A Major Seduction Read online

  A Major Seduction

  A Good to Go Novella

  By Marie Harte

  A Major Seduction

  A Good to Go Novella

  By: Marie Harte

  Published by Fated Desires Publishing, LLC.

  © 2014 Marie Harte

  ISBN: 978-1-62322-127-0

  Cover Art by Valerie Tibbs

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook 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 person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

  All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.

  A Major Seduction

  Major Mike Cava has done his best not to see Maria Thompson as anything but his baby sister’s best friend. Not an easy feat when Maria’s done her best to throw herself at him for years. But now that’s he’s returned to the East Coast and with his family again, he feels easier about handling little Maria.

  Except in the two years since he’s seen her last, Maria has grown way up. Good God, she’s stunning. But now that he’s really seeing her, she isn’t seeing him. No more jumping into his arms or smiling and flirting. A bland hello and she’s leaving to go hang out with some other guy. Oh hell no.

  Maria spent the past fourteen years mooning over a man who never saw her as anything but a little girl, and she’s done. Or so she tries fooling herself. She’s twenty-four years old, and it’s past time she grew up and over him. But now Mike’s giving “those” looks. He’s acting jealous. And she realizes that she’s not over him yet, and maybe one of her old plans to stir his interest might work this time around.

  With the help of her best friend—Mike’s sister—and his younger brother, she’ll prove she’s more than woman enough to handle him. His dominance, his kink in the bedroom, his huge, hot body. But just when she thinks they can make a go of it, he pulls back. She can’t do it anymore. Loving, being hurt, loving, being ignored. This time if Mike wants her, he’ll have to prove it. She’s done.

  And he’s just realized he might have made the biggest mistake of his life in pushing her away…

  Dedication

  To all the Marines serving or have served our country, thank you and Semper Fi.

  Chapter One

  Eight years ago

  Oh God. He was here.

  “Quick. Undo me,” Maria ordered, frantic she get this just right.

  Her best friend, Olivia, sighed. “Seriously? This has to be the dumbest idea you’ve had yet.” Still, Olivia helped unknot the back of Maria’s bikini top.

  Overhead, the moon lit up the ocean, not a cloud in the sky. Sparkles danced over the dark water, and the private alcove on the beach provided the perfect atmosphere to finally snag a certain someone. Too bad the breeze had died. Maria wiped sweat from her brow and wondered if she should put her hair in a ponytail. Long hair wasn’t sexy plastered to one’s face.

  “Really dumb idea,” Olivia repeated as she looked around and eased off the dock into the backyard. The wooden dock had served to host more parties and summer shindigs than Maria could remember. Heck, she’d spent her seventh birthday in this very yard at this very beach. She might not be a Cava by name—yet—but she was where it mattered. In the heart.

  This has to work. “I’m sixteen, officially a woman.”

  “Really? I didn’t know we had a certified date for turning all womanly.”

  “Shh. Now scram.” Maria heard footsteps getting closer. Her heart raced at remembrances of the tall, dark, and handsome Marine she’d fallen in love with at first sight. An older man. So forbidden. She felt all Lolita-like and cool, not cute or darling. Finally.

  “Good luck.” Olivia left without making a sound, disappearing into the shadows.

  Maria shifted on her towel and winced when a splinter dug in her butt.

  “Olivia?” Even his deep voice gave the shivers. Lieutenant Mike Cava was a dream. Every girl who saw him knew it. But he had so much more than his looks going for him. Kind, caring, sexy as all get-out. She sighed.

  She rose up on her elbows and saw her tiny bikini top waver over her small breasts—the only problem with her plan. She didn’t have curves like her best friend. Unfortunately, Maria took after her mom. Petite, blond, and stick-thin, though she’d been called pretty over the years. Cursed with the cute gene, but, hey, most guys liked boobs of any size, didn’t they? This would work.

  She could feel it.

  She cleared her throat. “Over here, Mike.”

  More footsteps. She thrust out her chest and shifted on the deck. The water lapped right next to her, and she wondered if Mike would want to make love in the ocean. How romantic would that be? Her first love, her first time.

  “Oliv—Maria?” He blinked. “What are you doing out here?”

  She smiled and batted her eyelashes. He looked confused, not attracted, so she tried again, adjusting herself on her towel. Perhaps if she moved back, her top could “accidentally” fall off. She scooted back on her hands and butt and winced as the splinter in her tush dug deeper. Keep it together, girl.

  Mike stared at her. Any minute now, he’d see her breasts and be overcome with lust, finally seeing her as more than his—“Ack!”

  “Shit.”

  She splashed into the water, and boy, the temperature of the ocean sure did drop in the evening. She shivered as she treaded water.

  Mike knelt over the side, all concern. “Hey, Maria, you okay?” He glanced over her shoulder and blinked. “Ah, is that your top?”

  Crap. “Oh boy. I think it is.” Perhaps a way to salvage the situation… “Could you help me out?”

  His smile seemed sincere, but it was growing a little too wide for her taste. As if he bordered on laughter. He stood and gripped the bottom of his T-shirt then yanked it off.

  The mother lode.

  She couldn’t speak. Good Lord, those Cavas made fine-looking people. Mike had muscles all over the place. His abs rippled as he chuckled, but seeing that bare skin made his laughter easy enough to bear.

  As she waited for him to undo his pants, she mentally chanted, I told you so to Olivia and continued to tread water. Oh God, this was going to be magical. She knew it.

  Unfortunately, Mike didn’t unsnap his jeans. He tossed his shirt at her. “Put it on, and I’ll help you out.”

  “What?”

  “Come on, Maria.” He sounded a bit rushed. “I have a date in half an hour. Let’s get a move on.”

  A date. With someone else.

  Sighing, she put his shirt on then took the hand he reached out to help her from the water. Instead of letting him help her out, she tugged him in.

  He swore and landed with a loud splash.

  She climbed onto the deck, dripping wet. A glance over her shoulder showed he looked even better drenched, his dark brown eyes almost black in the moonlight, his amazing shoulders and chest more like the body of a sea god than a mere human.

  “What the hell?” he growled. “Maria—”

  “And…back to the drawing board.” She wrung water from his shirt and swore as she walked back to the house, entering in the side so the colonel and Olivia’s mom wouldn’t see her.

  “How did it go?” her BFF asked when Maria entered her bedroom.

  “Not good.”

  Olivia shrugged. “Told you so. Now can we please get back to our Chem final? If we don’t s
tudy, there’s no way I’ll be getting an A in the class.”

  “My love life is doomed.” Maria dried off and put on clean clothes, moping. “He’s going on a date.”

  “With a woman his age, I’ll bet. Maria, he’s twenty-four, a lieutenant, has his own car, and doesn’t have to study for finals. Of course he’s got a date.”

  “While we have to serve out our junior year,” Maria muttered.

  “I like school.”

  “You would.” It still surprised her that she and Olivia could be so different yet be best friends. “So about Mike… Guys like younger women, don’t they?”

  “There’s younger, and there’s statutory rape younger.”

  “I’m almost seventeen,” she snapped.

  “Next year maybe.”

  “Hey. I’d never tell.”

  “You’re jail bait, plain and simple.”

  “I fit all the qualifications. I’m blonde. I’m young.” She squeezed her boobs. “I’m perky.”

  Olivia cringed. “Okay, first, ew. Second, you’re his little sister’s best friend—invisible.”

  “Nooo.” Maria wanted to cry.

  “How many times do we have to have this discussion? He’s out of your league for now. Wait until you’re twenty then try again. Now come on over and study.”

  Maria sighed. “Fine. But I’m not giving up. He’s mine.”

  “Whatever. Now what’s the definition for entropy?”

  Down but not out, Maria planned to bide her time. Mike Cava was hers, damn it. And no matter how long it took, she’d keep after him until she nabbed the sly Marine. Age was nothing but a number. She just had to make him see that.

  Present Day, June, Eight Years Later

  “I’m so excited he’s back. Gosh, Mike’s been gone forever.” Olivia chattered happily while Maria helped another customer in her mother’s craft shop.

  “What’s that?” She’d decided to be low-key. The years of pursuing Olivia’s slick brother hadn’t proved successful yet. She’d pretended to be demure, sexy, aggressive, shy, but none of her personas ever made her less invisible. Mike had gone so far as to rub her on the head two years ago at Christmas, like she was a stray dog he’d decided to kill with kindness.

  Bah. She wondered if she’d been fighting a losing battle for too long. Sometimes her tenacity could be a drawback.

  “Mike. My brother, the one you’ve had your heart set on forever? That Mike? He’s back and won’t be leaving again for the next three years at least.”

  “That’s nice.” Bobby Thorn had asked her out last week. Since he’d mostly wanted a booty call and she hadn’t been in the mood, she’d waffled. But after nearly six months with no sex and no Mike on the horizon to even fantasize about, perhaps she’d do best to take Bobby up on his offer. Like Mike, he was a Marine, had a nice build, and had his own place on the beach. Unlike Mike, Bobby actually saw her as a desirable woman. According to Olivia, he would have made a major play for her if she hadn’t given him—and every other guy she dated—the “we’re just casual friends and lovers” speech, her heart already belonging to someone else.

  “Hello? Earth to Maria. Mike’s back.”

  “Good for him. For all of you. I know you missed him.” Maria shrugged. “But I think I might be over him.”

  Olivia blinked. “Are you serious? You told me you wanted to marry him in second grade. You have your dress picked out. I’m a bridesmaid. We already have the church planned.”

  “But not reserved. I can change my mind.”

  “Um, okay.” Olivia stared at her with those big brown Cava eyes. Her dark hair and olive complexion, so like the rest of her family, made her stand out as a true beauty. Next to her, Maria always felt pale and tiny and—let’s face it—flat as an ironing board. Her chest had not grown as she’d thought it might. A B-cup was totally pushing it.

  She glanced subtly from her chest to her friend’s, buoyed by the thought Bobby had asked her and not Olivia. “So after work today, want to hit a movie?” she asked, consigning Mike to the back of her thoughts, pleased when he stayed there. Maybe she really was over him.

  “I can’t.” Olivia shook her head. “We’re having a welcome home dinner for Mike. Why don’t you come over?”

  “I know about the dinner, moron. I practically live at your parents’.” When she wasn’t at the apartment she shared with Olivia or visiting her own mother in Swansboro, a hop, skip, and a jump from the beach.

  “Then when are you coming?”

  “I don’t think I should. This is a family thing.”

  Olivia frowned. “Since when are you not family?”

  “You go. I think I’ll call Bobby.”

  “Bobby Thorn? Really? I thought you guys were done.”

  “We’re on again, off again. It works for us. I thought you’d be happy I’m done mooning over your brother. Haven’t you always told me to let it go and move on? Well, I’m moving on. You’re right. He’s too old.”

  “Seven years older than you isn’t too old.”

  “And he’s never here.”

  “He just got orders for Camp Lejeune. Which is here.”

  “Duh. I passed geography years ago.”

  “Yeah, but barely. He’ll be here for at least the next three years. That’s time to work your wiles on him.”

  “I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t have any wiles. I mean, what’s the point? I’ll always be his little sister’s best friend. It’s demoralizing.” Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. She blinked to hold them back, embarrassed at feeling so unattractive and stupid whenever Mike’s name came into play. “Bobby likes me.”

  “Bobby wants to do you.” Olivia, blunt as always.

  “So maybe I want to do him back.”

  “You can do whatever—and whomever—you want.”

  “Only you use ‘whom’ in regular talk. Seriously, Olivia. I know I’m lame, but you’re worse. When’s the last time you got laid?”

  Olivia blushed and looked around.

  “Easy. No one’s here but you and me.”

  “My point was that you can have sex with anyone you want. Just do it because you want to, not to somehow be getting back at Mike. And before you say that’s stupid, I know you.”

  Crap, she did. “It’s like you’re the left side of my brain. But I’m in your head too. So answer the question—when’s the last time you got laid?”

  “I’m too busy to date. You know I have my five-year plan.”

  “For Cava’s Java, I know. I’m there with you, girlfriend.” As a means of emotional support and manual labor when her friend opened her dream of a coffee shop in town. “I wish I had your drive. Is it bad I just want to find someone to love and settle down with? I want a family.” She was twenty-four, old enough to know what she didn’t want. No professional career to take up her free time. No backbreaking job that would force her to miss the sunset over the ocean, keep her from sharing high tea with her mom, or stop her from daily runs on the beach.

  “No, it’s not bad. It’s good to know what you want. I’m so close, Maria. Just two more grand and I’m ready to hit the bank for a loan. Cava’s Java. I can almost see the sign out front.”

  “I’m with you.” And planning to invest, though Olivia didn’t know that yet. The woman worked her tail off with two jobs and overtime to achieve her goals. Maria envied her that passion. Unfortunately, Maria had never had that kind of fervent desire for anything but Michael Cava. And now even that seemed to be waning.

  “Come on. It’s just dinner. My mom and dad miss you.”

  “Really? Because I had breakfast with them last weekend.”

  “Yeah, but that was four days ago.” Olivia grinned. “Look, come to dinner. You’re over Mike, right? Dinner should be a no-brainer. We’ll have great food we don’t have to cook, a good time, and you can still go out with Bobby afterward.” Olivia’s sly smile gave Maria goose bumps. “Wouldn’t it be satisfying to let everyone know you have a date and you can’t stay? N
o waiting around for Mike or slobbering over his every move—”

  “Hey.”

  “—while you’re out with sexy Sergeant Bobby Thorn.”

  She thought about it. “Hmm. You have a point.”

  Olivia continued, “Besides, Brad will be at dinner, and he could use some friendly faces. He’s still getting over his bitchy ex-girlfriend.”

  Maria had always had a soft spot for Olivia’s other older brother. “Well, for Brad, I guess. But I’m going out with Bobby after.” And if Bobby couldn’t make it, she’d call someone else. “Fine. What time?”

  After a long run after work, followed by a well-deserved shower, Maria knocked once before walking into a house that might as well have been her own, for all the time she had spent in it growing up. Thick as thieves, she and Olivia did everything together. Everything except college. While Olivia finished attending classes to learn the world of finance, Maria worked longer hours at her mother’s store. She liked interacting with people. Most of the customers interested in crafting and quilting were women, many of them older ladies who loved nothing more than smiling and talking about quilting fabrics, yarn, and patterns.

  For all that she enjoyed her work, though, it didn’t make meeting men any easier. In a Marine Corps town, she ran into them by the droves. Most were fun and nice enough, and she could tell the types just wanting a piece of ass from the nice boys wanting more. Fortunately, she’d met enough decent guys to have a thorough sex education under her belt. At the time, she’d thought she’d been developing skills to someday impress Mike. Now? Bah. Mike Schmike.

  “Hello?” She followed the noise into the dining room and spotted Brad first. Like all the Cavas, the guy had looks. Tall, muscular, and wearing a grin that always had her smiling back. He had military-cropped black hair and whiskey-brown eyes that gleamed with amusement. So much for Olivia’s description of the man in mourning about his ex.