A thrilled father. Crazy jobs and traveling.
No longer needing to ask what everyone was talking about, Aiden’s gaze shifted to the front of the grocery store, where he could see the highest hill in Villa Rosa through the gleaming plate glass.
Sage.
As always, just her name invoked a gutful of mixed feelings. Exasperation, affection, lust.
Damn, what’d she done this time?
Handing the beer to a passing stock boy, Aiden made a beeline for the exit, not stopping to talk to anyone on the way to his car.
Professor Lee Taylor had been a lifesaver to a ten-year-old brainiac geek with more IQ points than social skills, who was too advanced even for the gifted program. Realizing that ten was just too young to take classes alongside college students, the Professor had created a special curriculum and tutored Aiden himself. He’d shown Aiden the thrill of expanding his brain, of accepting his mental skills. He’d welcomed him into his home, first at fifteen when Aiden hadn’t wanted to follow his parents to New York, then at seventeen when his parents had been killed in the Twin Towers. He’d provided a touchstone, been a mentor and always given Aiden a sense of acceptance.
And then there was his daughter, Sage.
Three years Aiden’s junior, she was about as opposite in personality of her father as the sun was from the moon. But like the Professor, she’d welcomed Aiden into their family with a no-strings open-armed sort of acceptance. Despite her father’s focus on his protégé, she’d never shown any jealousy. Rather, she’d seemed relieved that her dad had found someone like Aiden, taking the pressure off of her.
As a thanks for that, she’d spent a good portion of the last two decades driving him crazy.
So Aiden no longer questioned why people thought he and Sage were engaged. He knew the prodigal daughter must be home and for reasons probably only clear to herself, was up to something. He just had to find out what.
And then decide what he wanted to do about it.
Knowing better than to prejudge, or even try to guess about anything Sage did, he kept his mind clear of questions as he made his way up the hill to the Taylor house. He parked behind a handful of cars in the circular driveway. As soon as he opened his door the sound of laughter and splashing water hit him.
Not bothering with the front door, he made his way around the house toward the pool. Set a few hundred yards away from the house, the Professor had built the waterfall-inspired feature as a treat for his daughter when she’d decided she wanted to be a mermaid. Not to swim, or for sunbathing. That wasn’t whimsical enough for Sage.
And knowing his daughter’s love of socializing—something that baffled both the Professor and Aiden alike—he’d built it big, with ample room for entertaining and a large gazebo at one end.
It was around that white open-aired building that most of the crowd gathered.
And there, like the most exotic flower in the garden, was Sage. Aiden had a special radar when it came to her. Call it an eye for trouble, or the fact that despite his best efforts to keep her out, she always snuck into his sexiest fantasies. It didn’t matter that she looked nothing like the last time he’d seen her, or that her back was to him, it didn’t take him more than a glance to pick her out of the crowd.
Rather than pitch-black and edgy, her hair was back to her natural blond, waving halfway down her back. Even from behind, her tall, slender frame was as familiar to him as his own. And her laugh rang out, the welcome home he hadn’t realized he was waiting for.
As usual, she was surrounded by people. A few he recognized from the social events he’d attended from time to time while home on leave. A few he knew from school.
None of them mattered.
It was hard to pay attention to anything, anyone, since Sage was wearing a bikini.
A couple of teeny, tiny turquoise scraps of fabric that covered little, but did a great job of drawing attention to the curves between the material.
When whoever she was talking to gestured, Sage quickly turned.
Aiden desperately hoped his moan was only in his head and not aloud. Because oh, baby, she was gorgeous.
Her breasts filled the bikini top with a generous bounty, her curves an ode, he knew, to her yoga discipline and not any sort of diet. Already pale gold, despite it only being spring, her skin seemed to glow. To beckon. His fingers itched to touch.
His desperate need for her always took him by surprise. As was his habit whenever he saw her again, he had to warn himself to keep his distance. No touching, no lusting. He knew from experience that it’d only take a few minutes, an hour tops, before the message sank in.
All that SEAL training for command over his body came in handy for this kind of thing.
Because Sage Taylor was strictly off-limits.
As if hearing and mocking his thoughts, she clapped her hands together with her usual exuberance at the sight of him and hurried barefoot across the lawn.
The crowd followed.
At least, Aiden thought it did. There was a blur of bodies moving behind her bikini-clad form. But he was so busy trying not to drool and commanding his erection to stand down that he wasn’t positive.
Damn, she had gorgeous legs.
“Aiden,” she called when she was a few yards away. Her smile as wide as her legs were long, she threw out both arms as if to hug him from across the yard. “I didn’t realize you were coming home.”
There was something there beneath the bright smile and enthusiastic tone. But before he could figure out what, she was close enough that her scent wrapped around him. A mix of fresh grass, some sort of incense and the faint aroma of flowers.
“I hear you’re causing trouble again,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “Isn’t that always more fun if I’m here to appreciate it?”
“Me?” she asked with a laugh, pressing one hand against her lush chest and making him want to whimper. “When have I ever caused trouble?”
“When haven’t you?” he responded with a grin of his own.
“I’m innocent, I tell ya,” she claimed as she reached him.
“Right. Like I’m dumb enough to believe that?” He fell into the easy, teasing banter, knowing the faster they reestablished those friendly boundaries, the faster his body would get the message.
“Aww, you sweet talker, you.” Her eyes, a few shades lighter than her swimsuit, danced with glee. But they were shadowed, hinting at worry and stress. Two things he’d never associated with Sage.
“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly, glancing behind her at the people slowly making their way toward them.
“Like I said, I didn’t realize you were going to be home so soon,” she told him, frowning a little as she too looked at her posse.
Since he hadn’t realized he was coming home either until that morning when he’d changed his flight from Aruba to San Francisco, he was sure that was true. But that wasn’t what was bothering her.
“Sage?”
“I’m sorry, babe,” she said, a hint of something in her husky tone that put his senses on full alert. “I know you wanted to keep it a secret. But I’m so bad at that kind of thing, and when Dad asked, I just had to tell him our news.”
“What news—” Before he could finish his very reasonable question, Sage threw herself into his arms with enough force to catch him by surprise.
Not over the move.
He’d come to expect anything and everything from his mentor’s daughter over the years.
But