Wanted (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 8) (2 page)

Tuck flipped on the lights and shut the door before facing him, hands on hips. “So, Celida and I are getting married on Saturday.”

Whoa
. Clay’s eyebrows shot up. “As in, five days from now?” They’d been engaged for a year now, so why the huge rush all of a sudden?

He nodded, looking tired. Clay knew the weight of responsibility of being team leader weighed heavily on his friend, even if Tuck would never say it. He held himself personally accountable for his guys and anything that happened to them. Clay thought that all of them coming home alive after this latest op should be evidence enough that Tuck had done his job, but the guy was notoriously hard on himself.

They all were. It’s what kept them sharp, what made them all keep striving to improve as operators and made them one of the best counter-terrorism units in the world.

“Yeah. We’ve set a date twice before and it’s fallen through both times because shit just keeps getting in the way, so we’re just gonna get ‘er done before something else comes up. Besides, as of tomorrow the team’s officially on training cycle, so it should work out. We decided on it last night, figured we shouldn’t wait.”

“Okay.” Made sense. Between Tuck and Celida’s crazy work schedules with the FBI, they didn’t get much time to themselves, let alone time to plan out something like a wedding.

“This last op hit home for me,” Tuck admitted. “If I’d been KIA, Celida would have gotten nothing except what I’ve detailed in my will. No benefits, no nothing, because we’re not married. I want to marry her, yeah, but I also want to make sure she’s protected if anything happens to me. So it’s gonna be this weekend.”

The words hit home. Hard. Clay knew they were the truth, and he’d thought the same things about Zoe lately. Virginia law didn’t recognize couples living together as having a common law marriage. As of right now, she was unprotected too, and it bothered him.

Good thing he was already planning to rectify that. “I hear you.”

“So you’ll stand up for me?”

As in, best man? As in, wearing a suit up there at the front of the church or whatever in front of everyone? He mentally scowled. “Uh, sure, man. I’d be happy to.”

Weddings weren’t exactly his favorite thing, not after having gone through a disastrous marriage and an even more disastrous divorce, but that was his own baggage so he’d deal, and suck it up for Tuck. And he couldn’t deny he’d been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how he should propose to Zoe.

But she was a freaking romance author, wrote that kind of stuff for a living, so he had to make it both romantic and memorable. He wanted it to be a perfect moment she’d cherish for the rest of her life. Something that would catch her off guard and be unique, something sentimental.

No pressure.

Thankfully, the idea of getting married again didn’t make him feel strangled or suffocated the way it would have a year ago. That was Zoe’s doing. She made him feel loved and accepted and respected, even admired.

Basically, he was one lucky bastard, to have a woman like her. At least he knew it, tried to love her the way she deserved. Though part of him would probably always feel like she deserved better than being with a hardass like him. It was time for him to man up and do right by her.

Tuck smiled and slapped him on the shoulder. “Good. Don’t worry, it’s gonna be small, just us four, an official and maybe the rest of the guys if they want to come as guests. Celida already asked Zoe to stand up with her back when we got engaged.”

“Yeah, I know.” Zoe had been thrilled. She hadn’t mentioned anything about the wedding when he’d called last night though. “Does she know it’s happening this weekend?”

“Doubt it. Lida’s been busy wrapping up the investigation in Anchorage and Seattle and she’s been swamped with meetings for the past couple days. She’s not flying home until tomorrow night, so I’m going to set everything up.”

Clay kept his expression neutral. “
You’re
going to plan everything?” Didn’t the bride-to-be usually go into full-on control freak mode about stuff like that? Clay’s ex-wife sure had. He’d learned real fast to let her do her thing without consulting him.

Tuck shrugged one broad shoulder. “Gonna try. Can’t be that tough, we’re not even booking a church. All I have to do is find an official and pick a spot to exchange our vows, then get a caterer. Celida said she’ll handle all the little stuff once she gets home.”

Clay had trouble imagining his badass, former-Delta team leader doing that kind of shit, but whatever. “Okay, well, good luck with that. Do I need a suit?”

“Yeah, a tux. I’ll reserve one for you when I go in for mine. It’s on my honeydo list.” He held up his phone with a wry smile.

A tux. Clay fought the urge to make a face. He hated them with a passion, but when he thought about it, he realized there was one definite bonus for putting up with a few hours of discomfort, in addition to making his buddy happy.

Zoe had a secret suit fetish.

Maybe it was a writer thing but she’d actually come up with a term for it. Suit porn. And the last time he’d worn one for her as part of an elaborate and insanely hot seduction scheme he’d snagged from a scene out of one of her novels—damn, was that really almost a year ago now?—she’d been extremely…enthusiastic in her response.

He couldn’t help but grin at the memory. One of the greatest nights of his life.

It continually amazed him that he’d found her, that a woman as beautiful and incredible as Zoe had somehow fallen in love with him, and she even loved his dominant side in bed. Huge bonus, since he didn’t have to temper his rough-edged desires around her.

He’d moved into her condo with her soon after the suit porn episode, and things were still great between them all these months later. Before her, he’d never imagined a loving relationship like that was even possible for him, let alone actually being
in
one.

So yeah, he could definitely handle being in a tux for a few hours. Because once the wedding was over, it wouldn’t stay on him long.

“What’s that leer on your face about?” Tuck asked.

He killed the smile. “Nothing. So you’ll keep me posted then? Tell me where I’m supposed to be and when I’m supposed to be there and whatever?” With any luck there wouldn’t be a rehearsal dinner or anything.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Wait, what about a bachelor party?” Wasn’t that a best man thing? Because that he could handle. Paintball or dirt biking up in the mountains, a campfire out in the woods afterward and a few cases of beer.

Tuck cocked his head. “Really? You’d set that up for me?”

“Hell yeah, man. Just tell me what day and I’ll make it happen.” They guys would love it, especially after this latest mission. They needed to blow off steam in the worst way.

He laughed. “I appreciate it.”

Clay shifted his stance, fought the urge to check his watch. Was Zoe home yet? Or finished with whatever she’d been doing when he called? “Cool. So, we done here?”

“Yeah. Go ahead, man. Go home to Zoe while I go to my empty house,” Tuck said with a grin.

Don’t have to tell me twice.

He headed out to his truck, unable to wipe the smile off his face. In less than half an hour from now he’d be walking through his front door. And a minute or two after that, if she was feeling up to it, he planned to have Zoe naked and underneath him on the nearest flat surface.

His phone buzzed with an incoming text. His heart jumped, expecting it to be from Zoe, but it was from a shop he’d visited over a month ago.

Your design is ready.

Perfect, he thought with a smile. He could swing by there tomorrow and have a look at what the jeweler had come up with.

Pulling out of the parking lot, he was already thinking about what he would do to Zoe once he got her naked. They’d been together long enough that he knew exactly what made her hot, what made her beg, and they had a lot of lost time to make up for.

He needed to lock Zoe down. She was definitely The One and deserved better than just being his girlfriend. She’d been more than patient with him over the past year, letting him deal with his own relationship hang-ups without pressuring him for more. He trusted her, owed her far more than that, wanted to give her the security and protection she deserved as his partner.

Because there was no way he wanted to contemplate the prospect of going through life without her.

Zoe struggled up through the weight of a deep sleep when the mattress shifted. She lifted heavy eyelids and blinked at the fading light streaming through the open blind in the window beside the bed.

A large hand settled next to her face. Her heart jumped but before she could react a familiar, masculine scent mixed with soap registered, then a warm, heavy weight settled against her back.

She relaxed, a sleepy smile curving her mouth.
Clay
.

“You’re home,” she murmured, stretching like a contented cat beneath him. He was a big boy, his body honed to muscular perfection from hours in the gym and his constant training with the team. Just the feel of him made her stresses melt away. It’d been way too long since she’d felt his arms around her, and this latest mission had scared the hell out of her.

He made a low sound of acknowledgement and lowered his head to nuzzle her nape with his face, his whiskers scratching her skin pleasantly. He must not have shaved for a few days. “Yeah.” The large hand next to her face lifted and curved around her forehead, as if checking her temperature. “You still sick? It’s not even eight yet.”

“Just tired.” Exhausted, actually. That cold from hell apparently wasn’t done with her yet, because it was still kicking her ass. For the better part of four days she’d lain in bed, using up more than three boxes of tissues until she’d been able to start breathing through her nose again. Only one nostril at a time, of course, never both at the same time.

“I’m so glad you’re home safe.” She tried to roll over but he stilled her and proceeded to trail kisses across her cheek, down to her jaw, the corner of her mouth. She turned her face away at the last second, before he touched her lips. “I want to kiss you, but I don’t want to give you whatever I had.”

“I’ll work around it,” he whispered against her skin, making her grin.

“Good thing you’re an expert at adapting on the fly.” He was an expert at a
lot
of things, and it continually amazed her. He could fix damn near anything, was way more observant than even she’d realized… And his areas of expertise also extended to how to drive her body wild.

“Hmmm.” He cupped the underside of her jaw in his hand, his tongue stroking along the side of her neck, making her shiver. “You miss me, raven?”

The pet name was like another caress, a term of affection he’d first used to acknowledge her love of the macabre and all things Goth. He’d even started calling her that before he’d seen the raven’s wings tattooed across the base of her spine.

“
Yes
.” So much. Especially after finding out about what had happened on that cruise ship the other night. It always scared her, to know something terrible could happen to him when he went to work, even if it was just a training op.

Seeing the news coverage on TV had been terrifying until he’d called her afterward, and the sound of that deep voice on the other end of the phone had finally eased the vise of worry that had been tightening around her chest with every passing hour without any word from him. Her best friend and FBI agent Celida had been out of town and didn’t answer her calls, so she’d actually wound up calling Taya, Schroder’s girlfriend, instead.

Best decision she could have made. The woman was amazingly calm and resilient, exactly what Zoe had needed in that moment.

She sighed at the feel of Clay’s open mouth on her skin. She was tingling all over, already getting wet for him and he’d barely touched her. Her entire body ached for his touch. Right now she wanted to push the whole world away, all her worry, and just focus on this.

She arched into his hand as he trailed his fingers down her throat, his big body shifting slightly to the side so he could reach down and cup one of her breasts. Instantly she flinched and sucked in a breath.

He froze, his big hand cradling her tender flesh. “Sore again already?”

She nodded, letting her eyes drift close. “Yeah.” She generally got really sore boobs about a week before her period. “So they’re very sensitive.”

He made a sound of approval and nipped a tendon at the back of her neck, a scrape of teeth that made her shiver. “Then I’ll have to take extra care with them.”

The care he took with her always made her melt. Clay was a huge guy, outweighing her by nearly a hundred pounds, and he had a healthy appetite for sex that was dominant and a little rough but the way he touched her was always so perfect. He made her feel safe, wanted and cherished in a way that made her crave him with every cell in her being. He was her addiction and Zoe couldn’t get enough.

She arched her back to press her breast into his hand and tipped her head to the side. The man knew exactly how to make her hot and he was using that insider knowledge now, every caress and kiss turning her boneless, drugging her with desire.

A gentle pinch to her nipple and she gasped, the bundle of nerves so sensitive it was a mix of pleasure and pain. But the pleasure won out, a bright streamer of heat shooting down to between her legs.

He murmured something against her shoulder and kept teasing the rigid center, even as he rolled her onto her stomach and used his heavy thighs to part hers. The heat of his erection seared her damp folds, his free hand slipping beneath her to cup her aching sex. She moaned at the contact and parted her legs wider for him.

A growl of pure male satisfaction reverberated in his chest, vibrating against her back. “Mmmm, my baby definitely missed me.” There was no mistaking the pride and approval in his voice, but she was already too far-gone to answer.

She managed a nod, almost beyond the ability to form a coherent thought. He always did this to her. Made her lose control, took her to a place where she couldn’t think, could only feel, turned her into a desperate, greedy animal until the only thing she cared about was reaching the release he could give her.