Guarding Antonia Read online

  Guarding Antonia (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

  Guardian Seals Book 6

  Nicole Flockton

  Contents

  Foreword

  Acknowledgements

  About the Book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Nicole Flockton

  More Special Forces: Operation Alpha World Books

  Books by Susan Stoker

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

  © 2018 ACES PRESS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this work may be used, stored, reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations for review purposes as permitted by law.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy.

  Dear Readers,

  Welcome to the Special Forces: Operation Alpha Fan-Fiction world!

  If you are new to this amazing world, in a nutshell the author wrote a story using one or more of my characters in it. Sometimes that character has a major role in the story, and other times they are only mentioned briefly. This is perfectly legal and allowable because they are going through Aces Press to publish the story.

  This book is entirely the work of the author who wrote it. While I might have assisted with brainstorming and other ideas about which of my characters to use, I didn’t have any part in the process or writing or editing the story.

  I’m proud and excited that so many authors loved my characters enough that they wanted to write them into their own story. Thank you for supporting them, and me!

  READ ON!

  Xoxo

  Susan Stoker

  Acknowledgements

  A huge thank you to Susan Stoker and Amy Hrutkay for everything they do with Aces Press. Happy to be part of the family.

  To the awesome readers who keep picking up the next book in this series. I know you’ve been waiting for this one and I hope you enjoy Robot and Antonia’s story.

  Thank you to my great friend Abigail Owen for always listening to me when I’m having a down day and lifting me up when I need it. This writing gig is so much easier with you walking alongside me.

  Jennifer, my PA and cover artist, who has created yet another beautiful cover and is always answering my calls when I need help.

  Thanks to Courtney at Authors on A Dime for her great copy editing eye and for enhancing this story even more.

  As always being able to follow my dreams without the continued support from my handsome husband Jason, and my two kids who put up with my vague answers when I’m in the zone.

  About the Book

  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? That’s what Antonia Rocca thought about her impetuous marriage to a Navy SEAL. When circumstances bring them back in the same orbit, the attraction is still there, even though she does everything to fight it. When it comes to light that their marriage isn’t annulled like she’d believed, she’s adamant that ending their union is for the best.

  Brendan “Robot” Dean is never one to make a rash decision, so his Vegas marriage is very out of character. However, when he discovers it is still valid, he considers it an opportunity to explore his attraction to Antonia and find out if they really could have a marriage. If only Antonia agreed with him.

  After Antonia witnesses a murder, Robot is there to provide support and keep her safe and she finds herself seeing him in a way that has her thinking of a future she never imagined. Before they get the chance to find out, Antonia is taken by the murderer. Robot and his team must race against time to save her from becoming his next victim.

  For Nicole, a new friend

  Chapter 1

  “We had a one-night stand, Robot. That’s all it was.” Antonia glared at the man she’d been attempting to avoid for the last twelve months. An impossible task considering her best friend was married to his teammate, meaning they all socialized together. Not to mention she’d moved down to Virginia where they all lived. She should’ve stayed in New York.

  What the hell had she been thinking to move close to her best friend?

  She hadn’t been thinking. It was as simple as that.

  The man in question moved, his shirt pulled tight across his biceps, stretching the fabric until it looked like it would split apart.

  Geez, the guy was too damn sexy and it was getting harder and harder to resist him.

  But she had to.

  God, she wished she could go back to that night two years ago in Vegas and pick a different roulette table to play at, one where Brendan ‘Robot’ Dean wasn’t.

  Why the hell were they having this conversation at T-Rex and Brielle’s nuptial celebration?

  “It was a bit more than that.” He drawled in that low sexy growl of his. “We got married.”

  “Don’t remind me. It was a stupid drunken mistake. A bad sitcom storyline. Besides, we immediately rectified our problem the next day by agreeing to draw up annulment papers. Papers I signed and returned to you the minute they arrived on my doorstep.” Antonia blew out a frustrated breath. The last place she wanted to be was in a room where Robot’s masculinity cloaked her in a sensual fog she wanted to get lost into.

  All it would take would be one step.

  One step and then she could lay her head on his chest. Have his arms wrap around her and keep away all the demons she’d been fighting since her teenage years. But she couldn’t do that. She needed to be strong and keep her distance from the dangerous Navy SEAL. “I don’t see why you have to bring our drunken mistake of a marriage up now?”

  “Because we need to talk about us.” Robot took a step toward her and she took one back. He couldn’t touch her. If he did, she’d cave into the longing she’d been fighting since the moment she walked into his backyard party and clapped eyes on him again two-years after they first met in Vegas. She slammed down the shutters on her thoughts, she didn’t need to be thinking about what happened that night in his bedroom.

  One stupid mistake after another.

  No not a stupid mistake.

  Antonia determinedly ignored the little voice in her head. “There is no us. We,” she pointed between the two of them. “ended the second we woke up in that Vegas hotel room and the reality of what we’d done sank in.”

  “If only it was that simple,” he muttered and ran a hand over his closely cropped hair. The one thing she’d always admired about Robot was the way he was in control of everything. Looking at him right now, he appeared anything but the kick-ass Navy SEAL team lead she knew him to be.

  The ball of dread that formed in her stomach the second he asked to speak to her in private multiplied until it was larger than the boulder Indiana Jones ran away from. Her breaths came out faster and a bead of sweat trickled down her back.

  “What exactly are you saying here, Brendan?” She never used his given name. He’d introduced himself to her as Robot and that was how she always thought of him. Antonia was sure he’d told her how he got his nickname, but it was probably while
her mind had been full of vodka and lust, so nothing had soaked in that night.

  Apart from the mind-blowing sex.

  Yeah, she could no longer deny the validity of the voice in her head. Sleeping with Robot was the one thing she wanted to forget about her time in Vegas, and it was the one thing she couldn’t. After that weekend she’d made a promise to herself—no more one night stands. What had she done when she’d seen Robot again? Gone and slept with him. Only it wasn’t one night, she’d spent the whole weekend in his bed.

  The attraction had been hard to deny. Not to mention the way he’d stayed by her side while she’d been in the hospital after her and Erin’s kidnapping.

  “An assistant from my former lawyer’s office called me yesterday the annulment papers were never filed. We’re still married.” Robot stated as he shoved his hands in his pants pocket.

  Blood rushed through her ears, and her heart thudded against her chest. She’d heard him wrong. Hadn’t she?

  It couldn’t be true.

  She’d misheard him. She had to have.

  They couldn’t still be married.

  They couldn’t.

  “Please tell me this isn’t true.” During their whole conversation she hadn’t wanted to believe the niggling thought in her mind that something had gone wrong with their annulment. Call it a sixth sense, but why else would he have brought up what happened in Vegas? What happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, not follow her to Virginia.

  Warm hands closed around her shoulders and the fight to keep her distance from Robot seeped out of her like a retreating mist.

  “I’m sorry, but it is. Seems someone at the office didn’t do their job properly.”

  There wasn’t a hint of softness in his tone and that made her even more annoyed. She wrenched away from his hold. “Damn you, Brendan.”

  She turned on her heel and stormed out of the room not wanting to be close to the man a minute longer. He’d messed her up so much it wasn’t funny. For two years she’d managed to push aside her marriage mistake. Hadn’t breathed a word of it to anyone. Not even Erin. She and her BFF shared just about everything.

  When she’d signed the papers, she’d been positive everything had been sorted out. What she should’ve done was file them herself, then she would’ve had the assurance that their one-night marriage was over.

  God, Antonia still couldn’t believe how stupid they’d been. It wasn’t like they’d been kids when they’d stumbled into the chapel attached to the hotel. They were adults with careers. People who should’ve know better.

  “Antonia, don’t run away from me.” He didn’t speak loudly. Like her he didn’t want to draw attention to them, but he’d said the words with quiet authority that rankled her already stressed demeanor.

  She whirled on him, anger firing through every nerve ending.

  “You don’t get to demand anything of me, Brendan Dean. I need time alone and,” she marched toward him and stabbed him in the chest. “You need to respect that.”

  His hand closed over hers, trapping it against his warm chest. Beneath her fingers his heart beat thudded a rapid tattoo.

  Her breath shortened and the inconvenient desire that always consumed her when she was close to Robot wended its way through her like a meandering river.

  “Antonia,” he whispered, and the pull of her name on his lips had her lifting her gaze. The look of unbridled heat in his eyes should’ve had her running as far away from him as possible, except it lured her closer.

  In slow motion, his head lowered towards her. Even knowing what was going to happen, she could do nothing about it because she wanted it as much as he did.

  The second his lips touched hers, her upside-down world righted itself. She’d been expecting a ravishing, but she got the opposite. Robot’s mouth moved sweetly over hers. A sigh rippled through her and her muscles relaxed as she fell into the kiss. Her trapped hand clutched at his shirt while her free arm anchored itself behind his neck.

  This kiss was unlike anything they’d shared before. Their mouths danced together while their tongues remained hidden away from each other. Normally their kisses were carnal, like they were both punishing each other.

  The sound of laughter wafted down the hallway, breaking into their spell, reminding them of where they were—in Brielle’s father’s house celebrating Tim and Brielle’s elopement. As well as the births of two babies on Robot’s SEAL team. The babies were a few months old now, but the team had been away a lot so they hadn’t been able to rejoice in all the recent happenings.

  Her breath sawed in and out as she took two steps away from Robot. Everything in her screamed to drag him back to the room they’d been in and scratch the itch that had been a constant companion for the last twelve months since the weekend at his house.

  “We can’t brush aside what’s happening between us anymore, Antonia,” Robot said quietly.

  She sighed and wrapped her arms around her waist. “I know but give me a couple of days to think this over.”

  He nodded and shoved his hands in his jeans pocket. Antonia’s eyes were drawn to his groin and the outline of the erection she’d felt against her belly during their kiss. “I’ll see what else I can find out.”

  This time she nodded. “I guess we’d better get back before we’re missed.”

  “You go. I need a couple of minutes,” he responded and smiled ruefully.

  Heat rushed up her cheeks and she turned quickly so he wouldn’t see it. She hoped by the time she returned to the living room it would be faded enough so no one would think anything of it.

  God, the last thing she needed was for Erin to comment about her pink cheeks. Nothing got past her friend and she’d successfully avoided her questions about Robot over the last year, but soon it would be impossible to achieve that.

  Antonia hated keeping secrets from her best friend, but getting so drunk she married a guy she’d only known a few hours was too embarrassing to admit. Not to mention, monumentally dumb. Robot could’ve been a serial killer, for all she knew. The outcome could’ve been far worse than an unwanted marriage, though that was still not ideal.

  The attraction to Robot had been instantaneous and immediately consumed her, even through the copious amounts of alcohol she’d consumed, yet she still couldn’t fathom how she went from the roulette table to the chapel.

  Taking a deep breath, she walked back into the living room where the rest of the team were partying. Immediately, her gaze sought out Erin. At the moment, her friend was fully occupied with her new son and hadn’t noticed she’d returned to the room.

  Another quick look around showed everyone was caught up in their own conversations, except for Brielle. Her attention was fixed totally on Antonia. The other woman chewed her bottom lip and it looked like she wanted to come talk to her.

  Antonia’s stomach dropped as her sixth sense kicked in again and understanding sank into all of her pores.

  Brielle knew.

  Shit.

  Brendan ‘Robot’ Dean willed his body to settle down. He wasn’t a randy teenager anymore who sported a hard-on at the drop of a hat but being around Antonia had his body ignoring years of rigorous training.

  He was a fucking Navy SEAL, he had more control than this.

  “Why are you hiding in here?” A familiar voice came from behind him.

  “Nothing, I just needed to make a call.” Lying to a fellow teammate was very rare for him, but at present the last thing he wanted to do was tell the truth to his teammate and closest friend, Carlos ‘Italy’ Porcelli.

  “Really? Is that why Antonia walked out all flushed and with her shirt half out of her pants?”

  Brendan pushed a hand through his hair and blew out a frustrated breath. He and Antonia had been playing this cat and mouse game for months, ever since he’d seen her walk into his backyard when Italy and Erin had first started seeing each other over a year ago.

  When he’d heard the name Antonia being bandied around by Italy he hadn’t thought i
t would be his T, the woman he’d spent an incredible weekend with in Vegas.

  What the fuck? Since when did she become his?

  Since the second you laid your lips on hers in that smoke-filled casino and put a ring on her finger.

  The voices in his head had their own little discussion. He let them have it because listening to them would only highlight how true his thoughts were.

  “Leave it alone, Italy, I’m not in the mood.” He went to move out of the room, but a hand shot out preventing his escape.

  Brendan glanced down at his arm before flicking his gaze up to the man whose hand rested there. “I suggest you take your hand off me.”

  “Jesus, Robot, settle the fuck down,” Italy groused back at him, but he removed his hand.

  Remorse bit at his heels. He shouldn’t take his frustrations out on his friend. The reason their team worked like a well-oiled machine was because of the way they trusted each other implicitly.

  “Sorry, I just need…”

  Fuck, he had no idea what he needed. His dick twitched against his zipper letting him know what he wanted. Yeah, well he might want it too, but it wasn’t happening—no matter how much he wished it.

  “Dude, you need to get laid,” Italy clapped him on the back. Brendan didn’t want to think how closely his friend mirrored his own thoughts. The last woman he’d slept with was the woman he’d just kissed in this room.

  One weekend months ago was all they’d had together. The weekend where she’d turned up and he laid claim to her the second he worked out that Erin’s Antonia was the woman he’d been married to for all of twelve hours.