Protecting Summer Read online

There it was. He laid it out straight. He didn’t make excuses or try to blow off what she’d said. She sighed and snuggled into his arms.

  “Thank you.”

  “Sleep, Sunshine. Tomorrow we’ll go back to the diner and have another way too big breakfast, we’ll drive to the overlook and do the touristy thing downtown. We’ll clean the damn rooms and then we’ll go out for dinner. I have to leave after we eat, but I want to spend every moment I can with you before I go.”

  “I want that too.”

  “Sleep.”

  “I’m glad you’re here, Mozart.”

  “Me too. There’s nowhere I’d rather be. I just wish I’d gotten here sooner.”

  “Don’t. You’re here now.”

  “Yes, I’m here now. Now…sleep woman.”

  Summer giggled. He was so demanding, but she loved it. She couldn’t resist trying to get the last word in. “I’d sleep if someone stopped talking to me.”

  Mozart growled. “Don’t make me turn you over my knee, Sunshine.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “Try me.”

  Summer giggled again and wiggled in Mozart’s arms until she’d turned over and was now facing him. She could feel his erection pressed up against her. She squirmed closer to him and buried her head in his neck.

  Whispering, she told him, “I’ll try anything you want to do, Mozart.”

  “Good God, woman. You’re pushing me. Now hush. Have some pity on your SEAL. Go. To. Sleep.”

  Summer fell asleep feeling safe and warm for only the second time in months, the first being the night before. She didn’t know that Mozart stayed awake for hours watching her sleep and counting his lucky stars he’d come back up the mountain for her when he did.

  Chapter Ten

  After another huge breakfast, they made their way back to the motel to clean the rooms. Summer was amazed how quickly the job went with two people doing it. Mozart was right, it wasn’t hard, but it was tedious. Not all of the guests were slobs, but enough were that it made the job annoying and, at times, disgusting.

  Mozart made the job, if not fun, bearable. He took over the making of the beds and cleaning the toilets, while she was in charge of the dirty linen, the cleaning and vacuuming. The first time she’d bent over to tuck in a sheet, Mozart had made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded a lot like a growl and had pulled her upright.

  “I’ll do that. There’s no way I can watch you bend over bed after bed and not throw you down on one of them, Sunshine.”

  Just the memory of the way he’d growled the words at her in his low rumbly voice, made goose bumps break out over Summer’s body.

  She’d just smiled at him and agreed.

  Now the cleaning was done and they were sitting on a bench overlooking the lake. It was chilly, and Mozart had one arm wrapped around Summer’s shoulders. The area was quiet. Winter wasn’t the most popular time for people to hang out at the lake. They were usually up in the mountains skiing.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Summer said, breaking the comfortable silence.

  “I’m thinking about how if I didn’t get my head out of my ass and get up here when I did, you’d be sleeping basically outside all winter.”

  Summer turned and kissed Mozart’s jaw then rested her head on his shoulder with her face turned toward his neck. “If it got too bad, I would’ve said something.”

  “Would you?”

  Summer sat up and sighed. “Yes, Mozart. I might be down on my luck, but I’m not a complete idiot. Henry’s an ass, but even he wouldn’t have made me sleep in that thing if there was a foot of snow on the ground. Besides, Joseph was working on making it more like a guest room than a storage room.”

  “Joseph? Who the hell is that?”

  “He’s the new handyman. I told you about him.”

  Mozart snorted. “I can’t believe someone else knew you were living in that shithole and didn’t say anything.”

  The silence stretched between them. Mozart finally broke it.

  “I want to have Ice or one of the other women call you while we’re gone. Will you talk to them?”

  “Why?”

  “We talked about this a little bit yesterday. They’re each other’s support while we’re gone. I want you to have that.”

  “But they don’t know me, Mozart. They aren’t going to want to talk to me about that stuff.”

  “They will.”

  Summer just shook her head. She knew better. “Okay, whatever you want, Mozart.”

  Mozart turned on the bench and put his hands on Summer’s shoulders. His thumbs rubbed against her collarbone. He knew she wouldn’t be able to feel it through her clothes and jacket, but the motion soothed him. Hell, anytime he touched her soothed him. “I’ve been told that when a woman says ‘whatever,’ they usually mean anything but. What’s wrong, Sunshine?”

  Summer sighed and avoided Mozart’s eyes. She looked past him to the trail that meandered around the lake. “It just won’t work, Mozart. You can’t go to your friends and tell them you’ve met a woman and would they please call, make friends, and talk about their feelings of worry about their men. It doesn’t work that way. Hell, I had people I knew for years not bother to call me to see how I was doing after my divorce and losing my job. For all your catting around, you don’t know much about women.”

  “Look at me.”

  Summer sighed and brought her eyes back to Mozart’s. She could see he was concerned and frustrated. His eyebrows were drawn down and his forehead was wrinkled in stress lines. Even the scar on his face seemed to be redder than normal.

  “I want you to get to know them. I want them to get to know you. I don’t want you up here alone. Everything in me is rebelling against it.”

  “I’ve been alone a long time. This isn’t anything I haven’t been through before.”

  “But you’re not alone anymore. You have me.”

  Summer’s eyes teared up and she bit her lip.

  Mozart tugged her lip out of her teeth and leaned forward. “Let me try, please? If one of them does call, will you talk to her? Will you give their friendship a try?”

  “Of course I will. I miss having someone to talk to, but I don’t want you to go back home and browbeat them into calling me. If you’re as much as a flirt as you’ve told me you were, if you’ve slept with as many women as your reputation warrants, they’re going to think I’m just another woman in your long line of conquests.”

  “They won’t.”

  “They will, Mozart. Jeez, we’ve been through this. I’m a woman. I know these things. You’ll go down there and say, ‘Hey, I met a woman up at Big Bear, while we’re gone will you please call her and include her in your tight clique of friends?’ and they’re going to agree, because they like you and you’re their friend, but when push comes to shove, I’m a stranger. To them, I’m just another woman you’ve picked up.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  Pulling away, Summer stood up and stalked two steps away from the bench and Mozart and faced the lake with her arms around her stomach. “Shit, Mozart. I’m not wrong.”

  Summer felt his arms come around her chest from behind.

  Mozart put his head on Summer’s shoulder and squeezed her tight. His lips went to her ear and he spoke low and earnestly.

  “I have never asked Ice or the others to talk to any of the women I ‘picked up.’ Those women were gone from my life the second I left their bed. I’ve never seen any of them more than once. I know this is hard for you to understand, but Ice is just like you. She’s loyal to a fault. She was there when those assholes carved into my face. She knows me. I’m not going to go to her and tell her I met a woman. I’m going to go to her and tell her I met my woman. As soon as the words leave my mouth, she’ll be hounding me to give her your phone number. Trust me, Sunshine. I won’t leave you hanging again. If I tell you she’ll call, she’ll call.”

  Summer felt herself being turned and she buried her face in Mozart’s chest. She felt his a
rm go around and rest in the small of her back. His other hand went to the back of her neck and he held her to him. She clutched his jacket in her hands that were wedged between their bodies.

  “I need this, Sunshine. I need to know you have my friends at your back. I swear after talking to them once, they’ll be your friends too. They won’t leave you hanging. They’ll follow up on the friendship. I swear it.”

  “Okay, Mozart. I trust you. I’ll talk to her if she calls.”

  “When she calls.”

  Summer smiled, despite her emotional state. “When she calls.”

  “Jesus, you’re a pain in my ass.” Mozart pulled away and looked down at Summer. Her nose and the tips of her ears were red with the cold and she had no make-up on, but she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She wasn’t afraid to argue with him. She wasn’t afraid to tell him exactly what she was thinking, and she wanted him to tell her what he was thinking. She was perfect. “You’re mine, Sunshine. I’ll be back up here as soon as I can. Just please remember that my friends are your friends now. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Let’s get out of the cold and go grab something to eat.”

  Summer let Mozart lead them back toward his truck. The day was going by too fast. He’d be leaving soon. Way too soon.

  * * *

  Dinner went by quickly. No matter how much Summer tried to ignore the elephant in the room, she couldn’t. Mozart was leaving. He’d done so much for her in the short time he’d been back, it almost felt like it was happening to someone else. Summer wasn’t naïve. She knew Mozart was controlling and her situation was as out of control as it could get. She hoped he’d feel the same way about her when he got back from wherever it was he was going, but she couldn’t be sure. She’d have to play it by ear.

  They left the restaurant and made their way back to the motel. Mozart grabbed her hand and led her into room seven without a word. When they were back inside the room he finally dropped her hand and went over the little desk. He tore a piece of paper off the pad of paper there and wrote on it. Then he went over to the phone sitting next to the bed and wrote the phone number listed there on another piece of paper, which he shoved into his pocket.

  Mozart came back over to where Summer was standing, and took her hand again. He led her to the end of the bed and they sat down. He sat sideways, as he had only two short nights ago, and kept her hand in his.

  “Okay, Sunshine. Here are the numbers I told you about. Tex is my friend in Virginia. I’ve also written down my cell, home, and work number. Ice’s number is here as well. I would’ve given you Fiona and Alabama’s too, but I know you well enough to know it will be a stretch for you to call any of the numbers I’ve given you. Just please, promise me you’ll call me or Tex or Ice if you need anything.”

  “I’m not going to need anything, Mozart.”

  “You don’t know that. Anything can happen at the drop of a hat.”

  “It won’t.”

  “Seriously, listen to me. I’m going to tell you something that only my fellow SEALs know. I’m not sure if they’ve even told their women.”

  Summer could only nod. He was drop dead serious. She’d never seen Mozart look so anxious and concerned.

  “I thought the same way you do once. I was a teenager, living my life. We were happy, we were normal. Then my little sister was kidnapped. She was gone for over two weeks. We had no idea where she was. A couple found her beaten body in the woods. She’d been sexually assaulted and strangled. She didn’t deserve it. We didn’t think anything bad would ever happen either. I know bad things can happen, Summer. I’ve lived through it. Please…for me. Promise, if anything happens you’ll call. If I can’t be in the country to help you, I need to know you’ll reach out. Tex can help you.”

  “I promise.” Summer didn’t even pause. It was obvious Mozart needed this from her. She couldn’t imagine how he and his family had made it through something like that, but it explained a lot about him.

  Mozart let out a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding.

  “I promise, Mozart,” Summer said again, putting her hand on his scarred cheek.

  “Thank you.” Mozart pulled Summer into his arms and they sat on the bed holding each other for a long moment.

  “This sucks.”

  Summer had to laugh. It did suck, but Mozart sounded like a petulant little boy. She pulled back. “Don’t be such a baby. You’ll be back before you know it. I’ll be here doing the same thing day after day. I have the gazillion phone numbers you gave me. People have long-distance relationships all the time.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Well, I’m not sure you count. Have you ever even had a relationship before?”

  “Well, no. But it still sucks.”

  Summer smiled. “I don’t know how this happened so fast. It’s crazy. But I’m going to miss you.”

  “You better.”

  They smiled at each other.

  “I have to get going. We have to meet at the base early in the morning.” Mozart said the words, but didn’t move.

  “Will you kiss me before you go?”

  “As if you have to ask. Come here.” Mozart pulled Summer back into his arms and fell sideways on the bed clutching her to him. He put his hand on the back of her head and pulled her to him. There was no tenderness in his kiss. He controlled her, he inhaled her. He devoured her.

  Mozart’s other hand caressed her back, then her side, then went down to the hem of her T-shirt. As he kissed her, Mozart pulled up her shirt until he was touching her warm skin and slowly ran his hand up her side until he’d reached her breast.

  He re-angled his head and rolled until Summer was underneath him. He put one of his legs in between hers and held her in place. He felt her other leg pull up until her foot rested on the bed and she pushed her knee against his hip. Mozart knew the entire situation was getting out of control, quickly, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed to feel her at least once before he left.

  He brought his hand to Summer’s chest under her shirt and encased her bra covered breast with his hand. Mozart felt her inhale at the same time he felt her nipple go taut under his palm. Wanting to see her eyes when he touched her for the first time, he drew back. Summer’s eyes were closed and she arched her back into his touch.

  “Open your eyes, Sunshine,” Mozart ordered gruffly.

  Summer’s eyes popped open, they were dilated and she was panting against him.

  “Touch me,” she begged softly, not breaking eye contact.

  Mozart shifted and brought himself closer to her. He could feel her heat through both their clothes, against his hard length. Not looking away from her face, he slowly brought the edge of her bra down until it caught under the curve of her breast. He wished like hell he could see her, but this was almost more erotic. Her T-shirt covered her, but he knew if he looked down he’d see her nipple straining against the fabric.

  Finally, he curled his hand over her bare breast. They both inhaled at the same time. Not satisfied, Mozart explored. He ran his fingertips in circles around Summer’s areola, not touching her hardening nipple. He pushed and caressed, all the while staring into her eyes.

  After a moment, not being able to stand not touching her fully anymore, he asked, “Ready, Sunshine?”

  “Oh God, yes. Please. Touch me.”

  Not making her beg anymore, Mozart took his thumb and index finger and squeezed her nipple. Summer arched her back and groaned, closing her eyes for the first time since he’d touched her bare skin.

  Mozart continued to roll her nipple with his fingertips. “Jesus, you’re magnificent. You’re perfect. I can’t wait to see these beauties. You’re so responsive. When I finally get you naked underneath me I don’t think we’re going to come up for air for days.”

  “Yes, oh God, yes.”

  Mozart leaned down and took her nipple in his mouth through her T-shirt. This was further than he was planning on taking this, but he couldn’t help himsel
f. Summer was so sexy and so open. He sucked as hard as he could through the cotton of her shirt and was rewarded with another agonized moan from her. Mozart could feel her squirming under him.

  Knowing they were both almost too far gone to stop, Mozart took her nipple in his teeth and lightly tugged. Finally, he brought his head up to look at Summer’s face and saw she was watching him.

  “That is sexy as hell,” she told him honestly, once again laying it out for him with no artifice.

  “No, you’re sexy as hell,” he responded, all the while still rolling her nipple in his hand.

  After a long moment, Mozart stilled and covered her breast with his large hand regretfully. He laid his forehead on her shoulder. He felt one of her hands come up and rest on the back of his head. He vaguely remembered her nails digging into his back while he’d been feasting on her nipple, but couldn’t be sure.

  “The second we land, I’m on my way up here. I’m done giving you time.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Okay.”

  Mozart raised his head and told Summer seriously. “You’re mine. I’ve never almost come from sucking a woman’s tits through her shirt before. I have no idea what it is about you, but all I know is that you’re mine.”

  “Uh…that wasn’t the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard, but…”

  “I’m not usually a romantic guy, Summer, but with you, I want to be. I can feel how hot you are through our clothes. If you think I’m going to spend another night lying beside you and not feeling that heat on my skin, you’re crazy. You’re fucking mine.” Mozart wanted so badly to order her to come to Riverton with him, but knew he couldn’t.

  “I’ve never come just from…that…before either.”

  Mozart did a double take. “You…”

  “Yeah.”

  “Jesus. A pain in my ass.” Mozart smiled when he said it, but felt ten feet tall. “If that’s all it takes, we’re going to have a hell of a good time when I get back.”

  “It’s you. Your smell. The growly sounds you make. The way you take charge. The way your hands feel against my skin. The way you look into my eyes. It’s just you.”