Claiming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 1) (4 page)

“Not going to,” he confirmed. “Because I have a feeling you’re here for a reason. It would be crappy of me to interfere with that.”

Oh, geez. That gushed through her chest with a big splash of warmth. “You’re a really sweet guy, you know that?”

Dex laughed, then managed to look startled that he’d laughed, and shut his eyes for a blink with a small groan. “Yeah, no. You can get that out of your head right now. I couldn’t be any further away from who you seem to think I am.”

“That’s ridiculous.” She scowled in his general direction, but since he was staring out over the water again, he probably didn’t even notice. “You keep saying that, like you’re trying to scare me away. It’s not going to work, so shut up.”

At that, he slowly turned his head to contemplate her, blinking those deep gray eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”

Well, wasn’t that was a trip and a half. Telling a guy like Dex to do something, and he just did it. Made her wonder what other orders he might be willing to take. “If it’s so not smart to be this far from the resort, what are you doing here?”

Stupid question. Dex clearly went wherever he wanted without fear. The world was his oyster. She could use a good dose of his courage. Maybe if she stuck to his side, some of it would transfer to her by osmosis.

“I live near here.” He jerked his head down the beach in the opposite direction of the resort. “There’s a small village maybe a half a mile that way where a lot of the resort staff lives.”

“You work at the resort?”

Why had that never occurred to her? Of course he did. It shouldn’t be such a shock. That was why he’d rescued her from the cretin… because he was probably a lifeguard or something.

Deflated, she crossed her arms over her midsection. No wonder he kept trying to brush her off. He’d just been doing his job when he’d fended off a resort guest on behalf of another one. And she’d invented some kind of magical fairy tale out of it, like he’d come to her aid on an imaginary white horse, sword drawn to slay all the dragons on her behalf, but was too much of a gentleman to claim the lady’s hand.

And she wasn’t even a fairy-tale kind of girl. There was no magic, at least not in her world. Just scars and not enough bandages. Thoroughly annoyed with herself for being such an idiot, she started to turn away.

“Nah, I just live there because it’s convenient. I run an excursion company with some buddies. You wanna go parasailing or snorkeling, you call me.”

Oh. So it
hadn’t
been his job to protect her. He’d done it out of the goodness of his heart, like she’d assumed. God, she could
not
get a handle on what was happening here. So which was he—white knight or bad news?

The man ran the company that offered snorkeling excursions. That couldn’t be a coincidence. The universe had finally self-corrected, putting exactly what she’d needed in her grasp at exactly the right time. Relief rushed into the hollow place in her chest, and for the first time, she experienced a moment of optimism akin to her pre-Chris self.

She hadn’t known Dex was watching her as she spazzed about whether she was actually going to get in the water. He could have let her walk away without ever saying a word.
He
could have walked away. The man moved like a graceful panther on the prowl. She’d never have heard him if he’d decided to leave before announcing his presence.

But he hadn’t left.

A good dose of the courage she’d desperately sought flashed through her. “Is that a line?”

“Came out automatically,” he allowed without even a hint of a smile, but the muscles in his neck drew taut. “I meant, call the front desk. One of the guys is always available. We’re just getting off the ground, so we appreciate the business.”

She cocked her head and contemplated him with a pointed once-over. “You’re a natural flirt. Yet you seem to be trying to reel it in with me. Why?”

“Because I am.”

“Oh, right.” The tide had risen a bit while they were standing there, and the foamy line of water stretched closer and closer to her feet. It was a testament to Dex’s presence that she had absolutely no desire to back away. “You’re bad news. I remember now. Tell me, what’s the definition of bad news? If I said I’m not worried about that, exactly what kind of trouble would I find myself in?”

Maybe he was one of those dungeon-whip-tie-you-up types. Her fascination with Dex shot off the charts as she sifted through a few choice scenarios designed to find out.

“The kind where you’d be in over your pretty head very fast.”

“You seem to think I’m some sort of delicate flower who would be easily crushed by whatever your mysterious secrets are. I’m not.”

Was she? Defense had come automatically. She’d always defined herself as a strong woman. But recent events might prove otherwise, and shame flushed her chest with heat.

Being a good judge of character wasn’t one of her strong suits. Obviously. Was Dex picking up on her spazzy brain? Sensing the weaknesses that had walloped her from out of nowhere over the past three months?

Perhaps she should heed his warnings. Men who seemed to be one thing but were something else entirely were her kryptonite. It couldn’t be a coincidence that he’d used a metaphor for drowning when answering her question.

Or… maybe this was an opportunity to be brave. To find a bit of her old self—or all of it. To jump in with both feet and kick to the surface so she could find out precisely what kind of wicked she could stir up with Dex whose name rhymed with sex.

Moving past Chris had been the whole point of this trip, and there was nothing wrong with solidifying her newfound courage again by flirting with a hot guy on a secluded beach.

“Yeah?” Those gray eyes latched onto hers, seeking out… something. “Because you look pretty delicate to me.”

“Why don’t you come over here and find out.”

It was a dare and an invitation, all wrapped up in one, and he didn’t miss it. The muscles in his jaw tightened as his lashes lowered with a slow perusal of her bikini-clad body. Heat flashed across her skin as if he’d stroked her with his hand instead of his gaze, and the fabric covering her nipples grew oh so tight and delicious as friction heightened the arousal racing through her body.

Something wholly frightening rose up in his expression. Frightening… because the way he was looking at her said he wanted to do very wicked things to her indeed, and she wasn’t going to say no.

W
alk away.

Dex didn’t take one step away from Emma like he should. Couldn’t have moved one muscle if the entire ISIS army popped out of the ocean like an Iraqi version of the crew of the Flying Dutchmen.

The late afternoon sun highlighted the outline of Emma’s very pointy and incredibly sexy nipples, taunting him from under the white triangles over her breasts. He was having a hell of a time keeping his eyes off them. You didn’t stare at a woman’s chest while talking to her, no matter what kind of come-on signals she was shooting in your direction.

Of course, Emma’s were more of the flare-gun-at-night variety. Vivid, splashy and indicative of someone in a lot of trouble.

In this case, it was Dex.

Despite all the reasons he should be steering clear, Emma intrigued him. While she’d been making herself dizzy with all the direction changes, he’d sat by the remnants of the campfire Charlie had built to roast the grouper they ate for dinner and debated about announcing his presence. But in the end, he couldn’t resist finding out what she was doing.

The fish tacos hadn’t been nearly enough fortification to face down the amount of Available Woman being paraded around in front of his weakening resolve. The guys had trooped back to their bungalows without a backward glance after Dex had volunteered to clean up, laughing and guzzling the last of the twelve pack that had naturally materialized courtesy of Jack. They called him Jack of All Trades for a reason; there was nothing the man wasn’t proficient at.

Maybe Dex should call him back and ask him how to lie to a woman well enough so she believed him when he said he wasn’t interested. Because he needed someone to be the voice of reason here before he showed her how much trouble he was in with very graphic and irreversible example.

Yet… he couldn’t stand the idea of being responsible for more shadows in the depths of Emma’s clouded blue eyes. The black spot in his soul sniffed out darkness easily, hungrily circling in hopes of finding weaknesses. Because it wanted company.

Sometimes he wished for a mythical woman who could not only accept his proficiency at killing but also empathize with the horrific catch-22 of being a good warrior. Dex loved the freedom he’d fought for but hated that it was built on the graves of men he’d shot. A kindred spirit would get that.

Emma of the white bikini was not it. Fragility flitted under her skin, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Someone of his breed would destroy her.

Subject change
STAT.

“Oh, no. You’re not distracting me so easily. Talk to me about the Hokey Pokey from earlier.” Guilt flitted through her expression, and he latched onto it like a drowning man. Lucky guess. “Ah, so you
were
flirting with me to avoid talking about whatever had you going in circles.”

“No,” she protested hotly. “I’m flirting with you because I like you.”

A smile formed on his lips but he bit it back.
The feeling is mutual
. He didn’t say it.

“Lay it on me.” He circled a finger in a get-on-with-it motion. “You lost something in the water? Left your towel at the resort and wanted to go back for it?”

She crossed her arms over her midsection and glanced away. “I’m not a fan of the ocean, okay?”

Lots of people didn’t like ocean water. Too much salt, the theme from Jaws on repeat in their mind as they waded out, or too rough. He didn’t buy any of those as her reasons though. “So? Don’t go in it. Problem solved.”

“It’s more… complicated than that.”

Something told him this was tied to her shadows, and a perverse need to draw it out of her dug in and wouldn’t let go. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“The ocean scares me,” she admitted. “Rachel, my friend, wants to do some vacation stuff, and I’ve been dragging her down. I’m trying to get over it so she isn’t stuck in the room.”

Her confession settled into his chest, filling it in a way he hadn’t expected—with tenderness. Anyone who could admit to fear in the same breath as a plan to fix it deserved a friendly ear. “What kind of stuff does she want to do?”

“Snorkeling.” Emma shot him the side-eye. “I swear I didn’t know you did that. I’m not making that up just to get in your pants.”

The genuine laugh burst from his throat before he could check it. “Thank God. I wouldn’t want to feel all violated and taken advantage of and stuff.”

She whacked him on the arm, which didn’t decrease his amusement in the slightest.

“You know what I mean. We’ve got a weird thing going on here where I’m trying to get you naked and you’re pretending like you don’t notice that I’m mentally undressing you.”

“You are?” He processed that as his lower half got in on that action in a big way. In about two seconds, his board shorts would have enough clearance to camp under. “Did I get a gold star when you finished imagining my clothes hitting the sand?”

What was so arousing about the fact that she was thinking about him naked? He spent 90 percent of his day half-dressed and in the presence of a lot of women, some of them smoking hot. It was no stretch to assume she wasn’t the first to wonder what he looked like under his clothes. But she was definitely the first to say it to his face.

She snorted. “I didn’t think you were allowed to flirt with me. And who says I finished undressing you in my fantasies? Maybe I wanted to wait to see the real thing before I had something fixed in my mind.”

There was no scenario where this conversation was going to end well. But he couldn’t seem to help himself. “I’ll make you a deal. You go in the water, and I’ll strip for you.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“You heard me.” He wiggled his fingers at the crashing surf. “Go on. Wade out to chest deep, and I’ll be the star of your private show.”

Seemed like a sucker bet based on her Hokey Pokey routine thus far. Except he’d vastly underestimated the chemistry factor. Heat gathered in the crackling space between them as she glanced down at his shorts.

“And then what?”

That
snap
in his brain could only be the sound of his will being broken in two as he internalized what could conceivably come next. What would inevitably come next when two people who were hot for each other found themselves in a secluded area and one of them started removing clothes.

But that was so not the thing that should come next. And besides, he’d never expected her to bite. “What do you mean, and then what? I’ll be naked, and you’ll get an ending for your fantasy. What more do you want?”

Without blinking, she shot back, “That’s enough. How long do I have to be in the water?”

Not only was she seriously contemplating this offer he’d been smugly certain she’d reject out of hand, now she wanted parameters. Since he’d stupidly throw it out there… “Five minutes.”