Griffin Read online

  “Nice. Not. I guess it depended on the money, didn’t it?” she said caustically. “Something I’ll have a hard time with.”

  “Sure, just understand that Amelia Rose is young and strong, and she will recover, and this is a terrible family scenario, but it’s not your family scenario.”

  “I know,” she said. She smiled up into his eyes and said, “What about you?”

  “What about me?” he asked, and then he yawned.

  She gently rubbed his unshaven cheek and asked, “When are you leaving?”

  He winced. “Probably soon. I don’t really know.”

  “Sounds like we both have things to think about,” she said.

  He nodded. “We do, but just think. We’re in control. We can choose what we want to do right now.”

  “I know what I want to do right now,” she said. “The question is, what do we want to do after right now?” And she reached up and kissed him gently.

  “Well, I like to work on one thing at a time,” he said smoothly. “So how about we focus on that right now thing, and then we’ll worry about the rest?”

  She chuckled. “So, in other words, make no plans right now?”

  “I know one thing,” he said. “I don’t want to lose contact with you.”

  She smiled, nodded, and said, “Agreed. In that case, as long as we do our best to find a way to make something work, then nothing else really matters, does it?”

  He smiled and said, “Well, some things matter.” And he nudged his hips against her.

  She felt the heat and the hard ridge against her smooth skin.

  “You’re wearing too many clothes,” he whispered.

  She chuckled. “I’m sure a handy guy like you can take care of that.” And, within seconds, she was flipped onto her back, and her nightdress was up and over her head. Laughter, bright and joyous, peeled out as she wrapped her arms around him. “You’re such a can-do type of guy. Why don’t you show me what you can do?”

  “You mean, show you more?” he asked. “I already rescued you twice, by the way.”

  She placed a finger against his lips, stopping the flow of words, and said, “How about, instead of talking, you just show me?”

  He lowered his head, and he kissed her gently several times, and then finally he deepened the kiss until she moaned with joy.

  She wrapped her arms snugly around his neck and said, “Not too bad a start. I can’t wait to see how you finish.”

  He chuckled and proceeded to show her with his hands, lips, and tongue, stroking, learning as she moaned and twisted beneath him. Every movement that brought her pleasure, every movement that caused her to still in surprise, only to arch up in need.

  She cried out time and time again until finally she demanded, “Enough teasing. I want you now.” She hooked her legs around him as he settled between them. She looped her arms around his neck, tugging him close, and whispered, “Kiss me like you mean it.”

  He stopped, looked at her. “Every kiss I’ve given you is because I mean it. This isn’t a dalliance,” he whispered gently, caressing her cheek with his lips, his tongue sliding along the edge of her lower lip and then inside to war with hers. He pulled back ever-so-slightly. “This is for us. Not just for today, not just for tomorrow, but for as long as we want it.”

  She smiled, wrapping her legs tighter around his hips and whispered, “Then how about forever?”

  And he plunged deep, taking her all the way home.

  Epilogue

  Jax had seen it coming, but he wondered how they would make it work. As far as he understood, Kerrick and Amanda were doing just fine in Paris. But Lorelei and Griffin? … Well, they had hit it off right from the beginning. But Jax couldn’t be happier for his friend. It was a lonely lifestyle these SEALs had chosen to lead, and each and every one of them had come to this point as a jumping off spot to something different, to making a choice to do something else.

  He hadn’t told Griffin but Jax’s agreement to come on this mission was so that he could take the lead on one op and one op only. He was leaving the military, and he was leaving everything to do with this type of life. The Mavericks team had asked Jax specifically to help Griffin as a warm-up to doing his one mission sometime later. He figured that it was the same for Kerrick and for Griffin. Jax wasn’t sure about joining the Mavericks unit for what would be his one big job, but the unit trained everybody before they took the lead on their one mission and then were done. But, as Jax thought about it, nobody in the Mavericks unit needed training.

  This was like the peak of their careers for them. Jax didn’t know if they would all be brought back to do something else. It was possible though, and Jax would consider it. He also knew that most of them were getting paid enough money that they wouldn’t have to work again. He’d never discussed that part either with Griffin or Kerrick. Jax didn’t even know if Griffin knew what Kerrick had gone through. What Jax did know was that the next job was his to head up. He hoped that he had a couple weeks or a month or two before then. Hell, he’d be happy to have a year or two in between these particular jobs.

  They were hard and intense, but, once done, then the op was done, and so was he. He didn’t have friends or family to worry about, so he was in a much easier situation than Griffin and Kerrick. Although, now that they had met and been partnered up for these Mavericks operations, things had changed for those guys too. That didn’t mean that they, in any way, shape, or form, were ready to go out the same as Jax was. They’d all come to the point where, if this was the last mission for them, then that was the last mission, and they didn’t really care to go on any more missions.

  Neither did he. He was moving on to something different. He just didn’t know what. He had a hankering for travel, to see the world as a tourist for a change, instead of skulking through the night in the shadows of darkness, watching other shadows move as they tried to take over worlds and governments and individuals.

  Sitting on a beach and watching the sunrise would be a pretty decent way to spend his time, and sitting on the same damn beach and watching each new sunset would be a unique opportunity for him to just relax, maybe with a cold beer and with a friend or two. Now that would make his life pretty damn perfect.

  He was headed back home again. He had been on his phone, setting up arrangements for his apartment and making sure his landlady knew he would arrive soon. The silly things in life that you had to organize. As he landed back in California and grabbed his single bag and headed outside the airport, his cell buzzed.

  He glanced down at the screen, groaned, and said, “Hell no. What?”

  “How tired out are you?”

  “Fucking tired,” he said. “It’s not like I got much sleep on the last job.”

  “That was two days ago,” the man said in exasperation.

  Jax heard something in that voice, and he said, “Hell, Griffin, is that you?”

  Griffin chuckled. “Hell yeah, it’s me. Is that okay?”

  “I don’t know,” Jax said. “What do you want?”

  Immediately all the humor fled as Griffin said, “We need you.”

  “Are you coming with me?”

  “No. Somebody will though.”

  “Why is it always like that?” he asked. “Some of these jobs are getting pretty thin for just one or two of us.”

  “If it can be more, it’ll be more. I promise I won’t send you out without backup.”

  He snorted at that. “But it won’t be you though, right? You’ll be holed up somewhere nice and cozy with Lorelei.”

  “If I could join you, I would,” Griffin said regretfully. “Lorelei and I will see each other on a regular basis now, spending time with Amelia Rose too. We’re giving the child time to adapt before Lorelei leaves.”

  “I’m almost jealous,” Jax said. “Almost but not quite.”

  Griffin snorted. “Your time will come. You won’t even see it happening, and, before you know it, it’ll be right there in your face.”

  “I doubt
it,” he said, “but whatever. So, what’s the job?”

  Griffin took a long, slow breath and said, “You won’t like it.”

  “I never liked any of ’em,” he said. “So what’s the deal?”

  “We’ve got a cruise ship that’s been taken over.”

  “Pirates? I’m one man. Remember that?”

  “It’s a one-man job. We need somebody who can go in and take them out, one by one.”

  “I still am not going alone. Someone has to watch my back.”

  “Do you remember Beau?”

  “Hell yeah, I remember Beau. That man could eat crawfish like nobody else I’ve ever seen,” Jax said. “Then again he’s huge. He can’t hide anywhere. He’s too damn big.”

  “Well, he won’t be eating crawfish this time. And he won’t need to hide. As a matter of fact, he’ll be shooting bullets at pirates. He always was a dang good sharpshooter. So he’ll meet you there.”

  “Meet me where?”

  Griffin snorted. “Off the Florida coast. You should be there right on time.”

  “No,” Jax said. “I just got off the goddamn plane in California.”

  “So you’re already packed, right? You hear your name on the PA system? Yeah, that’s to go pick up your tickets. You’re flying out now.”

  And, with that, Griffin hung up.

  Jax swore.

  This concludes Book 2 of The Mavericks: Griffin.

  Read about Jax: The Mavericks, Book 3

  The Mavericks: Jax (Book #3)

  What happens when the very men—trained to make the hard decisions—come up against the rules and regulations that hold them back from doing what needs to be done? They either stay and work within the constraints given to them or they walk away. Only now, for a select few, they have another option:

  The Mavericks. A covert black ops team that steps up and break all the rules … but gets the job done.

  Welcome to a new military romance series by USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. A series where you meet new friends in this raw and compelling look at the men who keep us safe every day from the darkness where they operate—and live—in the shadows … until someone special helps them step into the light.

  No time to rest. The world is a mess …

  He’d barely made it home from helping Griffin only to find himself called to rescue a doctor on a cruise ship overtaken by pirates in their search for Abigail Dalton. The pirates had no trouble killing passengers until they found the right woman. With one man at his side, Jax sneaks onto the ship to rescue her.

  When she heard the gunfire, Abby hid in the venting on the ship. When a man susses out her hiding place, she’s sure her world is about to end. Only Jax is on her side; yet he came with just one man to help. Stunned, she stays close as Jax frees the ship and keeps her safe—until they find out the real reason for this nightmare, when she’s forced to England to face the two-legged monster of her nightmares …

  The safest place is at Jax’s side, but Abby knows all too well how slippery this monster really is and how easily he steps from the shadows to grab his victims …

  Find book 3 here!

  To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading Griffin: The Mavericks, Book 2! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.

  Dear reader,

  I love to hear from readers, and you can contact me at my website: www.dalemayer.com or at my Facebook author page. To be informed of new releases and special offers, sign up for my newsletter or follow me on BookBub. And if you are interested in joining Dale Mayer’s Reader Group, here is the Facebook sign up page.

  Cheers,

  Dale Mayer

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  About the Author

  Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).

  She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!

  To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.

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  GRIFFIN: THE MAVERICKS, BOOK 2

  Dale Mayer

  Valley Publishing Ltd.

  Copyright © 2019

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-773362-00-7

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