The SEAL's Secret Heirs

“Turns out Sheila, my mom’s friend, runs an adoption agency. She’s been a huge mentor to me and really helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. See, I love children, but I don’t like teaching them. I do like helping them, though. I ended up staying at the agency for four years in various roles while I got my master’s degree at night.”

“You have a master’s degree?” That revelation managed to get his attention off her mouth for a brief second. Not that he was shocked—she’d always been a great student. It was just one more layer to this woman that he didn’t know nearly well enough.

“Yep.” She nodded slowly. “The county requires it.”

“That’s great.”

“What about you? I know you went into the military but that’s about it. You went into the navy, Liam said.”

“I did.” He shifted uncomfortably, as he did any time his years in Afghanistan came up among civilians. The top secret nature of virtually every blessed op he’d completed was so ingrained, it was hard to have a regular conversation with anyone outside of his team. “Special operations. It’s not as glamorous as the media makes it out to be. I sweated a lot, got really dirty and learned how to survive in just about any conditions. Meanwhile, I followed orders and occasionally gave a few. And now I’m home.”

Something flashed deep in her eyes and she reached out. Her palm landed on his bare forearm, just below the rolled-up sleeve of his work shirt. “It doesn’t sound glamorous. It sounds lonely.”

“It was,” he mumbled before he’d realized it. Shouldn’t have admitted that. It smacked of weakness.

“I’m sorry.” Her sympathy swept along his nerve endings, burying itself under his skin. The place she’d always been.

The place he’d always let her be. Because she soothed him and eased his loneliness. Always had. Looked as if for all the things that had changed, that was one constant, and he latched on to it greedily.

“It’s over now.”

His arm still stretched across the back of the seat. The slightest shift nestled her deeper against him and a strand of her glossy hair fell against her cheek. He wasted no time capturing it between his fingers, brushing it aside, and then letting his fingers linger.

Their gazes met and held for an eternity. A wealth of emotions swirled in her eyes.

Her skin was smooth and warm under his touch. She tilted her face toward his fingers, just a fraction of a movement. Just enough to tell him she wasn’t about to push him away.

He slid his fingers more firmly under her chin and lifted it. And then those amazing lips of hers were within claiming distance. So he claimed them.

Grace opened beneath his mouth with a gasp, sucking him under instantly. Their mouths aligned, fitting together so perfectly, as if she’d been fashioned by the Almighty specifically for Kyle Wade. He’d always thought that. How was that still true?

The kiss deepened without any help on his part. He couldn’t have said his own name as something raw and elemental exploded in his chest. Grace. The feel of her—like home and everything that was good in the world, blended together and infused into the essence of this woman.

He wanted more. And he couldn’t have stopped himself from taking it.

Threading both hands through her hair, he cupped her head and changed the angle, plunging into the sensation. Taking her along with him. She moaned in her chest, and answering vibrations rocked his.

She clung to him, her hands gripping his shoulders as if she never wanted to let go. Which was great, because he didn’t want her to.

Her sweet taste flowed across his tongue as he twined it with hers, greedily soaking up everything she was offering. It had been so long since he’d felt. Since he’d allowed himself to be so open. Hell, he hadn’t allowed anything. She’d burrowed into his very core with nothing more than a kiss, and he’d had little to say about it.

And then she was gone. Ripped away.

She bolted from the rocker, her chest rising and falling as she hugged the split-pine railing surrounding the porch with her back. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“But you did.” Ruthlessly, he shut down all the things she’d stirred up inside, since it appeared as if she wasn’t up for seconds.

“I got caught up. That can’t happen again.”

Her expression glittered with undisguised longing, and no, he hadn’t imagined that she’d welcomed his kiss. That she’d leaned into his touch and begged for more. So why was she stopping?