Holding Out For A Hero: SEALs, Soldiers, Spies, Cops, FBI Agents and Rangers Read online

  Embrace The Night: Chapter One

  Zack Taylor sped across the waves, fighting for balance atop the surfboard. Awkward at first, but gaining stability as he adjusted his legs into a wider stance and bent his knees.

  He rode the wave as far as he could and then kicked out, sending the board flying in one direction while he sank into the cool water. As he rose to the surface, the familiar pull of the leash registered on his leg and he swam toward the board so he could climb back on.

  Grabbing the rails of the board, he slid across the surface, but thumped one edge with his prosthetic leg as he struggled to get on. The surfboard swayed side-to-side with the sudden imbalance before he steadied it.

  A little shaky, but it felt awesome to finally be able to go surfing again.

  It almost felt like flying, he thought as he paddled out to wait for another set of waves.

  Surfing was one of the few things he’d missed when his family had moved from place to place during his dad’s Army service. He had picked up the sport when his dad had been stationed close to the Delaware beaches and he’d kept surfing any time that their latest deployment had been near the ocean.

  Even during his tours of duty, he would find a way to surf if a beach was nearby. There was something about the ocean and its vastness with which he identified. Sitting there, in that great aloneness, waiting for just the right wave, suited him.

  As an Army brat, he’d been alone for most of his life. Except for family, of course.

  It had just been too difficult to make friends and then lose them every time his dad transferred to a different base.

  Surfing had gifted him with something else: Patience.

  He’d learned it was far better to bide his time to earn a perfect ride then hurry up and wipe out in a bad wave.

  When he reached the spot where a few other surfers waited for the next set, he sat up and straddled the board, his legs dangling over the edge. Well, his one leg and three quarters of his left with the durable prosthetic. He floated there, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the wash of the water all around him.

  Enjoying life and appreciating just how fragile it could be.

  It had taken him a long time to get to this point. To get past the pain and anger at his loss and be thankful that it hadn’t been worse. To be grateful for the path on which he’d been set that had brought him here.

  He gazed back toward the shore and to the growing crowd of people on the beach. He could make out his boss and friend Mark Smith and his wife Bridget as Mark hauled the volleyball equipment down to the sand. Following them like baby ducks chasing after their mother were another group of his friends. His work buddy and former Navy Seal Rafe Castillo and his wife Elena. Marine Lieutenant Trevor Mason and Maggie Sullivan, Bridget’s younger sister, visiting again from New York City.

  His friends.

  It was weird to say that after the many years that he hadn’t had any.

  And he knew that chances were that Samantha would be joining them soon.

  Lieutenant Commander Samantha Whittaker.

  She’d snared his attention the very first time he’d joined Mark and his wife at one of these gatherings and later again at the other parties held by the many veterans who lived along this stretch of the Jersey Shore.

  He’d be lying if he said that it had been anything other than a rockin’ hot bod and stunning face that had made him take notice the first time. But it hadn’t taken him long to see past her beauty to the strong and smart woman inside. One who laughed often, but whose gaze was shadowed by pain.

  He wondered a lot about what had put the darkness there and what would drive it away.

  He also wondered if he’d misread something else in that gaze: Desire.

  He thought he’d seen it after the first couple of times that they’d talked. A hesitant half glance and that look that said she maybe wanted more, but was afraid to say so.

  Which puzzled him considering the kind of woman she was.

  Independent. Determined. Capable.

  Ex-Navy, she was now in the Coast Guard and used to dealing with men on all levels.

  He’d thought she’d be a little more direct about what she wanted.

  But then again, maybe he could be a little more direct as well.

  He wanted to get to know her better. Emotionally. Physically.

  The latter thought made his gut twist painfully.

  He glanced down at lefty and wondered what she would think when she realized. How she would handle the revelation. Would she not care or shy away?

  Fuck that, he thought.

  Today was going to be a day for firsts.

  His first time surfing in two years.

  His first time asking a woman out since he’d been wounded.

  Maybe even another first if they hit it off.

  A man could dream after all, he thought and as the ocean surged beneath him, he flattened onto the board and paddled into the wave.

  As he caught it just right, he popped to his feet and flew toward shore, smiling all the way.

  Embrace The Night: Chapter Two

  Samantha Whittaker had never seen Zack surfing before. Some of the people at their beach parties would arrive early and paddle out if the waves were good, but not Zack normally.

  It occurred to her that he was obviously not a beginner, but he seemed a little uncomfortable, as if it had been a long time since he’d been on a board.

  She laid out her blanket, sat, and leaned back on her arms, trying to appear cool as she took in the sight of him out in the water. At six years his senior, she felt like a cougar admiring his lean muscled body, but then again, she hadn’t made a move on him and he hadn’t made any moves either.

  But she wanted to, hell yeah, she wanted to despite the age difference and despite the fact that she wasn’t sure if she was ready for any kind of relationship now or ever.

  She had a lot of baggage.

  It would take a strong man to shoulder that kind of burden.

  Zack was physically strong. She suspected he was emotionally tough as well. The war had damaged him as it had so many others, but in the six months since he’d started working for Mark and hanging out with them, she’d discovered a man who seemed at ease with himself and with others.

  A man who carried the scars of war on his body and yet could smile with unabashed joy, as he was doing now as he rode in a wave, his big body more graceful than it had been just moments earlier. Almost poetic as he cut back and forth on the crest of the wave until he kicked out of the wave and eased into the water.

  After he retrieved his board, he paddled a few feet toward the beach, got to his feet, and picked up his surfboard. With powerful strides he cleared the wash near the shore, but stumbled slightly on the softer sand before regaining his balance.

  His grin broadened boyishly as he saw her and he sauntered to the foot of her blanket, every inch of him radiating male confidence.

  “Hey, Samantha,” he said and scrubbed his hand across the glistening drops of water sticking to his shaggy caramel brown hair. The summer sun had lovingly kissed the longish locks with golden highlights.

  “Hey, yourself, Zack. You looked good out there,” she said and motioned to the waves.

  He glanced back toward the ocean and nodded. That enticing boyish grin deepened, displaying a dimple in his right cheek. “Thanks. It’s been a while since I surfed.”

  Which confirmed her first impression of him out on the waves. He was no beginner.

  “Why?” she asked.

  His grin deflated a bit and the earlier joyful gleam in his eyes hardened the light blue to icy shards.

  “Lots of reasons,” he said, but she could tell he wasn’t really prepared to discuss them.

  She understood. He had his secrets much like she had hers.

  “Are you staying for the games?” she asked, although he usually did even though she had never seen him participate.

  He dipped his head to confirm it and gestured toward the boardwalk
. “Yeah, I am. I just need to get changed and put the board away. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  He didn’t wait for her reply to hurry away, his strong body graceful as he trudged through the sand and up to an old Volkswagen van parked on the street. He popped open the back, slipped in his surfboard, and climbed in after it.

  She closed her eyes and pictured him stripping out of the wetsuit, baring all those lean muscles for her to see. Drawing the suit down past his abs and . . . .

  She sucked in a breath and stopped right there as her nipples tightened against her bikini top and damp heat built between her legs.

  It had obviously been way too long since she’d done anything about satisfying her physical needs. She didn’t want to be vulnerable because of that and drove away the all too pleasant fantasies of Zack in the buff.

  She jumped to her feet, brushed the sand off her hands, and walked over to where Mark, her friend and former Navy colleague, was setting up the volleyball court.

  Mark who knew some of her secrets and kept them where they belonged.

  In the past.

  Embrace The Night: Chapter Three

  Zack gritted his teeth and fought back the massive hard on pushing against the tight wetsuit fabric.

  Damn, but she was beautiful and smart. She’d known not to push him when he’d answered about the surfing. He understood that she was asking him not to press about her secrets.

  He opened the back of the old Volkswagen van and slid the board onto the padding he kept there. He hopped onto the running board his dad had helped him put in place so it was easier for him to climb inside. Now that his dad was retired and had settled nearby with his mom, they’d been restoring the old classic van together during Zack’s free time.

  After he closed the back doors, he sat and leaned against the side, legs stretched out before him. His erection even more obvious and insistent, but he didn’t want to be a sad old man, whacking off in the back of his van like some perv.

  He grabbed the zipper pull and yanked hard to open the wetsuit. Peeling the neoprene off his shoulders and down his arms, he snagged a dry towel from the pile next to the clothes he’d brought to wear. He toweled down and after, finished dragging the wetsuit off his legs.

  He sat back again and stared hard at his body, wondering as he had earlier, what Samantha would think.

  A line of stitching like railroad tracks ran up from near the bottom of his hip to just below his rib cage. A network of less noticeable lines and scars traveled down from the middle of his chest to intersect with those tracks. All were the results of the damage created from the shrapnel and pieces of mortar that had claimed the lower part of his left leg.

  The leg now sporting the durable prosthetic he used for surfing and the beach. The more sophisticated one he used for everyday was sitting – or should he say standing – at home, recharging for his weekday use. The electronics in that prosthetic couldn’t withstand the water and sand.

  She’d seen the scars on his upper body before and hadn’t flinched.

  He’d expect that from a fellow warrior, especially one who had wounds of her own. Internal ones that he was certain were behind the darkness in her gaze.

  Maybe she wouldn’t flinch when he showed her his leg, but he wasn’t sure now was the time for such a big reveal.

  Patience, he reminded himself even though that seemed in limited supply whenever he was around Samantha.

  He dried off his legs and his now limp cock. Nothing worked better to kill desire than a look at his ruined body.

  He leaned over and grabbed a t-shirt from his clothing pile. Jerked it on. Grabbed a pair of track pants and pulled them on. He finished it all off by slipping on a pair of comfortable Sanuks that looked almost normal on his artificial foot.

  Eagerness and hesitation twisted together in his gut as he thought about returning to the beach, but he’d never been a coward. By the end of the night he intended to muster the courage to ask her out and discover whether he’d misread the interest in her gaze.

  * * *

  Samantha was standing by Mark when from the corner of her eye she caught sight of Zack as he marched back toward the beach.

  Her old friend was too astute to miss where her attention had gone.

  “He’s a good guy. You couldn’t do any better,” Mark said as he tossed the volleyball back and forth in his hands.

  “He’s too young.”

  Mark laughed and shook his head. “I thought you were a modern hear-me roar-type of woman.”

  She had to chuckle at his challenge. “Yeah, I guess I thought I was, too, but . . . I’m not sure I’m ready yet.”

  He leaned close and whispered in her ear, “Who was it that said that making a wrong decision is better than indecision?”

  “I’m not sure that’s quite the quote, but I get it, Mark. I like to think that indecision is like running in place. You’re not moving forward, but you’re not losing ground either.”

  With a sad smile, Mark said, “Never figured you for a coward, Sam.”

  Anger seethed up at her friend’s comment, but she refused to show it. Especially as Zack neared, a puzzled look on his face as he glanced between her and Mark.

  She stalked away and intercepted him. Gesturing to her blanket that was a few feet away, she said, “Why don’t you sit by me?”

  The joyful dimpled grin that did all kinds of things to her insides chased away his earlier puzzlement.

  “Thanks,” he said and laid a hand on the small of her back. That simple touch sizzled her nerve endings. His palm was calloused and slightly rough against her bare skin, awakening all kinds of wicked needs.

  As he walked with her to the blanket, she thought, “Take that, Mark. I’m no coward.”

  But it wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be to sit beside Zack on the blanket, his big body so close that every time they moved, their arms or shoulders brushed against each other. Heat built inside of her as she imagined touching even more of his body and she took a deep bracing breath to chill her need.

  Zack heard her long indrawn breath and shot a quick glance at her.

  A mistake.

  There was no way he could miss the pebbled tips pushing against the thin black fabric of her bikini bra. Or the way that breath tightened the muscles of her flat belly that led him down to the smallish bottom and the sculpted length of her legs that were negligently crossed before her.

  His cock went to full blown hard faster than a race car going zero to sixty and there was no way he wanted her to notice that.

  He jerked off his shirt, tossed it in his lap to hide his erection, and grabbed a bottle of suntan lotion he’d wrapped into the towel he’d brought down with him.

  He uncapped it and squeezed way too hard which had lotion spurting out across his midsection and against her ribs.

  “S-s-s-orry,” he said, wishing that he didn’t feel as uncertain as a nerdy teen with the prom queen.

  “It’s okay.” She reached down and rubbed the lotion into her skin and his mind met his body parts somewhere nasty as he imagined her rubbing that lotion all over his erection.

  He yanked his gaze away from hers, but not before catching a glimpse of the look on her face.

  Am I only imagining the heat in those emerald eyes? he thought as he vigorously scrubbed the lotion all across his abs and up to his chest.

  “Can I help you get your back?” she asked and because he had somehow lost the ability to form words, he could only nod and hand her the bottle of lotion.

  She snagged it from his hand, sat behind him, and squirted the lotion all across his shoulders. The cold of it made him jump, but as she placed her hands on him, smoothing and kneading the lotion into the muscles of his shoulders and back, he shivered with need and his cock swelled and jerked beneath the protective shield of his discarded t-shirt.

  She massaged her way down his spine and then to his sides, rubbing the lotion there.

  He flinched as her fingers encountered the ridges
of scar there and she leaned into him so that her breasts brushed against his back, dragging a rough moan from him.

  “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she asked, rising up on her knees so that her face was just inches from his.

  Her warm breath spilled across the side of his face a second before the silky strands of her dark hair swept across his shoulders.

  He looked back at her and said, “No, just . . . a little tight from the surfing.”

  He didn’t want to confess that it had been way too long since he’d felt a woman’s gentle touch.

  For a moment, just a moment, he reconsidered going back to his van to take care of business so he could have more control around her, but he didn’t want to waste even a second of being with her.

  She nodded and licked her lips, and as their gazes collided for a brief instant, there was no denying that she was feeling something as well. Her emerald irises were wide and a flush that had nothing do with the sun spread across her cheeks and down to the swell of her breasts.

  She squirted more lotion onto his upper shoulders and worked it into the muscles, and then moved down to the front of his chest, her action putting her front full against his back. As she skimmed her hands across his nipples, another groan erupted from him and this time, he wasn’t going to lie about the reason for it.

  Splaying his hand over hers as it rested on the swell of his chest, he said, “Since I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of all our friends, I think we should take this somewhere private. If you want to, that is.”

  Embrace The Night: Chapter Four

  After so many years around men, Samantha was one thing. Direct. “My house is only a few blocks from here.”

  But because she was direct, she couldn’t hold back from adding, “But it’s just sex, Zack. Nothing more.”

  Because she wasn’t capable of more as emotionally damaged as she was.

  As he settled his gaze on her, it was impossible to miss the determination there and that as much as he might agree to just the sex, that wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him in the long run.