Free Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) by Natasza Waters Page A

backed up an
inch, he went looking in her eyes for the reason. “What’s that for, babe?”
    “Just a rem inder,” she said kissing the edge of his jaw, and then
giving it a little nip.
    He laughed softly, and
ran his fingers through her silky hair. “Think I’m going to forget about you
while you get milk?”
    “You look a little
stunned,” she admitted.
    He shrugged a nd took the beer from her hand, and swallowed back a deep
gulp. “Maybe a little.” He paused. “You know a SEAL doesn’t
make a lot of money—”
    She stopped him with
another kiss. “I’d rather be poor as a church mouse and know you love me, than
living in wealth with no love at all.”
    He didn’t doubt her,
but he couldn’t understand it either. He remembered when Kayla gave him a
balling out in Germany. What had she said? “A trail of rich men lingered behind
Nina, but she didn’t choose any of them. She was waiting f or the right man. She was waiting for love.” He pressed her
against the wall. This time he left his mark on her lips and swallowed the sigh
from her throat.
    “Mace?” They sprang apart like two teenagers
caught in the act.
    “Hey,
Gabbs.” He cleared his throat and gave his head a little
shake. How did the surveying look of an eight-year-old manage to make him feel
guilty?
    “I saved you some
crackers and cheese,” she said with her head tilted way back looking up at him.
    He knelt down, and
gave a gentle tug on one of her curls. Up close he
saw a sprinkling of light freckles across her nose. “Thanks Gabbs, I am kinda
hungry.”
    He and Nina settled on
a small sofa, and Gabbs crawled into Nina’s lap. She sized him up and then
said, “Do you like hockey?”
    “I do.”
    “Me
too. ”
    Guess Nina’s daughter
was going to be as athletic as her mom. Gabbs sized him up a little more, and
he gave her a wide grin.
    “I just got a new
hockey net. Wanna play with me?”
    “Sure,” he said, then laughed at the absolute surprise on her
face.
    “Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on ya. Mommy says you
still hurt sometimes.”
    “I’ll try to keep up.”
    “Tomorrow, not now,”
Nina interjected.
    “Mom, I’m just going
to show him,” Gabbs said, looking a little put out. “It’s in the garage, come
on, Mace.”
    He took her hand an d winked at Nina. “We’ll be right back.”
    “Worked up an
appetite?” he heard from the doorway.
    He looked up and
realized more than a half an hour had flown past. Gabbs had conned him into
shooting a few. She even scored on him once. She cheated, but he didn’ t care. Gabbs inherited her mother’s long legs, and she ran
like a spring fawn. Determined, deliberate, she put her energy on the target.
“Sorry, are your parents gone yet?”
    “Waiting
for you.”
    “You tried to get me
in trouble, didn’t ya?” he teased Gabbs.
    G abbs eye’s rounded. “I’ll tell them it’s my fault. They’ll
believe that.” Gabbs ran between the door frame and Nina’s sleek one.
    “Don’t let her take
control. You’ll be wearing a Canucks shirt before this week is over.”
    “I’m a Boston fan,” he
said, meeting her on the step. “I’ll be tough.”
    “Uh-huh.” Nina turned
and pulled him along behind her.
    No matter how much he already liked the
little bundle of energy that was as tenacious as her mother—Canucks fan, not a
hope.

 
 
 
    Chapter Six

 
 
    “Morning, Mom.” Nina
pad ded into the kitchen wearing the big, furry pink
slippers she’d found under her bed. They’d been there since she was sixteen.
They looked more like road kill with mangy, matted fur, but they meant home.
    “Morning,
darling.”
    “Nina, we need to
talk,” her fath er said, laying the morning newspaper
on the large walnut kitchen table.
    She leaned over and
popped a kiss on her father’s cheek. “Morning, Dad.”
    “Sit.”
    Ugh, not good. “Can I
face this conversation with a cup of coffee?”
    He gave her a dry
look. “It’s not t hat bad.”
    “When you order me