The Navy SEAL's Christmas Bride (6 page)

There was a swell of masculine protest at this idea.

“It’ll be me and Mason,” Zane said. “We always win at target shooting.”

“Dan’s pretty good, though,” Mason said. “He might give us a run for our money.”

“My money is still on Sarah.” Ella smiled at her.

“You’d better stop betting on me. I’ve already cost you twice.” Sarah opened a cupboard and put the dish she’d just dried away.

Dan frowned. Was she so easily shaken up? He expected more confidence in someone of her caliber.

But when the targets had been set up in one of the empty pastures, and Mason had stamped a thick line in the snow for everyone to stand behind, Sarah’s confidence seemed to be back full-swing. “No bets?” she called out to him as she took up her position several paces away.

“I thought you were sick of losing them.”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet. I’ll have you running those laps around the Hall before you know it.”

“Ooh, I’m scared, Metlin.”

“Three laps if I beat you.”

“That’s three kisses if you lose. And you will lose. Is that your angle? You want more kisses? You don’t have to suffer public humiliation to get them, you know. Just ask me nicely.” He puckered up and blew her one.

She put out her hand, pretended to catch it, crumple it up, toss it to the ground and step on it. “I’ll be happy if I never kiss you again, Hemmins.”

He only smiled. They both knew that was a lie.

“Practice round first!” Mason called out. “Is everyone ready?”

Dan looked down the line to make sure everyone was behind it. He could instantly tell who knew their way around a weapon and who didn’t. Those with any kind of experience were all looking up and down the line as well. Regan, Ella and a couple of the others had their attention on Mason, instead.

“The range is hot, folks! Commence firing!”

Dan took a handful of practice shots, confident he didn’t really need them. Target practice was a number one training priority; he wouldn’t have lost his ability in the last couple of weeks.

His attention was soon drawn to his right, however, where Sarah was taking a series of shots, each one carefully aimed. He squinted to see the results on her target and drew in a quick breath. She was a hell of a shot. Before he had time to process the information, Ethan’s voice rang out again. “Cease fire. Cease fire!” Dan automatically clicked on the safety, emptied the chamber of his rifle and left the action open, pocketing the cartridges and leaning the rifle against the pasture fence before heading downrange to check his target.

Sarah arrived at her target ahead of him. He read satisfaction in the set of her shoulders before she balled the paper up and stuffed it in her jacket pocket.

“Looks like some good shooting,” he said as she passed him going the other way. She shrugged.

“I did okay.”

Okay, his ass. She was trying to hide the fact she was a crack shot. He was a crack shot himself, but it looked like she might give him some real competition.

When everyone had gathered their targets, put up new ones and were back behind the line, Mason called out, “This is the real deal, folks. Five shots! Tightest grouping wins. Ready? Range open!”

Dan fitted his cartridges back into his rifle, drew up to the line and sighted down the barrel. Five shots. He could do this.

The rat-a-tat of gunfire cracked down the line. Dan knew he could lose to Mason or Zane just as easily as to Sarah—more easily, probably. After all, Mason was a SEAL and Zane was a Marine. Sarah was just regular Army.

Worry made him check his sightings twice, though, and that extra work messed with his aim. His grouping was decent, but not as tight as he’d like. When he was done, he slid a glance over to Sarah and found her rigid. Rigid in a good way or a bad?

He checked her target.

Damn it, she was quivering because she must be holding back the urge to whoop out loud. And well she might. Even from here he could tell she’d won. Murmurs from Mason and Zane and the others told him he wasn’t the only one who’d seen it.

“Wow!” Regan’s voice cut over the din. “Sarah—that’s amazing!” She moved forward, rifle still in her hands. Sarah and Mason both grabbed for her simultaneously.

“Babe—the range is still hot!” Mason shifted her gently behind the line.

“Shoot. Sorry! I always get that wrong,” Regan said, hurrying back in place.

Dan exchanged a look with Mason. That was one thing you didn’t want your wife getting wrong. At least with Sarah he knew she’d be safe around weaponry.

Dan checked himself. He wasn’t going to be with Sarah—not like that. But when he thought of them going their separate ways after this holiday, his jaw tightened.

“Cease fire! Range closed!” Mason shouted. Dan went through the motions of making his firearm safe again. By the time he joined the crowd around Sarah’s target, he knew from the exclamations he heard that he’d definitely been beat.

“Three times around the Hall in the buff, sailor!” The look Sarah turned on him was almost gleeful as the others’ laughter surrounded him.

Well, he guessed he deserved that for the way he’d gloated over her earlier. But he’d get his revenge. He’d definitely get his sweet revenge.

‡

“I
can’t believe
how good a shot you are!” Regan said to Sarah as she and the rest of the women lined up on the porch to watch Dan’s naked laps around the Hall.

“I can’t believe you’re going to ogle another man when you’ve got this to look forward to tonight!” Mason called from the doorway where the rest of the men had gathered.

“I won’t look—much,” Regan said. “It’s your fault for inviting the streaker to stay with us.”

“It’s Sarah’s fault for winning that damned bet,” Austin said. “Ella, get inside!”

“I’m just here in solidarity with Sarah,” Ella said with a wink.

“You better not ogle him!”

“If Dan’s the only one naked, then he’s my only choice for ogling!”

“The hell you say.” Austin burst out of the house and unbuttoned his shirt as he clattered down the front steps.

“What are you doing?” Ella leaned over the railing.

“Running with Dan so you’ll keep your eyes where they’re meant to be—on me!”

Ella laughed. “If you run naked around the Hall, I will definitely ogle you, honey!”

“Well, hell,” Mason said. “I guess that means I better join them.” He raced down the steps, too, followed by John and Rafe.

Regan put two fingers in her mouth and let out a wolf whistle that brought everyone to a halt. “Bet you didn’t even know I could do that,” she said to Mason.

“I didn’t. That’ll come handy when it’s time to move the cattle.”

Sarah laughed along with the others, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Dan as he stripped off his shirt and got to work on his jeans. She’d known he’d be built under his winter gear, but the muscles carving his bare chest were breathtaking, as were the bulges that formed his biceps. No amount of training would give her biceps like that—not even with steroids, which she would never touch. She was an athlete—she could hold her head up high in any company—but she couldn’t compete with him that way.

And she didn’t want to at the moment. She just wanted to watch him. Avidly.

The other men were buff, too, of course, but she wasn’t going to stare at her friend’s husbands.

“Naked racing around the Hall. That’s a new holiday tradition,” Ella mused.

“A very short-lived, if fun, tradition.” Regan smoothed a hand over her pregnant belly. “I will not have my kids growing up with this kind of thing going on.” But her lips were twitching at the prospect in front of her and Sarah didn’t blame her. The men were down to their skivvies and damn, if this wasn’t a sight to see.

“Okay, boys! When I yell
go
, drop your drawers and run,” Mason called. “On your mark, get set, go!”

Sarah joined in the other women’s laughter as the men peeled off their shorts and took off. Regan leaned way over the railing as they quick turned the corner around the Hall. “Now that is a sight.”

“Yes, it is,” Sarah agreed. “Too bad they’re so damn fast.”

“I think Dan’s running a hell of a lot faster now than he did earlier on those snowshoes,” Ella said.

“If we were smart, we’d run through the Hall and catch them on the other side, too.” Regan gestured for the front door.

A mad dash ensued, with some good-natured pushing and shoving along the way. The pack of women reached the back porch just in time to catch the men racing past again. Regan let out another wolf-whistle, eliciting more laughter. Sarah caught Dan’s eye as he went past and he saluted her.

“Back to the front,” Regan yelled and the women charged through the Hall again. This time they moved faster and got a full frontal view of the running men.

“All right! That’s what we like to see! Come to Mama!” Ella yelled.

Austin did a front handspring and the women cheered. The men disappeared around the side of the Hall again.

“To the back!”

Sarah charged to the back porch with the rest of them, laughing so hard she could barely keep up. As they raced back and forth and the men progressed to cartwheels, back flips and other tricks to elicit cheers, all her pain and worry about the future slid away. She didn’t know when she’d had such fun. She was going to miss Regan and the rest of the crowd when she was gone.

Even Dan.

“I don’t think
I have a shred of dignity left,” Zane complained as he got dressed.

“I don’t think any of us do,” Mason agreed.

Dan chuckled. “I bet every one of us gets laid tonight.” The sudden silence among the others had him backtracking. “Every one of us with a wife does, anyway.”

“Sarah’s fair game, buddy, but she is Regan’s friend. Don’t fuck things up there.” Mason buttoned his shirt.

“I won’t fuck things up. I know what I’m doing.” Dan threw his shirt over his shoulder and went indoors, thinking that was a laugh. He didn’t have the slightest idea what he was doing. All he knew was that he’d liked her gaze on him when he raced around the Hall. He liked that she was getting an eyeful. He had no qualms about nudity—he knew what he had to offer a woman. He hoped Sarah had liked what she’d seen.

He found her climbing the stairs to her third floor bedroom. “That was some race,” she said.

“You liked that?”

“It was… amusing.”

“Did it get you hot?”

“From what little I saw, it must have made you cold. You better go finish getting dressed.”

Hmm, he didn’t buy her indifference for a minute, nor her implication that he’d been less than impressive nude. In fact, she seemed downright flustered by his bare chest. He flexed his muscles and moved closer. “You could warm me up.”

“You never give up, do you?”

“You wouldn’t like it if I gave up. Admit it.”

“I’ll admit I beat your pants off on the firing range.” She laughed unexpectedly. Bit her lip.

“Beat my pants off? Ha, ha.” But he liked hearing her laugh. He had a healthy respect for her abilities—especially after that very cold dash around the house—but he didn’t want to relate to her sailor to soldier. He wanted to relate to her man to woman. “Did you like it when my pants were off?”

“Please. Nothing I haven’t seen a hundred times before.” But she let him hook his fingers through her belt loops and tug her in against him. Her fingers rested lightly on his biceps. He quirked a smile. Was it his imagination or had she just slid those fingers over his muscles? She wasn’t immune to him after all. He slid his own hands down her back and up again, giving himself an excuse to flex another time or two. Yeah, she liked that all right. Women were women, even one as buff as Sarah.

“You haven’t seen
me
a hundred times before. Don’t even pretend I’m anything like those other guys.”

“What makes you different?” She accepted his caresses, but stayed alert, which told him that as much as she enjoyed them she’d be gone in a flash if he pushed his luck.

“I’ve done what you’d like to do and I understand how badly you want it.”

That surprised her. She cocked her head. “Do you understand? You actually got to join the SEALs,” she said softly.

“I did, and I enjoyed the heck out of living out that dream.”

“Why are you quitting, then?”

That was a fair question and one he’d asked himself countless times before he’d made up his mind. “If you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have said it’s because my will to live is too strong. I’ve done more missions than I want to think about. I’ve cheated death so many times it isn’t funny. Sooner or later your luck runs out, know what I mean? I had a hunch if I stayed much longer, mine would have. Once you start thinking like that, you’re no good to anyone.”

After a moment she nodded. “That’s what you would have said six months ago. What would you say now?”

He tugged her in closer. “That it’s time for me to find a wife and settle down.”

Before Sarah could
answer that unsettling statement, Dan bent down and captured her mouth with his. This time his kiss was all business. They were alone and he’d evidently had enough of holding back. She’d thought his last kiss on the front porch was scorching hot, but it turned out Dan had been pulling his punches. This one had her sagging against him, kissing him back for all she was worth, and when Dan picked her up and carried her the rest of the way upstairs, she didn’t protest. She couldn’t. He had stolen her breath away.