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She kept her gaze fixed on the two-lane road. “For saving the day? I thought—”
“For getting carried away,” he said in a firm and clear tone. “During the shoot. It was unprofessional and—”
“Oh no.” The words slipped out as the realization dawned on her. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Please don’t tell me you’re married.
She glanced down at his left hand. Her stomach did a somersault as she forced her gaze back to the road. There was a faded tan line on his ring finger. What if he’d removed the ring before his last mission, or before the surgery, and forgot to put it back on? Maybe he’d lost it—
“No girlfriend,” he said.
“You’re married.”
Oh God, what have I done?
“Divorced.”
What?!
She stopped at a red light and turned to him. No woman in her right mind would walk away from those muscles. Of course, he might have been the one to leave…
“She didn’t like my job,” he said.
“What? She was too afraid that you’d die out there, so she left first?” She hit the gas a little harder than she’d intended, and the car sped forward.
“Easy,” he said. “I know time is money, but we have a couple of hours before the show.”
“If a woman had done that to my brother while he was away…”
“You’d what? Set your backup singer friend on her? Let him slam her up against the rocks?”
“It’s wrong.” She took a sharp right into the hotel parking lot. “Your job, what you do—”
“It’s hard on wives and girlfriends. I was away a lot. Most of the year. She never knew where I was or when I’d come back.” He shrugged. “She got lonely.”
“She cheated on you!” She threw the car into park and turned to him. “Was she crazy? You have the best body I’ve ever seen. And you…I felt it…your…”
She felt the heat rising in her cheeks now. He raised an eyebrow as if waiting for her to say the word—cock. She’d been so caught up in fury she’d almost told him he had an amazing erection.
But how could someone cheat on a man who’d put everything on the line for his country? Didn’t his ex realize how lucky she was that Dante had survived? She’d give anything to have her brother back. Anything. And Dante’s ex had walked away.
“I hate her,” she said.
He shook his head. “She wasn’t a bad person. I think she had it in the back of her mind that I’d leave the teams eventually. But I’m not planning to walk away until I physically can’t do the job. Being a SEAL—it’s all I ever wanted to do. I’m going to serve my country until they make me quit.”
“Thank you,” she said firmly.
His brow drew together. “For what?”
“For believing that it’s worth it, for saying that my brother died for something greater than one man or one woman.”
“He died protecting our freedom. It doesn’t matter what he was doing that day or where he was stationed,” he said with a ferocity that echoed how she felt. “My grandfather fought his way into this country, hoping for the promise of freedom. I do what I do to keep that promise alive. And so did your brother.”
She stared at the hero riding shotgun. He kissed like a god, possessed movie-star muscles, and understood the passion driving her career. Dante was close to perfect in her book. His ex-wife was a fool to walk away.
But Chrissie knew she needed to steer clear, too. If she wasn’t careful, she could fall for him, tumble head-over-heels until she lost sight of the goal line—a long-term career. A long-distance relationship was not part of her plan. Not that he’d offered more than a kiss during her video shoot…
But she’d felt his excitement. Sure, she could chalk that up to a normal male reaction to a woman’s kiss, like the way she wanted to explore his muscles. And yes, she wanted to explore the physical aspects of their connection. Still…those words…