Embattled SEAL (7 page)

Harper grinned, the flash of teeth bold and vibrant. “At least this hospital wasn’t being bombed like the one I went through in Iraq.”

“Or in the path of a once in a lifetime blizzard like the time you were at Walter Reed.”

He gave her a nod, his smile fading. “You’ve been at most of them with me. I appreciate that, Cat.”

Wow. She sucked in a breath at his softly spoken words. “I was your wife. Where else would I have been?”

Harper rocked his head toward her. “You could have stayed home like a lot of the wives did.”

She shook her head, grimacing. “That’s not where a wife belongs when her husband is hurt. She belongs at his side. Rooting him on to recover as fully as possible.”

“There were a lot of guys that had no one, either in Germany or when they got home.”

“I know,” she admitted. “But with my parents living within easy driving distance, I had an advantage. They were always ready to watch the kids at a second’s notice.”

He was quiet for a long time then, but his head was still turned toward her. With those dark glasses on she couldn’t tell if he was awake or not.

Navigating the Amarillo streets she’d gotten used to over the past few days, she headed toward the interstate on-ramp. They would head north toward Denver for a little while, then they had a break in the middle at Cańon City. She hadn’t told him about renting the house and thought it best not to now. They needed to take some time together, out of the hospital environment.

It would be neutral ground where they could talk about things.

As she accelerated up the onramp of 287 North, he rolled his head on the seat again and leaned forward, hand on his brow.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Do I need to pull over?”

“No. Just some nausea. Keep going.”

Cat kept driving but she kept one eye on him the entire time. Eventually he settled back against the seat. “Do you mind if I lay this seat back? I think if I lay down I may feel better.”

“Absolutely. There’s a blanket on the seat behind mine. If you can reach that you can use it for your head.”

It was an easy reach for his long arm normally, but with the sling on he had to be careful. When he did drag the blanket to him, he used it to cover his head completely. Cat frowned at the weird shape, but whatever he needed to do…

They drove for a few hours and had crossed into the upper corner of New Mexico when she stopped for gas and a bite to eat. Harper roused and dragged the blanket from his head, blinking sleepily. The glasses had come off under the blanket and he fumbled to get them back on to fight the afternoon sun.

“I’m sorry I conked out on you.”

Cat smiled at him as she pulled into the parking spot at a little but surprisingly busy restaurant connected to the gas station. “You’re fine. You should rest as much as you possibly can.”

They slid out of the vehicle and Cat watched to make sure he was steady on his feet. When he wavered just a bit she stepped close and wrapped her arm around his waist on the right, uninjured side. Harper shifted as if to nudge her away, but Cat held on. “Just go with it, stubborn.”

There was a grumble of laughter before his heavy arm landed on her shoulders. “Fine, stubborn. But if I go down we’re both going down.”

After those first couple of wavering steps he actually steadied out pretty well. Cat didn’t think he needed her support at all, but she kept her arm around him anyway, as if they were a couple out for a stroll. She was enjoying the contact with his hard body too much.

They entered the front door of the café and the hostess/waitress walked them back to a table Cat motioned to. It was the dimmest in the restaurant, so it would have to do. After the waitress left to get their drink orders, Harper slipped the glasses off the bridge of his nose and rubbed the area with his fingers. There were red marks on the high part of his nose where the glasses had rubbed. When the waitress returned he slipped them back on.

The woman handed them a couple of sticky menus and left to take care of other customers before returning to take their orders. The poor woman was run ragged, but gave them a smile as she scribbled on the pad. She promised to have the food out as soon as possible.

“How far have we driven?”

“Just a few hours, but I needed to get out and stretch. And get gas. This Yukon is a gas-guzzler. There’s not a lot through here on this stretch of interstate.”

Nodding a little, he stirred the ice cubes in his water glass. “It is pretty desolate,” he agreed. “We should get into Denver in a few hours. When you reach the outer belt I’ll give you directions to my place.”

Cat didn’t say anything, just let him assume that was where they were going. She had other plans.

Their food came surprisingly quickly considering how busy the place was, and it was good hearty food. The cook in this little hardscrabble place had some talent.

Harper ate as if he hadn’t seen food for a week. Which he kind of hadn’t. It was hard to get excited about hospital fare. The burger he had ordered was gone in a few big bites, as well as the fries.

Cat was not surprised when he ordered an extra serving of mashed potatoes and gravy and a slice of apple pie, then ploughed through that food when it came. Even working with only one hand he obliterated the mountain. When he finally sat back against the booth seat, she had to laugh at the somnolent look in his eyes. “Are you ready to go?” she asked.

Harper nodded. They paid the tab and left. Cat walked to the little attached gas station part and bought some snacks and a drink for the road, then they piled back into the Yukon. “I’m wide awake,” she assured him. “Go ahead and sleep if you can. We may stop for the night somewhere along the way.”

“Okay. Thanks, Cat.” He ran his big hand down her shoulder. “This reminded me of our little road trips.”

She nodded, throat tight. “Me too. I miss them.”

He cleared his throat. “I do too.”

With that he reclined his chair and bundled his head in the blanket again. Cat didn’t know how he could breathe like that. Maybe breathing wasn’t as important as keeping it dark to protect his eyes.

They drove for another three hours, long straight stretches of nothing. Once the sun went down Harper sat up and looked around. He winced and rubbed at his eyes. “I thought once the sun set I would be able to look around but I can’t see much.”

A car approached from the opposite direction, still the better part of a mile away. Cat watched Harper’s reaction to the lights as they drew closer. When it got within a quarter mile he had to close his eyes and turn his head away.

“I wouldn’t expect too much of yourself right now. You just got out of the hospital and are recovering from serious wounds. Don’t stress about anything.”

Harper didn’t even glance at her, but he gave her a single nod. “I know that. It’s just hard being so debilitated.”

Cat could understand that. Harper Preston was the classic SEAL type—at the gym every day, eating fairly healthy, being the strongest man he could be, literally and figuratively. All of the other injuries he’d dealt with had been recoverable, no serious lasting effects. The loss of the vision in his eye would take him a while to deal with.

He stayed awake with her for the last part of the trip and when they pulled into Cańon City, he looked around in curiosity. Cat brought up the address of the house she’d rented on the GPS on her phone and followed the directions. The last of the twilight was dwindling away as they pulled up the drive twenty minutes later. It was just at the edge of the Temple Canyon Park and nestled on the slope of a mountain. The outdoor light was on but she couldn’t see much of the house itself.

“What are we doing here? I thought we were going to stop at a hotel or something.”

Cat shrugged and glanced at him, her heart pounding. “Not exactly. I rented this house for us for a while.”

Harper scowled as he slid out of the SUV and circled the hood to meet her. “What do you mean you rented it ‘for a while’? How long is a while?”

Cat slammed her door shut and moved to the passenger door where she’d stored her suitcase and his shopping bags. “Just what I said. A while. However long you give me. You can’t go back to work yet anyway. I talked to Duncan and he says you need to take a couple weeks off at least. So I rented it for a couple weeks.”

Dragging her suitcase across the paved drive she went to the lockbox visible at the side of the door and punched in a code. It popped open immediately and a gold key dropped into her hand. Cat let them inside the house but tried to follow only the illumination of nightlights positioned low along the hallways. When they reached the kitchen she moved to the glass-top stove, hoping there would be a light in the hood. It probably wouldn’t be too sharp for Harper’s eyes.

She tapped the button and the kitchen brightened.

The space was beautiful that she could see. Dark granite counter tops, pretty cherry cupboards, a side-by-side refrigerator. She opened the door.
Awesome!
The realtor had taken care of the essentials like she’d asked. Anything other than that she could drive into town for later.

Cat could feel Harper glaring at her from the kitchen doorway.

“Why didn’t you tell me we weren’t going back to Denver?”

Cat chuckled. “Well, you didn’t really need to know. There’s nothing you need to do here. No job, no responsibilities. I want you to recover. But I also want you to think about us, and the place we play in your life. You don’t need to decide anything tonight, though. I’m going to find a bedroom and crash because I’m about to drop. Do your security check, because I know you won’t rest being in a new environment without it. But do it quickly.”

Crossing the kitchen, she leaned up to press a kiss to his stubborn, clamped jaw and disappeared down the hallway.

It took everything
he had in him to stand for her kiss and not grab her arms and shake her senseless. What the fuck was she thinking, bringing them out here in the middle of nowhere? He’d seen houses on the drive from Canón City, but not very many. The only thing that stopped him from yelling at her was the tiredness even he could see with his damn single eye in the slump of her shoulders and the droop of her mouth. She’d driven for seven hours today. He had slept most of that time and hadn’t helped at all.

Harper looked around the space, then crossed to the patio doors he could see on the back wall. Finding the faceplate with his hand, he squinted his eyes in preparation of pain and flicked a switch. The light behind him came on, illuminating a heavy cherry wood dining set. He flicked the switch off then the one next to it up. Light illuminated a cement patio with a large swimming pool, then a rocky back yard beyond. Checking that the door was locked, he left the light on and moved to the next room.

Living room with more heavy wooden furniture, pale walls, a nice flat screen mounted on the wall beside a huge stone fireplace. Another set of patio doors leading to the pool area. He made sure they were locked then moved on. A bathroom was next, which he used before continuing. One bedroom, two, then a third. When he opened the door of the third Cat looked up in surprise, having just ripped her t-shirt over her head.

Harper stared at the swell of her breasts in the pink satin bra, his mouth suddenly watering. Fuck, it had been a long time. He didn’t have a lot to be thankful for but in that moment he was extremely thankful he had the vision of at least one eye to see the beauty before him.

Cat lifted a dark brow in question. “My room is secure, Harper.”

His cheeks heated. “Yeah, sorry.”

Backing out of the room he pulled the door shut behind him, but he could still see her standing there, curves lit by a soft bedside lamp. It was several long seconds before he forced himself to release the doorknob.

The rest of the house seemed secure so he went to one of the first bedrooms and stripped down. And though he had the hard-on from hell and had slept most of the way to Colorado, as soon as his head hit the pillow he drifted away.

Cat woke surprisingly
early. She figured she’d have slept in, but excitement to meet the day urged her out of bed. Hurrying through a nice, hot shower she combed her short hair and dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. Padding to the kitchen in her bare feet, she found the coffee maker. Damn. The sucker already had water in the reservoir and coffee in the filter. She bumped the brew switch and started going through the house.