Page 40 of Legacy
Luke
She tastes like home. If home was laced with a deadly addictive narcotic. I’ve never simultaneously lost my breath and my mind at the same time. It feels like I’m choking and not remembering to exhale. You know when you think about breathing, that in and out motion, it feels like an endless amount of work. The rest of the time it happens and you don’t even realize you’re inhaling or exhaling. I’m a fish out of water, all my senses surreptitiously obsessed with Aarabelle. The way her long eyelashes flutter when I’m kissing her. How her body melts into mine. The scent of lavender and honey paired with sunblock.
Having her this way doesn’t feel wrong. I’m riding on a cloud somewhere in an unexplored galaxy of perfection. When I noticed myself pulling her toward my bedroom unwittingly, I broke the kiss—stealing us out of the house and into the pool. There’s only so many firsts I can process at one time without fucking something up. It’s a cardinal rule. Do things without mistakes. If you limit what you’re working on, you limit mistakes.
There’s a method to my madness. I want to spin things into something more with her while keeping everything exactly the same. A working relationship meets more. The waters are murky and I threw out the playbook during our skydiving training trip. It’s when things mutated. I felt jealousy over a woman for the first time. Admitting to sharing women with my teammates is easy. They are willing participants and they don’t care about jumping beds. I never felt like I was getting sloppy seconds. It was part of life. The thought of Aarabelle hooking up with anyone other than me isn’t a thought I can handle. The reality is I would go ape shit. Typically, this is something you’d talk to your friends about. All my friends are in this weird triangle and can’t know. It’s taboo. Second, fatherly advice can’t be given or both of our careers would be fucked into oblivion. I weighed whether what I was feeling was worth it. I asked myself is this the one in a billion? The one? The person who is going to change my life? The woman willing to follow me into uncharted territory. Every scenario I played out, she came out on top. Yes. This is it. If it’s not it, my judge of character and deciphering skills are jacked and I don’t deserve to be a SEAL.
All rational points in one direction. I can’t take my eyes away. I have her right where I want her. That dumbass Durnin gave me everything by merely existing. Now to figure out how to make her forget him completely. Aara is sitting on the stairs of the pool, her bikini top visible, the rest of her body hidden under the cool water. “Have you ever seen drones up here?” Her chin tilts to the sky after she asks. Something she’s wondering because drones caught Aurora and Henry, surely.
I grunt. “That would be a death wish. No. Never.” There’s a couple feet between us, as we speak, ignoring the blazing fire that ignited when we kissed. What kind of absolute sexual massacre is going to end up happening between us? We both compartmentalize so well because it’s required in our profession. What happens when we stop fighting it? What happens when the hair-thin control we’re exerting is snapped?
She dips her head back and wets her dark hair, exposing the hollow of her neck. My mouth waters. Wringing her hair, she leans back up and meets my gaze. I swallow hard. “There’s security and stuff, but how safe are you up here? Couldn’t anyone walking down the beach on either side get onto your property? Walk up the stairs, take a dip in your pool, have a drink at the cabana, walk through your house, then decide to take the ‘54 Mondial for a spin?”
I snigger and get hard at the same time.Has that ever happened before?That can’t be normal.“There are motion detectors and cameras everywhere. That’s what I pay security for. He sees everything. Even when I’m not here, he’s making sure my house is secure. The ‘54 will never grow legs and walk away.”
She cocks her head to the side. “What are you afraid of?”
You. Falling for you. Loving you. Losing you. Hurting you. “That’s a pretty stupid question.”
Aara presses her lips together. “Humor me.”
“When you have possessions, others might not have, it’s safer to have security. It’s less to do with being afraid and more about protecting what I have.”Protecting you. “And it’s just the way it’s always been. I moved into this house when I was a kid.” I blow out a breath to control my rapid thoughts. “It’s merely a consequence of who I am.”
Her hair drips over her shoulder, trickling over the swell of her breast. “It’s why I never bring up your…lavish life. I get it. I do have one question though.”
I nod once, eyes glued to her chest. “Shoot.”
“He sees everything? Even your bedroom?”
The water rocks against her as I take a step in her direction. It splashes up on her face. My dick continues to harden. “Bingo. You nailed the only place he can’t see. Leveling with you right now. He turns off cameras in other living spaces if he sees anything too personal happening.”
She scoffs and flashes a sarcastic smile. “That is such a lie! How do you know? I wouldn’t turn off the camera. I would watch.”
I match her grin and see when her gaze lights on my mouth. I lick my lips. “Because you’re a super perv.”
“Perv? Really? I am so far from a perv, I’m talking normal human behavior here. How bored must security be watching monitors all day? Then a porno starts on screen number six. You really think he isn’t watching? Taking notes? Grabbing a bottle of lotion? You’re not that naïve, are you?”
She’s entirely entertained right now, face alight. I could ruin the moment and tell her if that’s the truth, then he’s watched most people in my family have sex. That makes me cringe.
“Crass, Dempsey. Really crass. Trust. That’s all I need. I trust him.”
Aara has also planted a tiny seed of doubt. We kissed in the living room, a controlled space viewable by several different angles. I know that he’s been with my family for years, that he’s been loyal in every way you can hope for.What if something happened to him? Could he be compromised?
Aara stands so we’re chest to chest. She wants to be close to me. “It’s Dempsey when I use man humor. Noted.” Her eyes challenge me. “Need another breath-holding competition?”
“You don’t have to convince me that you can play with the boys. Maybe I just like that I can call you by your last name.”
“That’s sort of weird, but okay I’ll let you have it.” She lets her arms float to the sides on top of the water. “You know that Liam adopted me, right? That my biological dad is Aaron Gilcher?” She looks away. “It’s sort of a weird thing to bring up, but if we’re getting to know each other.” She pauses and sighs. “It’s…something. I’m not quite sure what, but it’s something.”
“I know. My dad told me. I remember you from when Liam moved to the West Coast Teams. We were kids. Aaron was getting out of the military to start…” I let my words trickle off as I remember exactly why he was getting out. Aaron Gilcher was never the same when he returned. A prisoner of war for a long time, the real world spun madly on without him. A fact that destroyed him more than his time spent in captivity.
Aara grabs my sides, thumbs stroking my abs, her hands warm compared to the chill of the pool. “To start his real family—his second try at life. You don’t have to sugarcoat anything for me. He wasn’t the same person anymore. My mom, Natalie, moved on with Liam and he has always been the constant. For both of us. We moved to the west coast for a fresh start. Aaron met Rochelle and got her pregnant.” She clears her throat. “That’s when Mom and Liam decided to make the change of scenery happen. No looking back.” She moves her hands against my body and doesn’t let her gaze stray from my midsection. “He had another daughter. Kelsey is her name. His do-over daughter. And a son, next. Also, you actually remember me as a child?”
I grin. “What’s to forget? You were one of a kind then, too. And looking back never changes anything,” I say, cradling her head in my hands.
Her smile turns sweet when she sees me gazing at her. I recall the first real encounter with Aarabelle. She was at my house for a Team party, outside with my mom’s goats and chickens getting incredibly dirty. When her parents finally got her inside, she was mooing obnoxiously holding a bull sign on her forehead. I was annoyed, and in an attempt to combat her crazy, I gave her the bull sign back. She laughed so hard, like I was the irrational one. There’s no way Aara remembers now, and I love that it’s all mine.
“Do you talk to him now?” I ask.
