Double Tap (Code 11-KPD SWAT 2)

He grunted and started walking, but his eyes.

Oh, my God, his eyes.

They stayed on me the entire way.

And I could do nothing less than stay connected with him.

“Who’s that?” I asked, my voice cracking slightly when I said it.

Nikki snorted. “That would be my brother.”

Her brother.

Shit.

Honest to God, the last thing I needed to know, was that that boy lived less than four miles from me.

Sweet baby Jesus.

However, during halftime, when Nikki dragged me out into the field, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I had eyes on me.

Turning to chase a ball that’d been kicked off the side of the field, I stopped as it came to a stop at just this side of the home team’s benches.

What I hadn’t expected was for Nikki’s brother to pick the ball up just as I bent to do the same.

I didn’t expect him to hand the ball to me and not let go.

I didn’t expect to fall head over heels in love with him.

I didn’t believe in love at first sight.

But right then, in that moment it took for him to finally let go of the ball, I was a goner.***Five years later

“I don’t want to go, Nikki,” I groaned.

“Come on, please? I’ll love you forever,” Nikki begged.

I sighed and got up, slipping my feet into the slippers I’d brought with me from home.

“You totally owe me. Like big time,” I snapped as I walked out of her room and down the hall.

I found the stairs easily, having taken them quite a few times in my five years as Nikki’s best friend.

We stayed over at each other’s houses quite a bit. Today just happened to be Nikki’s day, so we stayed at hers. Her brother had come in for leave this weekend, and Nikki wanted to spend some time with him.

Not that I’d seen him do more than sleep in the past twenty four hours.

When I’d come over Friday night, he’d been asleep on the couch.

When I’d woken up this morning, he’d been sleeping on the floor beside the couch.

And when we’d eaten dinner, he’d moved to his room because we were being too loud.

Now, it was nearly midnight and I fully expected him to still be sleeping.

Not standing at the open door of the refrigerator in his boxers drinking directly from the milk carton.

“That’s gross,” I said as I walked into the room.

He looked up at me over the carton and winked, drinking deeply before he put the cap back on and shoved the carton back in the fridge door.

“I was thirsty and there were no cups,” he explained lamely.

I glared at him. “I’m sure there’re some in the dishwasher, if you’d cared to look.”

He wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms over his muscular chest.

My mouth went dry as it only served to bring my attention from his face, where I’d been doing a damn good job at ignoring his near nakedness, to the bulging muscles of his arms.

He looked drool worthy.

Nicolas, Nico for short, was twenty three to my eighteen.

He was Nikki’s big brother and so far out of my league that I couldn’t help being slightly depressed about it.

I’d been in love with Nicolas Giuliani Pena for five years, and was just as much in love with him now as I was when I first saw him.

He had no clue, of course, because I was incredibly good at hiding my emotions.

I had to be with my father. Otherwise I’d be dead meat.

Well, pulverized meat was more truthful.

My dad liked to hit me. He liked to hit my mom, too.

But that was neither here nor there.

What was here, was Nicolas and his sexy as sin body.

“Yeah, but I can’t see in the dark and I left the light off so I didn’t wake you up,” he countered.

“Oh, Diablo, you’re so thoughtful sometimes,” I teased as I started filling up a glass of water. “I brought my blow up mattress, though, so I wasn’t out on the couch today.”

There were times that I didn’t necessarily ‘plan’ on staying over, and those were the days I stayed on the couch. It was nice that he didn’t want to wake me up. The man was considerate, I’d give that to him.

“Why do you call me Diablo?” He asked inquisitively, leaning his lean hips back against the counter.

The motion really accentuated his abdominal muscles.

And try as I might, my eyes slipped down.

The light from the fridge gave off a soft glow that seemed to make Nico’s golden brown skin glow. It made the deep ridges of his abs seemed more pronounced. Or, at least, that was what I was contributing it to. There was really no way that a man, one who’d been beyond ripped before he entered the Navy, could come back looking that much better.

“When you’re playing soccer, it’s like the devil’s on your heels. You leave everyone behind like you’re running for your life,” I answered him honestly.

Did I mention that Nico was a soccer star, too?

He could’ve gone pro, but he’d decided to go Navy instead, much to his mother’s disapproval.

Rosa Pena was a hell of a woman, but just like any Latino mother, she loved her children with a fierce protectiveness that bordered on going overboard. She wanted what she wanted for her kids, and that wasn’t joining the Navy.

I walked up to the kitchen counter and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. The kind that Nico hated because they were too small. ‘A waste of my time,’ he liked to say.

It happened to be the one directly in front of where Nicolas was standing, so my body grazed his as I leaned up and over him.

He didn’t move, and I didn’t ask him to as our bodies grazed.

Goosebumps started to chase down my spine as I felt his overheated skin against mine.

I held back a shiver as I stepped away from him and started filling up the glass.

Once filled, I closed the fridge door, plunging the room into darkness. Then I leaned back against the counter next to him, shoulder to shoulder.