Full Surrender

Around them, a military band played, volunteers handed out balloons to kids, and families wept and hugged. Danny was aware of his surroundings, but didn’t really hear anything, the rest of the world operating like a silent film in the backdrop of the main attraction. Stephanie Rosen. Returned stateside four and a half years ago.

Returned to him...just now.

He wanted to wrap her in his arms, to see if she smelled the same, felt the same. But he knew he’d never be able to let go if he touched her now. Instead, he’d play it safe until he found out what she wanted.

“Sounds good,” he managed to say, dropping his bag onto the pier. He couldn’t imagine why she’d seek him out after all this time. He’d tried to get in touch with her once, but his efforts had been met with radio silence on her end. “My car is probably closer, though. I had a buddy park it nearby last night. I know all the shortcuts out of here to beat the traffic.”

“Sure.” She nodded as she accepted a blue balloon from a clown whose white makeup ran in streaks down the side of his face where he was sweating. “No problem. But first...” She opened her arms wide. “Welcome home, Danny Murphy.”

The simple gesture humbled him so fast his throat burned with old emotion. Christ, he should have found a way to be there when she came home so he could have welcomed her. But he’d already been in the service, property of the U.S. military and unable to leave his duty station, determined to make sure no one else suffered the way she had.

It took all the strength and discipline he possessed to rein in his feelings now and give her a hug without crushing her. Folding her carefully in his arms, he buried his face in her hair, breathing in the clean scent. She squeezed back with surprising strength. Her body was so delicate, tall but slender. It was easy to forget it since her personality was big enough to fill a room.

Or at least it had been. Most people who went through that kind of ordeal were changed by it. Who wouldn’t be?

And with that ice-cold reminder, he found the courage to release her.

“Thank you.” His gaze locked with hers for a moment, the scent of her still in his nose.

“My pleasure.” She smiled up at him, holding her balloon. “You look kind of dashing in white.” She smoothed a hand over his chest, skimming his ribbons and kicking up his temperature. “And not at all like the laid-back rock ’n’ roll dude I met five years ago.”

Did she have any idea what her abduction had done to him? She wasn’t the only one who’d changed.

“It’s been a long time,” he acknowledged, hoisting his bag onto one shoulder and using the other hand to steer her toward the pier’s exit. Yeah, it was dicey to touch her when he still wanted her. Had always wanted her. But his feelings for her were more complicated than that now. Stephanie wasn’t just some woman who’d knocked him for a loop with the best fling of his life.

She was...someone he respected for all that she’d been through. Someone who deserved to be protected.

“Only a handful of years,” she countered, sidestepping a couple of toddlers dressed in sailor suits. Her voice was throaty and sexy. He’d forgotten that about her. “The guy I knew could never leave his band behind for six months at a time.”

He could barely remember what he’d been like back then. It surprised him that she wanted to talk about the past. Talk about them. He didn’t know if he could handle a trip down memory lane. Tough enough just keeping a hand at the small of her back without pulling her against him.

A kid’s cry sounded behind them and she turned to look back at the stragglers still visiting on the pier. He turned, too, sticking right with her. One of the sailor-suit kids had lost his balloon, the spot of red floating higher and higher while the little boy’s lower lip curved into the fiercest frown Danny had ever seen. Stephanie rushed back to hand him her balloon, the magic of a replacement popping the kid’s mouth right back into a smile while the parents thanked her.

The action drew some attention from lingering sailors on the dock. Single frigging sailors from the way the guys looked her over. Danny wrapped an arm around her waist and shot them the evil eye, torqued off at them when he had no right to be.

If she was surprised by the sudden close contact, she didn’t show it. She fit against him just as perfectly as he remembered, her hip the ideal height for him to rest his hand on as they walked.

And in no time, he was thinking about how else they fit together. Memories bombarded him like rogue torpedo fire.

“So where are we going?” she asked as they left some of the crowd behind. “Is it far?”