She cocked her head and looked at him as she said, “Thank you for giving me the option to be free to do whatever I want, even though you might not like my decision.”
“I’m perfectly happy with your decision,” Tate told her enthusiastically.
“It’s nice to know that you’re going to be the type of husband who would stand by me no matter what I wanted to do with my own career.” She cuddled back against his chest. “You’re pretty special.”
He didn’t feel special at all. Selfishly, he wanted her out of the field, but…
“I want you to be happy,” he told her earnestly.
“I know. I feel the same way. Are you going to tell me exactly what you still do for the government?”
Tate shrugged. “Not a lot, and it’s not dangerous, but I still work for them on a consulting basis. If they’re having problems with a particular Special Forces mission, I help them out. I don’t go out in the field anymore. It’s strictly strategy.”
“So you’re a warfare genius?” she teased.
“Actually…yeah, I am. I always have been. Strategy and covert missions are my specialty.” He was good at those things, so why deny it? He’d never exactly been modest, and he wanted Lara to know who he really was, all of his strengths…and weaknesses.
“Are you going to tell me what you were doing in Special Ops?”
“Working?” he tried.
“Tate,” she said in that warning voice that really turned him on.
What the hell; they were getting married. “The team I worked for doesn’t exist to most of the military or civilians. You were right when you said it was extremely covert and some of what we did was actually black ops. You’re the only one who knows. I couldn’t even tell my family exactly what I did, so I went on letting them think I was a SEAL. I was recruited after SEAL training because they needed another pilot for their team.” His woman had already been pretty damn smart and figured that out, but he confirmed it anyway.
“I’ll never tell. I swear I’ll take it to my grave,” Lara answered solemnly.
Tate shuddered, her comment making him think about her near-death again. “Which better not be for a very long time,” he grumbled.
“Do you miss being on active duty?”
He paused for a minute and thought about her question. “I did for a while. I lived for my job, just like you did as an agent. My team was as close to me as my brothers. We lived, slept, and ate together sometimes. Giving up that kind of job is like cutting off a limb. But it wasn’t something I was going to do forever. I was restless for a while, but I was slowly getting over it, moving on little by little. Now I’m glad I got out because if I hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t have ever met.”
“And the crash that broke your leg?”
“It was a pretty risky mission. We got shot down before we could accomplish our goal. I was damn lucky I could land the helicopter without it going up in flames. But we took the impact pretty hard. I got most of the damage. Everybody else got out under their own steam.” The whole operation had been screwed up, but at least nobody had died.
“Who got you out?” Lara asked anxiously.
“My team. They had to eventually carry me for miles before we got recovered.”
“You actually let them carry you out?”
“It was either that or bleed to death in hostile territory. Right about now, I’m pretty damn glad I survived.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “Did you take the damage intentionally?”
Tate shrugged, not really wanting to tell her that he had been willing to take the fall—literally—for the men on his team. He had tried to make the impact occur on his side of the copter near the front of the aircraft. “I was the senior officer and commander.” He didn’t really answer her question, but a look of dawning comprehension moved over her beautiful face, and made his admission unnecessary.
Their eyes locked together, and Tate felt as if he were drowning in her love for him. His chest ached as she looked at him as though he was everything to her…the very same way he knew he looked at her.
He covered her mouth with his because he had to, needed to. He’d come close to losing her forever, and he would have been a broken man without her. He shoved his hands under her pajama top, needing to feel her warm, silky skin under his fingers. Then, he lifted his mouth from hers and gently removed her cotton pajamas, touching and kissing every inch of skin that he revealed, worshipping her body just like he cherished her heart.
He stood and got rid of his pajama bottoms, grinning at Lara as he revealed no underwear. Tate stood there for a minute. His eyes roamed over her naked flesh; her long, tangled blonde locks of hair that floated around her shoulders; and then at her face.
She bit her lip. “Fuck me?” she requested.
He lowered his body onto hers carefully, knowing she had to be sore from their rough mating the night before. He smoothed the hair back from her face and trailed a finger down her cheek. “No, baby. I’m going to make love to my fiancée right now.” He took her left hand, kissed his ring that adorned it, and then entwined their fingers together. He took her other hand and did the same thing, letting their conjoined hands rest above her head.
Lara instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. “I love you so much,” she whispered. Her eyes filled with tears.
Tate thrust forward and groaned as he felt her sheath accept him, welcome him with wet heat. “I love you, too, Lara. I always will.”
He savored every moment of being inside her, having her surround him with her love. There was no rush as he entered her again and again, grinding against her with every pump of his hips. They moved higher and higher together. Tate tried to taste every exposed inch of her skin, relished the feel of her short nails as they dug harder into his back as she climaxed.
He buried his face in her hair as the walls of her channel clenched around his cock and massaged it exquisitely until he couldn’t hold back his release. He came with a groan as he spilled himself deep inside her.
Mine.
He held her possessively, protectively, damn grateful that he still had her with him. Things could have gone much differently, and he swore he’d never take her love for granted. Everything could be gone, lost in just an instant, and nobody knew that better than he did. He’d treat every day with Lara as a gift, because it was.
“Tell me something you really want—anything at all. I want to give you something,” Tate said desperately, wanting to show Lara how much she meant to him.