“What do we do now, Erin?” he asked. “How do we save our boy now?”
He’d been asking his wife that question for far too many years.
His fingers stroked over the stone as Jordan returned, his gaze now calm, though icy cold.
Yes, this was how Jordan handled all those pesky emotions he refused to allow himself to deal with. He froze them out.
“I’ve got to head back, Da,” Jordan told him. “Is there anything more y
ou need?”
Riordan shook his head slowly. “Is there anything you need, Jordan?”
Jordan’s jaw clenched. “No games today, Da,” he warned him.
Riordan chuckled. “I’d like to see the lass before she’s out of our lives forever,” he said. “Once she leaves, Jordan, she’ll never come back without your invitation. I’d like to tell her good-bye.” And he’d like to assure her she always had friends, and a home to run to should she need it.
Jordan looked away for a long moment before giving a sharp nod. “I’ll let her know,” he promised, and Riordan almost grunted in mockery at the promise.
He let his boy get away with it, though. Riordan would find another way to get the message to her before she left.
When the truck had sped away, Riordan turned back to Erin’s grave.
“Far too much like you, my love,” he whispered again. “Like talking to a brick wall.” He smiled at the memories. “But a fine woman you were, Erin.”
And God knew, he missed her.
He missed her until he felt withered, lost without her as he struggled to keep his promise to her.
“Work on him, love,” he finally sighed. “Lead him in the right direction.” This time, his fingers clenched on the stone. “I’m ready to come home to ya, Erin. Help me, just this one time.”
He’d never asked it of her before, but he was damned tired.
It had been far too many years since he had seen her, far too many years since he had loved her.
He was ready to go home.
* * *
She was a vision of beauty.
Standing in the dim light of the silent communications room of the Elite Operations Alpha Base in the heart of Big Bend National Park, Tehya Talamosi looked like a woman awaiting the lover who would fulfill her naughtiest dreams. A lover who had waited far too long, and left her far too lonely if the expression on her face was any indication.
Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Tehya was awaiting a lover who would fulfill dreams of forever, not simply those of lusty, heated sex. Tehya was a happily-ever-after woman, and he didn’t have happily-ever-after inside him.
Jordan Malone had accepted that long ago. That acceptance had sent him to the SEALs, and life as a SEAL had taught him that nothing lasted forever, and a man never let himself make friends he couldn’t bear to lose, or to have lovers that he wouldn’t be able to walk away from.
Some rules were broken day by day, but while he was in the SEALs, those were the rules he had lived by.
As the commander of Elite Operations One—the Elite Ops as they called it—, he’d remained true to one rule only. Never let himself get close to his operatives. Only one had been close to him, the nephew he had nearly lost before he’d entered the select, secretive organization.
And he’d almost broken that rule a thousand times over with this woman.
He watched her, the deserted communications room, for some odd reason, a perfect backdrop for the fact that she was barely dressed. That she was walking around looking like sex personified.
They were the only two team members left on the base now, and they both knew it. They had known it the moment the last operative left the base earlier that day.
She stood proud in the central cavernous center beneath the metal catwalk he stood on now and stared below. She would know she could dress down, dress up, or dress not at all, and no one would be aware of it but him. If he saw her. But he was supposed to be in his suite, not here, watching her from the shadows.