Then there was Susan. Ah, Suzy. She had married him, and he’d thought he had found a woman as strong as his mom—that unbreakable one he needed to match his spirit. To love him for what he loved to do. But she left him after a rather terrifying deployment when he’d gone MIA and out of touch for three weeks. That experience had been one of the toughest he’d ever endured. She’d told him tearfully that she thought she could handle it, but she couldn’t.
He needed a woman like his mother, who had stuck by his father through every single one of his deployments. She had been strong, fearless and had instilled in her sons the very meaning of the word brave.
His dad—damn, he was so proud of that man—had been decorated and conducted his life both passionately and with a balance that had rubbed off on his two boys. The four of them were a unit as strong as his team was to him. He loved them all deeply, and he tried to absorb the knowledge that he’d lost three of his closest brothers.
He’d had a solid childhood, even with his dad’s deployments. With the use of modern technology, his dad had always been there, even when he’d been working overseas.
Dex loved his job. Being a SEAL was it for him—a career. Battle always brought with it danger and the very real threat of death.
Death was unavoidable in war. It was a stone-cold fact. But the thought of losing Tyler, who was as close to him and as deeply entrenched in his heart as his brother, Rock, was unbearable. Hell, maybe deeper. Dex had fought with Tyler, watched Ty’s back as much as he’d watched Dex’s. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for Tyler. And to lose him because Dex had somehow either miscalculated or screwed up would be even worse.
It tore him up that his sister was here. A family member he’d only heard great things about. Sad things, too.
He would take the comfort she offered because he needed it. He had to let all this go. Only an idiot would bottle up emotions and never give them free rein.
The ache in his throat intensified, and he swallowed, an agony of emotion clogging his chest.
After he was spent and the purge was over, he let the woman go. The loss of Spaceman―damn, his ridge boss, his friend, his tactical genius―it was too much. Slim Jim, who had just become a father, and―dammit, his eyes teared up again, his chest hurt―DJ. Man, he was going to miss him so damn much; him and his humor were often all that kept the team going when times got tough. Leaning back, Dex’s side protesting with each move, he wiped at his swollen eyes and met her gaze.
“This is a hell of a way to meet Ty’s sister,” he said, his voice raw and raspy.
“Well, I would have preferred a family dinner or a barbecue, not a hospital in a war-torn country where people are trying to kill us, but I’m still glad to meet you.”
Ah, thank God, the beauty had a sense of the ridiculous, which only helped to make this just a tad less awkward. He cracked a faint smile, nodding. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Piper.”
He reached over and turned on the bedside lamp. That’s when he got a really good look at her. She resembled Tyler a lot. But his hair was darker, where she had a mane of tawny gold hair and heartbreaking whiskey-hued eyes with dark, thick lashes. But where Ty’s features were masculine, hers were pretty in a quirky way, not elegant, but cute, her eyebrows darker than her hair. Her chin was delicately angled, but definitely set with determination. At odds with her all-American looks, her mouth was lush, exotically full and covered with a smooth layer of plum-colored lipstick. Funny that the lipstick made him homesick.
Okay, one thing was for certain. That RPG hadn’t rattled his brain too much. He was still thinking like a man.
About Tyler’s sister!
Suddenly he had an insight into exactly why Rock resisted getting involved with Tristan Michaels’s sister Neve. Maybe he would lighten up on his brother in that respect. Maybe.
“Once we’re all home and I’m in DC, I think I will take you up on that.”
She smiled and wiped at her own cheeks, reminding him that they had all been through two hours of hell.
“Tyler’s pretty upset and heavily medicated. I’m not sure if he’s thinking straight, but he was worried they weren’t telling him the truth about you.”
He got that damn lump in his throat again. “Then let’s go prove it to him.”
Alarmed and not yet sure about whether he was joking, she stared at him. “What? You’re wounded. I promised the nurse I would only be here for a few minutes, not get you up and walking.”
“Tyler is what’s important here, not an injury that took some stitches to close.” He gritted his teeth and pushed back the blankets. She looked horrified that he was actually going to stand.
“Dexter…maybe you should rethink this…”
He gave her a firm gaze with those intense blue eyes and his mouth tightened. “Nope. I want to see Ty before he’s shipped off to Germany. I kinda need that myself. Could you indulge me here? Give a wounded warrior a hand?”
“A wounded warrior, huh?” she said, giving him a hard, I’m-on-to-your-plan-mister stare. At his innocent look, she sighed and huffed out a short laugh at his obvious manipulation, as if she was well aware he was just like any other hardheaded man. He grinned at her and, even though his side protested rather loudly, swung his legs and set his feet on the floor.
She moved to his side and helped him stand. She smelled really good, like some kind of floral fragrance and the essential female scent that he’d missed since being deployed two hundred and twenty days out of the year. It eased some of the pain to have this strong woman helping him.
She slipped her arm around his waist, which was covered in the flimsy gown, and accidently threaded right through the opening in the back to his bare skin.
Hooyah, that surely made him realize that all his parts were still working as nature intended. He was well aware that her hand was only inches away from his completely buck-naked ass.
He was going to chalk up his hard-on to adrenaline overload, deployment and being male.
“Oh, the joy of hospital gowns.”
Even raw, he chuckled, thinking that was the way the world worked. The living kept on living, moving forward and letting go. Not just yet, but with time, he would. Damn if he wasn’t liking her even more.
“Robe’s over there,” he said as she kept her arm around him and stretched to reach the garment on the chair. She snagged it and helped him into it, wisely leaving it unbelted.
“You’re cool under fire, huh?”
They slowly headed for the door, dragging the IV stand with them.
“I’m a lawyer’s daughter and come from a long line of politicians. My two brothers, one older and one younger, gave me a run for my money, too. So, I hold my own. I’ll arm wrestle you once you’re one hundred percent. I would never take advantage of a wounded warrior.”
At the door, he huffed a laugh. “Ah, caught in the middle, were you? I have the distinct pleasure to be the baby. I have an older brother—”
“Russell—nickname Rock―former RECON Marine, tough son of a bitch, owns Rockface, a sporting goods store. He and his best friend, Tristan Michaels, run it. He was also a former RECON Marine. Engaged to an NCIS agent, Amber. Do you want me to go on?”
“Wow. You know a lot about me,” he said as two agents fell into step behind them, keeping a discreet distance.