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Her smile faltered, pain flashing through her eyes. “I did.”

  “Things like how much you love me.”

  “I do,” she said simply, firmly.

  Even knowing he didn’t deserve it, he took it, every bit of love she would offer. David looked at Sophie and let his own wave of love fill him, no more fighting it. He would be the man she needed, the husband she deserved, and that was one tall order because she was one hell of a woman.

  He had expected Sophie to do all the changing, accommodating. How could he demand she give to him what he wasn’t willing to give in return? Such a premise didn’t say much for his love. He intended to fix that.

  David reached for her other hand, flinching at the tug to his stitches. Just as she had done with his hand at the condo, he wove his fingers with hers. He rested her palm over his heart and held it in place with his. “Good. Because I love you, too.”

  Her hand trembled, as did her smile. “I thought you might.” She splayed her fingers over the place where his heart picked up speed at her touch. The machine hooked up to him beeped faster. “What are we going to do about it?”

  “That’s up to you, Sophie.” Whatever it took, he would make sure she felt safe.

  “No, that’s where you’re wrong, David.” Her smile steadied. “This is something we figure out together.”

  Together. He loved the sound of that word. He loved her. “I swear I didn’t know I was even in line for this job. I thought the Pentagon gig was a done deal.” The mere mention of giving up that Pentagon test job and staying in the more dangerous test squadron made her wince. He’d been wrong to expect her to magically get over her past. “You’ve got to know I wouldn’t lie to you.”

  “I know. If anything, you’re honest to a fault.” Sighing, she stroked a soothing hand over his hair. “Okay, I can give it a try, but I won’t promise not to worry. I fell in love with the man you are, and you’re stuck with me just as I am.”

  He’d told himself it didn’t matter which she chose, but hearing her acceptance offered him a peace he’d never expected to find. Years of resentments rolled from his shoulders.

  “You aren’t listening to me, Sophie. I didn’t expect the commander job. I didn’t apply for it. I’m not going to take it.”

  “But you want it.”

  She knew him too well. He knew her as well and didn’t want to hurt her again. “No lies. Yeah, I want it.”

  Her hand flinched under his, but her gaze never wavered. “Then take it.”

  Staring at the magnificent woman in front of him, he wasn’t even tempted by the job. Her voice offering forever tipped the scales in their favor. “Do you remember what I said back at the condo when we were looking at family pictures?”

  “About what?”

  He thought of how beautiful she’d looked that night, all tousled from making love. Seeing her now, rumpled, scraped, and disheveled, she was equally as incredible. “I said I couldn’t think of any thrill greater than watching my daughter get married. Remember?”

  She nodded, her eyes moist with tears. “I think that was one of the things I may have yelled at you on the floor in my office.”

  “Well, I can think of one thing that rivals walking my daughter down the aisle. Watching you walk down the aisle toward me.” He swiped away her spilling tears and vowed to make that dream come true. “Yeah, I want the job, but I want you more.”

  She lowered the bed rail and sat beside him. Her hip fit against his right side as if she’d been made for him. “I’m telling you that you can have both.”

  While he would have given anything to hear those words from her even a few hours earlier, he was glad for their delay. He might have stupidly taken her up on the offer and thrown away their chance at forever. Sophie deserved better from him.

  “Sophie, thank you. Just hearing you say it…” He gripped her hand. “Thank you. But I’m not accepting it. You seemed to think the Pentagon job would be a workable compromise. So let’s give it a try and see how it goes. If you can handle my staying in the air force, I’ll do all I can to make it easier for you.” Even breathing hurt, but he had to be certain she understood. “I promise you I won’t do anything to risk what we have together.”

  “I know.” She cupped his face with her hands, her hold firm. “Just as you are, I want you, Major Berg. Days in the park, pink kangaroos, bowls of ice cream, and our children.”

  He wanted to climb out of the hospital bed, drive her home, start on more children, sleep, then gather the two children they already had. They might very well have a minivan in their future after all.

  “Sophie, when you cuddled that pink eyesore, I knew I didn’t stand a chance.” He slid a strand of her hair behind her ear and looked forward to repeating the action for years. “You aren’t a golden elephant kind of lady. Why the big house? The whole image just doesn’t fit the woman I’ve come to know.”

  Her eyes deepened to a melancholy brown, those dew-kissed daisies returning for a flash. “A child should feel safe—Ricky Vasquez, Brice, Haley Rose. I know what it’s like to be young and scared. I thought if I kept the house and all the other trappings Lowell saddled me with, somehow I would be giving Brice security.” She smiled, her whole body radiating peace. “Silly, huh? All I really need is to know you’ll always love me.”

  What had he done to deserve her? The day she’d chewed him up in court had been the luckiest day of his life.

  “You’re making this too easy.” He kissed her wrist. “I’m supposed to do something tough to win you.”

  “Uhm, hello? You took two bullets for me today.” Her pulse raced under his mouth. “And what you’re offering me now, to compromise, that isn’t easy for everyone.” Her eyes sparkled with a velvety chocolate look, no ghosts clouding them. “So, did I hear a proposal in there somewhere?”

  “If you have to ask, then I didn’t do it right.” Using his good arm, David pushed himself upright the rest of the way. He stared into the warm brown eyes that would greet him every morning for the rest of his life. “Sophie, will you marry me? Not because you’re a good mother or because you turn me inside out with those sexy curves, but because I love you.”

  “David, I do love you, too.”

  “And?”

  “Yes, I will marry you. Not because you’re a great father or because you flip my stomach with your slow, sexy smiles, but because I love you.”

  Tucking her to his side, he sealed their vows with a kiss and knew the wedding was just a formality for them. Sophie was his. He was hers.

  He thumbed the nurse’s call button.

  Sophie elbowed up. “Do you need pain medication?”

  “Nope, you and I need to pick up our kids and go home.”

  EPILOGUE

  TWO YEARS LATER

  Sophie dropped her legal pad on the deck and clutched her knees as close to her as her second-trimester stomach would allow. Maternal pride filled her as she watched Brice and Haley Rose playing touch football with Aunt Madison and her fiancé Caleb. They’d come in from Nevada this week for Sophie’s baby shower.

  Haley Rose squealed as she jumped to catch the ball, stumbling back into the fence. Their yard here in a suburb outside D.C. wasn’t as large as her Vegas place, and it wasn’t waterfront.

  But it was theirs. Paid for. Full of love that offered more security for their whole family than any fancy address.

  Sophie stretched her legs the length of the deck recliner. The sun warmed her skin below the hem of her shorts. David’s appreciative gaze warmed her more.

  A year and a half of marriage hadn’t dimmed their passion—not even pregnancy had slowed them down. The longing, as well as their love, burned stronger while they worked together to build a future for themselves and their children.

  David nodded toward the backyard. “They’re good kids.”

  “Yes, they are.”

  She’d worried they might be jealous when she and David had announced her pregnancy. Instead, the baby seemed to give Haley Rose and Brice a blood
kinship, cementing their relationship as brother and sister along with David and Sophie’s roles as father and mother. Love, laughter, and even the occasional sibling battle blessed them with the richness of a normal life. Hunter’s father had even eased up on his rules about visiting with his son, and they’d enjoyed some time with him, too.

  Sophie inhaled the fresh breeze and watched the children tumble on the lawn. The child within her rolled as well. She rested a hand on her stomach.

  David checked the ice-cream churn beside her, stirring. The scar on his arm peeked out from under the sleeve of his T-shirt.

  Memories of his being shot still woke her at night, but she’d learned not to dwell on possible scenarios. Life carried risks for everyone. The Pentagon job gave them both a breather from deployments and the high-pressure test world. She knew he would go back to the squadron, all of his friends from the unit found their way back there eventually. But the past year had given her the chance to firm up her balance.

  No one had been more surprised than her when she’d decided to stay in the air force. As she’d helped sort through the contract mess left behind by Vaughn and Nelson, she’d realized she couldn’t leave. She was called to serve in uniform, just like her dad.

  She’d been so damn proud and happy the day Ricky Vasquez had received a hefty settlement from the company that had made the malfunctioning part. It wouldn’t give him back what he’d lost, or change the past, but at least they had answers, closure.

  Scooping ice cream into a bowl, David offered her a taste. “Give this a try.”

  Sophie swung her legs to the side and leaned forward. She closed her mouth around the spoon, sighing as the raspberry taste slid over her tongue. The baby leapt in response.

  David caressed a hand over her stomach. “How do you feel?”

  “Happy.” She brushed her knuckles over the fresh sprinkling of silver at his temples.

  The wind suit whistling sound preceded Nanny as she bustled onto the redwood patio. “Oh, that looks delicious. I could take care of passing out ice cream to the kids, Madison, and her fella, give you both a rest from entertaining. You two look like you could use a little, uh, nap.”

  David arched his arms and gave an exaggerated yawn. His eyes glittered with almost as much mischief as Nanny’s. “Perfect. I’ll just put the rest of the ice cream away.” He leaned close to Sophie’s ear. “Hurry, Counselor.”

  “Absolutely, Flyboy.” Sophie looped an arm around her grandmother’s shoulders for a hug. “Thanks, Nanny.”

  “Well, honey, your man does have one fine backside.”

  Sophie watched her lanky husband lope inside, the ice-cream churn tucked under his arm. Love, contentment, and more than a little anticipation shimmered through her. “Yeah, Nanny, he sure does.”

  Turn the page for a sneak peek at

  another Dark Ops novel by Catherine Mann

  PROTECTOR

  Available now

  from Berkley Sensation

  NELLIS AFB, NEVADA

  “I’ve lost my edge, Colonel.”

  The admission burned its way up Captain Chuck Tanaka’s throat, each word like acid on open wounds inside him. But he was an ace at embracing pain, and he’d be damned before he would endanger anyone else by taking the colonel up on his offer to put Chuck back in the action.

  F-16s roared overhead, rattling the rafters in the gaping hangar. Colonel Rex Scanlon stood beside him as airmen prepped for deployment to the Middle East with immunizations, gas masks, duffel bags full of gear. Close to two hundred warm bodies going to war.

  Including his crew. His old crew from the top secret test squadron.

  Pilots Jimmy Gage and Vince Deluca lined up with loadmaster Mason Randolph standing in a long, long line for a gamma globulin immunization along with an assload full of other shots to prepare them for the diseases overseas. He remembered well how the huge needle left a lump that made for uncomfortable flying. Back when he’d been their navigator. Before his injuries grounded him for life.

  These days he was the squadron mobility officer. He ensured all deploying personnel were up to date with training, shots, equipment.

  In a nutshell? He rode a desk and pushed paper.

  Musty gear and a low hum of chitchat filled the hangar. All familiar. Jimmy, Vince, and Mason shuffled forward, flight suits down around their ankles in boxer shorts while the doc shouted, “Next.”

  “Tanaka?” Scanlon leaned forward, staring him down from behind black-rimmed glasses. “I need you on this mission. You’re the man. You have the skills.”

  Not the skills he wanted, not the job he wanted. Better just to exist.

  Chuck took a folder from an overeager airman and signed off on the bottom of a form. One more ready to deploy. Around them, uniformed men and women carried large green deployment bags stuffed full of equipment picked up at numerous stations. Security cops were posted throughout, watching and talking into radios. Off to his left, a dozen more who’d completed drawing equipment sat on the floor fitting the ballistic plates into their body armor. Another group checked over their weapons, disassembling and putting them back together.

  His fingers twitched with muscle memory from performing the same tasks countless times. In the past. Speed mattered, and he couldn’t trust his hands or his feet any longer.

  Chuck slapped the folder closed. “I figure I’ve given my fair share to Uncle Sam. He won’t mind if I sit out the rest of my commitment to the air force at my desk, rubber stamping paperwork.”

  Scanlon scrubbed his face, sighed hard, his eyes too full of the hell that went down when they’d both been in Turkey two years ago. “Without question, you’ve sacrificed more than your fair share for your country. But this op, this enemy, these people…” His jaw clenched, and the pity shifted to something harder. “This is our chance to even the score for what they did to you and those other servicemen they kidnapped.”

  Hunger. Mind games. Torture. Chuck’s grip tightened on his clipboard.

  Thankfully, his thoughts were broken by another airman thrusting a folder at him. He opened it and took a few minutes to calm himself by reading the checklist before signing at the bottom. He embraced routine and monotony through the days and sweated through the nights.

  Chuck passed the folder back to the airman and waited until he stepped away before meeting the colonel’s gaze dead on. “A very wise nun in the Hawaiian orphanage where I grew up always told me holding grudges is bad for the soul.”

  “In case you didn’t notice, I’m not laughing.”

  Neither was Chuck these days. But he was getting by. Surviving one step at a time, as he recovered from the ass kicking he’d taken overseas at the hands of a sadistic bitch bent on prying secrets from servicemen, then selling the info to the highest terrorist bidder.

  She hadn’t gotten jack shit from him about the covert test missions he used to fly or the cutting-edge equipment he developed in the dark ops squadron. But he’d paid a heavy price for keeping those secrets.

  “Pardon my bluntness, Colonel, but have you taken a look at me lately?” His eleven broken bones had healed as well as they ever would, and he was lucky to be on his feet again. Reconstructive surgery had taken care of most of the scars. External ones, anyway.

  His ex-girlfriend claimed he was still an “emotional cripple.” Whatever the hell that meant. “Sir, I know exactly what I’m worth these days, or rather how little. You’re not fooling anyone here. Offering me a mission is the equivalent of a pity fuck. Sir.”

  Scanlon’s thick eyebrow hitched upward through two shouts of “Next” before he pulled the clipboard from his hand and gave it to Chuck’s assistant, a surprised master sergeant.

  The colonel guided Chuck away from the bustle and behind some pallets loaded for the deployment. “Chuck, this mission could be the backbreaker for what some of the intel spooks think is a major attack here in the States. Our equipment, equipment you helped test, is the only way to exploit the one hole we have been able to find in t
heir organization—”

  “Not interested,” he interrupted, desperate as hell to stop the colonel from taunting him with what he could not have anymore.

  Scanlon continued as if he’d never been interrupted. “You’ll go in undercover as a blackjack dealer on an Italian cruise ship next week. You won’t be going in alone. I’ll have your back, and David Berg will be running the surveillance equipment on board the Fortuna. Think about it. At worst you’ll get some sun and great food. And at best, you’ll bring down a terrorist cell.”

  Hunger for the chance to fight back gnawed at his gut. “You don’t need me as the front man.” Maybe…“Why not let me operate the gadgets? Nobody runs the packet analyzer and translator algorithms as well as I do. It’s more art than science.”

  Shit, he was already envisioning himself there. “Forget I said that. I’m exactly where I should be—”

  Pop! A gunshot blasted from the other side of the pallets. A chunk of wood splintered into the air.

  Chuck jerked hard and fast, looking over his shoulder even as he knew it had to be some dumb ass who’d slipped a round in his weapon, then seriously screwed up with an unintentional discharge. He looked across the hangar—

  And stared straight into the cold, emotionless eyes of a gunman who looked too damn much like one of their own firing wildly into the clusters of airmen.

  So fast. Shouts and more pops. Bullets. From the gunman and the security cops, but no one could get a decent aim as the guy ran and bobbed. The gunman turned toward Chuck’s old crew. Fired. Jimmy spun back as a round caught him in the shoulder. The gun tracked Jimmy for another—

  Chuck drew his sidearm before he could think and centered on the uniformed gunman’s chest. Pop. Pop. Pop. He squeezed off three shots, center of mass.

  Everyone and everything in the hangar went unearthly still. The only sound was a haunting echo of Chuck’s shots.

  The gunman crumpled to the ground a second before the acrid scent of gunfire bit the air.