Page 113 of Beast

“I hate surprises. We’re not staying near Disneyland?”

“Why don’t you crash? It’s a long drive. We’ll be there by morning.”

She tapped her fingers on the window. “Okay. This better be good.” She leaned in and gave me a kiss.

I stopped by a drive-through Starbucks and ordered a venti black coffee, chocolate milk, and a few bottles of water for the drive.

Eight hours later, we had arrived at our destination just as the sun was coming up. Annie was still passed out in the seat next to me, Gabriel asleep in his car seat in the back.

“Wake up, sunshine. We’re here.”

She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times to gain sight. The vast, pure lake glimmered in the sunrise.

“Pat! Tahoe! You remembered?”

“Of course. I never forget anything. Kyle has a buddy with a cabin in Incline Village. We have it for the whole week.”

“The week? That’s amazing.” She leaned in to my seat and wrapped her arms around my neck, planting a kiss on my cheek.

I kissed her back. I couldn’t wait to get her into the cabin. I scooped Gabriel out of his car seat, still asleep, and we took him into the cabin and into bed.

Annie was unlike any girl I’d ever known. She didn’t expect anything of me, didn’t try to change me, and accepted me for who I was. Maybe being with me the three months out of the year I didn’t deploy would be enough to make her happy. I was crazy about her.

I had to confront her father, protect her and Gabriel from him. And I knew doing so would shatter Annie’s carefully rebuilt world.

Kyle left out a detail about the owner of the cabin—apparently the guy was loaded. Probably one of his NFL buddies. The cabin was on the water in Incline Village, a hotspot of wealthy Silicon Valley executives. My mom and I used to stay in a crappy motel in South Lake Tahoe, but I loved it anyway. Annie and I checked the cabin out. The place had stonework, beautiful hardwood floors, seven bedrooms, a gourmet kitchen, a game room, an exercise room, a wine cellar, and a master bedroom with a private fireplace.

I needed to sleep. I let Trigger out back in the yard. “Can you bring him back in when he’s done?”

She nodded.

I brought our bags in, then went upstairs to take a shower.

I took off my clothes and turned on the hot water. Should I confront her dad? It was pointless, really. He would either lie and deny it, or admit it and retaliate against Matt. No wonder her father hated my guts, probably knew I would figure his bullshit out, and was pissed I had saved Annie and Gabriel. Some may look at us enlisted SEALs as nothing more than brawn, but to get through BUD/S you had to be intelligent.

If I told Annie, she would have no one left in her life but me—and that was if she believed me. You never know, blood is thicker than water. And if I were all she had, who would be there for her when I was gone for months on end?

I stepped out of the shower and went into the bedroom. The fireplace was already on and Annie was sitting on the bed in some damn sexy lingerie. Pink silk nightie trimmed with black lace, split up high on her thigh. Damn.

I stopped in the doorway to watch as she smoothed lotion over her legs and it occurred to me I wouldn’t mind seeing her do this every night. I’d heard the poor bastards in the Teams wax poetic about coming home to their wives and it wasn’t until I saw her looking at home in the bed that I realized what they meant.

She looked up and saw me watching her. “Hey, Hero.”

“You’re hotter than that fire.”

“So are you, standing there with nothing except a towel wrapped around your waist. Come here.”

I walked over to the edge of the bed. She set the lotion on the nightstand, stood up, and took off my towel. She kissed my mouth, my chest, traced my scars, and worked her way down to my waist. I gently pushed her away from me.

We couldn’t do this. Not yet.

“Pat, please. Come on, why are we waiting? I love you.”

Those three words made me want her even more. But we’d waited this long, what was a few more days.

“Babe, I’m sorry. I love you, too. I need to sleep.”

She slumped on the bed, pulling the cover over her body. “Are you not attracted to me? Is this because you still have a problem that I was a sex slave?”