Page 72 of Her Noble Protector

“Yeah. I agree with you, man. Right now Maria’s a fucking ghost.”

“Clint left me a message today. Said he’s going to have an old teammate of his give me a call. His name is Aiden O’Malley.”

“Okay,” Kane said slowly. “What will Aiden give us?”

“According to Clint, Aiden has some ties in Yucatan.”

“Wait a minute, isn’t Aiden second-in-command of Black Dawn?” Kane asked.

“Yep.” Black Dawn was another SEAL team out of California.

“You’re telling me that he has ties with Mexican cartels in the Yucatan?”

“Clint didn’t go into a lot of detail, just that Aiden would be calling me. I’ll plug you in when I get the call,” Raiden told his teammate.

“You do that,” Kane told him. Raiden’s eyes narrowed as he saw his Uncle Hideto’s Buick coming slowly down the street.

“Gotta go, man. Party’s starting.”

“Have fun.”

Raiden watched as his uncle parked his car a good eighteen inches away from the curb. He was going to have to figure a way to get his keys away from him so he could come out and re-park the Buick a little later.

“Hey, Nephew,” his uncle called out with a wave.

“Hello, Uncle.” Raiden grinned as he went to open the passenger car door for his great-aunt. She handed him a casserole dish as she smiled up at him.

“Has everyone arrived?” she asked in Japanese.

“You know you’re always the first to arrive,” he teased her. “You like making sure that Mom has everything under control.”

She reached up and patted his cheek. “You’re a smart boy, Raiden. Have you straightened Leif out yet?” she asked as they started to walk toward the house.

“He’s a work in progress.”

“You’ll fix him,” Uncle Hideto said as he went to the other side of his wife. “I like your Lisa. She brought your Auntie flowers when she and your mother came to visit.”

Raiden’s eyes shot down to look at the petite woman who was walking slowly beside him. He hadn’t realized that Lisa and his mother had been to visit Auntie Yui. Mom was making all the rounds.

“She talks about you, Raiden,” the older woman said quietly. “Not a lot. But when she does say your name, she says it with love.”

Raiden was so stunned, he almost tripped on the sidewalk. He waited for his aunt to say something more, but she didn’t. He looked up to the front door of the house and thought hard. Yep, he really needed to arrange for some alone time with Lisa now that he was back in the States.

20

Lisa cut the tag off the dress with fingers that shook. She was going out on a date. A real-live date. She’d actually gone out dress shopping with a real-live girlfriend, so she could find the right dress for a real-live date. She looked at herself in the mirror hanging on the back of the bedroom door. She’d gained back the weight she’d lost, but she didn’t look the same as how she normally did. She was normally a lot more active, so her muscles were more toned. Looking in the mirror now, she saw a softer, curvier body.

Cami had dragged her to the lingerie department, mostly so Lisa could give her courage to buy more sexy underwear for Nic. But in the end, they both gave one another courage, so that was how Lisa was wearing a new copper-colored bra and copper-colored panties, both with a lot of lace. She looked at the dress in her hands and sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes, then pulled it over her head. She had to wiggle a little bit to get it past her breasts, and then get it to fall past her hips. She opened her right eye, then her left eye, then both eyes.

Lisa bit her lip and turned to the side. Was it too much? She’d liked it at the department store—it didn’t show any cleavage and it went almost to her knees. Yeah, it hugged her body, but it wasn’t like her body was anything to write home about, so that was okay, right? Plus, it wasn’t red or anything, it was the same copper color as her underwear, so it was understated. But still, it seemed like it might be over the top.

Lisa fingered the soft material of the dress. She was nervous. She wanted to look good for Raiden. She’d been imagining having a chance to be alone with him almost since the day they’d arrived in Virginia, but it had gotten steadily worse as she’d gained weight and talked to Cami’s therapist. Her dreams had even changed. Twice now she’d had dreams of Raiden Sato, and in one of those dreams, he had kissed her. Kissed her.

She closed her eyes, thinking about that kiss, thinking about being in his arms. She shivered, thinking about how it had felt in her dream, wrapped in his strong arms. She hadn’t even been scared; she’d felt safe, and shivery. Was shivery even a word? His hands had moved over her body, around her waist, up the sides of her ribs…

Lisa opened her eyes and willed away the picture in her head. She didn’t have time for it. She had to make sure she looked nice for tonight. She gave her hair an anxious look. That was another new thing. Cami had talked her into not just getting a haircut, but a cut and style. Never in her entire life had she ever once considered paying as much as she did for this haircut. But looking at it, with the chunky layers and the new bangs, she had to admit the money was worth it. But would Raiden think so, or would he think that she was trying too hard?

She sucked in a deep breath.