Saved by a SEAL (Hot SEALs Book 2) (7 page)

His protective side was kicking in hard. Considering he didn’t have anyone of his own to worry about,
at least no one who belonged to him, this was a new and unpleasant feeling. One he had every intention of tamping down and ignoring.

Yes, he
was prepared to kill or die in the course of his job on any given day, but that was simply cold hard reality. His career. His life.

T
his, with Missy, felt more personal. At the moment, with her pressed against him, he couldn’t seem to dig down deep enough to find that efficient impersonal machine he’d become from a decade of doing what he did. Instead, he felt warm, soft, human. He didn’t like it.

The song ended and another began. Missy lifted her head from his chest and looked up at him with
heavily lidded eyes. Eyes he needed to steer clear of if he was going to keep his head on straight.

Time to get this date back on track. The track Zane had decided it should be on. They’d eat. He’d send her home, with her
parents if she couldn’t drive, then he’d go back to the house and deal with his father. That would help Zane get his damn act together.

“We should
sit back down and order dinner.” Zane needed to get some food in Missy’s stomach. Make sure she was good and sober. Maybe then she’d look less tempting, because if she sent one more look in his direction like that last one, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist her.

CHAPTER 9

Missy sighed as Zane asked her the same question for the second time
in less than ten minutes. “I swear I can drive.”

“Are you
sure?” He eyed her with concern as they stood outside beneath the electric glow of the exterior lights in front of the clubhouse.

“Yes
, I’m sure.”

Zane drew in a deep breath, and her gaze dropped to watch his chest rise and fall beneath the crisp, cotton button-down shirt he’d changed into for dinner.
He shook his head. “I’m not. I wish you would have gone home with your parents and left your car here.”

She hadn’t wanted to go home with
her parents and leave her car there because that would have meant she was also leaving Zane there, and she wasn’t quite ready for this night to end.

Two martinis over the course of more than two hours and a huge meal—she should be able to drive the couple of miles to her house.
But that was the last thing she wanted to do with her insides feeling all warm and squishy from the alcohol and Zane’s proximity.

“If you’re that concerned, perhaps you should drive me home.”
Missy rested her hands on his chest. Damn. She could feel how big and solid his muscles were clear through the shirt.

He dropped his gaze to where her palms pressed against him, his nostrils flaring as he drew in a deep breath. He nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m going to have to do.”

He didn’t sound very enthusiastic. She drew her brows low in a frown. “Is it a problem?”

Zane let out a laugh and shook his
head. “It shouldn’t be a problem, no.”

He’d said the words
as if he hadn’t meant them. “Zane, if you have somewhere you need to be—”

“No, I don’t have anywh
ere I need to be. Is your car all locked up?” He glanced at her vehicle.

They’d stayed so long the valet had left for
the night, but he’d parked her car close to the clubhouse and had brought the keys in to her in the dining room.

Missy aimed her keys at the car and clicked. The
vehicle’s lights flashed and the horn let out a single honk, proving the doors were locked. “Yes.”

“Then come on.”

She didn’t like this change in him. He’d been attentive all night. His eyes had barely left her. His attention had never wavered. Now, he was treating her like she was thirteen again and he’d gotten stuck driving her home. That had actually happened once, and she’d felt the same way as she did now. Like she was a burden to Zane.

“No. I can drive
myself—”

“Dammit, Missy.
Stop. I’m driving you.” To insure that, Zane reached out and snatched the keys she still held in her hand.

“But you don’t have to.”

“But I want to.” He smirked down at her as he steered her toward the side lot where he’d parked his car. “Button up your coat.”

“I’m fine.”
Missy frowned as Zane began to remind her of her mother and her obsession with her wearing a winter coat in case it got cold.

He paused next to the sexy sports car that was so befitting the youthful playboy he’d been when he’d been a daily fixture in her life.
“You’re fine now. You’re going to get cold in a minute. I only drive my car with the top down, unless I’m out and get caught in a rainstorm.”

There was a storm, all right, but it was her roiling emotions, not the cle
ar night with the stars twinkling above them as he turned to yank the sides of her coat together. He buttoned the two middle buttons as she stood and waited.

A moonlit drive with Zane was her teenaged self’s dream come true
, and now that it was happening he was buttoning up her coat like she was a toddler. When he reached the top button she frowned deeper. “Zane. Stop.”

He leaned down. “Let me take care of you while I can, please. Soon you’ll be on the other side of the world.”

“With a big scary knife to protect myself with, thanks to you.” At her comment, the corner of his mouth tipped up with the hint of a smile.

“Not as
big as I would have liked it to be, and I’d be happier if it was in my hand while I protected you, rather than in yours.” He reached down and laced his fingers through hers.

This man
with his constantly changing disposition toward her was enough to give Missy whiplash. She could chair a not-for-profit board meeting, run a million dollar fundraiser, and play hostess at a party with guests that included the leaders of the free world, all with confidence, but with Zane she had no clue where she stood.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“No.” She wasn’t ready yet. In five minutes they’d be at her house and he’d be saying goodnight and driving away. Then who knew when she’d see him again.

He raised one sandy brow
. “No?”

She stifled a sigh. “Just kidding. We can go.”

“All right.” He nodded and walked around to the passenger side to open the door for her.

Reluctantly, she followed. She’d be pouting like a child soon if she didn’
t watch it.

A v
icious circle, this thing with Zane. It was like she was living in two worlds simultaneously. That of a teenaged girl and that of an adult woman. When he treated her like a child, she started acting like one.

Then there were times
when he touched her like he wanted more, and that one touch was enough to have her insides turn molten. But the moment passed and then he acted like it had never happened.

Zane settled her in the
seat, and even stretched out the seatbelt and handed it to her before he strode around the car and got into the driver’s side.

He was just putting the roof down
, since he’d had it up while they’d been inside, when he glanced at her. “What’s wrong?”

“What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that you’re frowning so hard you’re going to get wrinkles if you don’t stop.” Leaning closer, Zane reached out and ran one finger between her brows.

There he went again. Confusing her with his little touches.

“Remember that summer you were a junior in college?”

“I guess.”

“You were dating one of the waitresses.” Missy used the word dating as a euphemism for what Zane had really been doing with the girl.

He smiled. “Yeah, I remember now.”

“I saw you getting into your car with her one night. My mother had asked me to run out to our car to get her sweater because the A/C in the dining room was so cold and we were sitting right under the vent. Anyway, sitting here in the car with you . . . it just reminded me of that time.”

Except for the fact Zane hadn’t been able to keep his hands off the waitress. He’d been pawing at her during the walk to the car, and
hadn’t stopped once they’d sat inside. Missy was sure they didn’t make it much farther than the driveway that led to the stables before he’d pulled off the road to have sex with her. Yet with Missy, he was more concerned with making sure her coat was buttoned up tight and her seatbelt fastened.

“
I’d completely forgotten about her. Funny, I can’t even remember her name.” Zane shrugged, and slid the key into the ignition as he glanced at Missy. “Ready to go?”

“Yes.” She was ready to be away from the scene of that memory. Maybe then she’d stop comparing the way he’d been with the waitress, compared to the way he was with her now.

Though maybe the glaring difference in the way he treated her was exactly the point. He didn’t remember the name of the waitress he’d spent a summer pawing, but he’d remembered Missy had liked extra cherries in her Shirley Temples as a child.

Sadly, cherries weren’t going to
quench this adult thirst. Only a taste of Zane would do that.

The trip
took barely a few minutes and before she knew it, they were driving through the gates at the end of the driveway of her house. Soon, Zane was pulling up right to her parents’ front door.

“So
, you’re going to sleep at your parents’ house tonight?” she asked.

“
Yes, as long as I—”

“Don’t get called back to base.” She finished the mantra she’d been hearing all day.

It was strange, this new responsible Zane. A big change from the boy she’d known who’d been late for everything, if he bothered to show up at all.

He
smiled and nodded. “Exactly. But if I don’t get called in, do you want to do something tomorrow?”

Another one-eighty from Zane had her head spinning. “Sure.”

“All right. I’ll call you in the morning and we’ll decide what you want to do.”

“Okay.” Missy hesitated, waiting.

When she realized sitting there silently hoping he’d kiss her good night was ridiculous, she reached down to unlatch her seat belt. After she did, Zane covered her hand with his. He leaned in and her heart stopped, until he pressed his lips to her cheek.

A kiss on the cheek like one gave a child. She sat perfectly still as her disappointment changed to something closer to anger.

He didn’t pull back after the chaste kiss. He hovered so close it had Missy’s pulse pounding. She turned her head to look at him, to try and see his expression through the darkness lit by only the lights on either side of the front door. It was the slightest movement, but it put his mouth closer to hers, which is when he took advantage of the proximity and his lips covered hers.

She drew in a sharp breath at the unexpected contact,
which parted her lips ever so slightly beneath his. He responded by angling his mouth over hers and tangling his fingers in her hair to cup the back of her head.

Zane drew in a deep breath and then pull
ed back. His gaze met hers from just inches away, before he turned away and opened his door.

Before she knew what was happening, he’d run around the hood of the car and was opening her door for her. Stunned and honestly feeling a little wobbly, she took the hand he offered
her and stood.

He dropped his hold
on her hand the moment she was out of the car. “Good night.”

She listened, but his words had been devoid of emotion and held no clues to what he was feeling.

“Good night, and thank you for everything today.”

Zane dipped his head. “You’re welcome. I’m sorry I didn’t think to get the bags out of your car so you’d have everything you bought
with you tonight. You know, in case you wanted to start to pack.”

Packing was the last thing on her mind as her head spun with a kaleidoscope of
thoughts and emotions. “That’s okay. I’ll probably just head to bed early.”

“All right. Well, good night.” He didn’t kiss her again, although she hoped he would. Instead, h
e slammed her door, and then moved around to the driver’s side where he slid behind the wheel.

He sat, watching her. She would have loved to think he was reluctant to leave her, but she realized he was waiting for her to get safely inside
the house before he drove away. Zane might be the most frustrating man on earth, a paradox she couldn’t figure out, but he was the type of guy to make sure a woman was safe before he left her in the dark, just as how he was the kind of man who’d chosen the best knife for her to carry to Nigeria.

He was also the type who kissed a woman breathless and left her
alone and confused. With a sigh, she turned and made her way to the front door, digging for her key as she went.

One sleepless night
spent pondering Zane and this odd day definitely wouldn’t be long enough to figure out the mystery of the man, but it would be a start.