Bonaparte's Belle: A SEALs of Honor World Novel (Heroes for Hire Book 24), Dale Mayer [read an ebook week .TXT] 📗

sure it was all safe. He was operating on instincts at this point. When his phone buzzed, he found a text from Levi. Bonaparte called him back and quickly gave Levi the latest update, but it wasn’t long before Angela started whimpering again. Bonaparte finished the call, then went back and checked on her. Finally he decided to just lie down beside her and be a tortured soul for the night, pulling her into his arms. As soon as he had her up tight against him, she relaxed. He murmured, “Sleep now.

“Bonaparte?”

“Yep, it’s me.”

She smiled and rubbed her cheek against his chest. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “Just sleep.”

“It’s been a tough day,” she said, yawning.

“It has,” he replied, then waited for her to drop back to sleep again.

She did, but it didn’t last. She kept waking up, going under, and waking up. Finally she sat up and looked at him and said, “It’s a pretty rough night.”

“That’s because you won’t quite go under,” he said.

“I can’t,” she said. “I’m too restless.” She yawned and flattened out again on the bed.

“Try to sleep,” he said.

“No, you sleep.”

He looked at her and started to chuckle. “What difference will that make?”

“I won’t feel guilty.”

He stared at her in surprise. “Why would you feel guilty?”

“Because it’s always been me looking after everybody else,” she said quietly. “Now I feel like I can’t sleep because you’re here, looking after me.”

He pulled her down, until she was half lying on top of him, and said, “How about we both sleep?”

She looked up at him, smiled gently, and said, “I think I can handle that.” She dropped her head on his chest, and it wasn’t long before he heard a gentle rumbling, as her breathing moved in and out. He cuddled her close, wondering how he’d ended up in this situation. But, of course, it was all due to Levi.

And thinking about all that Levi had said, Bonaparte realized he owed him a debt. He hadn’t expected to be here and wasn’t even sure where things would go in the future, but he knew he wanted to find out. Even if that meant he’d be commuting back and forth for a while, while they figured it out.

Just when he thought she was sound asleep, she asked, “Will you commute back and forth?”

He chuckled lightly.

“We can’t have a relationship if you’re living several states away.”

He nodded, completely stunned because she was mimicking his thoughts. “Is that what you want?”

“Well, I want some time to see what we have,” she said.

“Do we have something?”

Immediately she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

He stared into the deepest, darkest, bluest eyes he’d ever imagined.

“Are you saying we don’t?”

He reached up, stroked her lips, and said, “Well, I was hoping.”

“You’re just a little gun-shy.”

“No,” he said, “just had a bit of a bad experience and all that.”

“Right,” she said, snuggling in again. “Gun-shy.”

He let out a deep, long breath. “Not exactly.”

“Good, then you’ll travel back and forth until you decide what you want.”

“Why is it me traveling back and forth?” he teased, protesting.

She opened her eyes, stared at him, and said, “Would you really ask me to leave this property?”

He shook his head and whispered, “No, never.”

She smiled, and it was breathtaking. “See?” she said. “So you’ll have to fly back and forth.”

He burst out laughing. “What’s weird is that I was laying here, thinking just that.”

She nodded and cuddled up closer. “We’re already thinking the same.”

“We don’t really—” Then he stopped.

“What? We don’t really know each other? We haven’t spent any time together? What were you going to say?”

“I was about to say something along those lines, but then I stopped myself because it’s straight-out foolishness,” he said.

“I know,” she said. “I don’t understand what we have here yet, but I thank Levi for sending you.”

“Don’t you dare tell him that,” he said. “It will just make him arrogant.”

“He already is,” she said, with a grin.

“Well, that’s because he’s damn good at what he does.”

Angela had never really believed in love at first sight, and she had to admit that Levi had sent a picture of Bonaparte earlier, like quite a bit earlier, and she’d been staring at it for a long time. She already felt like she knew a lot about him but didn’t want to say anything to him because it felt stalker creepy. But just having him here with her as they were, it felt so right in a way that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “I know. But do you know they were trying to send you to me one year ago?”

“Nope, I did not.”

“Yeah, he told me about how he had his eye on you and how you were perfect for me.”

“He what?” Bonaparte said in shock.

“Yep, but you were being stubborn and not listening. I’m sure glad you’re not being stubborn anymore.”

He didn’t know what else to do, so he laughed and laughed.

Popping up, she sat on her knees and looked at him. “See? We laugh a lot.”

“We do that,” he said, staring at her in amusement.

“Now the question is,” she said, “will we decide to move forward.”

“Well, I am ready,” he said. “What will it take to make your decision?”

“Ribs,” she said. He stared at her and blinked. “Your ribs,” she said. “It’ll all depend on your ribs.” He stared at her, afraid she was serious, and then she burst out laughing herself. “The look on your face,” she said, as she rolled over onto her back.

Immediately he flipped over, so he was on top of her and said, “Yeah, what about the look on my face?” She looked up at him, and her breath caught in the back of her throat. He nodded. “Did you ever see that look from me earlier?”

“No,” she said quietly. “That look was well hidden.”

“That well-hidden look,” he said, “was because we were at work.”

“And we’re not at work now,” she said, wiggling beneath him.

This time his breath caught. “Exactly.”

She smiled and wiggled