Page 116 of Protecting Addison
Ricky smiled sheepishly. “Okay, you might be right.”
“Iamright,” she countered.
“I hear what you’re saying, but I want to make sure you’re healthy. That everything is okay with our baby. What about this—one month. We’ll carry on as normal for a month. Then you’ll do the test and we’ll go from there.”
Addison thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”
Ricky leaned in and kissed her. His hips flexed, then he rocked them a fraction. “A baby. I never dreamed asking you to marry me would make me the happiest man on earth.”
“We don’t know if there’s a baby yet,” she warned.
“We don’t,” he agreed. “But I have another month to do my best to make sure there is.”
“Again?” Addison asked, as he began to slowly move in and out of her body.
“Again,” he confirmed. “I’m going to want to come inside you as much as I can in the next month. Makesuremy seed takes root.”
She giggled. “Who says that?”
“Me,” Ricky said with a huge grin.
He was a dork, but he washerdork. Addison wouldn’t want him any other way. “Then you better get on it, because there’s no telling when one of our kids is going to knock on our door and want something.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a smile. Then proceeded to make Addison forget everything except the way her husband made her feel.
EPILOGUE
“What isupwith you?” Safe asked Smiley. “You’re an asshole, but lately you’ve been evenmoreof an asshole.”
“Leave him alone,” Kevlar said in a tone the team rarely heard.
Safe looked at his friend in surprise. “I’m not trying to be mean, I’m trying to understand.”
Smiley stared at his teammate. He was well aware he was being an asshole to the people who meant the most to him. But he couldn’t help it. He was frustrated and worried.
And Jude Stark wasn’t the kind of man who worried. Life happened. You couldn’t control it, you could only ride the wave as best you could. But ever since the events with Ellory and Yana, he’d been on edge. The woman he’d been desperately searching for in Las Vegas washere. In Riverton. She’d been so close—and yet once again, she’d slipped through his fingers.
And once again, she’d been hurt.
He’d found a spot in that shipyard, way back in a corner near the fence line, that had a sizeable puddle of blood. He could easily envision what happened, especially after seeing the bruised knuckles of the asshole his SEAL friends had killed.
Bree had led the kidnapper away from the kids, allowing them to escape, and she’d found herself cornered. She might have fought back, but it would have been no use. The woman he remembered was small and slight…and she’d had the shit beaten out of her. Enough that he’d found a fuckingfingernailon the ground.
Closing his eyes, he could picture what happened as clear as day.
Bree, lying on the ground, curled into a ball trying to protect herself, while she was kicked and beaten to a pulp.
The only consolation Smiley had was the trail of blood that led him to a spot in the fence, where she’d clearly crawled under and out of the shipyard.
He had so many questions. Why was she here? How had she gotten involved in Ellory and Yana’s rescue? Was shestillhere? Did she need help? And if she did, why didn’t she make contact with him?
He had no answers—and it was driving him crazy.
“Smiley?” Kevlar said his name quietly. “What do you need from us?”
Deciding if he was ever going to find Bree Haynes, he had to admit he needed assistance, Smiley turned to his team.
They were standing on the beach near the naval base. They were supposed to be working out, but in an extremely rare occurrence, Kevlar had stopped them after only three miles of running, saying it had been a long time since they’d really appreciated a sunrise. It was a ruse, of course. For Kevlar to talk to his team, to put his finger on the pulse of the men who were not only his friends, but who he felt were his responsibility.
