Marine Under the Mistletoe (Always a Marine) Read online

  “Yes,” he nodded, wondering where she was going with her question. “Unless they’ve changed.”

  “No, but you seemed a bit uncomfortable with Aaron, and we may very well encounter other braver souls on our tour. At least three of the couples love to indulge in the hot tub, though we’ve had to occasionally scold them about taking it too far when the kids are here.”

  He didn’t need her to define that for him. “I’m fine if you want to get naked.” Biting back an oath, he didn’t miss the faint pink flush to her face. But her peal of merry laughter eased the pain of swallowing his foot. “Eventually, I will be fit for human company.”

  “If you’re not—you can still go for the tour with me. Now, go shower, relax, and change. You’re safe here.” At her emphasis on safe, a knot in the back of his shoulder loosened. She flicked her hand at him, and he inclined his head to the order, but he stayed to watch her walk away, practically floating down the hall with a graceful and thoroughly feminine sway of her hips.

  In more than a decade, he couldn’t remember the last time anything or anyone had surprised him. But Rowan Harper—she’d done it without any type of effort. Intrigued by the prospect of her, he headed into his room and stripped on his way to the shower, barely noticing the furnishings or anything else about the room. He had a singular goal in mind and a very direct path he intended to utilize to achieve it.

  Shower. Change. Find Rowan.

  Rowan couldn’t imagine what Kaiden had been through in the last few years, but the emotion in his voice had been so raw, so powerful, her heart ached. A dozen unasked questions had danced on the tip of her tongue, but beyond the desire to learn more about him came the inexplicable urge to hug him until she could wring away all the sadness coating him like some kind of sticky cobweb.

  You just met the man…. From the stunned bemusement on his face when the tweens questioned him, to the careful way he avoided looking at Aaron directly, to the rock-hard standoffishness in his manner as she walked him to his room. A miasma of leave me alone knotted around a deeper, more visceral, help me. The heady tangle of emotions disconcerted her and led to the impulsive offer to show him around.

  Getting her respiration under control with a breathing exercise steadied her erratic pulse. Glancing over the railing to the first floor, she heard music drifting out of the sitting room—a modern rock beat, which suggested Aaron had taken it back over. Tim and Lynette passed through the foyer below, their arms wrapped around each other as they conversed quietly. Parker and Spence were their children, and she’d have to mention the behavioral issue later—or perhaps not. If the boys did their tasks, then the discipline had been served and no sense in stirring up any trouble.

  Diverting to her room, she changed to a pair of leggings, an oversized sweatshirt, and a pair of sneakers. She’d rather be comfortable while they hiked, considering the temperatures plummeted at sunset. Rising, she caught sight of her reflection and grabbed a brush to tame her wild curls back into a ponytail, then ducked into the bathroom to brush her teeth and add a touch of lip gloss.

  Why am I fussing? The best part of hosting summer and winter retreats at the lake was the absence of all the corporate-world trappings. She could let her hair be wild, skip the need for cosmetics, and be herself. Making a face, she refused to add anything more than the gloss to her appearance and went out to find a book. She’d read in the small sitting room that faced the top of the stairs while waiting for him.

  Presuming he doesn’t change his mind and still wants to go for his tour. Ignoring the naysaying voice, she curled up in an armchair and flipped through the books sitting on the side table. They had an open library policy. Anyone could leave a book, and anyone could take a book. Picking one at random, she turned it over to read the back, but barely read the first sentence when she heard the soft creak of a floorboard. She glanced up to find Kaiden, freshly showered. The clean bite of soap and man made for a powerful scent.

  “Feel better?” She put the book back and rose.

  “Yes.” He scratched at his chin; he’d taken the time to shave. Like her, he’d dressed for warmth as well as comfort, though his sweatshirt read USMC while hers declared that she did believe in fairies. “It’s dark out there.”

  “I’m not afraid of the dark,” she assured him and, following a quiet impulse whispering through her, held out her hand. To her surprise, he took it. “Before we go down, do you want to be social or would you like to just walk?” Because, while they only had a few Circle members present, all would want to say hello and invite him to chat.

  “Walk.” He didn’t pause to consider the answer, and she’d more or less expected the response.

  “Follow me.” She gave him a squeeze and led the way. Instead of releasing her, however, he tightened his grip a fraction and easily kept up with the pace she set.

  Instead of going down the main stairs, she led him down another hall and past her room to the side stairs leading out behind the laundry room and back door. Their breath fogged in the chilly night air. A yellow porch light cast a golden circle on the deck, a spot popular in summer but safely empty that evening.

  Pitching her voice low, she pointed at the two paths faintly visible in the ambient light. “The one on the right goes on down to the lake. We have a fairly nice beach and it’s a lot of fun in the summer. Some of our polar bears will likely do a race down there one night to plunge into the lake. I don’t recommend it. The other takes us into the woods. We’ve done a lot of work over the last few years, keeping the trails cleaned. It’s good work for the kids and keeps them out of trouble.” Like he doesn’t already know all this, Rowan? He probably knows the area better than you do.

  Kaiden looked upward and didn’t respond. She tried to imagine how it seemed to him. The scents of pine, wood smoke, and water lingered in the chilly air.

  “This is my favorite time of year,” she said after he’d been still a long while. “It’s cold and crisp and everything seems to be paused—waiting—and you know it will turn and then eventually everything will pick up speed and the temperatures will soar and the bugs will be buzzing, but not right now.”

  “No, it’s quiet.”

  But she couldn’t tell if that he liked the quiet or not. “Do you have a preference?” She asked when he still didn’t add anything more to his statement.

  “Wherever.” He turned toward her and the weight of his gaze warmed her even if she couldn’t make out his eyes.

  “Hmmm…lake.” Maybe the ebb and flow of the water would help relax the stiffness from his posture and ease the tension in his jaw. He nodded agreeably and she led the way down the path. She knew it well, but that didn’t stop her from catching a foot on an exposed tree root or her stumble. Kaiden locked his arm around her like a brace, lifting her up and over the root.

  “Careful.” Brusque, he kept a firm grip on her until she patted him lightly.

  “I’m fine, thank you for the save. The trail slopes and the tree roots make for great natural steps.” But erosion from heavy fall rains had undercut some of those roots and made for a treacherous walk in the dark. I knew that—why didn’t I remember it? Probably because she was too preoccupied with the blond man walking at her side.

  “You need a flashlight.” But his curt tone faded to something softer.

  “Hmm, flashlights spoil the beauty that’s waiting for you.”

  “A twisted ankle spoils it a lot more.” But he didn’t press the argument, instead, reclaimed her hand and took the lead. Fortunately, he slowed his steps, even though he still managed to be two paces ahead of her. She didn’t trip over another root—Kaiden didn’t allow it.

  They came out of the woods onto the crushed shell and sand beach, the dark water lapping lazily at the shore and the sky stretching off to eternity. A million stars spread across the cloudless sky and the Milky Way was close enough to touch.

  It was, in every way, Rowan’s favorite part of the Lake House retreat. The magic of the universe painted across the canva
s of the night sky in endless wonder. It was an experience that never failed to take her breath away. Next to her, Kaiden went completely still, yet his grip tightened.

  Chancing a look at him, she wanted to ask him what he felt when he stared up at the sky, but the taut expression and tight jaw warned her off. Threading her fingers with his, she risked leaning her head on his upper arm. The muscle in his bicep flexed at the contact, but he didn’t pull away.

  Little by little, he relaxed and some of the tension in the rock-hard muscle pillowing her eased. A long, harsh breath spilled out of him in a sigh. “I forgot about this.”

  “No,” she whispered, certain of the truth in his reaction. “You forgot about how it makes you feel.”

  After a long pause, he said, “You’re right.” Shifting his stance, he let go long enough to sling his arm around her shoulder and tug her to his chest, until he held her in a loose, one-armed hug. His attention, however, remained riveted on the sky.

  Rowan had no idea how long they stood there, Kaiden provided a very warm windbreak. He rubbed his cheek against her hair once and then let her go. “It’s cold and it’s late. I should walk you back to the house.”

  Accepting the suggestion, she pivoted to face him with a smile. “Hot chocolate?” When he said nothing, she led the way to the path and skipped a couple of steps. The darkness hugged Kaiden Nelson, held him far too tightly in its grip, and he needed some lightness, some simple pleasures—and what could be simpler than hot chocolate on a cold night? “If you’re very good, I’ll throw in some marshmallows.”

  He turned. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  “Because I can.” That he could even ask that question told her more than he probably wanted to share. “And because chocolate is the food of the gods….”

  Kaiden dropped his chin, but skepticism shimmered in the air like heat rising off pavement.

  “Come on, Marine.” She beckoned him with a curl of her fingers. “Let me introduce you to nirvana.” She’d never met a man who seemed to need it more.

  Shaking his head once, he caught her hand and let her pull him back up the path—but, a couple of steps later, he took lead, then lifted her up and set her over the exposed tree root when they reached it. The swift act left her breathless.

  But he was silent all the way back to the house, and quieter still in the kitchen. He never stopped watching her while she put together the hot chocolate and added marshmallows for him. The weight of his regard pressed in on her, but Rowan didn’t shy away from his directness. Setting the mug of cocoa in front of him, she tapped the side of the mug.

  “Drink all of it and you’ll have sweet dreams.” Yes, her mother used to tell her that when she was little—and as ridiculous as it seemed, she thought he needed to hear something similar.

  Apparently, Kaiden did not. His jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed. “Do I look five to you?”

  “No. But then chocolate doesn’t care how old you are.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Now drink it, grumpy, and go get some sleep.” Taking possession of her cup, she padded away and up the stairs. She made it most of the way to her room before her nerves struck. Why the hell did I do that?

  Chapter Two

  Why the hell had she kissed him again? The first kiss, he got that. It was a common greeting among those in the Circle—usually limited to those who were very familiar with each other. Her second kiss held an element of challenge and he hadn’t imagined the spark of interest in her eyes or the way she’d smiled when she fled the kitchen with her mug of hot chocolate.

  He’d gotten up before the sun and gone running, his path bringing him right back to the lake. Hands on his hips, he stared out over the water. The sun remained only a thought on the horizon, staining the eastern sky with pink and purple as the night peeled back. Sounds on the trail behind him alerted him to a new arrival and he turned to find his mother watching him.

  Of course, someone had called her. “Hey, Mom.”

  “Shh.” She pressed her finger to her lips and studied him with warm, caramel-colored eyes. “I want to look at my baby.”

  Heat burned the tips of his ears, but he did as instructed. A tall woman, his mother stood four inches shorter than his own six-foot-plus frame. He’d inherited her dark blonde hair, but everything else came from his father—or so she always told him. It took Mom a moment, her rapid blinks betraying the tears pooling in her eyes.

  The emotional display made him uncomfortable, but he’d learned how to bury the reaction. In slow motion, his mother crossed the pebbled beach to enfold him in a hug both gentle and fierce. “Hey, baby.”

  Closing his arms around her, he let his eyes shut. The comfort of her embrace blotted out a decade of bloodshed. He heard her sniffle then blow out a ragged breath before she released him to lean away and study him with eyes that saw too much.

  “You don’t want to talk about it.” She knew him—too well.

  “No, ma’am.” He shook his head. While he harbored no illusions about the ugliness in the world, or his mother’s awareness of them, he would not be the one to share those details with her. “You look good.”

  “I’m old.” She sniffed again and let go of him to pat his cheek. “Don’t humor me. I earned these wrinkles. I wear them with the same pride I do my stretch marks.”

  “And at the risk of sounding like the ungrateful bastard who gave you those marks, can we not talk about them?” The burn on his ears ratcheted up a few degrees. He wasn’t a Marine sergeant, home for the first time in years, but her son—embarrassed by her candor.

  “Leave the boy alone, Lorraine.” His father strolled down the path, perfect in timing his arrival after his mother’s near tears and before she could really turn their reunion into a roast.

  “Killjoy,” his unrepentant mother replied, but she glided into her husband’s embrace and gave him a kiss that had Kaiden shaking his head and averting his gaze. Exhibitionists, the pair of them. “But he seems sad, Henry.”

  Henry Nelson kept an arm around his wife and gave Kaiden a thoughtful, if assessing, study. “He looks like he’s been running.” A computer programmer who learned DOS and UNIX through trial and error and earned a degree only after his company insisted he needed one, he knew all about troubleshooting problems. “Are you sad, Kaiden?”

  “Tired, sir.” The answer would mollify his mother and satisfy his father. “Long flight and my clock’s still messed up.” He hadn’t really slept after Rowan’s kiss, either, but unlike his parents, he didn’t feel the urge to over-share.

  “I told you that’s why he didn’t call.” Henry winked at him over his mother’s head and Kaiden nodded. “But you know your mother. As soon as Aaron told her you were here, she had to make sure you were okay and nothing was wrong.”

  “I got an earlier flight, and took a cab straight out here.” Because if he hadn’t, he might have bypassed the weekend altogether.

  “I am so happy you’re going to be home this year, but I’m also not a complete idiot, Kaiden. You don’t have to attend Yule if you’re not comfortable.” No, Lorraine Nelson wasn’t an idiot. “I know how loud and obnoxious everyone can be, and they genuinely can’t wait to see you. That said, no one will be offended if you want to give it a pass.”

  No, they wouldn’t be. Disappointed, maybe—but not offended. One of the true blessings of his upbringing, of sharing his parents’ faith, was the lack of orthodox demand on how one worshipped.

  “When’s the party?” Kaiden forced half a smile and when his mother’s eyes lit up, it didn’t take much effort to let his smile grow.

  “Friday, but we’re going to keep it low key.”

  “And by low key,” his dad grinned, “she means we’ll bring the liquor.”

  Lorraine smacked Henry on the chest, but their laughter warmed the air and Kaiden shook his head. His parents hadn’t changed. Not one bit.

  An hour later, he walked them back to the house. His dad intercepted the new arrivals so Kaiden co
uld go shower off the sweat and get dressed. The scent of breakfast filled the air, and he knew from previous experience the group effort to whip up scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes. The idea of sausage and bacon had his mouth watering, so he rushed the shower.

  How long had it been since he’d had real pork? Too long. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, he followed the scent of food to the noisy kitchen where a half-dozen people served out plate after plate. Apparently the population of the Lake House had doubled since the night before.

  Instead of cooking or serving, Rowan rode herd on the kids—including four new arrivals—setting them up on the porch to eat their breakfast. His mother patted the table next to her, and Kaiden kept his attention on his parents and not on the woman with the wild mane of auburn, gray-green eyes, and full, luscious lips.

  Juggling one plate loaded with a stack of pancakes and a second with a pile of bacon and sausage, Kaiden dropped into the seat his mother saved for him. The vegetarians at the table shook their heads at him, but his dad grinned at the amount of food. “And another reason to be glad you went military. I don’t think we ever fed you enough.”

  Kaiden took the good-natured jibe. “If you saw the MREs I eat on a regular basis, you’d know you fed me more than enough.” Tim and John—new arrivals—gave him a quick handshake, while Sandy and Barbara made a point to squeeze his shoulder as they took their own seats.

  It irked Kaiden when Rowan stayed with the kids, instead of joining them. Halfway through his pile of pancakes, and only half-listening to the conversation around the table, he couldn’t stop staring at her. His mother tapped his leg. “We all take turns supervising the kids,” she said, her voice pitched low.

  Puzzled, he looked at her. “Okay?”

  “I’m only telling you so you’ll stop scowling at her. Rowan’s a sweetheart, and she’s single.”

  Had he been scowling?

  “Lorraine.” Henry chided her in the same low voice she used. “Leave him alone.”