Just This Once

Chapter 1 The thwack of the windshield wipers was steady as Becca Hamilton drove along the highway. It was approaching midnight, much later than she planned to be on her way to her parents’ home in Bellingham, Washington. She had yet another late night at work in Seattle, but she’d promised her mother she’d be there for the weekend. After working too late and failing to come through on the same promise last weekend, she was bound and determined to get there tonight. The visibility was crap with fog and rainy mist encompassing the road. She might as well have been in the middle of a cloud. It was so foggy, she couldn’t tell if her defrost was working, so she wiped at the windshield with her sleeve. With a sigh, she dropped her arm away. She rolled her shoulders in a weak attempt to ease the tension bundled in them. Glancing at the clock, she estimated she had another hour before she made it to Bellingham. Suddenly, headlights flashed in front of her as she came around a corner, much too close for comfort. Blinded by the glaring lights, she yanked the steering wheel and swerved to avoid the vehicle coming straight at her. She felt the other car bounce off of hers with a hard thump that jolted through her body. She heard a loud screech before her car tumbled into the ditch. She came to a thudding stop with her car on its side. Stunned for a second, she started to scramble, unbuckling her seatbelt and trying to climb out before it occurred to her she might want to take stock of her situation first. She froze and glanced around. Rain continued to fall, her windshield wipers carrying on as if nothing had happened. She looked up toward the road to see the taillights of the car that ran her into the ditch disappearing into the wet darkness. “Great, just great,” she muttered. “Run me off the road and leave. Dammit!” She adjusted her position, so her hips rested on the console between the driver and passenger seats. She mentally scanned her body and didn’t sense any significant injuries. Her shoulder had jammed against the door in the tumble into the ditch. She figured she’d be sore from the impact by morning, but all in all, she seemed okay. The pressing issue was she was alone in the dark, rainy night and stuck in a ditch. She was living a bad cliché, if only for a moment. If there was one thing Becca hated, it was asking for help. It ranked right up there with dating. She hated it so much, she actually pondered the likelihood that she could somehow get her car upright again on her own. Mid-thought, her rational brain kicked in. Are you out of your damn mind? Don’t confuse yourself with a superhero. There is NO way you can get your car out of this ditch by yourself. Her ridiculous train of thought elicited a wry smile that faded promptly. There were times she had to swallow her pride and accept she needed help. They were few and far between, but tonight definitely qualified as such. She flicked on the interior light and searched for her purse, which held her phone. It had fallen to the passenger side on the floor. Far out of her reach. She started maneuvering to grab it when there was a knock on her window. She scrambled back up and managed to reach the button to open the window. As the blurry glass rolled down, a familiar face loomed in the rainy darkness. Aidan McNamara, the absolute last person she wanted to see her like this. Aidan was a family friend through her older brother Gage. They’d served together in the Navy SEAL’s. Aidan was a woman’s dream if one liked tall, dark, sexy-as-hell military types who tended to save the day so often it was annoying. Even under these circumstances, Becca’s pulse raced at the sight of him. As much as it drove her insane, her body had all kinds of ideas about Aidan. “Becca?” Aidan’s brows hitched up when he saw her. “It’s me.” “Are you okay? Let’s get you out of there.” Aidan didn’t bother to ask what happened, but instantly went into action. After he did a quick circle around her car to make sure it was safe to pull her out, he opened her door and reached in for her. He ignored her protests as he lifted her out. Next thing she knew, she was in his strong arms, the rain falling softly around them. He adjusted her weight in arms. Becca shivered and couldn’t help the tiny curl of comfort that snuck through her. A corner of her savored feeling protected like this. Aidan had the disconcerting tendency to elicit this feeling in her. She pushed against it like a cat swatting its paw and wiggled. “Put me down,” she demanded. Her voice sounded prickly, and she didn’t care. She heard his sigh. “Becca, it’s more work to put you down right here than it is to carry you. The ground’s like mush here. Let’s get to the road, and I’ll put you down.” She bit her lip and stayed quiet. Aidan’s embrace was strong and sure. She could feel his muscles flex against her body as he stepped carefully up the incline. Her pulse galloped and heat slid through her veins. Why, oh why, did this man have to affect her like this? She’d sworn off men after her fiancé had dumped her two days before their wedding. That had been three years ago. Since then, she’d had no trouble completely ignoring men. Except for Aidan. He had this unerring ability to make her flushed and flustered simply by existing. He reached the road and carefully eased her down. His black sedan was pulled to the side of the road, its lights illuminating them. She glanced up. Of course, Aidan had come to her aid without bothering to put a jacket on. His button-down shirt was clinging to his muscled chest and arms. His black hair was damp from the rain. His blue eyes were bright in the small circle of light cast around them. His strong features were shadowed. His blade of a nose crooked the tiniest bit in one spot. She’d always wanted to ask how he broke it, but she never had. With his career as a Navy SEAL, she surmised he’d had many brushes with injury. He gestured to her car. “Need me to get anything for you?” “Oh, um. I can get my stuff. Let me…” She started to turn and walk back into the ditch when she felt his hand curl around her arm. His grip was strong and implacable. “I’ll get it. You seem to have gotten out of this without getting hurt, but I’m not letting you go back down there. Where’s your stuff?” “Oh my God! Don’t be all tough with me. I’m fine. I can…” “Becca,” Aidan said, his tone low with warning. “Gage will let me have it if I let you climb back down there and you somehow get hurt. We don’t know if your car’s stable where it is, and it’s a mud pit. Just tell me what I need to find.” She wanted to argue, but she bit it back. She was cold, tired and wet. The shock of getting bounced into a ditch by another car was starting to set in. Shivers raced through her and she felt slightly dazed. She struggled to gather herself and think clearly, annoyed at how out of it she felt. Too tired to wrestle with herself, she took a deep breath and managed to nod. “Okay. My purse fell on the floor in the front. My bag should be in the backseat.” Aidan nodded and turned away quickly. She waited by the side of the road. She heard him moving around, but she couldn’t see much in the dark. Her car engine and lights were turned off before she heard a door slam, and he climbed back up to her side. Her purse and small overnight bag were hanging from his shoulder. She followed him to his car. Somehow, he beat her to the passenger side and held the door for her. Once she was seated, he handed her purse over and put her bag in the backseat. His car was warm. She held her hands in front of the heater and rubbed them together. Of course, he drove a luxury sedan. She had no idea what kind of car it was, but the seats were soft, supple leather, and the engine hummed so quietly she could barely hear it. When Aidan climbed inside, he looked over at her. “What happened?” he asked. “A car came around the corner in my lane. I swerved to avoid them, and they bumped me on the way. Next thing I knew, I was in the ditch.” She hugged her arms around her waist, her teeth chattering slightly from the cold. He reached behind her and pulled something forward. “Here, put this on. You got pretty wet.” He handed her a sweatshirt. Without thinking, she pulled it over her head, sighing once it fell around her. It held a subtle woodsy scent. The sweatshirt nearly swallowed her whole, but she tugged it close, savoring the warmth. She could hardly let herself think it, but she loved that it held his scent. “Thanks. I didn’t realize how cold I was.” Aidan nodded, his eyes still on her. “Should I take you to the hospital to get checked out?” She shook her head quickly. “No! I’m fine. My shoulder jammed against the door when my car rolled in the ditch, but I’m fine. I do not need to go to the hospital.” He was quiet for a long moment before he nodded. “Okay. Let me make a call to get your car towed.” Before she could say anything, he tapped a button on the screen in the center of his dashboard. “Hey, boss. What can we do for you?” A man’s voice came through the car speakers clearly. “Hey, George. I need you guys to arrange for a towing company to come get Becca Hamilton’s car out of a ditch. It’s about twenty minutes north from our office. I’ll wait with her until you guys get here, then you can take it from there.” Aidan owned a private security company and had an entire crew he could call upon at any hour. Becca figured George must be one of his employees. “We’ll head up there right now. Are you on I-5 or Route 9?” “Route 9. Look for my car.” “Got it.” The line clicked. “You didn’t have to…” Becca started to say. “We’re not leaving your car here.” Aidan glanced out the window as another car drove by, its headlights blurry in the rain. “The fastest tow company can’t get here sooner. This way, George will wait with your car and make sure everything’s taken care of. In the meantime, where were you headed?” After Aidan retired as a Navy SEAL, he started his private security company in Seattle. The company quickly developed an excellent reputation. Becca encountered him and his employees frequently in her work as a prosecutor for the Seattle District Court. She hadn’t thought through what she was going to do about her car. Having Aidan step in and handle the situation rubbed against the annoyance she carried due to the simmering attraction she was doing her damnedest to ignore. Warmth was starting to seep through her bones between the heat in his car and his sweatshirt. She took a breath and tried to gather her thoughts. Being this close to Aidan was discombobulating. She preferred to be somewhere she could take a step back and create enough distance between them, so her heart didn’t pound so hard and heat didn’t slide through her veins. To regain control, she latched onto her annoyance. “You don’t have to step in and save the day, you know? I’m perfectly capable of calling a tow company and waiting for them to come. I appreciate you stopped, but…” She paused for a breath, realizing her words were flying out of her mouth. She was flustered and disoriented. Between her unexpected roll into the ditch and Aidan’s appearance, she was off kilter in more ways than one. Aidan appeared to be waiting. She glanced sideways to find his eyes on her, inscrutable in the dim light inside the car. After another long beat, he spoke. “Becca, I’m not trying to save the day. I didn’t do anything I wouldn’t do for a stranger. I saw your car in the ditch and stopped to see if I could help.” He gestured to the window. “It’s rainy and cold out and going on midnight. I can’t in good conscience just leave you here. I have no doubt you’d take care of yourself if I hadn’t happened along. Maybe you don’t feel the same way, but I consider you a friend. I’m not leaving you alone on the highway in this weather. Your brothers would never let me hear the end of it if I did.” She knew what he said was true. He would stop to help anyone because that’s the kind of man he was. She just hated the fact she needed help and the one man who somehow got under her skin happened to be the man to stop and help. She glanced out the window. The pace of the rain had picked up, shifting from a heavy mist to something close to pouring rain. It felt like they were in a warm, dry island inside his car. The space compressed. Awareness prickled along her skin. Aidan was no more than a foot away from her. Darting her eyes sideways, they landed on his hand resting on the steering wheel—a strong, muscled and masculine hand. When she brought her eyes to his, they coasted over her face—assessing, measuring. She could barely breathe and somehow had to get through the next twenty minutes until George arrived. Aidan shifted in his seat, one of his hands falling to the console between them. “Have I done something to offend you?” he asked suddenly. She could tell by his tone that he was genuinely curious. She shook her head. Because how could she explain that the only thing he’d done was to be the one man who made her forget her promise she’d never let a man get to her again? It wouldn’t be so bad if he were some random guy she encountered once in a blue moon. No, he had to go and be one of Gage’s best friends and a friend to her entire family. She couldn’t avoid him even if she tried. “Well, then what is it? Every time I’m around you, you seem annoyed.” Instead of dropping the topic, he kept going. Her body was a jumble of nerves, electricity emanating from him and coiling around her, setting her nerves alight and heat notching higher and higher. “I’m not annoyed.” Maybe she could try to opposite approach. Say the opposite of everything she felt, and the feelings would go away. He arched a brow, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Really?” Annoyance arced higher. “No, I’m not! But I’m about to be.” Aidan chuckled. Anger rose inside her, and she opened her mouth to tell him off when it occurred to her she was being ridiculous. She couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled in response. She turned to him and collided with his gaze. In a flash, the air around them hummed with heat. His smile faded. Becca could hardly breathe. She held still, her heart battering against her ribcage. Before she knew what happened, he leaned across the console, erasing the distance between them. She opened her mouth to say something and his lips came against hers. Soft and sure at once, he fit his mouth over hers. The second his lips met hers, deep longing pulsed within. Her mind went blank and she froze, but for the life of her she couldn’t pull away. Not when her body cried out for more, craving to get as close as she could to imprint herself against his body the way his lips were now molded to hers. He angled his head, his tongue tracing her lips. Her breath broke on a low moan, and he captured it by deepening his kiss. His tongue delved inside, hers responding by tangling with his. The kiss went from a tentative exploration to explosive. Heat surged through her in waves as she nearly crawled across the console to get closer. His hand stroked up her neck, lacing into the hair at her nape. His thumb brushed across the beat of her pulse, which went wild at the feel of his calloused skin against her. Oh. My. God. He felt so good—so, so, sooo good. All this time, she hadn’t allowed herself to wonder what it would feel like to kiss Aidan. Every time her body considered it, she ran away from the thought, trying to shove her body’s desire into a box where she could lock it up and pretend it didn’t exist. Now that she’d tasted him, she didn’t think she could ever forget. He kissed the way he did everything—with complete confidence. He alternated with strong, commanding strokes of his tongue and soft, devastating kisses when he pulled back incrementally. Somehow, her hand was stroking into the curls at the base of his skull, his hair damp against her fingers. He tore his mouth away, his lips coasting down her neck, his rough stubble scraping her skin, making her arch into him. Hot, wet kisses blazed a trail along the edge of her collarbone and dipped into the vee of her blouse. Her n*****s were tight, peaked in desire. She wanted to feel more, more of everything. She wanted his touch on every inch of her body. Now.