Page 20 of Covert Temptation (SEAL Team Blackout Charlie #4)

Twisting off the top, he threw her another smile. She lifted a bottle, already opened, and they both sipped. Kennedy was full of surprises. He never thought a woman so in love with designer clothes would enjoy beer and hockey.

“All we need is some hot dogs.” He sipped, watching her cheeks glow from the heat of the fire.

“Sadly, there weren’t any of those. All I could find in the pantry was Spam.”

“That’s great over a fire.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Crossing her legs, she contemplated him across the flames. “So, the run helped.”

He blinked at her.

“That little crease between your eyes is smooth now.” She lifted a fingertip to the flawless spot between her own brows.

Suddenly, he was hyperaware of her—of the firelight painting golden flickers across her cheekbones, the way her lashes caught the glow. Then there was the soft curve of her mouth. He couldn’t stop staring.

It wasn’t only about the crease. She saw him . Not just the physical tension he didn’t realize he carried until it started to ease, but him .

His throat worked around the sudden thickness there. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Guess it did.”

Kennedy smiled, and it wasn’t practiced or diplomatic like the photos with Alyssa, or even guarded. It was soft. Real.

And Christ, he wanted to kiss her again.

Their kisses before were born from heat and desperation. Everything had been tangled in adrenaline and confusion. This time he wanted to explore this pull that started somewhere low in his chest and burned outward.

He wanted to close the space between them and tease his mouth over hers to see if she’d melt into him.

But he didn’t move. Not yet.

Instead, he sat back, letting the heat from the fire ground him in this decision.

Because if he kissed her now, it wouldn’t be a distraction.

It would mean something.

And he wasn’t sure either of them was ready for that.

“Thanks,” he said, voice low.

“For what?” Her brows lifted.

“For noticing.”

* * * * *

Kennedy drew another sip of beer into her mouth, wincing at the taste.

Dante chuckled. “You just pretending to be a beer girl?”

“I’m more of an IPA girl.” She took another sip, and this one went down a bit easier. More importantly, the fire and the beer were having a calming effect on Dante.

When he left for his run, she didn’t think she’d ever seen him so stressed, and that was saying something about a man like Dante.

They sat in companionable silence, watching the flames and sipping their drinks. The hard planes of his handsome face were cast in shadows, with an occasional flicker of orange highlighting his bronzed skin.

“How are you feeling about things now?” she asked after several minutes.

He stretched out a long, muscled leg, resting his beer on his thigh. “I’m fine.”

“I understand why it’s difficult to hear that your team is on an op without you.”

She knew better than anyone what it felt like to be the outsider. She’d clawed her way out of a rough childhood, rebuilt herself from the ground up, and paid her own way through college— the hard way . No shortcuts. No handouts.

She might not have been the most experienced candidate to be Alyssa’s personal assistant, but she was the right one. Because she worked harder than anyone else to earn that spot.

Just like Dante had with the Charlie team.

“I’m sorry you’re stuck here, babysitting me.”

He issued a low huff. “They’re crawling through the mud. Look at me, drinking a beer in front of a warm fire…” His gaze traveled over her face. “Enjoying the company of a beautiful woman.”

She tipped her head toward the side yard. “I saw some mud over there if you’d like to take off your shirt and demonstrate.”

“You know, I’m really not used to being sexualized.” He took a sip of beer.

She gave him a coy look. “Shh. Don’t make it weird.”

They burst into laughter.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed on her. Next thing she knew, he jumped out of his chair and plucked her out of hers. When he settled her on his hard thighs, electricity arced between her lower belly and her pussy. The sensation made her squirm.

Dante captured her lips, drawing her closer into his warm, hard body. As he swept kisses over her mouth, soft, hungry moans escaped her.

When they broke away, they were both breathing heavily. He tucked her against him, and that was just as good as any tumble in the sheets with this man. In her SEAL’s arms, she felt perfectly safe and content.

Letting out a low sigh, she cuddled close, her head against his chest. He smoothed a hand down her spine, spreading enough warmth that she stopped thinking about the cold completely.

“How much do you know about my team?”

Surprised, she answered, “Only that you’re special ops.”

His hand swept up her back and settled on her nape, cradling her as if he didn’t want her to move. As if he had something to say.

Kennedy hadn’t felt a connection to anybody in such a long time, and those experiences were few and far between. She wasn’t just rooted in this moment with Dante—she was into every moment with Dante.

In a few days, they’d gone from hating each other’s existence to cuddling in the dark.

He went on, his voice low and rough. “Our team doesn’t exist on paper. We’re ghosts.”

That statement shocked her and at the same time, filled in so many blanks. The secretiveness surrounding the team became totally clear. She also grew aware that he wasn’t supposed to share this with anybody, let alone someone under suspicion.

“You know about Charlie, and now Echo too, but there are many teams under Blackout. When we join, we are dead to the world.”

“But you go into the public. You were in that courtroom.”

He nodded, the stubble on his jaw catching in the strands of her hair, linking them through a filament. “We can walk in the open. Fight. But we give up our identities…and that means leaving behind any family we have too.”

A lump formed in her throat at the idea of Dante’s family out there, believing he was dead. She couldn’t imagine a world without Dante King.

“Your family?” Her whisper was almost snatched by the wind, but he heard it.

“My team is my family. But I have three brothers and a sister out there in the world. We were taken from our parents and put in foster care. I was the oldest, so I remember the most. My siblings…they got adopted. But nobody wanted an angsty preteen who couldn’t adapt.

I wasn’t a bad kid—no trouble. I just didn’t fit anywhere. ”

Her heart broke at the thought of Dante as a young man, lost and alone, drifting like a ghost in the world even back then.

“We didn’t keep in touch. It…hurt too much.

I joined the military, made a SEAL team.

Then I was recruited into Blackout and things changed.

Leaving my brothers and sister behind was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life.

But I still check on them…just like you check on your parents. ”

She lifted her fingers to his jaw just to feel the warm steel of him, to offer some sort of comfort. “When did you last see them?”

“It’s been years…but I still miss them.”

In this quiet moment between them, the truth settled in her chest like a stone.

They were more alike than she’d ever realized.

Wounded. Hardened. Still standing somehow.

The only difference was he had a brotherhood. A team. People who’d bleed for him and trusted him without question, who would come back for him no matter what.

She had none of that.

No team. No foundation. No one but herself.

It’s just me.

And when this mission ended—when she wasn’t in danger or of use anymore—what then? Dante would vanish from her life, and this tenuous connection she felt to him would snap.

The fire crackled, but the silence between them stretched, too weighted for words.

He was staring into the flames now, his profile sharp, tired, his expression contained. Like a man built to hold up the weight of others.

God, she could fall for him so easily.

And that terrified her.

She hadn’t let herself want anyone in so long that she’d forgotten what it felt like to ache for someone this way.

But tonight, in this strange pause between the chaos, she let herself lean toward the feeling. Just a little.

Let herself feel it.

Let herself hope, even if she knew nothing would come of it.

For now, she just clung to him in the firelight, her chest tight…and her heart wide open.

And maybe, just maybe, he could hear it beating for him.