Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (8 page)

“I have two nieces and
one nephew wh
o are eight.”

“Do you like them?”

He chuckled. She was a
natural born interrogator. “Nope, I love them.”

“Why don’t we go
inside?” Mr. Samson said. “I’ll help you with the bags, Mace.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Lloyd,” he offered
and headed down the steps to the
cab.

Nina’s mom offered a
small appreciative smile. “And I’m Tonya.”

“Ma’am, it’s nice to
finally meet both of you.”

As he sauntered down
the steps he heard Dawn say to Nina, “Welcome home, Sis.”

Nina’s voice was
hushed, but hard. “Do anything in your usua
l sluttish
way, and I’ll cut your heart out.”

“Nina,” her mother
scolded with a hiss.

“Fair
warning, Dawn.”

Yup, he was right on
the money with these sisters. Nina’s father cleared his throat. “They’ve always
been at odds, but when push comes to shove,
they
actually do like each other,” he said, reaching for a bag.

Mace nodded and paid
the driver then clutched the other bags.

Entering a gymnasium
sized foyer, he stopped and couldn’t help but stare. Nina carried Gabbs in her
arms, her little girl talking
all the while. Nina
halted by the sweeping staircase that rivaled Mann’s Theater in Los Angeles. It
curved, following the architecture toward a second story that came complete
with thick balustrades and a long walkway. A different colored door set every fi
fteen feet had to be bedrooms or in this case, suites.
Arching back, he stared up at a stained glass dome way above their heads.

“Bedrooms are this
way, Mace,” Nina said.

Her father strode down
the open hallway on the second story. He didn’t assume he woul
d be sleeping with Nina. They agreed to keep a little
distance until Gabbs got comfortable with their relationship.

Once Mace deposited
the bags in his room, he took a second to gape at the enormous king bed. More
than a few lustful thoughts popped into hi
s head,
imagining Nina tied to the four-poster and him taking his time tonguing his way
to her needy core. He ducked into the bathroom, and whistled. An open marble
shower big enough for four and a huge corner soaker tub had him blinking in
awe. It took mo
re than twenty steps from the bed to
get to the double doors that opened onto a large balcony. The shake, peaked
roof of the neighbors’ house topped the tree line. Was it possible for a SEAL
to turn into Mary Poppins?
Because
he’d just landed in some kind
of Disneyland of the
rich and well-to-do.
The decorating was a mix of old and new
with warm, dark wood floors and colorful floral prints on the wall. Having a
guest room like this, he wondered what Nina’s room looked like. He wandered
down the hall and tap
ped on the door he’d seen her
disappear into.

Gabbs pulled the door
open and stared up at him. She had a big, floppy summer hat on her head and a
pearl necklace dangling around her neck. “Getting dressed for dinner?” he
asked.

Gabbs giggled, then
swirled
around in a flurry of red hair and leaped
onto the king-sized bed. This room definitely belonged to a girl, maybe with a
little tomboy mixed in.

“Come on in,” Nina
said, pulling her clothes from her bag and disappearing into a closet.

“Are we staying here
for dinner?” he asked, hoping she’d get the hint he was
hungry.

“Nope, I’m taking you
and Gabbs out for dinner. Mom and Dad have some appetizers prepared, but they
have a fundraiser for the hospital tonight, so we’re on our own.”

“What about your
sister?”

“Who cares?” Nina said
sharply. She gripped the corner of the door and peered around it, pinning a
look on him. “Why?”

“Err, just wondering,
babe. I mean, you haven’t seen each other for a while.”

“That’s bad because…”
She retreated into the walk-in again.

A small hand tapped
his arm. When he looked around, Gabbs shook her head at him with a wrinkled
brow. He lifted his hands in the universal, what’s going on? Gabbs put a finger
to her lips.

Okay
. He wandered to the sizeable fireplace
and peered at the trop
hies lining the mantle. She’d
been a busy young lady with baseball, soccer, and several Tae Kwon Do awards
tucked next to each other. Two marathon ribbons were tacked inside a frame.
Victoria Goodlife Marathon, fifth in women’s and a third place win. No wo
nder she could keep up with the guys. When he’d finally
started running with them again, he was as impressed as the rest of the squad.
The woman had legs like a fawn. She paced herself like a pro.

“Mom, can we have
spaghetti tonight? Grandma never makes it
.”

“Sure,
sweetie.
Find out what Mace feels like.”

Gabbs hopped on the
bed so she could be eye level with him. “Do you like spaghetti, Mace?”

“Ah,
yeah, of course.
One of my favorites.”
He didn’t. Too many MREs with “just add
water” pasta that slid down th
e throat like bloated
slugs, made his stomach churn. No worries, where there was spaghetti, there was
steak, and he felt like diving into a really thick one.

Walking downstairs
together, Nina led them to a comfortable sized living room. Her father was poki
ng at a fire, and her mother entered with a tray of cheese
and meat, breads and crackers. The spread came right out of a fine cuisine
magazine.

“Mom, I want some
milk,” Gabbs said. Nina followed her daughter to the kitchen. Mace sunk into
the softest, most
comfortable couch he’d ever sat on.
A nanosecond didn’t pass before Dawn sat down next to him.

“What can I get you to
drink, Mace?” Dawn asked.

“He wants a beer,”
Nina called from the kitchen.

He grinned. “She knows
what I like.”

Dawn leaned back,
crosse
d her legs, and let her arm stray on the top of
the couch. “How long have you been a SEAL?”

“Mace,
in the kitchen.”
It was an order hidden behind a request, and a SEAL always followed orders,
especially with Dawn’s fingers brushing his shoulder. Gabbs rush
ed by him, straight at the cheese plate her grandmother had
settled on the table.

When he walked in Nina
surprised the hell out of him, grabbing his shoulders, pushing him against the
wall with a
thunk
, and taking his breath away with a
soul-sucking kiss.
Switching to sensual auto-pilot
with Nina was as natural as breathing air. He pasted her to his chest, and she
tilted her head, deepening the kiss.

When she backed up an
inch, he went looking in her eyes for the reason. “What’s that for, babe?”

“Just a rem
inder,” she said kissing the edge of his jaw, and then
giving it a little nip.

He laughed softly, and
ran his fingers through her silky hair. “Think I’m going to forget about you
while you get milk?”

“You look a little
stunned,” she admitted.

He shrugged a
nd took the beer from her hand, and swallowed back a deep
gulp.
“Maybe a little.”
He paused. “You know a SEAL doesn’t
make a lot of money—”

She stopped him with
another kiss. “I’d rather be poor as a church mouse and know you love me, than
living in wealth
with no love at all.”

He didn’t doubt her,
but he couldn’t understand it either. He remembered when Kayla gave him a
balling out in Germany. What had she said? “A trail of rich men lingered behind
Nina, but she didn’t choose any of them. She was waiting f
or the right man. She was waiting for love.” He pressed her
against the wall. This time he left
his
mark on her lips and swallowed the sigh
from her throat.

“Mace?”
They sprang apart like two teenagers
caught in the act.

“Hey,
Gabbs.”
He cleared his throat
and gave his head a little
shake. How did the surveying look of an eight-year-old manage to make him feel
guilty?

“I saved you some
crackers and cheese,” she said with her head tilted way back looking up at him.

He knelt down, and
gave a gentle tug on one
of her curls. Up close he
saw a sprinkling of light freckles across her nose. “Thanks Gabbs, I am kinda
hungry.”

He and Nina settled on
a small sofa, and Gabbs crawled into Nina’s lap. She sized him up and then
said, “Do you like hockey?”

“I do.”

“Me
too.
”

Guess Nina’s daughter
was going to be as athletic as her mom. Gabbs sized him up a little more, and
he gave her a wide grin.

“I just got a new
hockey net. Wanna play with me?”

“Sure,” he said,
then
laughed at the absolute surprise on her
face.

“Don’t
worry,
I’ll go easy on ya. Mommy says you
still hurt sometimes.”

“I’ll try to keep up.”

“Tomorrow, not now,”
Nina interjected.

“Mom, I’m just going
to show him,” Gabbs said, looking a little put out. “It’s in the garage, come
on, Mace.”

He took her hand an
d winked at Nina. “We’ll be right back.”

“Worked up an
appetite?” he heard from the doorway.

He looked up and
realized more than a half an hour had flown past. Gabbs had conned him into
shooting a few. She even scored on him once. She cheated, but he didn’
t care. Gabbs inherited her mother’s long legs, and she ran
like a spring fawn. Determined, deliberate, she put her energy on the target.
“Sorry, are your parents gone yet?”

“Waiting
for you.”

“You tried to get me
in trouble, didn’t ya?” he teased Gabbs.

G
abbs eye’s rounded. “I’ll tell them it’s my fault. They’ll
believe that.” Gabbs ran between the door frame and Nina’s sleek one.

“Don’t let her take
control. You’ll be wearing a Canucks shirt before this week is over.”

“I’m a Boston fan,” he
said, meeting
her on the step. “I’ll be tough.”

“Uh-huh.” Nina turned
and pulled him along behind her.

No matter how much he already liked the
little bundle of energy that was as tenacious as her mother—Canucks fan, not a
hope.

Chapter Six

“Morning, Mom.” Nina
pad
ded into the kitchen wearing the big, furry pink
slippers she’d found under her bed. They’d been there since she was sixteen.
They looked more like road kill with mangy, matted fur, but they meant home.

“Morning,
darling.”

“Nina, we need to
talk,” her fath
er said, laying the morning newspaper
on the large walnut kitchen table.

She leaned over and
popped a kiss on her father’s cheek. “Morning, Dad.”

“Sit.”

Ugh, not good. “Can I
face this conversation with a cup of coffee?”

He gave her a dry
look. “It’s not t
hat bad.”

“When you order me to
sit, it’s
something
,” she said, edging toward the
coffeepot. “Where’s Gabbs, Mom? She hopped out of bed early this morning.” Nina
opened the glass cupboard door and plucked her favorite cup. Her mom was all
class, and abhorr
ed the fact there was a DND cup with
big clunky letters and a mega handle ruining her fine china, but she didn’t
toss it.

“Out
in the driveway.”

“What?” A shot of fear
gripped her for a second. She was home safe and sound, not in San Diego. Her
mother eyed
her the way moms do when they
instinctually smell trouble. Nina had neglected to tell her parents about the
Shark or Kayla’s disappearance for that matter. “What’s she doing?” she asked
quickly to step around her mother’s appraisal.

“Take a look.” Her mot
her grinned and peered out the window.

Mace had the hood of
her truck up, his head stuck under it. Gabbs sat on the edge with her feet
propped on the engine block babbling away at him. Every once in a while he
would tilt his head, and an enormous grin
would cross
that taut jaw she loved to follow with her tongue. A little laugh escaped her.

“Gabriella really
likes him already,” her mother said, searching her face.

“Looks
that way.”

“Do you?”

“Mom,” she drawled.

“You brought a Navy
SEAL home to meet us.
That must mean something.
You’ve never brought anyone here since Gabriella’s been born.”

Nina crossed her arms
and toed the tile floor. “No one was worth bringing home.”

“Nina,” her father
interrupted, saving her from further interrogation.

 
“Yes, Dad.”

“Bring the pot.”

She grabbed it on a
flyby, crossing to the table and refilled his cup. Sitting down, she reached
for one of her Mom’s favorite bakery muffins. Her mother didn’t cook, but she
had a connection to every culinary food source in the city of V
ictoria. Carefully she peeled the paper from the sides and
broke it in half. “What’s up, Dad?”

“I’ve asked my
assistant to make an appointment for Mace at two o’clock.”

“That’s great. Thank
you.”

“We had a chat this
morning.”

“You
and Mace?”
She gulped dow
n the muffin, and chased it with some
coffee.

“I think he’s a little
uncomfortable seeing me, so I’ve asked my partner, Dr. Dorchester to take his
file.”

“Why would Mace be
uncomfortable about seeing you?”

“Due to his injury,
and what it’s affecting, I thi
nk he’s worried I’m
going to give him the ‘Birds and the Bees’ speech about my daughter during his
consult.”

“Uh, well, uh-huh.”
She
blushed
a little. She hadn’t thought of it that
way.

Her father was a
good-looking man at fifty-eight. His hair had begun t
o
gray at the edges, making him even more distinguished. She got her red hair
from her mom, but getting her dad’s brilliant green eyes ended up as a perk. A
few creases had begun to show, making him nobler. He had a respected practice
and worked long hours
between the hospital and the
office to see all the clients sent his way.

“I had that speech
with him this morning.”

She stopped chewing,
and her eyes darted to him. “You didn’t.”

“It’s not like you’ve
given me many opportunities. It’s a father’s duty.” A
small
smirk lightened his usually somber expression.

Staring at the ceiling
was better than piercing him with an “I’m-gonna-kill-you” look. “Dad, please
tell me you’re joking.”

Her mom settled down
beside her.
“Afraid not, darling.
I have to say Mace took
it very well.”

“Dad,
what the heck?
Mace and I are both thirty years old. I have a daughter. Are ya kidding me? I
think we have the pitfalls of sex figured out.”

“Mace understood,” her
mother interjected.

“Mom, Mace was being
polite. That’s just downright
embarrassing.”

“Morning,
all.”
Dawn sauntered into the kitchen with bare legs and a breast-flaunting nightie.

“Put some clothes on,
tramp. Mace is outside. You’re not giving him a freebie.”

“Shut up, Nina.”

Her mother sighed and
pushed the plate of muffins
toward her sister, who
slid onto a chair across from her.

“Could ya just try to
be a little less obvious? Ya know, like tone it down from
über
slut to maybe hussy?”

Dawn’s eyes narrowed
to slits. “Worried?”

“I don’t think so,”
she fired back. “You’d love
it in San Diego,
there’s
plenty of loose chicks you could
compete with.”

Dawn ignored her
insult. “Has Mace had breakfast? A guy that big and strong needs food. I was
going to make him the works. He’s probably sick of your cooking.”

Dawn thought she was
so
fucking smart, because unlike their mother, Dawn
had a flare with food and had gone to culinary school. She worked as one of the
top chefs at the Empress Hotel. “You’re not making him anything. Keep your
gastronomic claws away. He enjoys my cooking just f
ine.”

“Mom, guess what?”
Gabbs yelled as she ran into the room, leaping onto her, knocking the air from
her lungs when she landed.

“What’s got you so
excited?”

“I helped Mace fix
your truck. He showed me the oil stick, and the transmission fluid thingy,
and where you put your windshield washing stuff. We filled
that up by the way, it was low.”

Mace stood with his
mighty arms crossed over his chest and chuckled. “She’s a good helper.”

“What are we gonna do
now, Mace?” Gabbs asked, looking up at him like sh
e
was hanging out with her very own superhero.

“You’re going to clean
all that gook off your fingers, little girl,” Nina said, grabbing one hand and
inspecting it. “Use soap.”

“Come on, Mace,” Gabbs
said pulling him after her as if the order was for both o
f them. “Mom wants us to clean up.”

“Be right back,” he
said winking at her.

When Nina turned, Dawn
sat with a scowl, chin propped in her hand. “Awww, what’s the matter harpy, he
didn’t spare you a look?”

“Nina, you are such a
bitch.”

“Ladies,” her mother
chastised.

“Hey, I’m not the
one….”

“Nina,” her father
growled. She stopped talking out loud, and mouthed slut at her sister, who
squeezed her lips into a tight line.

A loud screech shot
Nina to her feet.

“What the heck?” her
mother exclaimed.

Another sque
al followed by laughter set Nina’s feet in motion down the
hallway. Grabbing the frame of the doorway, she swung into the bathroom and
stopped in shock. It looked like a fire hose had exploded in the spacious
bathroom. Mace and Gabbs stood stock still, dri
pping
wet. Their faces frozen, just their eyes darted toward each other,
then
back at Nina.

“Are you kidding me?”
she yelled at both of them. “You’re cleaning this up.” She thrust an arm out
and pointed at Mace and then her daughter. Snapping a towel from
the rod, she flung it at Mace. He couldn’t keep a straight
face and barked with laughter.

“She started it,” he
argued.

Gabbs’ mouth dropped
open.
“Did not.
Mace started it, Mom, I swear.”

“I don’t care who
started it. Clean up this mess.” Everything gliste
ned
with water droplets, the walls, the mirror, pretty much every surface pooled
with water except maybe the bathtub.
“Now.”

“Yes,
ma’am.”
Mace looked over at Gabbs and shrugged. Gabbs’ laughter tinkled from her as she
took a sliding step toward Mace.

“We’
ll clean it up, baby.”

“Oh, my lord,” her
mother breathed, appearing in the doorway. She gave her granddaughter and Mace
a raised brow,
then
a smirk tightened her cheeks. She
coughed and turned, leaving Nina to sort things out, but she didn’t miss the
chuc
kle that trailed behind her mother.

“Mace, how come you
call Mommy a baby? She’s not a baby, she’s a grown up.”

Mace crouched down in
front of her. “It’s a pet name. Like how Mom calls you Gabbs.”

“Oh.” Gabbs darted a
look between them. “Are you Mommy’s bo
yfriend?”

He offered Gabbs a
lopsided grin. “What would you say if I told you I loved your mom?”

“I think that would be
okay.
Right Mom?”
She looked up at her with big eyes.

“Yeah, I think
it’s
okay. What do you think about that,
sweetie?”

Gabriella jumped
across the bathroom and scrambled into her arms. “Mom, I
like Mace,” she whispered.

“Hey, no fair keeping
secrets,” Mace said, swiping the towel across the counter, sopping up some
water.

“Mom, do you think
Mace can love me too?” she asked. Gabbs wound he
r
little arm around Nina’s neck. Mace stopped wiping and looked at them, his eyes
always so beautiful; they absorbed everything in a room. He had that
boy-next-door look no girl could refuse. Nina felt her insides melt even more.
How had she gotten so luck
y?

“Gabbs wants to know
if…” Gabbs’ little hand covered her mouth.

“Don’t tell him, Mom.”

She gave her daughter
a warm cuddle. “Then you ask him.”

Gabbs tucked her nose
into Nina’s neck.

Mace stepped up and
wrapped his arms around her waist, pinning Gabbs
between
them. Her entire world became the size of only them.

“You don’t have to
tell me if you don’t want to,” Mace offered.

Her little girl
wiggled to turn in her arms. “It’s not a secret. Not a bad secret.” Then she
wrapped her arms around Mace’s neck an
d gave him a
huge hug.
“I’ll tell you if I don’t have to clean
up the mess.”

“Nope.
We’re in this together, Little Red.”

Could this work? Nina
wondered to herself. Mace was so good with Gabriella, and she knew her little
girl adored him already. Like mothe
r like daughter,
she supposed. Mace watched her, no doubt reading every eye movement, every
twitch of muscle. His eyes weren’t just sharp looking into a scope. He analyzed
everything around him with one sweeping glance. She’d seen him do it entering a
room
or going outside. It seemed ingrained in him.