my toes…everywhere.

  That has never happened before.

  She carefully brings the glass from my hands to her lips to take a drink.

  I’m not one for over-sexualized TV commercials but watching her take a sip of that refreshing summer staple makes me want to buy stock in every lemon producing company in the world. If anyone else saw what I’m seeing the price of lemons would skyrocket.

  But nobody else is going to see that. Not with the plans that I’ve got now.

  She is way too perfect and I need to let her know a.s.a.p. I’m tempted to get in my car right now and drive up to Vegas and put every last penny I have into the biggest diamond ring I can find and then drive right back here with my gas tank approaching empty because I’ve spent literally every last penny to show her just what I think of her. And then to slide that ring on her finger and take her hand in mine and never let her go.

  But one of the reasons I won’t do that is because that’s not the kind of girl she is. She’s into simple things, not gaudy displays. And that’s why she’s so damn perfect and so right for me.

  She’s just as happy baking a cake as she is trying to catch bullfrogs by the lake, not that there’s a lake in sight but I remember some of the road trips our families took together as kids. She was always kind of a tomboy to the other kids, but I always saw something different. I saw her raw beauty. Her love of nature and simplicity. And that’s what drove me to drive back here last night and see for myself how she turned out.

  I just knew I was going to be blown away, but no amount of thinking during the car ride could have prepared me for this.

  I didn’t even turn the radio on once the entire way. My mind just kept playing mental movies that my subconscious had created of her. I literally don’t even remember the drive. It’s like I was on autopilot and my honing device just took me right here to her front door. Yeah, I stopped off at my place to find it fully non-functioning, and there was no way to get anyone out here on a holiday weekend, but I somehow knew I was going to wind up here…with her.

  And just the way she sent that shockwave through me when her hand touched mine. I can’t even imagine how it will feel when our bare skin touches the other’s. And I say when not if because it is going to happen.

  I watch her take a quick second sip and it occurs to me that I never ever let people drink out of my glass and vice versa. I definitely share, no problem, but I just don’t drink after other people and don’t let them drink from my glass. I’m not a germ-a-phobe or anything, but it’s just something that I don’t do.

  As crazy as it sounds I consider that somewhat intimate and intimacy is something that can only be shared with the right person.

  And that’s why I’ve been waiting on her and if her white dress that she’s changed into is any indication she’s been waiting on me too.

  A man in uniform never lacks for the attention of women, but I was never interested in it. Never. I was busy building up my military career and my private language instruction on the side. I had no time, nor the desire for women. Correction…I had no desire for women because she wasn’t there next to me.

  And now that she is that desire is in full effect.

  “Earth to Sean,” Vince says. “Come in soldier.”

  I turn my head towards Vince realizing I was staring, completely enthralled in her.

  “We can make more if she drinks all of yours,” he says.

  “Right,” I say, pretending that I was worried that the most well-mannered girl I’ve ever met would do such a thing. But I’m not about to let him know I was staring at her soft, subtle lips watching that cool drink wet them just slightly as her head tipped back causing her hair to flow so beautifully across her shoulders and down her back.

  How it highlighted that virginal white dress she was wearing and how she was sitting so close to me that we could hold hands if we wanted, staring out
into the vast desert taking in the incredible view while not even noticing anyone or anything else around us but each other.

  How Vince could yell and scream and kick just a few feet from me and I wouldn’t even notice because the only thing that matters is her.

  How it was already too hot outside but I didn’t even notice it because my internal temperature had risen as well because of her touch.

  How I could take her hand right now and escorted her to my car and be back in Northern California tonight to take in the sight of the fireworks over the Golden Gate Bridge as we kissed in the colorfully illuminated sky. And not just any kiss. Our first kiss.

  I know I’d want to kiss her the entire drive there, but I’d do everything in my power not to…to save our first kiss for that special moment.

  And I also know once we kissed there’d be no stopping me. It would unleash everything inside me and make me need her right then and there.

  And that was equally as intoxicating as it was scary. Not scary from my side, but scary in the sense that she would see the animal in me that she unleashed and how it might be too much. How it might make her pause and consider my sanity.

  Because I was insanely possessed to make her mine. She owned my thoughts, my feelings, everything.

  And I was oh so ready to put that ring on her finger so we’d both own all of each other. Forever.

  CHAPTER 4

  Victoria

  I swear I could taste his lips on the glass.

  Somewhere between the sweet and sour notes of the lemonade I tasted something stronger, more masculine and it could only be him.

  I open my eyes wide and shake my head from side to side as I patty up the hamburgers for later tonight.

  I have to stay focused on the food for tonight and not let my mind constantly wander off thinking of him. I already almost ruined the chocolate cake when I was oh so close to mixing raw hamburger in with it. I just can’t focus on anything except him.

  And I wonder if he’s dreaming of me right now. After our brief morning chat he headed off to bed to catch some rest. Vince headed to work to do the handyman and repair jobs that he’s so skilled at so it’s just the two of us all alone in the house. If only he knew and was awake to…take advantage of it.

  I hear my phone vibrate and clean off my hands and go check it.

  It’s a call. I pick it up.

  “He still sleeping?” my brother asks.

  “I think so.”

  “What are you up to?”

  “Making a cake and prepping the burgers for tonight.”

  “A cake. You never make cakes.”

  “We have a guest in town.” I say it quickly but realize Vince is right. I work at a restaurant but never make cakes at home. Kind of ironic, but it kind of makes sense at the same time. Don’t want to surround myself at home with the things I surround myself with at work.

  “A guest huh?” he says.

  “Is Gail coming back tonight?”

  “She’ll be there in a few hours.”

  “Great,” I say. I love Vince’s wife and I wish she was here more. She spends so much time in Vegas these days working for the hospital. In just a few more years she’ll have quite the nest egg saved up…unless she gets pregnant again. Vince can’t keep his hands off her and she’s already four months along with their first. “And did you find some fireworks?”

  “That’s the one thing this little town is good for…selling fireworks to passersby, and residents.”

  We both laugh knowing that’s the truth.

  “Okay. See you tonight,” I say.

  “Wait,” he says quickly before I hang up. “Can you peek into his room and check on him?”

  “Check on him?” I ask. This sounds like some sort of trap.

  “Yeah, he sounded out of it this morning. It was like his mind was somewhere else. I just want to make sure he’s okay.”

  “I don’t want to intrude.”

  “Just stick your head in. He’s probably out cold and won’t even notice. Just a quick look.”

  I don’t reply.

  “Just a look,” he repeats. “If you have time.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I say.

  The call ends.

  Sneak a peek, huh? What if he’s in there sleeping naked with the sheet off? Then what?

  Nobody wants to wake up to see someone staring at them.

  But that’s really just an excuse I’m telling myself. I know the truth.

  If I did stick my head in and he was naked I know I wouldn’t be able to control myself.

  Especially not if he woke up and saw me standing there.

  I’d be on that bed and on him instantly.

  And we wouldn’t need any of those fireworks my brother bought because we’d make our own.

  CHAPTER 5

  Victoria

  I very carefully turn the knob on the door to his room.

  I feel like I’m doing something really wrong, but somehow I can’t resist. I’m just hoping he locked the door and then this entire idea will fall through.

  It’s unlocked. Rats!

  I very slowly push the door open trying to avoid any squeaking.

  There he is.

  He’s so handsome.

  I can see his face as he rests there comfortably. He took a shower after our morning chat. I could hear the water running. But apparently he didn’t shave.

  He’s got a sexy five o’clock shadow going which is something you don’t often see on a soldier. I like the contrast. It’s like he’s so clean cut, but with a bit of an edge to him.

  He looks so relaxed there in his sleep. He’s on his back and his mouth and eyes are closed. I’m glad to know he’s not one of those guys who sleeps with his mouth, or eyes open, or drools all over everything. I sleep with my eyes a bit open from time to time and it’s the worst. Waking up with dry eyes isn’t that fun, plus it’s kind of embarrassing to know I do it.

  But not him. He’s just so perfect all the time.

  Okay, so he’s all right then. I can…just…be…going.

  My eyes drift down across his chest watching it rise and fall with each breath. Seeing how it expands even though it’s already big and muscular without being full of oxygen.

  I lean in a bit more opening the door just a bit further allowing me to see that twelve pack he’s got. Most guys out here think a twelve pack means the choice of beer to drink in their backyard each night to “beat the heat.” Well, he’s cranking up the heat with an entirely different kind of twelve pack. I raise my hand and with my index finger point towards each and every muscle just to make sure I got my count correct.

  Yep. Twelve perfectly sculpted abdominal muscles. Oh my.

  And just to the side of those abdominal muscles are my absolute favorite thing on a guy…the place where the torso connects to the hipbone. That “V-shape” that leads right down to the part I…want…the…most, oh my gosh is he big!

  I have no idea how the sheet is so perfectly, or should I say how annoyingly, positioned but it’s covering his own interpretation of “The World’s Largest Thermometer.” He may not be 134 feet straight up in the air, thank goodness, but based on my very unofficial observation he must be working with at least a perfect ten, as in ten inches. And from the way the sheet fans out all around his tent pole I can tell he’s got the girth and the length.

  I try not to stare, but I’m losing that battle. Instead my eyes wander back up across his built biceps, terrific triceps, and then back down and across his thick thighs and carved calves.

  What is the military putting in the food? And can he please put that ginormous thing in me?

  The idea of tiptoeing into his room and sliding in under the covers wrapping my lips around his manhood and surprising him with a warm wet surprise is dominating my thoughts right now. He’s obviously got some pressure building up right now and I would like nothing more than to help him relieve it.

  But I know I’m not experienced and could easily fumble my attempt,
let alone how creepy would it be if I’d read him wrong this entire time and he wakes up to his best friend’s little sister attempting to give him a surprise blow job. The shame.

  I decide I have to go now, before I do something I shouldn’t.

  I pull the door back, but I do it a bit too fast.