Teegan, page 20
“It sure does,” she agreed, glancing at him. “As long as we’re all doing okay, then it’s fine.”
“I think we’re doing just fine,” Teegan confirmed, “at least we will be, if we ever get out of here and get that chance.”
“I’m hoping we will.”
“Are you?” he asked suddenly. “I feel as if I’m pushing you into this.”
She laughed. “I’ve never been one to get pushed into anything,” she declared. “I always felt that we had unfinished business. as if you ducked out on me.”
“I probably did. I didn’t get a yes, so, in my head, you had rejected me, and I just took off,” he shared.
“Yet I didn’t think your marriage proposal was serious.”
He smiled. “I get that. … I definitely get it. Maybe we have a second chance coming.”
“Oh, I think we do right now,” she stated. “No need to wait. I feel we’re here already.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said gently, as he looked around. “Do you think there’s any chance I can go back to my room? It would be much nicer to have some private time.” He waggled his eyebrows.
She snorted. “If you’re talking about shenanigans in your room, I would be willing to bet that you would fall asleep before you completed anything.”
He gasped at her in horror. “Don’t say that. I would never live it down.”
“I would never let you live it down,” she vowed, with a big fat evil grin.
He rolled his eyes.
Sydney walked in just then, with a cup of coffee of her own, eyed the two of them, and nodded. “Seems you’re doing better.”
“Yeah,” Sandrine agreed, “except Teegan says that any movement feels as if a weighted blanket were on him.”
“That’s the drug,” the doc confirmed. “You need to sleep it off, as much as you can. You didn’t ever get any quality sleep either, did you, Sandrine?”
Sandrine shook her head. “Not really. Does anyone get any sleep around this place?” she muttered.
“Those of us do, who weren’t running down hallways, chasing after intruders,” Sydney quipped, with a bright smile. “Go on now. The two of you, … get lost.” Sydney walked over and added, “You’re free to go, but are you capable of getting up?”
He glared at the doc, hopped up, and put an arm around Sandrine. “You grab the muffins,” he murmured. “I’ll need them later.”
“There will be breakfast,” Sandrine shared. “It’ll be a little bit late this morning.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that.” Teegan gave her a quizzical look. “I would send you down to get more food, but I honestly think I probably need to sleep.”
“I agree,” she said, as she walked him slowly to his room. As they got inside, she asked him, “Are you sure you don’t want to go to my room instead?”
He looked around his room and asked, “It should be okay now, right?”
“Yes, it should be okay,” she replied. “It just feels odd.”
“Your room’s not that far away, if that’s what you prefer.”
She thought about it a moment, then shrugged. “No, this is fine. Plus, you’re here already.” And, with that, she helped him onto the bed. He was still in the pajamas they had gotten him into the previous night. As she sat down beside him, she handed him the muffins. “I’ll go back and grab the coffee.”
“If you want to go get food, I wouldn’t be opposed,” he said, looking hopeful.
“It might be ready. I’ll go have a look.” She hesitated at the doorway and looked back at him, unsure.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know you’re not. I’m locking this. I’ll be back soon.”
She walked to the dining room, served up some breakfast that they could share, and with the cutlery and hot coffees on a tray, she headed back down to his room. When she called out to him, he got up and opened the door. She smiled when she saw him. “I hate to admit it, but I was a little worried you wouldn’t be here.”
“Oh, I get it. If the shoe were on the other foot, I would feel the same way.” He curled up on the side of the bed, and the two of them slowly worked their way through breakfast. “Do you think we’ll get the day off?”
“You’re supposed to sleep. Doctor’s orders.”
“No, you’re supposed to sleep,” he pointed out. “You’re the one who stayed up all night, watching me.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “I am tired, and, after a big meal, I’ll need to crash. Or try to at the very least.”
“And that’s why we’re here,” he said. “You need to get some rest yourself.”
*
And that’s what they did. As soon as Teegan and Sandrine were done with the food, she set the tray on the floor, curled up in the bed beside him, and drifted off to sleep. He looked down at her and smiled, then wrapped his arm around her, pulled her into a spoon position, and gently fell asleep with her against him. It amazed him, as he woke the next time, how he could still feel like sleeping.
But he did, so he drifted off again, with her still sound asleep in his arms. When he woke up the third time, he felt a little more back to normal. He checked his phone and found it was almost noon. Which was damn-near amazing. He rolled over and saw her looking at him. “Hey,” he said in a gentle whisper. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. How about you?”
“I’m fine,” he stated, with a smile. “I was just thinking that it feels as if I’m finally getting back to normal.”
“Good.” She yawned. “I’m still pretty tired myself.”
“Yeah, that’s part and parcel of watching over someone else, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” she murmured, as she snuggled into the blankets. “And, if we don’t have to get up, let’s not.”
“No, I don’t think we do,” he replied. “You were given the day off too.”
“Uh, no, she didn’t say the day. Sydney just said, Go get some sleep,” Sandrine corrected.
“We don’t have to tell them that we’re awake, right?” Teegan teased.
She laughed at that. “I don’t think that’ll hold for long.”
“It’ll hold for a while though,” he declared, as he snuggled under the covers and pulled her into his arms. “At least long enough for us to become a little more reacquainted.”
As he nuzzled her neck, she laughed, looped her arms around his neck, and asked, “Just in time for you to take off again?”
“Nope, not planning on taking off again.” Then he lifted his head and glared at her. “Unless … you’ll reject me again.”
She giggled. “Seeing how I didn’t reject you then, I don’t—”
“Maybe not, but it felt like it. At least that’s all that settled through my drunk brain at the time,” he shared, with a headshake. “Good God. The things that we do to ourselves.”
“Especially when you’re drunk. So drunk.”
“Exactly.” He grinned at her. “But we’re smarter now.”
“I don’t know about that,” she countered, “but definitely older. However, you were drugged this time around too.” And, with peals of laughter at her own joke, she reached up and kissed him gently. He looked as if he was about to protest, when she leaned in to kiss him again. “I’m very glad you’re okay,” she whispered. “Whatever that last scenario was, I sure hope Chef ends up telling us what this was all about. I can’t be sure because it doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know, but that’s because nobody’s had a chance to talk to him. Well, at least when they took him in, he wasn’t interested in sharing.”
“That was during the night though,” she noted. “So who knows what’s he’s saying now.”
Teegan nodded his agreement, saying, “True, but that’s not today’s issue. Today the issue is you and me.”
“Oh, is that an issue now?” she asked, with interest. “And here I thought we were finally getting time for us.” She was teasing him now, egging him on.
“We are together, and, no, it’s not an issue. It’s just time for us to be alone.” He leaned over and gave her a big, loud, smacking kiss.
Chuckling, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down on top of her. “Surely you can do better than that.”
“Ha. What if my brain’s still rattled, and I can’t do very well at all?”
“In that case, I’ll just have to tease you about it unmercifully later.”
In mock outrage, he leaned back, then looked at her and chuckled. “No, that won’t be necessary.” And, when he lowered his head the next time, he delivered a kiss that curled her toes.
Day 7 Noon
Sandrine sighed happily in Teegan’s arms, as he deepened the kiss again and again, until she was gasping for more. When he finally lifted his head, she muttered, “I forgot how good that was with you.”
“I aim to please,” he said, as he nuzzled her cheek, then down to her ear and along the side of her throat.
“Sometimes, there’s making love, and sometimes there’s having sex,” she whispered in between her moans and her giggles. “Both are good, depending on the circumstance, but some of it’s definitely better.”
He nodded. “Making love is with somebody you care about,” he admitted. “And that’s always been my preference.”
“Yeah, you and me both,” she agreed, as she tapped him on the nose. “But I do want to remind you that we might end up losing our privacy at any moment.”
“Oh, I see.” He chuckled. “I get it now. You’re in a rush and want me to believe it has everything to do with a time frame.”
She rolled her eyes. “There could be a time frame issue.” She took a deep breath and then drew closer to him. “I would hate to be interrupted now.”
He nodded. “I hear you there, and unfortunately, being in the position we currently find ourselves, … well, … something like that could happen.”
“It absolutely could,” she agreed, with a broad smile, as she nudged him gently with her hips. He bent his head and this time kissed her with enough power to leave her quaking in the bed, her heart slamming against her chest. “Jesus, when you go from zero to sixty, you really mean it, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” he said, with a knowing smile, as he kissed her deeply again and again, until she was quivering.
Careful of his still-healing wounds, he shifted slowly, until he was atop her. She opened her thighs wide to welcome him, but instead he slowly worked his way down her body, leaving her crying out. Realizing the noise she was making, he rose up, kissed her, and then placed her own hand against her own mouth, so that she wouldn’t cry out as he returned to exploring her body.
By the time he finally rose to give her another tongue-lashing, deep-throated kiss, she was more than ready, her thighs wrapped tightly around his hips. As he settled himself at the heart of her, with one push he was seated deep within. He waited, his forehead against hers, gentle kisses on her lips and tongue, as she shivered in his arms. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
She nodded and wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. “I am absolutely perfect.”
And, with that, he started to move.
When she came apart in his arms soon afterward, the surge had happened so fast and with such force that she could hardly do anything, as he rode her through it, until he reached his own climax. Gasping in his arms, she didn’t even know what to say.
He whispered to her, “Jesus, I can’t believe I’d forgotten.”
She nodded. “I’m not sure that even back then it was ever this good.”
“That’s what I was wondering myself,” he murmured. “It seems so damn special right now.”
“Aside from the fact that you almost didn’t survive, and we’re in a place where so many people haven’t,” she murmured, “anything wonderful like this right now is damn special. Plus to have found you again after all this time and to know that you still cared?” She shook her head. “That’s a miracle.”
With a smile on his lips, he rolled over, curled her up close against him, and whispered, “Sometimes some things are meant to be. This time it absolutely is.” He kissed her again. “Now one more little nap, and then we’ll have to rejoin the real world.”
“A nap it is.” Sandrine yawned, then, curling up in his arms, they both fell asleep.
Epilogue
Puzzled, Mountain stared at Chef Elijah. “None of us can figure out why. Why would you do such a thing?” he asked the big, likable man.
Chef shrugged, didn’t say anything, and crossed his arms over his chest. He remained silent.
“See? It doesn’t make sense. There’s no motive. There’s absolutely nothing. I don’t have a clue why you would even try to knock out Teegan.”
“Not saying nothing,” Elijah replied through gritted teeth.
Then the door opened, and the colonel stepped in. Mountain stood and tilted his head. “Sir.”
“Did you get any answers from him?”
“No, not yet,” he replied in frustration.
The CO looked over at Elijah, disappointment evident in his expression. “I don’t know what the hell you’ve been playing at or how long you’ve been at it,” he muttered, “but you’ve sure as hell disappointed a lot of people.”
Elijah closed his eyes and didn’t say anything. Mountain watched the two of them, sensing a way-bigger betrayal happening here, as Chef and the CO had been friends for a very long time.
“I’m sorry, sir. He doesn’t want to talk, and I’ve been at it for a couple hours now,” Mountain confirmed, as he stretched his large frame.
“Oh, I can talk to him,” the colonel declared. “Might be the best thing for both of us. We go way back.”
“Not alone, sir,” Mountain noted, a warning in his tone.
The CO nodded. “No, of course not.” He glared at Elijah. “A damn nuisance this is,” he muttered. “And here I was looking forward to my breakfast.”
“We can’t let him back into the kitchen, not after …”
The colonel shot a hard look at their beloved and trusted chef and then left the room.
Mountain shook his head at Chef. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here,” he admitted in a low voice, “but I don’t believe it for one second.”
“Mountain!” The shout came from the other side of the door. As he stepped out to the hallway, leaving a guard on Elijah, Magnus raced toward him. “What’s up?” Mountain asked, with a fierce gaze.
“You’ve got a visitor,” he said, “and unfortunately she’s hurt.”
His eyebrows shot up. “She? Who is it?”
“It’s Amelia,” Magnus confirmed, as excitement filled his voice—panic too. “She got here on her own, but she’s hurt, and she’s hurt bad. I’ve got her in with Sydney, but you need to come—now.”
This concludes Book 7 of Shadow Recon: Teegan.
Read about Mountain: Shadow Recon, Book 8
Shadow Recon: Mountain (Book #8)
Deep in the permafrost of the Arctic, a joint task force, comprised of over one dozen countries, comes together to level up their winter skills. A mix of personalities, nationalities, and egos bring out the best—and the worst—as these globally elite men and women work and play together. They rub elbows with hardy locals and a group of scientists gathered close by …
One fatality is almost expected with this training. A second is tough but not a surprise. However, when a third goes missing? It’s hard to not be suspicious. When the missing man is connected to one of the elite Maverick team members and is a special friend of Lieutenant Commander Mason Callister? All hell breaks loose …
Mountain hit the Arctic, knowing full well they would have to drag his dead body back out of the tundra before he ever quit on his little brother, Teegan. Theirs hadn’t been the easiest of upbringings, but, when times had been tough, there’d always been the two of them.
Yet the series of events so far has gone from mysterious to downright deadly, and just what is the elusive Dr. Amelia’s part in all this anyway? Like a ghost, she slips in and around everyone. What is her problem with the base, and, more important, what is her end game?
Dr. Amelia Morrison had seen too much in her life to trust anything she can’t fathom with her own eyes. So, what she sees here makes no sense. Something is rotten at the Arctic international military training camp. She needs to stay close, but, deep inside, she just wants to run for cover. But this mountain of a man keeps her coming back, and his younger brother she manages to keep alive. However, saving a man out in these harsh elements is a completely different story than saving him from his fellow man.
Together, Mountain and Amelia need to solve this nightmare, before no one else is left alive …
Find Book 8 here!
To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Teegan: Shadow Recon, Book 7! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.
Dear reader,
I love to hear from readers, and you can contact me at my website: www.dalemayer.com or at my Facebook author page. To be informed of new releases and special offers, sign up for my newsletter or follow me on BookBub. And if you are interested in joining Dale Mayer’s Reader Group, here is the Facebook sign up page.
Cheers,
Dale Mayer
About the Author
Dale Mayer is a USA Today best-selling author, best known for her SEALs military romances, her Psychic Visions series, and her Lovely Lethal Garden cozy series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Broken But … Mending, Hathaway House series). Her thrillers will keep you guessing (Kate Morgan, By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life, a stand-alone novella; and the Broken Protocols series, starring Charming Marvin, the cat).
