Chapter 3 of Harrier's Healer--unedited

CHAPTER THREE
“Sir, I believe I asked you a question,” the smaller officer said.
“What’s going on here?” Scott asked, moving to stand closer to the woman he was going to protect for the rest of her life. That and marry her.
“We are looking for a man who was injured in this area who fits your description. Can I see your identification, please?” The officer held out his hand.
“Sure, but if you don’t know who the man is, then what good is my identification going to do?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet to get his card.
“You sure are asking a lot of questions. What’s your name?” He gestured impatiently for the piece of plastic.
“Lieutenant Commander Scott Leighton,” he snapped in return, handing over his military identification. He didn’t like the way the men looked at Alexis. Hell, I don’t like any man looking at Alexis. My Alexis.
“How do you know Ms. Rogets here?” the larger man asked in a snide tone.
Thick arms crossed, showing Alexis not one shred of pain from his wound, as a blonde eyebrow rose. “Are you trying to imply something, Officer?” He looked at the nametag. “Johnson?”
The officer took a deep breath and tried to look as impressive as Scott, only to fail miserably. “Of course not, it’s just that we are wondering what you are doing here.”
Aren’t we all, Alexis thought as she relocated next to the statue of carved muscle in her living room. “We are both in the Navy and have,” she glanced at him, “served time on the same ship.”
Scott looked at the woman standing next to him, her head barely coming to his shoulder. She was ready to defend him. He held out his tanned hand for his ID. It was returned to him with great reluctance. “I had some business to do around here and came to ask Alexis for her help on it.” His eyes dared the men to say anything to dispute him.
Clearing their throats, the police looked at the five young men also in the room and the smaller one, Officer Petrasla, nodded his head at them. “What are they doing here?”
Fists clenching, Alexis took a step forward. “They have every right to be here. They were here last night. This is my cousin and his friends. Are you implying something, now?” Her tone had grown cold.
It was a simple action by Scott, reaching out and touching her shoulder, but it halted her forward movement. “I’m sure,” he drawled, “that these officers wouldn’t insinuate anything when it is obvious that I am not the man they are looking for and the young men here are not doing a single thing wrong.”
Officer Johnson got the hint and shrugged. “Well, if you see him, Ms. Rogets, please give us a call.” He grabbed his partner’s arm and led him back out the screen door and down to the patrol car.
“What made them come here?” That deep voice caressed her, chasing away the anger she had from the visit.
“They always come here. I don’t always know them but the officers always know me.” Alexis looked at the young men in her house. “Well, come on then. Breakfast is ready. Put your things away and get into the kitchen. I have better things to do today than baby-sit you bunch of ragamuffins,” she huffed even as she winked at them.
“We love you too, Lex,” the group said as one before they headed for their sleeping bags to put them back in the hall closet.
She grumbled and walked off, just expecting that Scott would follow her. “Well, get yourself some breakfast, Commander, unless it isn’t your kind of food.”
Scott looked at the sideboard that teemed with steaming food. It looked like enough to feed an army, or at least his SEAL team. His stomach growled as the intoxicating aromas filled his nose.
“Go on, if you want any. Better get it before they get here.” Alexis nodded toward the stack of plates.
“And you?” His question fell as he reached for a plate, trying to hand it to her.
“No, I already ate.” I can’t eat in front of him. I have enough of a hard time just trying to swallow in front of him.
His eyes moved slowly up and down her body. “Really?” he asked doubtfully.
“I snacked while I made breakfast.” The noise from the boys grew louder.
“Don’t you know I know you are lying to me? Trust me; I like a woman who’s willing to eat in front of me. Are you back to being scared, Alexis?” he challenged.
Damn you, Scott. Just kiss me. She snatched a plate and before she could say a word, he interjected, “Or did you need a good morning kiss?” His mouth was right next to her ear.
Jesú, it’s like he is reading my mind. “I don’t think so,” she managed to mutter.
“I do.” His arm snaked around her waist, spinning her towards his body…and his mouth. Unlike their first kiss on the carrier, this one was gentle. A learning kiss. Scott slipped his tongue into her mouth and stroked it against her own. A slow-drugging kiss that had her shaking on her feet.
This man could kiss. Time stood still for the two as they were locked in an embrace. Scott had one arm around her and her one free arm slowly made its way around his lean waist.
“Uh-hmmm,” came the interruption. “Lex, what the hell is Casper doing sucking on your face?”
They moved slowly apart, like snails in winter. Scott drew her bottom lip into his mouth as they separated, keeping her close for a moment longer. “I love how you taste,” he whispered as he released her.
“Eat your breakfast, Jay.” Her chest heaved as she moved towards the food herself.
“And Casper here?”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” Scott asked.
“Have you noticed your skin color, man?” Jay snapped, taking his plate and making it so Scott couldn’t stand next to Lex.
“I get it, Casper, as in the ghost, the Friendly Ghost.” He moved to the other side of Alexis and ignored the warning glare from her pintsized bodyguard.
“Man, I don’t want your lips anywhere near Lex,” Jay threatened.
Setting down his plate beside the seat that Alexis took, Scott sat down and pinned the young man with a purposefully-bland stare. “My relationship with Alexis is not any of your concern.”
“Jay, sit down,” she interjected because she knew where this was heading. “Commander Leighton and I don’t have a relationship other than a working one. What you saw was a mistake and it won’t be happening again,” Alexis said firmly.
Like hell it won’t be happening again. “There you have it.” Scott sent Alexis a small shake of his head before dropping it and digging into his breakfast with relish. His relationship was too new for him to hash things out with a young man who wanted to protect her.

As the rest of the group sat down at her long table to eat, talk was turned towards Alexis and her plans for the day. “What gives you boys the right to think you can run my life?” she asked the young men.
“We’re family,” they responded as one.
“And, yet, you don’t stay out of trouble. I can’t help you out next time. You know that, don’t you?” Her tawny gaze pinned each and every young man there.
“Yes, Lex. We know.”
One by one they finished and put their dishes in the sink before kissing her on the cheek and leaving the kitchen. “Dinner’s at six-thirty; it’s ribs. I’ll do some laundry tomorrow as well, so bring a change of clothes,” she yelled to their retreating backs.
As the screen door slammed, it dawned on the two adults that they were completely alone. No young people, no crew, no ship, no regulations. Just them. A man and a woman who had a fierce attraction for one another.
Swallowing hard, Alexis shoved back from the table and took her dishes to the sink. She opened the dishwasher and began to load it. Trying hard to stay focused on the job at hand. He’s hard. And so much more fun to focus on.
“You can’t ignore me forever, Alexis.” His velvet tone moved over her.
I will do my damnedest. “I’m not ignoring you,” she lied. “I am just cleaning up.”
His chair scraped the wooden floor as he rose with his plate in hand. A glance at the sideboard showed nothing but empty dishes. Those boys had cleaned up every bit of food she made for them. “Wow, they sure can eat a lot,” he said as he handed her the plate.
“They are growing boys,” she replied easily. It was nothing new for her to feed them. It was just something she did.
“So am I,” he muttered as his gaze swept over her denim-covered ass.
Shutting the black door of the dishwasher, she leaned against it and met the blue gaze of the only person who could make her lose her mind. “Tell me where you got the gunshot wound.” Her tone was doctor-like, demanding an answer.
“There was some kind of shootout a few streets over from where you found me. It was a stray bullet.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What were you doing down here, anyway? No offense, Commander, but you don’t exactly fit the look of the majority of people that come down here.”
“Would you please not call me Commander? If you won’t call me Scott, call me Harrier. But for the love of God, Alexis, we aren’t on any military installation anymore. Don’t call me Commander.”
“It’s easier for me to call you Commander, but I will try to call you Scott for the time being.” At his gesture, she took a seat across from him at the table. “What are you doing here? I’m not going to believe you have family down here.” She raised a brow quizzically.
The one that I am here to see will be family soon. “I needed to see you.” His blatant statement made her eyes grow wide.
Insides trembling, she didn’t want to ask the question that slipped out of her mouth. “Why?”
He sent her a look like ‘you can’t be serious’. “Because since I met you in Norfolk, I can think of nothing but you. Jesus, Alexis, I know this will sound corny but you have bewitched me. Totally.”
It was a good thing she was sitting down, because her knees were shaking like there was an earthquake rumbling beneath them. “We can’t do this,” came her inevitable protest.
“Don’t give me that whole code of behavior or modus operandi shit, Alexis. Where is the nearest military base from here?” At her silence he continued, “See, there is no reason for that to be an issue. You do realize that, although it is frowned upon, people do fraternize in the Navy.”
“It may not be a problem for you, being a commissioned officer, but for us non-coms it is. I am not willing to risk my career for a roll in the sack with you, no matter how much I want to, only to have you need to put me somewhere where I won’t be able to ruin your career, or to please your ‘trophy’ wife. I worked my ass off in Harvard and I love serving in the Navy, so no matter how tempting it may be.” Her eyes roved over the exposed part of his body as her voice deepened with desire, “And it is tempting, but not worth my career.” Sure it would be, to be loved all over by that man. Hell, yeah!
His tall body rose gracefully out of the chair and lifted her boldly out of hers, cradling her in his steel-lined arms. He walked to the countertop and set her down, wedging his body between her spread thighs. “I would never,” he stated as his hands found the hem of her shirt and moved under it, searching for the skin he knew would be smooth as silk. “Never do anything like that to you. I’m not looking for a roll in the hay with you, my little healer. I was thinking something much more permanent than that.”
“What do you want from me?” she gasped as his large hands moved up her sides over the lace of her bra.
“I want everything from you.” He took a deep breath and moved his hands down out of her shirt and placed them on her sides. “Everything.” Then he stepped back and allowed her to jump down from the counter.
“So you took a chance in coming down here, to maybe run into me and what, try out sex with the HMC?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “For that matter, how did you know where to find me?”
He moved towards her again, “I’m a SEAL. That’s what I do. And I know you are on leave for the next twenty days.” His eyes looked at her directly, “Just like you know all about my file.”
God, everything about him made her tremble. “I don’t know anything about you, Commander.” She was using his title as a barrier.
He knew it. “Don’t start with that shit again, Alexis,” his warning came.
“I have things to do.” The fiery woman stomped off to the living room where she began to clean it up and get it ready for the evening.
Scott followed her. He leaned in the doorway and watched as she moved around her living room picking up things and fluffing pillows. “What were you doing over there last night?” His question startled her.
“If you must know, I was on a date.” She never missed a beat with her cleaning.
“With who?” Those two words were growled with such animosity she stopped and looked at the man who uttered them. His eyes were shards of ice and there was a very pronounced tick in his jaw.
“That is none of your business.” He’s jealous, Alexis told herself with one hand on her hip.
The hell it isn’t. “Believe what you will, but you’re wrong. It is my business. Everything about you is my business.”
“So says you,” she muttered.
“At least you are beginning to see it my way,” came his smart-ass remark. His hard body plunked itself down on the couch that she had just finished straightening as if it had every right to.
Throwing the pillow she held in her hand at him, she just sat down in a leather chair and watched as he snatched it out of the air, nice and easy-like. “So tell me what you are doing here, in my neck of the woods?”
“I told you, I came to see you.”
“Well, you have seen me.”
Not as much of you as I want to. “Take a vacation with me,” he blurted out.
“What?”
“Come on, take a vacation with me. I have some down time, at least a week. We could take a cruise,” he grimaced. “Sorry, I forget you are on the water all the time. A rail ride, spend a few days with me. Get to know me, inside and out.”
There’s a loaded statement. “I am on vacation.”
“Is this really the vacation you want? Or would you rather spend time with me? I will do whatever you want, anoint you with baby oil, rub you down anytime you want. We can go to movies, whatever. Spend about a week with me, have room service, let me take care of you.”
This has to be a dream, because there wouldn’t be a cold chance in hell that Lt. Commander would want to spend a vacation with her. “I get it, this is another dream. Very funny, Lex, come on wake up. Keep this up and before long you are going to be naked with this man of your every fantasy and erotic dream. Commander Leighton. And then, as usual, we will wake up before we actually get to what I have wanted since I was almost run over by his fine-ass body,” She mumbled as she got up off the chair and walked back to her bedroom, rubbing her head totally ignorant of the wide grin on the very real and now very knowledgeable Commander Leighton about her fantasies in which he was the star player.