“Our line was all but decimated in Europe,” Burke said. “Two male cousins fled and wound up here during the gold rush. Not until our mate, though, were there more than two children born at a time.
Our wife gave us seven healthy children, and now they have begun to have children of their own.”
“And where is she now?”
“She died a few years ago,” Fridrik said.
Javier closed his eyes against the pain. So fresh, yet so old.
“You have not been able to let her go, yet, have you, son?”
The agony of loss tore at his heart as he shook his head. “How...how do you do that?”
“You realize that you are not the one who is gone from this earth. You must go on living to keep her alive in your memory.”
Javier glanced at the long table, old and scarred yet obviously lovingly polished. Though they’d lost their mate, these men had reasons to go on living. Children, grandchildren. All things Javier would never experience. All of the things Durchenko had stolen from him.
He lowered his casted leg to the floor and reached for the crutches. “If you’ll excuse me, sirs. My strength is still not what it should be.”
“Of course. Answer one question though,” Burke said.
Javier got to his feet and waited, resting on the crutches.
“You say you’re in finance now, but what did you do before?”
“I was in the Mexican Army’s Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales—the equivalent to your military’s Special Forces. My specialty was counterterrorism.”
Both Burke and Fridrik nodded. “Rest. Dinner is served at six. We hope you’ll join us.”
“Thank you,” Javier said, realizing they had accepted him into their home and no longer worried he’d cause harm to them or their family. “Again, I am in your debt.”
Chapter Seven
Fugly snarled at Heidi when Beth passed the dog off to her so she could grab her purse and grocery bag from the back seat of the Land Rover.
“Oh, hush your fuss,” Heidi admonished, but Fugly kept up with the chest-rumbling grumble. “I can’t believe you brought it home. The guys are never going to let you live this down.”
Beth closed the car door with a bump of her hip. “He’s mine, and that’s that. They don’t like it?
They can leave.”
Like that would ever happen. Heidi followed Beth into the house. “Hi, Dad,” she said to Fridrik who was getting a cup of coffee when they entered the kitchen.
“Hello, ladies.” He peeked into Beth’s grocery bag.
Beth playfully slapped his hand away from a bag of trail mix—Fridrik’s weakness. “I’ll put some in a bowl for you in a minute.”
“What’s that?” Burke came into the room, a scowl on his face as he stared at Fugly.
“That’s my dog,” Beth said, taking Fugly from Heidi’s arm. The dog grew silent as soon as it was away from Heidi. “He’s moving in with us.”
Fridrik made a silly face of disgust. “Why? Looks like bear bait to me.”
“Dad!”
Heidi laughed. “I told you...”
“What’s its name?” Burke held his hand out to the dog to let it scent him.
“Fugly,” Heidi told him. “Kel and Reidar named it.”
“Him, not it,” Beth corrected.
“Name fits.” Fridrik took the dog from Beth. Fugly didn’t seem to have a problem with anyone but Heidi.
“Whatever. I’m going to check on Javier.”
“He came out for a while, had coffee with us,” Burke said.
Heidi stopped in the doorway and turned back, raising an eyebrow. “And he’s still alive, I assume?”
Burke smiled. “He was fine last we saw him.”
With a hidden sigh of relief, Heidi went down the hall to her room. She knocked lightly before opening the door and found Javier doing pushups against the wall, balanced on his good foot.
“I guess you’re feeling better?”
He stopped and turned, his face damp with sweat. Her heart nearly stopped, then seemed to jump right out of her chest. He’d been handsome before. Shaved and wearing clothes that fit him, he was drop-dead gorgeous.
Without a word, he grabbed the crutches and hobbled back to bed. His lips were pressed tight, his jaw clenched.
“You’re hurting,” she said as she took the crutches from him and leaned them against the wall.
“You didn’t take your pills today.” They still sat on the tray with the empty breakfast dishes.
He lifted his leg onto the bed and sagged against the pillows. “They make my mind weak. I do not like them.”
“A body heals better when it rests. Not when it does pushups.”
His scowl was fierce. “I am not used to taking so long to heal.”
“It’s only been a couple of days, Javier. Give yourself time.” She leaned over to check the cast, looking for any sign that his wound was bleeding beneath it.
“Three cracked ribs didn’t take so long.”
She turned her head to look at his face. “When did you have cracked ribs?”
Again he pressed his lips together—this time, it was obvious, to silence himself.
“Why won’t you tell me anything about yourself?” Heidi sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, resting her hand on his strong, unbroken thigh.
Javier sucked in a breath, the muscle beneath her hand tensing. When she glanced down, there was no mistaking the hard-on tenting his shorts. It wasn’t something the man could hide no matter what clothing he wore.
Heidi snatched her hand off him and stood. “I...uh...”
“Oye, chata. You act as if you have never seen an aroused man before.”
She jerked her gaze from his crotch to his face. “Of course I have.”
The tiniest of smiles tugged at the right corner of his lips, and his eyes sparked with humor. “Have you? Numbers too numerous to count?”
Her mouth fell open as she struggled to find something to say. She knew how to spar verbally, she had to in order to survive her family, but she couldn’t think of a single comeback when her brain was addled with...lust.
His face didn’t show one hint of the embarrassment she felt aflame in her cheeks.
He reached out, grabbed her hand and pulled her forward until she stood with her thigh against the edge of the mattress. “Thank you for saving my life.” The kiss to the back of her fingers was as startling as his slight show of humor, and all she could do was stand there and stare while tingles raced up her arm straight to her nipples from the warm dampness of his lips. “I also apologize for my outburst yesterday. I was not myself.”
She glanced back at his groin. His cock was big and hard, pressed against the fly of his camo shorts.
It took a hard swallow to clear her throat so she could speak. “You...uh...seem fine now.”
“Perhaps...” He reached up with his other hand, wrapped his long fingers around her bicep and tugged her down over him. “...perhaps you should make sure. Now that I am awake.”
Heidi had to brace her hand next to his head to keep from collapsing onto him. Her heart thudded in her chest, her face flamed with heat, and her pussy clenched in need of that cock that was so close yet hidden beneath his clothes.
“Kiss me, chata.”
“My name is Heidi,” she whispered, her lips almost touching his, his breath mingling with hers.
She didn’t have a clue what chata meant, but after his prior dreamy murmur, she wanted affirmation that he knew exactly who was about to kiss him.
He grinned against her lips. “I know...Heidi.” He raised his head just the fraction of an inch it took to meld their lips, and Heidi lost all thought. Yesterday he’d been demanding, crushing her mouth to his. Today he was tender, questing, seeking. When she parted her lips, he didn’t sink his tongue into her as he had before. This time he teased, coaxed her, and she became the aggressor. When her tongue touched his and he lightly sucked it into his mouth, the arm supporting her collapsed and she went down over his chest, her breasts pressing against his hard pecs, pulling a moan from deep within her.