Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Author’s Note:

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

SEAL OF HER DREAMS

SEALs of Coronado

Paige Tyler

Copyright © 2016 by Paige Tyler

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the author.

Cover Design by Gemini Judson, Cover Gems

Editing by Wizards in Publishing and RVP Editing

With special thanks to my extremely patient and understanding husband, without whose help and support I couldn’t have pursued my dream job of becoming a writer. You’re my sounding board, my idea man, my critique partner, and the absolute best research assistant any girl could ask for!

Thank you.

Author’s Note:

This book is a prequel to my SEALs of Coronado Series. If you’ve read the other books in the series, then you already know all about Melissa and Kurt. This is the story of how they met and fell in love back in the early 1990’s. As you read, notice there aren’t any cell phones (which were super expensive and not common back then) but I had fun including pagers, answering machines, and payphones.

CHAPTER ONE

San Diego, California, 1994

PETTY OFFICER KURT Travers had faced some scary shit during his time in the Navy SEALs. He’d been shot at more times than he could count, had vehicles blown out from under him, charged a machine-gun nest on the back of a horse, and had a bull shark take a hunk out of his scuba tank during a nighttime dive. He’d never once been as nervous and tense as he was right now. Given the option, he’d much rather be staring down the barrel of a gun than facing the menacing group eyeballing him.

The Navy might have taught him how to defend himself when in enemy territory, but they’d never gotten around to teaching him how to deal with a classroom full of first graders. Maybe he should talk to someone at Special Operations Command about that.

He’d once been told that kids could smell fear. If that was true, then the boys and girls in front of him must be getting a good whiff right now because he absolutely reeked of it.

“Do you eat raw fish and balance a ball on your nose?” a boy with blond hair and blue eyes seated in the front row asked.

“Do you work in the circus?” a dark-haired girl with glasses wanted to know, completely unconcerned that Kurt hadn’t even answered the first question.

“Why are you wearing a uniform instead of a scuba suit?” an African American boy by the window quipped.

Kurt cursed silently. He was this close to losing control of the group. They knew they had him on the ropes and they were pressing in on all sides. Even the crayon drawings the kids had made sometime during the school year that were now papering the walls seemed to mock him.

He glanced over his shoulder at Joe, the mountain of a man dressed in the dark green uniform of a city sanitation worker, hoping for a little backup, but the big guy simply shook his head as if to say, I just got myself out of that meat grinder. No way in hell I’m going back in there of my own free will. You’re on your own, dude.

In hindsight, maybe coming here hadn’t been such a good idea. But when his neighbor asked if he could fill in at her son’s school’s career day for her Navy husband who was currently on a ship somewhere in the Persian Gulf, he hadn’t had the heart to say no.

Kurt threw a desperate look at the dark-haired, sexy teacher leaning casually with one hip against her neatly organized desk. She might be slender and petite, but she seemed more than capable of handling this daunting crew with ease.

She merely arched a brow at him with a look on her face that said I told you so.

The worst part was that she had told him so, nearly ten minutes before the crowd of terrifying kids had come bounding and swarming into the room like a pack of killer bee kangaroos.

“You can’t stand in front of a classroom of six-year-olds and tell them what a Navy SEAL really does for a living. They’re not going to be able to understand it.”

And she was right. The moment he’d started talking about what the Navy’s premier shadow warriors did for a living, he’d lost them. When he’d told them he was a SEAL, they’d assumed he meant the thing with the cute face, wet fur, and flippers.

It had only gone downhill from there. The more he dug, the deeper the hole got. It was obvious the teacher—Melissa Drake—didn’t think much of him and wasn’t thrilled to have him in her classroom mucking up her carefully orchestrated career day activities. It wasn’t his fault that only two adults had shown up when there were supposed to be a half dozen.

When Kurt had first gotten there, the kids had been at lunch and the city sanitation worker hadn’t arrived yet, which had left him alone with the pretty Ms. Drake. He had to admit he wouldn’t mind spending time with her in a setting that didn’t include twenty-five three-foot-tall germ factories with feet. Unfortunately, Melissa seemed impervious to his charm—and his biceps. Kurt wasn’t a vain guy, but he usually did okay with the ladies. Melissa had shut him down the moment he’d suggested getting together, though. Her complete and total rejection had stung like a son of a bitch, that was for sure. To make matters worse, he had to hang around with a big smile on his face and look like he was having fun.

He was only glad none of his teammates from SEAL Team 5 were around to witness this. They’d probably immortalize the moment on a big plaque and mount it in the Team’s workout facilities for all to see.

In front of him, the kids impatiently fidgeted in their seats, swinging their legs back and forth under their small desks as they pelted him with questions about why the aquarium had let him out on his own and whether he slept in a bathtub full of water.

“You’re not really a seal, are you?” one precocious little girl with pigtails accused in a trembling voice. “If you were a seal, you’d balance a ball on your nose for us.”

Tears formed in the little girl’s enormous blue eyes, threatening to spill out over cheeks already starting to quiver.

Kurt groaned inwardly. Oh God, not tears. Bamboo slivers under the fingernails, but not a little girl’s tears. He couldn’t handle that.

He threw another beseeching glance in the teacher’s direction. Melissa had straightened up, concern in her dark eyes, but she didn’t look like she was ready to bail him out yet. He was on his own here.

Crap. If he didn’t do something in the next ten seconds, little pigtail girl was going to start crying and that would get the rest of the kids rolling. In thirty seconds, he’d be looking at a complete meltdown of Three Mile Island proportions. Even his next door neighbor’s little boy looked on the verge of tears.

Kurt took a deep breath. He was a Navy SEAL, dammit. He needed to do something. Now.

So he turned to the little girl with the pigtails and did the only thing he could think of—he lied.

“I promise you that I really am a seal. And I balance a ball on my nose all the time.” He smiled. “What kind of seal would I be if I couldn’t do something as simple as that, right?”

The girl’s eyes grew huge. “Really?”

He heard a sharp intake of breath behind him. Melissa must have just figured out that he was about to throw himself on a hand grenade to save everyone.

“Really,” he assured her.

“Show us!”

“We wanna see!”

“Yeah!”

Kurt chuckled. “I would, but I didn’t bring a ball with me.”

“We have lots of them!” a kid in the back of the room practically shouted.

Before Kurt could say anything, the little rug rat jumped out of his seat and ran over to a brightly painted toy chest near the wall. Lifting the lid, he scooped out a red rubber ball and raced up to the front of the room.

He held out the ball to Kurt, an expectant look on his face. Behind the little boy, his classmates seemed just as eager.

Over by the desk, Melissa was regarding him curiously.

Kurt sighed. Ah, hell. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Keenly aware of Melissa’s dark gaze on him, Kurt took the ball from the kid, then got down on his knees and proved that he could indeed balance a ball on his nose—something even he wasn’t sure he could do until that moment. Behind their little desks, the boys and girls gasped, oohed and aahed.

From the corner of his eye, Kurt saw that even Melissa looked captivated. He didn’t know why—maybe it was his inner jock showing off —but when he’d mastered balancing the ball on his nose that way, he lay back on the floor and did it again, this time while doing crunches. Unfortunately, in this position he couldn’t see if Melissa was impressed, but the kids giggled like crazy.

Moments later, they were out of their seats and converging on him, shouting that they wanted to be seals, too.

Kurt sat up, his gaze going to Melissa to see what she’d think about that, and found her smiling. Damn, she had a beautiful smile. He was so mesmerized, he almost forgot he was sitting on the floor surrounded by a whole class of screaming first-graders until one of the kids tugged at his sleeve with a small hand.

With Melissa and Joe’s assistance, Kurt spent the next hour teaching each child how to steady a ball on the top of their heads until they were good enough to balance it on the tip of their noses. It turned out to be way more fun that he’d thought. Even Melissa was laughing and having a good time. In fact, if he didn’t mistake his guess, she was looking at him completely differently than she had an hour ago.

A little while later, Melissa announced that seal training was over for now, but that all the kids could practice to their heart’s content outside during recess. Joe bailed then but Kurt hung around, standing by Melissa at the back door of the school and watching the first-graders run wild on the school playground. When kids were like this, he could imagine himself having a few of his own someday. They were pretty cool.

“Thanks for stepping up and making this career day thing work,” Melissa said quietly. “It wasn’t the way I’d planned it, but the kids loved it.”

Kurt glanced at her. The breeze coming off the ocean had pulled some of her long hair free from its bun and he had to resist the urge to tuck it behind her ear.

“You’re welcome. I had a good time,” he said.

On the playground, cheers went up as a little boy balanced a ball on his nose while running in circles.

Kurt turned to Melissa. “Since I was so helpful in there, I don’t suppose you’d reconsider my invitation to have dinner, would you?” When she hesitated, he added, “I promise to bring a beach ball to balance on my nose, if that will help.”

Melissa laughed. Damn, she even had a great laugh.

“You don’t give up, do you?” She sighed, then nodded. “Okay, I’ll go out to dinner with you. But just so you know, I have no intention of getting involved with a Navy guy. Even one who can balance a ball on his nose.”

Kurt smiled as she focused her attention on the playground again. If he didn’t know better, he’d think Melissa Drake had just issued him a challenge. And if there was one thing a SEAL took seriously, it was a challenge.

CHAPTER TWO

YOU’RE SERIOUSLY GOING out with a Navy guy?” From where she was leaning back on her hands on the flower-print comforter covering the bed, Melissa’s neighbor-slash-best-friend Veronica Cartwright eyed her dubiously. “I thought you had a strict no-sailor policy when it came to potential boyfriend material?”

“I do.” Melissa turned this way and that in front of the mirror mounted on the back of the door to the closet, checking out her reflection. She wanted to look nice for Kurt, but not so nice that he’d think she was interested in him. So while the little black dress hugged her curves, it didn’t show too much leg or too much cleavage, and the platform sandals didn’t scream, come and get me. “Though, to be honest, there’s absolutely no boyfriend potential here. I’m only going out with Kurt because he helped me out with my career day fiasco at school. I had twelve parents lined up for today and ten of them canceled at the last minute. If Kurt hadn’t stepped in and spent an hour playing with the kids, the entire event would have been a train wreck.”

Veronica shrugged her slim shoulders. “He sounds like a pretty good guy to me. Is there anything wrong with him other than the Navy thing? I mean, is he hideously ugly or something?”

Hideously ugly? Melissa’s lips curved. That would be a definite no. In fact, Kurt Travers was extremely attractive. Heck, she might go so far as to say he was gorgeous. There was even a part of her that was kind of psyched a guy this hot wanted to go out with her. But it was a small part, and she was smart enough to push those silly thoughts aside and forget about them. She came from a Navy family, and had seen firsthand what a woman had to deal with if she wanted to be involved with a man whose job required him to be away from home more than he was there. It had taken a toll on her mom and the family. Melissa had no desire to walk down that road again.

This date was a one-time thing. A thank-you for a man who’d helped her out of a tight spot. That was it—period, end of sentence.

Still, Kurt was freaking hot. There was no denying that. And when she’d stood close to him while they’d watched the kids run around the playground at recess, she couldn’t help but notice he smelled yummy, too. Then there was the obvious fact that the guy had a totally awesome body. Even the blue camouflage uniform he’d been wearing couldn’t hide that.

“Should I assume from the dreamy look on your face that Kurt isn’t ugly?” Veronica asked.

Melissa frowned at the interruption, then realized it was probably for the best, since her mind had started wandering off into dangerous territory, such as exactly what Kurt looked like underneath his uniform.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, turning to face her friend so she wouldn’t have to keep looking at Veronica in the mirror.

Veronica lifted a brow, her smoky blue eyes skeptical. “Seriously, you don’t think I know your facial expressions after living right next door to you all this time? You think this guy is hot. That’s why you’re going out with him, not that crud about being appreciative he helped you out at school.”

Melissa shook her head. Veronica was about as different from Melissa as two women could get, but they’d hit it off within moments of meeting each other the first day Melissa had moved into the apartment building after graduating from college almost two years ago. While Melissa was a school teacher and considered herself a nurturer, Veronica was an accountant-slash-tax advisor, and as linear as some men Melissa had met. Whereas Melissa usually went with her instincts when it came to dealing with problems, Veronica considered things from every angle. The two of them were so different in how they looked at the world, it was crazy to think they’d become friends, but in reality, Melissa appreciated having someone like Veronica in her life. They were like their own version of yin-yang.

On the downside, having a girlfriend who wasn’t scared to call you out if she thought you were full of it could also sometimes be a pain, especially since Veronica forced Melissa to face situations a little more directly than she liked.

Melissa grabbed her dangling gold earrings off the dresser with an awkward shrug. “Yeah, there’s a little bit of that too, I guess. Kurt is attractive. And while that probably had something to do with why I said yes when he asked me out, I honestly don’t think it’s enough to get me to overlook the fact that he’s in the Navy. That typically comes with more baggage than I’m willing to handle.”

“I don’t know about that,” Veronica said. “If a guy comes with baggage, you can always get a damn luggage cart to help carry everything, but if he’s ugly, there’s absolutely nothing you can do for him.”

Melissa laughed and immediately felt bad about it. She liked to think of herself as a little deeper than that. She put in one earring, then the other. “Don’t you think there has to be something more to a guy than his good looks to make a relationship work?”

Veronica sat up and flicked her black curls over her shoulder with a slender, light brown hand. “Relationship? Crap girl, you haven’t even gone out on the first date yet! Maybe you should wait to see if you two like each other enough to eat dinner at the same table and swap a little DNA on the doorstep before you worry about if he’s relationship material.”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “Okay. I don’t necessarily agree with you, but I see your point. I promise not to think of this as anything more than a simple date with a hot guy. Relationship potential isn’t even on the table.”

Veronica grinned. “Good girl! Now you’re learning. Just remember—there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a relationship that never moves beyond the horizontal stage. Sometimes, those are the best kind. Not that there aren’t other positions besides horizontal that work equally well.”

Melissa opened her mouth to tell her friend how absolutely horrible she was when the doorbell rang. She waggled a finger at Veronica. “Don’t say anything to embarrass me.”

Veronica put on a hurt look. “Moi?”

Rolling her eyes, Melissa hurried out of the bedroom and through the cozy living room to the door, checking through the peephole to be sure it was in fact her date on the other side.

Melissa was glad Kurt couldn’t see her because her jaw just about hit the floor. She’d thought the guy had looked good in his uniform, but in a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a casual black sports jacket, he was absolutely stunning.

She was still gazing through the peephole when Veronica showed up in the entryway and pushed her aside.

“Hey!” Melissa hissed softly, almost falling over. “What are you doing?”

Veronica shooed her away with a hand as she peeked through the little hole in the door. After a good ten seconds, she turned and gave Melissa a wide-eyed look. “Holy crap, he’s hot as hell!”

Melissa cringed. Much like the kids in her class, Veronica did not possess an indoor voice. In fact, she was so loud, Melissa was pretty sure the nice elderly sisters three doors down had heard her.

Sure Kurt had heard too, Melissa wedged her friend away from the door and put her eye back to the peephole. Kurt was standing there with an amused expression on his handsome face.

Crap. He’d heard all right. And there was no chance in hell he hadn’t figured out Melissa was standing there staring at him. She whirled around and pressed her back to the door. Maybe she could fake a cold or something and cancel the date. This was too mortifying to deal with.

No, she couldn’t do that. Beyond the fact that Kurt already knew she was standing just inside the door, there was also the fact that she had too much integrity to lie to someone simply to save herself a little embarrassment.

Melissa glanced at Veronica, giving her the stink eye. “Behave.”

Smoothing her dress, she took a deep breath and opened the door, prepared for the worst. But Kurt merely stood there, looking calm and cool, all signs of mirth fully erased from his face. Melissa opened her mouth to launch into an apology anyway, but the moment she got an up-close-and-personal view of him without the door in the way, she forgot what she’d been about to say.

Damn, he was even more handsome than she remembered. At least six-four, with broad shoulders, dark hair, blue eyes, and a little stubble on his jaw, he was model material if she ever saw it.

“Hi,” she finally managed to get out. “Thanks for waiting. It took me a moment to get to the door.”

“No problem,” he said, giving no indication that he’d heard anything through the door at all. When she didn’t say anything, he arched a brow. “Should I come in, or would you rather just go to dinner?”

Before Melissa could say anything, Veronica smiled broadly and extended her hand in greeting.

“You should definitely come in,” her friend said. “I’m Veronica Cartwright, by the way—Melissa’s neighbor.”

He returned Veronica’s smile and shook her hand.

“Melissa said you were a SEAL, but she didn’t mention how tall and well-built you are,” Veronica said. “Or how hot.”

Sure she was turning all kinds of red, Melissa had to resist the urge to smack her friend. The woman was beyond incorrigible.

“Didn’t you say you needed to go back to your apartment and clean your cat’s litter box, Veronica?” Her friend didn’t have a cat, but Kurt didn’t know that. “You know how much Mr. Whiskers hates it when you forget to do it.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Melissa caught sight of Kurt fighting to keep a straight face as Veronica gave her a look that promised retribution at some near point in the future.

“You’re right. I do have to clean the litter box,” her friend said. “Nice meeting you, Kurt. Have fun tonight.”

Giving Melissa a wave, followed by two thumbs up when she was out of Kurt’s line of sight, Veronica hurried over to her apartment, leaving them alone.

“Ready?” Kurt asked.

Melissa nodded and grabbed her purse from the table in the entryway. She couldn’t meet Kurt’s gaze until they’d walked down the stairs and outside to his pick-up truck. Even then, she barely glanced at him as he helped her into the passenger seat. Only when he climbed in beside her and cranked the engine did she finally turn to look at him.

“I’m sorry about that,” she said. “Veronica has absolutely no filter. I never told her you were hot.”

Kurt chuckled and put the truck in gear. “Is that because you don’t think I am, or because the subject never came up in conversation?”

Melissa felt her cheeks burn. She had indeed talked to Veronica about Kurt being hot. But there was no way in hell she was going to admit that. “I plead the fifth on the grounds that either answer is bound to get me in trouble.”

His mouth twitched as he pulled out of the apartment complex parking lot and merged with San Diego evening traffic. “That’s probably best. So, you good with barbecue, or are you in the mood for something different?”

She didn’t eat barbecue very often, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like it. Just the thought of meat covered in a delicious tangy sauce made her mouth water. “Barbecue sounds great.”

“Have you and Veronica been friends for a while?” Kurt asked.

“Since I moved in a couple years ago. I invited her over to dinner as a thank-you for helping me move in and she ended up having to call the fire department when I burned what I was cooking.”

“Yeah?” He glanced at her. “What’d you make?”

“Brochette Dijon.”

He did a double take. “Damn. I wouldn’t even know how to spell that, much less make it.”

Melissa laughed. “It’s just a fancy way of saying chicken smothered in Dijon mustard, garlic, and Drambuie, then grilled on skewers. It was easy enough to make until it came time to flambé it. I damn near burned down the whole apartment building. If Veronica hadn’t been there, I probably would have. The crazy thing was that the recipe looked so easy when they made it on TV. Suffice to say that I now avoid recipes that require setting anything on fire.”

On the upside, she and Veronica had both gotten dates with a couple of hot firefighters out of it. Melissa didn’t mention that to Kurt, though.

“Always a good plan,” Kurt agreed as he changed lanes. “You really don’t have to be embarrassed by what Veronica said, you know. She’d fit right in on my Team. The guys and I like to rib each other all the time, too.”

Melissa immediately tensed at the mention of his SEAL Team, expecting him to launch into an endless monologue on all things Navy and special ops, but instead he asked if she’d always wanted to be a teacher.

She relaxed back against the seat. Teaching was one thing she definitely didn’t mind talking about.

“Pretty much,” she said. “When I was a kid, I’d come home from school and teach my dolls whatever I learned that day. I always thought that learning things was so much fun, and I wanted to pass that love of learning on to children.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Why first-graders?”

Melissa laughed. “Because that’s the grade level the school was hiring for when I was looking for a job after graduation. I really wanted to teach fourth grade.”

“Huh.” Kurt glanced at her as he turned into the parking lot for the restaurant. “I would never have known it wasn’t your first choice. You’re really good with the kids, and they clearly love you.”

She smiled. “I love them, too. Now, I wouldn’t want to teach anything else but first grade.”

Grabbing her purse from the seat beside her, Melissa reached for the door handle, but Kurt had already jumped out and come around to open it for her. She took the hand he offered, trying not to notice the way her pulse quickened when his fingers closed over hers. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed when he released it.

The restaurant wasn’t at all how Melissa had pictured it. Every barbecue place she’d ever been in smelled like smoke, had dim lighting, and the most godawful wood paneling. But the Iron Pit was well lit, didn’t reek of smoke, and there wasn’t any wood paneling in sight. But above all that, the aromas coming out of the kitchen were absolutely mouthwatering. If the food tasted as good as it smelled, she might have to add this to her list of favorite places to eat.

The hostess smiled at them. “Two?” When Kurt nodded, she picked up a pair of menus from the stand. “Right this way.”

As they followed the hostess though the restaurant, Melissa couldn’t help noticing how many women stopped in the middle of whatever they were doing to ogle Kurt as they passed. Not that she blamed them. Kurt was hot, and it wasn’t just because he was sinfully handsome either. She might be against the idea of dating a guy in the Navy, especially a SEAL, but that didn’t mean she was immune to the sexy confidence he exuded as he weaved among the tables and chairs like some kind of predator animal. She also couldn’t miss the looks of curiosity and envy—not to mention blatant dislike—those same women threw her way. It was like they were trying to figure out how she’d snagged a guy as perfect as Kurt. She wondered what they’d say if she told them it was because he’d balanced a ball on his nose like a seal at the aquarium.

The hostess led them to a small table in an out-of-the-way corner of the restaurant, slightly screened from the other customers by a low wall and some fake trees. It was quiet and kind of romantic. Or it would have been if she were interested in stuff like that. Which she wasn’t. No matter how gorgeous her date might be.

Or how much of a gentleman he was, she thought as he pulled out her chair for her. Wow. She hadn’t had a guy do that for her in… well, ever. She realized with a start that she appreciated the gesture more than she would have expected.

She would have thanked him, but their waiter came over to ask what they wanted to drink. Kurt ordered a beer, but Melissa stuck with iced tea. This was still a first date and she preferred to keep her wits about her, especially since Kurt was the kind of man who could make her forget herself way too easily.

“Thanks again for today,” she said after the waiter had brought their drinks and taken their orders. “I know balancing a ball on your nose isn’t something you do on a regular basis, but the kids had a great time. You’re surprisingly good at it, by the way.”

She’d been even more impressed when he’d balanced it on his nose while doing crunches. Considering how effortless he’d made the exercise part of it look, something told her he probably had some amazing abs under that T-shirt.

“Beginner’s luck.” His mouth curved into a smile as he set down his bottle of beer. “I’m just glad I was able to get away from work so I could be there. Cody was really hoping his dad would be back from deployment in time, so when his mom asked if I’d go to the school in his place, I couldn’t say no.”

Melissa sipped her tea slowly, once again waiting for Kurt to transition from there into a discussion about being a SEAL and how many times he deployed, but once again, he surprised her by focusing the conversation on her.

“So, I know why you became a teacher,” he said. “What about family? Do they live in San Diego?”

She waited until the waiter had set down their plates and left before answering.

“My dad was in the Navy. My parents moved back up to Washington State after he retired.”

She picked up her fork, eager to dig into the barbecue chicken breast, brown rice and steamed vegetables in front of her. Although she had to admit, the Carolina pulled pork with coleslaw and fries that Kurt had ordered looked delicious, too. If they’d been dating a while, she would have reached over and snagged a forkful.

“What about brothers and sisters?” he asked.

“I have two of each.” She had to force herself not to moan as she took a bite of chicken. It was the perfect combination of sweet and tangy. “I don’t see them very often though.”

Kurt eyed her over a forkful of coleslaw. “None of them live in San Diego, either?”

She shook her head. “Since we moved around so much, my brothers, sisters and I were all born in different states—Florida, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington State, and California, in that order. Maybe it’s because we moved around so much growing up, but they all live in different parts of the United States. I’m the only one who stayed in San Diego after Dad retired.”

Kurt regarded her thoughtfully. “Your family isn’t very close now, I take it?”

“The distance makes it hard.” She pushed her steamed vegetables around on the plate for a moment before spearing a carrot. “It’s not just that, though. As a family, we had a hard time with Dad’s career. None of us liked moving around every two years. It was difficult making friends, and my brothers got into trouble all the time. Mom and Dad fought a lot too, especially when he decided to stay beyond twenty years. Every one of my brothers and sisters bailed as soon as they had a chance. I mean, we still talk on birthdays and holidays, but we don’t make an effort to see each other very much.”

“That sounds rough.” Kurt sighed. “Now I can understand now why you weren’t thrilled with the idea of going out with a guy in the Navy.”

Since she couldn’t deny it, Melissa focused on scooping up some brown rice and barbecue chicken in the same forkful. “What about you? Are you from California?”

He took a swig of beer. “Born and raised in Oklahoma.”

She blinked. “Seriously? I never would have pegged you for a guy from the Midwest.”

He chuckled. “I lived on my family’s ranch until I joined the Navy when I was nineteen.”

Melissa tried to picture him in a cowboy hat. Yeah, she could definitely see it. “Brothers and sisters?”

“One of each. They both still live in Oklahoma. So do my folks.”

“Do you see them often?”

“Every chance I get.”

Wow. Oklahoma wasn’t exactly on the other side of the world, but she was surprised—and maybe a little jealous—by how close he and his family were. She’d always wondered what that would be like.

“How the heck did a cowboy from Oklahoma end up going in the Navy?” She picked up her iced tea. “I mean, could you even swim before you joined?”

Kurt chuckled. “Yeah, I could swim. Oklahoma isn’t a desert. We do have lakes out there, you know.”

Actually, she’d never really thought about it. “Huh. Okay, maybe my knowledge of Oklahoma is lacking, I guess. But that still doesn’t explain why you went Navy. Why not the Army or one of the other services?”

He shrugged, dunking a trio of French fries in ketchup. “I was in the middle of the country, landlocked and eager to see more of the world. When the Navy recruiter showed me photos of all these cool faraway places and ships out in the middle of an endless ocean, I couldn’t sign up fast enough.”

After giving him such a convenient opening, she figured Kurt would jump at the chance to talk about the Navy, but he didn’t. While she would never admit it, there was a part of her that wanted to ask him why he’d become a SEAL. She’d never understood what made a man willingly volunteer to do such a dangerous job. But before she could open her mouth, Kurt steered the conversation toward lighter topics. That was okay. It was nice that he had no problem discussing stuff outside his job.

So they talked about things like what they each did for fun, movies they liked, favorite food, books, and dream vacation destinations. She wasn’t surprised that he liked to hit the gym or go for a swim when he wasn’t working. If she was right about how well-built he was under that uniform—and she was pretty sure she was—he probably spent hours exercising. She took in the occasional aerobics class at the health club she belonged to, but she’d much rather hang out on the beach in her free time. While he was into action flicks and cheesy sci-fi movies, she preferred romantic comedies.

Despite their differences, Melissa was having a ball with him. Clearly, there was something to that old saying about opposites attracting. She couldn’t help it. Kurt was easy to talk to. Not to mention charming, fun, and engaging. She’d come into this thinking he was going to be an arrogant, conceited jerk because he was a Navy SEAL, but was embarrassed to realize she’d been seeing him as nothing more than a cliché.

Even though she kept telling herself that this was just a single date and there wasn’t any future with a guy like Kurt, it was hard to keep that in mind when it felt like they’d known each other forever. It didn’t hurt that Kurt was so easy on the eyes. Sitting across the table from him gazing into that ocean blue gaze was something a woman could easily get used to.

Melissa chided herself as she sipped her iced tea. She had to stop thinking like that. Kurt might be her dream guy, but he was a SEAL. If she asked him point blank what life in the Navy was like, he’d almost certainly tell her that he was out fighting wars way more often than he was home. The worst part was that it would probably be like that for a long time. She wasn’t naïve. She knew their country needed people like Kurt. Hell, they probably needed more of them, especially since the world was still reeling from Desert Storm. But that didn’t mean she wanted to be involved with a man like that. She wasn’t one of those women who could give her boyfriend or husband a kiss and tell him to be careful, then send him off to war. She wanted the man she fell in love with to spend more time with her than he did at his job. She wanted to fall asleep in his arms every night and wake up in them every morning.

It might be selfish, but after seeing what had happened with her parents and all the heartache the Navy had inflicted on their marriage, she knew what she was looking for in a relationship, and what she wasn’t. Getting involved with a SEAL wasn’t something she could ever do—no matter how sinfully handsome he was.

CHAPTER THREE

KURT HAD BEEN attracted to Melissa from the moment he’d set eyes on her that morning in her classroom. It was why he’d asked her out. But when she’d opened the door of her apartment, blushing and flustered because she knew he’d overheard what her friend Veronica had said, he’d been completely mesmerized by her.

Her midnight hair wasn’t in a bun like earlier, but instead fell around her shoulders and down her back in loose waves, framing her beautiful face and giving her the look of a wild woman. Her make-up was different, too. Tonight she was all smoky-eyes and sultry lips.

Then there was the dress she had on. He’d thought the flowing skirt she’d worn today had been sexy, but that was nothing compared to the dress she had on now. It was short enough to show off her shapely legs, and came with a slit up one side that showed off a little more. The simple off-the-shoulder top revealed an exotic expanse of skin that was just begging to be nibbled on. He’d never known he was a neck man, but apparently he was. It was all he could do not to get up and go around the table to press his lips to that creamy skin.

Kurt took a long swig of beer, concentrating on the cold liquid as it slid down his throat and hoping it would help cool down his sex drive at least a little, because he was in serious danger of overheating right now. And all they’d done so far was eat dinner. If he ever kissed Melissa, he’d probably burst into flames.

He stifled a groan and picked up his fork again as his cock stirred against the front of his pants. The food here was always good, but he could have been eating sawdust and probably enjoyed it because Melissa was so mesmerizing. She was funny, never at a loss for words, and when she smiled at him, his heart practically skipped a beat. She was sexy as hell, and he doubted she even realized it.

Despite how fantastic the date was going, Kurt’s gut told him this thing with Melissa probably wasn’t going to work out. While she hadn’t said it in so many words, she’d clearly hated growing up as a Navy brat. Between the constant moving from school to school and seeing her mom deal with the stress of raising a family pretty much on her own, her brothers and sisters had taken off for parts unknown as soon as they were old enough to leave. In her experience, the Navy was the worst thing ever, so why would she want to get involved with him?

That realization was like a kick in the balls.

But he was a SEAL and SEALs didn’t give up that easily.

So he forced himself to forget about Melissa’s hang-ups about where his paycheck came from and focused on having fun with her. Who knew? If he was charming enough, maybe she’d forget he wore a uniform to work and did a dangerous job for a living.

They were still laughing when they left the restaurant two hours later. Considering they’d just about shut the place down, Kurt wasn’t surprised the parking lot was nearly empty.

He was so focused on Melissa that he almost missed the three guys who came around the black SUV parked near his truck. Shorter and stockier than Kurt, they didn’t necessarily look like they were up to no good, but he’d spent years in combat trusting his gut, and right now his gut told him that something was about to go down.

Without a word, he took Melissa’s hand and gently pushed her behind him. She seemed confused for a moment, but when she saw the way he was eyeing the three men, fear flashed in her eyes.

Before Kurt could ask what the trio wanted, two of the men yanked cheap revolvers out from behind their backs and pointed them at him and Melissa.

“Don’t be a hero, dude,” the third guy warned. “Just fork over the keys to the truck.”

Kurt didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that this guy was the leader of this little group of losers, since he was doing the talking while his buddies stood there trying to look menacing. Kurt had seen menacing before and these lowlifes didn’t cut it. The term dumbass punks was the description he was leaning toward instead. But then he quickly quashed that thought. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to pull a trigger.

One of the armed men—the largest of the three guys—moved closer, putting his snub nose .38 in Kurt’s face. “He told you to give him the fucking keys!”

The guy probably figured he could cow him into submission by shouting and getting up close and personal like he was doing. It didn’t work. Kurt had been more worried in Melissa’s classroom this morning than he was right now. If the situation had been different, he would have immediately launched himself at the jerk who’d been stupid enough to get close to him. But he couldn’t risk it, not with Melissa here. He couldn’t take the chance she might get hurt.

Kurt held up his hands in a show of surrender. “Okay, just chill out.”

Keeping his eyes on the men, he slowly reached in his pocket and pulled out his keys. Unfortunately, his apartment keys were on the same ring as the one for his truck, along with a handful of work keys. There was also all kinds of stuff in his truck he wasn’t thrilled about these assholes getting their hands on, but it was all replaceable—even if it burned like hell to let them have it.

He calmly tossed his keys to the unarmed man. The guy leaped to catch them, barely keeping them off the ground.

The two guys with the guns began backing away, clearly ready to get out of there, but their leader didn’t follow. Instead, he moved closer to Kurt and Melissa, twirling the keys on his finger.

Behind him, Kurt felt Melissa tremble.

“You got what you wanted,” Kurt said. “If I were you, I’d quit while I were ahead.”

“But you ain’t me.” The man smirked. “And that fancy truck of yours isn’t all I want.”

Kurt’s gut clenched. He already knew where this was going—and it wasn’t anyplace good. “Take the truck and call it a night. That’s all you’re getting.”

The guy threw a quick glance at his buddies. “Looks like someone wants to impress his cute little girlfriend. Make her think he’s all tough and shit. How about we take your girl with us? Show her what it’s like to be with some real men.”

That caught his friends’ attention. Their eyes locked on Melissa, hungry expressions on their faces as they walked back over to join Big Mouth. As one, they spread out to circle around Kurt and Melissa.

Kurt had had about enough of this shit. Everything in him demanded he put all three men down, but he forced himself to wait until they were in perfect position.

Big Mouth must have taken his silence for acquiescence because he snickered. “Don’t worry. We’ll get her back to you in one piece—for the most part. Hell, she might like it so much, she won’t want to go back to you at all.”

The bigger of the two armed guys suddenly shoved his gun in his waistband and caught Melissa’s arm, pulling her toward him. She threw a panicked look at Kurt. He’d been in a lot of fights with men trying to kill him, but seeing Melissa this terrified made him want to stomp on this asswipe’s balls until they turned to potted meat.

Kurt grabbed the man’s wrist with his right hand, then slammed the heel of his left into the underside of the man’s elbow. There was a crunch as the joint bent in the direction opposite to the one it was designed to go.

The man immediately howled in pain and started going down. But that wasn’t the same thing as being down. Kurt couldn’t risk leaving a guy this big behind when he went after the other two. So he kicked out with his foot, connecting with the outside of the man’s knee. There was another crunch, and this time the would-be-carjacker-slash-rapist dropped like a rock.

Ignoring the wail he let out, Kurt ripped the weapon out of the guy’s waistband and tossed it aside, then grabbed Melissa’s hand and pulled her away from the action. Once she was safe, he turned and closed on the other guy with the gun.

The moron looked at him in confusion for a moment, as if he’d only just realized that the night’s fun had gone terribly wrong. He lifted his revolver, but it was too late. Kurt was already on him. He grabbed the man’s shooting hand, keeping it pointed down as he slammed the heel of his hand repeatedly into the guy’s face. As soon as the guy’s knees started going wobbly, Kurt reversed his grip on the man’s hand, twisting the weapon out of his grip as he tossed him over his hip and put him on the ground.

Kurt kept the gun this time, aiming first at the guys on the ground, just to make sure they stayed there. Once he’d confirmed neither of them were getting up, he spun and advanced on Big Mouth.

The urge to shoot the jackass who’d been going to take Melissa from him was stronger than anything he’d ever felt in his life, but Kurt resisted. While shooting this asshole might feel good as hell, it wasn’t the smart thing to do. Or necessary. Instead, he kneed the guy in the balls as hard as he could, then did the same to the son of a bitch’s ugly mug when the guy fell forward.

Kurt spun around before the man even hit the ground, checking to make sure his buddies still hadn’t gotten up. One was still rolling around in pain. The other was out cold.

Carefully setting the revolver on the ground, he finally turned to Melissa. She was standing in the exact same place he’d left her, shaking, scared, and on the verge of freaking out.

Kurt’s first instinct was to run to her and wrap her in his arms, but he forced himself to move slowly. Not only had Melissa been held at gunpoint by three lowlifes who’d intended to rape her, she’d also just seen him take them down with what was almost certainly more violence than she’d ever experienced in her life. It was going to take her a while to process all that.

So instead, he walked over to her slowly, his arms open wide. She ran into them, burying her face in his chest as he wrapped them around her. Then she began to cry softly, like she didn’t want him to hear. But he did, and the sound tore at his heart like nothing he’d ever felt. He hated to hear a woman cry, especially Melissa.

He gently ran a hand over her hair. “Shh. It’s okay. You’re safe now.”

Kurt knew he should probably call the cops, but he didn’t want to let Melissa go long enough to do it. Not yet.

It turned out he didn’t have to. Just then, four men came running out of the restaurant, one armed with a baseball bat, and the others with big kitchen knives. They skidded to a stop when they saw Kurt and Melissa and the three guys lying broken at their feet.

“They tried to jump us,” Kurt said. “Can one of you call the police?”

The man with the baseball bat didn’t take his eyes off the men. “We already did. You and the lady okay?”

Kurt nodded. “Yeah. We’re fine.”

He was still holding Melissa when two patrol cars pulled into the parking lots, lights flashing and sirens blaring. He wasn’t looking forward to what came next. There’d be lots of questions, followed by lots of phone calls, maybe even an arrest. He might have been defending Melissa and himself when he took down those assholes, but that didn’t mean the police wouldn’t haul him in anyway, simply so the district attorney could figure out how to handle everything.

Not exactly the best way to end a first date.

CHAPTER FOUR

THINGS HADN’T GONE as smoothly with the police as Kurt would have liked. They had a hard time believing an unarmed Navy guy could take down three men, two of whom had weapons. Some of that might have been Kurt’s fault. He deliberately left out the part about him being a SEAL. If that tidbit of information showed up on the police plotters, the media would be on the story in a flash. That wasn’t good for the Navy or SEAL Team 5. Luckily, the people who worked in the restaurant had seen enough of what had happened to support his and Melissa’s stories.

On the downside, they’d spent more than two hours giving their statements to four different cops—both together and separately. Melissa hadn’t said a word since.

Kurt hoped that was because she was simply exhausted, but part of him worried it was because she was in shock.

He pulled the truck into the parking lot of her apartment complex and found a space, then cut the engine.

Beside him, Melissa didn’t move.

“We’re here,” Kurt said softly.

She gave a little start, blinking as she looked around. “Oh.”

Kurt jumped out and hurried around to her side of the truck to open the door. She let him help her out, but released his hand the moment her feet touched the ground. For some reason, that stung way more than it should have.

They walked upstairs in silence, then down the hallway to her apartment. When they got there, she opened her purse to dig around for her keys, but it slipped out of her hand. Melissa mumbled something and moved to pick everything up, but Kurt got there first. He scooped up her lipstick, brush, wallet, and keys, shoving them back in her purse.

“Which apartment is Veronica’s?” he asked as he as he stood up.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t think you should be alone right now.”

And while he definitely wouldn’t have minded sleeping on her couch, he didn’t think she’d go for it.

She frowned. “It’s late. I don’t want to wake her up at this time of the night. I’m fine. Really.”

Kurt might have believed her if she wasn’t as white as a ghost and her hands weren’t shaking.

“Melissa, you’ve had one hell of a night and I don’t want you to be alone after something like that. So you’re either going to tell me which apartment is Veronica’s, or I’m going to start knocking on doors.”

He thought Melissa was going to fight him over it, but after a moment, she sighed. “It’s right across from mine.”

“Thank you.”

Kurt placed his hand on her back and urged her in that direction, then knocked on the door. Hopefully Veronica was a light sleeper.

The door opened immediately to reveal a surprisingly wide-awake Veronica. Her smile disappeared the minute she set eyes on her friend. She quickly stepped forward to wrap her arm around Melissa.

“Honey, are you okay?” When Melissa didn’t answer fast enough for her liking, she shot a questioning look at Kurt. “What happened?”

“Some guys jumped us as we were leaving the restaurant,” he said.

Veronica’s eyes widened. “Oh my God! Did they hurt either of you?”

He shook his head. “No, but I’d feel a lot better if Melissa wasn’t alone tonight.”

“Of course,” Veronica murmured.

Kurt wanted to hang around to make sure Melissa was okay, but something told him that she needed Veronica right now more than she needed him.

“I’m sorry the night didn’t turn out differently,” he said, leaning forward to press his lips to Melissa’s forehead. He would have preferred to end the date with another kind of kiss, but he figured that would be a bad idea. “For what it’s worth, I really did have a good time with you.”

Melissa nodded. “Are you going to be okay alone tonight? After what happened, I mean?”

He gave her a small smile as he trailed his fingers down her arm. “Yeah. Sad to say, but the stuff that happened tonight is something I’m kind of used to.”

She caught his hand as he stepped back, holding onto it for the briefest of moments before releasing it. Just like that, the connection between them was broken, making him wonder whether there was ever one to begin with.

Kurt wanted to say that he’d call her, but he didn’t. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he was pretty sure she didn’t want him to.

So instead, he gave her a nod then he turned and headed for the stairwell, refusing to let himself look back. It was scary how much it hurt to walk away from Melissa. Just another indication of how good things could have been if only fate had been kinder to them.

* * *

Melissa refused to move from Veronica’s doorstep until Kurt stepped into the stairwell and disappeared from sight. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was hoping he’d turn around and come back, or because she was trying to work up the courage to run after him.

Neither of those things happened.

Letting out a sigh, she walked into Veronica’s apartment and straight over to the leather couch, then collapsed onto it. Her friend flopped down beside her.

“Do you want a glass of water?” Veronica asked. “Some tea maybe?”

Melissa shook her head. “No, thanks. Were you waiting up for me?”

“Yeah. I wanted to see how your date with Kurt went.” Veronica half turned on the couch, tucking one leg under her. “So, how was the date? Other than the part where those jerks tried to jump the two of you, I mean.”

Yeah, she’d rather not think about that part.

“It was fun.” Lips curving, Melissa shifted on the couch, mirroring Veronica’s position. “We went to this barbecue place that was really good. Not that I was paying much attention to the food with Kurt there.”

Veronica grinned. “I knew you were hot for him!”

“I never said I wasn’t. Kurt’s gorgeous, funny, and smart, not to mention the most charming guy I think I’ve ever been around.” She frowned. “I almost forgot he was a SEAL until those three guys showed up.”

“What do you mean?”

Melissa didn’t want to talk about what had happened in the parking lot. She got the shakes just thinking about those men and what they’d planned to do to her. But it hadn’t only been the attack that had turned her knees to jelly and kept her silent the whole ride home. Seeing Kurt do what he’d done had kind of freaked her out, too.

She grabbed the throw pillow from behind her and hugged it, wishing it was Kurt she was holding on to. “At first they only wanted Kurt’s truck, but after he gave them the keys, they decided they wanted me, too.”

“Oh, God,” Veronica breathed.

Melissa shuddered at the memory. The image of those men staring at her like she was a piece of meat would be etched in her mind forever.

“When one of the guys reached out and grabbed me, Kurt went… crazy.” She shook her head. “Just between you and me, I’m not sure what scared me more—what those men had been planning to do to me, or watching what Kurt did to them.”

Veronica looked confused again. “I don’t understand.”

Melissa didn’t look at Veronica as she played with the tassel on the edge of the pillow. “All through dinner, Kurt went out of his way not to mention the Navy or what he does as a SEAL. I’m not naïve. I know what SEALs do for a living and that they sometimes have to resort to violence. For a little while there though, I completely forgot he was a SEAL.”

“And then?” Veronica prodded when Melissa hesitated.

She sighed, not sure how to put it into words without sounding ungrateful. “Then those jerks attacked us, and the sweet guy I’d had dinner with disappeared to be replaced with a man I barely recognized. I don’t know how to explain it. Kurt put those three men down like it was nothing. It was so cold and calculating. I feel horrible admitting it, but it kind of scared me.”

“Why?” Veronica asked. “What did you expect him to do when those men threatened to take you with them? Give them his blessing? Crap, Melissa. He was protecting you. Would you have felt better if he’d let them have you?”

Melissa glared at her friend. “Don’t be stupid! Of course not.” She ran her hand though her hair with a sigh. “I know he did what he did for me. I get it. And I’ll never be able to say how grateful I am that he was there. But at the same time, his capacity for violence frightened me. It was like I was watching a machine. A violent, deadly machine.”

Veronica regarded her thoughtfully, then took her hand. “Honey, were you scared he’d turn that violence on you?”

Melissa remembered how tenderly he’d held her in his arms afterward and quickly shook her head. “No. I was never worried about that. It’s just that I can’t help but wonder which one of the two men I saw tonight is the real Kurt Travers. Is it the sexy, charming guy I had dinner with, or the dangerous, violent man who protected me in that parking lot?”

“Why does it have to be one or the other?” Veronica asked. “What’s wrong with accepting that a man can be sexy, charming, and dangerous?”

Veronica made it sound so easy. Like being a Navy SEAL was a switch Kurt could flip on and off when needed. Melissa knew differently. When a person was part of something like the SEALs, it became part of him. It made him who he was. It couldn’t be turned off—ever. She opened her mouth to tell Veronica that, but her friend interrupted before she could.

“Are you going to go out with Kurt again?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s something that terrifies me even more than what happened in the parking lot of that restaurant tonight, and that’s what Kurt said before he left. About him being used to that kind of thing. Like getting into hand-to-hand combat isn’t a big deal. As a SEAL, there’s a chance he’s going to go up against bad guys like them—or worse—every time he goes to work. I can’t handle being with a guy who does that. I can’t imagine what woman would.”

Veronica considered that for a moment. “Okay, I can see your point. But if you think about it, it’s no different than being with a cop.”

“You don’t see me dating a cop either, do you?”

Her friend sighed glumly. “Well, this stinks, because he really seems to like you.”

Melissa hugged the pillow tighter. She liked him, too. Remembering the tender way Kurt had kissed her forehead before he’d left was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She blinked them back. If she was so sure that not going out with Kurt again was the right decision, then why did it feel so wrong?

CHAPTER FIVE

KURT PULLED INTO a parking space outside Melissa’s apartment building and killed the engine. He didn’t get out right away, but instead sat there wondering if he’d fallen asleep in front of the TV and this was a dream.

He’d never really known what that old saying about knocking someone over with a feather meant until Melissa asked if he wanted to come over for dinner Sunday afternoon. If he hadn’t been vegging out watching a football game and contemplating whether he should stop being a lazy slug and go for a run when she called, he probably would have rolled off the damn couch.

He’d immediately thought something must be wrong, that she was experiencing post-traumatic stress from the run-in with those guys in the parking lot the other night and needed his help. Why the hell else would she be calling him when he was pretty damn sure she had no interest in going out again?

But when he’d asked if she was okay, she’d quickly assured him that she was.

“I was just wondering if maybe you’d like to come over to my place for dinner.” Her voice had been soft, hesitant. Like she was afraid he’d turn her down. “I figured I owed you at least that much, considering you saved my life the other night.”

“You don’t owe me for that, Melissa,” he told her. “Just knowing you’re safe is enough.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see her again, because he did. But he didn’t want her doing anything she didn’t want to do because she thought she had to repay him for the other night.

“But I want to.” She paused. “I’d like to see you again.”

He’d wanted to see her again, too. In fact, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since he’d dropped her off after what he was sure was going to be their one and only date the other night.

That was why he was half afraid he might be dreaming right now.

He was tempted to smack himself to wake up, but then quickly changed his mind. If he was dreaming, he didn’t want to wake up yet.

Grabbing the brown bag from the seat beside him, he got out of his truck and walked into the building. His heart was beating fast by the time he got to her apartment, and it had nothing to do with the jog up the stairs. Damn, he wasn’t this nervous in the middle of a firefight.

Telling himself to man the hell up, Kurt knocked on the door. If it was like the other night, he’d have a minute or two to get his crap together before she answered.

But Melissa opened the door right away. And all Kurt could do was stare.

Damn, he’d thought she looked beautiful the other night, but between her long, dark hair tumbling over her shoulders and the loose flowing sundress she was wearing, she looked like some kind of sexy goddess. It was all he could do not to sweep her into his arms and carry her off to the bedroom. Hell, from the way his cock was hardening, he wasn’t sure they’d even make it that far.

Down, boy.

She smiled and stepped back, opening the door wider. “Come in.”

Kurt forced himself not to groan as he walked past her into the apartment. But damn, she smelled good. Like she’d bathed in strawberries—which were his favorite fruit, by the way. The thought of Melissa naked and wet made his already stiff shaft even harder.

Suddenly remembering the bag in his hand, he held it out to her. “Here. I didn’t know what we were having, so I hope white wine is okay?”

“Perfect.” She took the bag, her fingers brushing his. “Come into the kitchen and you can open it for us while I finish getting dinner ready.”

Kurt followed her into the kitchen, loving the way the flower-print dress shifted and swirled around her body as she walked. As the hemline fluttered and danced, it gave him a tantalizing glimpse of her thighs and he couldn’t help but stare.

She set the bag on the counter, then took out a corkscrew from the drawer by the stove and set it down beside it. While he concentrated on opening the bottle, she took out two wine glasses.

“Do you need me to help you with anything?” he asked as he poured the wine.

She shook her head as she drizzled some oil into a big pan, then followed it up with a pat of butter. “I was able to get most of the stuff ready before you got here. I just have to put on the scallops and everything will be set.”

Kurt felt bad letting her do all the work while he leaned back against the counter sipping wine, but he had to admit he enjoyed watching her. She certainly knew her way around the kitchen more than he did, that was for sure. He was lucky if he could microwave a TV dinner without burning it. Melissa not only seared the scallops like a chef, but she drained the pasta, coated it in a white sauce, then added a few spices that she didn’t even bother to measure. It smelled so delicious his mouth was watering.

“It’s hard to believe you ever burned anything in the kitchen,” he remarked. “You look like you could give Emeril Lagasse a run for his money.”

Melissa laughed. “I don’t know about that. I think Emeril’s job is safe from me.” She expertly turned the scallops over to sear the other side. “As long as I don’t have to flambé anything, I’m good.” She glanced over her shoulder at him as she walked over to the fridge. “I can’t believe you remember I even told you that.”

He chuckled. “I remember everything about that night.”

She paused in the middle of tossing the salad, the oversized tongs in her hand hovering over the bowl of leafy greens. Crap. Had he freaked her out? Reminded her about the lowlifes that jumped them?

Kurt opened his mouth to say something—even though he wasn’t quite sure what—but Melissa had already gone back to tossing the salad. A moment later, she turned and handed him the bowl, that dazzling smile back on her face.

“Can you put this on the table while I get the scallops?”

He did as she asked, then brought over the glasses of wine. By the time he turned around, Melissa had already transferred the pasta and the scallops to a serving dish and was carrying them over to the table.

As Kurt sat down across from her a moment later, it occurred to him that he’d never had a woman cook for him before. Well, other than his mother of course, but that wasn’t what he meant. He was surprised at how special it felt. Corny, he knew. Melissa probably made dinner for the guys she dated all the time, but it was still nice to think she’d done it especially for him.

He held up his wine glass, meeting her gaze as she gently clinked her own with it. He considered saying something Hallmark-card worthy, like ‘to new beginnings’ or some other sappy sentiment, but instead he decided to keep it real.

“Thanks for asking me to dinner.”

Melissa sipped her wine, then set down the glass. “I hadn’t planned to ask you, or even go out with you again.” She looked at him from under her lashes as she picked up the bowl of salad and handed it to him. “I figured the other night was God’s way of reminding me that we simply weren’t meant to be together.”

Okay, he hadn’t expected that. Her honesty was kind of nice, though. She definitely wouldn’t be one of those women who played those silly-ass games with his head if they ever got into a relationship.

Kurt used the gigantic tongs to put some of the leafy greens in the bowl beside his plate. “What changed your mind… at least about calling me?”

Melissa shrugged and focused on transferring the scallop and pasta mixture from the serving dish to her plate. “I woke up this morning and realized that letting you walk away after just one date was something I’d regret, regardless of my reservations about you being in the Navy—or being a SEAL.” She gave him a small smile as she handed him the serving dish in exchange for the bowl of salad. “Besides, I figured saving my life had earned you at least a second date… if nothing else.”

He didn’t say anything as he twirled pasta on his fork. He supposed that was her way of saying she was taking a leap of faith that she was doing the right thing. It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of their future potential, but it was better than nothing. Certainly better than never seeing her again, that was for sure. So, he’d follow her lead and see where this evening led.

With that thought in mind, he picked up his wine glass and tipped it in her direction. “To second dates then, if nothing else.”

Melissa smiled and lifted her own glass. “To second dates.”

“This is really excellent, by the way,” Kurt said, gesturing with his fork to the perfectly cooked scallops on his plate. “Where’d you learn to cook like this?”

As they ate, she told him about the night classes she’d taken at a local culinary school after nearly torching her whole apartment building, while he regaled her with stories of him burning water and leaving an oven on for the entire weekend because he’d forgotten to shut it off.

Even though neither of them mentioned the Navy even once, this date felt different than the first. It took him a little while to put his finger on exactly what it was, but then it hit him. The wall that Melissa had been keeping up between them Friday night didn’t seem to be there now.

He wondered what had changed. He seriously doubted it was because she’d suddenly decided that dating a guy in the Navy was cool. Then again, unlike the other night, she seemed to actually want to talk about his job this time.

“Are you gone a lot?” she asked. “On deployments and training, I mean?”

Kurt sipped his wine as he considered how to answer that. It wasn’t exactly something he could lie about, especially if they were dating. “These days? A lot. In the past year, I’ve probably been gone on something—training, deployment, or short-notice contingency operation—about seven or eight months. During Desert Storm, it was more than that. The other guys on the Team and I were gone almost eleven months out of the year.”

Melissa was silent for a moment. “Do you see that changing anytime soon?”

The Special Operations Command had really come into its own during and right after Desert Storm, when it became obvious that the events in the Middle East weren’t going to be handled solely through the use of large, conventional forces. Special Operations teams, including SEALs, had been sent in to hunt down and take out SCUD missile launchers, antiaircraft batteries, and command and control centers. They’d rescued downed pilots from the coalition forces, helped resistance fighters take on the much larger Iraqi military, and had taken part in huge recon efforts along the borders with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey.

None of those missions had ended when victory had been declared. Most people familiar with the situation over there realized the entire region was a powder keg just waiting to blow. There was a good chance that the US—and its Special Forces teams—would be over there for a long time to come.

So he shook his head. “No, I don’t see anything changing for a while. Getting sent downrange or going through training of one type or another is going to be my life for a while.”

Melissa twirled pasta on her fork, a thoughtful look on her face. “I never asked you the other night. What does your family think of you being a SEAL? They can’t be thrilled you do such a dangerous job.”

“They’re not. My mom especially,” he admitted. “But they knew what I was getting into when I signed up, and they knew I was planning to do it for the long haul. They worry, but it helps that my parents have met my Teammates. They know how much we care about each other, and that we’ll always have each other’s backs.”

Melissa lifted her head, her gaze meeting his. “Do you tell your parents about the kind of work you do?”

“As much as I can, which isn’t much. I can tell them I’m going somewhere, but I can’t usually tell them where, or what I’ll be doing. Most of what SEALs do is classified, so all my family knows is that I’m over in some bad part of the world, doing dangerous stuff. They don’t like it, but they deal.”

She sighed. “That would be hard for me. Not knowing where you are and what you were doing.”

Kurt couldn’t help smiling a little as he realized she wasn’t only picturing them together, but thinking of worrying about him and staying up late for him to come home. He’d never thought about it before, but he liked the idea of having a woman to come home to.

“I thought my mom had it bad with my dad being gone on some ship or other all the time,” Melissa said after they’d cleaned up and moved into the living room to sit on the couch a little while later. “At least she knew where my father was. A SEAL’s wife doesn’t have a clue where her man even is.”

Her man. Something else he liked hearing.

“I agree it’s a tough life, and not something every woman can handle,” Kurt said.

“But a SEAL’s wife isn’t exactly on her own. Each Team has a well-established family support group of spouses and family members who take care of each other. Heck, some of the wives know more about what’s happening in the world than their husbands do. Most of them know where we’re going before we do. SEAL Teams couldn’t function without women like that back home holding everything together.”

Melissa kicked off her sandals and tucked her legs up underneath her, giving him a flash of her thighs before the silky material of her dress floated down to cover them. “Are they happy? The married couples on the Team, I mean.”

Ah. Now he finally understood what this dinner was really all about. At some level, Melissa felt this almost magical thing between them as much as he did. She wanted to keep seeing him, but she was scared she couldn’t handle the burden of being married to a man who could be called away on a mission at a moment’s notice without her having a clue where he might be going or when he’d come back.

“Yeah,” he said. “But I also know some couples that didn’t make it. The stresses they faced were too big for them and it tore them apart.”

She winced, looking down at her hands where they were clasped in her lap. “That’s what I thought you’d say.”

Kurt leaned in close and gently lifted her chin with his finger so he could look her in the eyes. “Something tells me you woke up this morning thinking about a lot more than whether you’d regret letting me walk away after just a single date. Am I right?”

She nodded. “I know it’s insane. I mean we’ve gone out on a grand total of one date, and it ended with us getting jumped by carjackers and talking to the police for hours. But there’s something inside me saying that I shouldn’t let you walk away, even though I’m terrified of what it would mean to be with you. My head is telling me to run as fast as I can, but my heart is saying I should stay or I’ll end up missing out on something amazing.”

Her honesty took his breath away. To be truthful, he was as afraid as she was. He didn’t understand how he could feel something so strongly for a woman he’d just met. It wasn’t supposed to be like this… not for guys, anyway. Was it?

Kurt took a breath and plunged into the deep end of the pool.

“If it helps, I don’t want you to walk away. I think we could have something really special between us,” he said softly. “But in the end, it comes down to whether you’re willing to take a chance to reach for something on the highest branch, knowing that if you miss, it’s a long way down and that its going to hurt like hell when you hit the ground.”

She covered his hand with hers and closed her eyes, holding his palm more tightly to her cheek. After a moment, she opened them again and took his hand away from her face.

Kurt’s heart plummeted. She’d decided that walking away was the best choice.

He swallowed hard and opened his mouth to tell her that it was okay, that he understood, but then she wrapped her hand around the back of his head and pulled him in for a kiss. There was no hesitation, no indecision. They were two people coming together, both of them with their defenses down and hearts exposed.

Her mouth tasted so good that all he could do was groan. He threaded his fingers in her long hair and kissed her back just as hard as she was kissing him. He had no idea where this was going, but they were both going to find out.

CHAPTER SIX

MELISSA HAD WOKEN up that morning in a panic, her heart beating fast and her head telling her that something was terribly wrong. She’d flopped back in bed, breathing hard and plain worn out from a night spent tossing and turning. No surprise there, considering the bizarre dreams she’d had. All of them had been about her and Kurt. Well, she’d been in all of them. Kurt, on the other hand, had been noticeably absent in one.

There’d been the one of her and the handsome Navy SEAL laughing as they ran around a beautiful backyard chasing after their giggling children. Then there was one where she’d seen him in a restaurant with another woman. It had pissed her off so badly she’d thrown herself at his new girlfriend, ready to tear her to pieces. The last dream had been the most terrifying, though. In it, she’d been sitting in her apartment waiting for Kurt to come back from a mission when several men in Navy uniforms had come to her door bearing bad news instead.

That was the one that had jolted her awake and left her hyperventilating.

She had no idea why, but she knew she needed to see Kurt again. She couldn’t let things end the way they had. Hell, after the restless night she’d had, she wasn’t sure she could let things between them end at all. That was why she’d called and invited him to dinner. The moment he’d walked in the door, she’d known she made the right decision.

During dinner, she’d found herself asking him questions about his job before she even realized what she was doing. It was like her usual instincts had taken a backseat. She’d wanted to have hard and fast details in order to make a decision.

She hadn’t even been sure what kind of decision she was considering until she asked him what it would be like to be married to a SEAL. That was when she knew where all this was going. Despite her promise to stay away from Navy guys and their crazy careers, she’d been looking for reasons to get into a serious relationship with Kurt. It was completely insane, but as she sat on the couch looking into those beautiful eyes of his, it felt right.

She wasn’t even sure how they’d ended up kissing. One second they were gazing at each other, the next she had her hands in his short hair, and her lips were on his. And she couldn’t think of a single reason they should stop.

Melissa moaned as Kurt’s strong hands tangled in her hair, tugging her head to the side as he ravished her mouth, then traced hot kisses all along her neck and jawline to leave her breathless. It felt so good she didn’t want to interrupt him for even a second, but sitting side by side like this wasn’t enough for her. She pulled away just long enough to lift her dress and throw one leg over him, then sat down on his lap, letting her panty-covered butt press against his jean-clad hard-on.

Spreading her legs a little wider so she could full appreciated that fact, she kissed him again. Kurt got a firm grip on her hips, pulling her down against his erection. She rotated her hips in appreciation, loving the way the move put pressure on her clit through the thin material of her panties. She absently wondered if she could come from doing that.

Kurt didn’t give her the chance to find out, but instead slipped his hands under her ass, then got to his feet. She barely had a chance to wonder what he was doing before he headed toward the bedroom. Melissa sighed against his mouth and wrapped her legs around him. A girl could get used to being swept off her feet like this. It was seriously romantic.

When they reached her bedroom, Melissa quickly reached out and flipped the light switch. She didn’t want to miss anything in the dark.

When they reached the bed, Kurt let her slide down his body to the floor, then gazed down at her with eyes blazing with hunger.

“You sure we’re not moving too fast here?” he asked softly.

She smiled. “Not for me. How about you?”

He flashed her a grin in answer, then pulled her dress up over her head in one smooth motion, leaving her standing before him in her bra and panties. The move caught her a little by surprise, but she certainly didn’t mind. What woman wouldn’t appreciate a guy as hot as Kurt stripping her naked?

The fire in his eyes now was hot enough to make her warm all over.

“Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?” he asked, his voice thick with emotion. When she shook her head, he made a sound of disgust. “Then you’ve been hanging out with men who are stupid.”

Her mouth curved. “Or just not as forward as you.”

“I’m not forward,” he corrected. “I’m just willing to admit it when I see something I like. And I definitely like what I’m seeing right now.”

Okay, that make her feel good. “Should I take off my bra and panties so you can see if you like the rest just as much?”

She started to reach behind for the clasp on her bra, but Kurt caught her hands and gently pulled them back around in front of her. “I’d rather do that myself, if you don’t mind?”

Melissa’s pulse skipped a beat. She’d always liked a man who took charge in the bedroom. “I don’t mind at all.”

Her breath caught as he stepped closer, his fully dressed body only inches from her nearly naked one. Slowly reaching around her, he caught the clasp of her bra, popping it open easily, then sliding it off her shoulders one teasing inch at a time. She hadn’t realized exactly how excited she was until the tops of the bra cups caught on her hard nipples, making her breasts bounce as he pulled the satiny material down and away.

She expected Kurt to immediately look down at her bare breasts, but instead he kept his eyes locked with hers as he put his hands on her shoulders then spun her around until she was facing away from him. She could almost feel the heat of his gaze travel down to her panty-covered ass.

Behind her, Kurt didn’t move, didn’t say a word. Instead, he forced her to guess what he might be thinking… and doing. The urge to slide her panties down—to hurry this moment up—was second only to the need to slip her hands in there and touch herself.

But then she felt Kurt’s hands on her shoulders again, urging her to bend over a little. Not sure what he had in mind, but more than willing to find out, she leaned forward and placed her hands on the edge of the bed. The position was beyond naughty, pushing her ass out and putting her into a blatantly sexual position.

Her breath hitched as Kurt’s hands slipped into the waistband of her panties and slowly slide them over her hips. From the way the material clung to her pussy as they came off, she was clearly soaking wet. She was so turned on that the urge to clamp her thighs together and wiggle herself to orgasm was hard to resist. She doubted it would take more than a few moments of stimulation to put her over the edge. She dug her nails into the blanket, forcing herself to resist.

When Kurt reached her ankles, she obediently lifted one foot then the other so she could step out of her panties. As she stood there bent over, he traced one hand carefully up her inner thigh, along the bottom of one cheek, and then around to the point of her hip bone. The contact of those strong, sure fingers made her shiver.

She straightened up, ready to turn around and get Kurt naked too, but before she could, he wrapped one arm around her middle, tugging her back against him and holding her close. Pressing his fully clothed body against her naked one, he pulled her long hair aside so he could kiss her neck while he lowered the arm that had been holding her captive until his big hand was cupping her pussy. Then he began massaging her clit.

Melissa inhaled sharply. The idea of him standing behind her with all his clothes on while he made her come was arousing as hell.

Still pleasuring her with one hand, he cupped her breast with the other, taking her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, gently tweaking it. The shocks it sent through her body was almost enough to make her jump in his arms.

She forced herself to relax and lean back against him, spreading her legs and letting him have his way with her. He took quick advantage of that, sliding two fingers deep inside her wetness and making her gasp.

Melissa grabbed his jean-clad thigh to steady herself. She’d never done anything like this, but obviously she’d been missing out. This position was perfect for it, too. Of course, there weren’t many men in the world she’d ever let put her in a position like this. But Kurt was an exception.

She closed her eyes as he pumped his fingers in and out of her pussy while the palm of his hand ground against her clit. She was already feeling weak-kneed and tingly. The way his jean-covered cock was pushing against her ass didn’t hurt either, nor did the way he squeezed her breasts.

By the time he slipped his fingers out of her pussy and started swirling them in circles over her clit, it didn’t take much to push her over the edge.

If Kurt hadn’t been holding on to her right then, she would have collapsed to the floor as she climaxed. She moaned and might have even screamed a few times as she rotated her hips in time with his fingers. She wasn’t sure, since she was so focused on coming.

When he’d dragged every last trace of orgasm out of her body, he cupped her pussy with his hand and pressed a kiss to the sensitive spot behind her ear.

“I’m just guessing, but something tells me you enjoyed that a little bit,” he said huskily.

Melissa smiled. “More than a little bit.” She turned her head enough to be able to kiss him. “That was incredible.”

He twitched his fingers against her clit, making her jump. “Is that your way of saying you want me to do it again?”

She was tempted, but she knew she was probably too tender to go again just yet. So instead, she reached behind her and squeezed his cock through his jeans. “Maybe later.”

That earned her a groan of approval as Kurt spun her around and kissed her again. She reached down and undid his belt buckle, then the buttons of his jeans before working them over his hips along with his underwear.

Then she reached down and wrapped her hand around his cock. He felt so perfect that she had to pull away and take a quick peek to see if she was right.

She was.

His hard shaft was as long and thick as it felt, and she had no doubt he was going to feel amazing inside her.

She went up on tiptoe to kiss him. “There are condoms in the top of the nightstand.”

Without waiting for a reply, she sat on the bed and scooted to the center. Then she leaned back on her elbows and enjoyed the show as he stripped off the rest of his clothes. The rest of him was as beautifully built as she’d imagined. In addition to broad shoulders, muscular arms, shoulders, and thighs, he had six-pack abs that were enough to make any grown woman cry with joy.

By the time Kurt found a condom and put it on, she was practically trembling in anticipation. She spread her legs even wider, beckoning him in. He climbed on the bed and carefully settled himself between her thighs, teasing her pussy with the head of his cock when she would have preferred him to plunge right in. She wrapped her legs around him and tried to pull him deeper, but he only grinned and resisted.

If she weren’t so busy biting her lip, she would have screamed.

Thankfully, he finally took pity on her, lining up his thick cock with her opening and sliding in slowly. She let out one, long continuous moan, not stopping until he was as far in as he could go.

Melissa wrapped her legs around him more tightly, tugging him in so deep she thought she might see stars. Then she pulled his head down and kissed him hard, wanting to let him know how good he felt with the force of her passion.

Kurt started slowly, but then quickly picked up the pace until he was thrusting so hard and fast that the bed thumped against the wall like a sledgehammer.

Melissa buried her face in his neck and whimpered out her pleasure. She came twice before she felt Kurt tense and climax too, which only made her third orgasm that much harder.

Afterward, she kept her arms and legs wrapped around him, refusing to let him move, loving the feel of his weight pressing her down into the bed. She’d had never felt so sexually satiated—or so emotionally satisfied—as she was at that moment.

Then she felt Kurt start moving inside her again and realized the night was just getting started.

* * *

Melissa had never had sex so many times in one night, but five hours later, she was lying in Kurt’s big strong arms, her breathing ragged from yet another round that was lightyears beyond amazing. She’d never made love with such wild abandon before. It was exhilarating… addicting… and maybe just a little insane.

She’d known from the beginning that Kurt was different from any other man she’d ever met, and that this thing between them was going to be serious, no matter how much she tried to tell herself it wouldn’t. He was a SEAL, and that wasn’t going to change, but for tonight at least, she could pretend otherwise.

She snuggled closer to him, her eyes drifting closed, only to jump when she heard a soft buzzing sound. She lifted her head to ask if Kurt had heard it, too, but he was already out of bed, digging through his pants in the dark. A moment later, he came up with a pager. He thumbed the side of it, then muttered a curse.

“Can I use your phone?” he asked.

Melissa sat up, pushing her hair back with one hand even as she dragged the blanket up with the other. “Of course. Is something wrong?”

He shook his head. “No. I just need to call in.”

She expected him to use the phone on the nightstand, but instead he left the room to use the one in the kitchen. That worried her more than his pager going off. She clutched the blanket in both hands, her heart beating fast. It was probably nothing, just an exercise or something like that.

Out in the kitchen, Kurt was talking to someone on the phone. Unfortunately, his deep voice was too soft for her to make out what he was saying. A moment later, he hung up and came back into the bedroom.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, even though she was afraid of the answer.

“Yeah.” He ran his hand through his hair with a sigh. “That was HQ. I have to go wheels up.”

Her heart raced faster. “Go where?”

Kurt yanked on his jeans and T-shirt, then sat on the edge of the bed to pull on his boots. “I don’t know where. They didn’t tell me. They never do. But even if I knew, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

Tears suddenly filled her eyes. She blinked them back, desperate to hold it together. “Can’t you at least wait until morning? It’s the middle of the night.”

He shook his head as he laced his boots. “That’s not the way it works, Melissa. When they call, I have to go. You know that.”

Just because she knew it didn’t mean she was okay with it.

“When will you be back?” she asked.

He finished tying his other boot, then stood. “I don’t know that, either.”

The horrible dream from last night came rushing back, the one where men in Navy uniforms had appeared at her door, and suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. She jumped off the bed, wrapping the sheet around her to cover her nakedness and almost tripping over her own feet in the process.

“How the hell can you live like this?” she demanded, her voice shrill in the quiet of the bedroom.

Kurt met her gaze and in the light streaming in from the living room, she could see the disappointment in his blue eyes. “Because it’s what I signed up for. I knew that going in.”

“Well, I didn’t!” she snapped.

The moment the words were out, she slapped her hands over her mouth, horrified at what she’d just said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Yes, you did.” The disappointment was gone from his face to be replaced with a completely blank expression. He picked up his pager from the bed and shoved it in his pocket. “Tonight was a mistake. It’s better for both of us if we forget it ever happened.”

Then he was gone.

Melissa wanted to go after him, but her legs were too weak to do more than collapse under her and she dropped to her knees. The tears she’d been holding at bay spilled over and ran down her cheeks as sobs racked her body. She had just made the biggest mistake of her life and now she was never going to see Kurt again.

CHAPTER SEVEN

YOU GOING TO take a picture of that truck down there, or should I just ask it to wait?”

At his lieutenant’s words, Kurt jerked his attention away from thoughts of Melissa—and the shitty way they’d left things when he’d had to bail for this mission—and snapped pictures of the truck full of 122mm rockets that was passing by their position. The lens on the camera was large enough for him to not only make out the markings on the rockets and the license plate on the truck, but the scruff on the driver’s face, too. The intel weenies back at the CIA had said they wanted details. Well, he was giving them details.

Kurt and his lieutenant—Mack Hunt—lay hidden in a shallow depression dug into the backside of a sand dune, protected from the wicked hot sun by nothing more than a light piece of khaki-colored burlap erected a few inches over their heads while they took pictures of every weapon laden vehicle that passed by on the road below. As work went, it was boring as hell, but the fact that they were almost twenty miles inside the border of western Iran with no backup and no way out if something went wrong, kept them focused and alert—even if Kurt was preoccupied with thoughts of Melissa for most of it.

Because he and Mack had only been able to travel at night, it had taken a full week to work their way on foot from their drop-off point in southeastern Iraq to this location, which was just outside the tiny city of Pahleh, Iran. Since getting here four days ago, they’d kept a detailed log of every vehicle that moved up and down the road. Trucks ranging in size from large flatbeds to small Toyotas drove into Iraq each evening loaded up with weapons, then came back at dawn empty. The Iranians were dumping both weapons and ammunition into Shia dominated portions of Iraq, preparing for the war they were sure was coming with Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-led military that still controlled most of the country.

Neither Kurt nor his LT had a clue when all the fighting was going to kick off, but when it did, it was going to be bloody. Kurt only hoped the US military didn’t get stuck in the middle. If history was any guide though, they probably would.

“What’s weighing on your mind?” Mack asked as he scribbled notes in a log book propped up on the sand in front of him.

Kurt took a few more photos before the truck disappeared around the bend, then lowered the camera. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit!” Mack snorted. “I’ve known you long enough to recognize when there’s something buzzing around in that so-called head of yours. You’ve been staring off into the distance like a drunk cow since we set up here. What the hell is going on with you?”

Kurt didn’t answer. He and Mack had been good friends since going through BUD/s together, but that didn’t mean he wanted to tell the guy about his love life… or lack thereof.

“Only two things I know can get a SEAL to be this introspective,” Mack said. “Either you’re thinking of leaving the Team, or there’s a woman who has you tied up in knots. I’m guessing it’s the latter?”

Kurt glanced at his friend, raising a brow. “Is it that obvious?”

“Hell, yeah. So who is this woman you’re so stuck on and why haven’t I met her yet?”

“Her name’s Melissa,” Kurt said. “And I haven’t had a chance to introduce her to anybody yet. We just met a few days before you and I came over here.”

Mack did a double take. “Whoa! You just met this woman and she already has you gazing off into the distance with a thousand-yard stare? She must be some kind of woman.”

“Yeah, she was pretty amazing.” Kurt’s mouth edged up despite how crappy everything was between him and Melissa right then. “We clicked the moment we met.”

“Was?” His friend frowned. “Did something happen?”

Kurt hadn’t even realized he’d answered in the past tense. “You could say that. Things were going great for a while. Hell, I’d already started convincing myself that maybe this thing between us could turn into something special. Then my frigging pager went off and Melissa got her first real taste of what it means to be with a SEAL. She didn’t like the flavor.”

“Ouch.” Mack winced. “How bad was it?”

“Bad,” Kurt admitted.

Just thinking about it made his chest hurt. When Melissa had wanted him to stay the night, he thought that meant she was willing accept being with a SEAL. The terror on her face when he’d told her he had to leave had almost brought him to his knees. He’d wanted nothing more than to sweep her into his arms and tell her that everything would be okay. But then she’d said that stuff about not signing up for the kind of life he led, and he knew the wall he thought was gone was between them again.

Shit.

“And you want to know the worst part?” he demanded. “Melissa was scared and in tears, and I just walked out like a fucking coward.”

Mack lifted the binoculars to his eyes as a small Toyota pick-up loaded with metal small arms containers came into view, then lowered them so he could scribble some more notes in his book. When he was done, he looked at Kurt.

“So, what are you going to do?”

Kurt took a few pictures of the Toyota. The truck was so overloaded the damn wheels were about to fall off.

“There’s not much I can do.” He lowered the camera as the truck disappeared from sight. “Melissa is amazing, and when I’m with her I find myself thinking about a future that I never really considered. Kids. A nice house with a white picket fence. Hell, even a frigging minivan. But none of that matters if it isn’t what Melissa wants, too.”

He waited for his friend to rip into him and tell him he was delusional to even be thinking those things about a woman he’d just met. But instead Mack laughed.

“What’s so damn funny?” Kurt demanded, failing to see the humor in any of this.

“Nothing.” Mack grinned. “It’s just that I never thought I’d hear a Navy SEAL giving up so frigging easy. Shit, I’ve seen you run into a firefight wearing nothing but underwear and a tactical vest. Yet here you are giving up on a woman you claim is important to you.”

Kurt ground his jaw. “What the hell am I supposed to do, huh? After the way I walked out, I doubt she’d even let me in her apartment.”

Mack shrugged. “Then find another way to get in. We’re SEALs—it’s what we do.”

Maybe, but SEALs weren’t trained for this. “And then what?”

“Tell her how you really feel,” Mack said. “Tell her you see your kids’ eyes when you look at her or some other sappy shit like that. Hell, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter what you say, just go see her when we get back.”

Kurt regarded his friend thoughtfully. “When did you get so smart with women?”

“I’ve always been smart with women. I just haven’t found one who can appreciate my particular brand of intelligence.”

Kurt snorted. “I feel you.”

They lay there in silence for a while until Kurt thought of something else. “How long do you think SOCOM is going to leave us out here?”

Mack shrugged. “I have no idea. I just hope they don’t forget about us. I don’t think I can put up with you moaning and groaning about Melissa for another week.”

Kurt grunted. He couldn’t argue with that. He wouldn’t want to listen to himself for that long, either.

* * * * *

“Sorry I’m not very good company tonight,” Melissa said over her shoulder to Veronica as she led the way into her apartment.

“If I still hadn’t heard anything from the guy I was sleeping with, I wouldn’t be good company, either.”

Melissa’s first instinct was to defend Kurt and tell her friend that he hadn’t called because he was on a mission and hadn’t gotten back yet, but she resisted the urge. For all she knew, Kurt was already home. Maybe he hadn’t called because he simply didn’t want to.

Sighing, she tossed her purse on the coffee table, then flopped down on the couch. It had been three weeks since the night Kurt had walked out, and since then she’d been a complete mess. She hadn’t been sleeping well, she was snapping at her coworkers and the kids in her class, and this morning, she’d cried into her bowl of cereal—all because she’d lost her ever-loving mind when Kurt had to go to work and do his job—a job she knew he had before she’d decided to sleep with him and let him into her heart.

Not even the fun romantic comedy Veronica had insisted they go see tonight had been able to take her mind off her troubles.

“Maybe you should call Coronado,” Veronica suggested, sitting down beside her.

“I did.” After she’d both called and gone over to Kurt’s apartment every day for a week with no luck. “They wouldn’t even confirm that Kurt was a SEAL, much less that he was deployed somewhere.”

“Not even when you told them that you and Kurt were seeing each other?”

Melissa lifted a brow. “Like they’ve never heard that one before. They wouldn’t tell me anything. And unfortunately, I was so busy yelling at Kurt before he left that I never thought to ask him for the contact information of anyone on his Team I could talk to.”

Veronica frowned. “And he didn’t say how long he’d be gone?”

“No. I don’t think he even knew.” Melissa sighed. “Hell, for all I know, he got back two weeks ago and didn’t tell me because he decided I wasn’t worth the trouble.”

“I doubt that,” Veronica said. “Especially since he knows how you feel about him.” When Melissa didn’t say anything, her friend added, “You did tell him, right?”

Melissa shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. Her heart hurt just thinking about it. “No. I was so torn up over him leaving in the middle of the night that I didn’t tell him how I felt. Or that no matter how scared I was every time he walked out the door, I still wanted him in my life.”

Veronica was silent as she considered that. “But he knows anyway. I’m sure of it. I mean, why else would you get so upset when he left?”

“Yeah, well I’m not sure of it.” Melissa ran her hand through her hair. “Not that I blame him. How could he know I love him, when I didn’t know myself until after he’d left? You didn’t see his face when he walked out, Veronica. He thought it was over between us… before it even started.”

“But it’s not over,” Veronica said. “You just need to tell him that.”

Her friend made it sound so easy. If it were, she’d be camped out on Kurt’s doorstep waiting for him to come home right now.

Veronica let out a loud sigh. “I need a drink—and I don’t mean water. You have anything stronger than that?”

Melissa nodded. “Yeah, there are a few wine coolers in the fridge. Get me one, too.”

As her friend rummaged around in the fridge, Melissa rested her head back on the couch and wondered how Kurt had wormed his way into her heart so quickly.

“Hey,” Veronica called from the kitchen. “You have a message on your answering machine.”

Melissa didn’t bother to lift her head. “It’s probably one of the other first-grade teachers. We’re taking our classes to the zoo next week and still trying to figure out which parents are coming.”

“Shouldn’t you check?” Veronica said. “It could be Kurt.”

Melissa’s pulse skipped a beat, and it was all she could do not to run over and push the ‘play’ button. But before she could decide whether to give in to the urge, she heard the answering machine’s familiar beep announcing she had one new message.

“Melissa, it’s Kurt. If you’re there, pick up. I really need to talk to you.”

Kurt’s warm, deep tones vibrated out of the machine, filling her apartment. Melissa jumped up and ran into the kitchen so fast she almost slipped on the tile floor. The urge to grab the cordless phone out of the cradle even though she knew he wasn’t actually on the other end of the line right then was so powerful she had to clench her hands into fists.

“Melissa? Are you there?”

She opened her mouth to tell him that she was, but then closed it again when she remembered he couldn’t hear her.

When had he called? Was he home? Was he okay? Those questions and a thousand more whirled through her head so fast they made her dizzy. She grabbed the edge of the counter to steady herself. It was just so damn good to hear his voice. The relief was nearly overwhelming.

“Okay, I guess you’re not,” Kurt said, and for one terrified moment, Melissa thought he was about to hang up. He didn’t. “But if you are there and don’t want to pick up, I get that. I just wanted you to know that I’m back and that I’m okay. I figured you’d want to know. That’s why I called.”

Melissa tightened her hold on the counter, relief coursing through her. He was back home and he was safe. Thank God.

On the other end of the line, Kurt swore. “That’s bullshit. I didn’t just call you to tell you I was okay. I called because I have a lot more that I want to say to you, but I was worried if I showed up at your place, you’d slam the door in my face. I spent the last three weeks roasting my ass off in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but think about us. Or rather what could have been if I wasn’t a SEAL.”

Tears trickled down Melissa’s cheeks. This was the part where he said that they couldn’t be together, that there was no place for a woman like her in a life like his. As much as she wanted to reach out and stop the tape, she couldn’t make herself move.

“Crap,” he muttered. “I hate talking on these damn machines. I suck at this. But if this is the only way I can tell you how I feel, then here goes. First off—bottom line up front—I’ve fallen for you, harder than I ever would have thought possible. And if that declaration has you reaching for the delete button on your machine, please hear me out.”

There were a few seconds of silence, just enough time for Melissa to realize that instead of explaining why they weren’t any good together, Kurt had just admitted to having real feelings for her.

“I know we’ve gone on a grand total of two dates—well, three if you count me coming to your classroom as a date,” Kurt continued. “Normally, I’d be the first one to agree that there’s no way two people can know in that short period of time that they’re meant to be together. And maybe for you, that’s the case. All I know is that for me, I’ve spent enough time with you to figure out you’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. I want to go to bed with you in my arms at night and see you there beside me when I open my eyes in the morning. I want to introduce you to my family, and start a family of our own. I want kids, the house with the white picket fence—the whole nine yards. And I want all of that with you. I can’t put into words why you mean so much to me; I just know that you do. Even though it’s going to be hard being married to a Navy SEAL, I vow to spend every chance I get making it all worthwhile. I promise to make you the most important thing in my life… if you let me.”

Melissa stared at the answering machine through eyes blurred with tears.

“I know I’m rambling like a psycho,” Kurt said. “But what I’m really trying to say is that I—”

Melissa leaned closer, desperate to hear the words she was sure were coming when the answering machine suddenly beeped and a tinny voice came out of the speaker saying the tape was full. Stifling a sob, she ripped the small cassette tape out of the answering machine before it could accidentally get erased. Then she squeezed the little piece of plastic to her chest like it was the most valuable thing in the world. Because to her, it was.

“What are you going to do?” Veronica asked softly from beside her.

Melissa looked at her friend to see her own tears mirrored in Veronica’s eyes. “Tell him that I’m never going to walk away from him again. Then demand he finish that last sentence out loud so I can hear those three little words.”

“Thank God,” Veronica breathed. “If not, I was all set to go tell him that you were too stupid to realize what you have right in front of you—and that I’m available.”

Clutching the tape in one hand, Melissa laughingly wiped the tears from her face with the other, then gave Veronica a hug. She scooped up her purse and was halfway to the door before she remembered what time it was. She spun around to look at her friend.

“Crap! It’s the middle of the night. Maybe I should wait until tomorrow.”

Veronica scowled. “You’ve already waited to see him for three weeks. Go now.”

Melissa chewed on her lip, then nodded. “Okay. Wish me luck.”

Her friend laughed. “Like you’re going to need it. I’ll lock up. Call me when you guys come up for air.”

Giving her a wave, Melissa ran out the door and down the steps. Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely unlock the door of her car. She needed to calm down or she was never going to be able to drive over to Kurt’s place. She never thought she’d be grateful they’d almost gotten carjacked on their first date, but if she hadn’t overheard Kurt give his address to the cops that night, she wouldn’t even know where he lived.

Since she was still unfamiliar with the route, she had to concentrate on where she was going. That was actually a good thing because it mean she couldn’t focus too much on what she was going to say to Kurt when she got there. All she knew for sure was that she was going to tell him she was sorry and that she loved him and wanted to be with him, even if he was a SEAL. Everything else besides that was superfluous.

Her heart was racing by the time she pulled into a parking space outside his apartment complex. Now that she was here, all kinds of doubts began to creep in. What if she was mistaken about what Kurt had been going to say?

Taking a deep breath, she picked up her purse and stepped out of the car. The parking lot was deserted, which wasn’t surprising considering it was well after midnight. She hiked her bag up on her shoulder and walked faster. After what happened in that restaurant parking lot a few weeks ago, she was still a little jumpy.

Melissa was halfway across the parking lot when she caught sight of someone coming toward her out of the corner of her eye. She had half a second to wonder if she might be in danger before a man grabbed her arm and clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Well, well, well… look what I found. This must be my lucky day.”

Fear shot through Melissa as she stared into the cold, murderous eyes of the man who’d been the leader of the trio who had jumped her and Kurt outside the restaurant all those weeks ago.

How the hell had he gotten out of jail so fast?

More importantly, what did he want with her?

“I came over here to pay your asshole boyfriend back for the beat down he gave me and my boys,” he said, as if reading her mind. Then he smirked. “But grabbing you is even better revenge.”

Keeping one hand tightly over her mouth, he spun her around and wrapped his other arm around her, then picked her up bodily and carried her across the parking lot. Melissa beat her fists against his arm and kicked her feet, trying to get away. When that didn’t work, she tried scratching him instead. It still didn’t do any good. The next thing she knew, her captor was tossing her in the trunk of an old beater car.

As the lid slammed closed, plunging her into darkness, all she could think of was Kurt. Now he’d never know she loved him, too.

CHAPTER EIGHT

CONSIDERING THEY WERE talking about Oklahoma football, Kurt should have been riveted to Sports Center on ESPN, but he’d barely heard a word the television analysts said. It was on the other side of midnight and after spending three long weeks in the sandbox, he should be in bed. But he was too busy thinking about Melissa to think. Had she listened to his message? Erased it? Hell, was she even home? For all he knew, she could be out with some guy. The thought made him want to punch something.

Shit.

Kurt was about to reach for his beer when the phone rang. He froze, his heart immediately kicking into another gear. Maybe it was Melissa. Then again, with his luck, it was probably HQ calling with another mission.

He grabbed the cordless handset from the couch where he’d tossed it after calling Melissa and pouring out his heart on her answering machine almost four hours ago. Or making an ass of himself; he wasn’t sure which.

“Travers.”

“Kurt… it’s Melissa.”

Relief flooded him. “Man, am I glad to hear your voice. You must have gotten my message.”

“I don’t know if she did or not,” a man said on the other end of the line. “But I’ve got one for you.”

Kurt bolted upright on the couch, his hand tightening around the phone. “Who the hell is this?”

“I’m kinda hurt you don’t remember me, seeing as we went a few rounds in the parking lot of that restaurant a couple weeks ago.”

Son of a bitch.

It was Big Mouth. Kurt could have kicked himself for not recognizing the asshole’s voice.

“If you hurt her, I will find you and I will kill you in the most painful way I know,” Kurt said. “And I know a lot of them.”

Big Mouth snorted. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I ain’t gonna hurt your pretty girlfriend. Not if you do like I say, anyway.”

Kurt clenched his jaw. “What do you want?”

“Yeah, now that’s more like it,” Big Mouth said. “Meet me at the Broken Bottle Bar in fifteen minutes.”

Kurt had heard of the sleazy bar, but had never been there. “It’s going to take me at least twenty minutes to get there from where I am.”

“Then you better drive fast because I said fifteen. And come alone or else I’ll do a lot more than hurt your pretty girlfriend.”

With that, Big Mouth hung up.

Fuck.

Kurt knew there was no way in hell Big Mouth was going to be alone at that bar, but he didn’t have a choice. He didn’t have time to round up the guys on his Team. Besides, Mack was the only one who even lived remotely close.

He dialed his friend’s number, praying Mack was home.

“Hunt.”

“Mack, it’s Kurt. Get your ass down to the Broken Bottle Bar ASAP.”

Kurt didn’t have time to wait for a reply. Instead, he tossed the cordless phone on the couch and scooped his keys up from the table in the entryway, then headed down the hall and out the exit door of his apartment building.

Luckily it was the middle of the night, so there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road. Even so, Kurt barely made it to the bar in time. The place was a crappy hole in the wall that had seen better days. Since it was near closing time, the parking lot was empty except for a few cars. If this were a mission, he and his Team would go in with a plan, but he didn’t have time to come up with one. Not with Melissa in danger. So instead, he got out of the truck and walked right in the front door.

The interior of the bar was dimly lit, but he immediately spotted Melissa. She was sitting in a chair with her hands tied behind her back and a gag in her mouth. She looked terrified, but unharmed. The sight of her in such a vulnerable position was enough to almost bring him to his knees—and piss him off more than he’d ever been. If he had any doubts that what he felt for her was real, they disappeared in that moment.

Kurt would have run over to her right then—caution be damned—but Big Mouth was standing beside her, looking smug. The lowlife didn’t appear to have a weapon, but Kurt didn’t want to risk it. There were two more guys by the bar, and another at a table a few feet behind Melissa. The way they were eyeing Kurt with blatant hostility told him they almost certainly were part of this set-up.

Big Mouth snickered… and Kurt immediately felt like smashing in his face. “Didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to come alone. Not that I blame you. This is one fine piece of ass you got here. I could see myself dragging my balls across broken glass for a chance to screw a woman like her.”

Kurt balled his hands into fists, fighting to control the anger building up inside him. “I’m here. You can let her go now.”

Big Mouth laughed and looked around the bar. “You boys hear that? He thinks he’s the one running the show.” His gaze slid back to Kurt as the other three men chuckled. “That’s not the way it’s going to work, asshole. The first time we met, I was a little drunk and you took me by surprise. This time, I’m going to put a beat down on you like you ain’t never had. I’m going to whup up on you like a redheaded stepchild right here in front of my boys. And when I’m done with you, I’m going to have some fun with your woman. If you ain’t unconscious, you can even watch. Then after that, I’m tossing both of you in the bay. We’ll see how well your ass floats with a concrete block tied to your fucking neck.”

Giving Kurt a self-satisfied grin, he half turned and ran a finger down Melissa’s cheek before bringing it to his mouth to lick it off. “Damn, this bitch is sweet.”

Kurt ground his jaw as Big Mouth took a step toward him—and away from Melissa. He hadn’t necessarily shown up here with the intention of killing this shithead, but now that might just change.

Big Mouth advanced on him confidently, that stupid grin spreading halfway across his face. Kurt wondered if he’d be as confident if he knew the guy he was coming at was a Navy SEAL. Probably. This moron seemed too stupid to know what a SEAL was.

Kurt moved to the left a little, into a more open area. There were a lot of small tables around them, but all the chairs had been placed on top to make room for cleaning, so there was plenty of space to work.

He was surprised Big Mouth hadn’t pulled a weapon. He was also a little shocked the other three guys hadn’t gotten up to join in the fight yet. Kurt guessed Big Mouth wanted to do this man to man. That was fine with him. Though he doubted Big Mouth was going to think so highly of the idea in a few seconds.

Big Mouth charged when he was about ten feet away, roaring like a hippo in heat and probably thinking he sounded scary. Actually, he just sounded silly.

Kurt waited until the man was about two feet away, then he stepped to the side and brought his right hand up in a quick ridge hand strike that landed solidly just below the idiot’s throat. Big Mouth went down hard, hitting the floor with a thud. The air that wasn’t knocked out by the impact of Kurt’s stiffened hand exploded as the man connected with the wood.

Big Mouth was still coughing and choking as he reached behind his back for something. Kurt saw the move coming and kicked out viciously just as a small handgun came into view. The weapon skittered and bounced across the floor, thumping into a far wall hard enough to knock a dent in the wood.

From his position on the floor, Big Mouth glared at his buddies. “What the hell are you idiots doing just standing there? Kick his ass!”

The other three men immediately came running, but Kurt didn’t give a crap. He was so angry at that point that he would have taken on a whole platoon full of shitheads to protect Melissa.

The first guy came in swinging like a psycho, but that ended when Kurt picked up a chair from a nearby table and smashed it into the man’s head. It wasn’t a fair move, but Kurt wasn’t here to fight fair. He was here to kick some ass and take Melissa home.

The other two were a little smarter. They split up and tried to come at Kurt from two sides at once. It might have worked, if this were the first time something like this had happened to Kurt. But he’d trained for this kind of stuff for years.

Grabbing another chair, he tossed it at the guy on the left, then turned and punched out the guy on the right. By the time the first one was done getting the furniture off his face, Kurt was waiting there to flip him over his hip and smack him face first into the edge of a table.

Big Mouth had finally climbed to his feet and was looking around like he was searching for something. More help, maybe. Or even his weapon. When he didn’t find either, he turned and ran for the door.

Kurt caught him in two steps, twisting him around and punching him repeatedly until he’d got all his anger out. Unfortunately for Big Mouth, it took a lot of punching to get to that point. By the time Kurt dropped the piece of shit to the floor, the guy’s face looked like someone had put it through a meat grinder.

Served the son of a bitch right.

Turning, Kurt hurried over to untie Melissa. The minute she was free, she was on her feet and in his arms, holding onto him tightly, her face pressed against his T-shirt. As much as he hated to pull away, he forced himself to step back and gently lift her chin.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Did that asshole hurt you?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine. What about you?” She gasped at the sight of his red and raw knuckles. “Your poor hand! It’s not broken, is it?”

Kurt couldn’t help smiling as Melissa cradled his tender hand in her delicate one. “Nah. I’ve hurt it worse than this playing football with the guys on the Team.”

She gave him a skeptical look and probably would have called him on it, but a voice interrupted them.

“Guess you didn’t need my help after all. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have rushed.”

Kurt turned to see Mack standing just inside the door, an amused look on his face as he took in the four men sprawled on the floor.

“Call the cops, would you?” Kurt said. “There’s a payphone in the back by the restrooms.”

Mack headed that way, giving them a nod as he passed.

“That’s a guy on the Team. I’ll introduce you later,” Kurt said, turning back to Melissa. “First there’s something I need to tell you.”

He would have continued, but she put a finger to his lips, shushing him.

“Me first,” she said.

* * *

Melissa hadn’t meant to interrupt him, but she’d spent the last thirty minutes terrified for her life and Kurt’s. While her captor had been waiting for Kurt to show up, he’d taken great pleasure in telling her exactly what he was going to do to her after he killed her boyfriend. If she hadn’t been gagged, she would have told him that her boyfriend was a Navy SEAL and that Kurt would be the one beating up him and his equally slimy friends. But when Kurt had walked into the bar alone, looking even more handsome than she remembered, it was all she could do not to beg him to turn around and walk out so he wouldn’t get hurt.

If she hadn’t been sure she was in love with him before, she was now. And after what happened tonight, she wasn’t waiting any longer to tell him.

“I got your message,” she said softly. “I was coming over to see you when that jerk grabbed me.”

Kurt frowned. “How did you know where I live?”

“I heard you give your address to the cops that first night and remembered it.” She gave him a sheepish look. “I had no intention of stalking you, I swear.”

His mouth twitched. “You can stalk me whenever you like.”

If he only knew how close she’d been to doing that these past few weeks. “Did you mean everything you said? On the answering machine, I mean.”

“Yes.” Now he was the one who looked a little embarrassed. “I know I rambled on, but everything I said was true. I’m just sorry I didn’t tell you those things before I left your place that night.”

Melissa shook her head. “I’m the one who needs to apologize. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to sleep with you. When you said you had to go on a mission, I got scared and I lost it. I’m never going to be thrilled about the job you do, but I know it’s who you are. I’m willing to deal with it to have you in my life.”

He did a double take. “Are you sure?”

She reached up to caress his hair-roughened jaw. “I’m sure. I’m still a little scared—and will be every time you leave to go somewhere—but I’m sure. More sure than I’ve ever been of anything.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

This near him, it was easy to forget they were standing in the middle of a seedy bar. She closed her eyes, savoring the moment, then opened them again as she remembered something.

“The tape on my answering machine ran out right as you were about to say something,” she said, taking a step back to look up at him. “What was it?”

Kurt smiled. “That I love you.”

Melissa felt her heart do a little dance at his declaration. She smiled. “I thought that was it, but I wanted to be sure. I love you too, in case you didn’t know.”

Falling in love with a man after only two dates was crazy. But Melissa knew what was in her heart. She was in love with this man. And that was the only thing that mattered.

Kurt pulled her in for a kiss that made her wish they weren’t in the middle of that same seedy bar. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little nervous about the journey she was about to embark on. Being the wife of a Navy SEAL was going to be hard, but for a chance to be with a man as special as Kurt, she could do it.

* * * * *

I hope you enjoyed Kurt and Melissa’s story!

Fast forward twenty years later and Navy SEAL Kurt Travers is now Master Chief of an entire platoon of hunky Navy SEALs in Coronado, California. One of those SEALs is Chasen Ward, and he falls hard and fast for a woman he rescues from terrorists.

Here’s a sneak peek at SEAL FOR HER PROTECTION, Book One in my SEALs of Coronado Series, which is FREE right now for a limited time.

He saved her once. Can he save her again?

Investigative journalist Hayley Garner is no damsel in distress. Fiery, feisty and tough, she can handle herself in the field. But when she’s kidnapped by terrorists, she knows she’s in real trouble. Then in sweeps sexy, rugged Navy SEAL Chasen Ward to rescue her from certain death. After getting her to safety, he disappears into the night before she can even thank him.

Weeks later, Hayley encounters Chasen again and finds herself falling into a passionate romance with the hunky hero out of her dreams. But ever since she's returned home, Hayley feels as if someone's watching her. Is it post-traumatic stress or does she have reason to be afraid?

PROLOGUE

Nigeria, Africa

FROM WHERE SHE sat on the floor, Hayley Garner looked around the dank, smelly pigsty of the makeshift prison cell, seeing nothing she hadn’t seen the last three days. It was dark outside now, but the single bare lightbulb hanging from one of the overhead beams allowed her to make out the rough concrete block walls and the two pieces of corrugated sheet metal hastily attached to the brick covering what had once been windows.

She’d left the security of the city of Maiduguri to get the real story of what life was like in the war-torn area, especially in the small villages beyond the limited reach of the Nigerian Army. But getting captured by the Boko Haram terrorists she was here to write about was never part of that plan, and now she was in serious trouble.

She hugged her knees and stared at the door that served as the only way in or out of the room. It was impossible to look away from it for more than a few seconds at a time because she was terrified one of the terrorists would storm in at any minute and catch her unaware. Though she had no idea how she was supposed to prepare herself for what she knew was coming soon.

Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them back, berating herself for ever having left the dorm rooms at the university where she’d been staying with the other international journalists. But she’d been sent by her paper back in the States to get real stories, not the fabricated stuff the local military command had been trying to sell them, and the only way to do that was to go outside the city.

According to the official word, Boko Haram was a decimated fighting force, barely hanging onto a few tattered strongholds out in the jungles along the far eastern edges of Borno State, but all it took was one look at the terrified faces of the locals—not to mention one moment spent listening to the sounds of intense fighting outside the city at night—to convince her that was all crap. So she’d slipped away, made a deal to get a vehicle, and headed toward one of the local villages that had recently been attacked in the hopes of getting something real. That’s when she’d been ambushed by the Boko Haram and her Land Rover had flipped over. She’d been knocked unconscious and woken up in this nasty place. While she had a cell to herself, she wasn’t the only woman being held captive. The screams of the other female prisoners echoed in the air at all hours of the day and night. She shuddered to think what was happening to them.

For the first day or so, she’d held out some hope the men who’d rammed her Land Rover off the road a few miles south of the village of Dalori would ransom her back to the government in return for weapons, money, or food—maybe even a prisoner exchange. That hope had faded quickly when the terrorists had come into her prison cell to taunt her with her fate. They took turns shoving her around, laughing as they told her in words she barely understood what she was in for as soon after the “colonel” returned from wiping out whatever poor, defenseless village had attracted his unfortunate attention.

In three short days, Hayley had come to hate the tiny space she was being held in, hate the single naked bulb over her head that flickered but never went out, and hate the door standing between her and freedom. Worse than all of that, she hated the creak of the door opening. Because at some point, it would mean the horrible men were done taunting and laughing at her. Then things would get much worse.

Hayley knew they were going to kill her because they’d already done that many times with foreign captives, especially journalists. The thought terrified her, but not nearly as much as what they would probably do to her before they got around to killing her. They’d done a lot of horrific things to a lot of women in general, foreign ones included.

Her only hope lay in escaping, but she couldn’t imagine how that would even be possible. Not only was the one door in the room never left unlocked, but her ankle had been twisted badly in the car wreck. Her foot and ankle were purple from her toes to mid-shin and if it wasn’t broken, she’d definitely torn ligaments and tendons. Putting any weight on it was excruciatingly painful and walking on it was nearly impossible. Running on it was out of the question.

But, if she were going to try, now was the time. The camp she was in had grown completely quiet. Even the sounds of pain and suffering had fallen silent.

She slowly shoved herself to her feet, gritting her teeth as the pain in her ankle almost stole her conviction away. She fought back another wave of tears. She was getting out of here, dammit. Clenching her hands into fists, she took a step toward the door

Outside, there was a deep, low thud followed by a sharp cracking sound reverberating through the night.

Hayley froze. She’d reported from enough battlefields to recognize an explosion when she heard one. What the…?

Abruptly, the light bulb overhead flickered once then died away, plunging the windowless space into total and claustrophobic darkness. It wasn’t until then she realized the electricity in the place had come from a generator. She only knew it now because the constant droning sound she’d taken as background noise was gone.

Outside, the encampment erupted in a barrage of gunfire and loud, angry shouts. It was sporadic and wild, like there were people shooting in every direction at once. Had the Nigerian Army come for her?

She heard yelling right outside the door of her prison cell, then the rapid pop, pop, pop of semi-automatic weapons fire. It was quickly followed by the thud of something slamming hard enough against the door to jar it in its frame.

Her heart thudded in her chest as fear poured through her. If the terrorists thought they were about to be overrun, would they try to take her with them or simply kill her? Which would be worse?

Before she could decide, the door burst open, not swinging into the room but flying off its cheap hinges and hitting the floor.

Hayley jumped back in surprise, falling against the rough block wall and barely staying upright. She stared hard into the darkness but couldn’t see anything more than a big silhouette of a man slipping through as silently as a ghost.

She was trying to decide if she should run around the guy when an American voice stopped her cold.

“Hayley Garner, US Navy SEALs. We’re here to take you home.”

The air whooshed out of her lungs in a rush, the adrenaline that had been keeping her going for three days draining out of her right there on the spot. Legs wobbly, she slid down the wall and would have hit the floor but the big guy in military gear was suddenly at her side, catching her.

She couldn’t see much of him, but as her eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering into the room from the hallway, she realized he was wearing night vision goggles. No wonder he could move so fast in the dark.

The SEAL slipped one arm behind her back, gently holding her up. “Are you injured? Can you walk?”

She opened her mouth to answer when another round of gunfire cut her off. It sounded like a flat-out war was going on around them. How had this guy gotten in here by himself?

“Ma’am, are you injured?” he asked urgently.

She nodded but then figured he probably needed more info. What the hell was wrong with her? She usually had it more together than this even in stressful situations.

“Yes,” she finally got out. “I did something to my right ankle. I can’t put any weight on it.”

Hayley expected him to curse. Maybe get on a radio and call for backup—or a stretcher. Instead, he wrapped his left arm around her more tightly then slipped his right hand behind her knees and scooped her right up off her feet like it was nothing—all while still holding some kind of short rifle

“Wrap your arms around my neck and hold on tight,” he instructed as he headed for the door. “This might get a little bumpy. Sorry if it hurts.”

She started to tell him she didn’t care how bumpy it got, she just wanted to get the hell out of there, but she didn’t get the chance because he took off running down the hallway with her in his arms like she was a rag doll.

He was saying strange words in hushed tones as they ran, and it took her a moment to realize he wasn’t talking to her. He must have some kind of voice-activated radio so he could talk to the other members of his SEAL Team. He was saying something about coming out of objective Bravo and that he’d be taking the primary lane of movement toward the alternate extraction point. She had no idea what he was talking about, but she was sure as heck glad he did.

Hayley didn’t know what to expect when they came out of the building she’d been held prisoner in for three days, but what she found was definitely not anything close to what she imagined.

It was completely chaotic, with fires burning, explosions rocking the buildings around them, and men carrying AK assault rifles running everywhere and shooting in all directions. It didn’t take a genius to figure out none of the men were on the SEAL’s side. They were Boko Haram terrorists shooting into the darkness and trying to hit the ghosts attacking them.

Her savior lifted her higher in his arms, tilting his weapon up a little with his right hand and taking out the first two men who came running at them. Then he turned right and hauled butt toward the edge of the camp. Crap, he could really move.

Hayley held her breath, sure someone was going to kill them, but every time one of the terrorists even turned to look in their direction the man went down with no evidence of where the shot had come from. She didn’t know where the shots were coming from either, but somewhere out there in the darkness, she and her SEAL had a couple of guardian angels.

As they ran, Hayley thought she might have caught sight of several other SEALs either running toward the fight or carrying rescued prisoners like her away from it.

A few minutes later, she and her rescuer were outside the encampment and in the surrounding desert. They’d barely crested the top of a sandy hill when she saw a blur of movement coming down from the sky. A staccato thump, thump, thump she could feel in her chest told her it might be a helicopter, but it was much quieter than any she’d ever heard before.

Then a big black shape dropped to the ground at the bottom of the slope and Hayley realized it really was a helicopter, albeit a lot stranger looking than she was used to seeing, made up of sharp angles and sleek curves. Before she knew it, a door in the side of the thing slid open and her SEAL handed her off to another guy in dark clothes and NVGs.

“Watch her right ankle,” her SEAL told the man as he flipped up his NVGs to help get her in the canvas seat of the aircraft.

Other SEALs appeared out of the darkness, carrying rescued women of their own. Off to the side, about fifty feet away, Hayley saw yet another one of the strange helicopters being loaded with more women, each carried in by a SEAL.

The journalist in Hayley tried to look everywhere at once, hoping to take everything in and remember it. There wasn’t very much light coming from the interior of the helicopter, but in the little there was, she saw her savior had the most beautiful blue eyes God had ever given a man.

“These people will get you and the others to safety,” he said as he checked her seatbelt one last time.

“Aren’t you coming, too?” she asked when he started to back away.

The urge to reach out and grab him was nearly impossible to resist. But every seat in the helicopter was taken up by her and the other women. There was no room for the SEALs.

“We’re not leaving yet,” he said, and all Hayley could do was lock on his amazing smile and beautiful blue eyes. “My Team and I have a lot more before we’re done here. Take care.”

With that, her SEAL turned and ran back toward the terrorist camp—and the shooting. Then the door slid closed and the super quiet helicopter lifted away in a fast ascent.

That’s when it finally hit Hayley she was going to live through this, and she’d found the story she’d come to Nigeria for.

 SEAL FOR HER PROTECTION

http://paigetylertheauthor.com/seal-for-her-protection/

Want more hunky SEALs?

Check out the other books in the SEALs of Coronado Series!

http://paigetylertheauthor.com/books/#coronado

Also Check out MY SEAL BODYGUARD!

When someone breaks into romance author Peyton Matthews’ Virginia Beach home to steal her newest manuscript, her publisher hires Noah Chase, a former Navy SEAL and the newest member of GAPS to be her bodyguard. 

Peyton thinks the idea of needing a bodyguard is ridiculous, but she can’t help appreciating how gorgeous Noah is. And while she thought that having a stranger hanging around 24/7 would mess with her creativity, the Navy SEAL definitely comes in handy when she’s choreographing fight scenes. All that hand-to-hand action and rolling around on the floor with him gets her pulse racing, but while Noah is falling for Peyton too, he doesn’t act on it. He needs to keep his head in the game and focus on the job or he could end up getting her killed. She might not think she’s in danger, but his gut tells him differently. 

The threat to Peyton is closer to home than she realizes however, and it will take all of Noah’s SEAL training to save her life.

http://paigetylertheauthor.com/my-seal-bodyguard/

For more Military Heroes check out my X-OPS and SWAT Series!

X-OPS

Her Perfect Mate

Her Lone Wolf

Her Wild Hero

Her Fierce Warrior

Her Rogue Alpha

Her True Match

Her Dark Half

Exposed

http://paigetylertheauthor.com/books/#ops

SWAT (Special Wolf Alpha Team)

Hungry Like the Wolf

Wolf Trouble

In the Company of Wolves

To Love a Wolf

Wolf Unleashed

Wolf Hunt

Wolf Hunger

Wolf Rising

http://paigetylertheauthor.com/books/#wolf

ABOUT PAIGE

Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy, romantic suspense and paranormal romance. She and her very own military hero (also known as her husband) live on the beautiful Florida coast with their adorable fur baby (also known as their dog). Paige graduated with a degree in education, but decided to pursue her passion and write books about hunky alpha males and the kick-butt heroines who fall in love with them.

She is represented by Bob Mecoy.

www.paigetylertheauthor.com

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