Finding Home (5 page)

She watched with baited breath as he
pushed the sheet down at his side to reveal a very tanned, very bare hip.

“Wow,” she managed.  “Commando,
huh?”

“Only way to go…unless my girls are
staying the night.”

“Speaking of your girls, I should let
you go so you can rest.  I’m sure they will keep you busy.”

“They keep me on my toes…but, I’m not
done with you yet,” he told her, his voice melting over her like chocolate,
warm and smooth.

“No?”

“Not even close.”

“I’m intrigued.”

“Will you play with me some more?” he
asked.

“Tell me what you want and I’ll see
if I can oblige.”

“Can you prop the phone up on a
dresser or something where I can see you if you are up on your knees in the
bed?”

Her throat went dry at his
words.  What in the world would he ask of her now?

“I think so.  Let me
check.”  After a few experiments, she found a spot on her dresser that
would allow him to see her in the center of her bed if she stood on her knees,
which she was now doing.

“Spread your knees a little wider,
baby.  Shoulder width.”  She did.  “Wider,” he told her. 
“Good…now, trail your hands down your body, from your breasts to the bottom of
your gown, slow, as if they were my hands.”  Swallowing hard, she did as
he asked, mimicking how his hands had glided over her abdomen on the
boat.  “Very good, baby.  Now, slide one hand into your
panties.  Show me how you touch yourself.”

She stopped, slowly shaking her
head.  “Colt, I…”

“Show me, Sarah.”

“But I don’t…” her voice trailed off
but he got the message.

“You’ve never touched yourself like
that, have you?”

“No,” she confessed.

“Are you a virgin, Sarah?”

“No,” she again confessed.

“Will you do this for me?  Slide
your hand into your panties.  Do it now.”

Sarah closed her eyes and decided to
go with it, slowly sliding her right hand into the front of her lacy panties.

“There you go,” he encouraged. 
“Tell me what you feel.”

“I…,” she began but couldn’t go on.

“Do you feel your curls?” he asked.

“No,” she said, opening her eyes to
look directly into the camera.

“No?” he asked, surprise evident in
his tone.

She bit her lip and shook her
head.  “I wax.”

“Shiiiiiit,” he groaned, his hand
again stroking his arousal through the sheet.  “Are you smooth, baby?”

“Yes.”

“Are you wet for me?”

“Yes.”

“When did you last wax?”

“Last weekend.”

“And how often do you have it done?”

“As needed.  I do it myself.”

“Sarah,” he groaned, “Maybe this
wasn’t such a good idea,” he confessed.

She laughed and recognizing that he
was giving her a reprieve, she got up from the bed and went to the dresser to
get her phone.  She could see a couple of veins at his temples and felt a
giddy rush that something she had done had drawn such a reaction from him.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said,
settling back onto her pillows on the bed.

“You really wax?” he pressed, making
her laugh again.

“Yes.  I like my bikini line to
be clean.”

“You’re killing me,” he groaned.

“Hey, you started this game,” she
said, laughing.

“Yes, I did.  What are you going
to do tomorrow?”

“Go to Evan’s games.  Do
laundry.  Cut the grass.”

“Cut the grass?”

“I still live in my parent’s
house.  Well, my house now.  The yard is small but still needs to be
mowed.”

“You don’t hire someone to do it for
you?”

With what money, she thought. 
To him, she just shrugged.  “I don’t mind.  Gives me something to
do.”

“It took you about twenty-five
minutes from the time you left until you texted me.  Where do you live?”

“Lacy Lakeview.  I still live in
the house I grew up in.”

He nodded.  “OK, yeah, I think
you told me that at dinner.”

“I really should let you go. 
It’s late and I know you have a busy day.”

“Yeah.  Thanks for indulging me
tonight, beautiful.”

She couldn’t hide the smile his words
brought to her face. 

“Any time,” she replied.  “Good night,
Colt.”

“Good night, Sarah.”

When he hit the ‘End’ button on his
phone, he dropped it to the bed and scrubbed his hand over his face.  What
the hell had he been thinking?  To practically have phone sex with
her?  Someone he just met?  But, man, did she turn him on!  She
was so beautiful, and even more so because she genuinely didn’t realize
it.  Keeping his distance from her tomorrow was probably a good thing, he
decided as he got up to take a cold shower.

Colt did spend all of Sunday with his
nieces.  For the entirety of the time he was with them, he gave them his
undivided attention and did his best to keep thoughts of Sarah Sauter from his
mind.  It wasn’t easy, especially when AnnaKate insisted he tell her who
was sitting outside with him last night.  He managed to sidetrack her
without giving her too much information about Sarah.  He’d introduce them
to Sarah soon enough if all went as he hoped in the coming days and weeks.

He purposefully kept himself from
checking his phone for messages until after the girls left, then smiled when he
saw he had one from Sarah.

Had fun yesterday, and yes, last
night, too.  Have a wonderful day with your nieces.

As he was in the process of replying
to her, his phone rang and he saw it was Melissa Zigler, the widow of one of
his fallen comrades.   She was now a coordinator of sorts for Orion
Securities, the private securities and investigations firm a few of his former
colleagues were now running.  He did occasional jobs for them to keep his
skills fresh and sharp.

“Hey, Melissa,” he answered.

“Hey, Colt.  Got a job for
you.  Interested?”

“Yeah, sure, give me the details.”

Sarah went to work Monday morning not
quite sure how she was feeling.  Friday and Saturday had been spectacular;
probably the best two days of her entire life.  Sunday had dragged, but
she kept herself occupied and her spirits up in anticipation of a text or a
phone call from Colt…that never came.  She knew he was going to be busy
with his nieces most of the day, but she’d been expecting to hear from him when
she was in bed.  He never did call, though.  She hadn’t slept well at
all, wondering what might have happened to make him not contact her. 

She got to work early and went
straight to work on a large stack of orders, keeping her head down as
co-workers drifted in.  She knew Terry would have tons of questions for
her and she hoped she’d be able to answer them and talk about Colt without
tearing up.  She didn’t understand why he hadn’t contacted her after all
they’d shared on Saturday. 

“Good morning!” Terry chirped at her
as she rounded the corner into their little room.

“Good morning,” Sarah echoed.

“Well?  Spill it!  Your
texts didn’t really say a lot.  How did your weekend go?”

Sarah looked up from her orders and
forced a smile.  She made it through telling Terry how wonderful spending
time with him was and how great he was.  Terry was excited for her and
gave her a big hug.  Sarah knew her friend was genuinely happy for
her. 

For the remainder of the morning,
Sarah lost herself in her work, keeping her head down and pushing her way
through as many orders as she could until she heard her phone ringing in her
purse.  Hoping it was Colt, she frantically dug through her purse to pick
it up, thrilled when she saw
Colt Calling
on the display. 

“Hello?” she answered, walking
outside to the covered patio off the side of the building.

“Hey, baby, sorry I haven’t gotten
back to you before now.  I got called out late last night on a job and had
to fly out at 2:00 am.  I didn’t want to send a text and wake you
up.  I’m sorry,” Colt told her. 

Relief washed over her like a warm
shower.  A tear fell down her cheek as she was able to breathe for the
first time since last night.

“It’s OK.  You’re calling
now.  Where are you?”

“I can’t disclose that, babe,
sorry.  Just wanted to let you know that I didn’t mean to ignore your
text.  I didn’t check my messages until after the girls left and as I was
texting you back, I got the call.  It’s an emergency situation.  A
friend needs help so I left as soon as they could arrange transportation. 
This is going to take a couple of weeks at the least and contact with me will
be hit or miss during that time, baby, I’m sorry.  It can’t be helped.”

“That’s OK, Colt, I –“

She was stopped when a female voice
in the background said, “We’re ready for you, Colt.”

“OK, Tess, thanks…sorry, baby, I
gotta go into a meeting.  I’ll get back with you as soon as I can, OK?”

“OK…is this something I should worry
about, Colt?” she asked, considering what he had once done for a living.

“Nah, this will be a piece of
cake.  Just time consuming.”

“Colt!  Let’s go!” a man’s voice
called this time.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.  Gotta
go, babe.  Have a good rest of the day.”

“You, too, Colt.  Bye.”

She stared at her phone for several
moments after the call ended and wished she hadn’t been so overwhelmed by him
on Saturday and had thought to take a few pictures of him.  It dawned on
her that he had a picture of her – the picture she took of her lying in
her bed Saturday.  She should have made him take a picture for her that
night.  Or she should have taken a picture of him when they were on the
boat.  Next time she saw him she was going to snap a picture or two, she
resolved.

Taking a deep breath, she went back
inside.  The rest of the day drug by and she couldn’t stop herself from
checking her phone every few minutes to see if a text had come from him. 
The call finally came when she was on the road home.

“I don’t have long.  Getting
ready to hop on another plane.  Did you have a good day?”

“Typical Monday.  Lots of orders
to key in.”

“Mind numbing, huh?”

She laughed.  “You have no
idea.  I know you can’t tell me where you’re going, but can you tell me
what you’ll be doing?”

“Basically, I’ll be tracking.  Some
people got kidnapped.  I’m gonna be following the paper trail.”

Her heart accelerated in fear. 
“Kidnapped?  Colt!”

He chuckled.  “It’s not as bad
as it sounds.  And I’m pretty good at what I do, trust me.”

“I do.  It’s not dangerous?”

“It’s pretty routine.”  She
heard someone call his name and then his muffled reply.  “I have to go
now.  I’ll check back with you as soon as I can, but just know it won’t be
every day.”

“All right.  Promise me you’ll
stay safe.”

“As safe as I can, babe.  Don’t
worry.”

“That’s easier said than done. 
Be safe and hurry back to me, Colt.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“OH!  Colt!”

“Yeah?”

“You have a picture of me but I don’t
have one of you.  Get someone to take a pic and send it to me.  Can
you do that?”

He laughed.  “Yeah, that I can
do.  See you when I get back.”

Sarah hit end on the call and
couldn’t help the tear that slid down her cheek.  How could someone she
just met affect her this way?  It frightened her, thinking about what he
did as an Army Ranger and what he would be doing for this job now.  She
supposed if he were going to be in her life, that this was something she was
going to have to get used to.

Janine was outside in her flower
garden when Sarah pulled up to her house.  Not wanting to be alone, she
got out and walked over to say hi.  Janine stood when she walked over, her
smile of greeting fading as Sarah got closer.

“Honey?  What’s wrong?”

Sarah shook her head, sitting on
Janine’s front steps.  Janine came and sat beside her, placing her hand on
Sarah’s shoulder.

“Is it the guy?  What’s his
name?  Cole?”

“Colt.  He’s going to be gone
for a couple of weeks.”

“On business?”

Sarah took a deep breath. 
“Yes…he is a former Army Ranger.  He works occasionally for some of his
former colleagues.  He couldn’t tell me where he was going but he said he
was tracking some kidnappers.”

“Oh wow!  That’s scary!”

She nodded.  “He says it’s
pretty routine and told me not to worry.  How can I not?”

“Well…I guess, like he said, you
trust that he is good at what he does and you pray that he will be safe.”

“I didn’t hear from him at all
yesterday and I was really down about that until he called me this morning. 
You know me.  I haven’t been in a relationship in six years.  I’m not
sure how to handle all of this.”

“Take it one day at a time. 
Enjoy it, honey.  This new part of a relationship, the way you feel
now?  It doesn’t last forever.  I love Grant.  Just as much
today as I did when we first got married.  But it’s a different kind of
love.  Sometimes I miss that rush you feel when everything is new.”

“It is a rush,” Sarah confirmed and
then glanced down at her phone when it buzzed.  “Oh, my gosh!” she laughed
when she opened the picture Colt sent her.  He prefaced it by saying that
it was an old picture from when he was stationed in Afghanistan.  He was
in full combat gear, helmet and sunglasses on, tongue sticking out and hand
held with thumb, forefinger and pinkie up in the classic rock and roll
sign.  In the background were mountains and a lot of sand and a
helicopter.  She showed it to Janine.

“Wow.  He really was a Ranger,
huh?  Can you imagine having to wear all that gear in the desert like
that?”

Sarah looked back at the picture when
Janine handed the phone back to her. 

“It’s so bulky it’s a wonder they can
even move in it all.  But then I guess that’s what they train for.”

Her phone buzzed again and she saw
another picture pop up.  This one was from a professional photo shoot and
it literally took her breath away.  He prefaced this one with a message
that he had Claire forward the picture to him so he could send it to her. 
He was wearing a white button down shirt open at the collar, grey suit jacket,
hair slightly shorter than it was now and he was clean-shaven.  The next
picture he sent showed him in a tuxedo, shirt open, tie hanging loose around
his neck, jacket slung over his shoulder, one hand in his pocket, feet
bare.  He explained that that picture had been taken at a friend’s wedding
on the beach.

“I take it he sent some more?” Janine
asked.

“Oh, yeah,” she replied, handing
Janine the phone.

“Holy cow!  Girl, he is gorgeous! 
So…dish!  Can he kiss?”

“Oh, my gosh, yes!  We were out
on his boat Saturday and he kissed me so hard I could barely breathe!  It
was awesome!”

“Oh!  He’s calling you,” Janine
said, handing the phone back to her. 

Sarah smiled and stood up to take the
phone, waving to Janine as she walked back to her house.

“Hi,” she answered, “I wasn’t
expecting to hear from you so soon.”

“Had a delay in our flight.  Did
you get the pictures?”

“Yes.  Thank you so much. 
I love them.”

“I have a couple more to send but I
wanted to make sure you were alone.”

“Ooooh, sounds promising.  And
good call, I was over at Janine’s when I got the other three.  What’s so
special about this one?”

“I did them as a favor for
Claire.  She had this calendar made for a fund raiser…”

“You did a Hot Guy’s Calendar?” she
asked, her tone sounding a bit awe struck.

“Yeah, but only because Claire asked
me to, and it wasn’t that long after her husband died so I would have agreed to
anything, you know?”

“I understand.”

“So, yeah, anyway…the first picture
is the one she used.  She wanted to use the second but I wouldn’t let
her.  I posed for it but…yeah, I couldn’t let her print that.”

“That bad, huh?” she asked and
couldn’t hide the amusement in her tone.

“No one has seen it but me, Claire
and the photographer.”

“Really?  And you’re going to
send it to me?”

“Well, I have the picture of you in
bed, so I thought it would be only right for you to have an equal picture of
me.”

“One of you in bed?”

“Not quite…hang on a second and I’ll
send it.”

“Well, if you’re embarrassed, you
don’t have to – oh, my!  Colt!” she gasped.  The picture that
came through on her phone left her speechless.  It was a shot of him from
the waist up, sitting in a bathtub, bubbles covering his midsection.  He
was looking up at the camera and the look on his face was so seductive…just
like he looked when they were FaceTiming the other night.  “This picture
is…really hot!”

“I’ll send you the one she used now.”

“OK.”  When her message chimed,
she pulled up a black and white shot of him shirtless, wearing jeans with the
top button open.  “This one is hot, too, Colt.  You are gorgeous, you
shouldn’t be embarrassed by either of these.”

“Thank you.  I’m glad you like
them.”

“I do…and you better hurry back
because I’d really like to see that tattoo up close and personal.”

“Yeah?” he asked on a chuckle.

“Oh, yeah, baby.”

“Hey, Colt, flight’s ready,” she
heard someone call to him.

“Yeah, OK, be right there.”

“Gotta go?” she asked.