Page 14 of Covert Temptation (SEAL Team Blackout Charlie #4)

As she poked her head out, she heard more of those small thumping noises. The wind caught her hair and tossed it over her eyes. She scraped it away and turned her head right and left, searching the snowy yard for Dante.

The man was crouched, something lumpy and heavy in his hands. He was looking straight at her.

“What are you doing?” Her voice sounded wobbly from the panic of finding herself so alone, and she cleared her throat to even it out.

“Got your boots on?”

“No.”

“Get them on.”

She ducked back into the house and hurried to find her boots. The expensive leather wasn’t really made for a tromp through the snow, but it was all she had.

She grabbed her black coat too, tying the belt tight around her middle as she stepped out into the brisk early winter wonderland.

The back of the house boasted a small deck with a short run of steps leading to the ground. She followed Dante’s footprints in the snow to a small circle he’d created with stones.

“What are you doing?”

“Building a fire ring.”

She met his stare, dark and filled with some shadow she couldn’t make out. “Okay, why?”

“So we can have a fire.”

She didn’t know whether to be enchanted or roll her eyes.

He went back to positioning stones that he’d found somewhere on the property, fashioning them into a circle. A few feet away, a few logs lay, ready for a match to light them.

The wind caught the cloth of her coat and made it flap around her. She stuffed her hands in the pockets to keep the chill from her fingers. “This is the second time you’ve surprised me, Dante.”

Pausing, he met her gaze again. “The second? What’s the first?”

“When we…slept together.” She heard the blush in her voice and wished she were one of those modern women who didn’t care who knew her secrets.

The heat creeping up her cheeks somehow appeared in the tips of Dante’s ears. She didn’t think it was the wind chapping his skin, either.

His broad shoulders flexed as he set another fat stone in place. “It was no big deal.”

She refused to be hurt by his cavalier tone. “You have to admit it was a little unorthodox. You did something taboo.”

His grunt came muffled on the heavy air weighed down by the weather system. “I don’t see it that way.”

She inched closer, not drawn by the cold circle of the fire that hadn’t been yet started, but pulled by Dante’s warmth. “I saw the movie with the bodyguard. No way was he supposed to sleep with her.”

The crease that pinched his dark brows amused her. She shouldn’t enjoy getting under his skin so much, but it seemed to have become her new hobby.

He didn’t say a word, just continued to add on to the ring until the ends were closed, forming a perfect circle.

When he pushed out of his crouched position, the fresh scent of his body wash blew across her face.

She inhaled it, her face warming at the memory of burying her nose against his velvety skin while he sank deep, deep inside her.

She clenched her thighs together, but it didn’t stop the throb there.

She glanced around for some branches and spotted some dry twigs at the edge of the yard. Knowing that Dante was watching her, she crossed the yard to fetch the twigs. By the time she returned to the fire ring, he had placed the logs in a small pyramid in the center.

Kennedy crouched across from him, curling her fingers around the old sticks and snapping them, then dropping them between the logs.

She told herself she didn’t care what Dante thought of her…about her past. When she met his gaze again, she couldn’t hold it and looked away.

He would see her invasion of his laptop to be an act of rebellion, like she was some reckless teenager. In reality, it had been a necessary link to the outside world, a world that wasn’t truly hers anymore. But she still had to check on the people in the outer ring of her life.

She’d lost her closest friend in Alyssa and had needed to face that she didn’t have anyone else. Not anymore. Even after their talk, Alyssa looked at Kennedy differently, like she was a ticking bomb and not a victim.

It hurt.

Maybe that was her reason for wanting to peek at her parents’ social media.

Maybe it was the reason she cared what Dante thought of her.

“If we’re going to be here together a while, I need a promise from you.”

His statement made her jerk her head up and meet his direct gaze. She braced herself to hear him say that she couldn’t come to his bed again.

“What promise?” The lightly falling snow deadened her words.

“Promise me that you won’t try to run.”

She shifted. “I thought we already went through this.”

“No,” he said, voice determined. “We didn’t. I need your word that you’ll stay put in this safe house, Kennedy.”

She dropped her stare to the fire pit but didn’t really see the twigs or logs. “You have my word. I don’t have anywhere to run anyway…” she murmured almost to herself.

“Good. Thank you.”

Agitation made her jumpy, and when she jammed another stick into the pile with a little too much force, the sticks toppled, sending the kindling into the snow in a cascade.

He reached to set it right.

“I got it,” she snapped. If he’d gone to so much trouble to build a fire ring, the least she could do was add some kindling without making a wreck of it.

He didn’t speak, only pushed to his feet. She watched him walk across the yard to a stack of firewood on the edge of the property.

Tears burned in her eyes, angry and scalding. She forced them away, focusing on her task rather than her frustration and the frantic desire for this all to end.

But things could never go back to the way they were. Any normal would be a new normal.

The wind blasted across the yard, blowing her coat and rattling the dry branches of the apple trees not far away. She could ignore the wind as much as the gnawing ache in her chest.

In long strides, Dante returned. He set the logs down in a pile outside the fire ring and fixed his stare on her. “The wind’s picking up. Not a good time for a fire right now. Let’s go inside.”

She didn’t glance up as she continued arranging the sticks she’d broken. “I’m going to stay out here a little longer.”

“Kennedy—”

“I need the fresh air.”

He stood there for a heavy moment as though he wanted to say something, but nothing he could say would stop the rising tide of dread she felt.

Even if he told her that she was free to go on with her life…

going on with her life alone, with no job and no home, would take a lot of courage she was lacking at the moment.

He gave her a nod, but his eyes lingered a beat longer, searching her face.

As he entered the house, she huddled deeper into her coat and let the icy wind tug at her senses. Between the blasts of wind, the sun was a thin stream, a soft glow. It was warm enough for her to pretend she wasn’t desperate, lost…

And the one thing her life kept circling back to—she was still very alone.