A SEAL's Fantasy (13 page)

His eyes iced over. Whether her words pissed him off more or he was just affirming her claim, she couldn’t tell. Because he
still
didn’t say a damned thing.

Lara’s hands fisted, her teeth tight to hold back a frustrated scream.

“See,” she ground out. “A girl.”

He gave a dismissive shake of his head. Then went right back to pretending she didn’t exist while he thumbed through the stack of mail on the counter.

It was enough to make a woman want to strip bare again just to prove she could get a rise out of the guy.

Lara was too exhausted, though.

As if that thought was permission to let go, her entire body seemed to sag into itself. Her shoulders fell and her chin drooped. Her fingers were so heavy, all she could do was drop her hands to her lap.

But when Castillo stepped into the room, she snapped to attention.

“You can take a shower, get some rest. Bathroom and bed are through there.” He gestured to the door on the left. “We leave in the morning.”

“Where are we going?”

She might as well have asked where they were again, since the response was exactly the same.

Nothing.

Instead, he grabbed a paper bag from the kitchen, walked out the door. Lara shifted her aching body off the couch to follow, but before she got to the door he was back.

“Your stuff.” He shoved the bag into her arms.

Her stuff.

Nice.

Her entire world was now contained in a brown paper bag.

Life was good at whipping out those little ironies.

Ready to cry, Lara carried the bag to the couch to set it next to her laptop.

“Get some rest. I’ll be back later with food.”

“What? Wait.” Lara hurried back across the room. She grabbed his arm. The rock-hard muscles were a tempting distraction, but she managed to resist the urge to pet him. “You can’t leave me here alone.”

“Sure, I can. I leave. You stay. Easy.”

Easy? Then why was she seeing black spots dancing in front of her eyes?

“But what if those guys come? More of them?”

“They won’t.” At her panicked look, he waved his free hand in a circle to indicate the cabin. “The space is secure. You’ll be fine.”

No, she wouldn’t. Not without him. Lara wet her lips, her racing heart barely keeping up with her spinning thoughts.

“But I’m hungry. I didn’t get breakfast, remember?”

His eyes chilled.

Oops.
She winced.

That probably wasn’t the best thing to remind him of.

He pulled his arm away.

“There are crackers, dry cereal, that kind of thing in the kitchen.”

Lara swallowed hard, trying to keep from begging. She knew it wouldn’t do any good and she figured she’d humiliated herself enough for one day. For one lifetime, even.

She grabbed her last option: bravado.

“You really think I’ll stick around if you leave? C’mon, we’ve already seen how that works, haven’t we?” She made sure her smile was both cocky and seductive, then tiptoed teasing fingers up his arm. “It won’t be nearly as easy to find me out there with all those trees, you know.”

He smirked.

“You do know the California mascot is the bear, right?”

With that, he grabbed the stack of mail, turned heel and walked out the front door.

Lara didn’t even have time to yank her chin off her chest and ask where he was going before he slammed it shut. The slick sound of a lock sliding home rang out, followed by the roar of his bike.

She ran to the window in time to see him ride away.

Lara beat her fist against the glass, both comforted and infuriated that it was as solid as steel.

She sniffed as her gaze drifted to the dense woods visible outside the cabin.

Locks could keep bears out, right?

* * *

“
Y
OU GET THE
timing on the truck looked at?” Dominic asked, striding across his mother’s kitchen to grab a beer to go with his lunch. “I told you it was off last time I was home.”

“Yeah, yeah. You told me, I got it fixed.” Lucas rolled his eyes. “You ever get tired of telling people what to do? As bossy as you are, I’m surprised you’re not a captain yet.”

“Give me time.” Dominic grinned. Captain Castillo. Yeah, that had a nice ring to it. “I’m not bossy. I’m wise, big brother. Wisdom is meant to be shared. Especially when your ass is gonna be stranded on the side of the road without it.”

“Yeah, yeah. So why’s your wise ass back here? I thought you’d been called to duty.”

“Not officially.” Dominic wasn’t saying more than that. He’d been cleared to bring his brother in as far as using Castillo Security to track Banks’s sister. But that was the extent of it.

“You had me run someone. The sister of one of your team, right? You get her taken care of?”

Oh, yeah, he’d taken real good care of her.

He’d scared the hell out of her, stalked her to her apartment, done her on a hotel room floor, intimidated her, then locked her in his cabin.

Of course, she’d doubted his word, blown his mind, sexed him stupid, then walked out on him.

All in the space of twenty-four hours.

They were one hell of a couple.

“Dom?” Lucas prodded.

He gave a jerk of his chin, hoping Lucas would take it for a nod.

“So you’re off duty again?”

“Not yet.”

Lucas dropped into the opposite chair and gave him a narrow look.

“Where’s the girl?”

Dominic debated. Technically, his association with Lara wasn’t classified. It wasn’t even sanctioned. So Lucas knowing wasn’t a big deal.

But it felt like one.

Finally, Dominic sighed and admitted, “My place.”

“What?” Lucas yelped. “You brought her here?”

If he’d accused his brother of dressing in drag and joining a nunnery, Lucas couldn’t have sounded more surprised.

“It’s a long drive to Coronado,” was all Dominic said, focusing on his lunch.

“But...you brought her back here?”

Dominic grimaced.

He didn’t know why his brother kept asking that question with such a shocked expression. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t brought women back to his place before. That was one of the key reasons he had the cabin on the far side of the Castillo property instead of a room here at the main house.

To bring women.

He looked up from his plate, heaped high with tamales, beans and rice, and shrugged.

“Yeah. She’s locked up in my cabin.”

“Seriously?” Lucas scratched his head. “Is she a hostage or something?”

“She’s an assignment with a history of stupidity.” Like showing him new levels of sexual pleasure, then running out on him before he could see how much better it could get. “She’s not safe on her own.”

“So why didn’t you bring her to the house for lunch?”

A late lunch, since the rest of the family and the ranch hands had eaten and, even though it was Saturday, were already back to work. But all it’d taken was putting on his sad face to get his grandmother to heat up a plate before she’d left for her place. He’d fill another for Lara before he went back to the cabin. See? Nice guy.

“I told you, she’s an assignment.” Dominic hunched over his plate, trying not to feel guilty over leaving Lara there. Alone. He remembered her face, pale with exhaustion and pinched with fear.

Damn.

Apparently rejection made him a class-A jerk.

So much for being a nice guy with a talent for charming the ladies.

“If she’s just a job, why’re you hiding her away?” Lucas asked, obviously trying to push his little brother’s buttons. “Your usual MO is to keep women away from the house because you say they’re temporary and you don’t want them getting any crazy long-term ideas. So what’s the deal? Is this assignment of yours gonna take one look at your graduation picture in the hallway and start hinting at ring sizes?”

Dominic poured more mole over his tamale, cut a bite, then stared at his fork.
Dammit.

Why was he keeping Lara locked up?

For her safety? Clearly not, since she’d be safer with him. They’d already proved that point.

Because having her tucked away would keep temptation at bay? As if he wasn’t imagining what she’d taste like naked, covered in mole sauce, with every bite he took?

Because he didn’t want her to know anything about his family? How fair was that, given that he knew damn near everything about hers?

Dominic frowned.

“I’ll bring her back for dinner,” he finally conceded.

“Whoa,” Lucas said, holding up a hand. “Dinner? You sure?”

Dominic rolled his eyes.

“You were just giving me shit for not bringing her to the house, now you’re putting up caution over her coming to dinner. What’s your problem?”

“Coming to the house, lunch in the kitchen, that’s casual. Dinner is the whole family, sitting down telling stories. You know Matteo is gonna do everything he can to make you look bad.”

Lara could probably match their little brother story for story on that topic.

“So?” Dominic shrugged. “Celia will defend me with stories about how awesome I am.”

He knew which of his siblings Lara was likely to believe, though. Dominic shoved his plate away, food barely touched. It wasn’t his looks or amazing sexual prowess that made women love him. Sure, those probably factored in, but he knew it had more to do with the simple fact that he wasn’t a jerk. He respected women. Respected their choices.

Except he hadn’t respected Lara’s.

Instead, he’d let his bruised ego have a poutfest, leaving a scared, terrorized woman starving back at his cabin.

“I gotta go,” he said, heading for the door.

“You’re really bringing her back for dinner?” Lucas asked, pulling the plate toward him to finish what Dominic hadn’t.

Crap. Food. He needed to feed her something before dinner.

Dominic opened the fridge, pulling out containers of leftovers and stacking them on the wide granite countertop. He grabbed a bag from under the sink and, not bothering to plate the food, slid all the containers inside.

There. She’d have plenty to choose from before they took off in the morning.

“I need your truck tomorrow,” he told his brother as he gathered the food and headed for the door again.

“Sure. I need it in the evening, though,” Lucas said around a mouthful of tamale.

“Gonna be tough. I’m taking it down to Coronado.”

Dominic didn’t wait to hear his brother’s protests.

He jammed the food in his saddlebag and headed back to the cabin. This route was a lot more direct than the one he’d taken a couple hours ago. But he’d been trying to hide his location.

Not from Valdero’s goons.

From Lara.

Could he be a bigger jerk?

Repentant and ready to make amends, he unlocked the cabin a few minutes later, calling Lara’s name.

Nothing.

He set the bag on the kitchen counter before striding to the closed guest room door. He tapped lightly in case she was asleep, then eased the door open.

“Lara?”

She wasn’t in bed.

She wasn’t in the bathroom.

Dominic returned to the living room, noting that her stuff was missing.

Damn.

He growled, frustrating surging through him.

Had she braved the bears?

Knowing it was entirely his fault, furious that his ego had gotten in the way of his duty—and of keeping Lara safe—Dominic cussed.

Trained to check and double-check, even though he was sure there was nothing to be found, he pushed open his own bedroom door.

Nada.

Before he could cuss again, Lara walked out of his bathroom.

Nude.

Blessedly nude and wet, surrounded by a cloud of steam.

“Damn,” Dominic breathed.

Rock hard and ready to roll, his dick echoed the sentiment.

She was like something out of a dream.

Or his hottest fantasy.

Gorgeous from the white terry cloth wrapped around her hair like a crown to the tips of her polished red toenails, she screamed sex appeal.

Sex appeal waiting in his bedroom.

Covered in water.

Dominic shoved his hands in his pockets, hoping the extra pressure would keep his erection at bay.

“Oops.” Looking as surprised as he, although a lot more horrified, Lara dragged the towel from her hair to wrap around her body. “I, um, I didn’t hear you come in.”

Voiceless, the image of her naked perfection still imprinted on his brain, Dominic could only nod.

He was a man who relished serving, who took pride in his career and worked damned hard to be the best he could. But sometimes it got ugly. It got dirty, depressing and disheartening.

When it got rough, lying on a cot in a tent in the desert or in an aircraft carrier berth on his way to a dangerous mission, Dominic slid into fantasyland. The fantasies were as varied as there were women. But one in particular always made its way through his mind: he fantasized about coming home to clear his head of the ugliness, to find peace. In his fantasy, he walked into his bedroom to find his fantasy woman. Naked, nubile and willing. Ready to make him forget, to heal his soul.

He’d never put a face to the fantasy.

But looking at Lara, he knew he’d never have it again without seeing her.

“Um, the other shower didn’t have shampoo,” she said, wetting her lips.

Dominic almost groaned.

Sex with Lara once could be called a mistake.

A bad judgment call.

He was a man who prided himself in knowing the right thing to do. For himself, for others.

The right thing, right now, would be to apologize, turn around and get the hell out of the room.

He knew it.

If this was anyone else, he’d be smacking him upside the head and telling him to move his ass before he stepped into FUBAR land.

But this wasn’t anyone else.

It was him.

And it was Lara.

His fantasy woman.

8

O
H, BOY.

Lara was grateful that whoever owned this cabin had splurged on ultraplush towels. Because the terry cloth and her fingers were the only thing hiding her nipples’ instantaneous reaction to the look in Castillo’s eyes.