Page 55 of Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

“Exactly.”

“Exactly?” She shook her head like he was being ridiculous. “The whole not being sheltered anymore thing includes flirting with guys. I was actually doing a decent job. I didn’t get flustered and I didn’t stutter. I blushed a little bit, but that’s okay. Especially for my first time getting hit on in a bar.”

“You’re too naive, Becca.”

“And you’re not my father, Alex,” she returned. “If I am naive, it’s my own damn business. I can take care of myself. I know the Parkers. Mac isn’t exactly some strange guy.”

“So has Mac ever hit on you before?”

“No, because Mac has been in Denver the past few years, getting his MBA, I might add. He just graduated.”

Alex didn’t know why that burned in his chest, but it did. So Mac Parker was a douchebag with an MBA. Was he was supposed to be impressed by that?

“I’m going to go over there and take him up on his drink offer and you are going to stay right here.”

“Like hell I am.”

She looked around and he thought she was maybe looking for Jack to back her up, but Jack was nowhere to be seen. And Alex knew Jack would back him up. Gabe and Jack would agree with his estimation of the situation. He was sure of it.

She raked a hand through her hair and then took one of the glasses of whiskey and Coke and drank it in one dramatic swallow.

He was not aroused by that.

He could tell she was working up to saying something, and based on the anger flashing in her eyes, it was going to be a scathing something. But that was fine. She could be a little bent out of shape about things right now, as long as she understood he was only trying to keep her safe. He wouldn’t be sorry for that.

“You recall this morning when you told me you weren’t going to sleep with me?”

Alex choked on the last sip of beer he’d taken.

“I’ll take that as a yes, you remember. Well, here’s the deal. I want to sleep with someone. Maybe it’s not Mac, and definitely not tonight or anything, but whoever and whenever, it does get to be my choice. I don’t need some fake big brother trying to talk me out of it or getting in my way. I have a life to lead, and I damn well plan to have some relationships. So you can either get out of my way or…” She trailed off, that angry gaze dropping to the bar.

“Or what?”

She took a breath, then raised those flashing, green eyes back to his. She stared at him for the longest time, breathing angrily. Then she shook her head. “No. I have to…go to the bathroom.” She got up off of the stool and fled.

* * *

Becca was livid. Absolutely furious. Unfortunately, she wasn’t just furious at Alex. She was a little furious with herself.

She shouldn’t have said that “or.” She shouldn’t have thought the “or” she’d been too chicken to finish.

Mac had come up and flirted with her. Her. She’d sat there like a scared animal and slowly realized as he smiled and chatted and offered to buy her a drink that it was time she had the types of experiences she’d always wanted.

She’d finally gotten out of her mother’s overprotective shadow, but she’d hidden out there on the ranch. Hidden herself away from everything. But spending a month with the guys under the same roof, navigating a business with them, she’d learned something about standing up for herself and putting herself out there.

She didn’t want a bar hookup or a one-night stand, but she did want to be open to the possibility that a cute guy might be interested in her. She wanted to be kissed or asked out on a date—all of those things normal adult women did. She wanted it. She was going to have it.

She didn’t need Alex standing in her way when it was hard enough to not be in her own way.

She splashed cold water on her face and tried to get hold of her temper. Temper wasn’t going to help her cause, and it wasn’t going to…

She didn’t know what. She didn’t know what she wanted to be. She looked at herself in the mirror.

That was a lie. She knew exactly what she wanted. Alex’s brown gaze on hers. It was his mouth she wanted to kiss her. That was probably all kinds of warped and whatever, but that’s what she wanted. Even when Mac was standing there talking to her, smiling at her, she’d found herself glancing over at Alex…wishing it were him.

That wasn’t his fault, unfortunately. That was her own dumb brain’s fault.

Why didn’t she have any girlfriends? She needed one. Someone who had done this before, who could tell her things she was supposed to know—mostly how to attract a guy and take things as slowly as she wanted to.