Page 33 of Stranded with the SEAL

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said. “I have no idea why I passed out. It’s probably from the concussion.”

“Livy, you were clearly upset about the heat exchanger.”

“I was not upset, and stop calling me Livy. The furnace has nothing to do with me. This whole place has nothing to do with me.”

The lady doth protest too much.

She knew he wasn’t buying it for a minute.

“Besides, I don’t want to talk about this,” she said with a wave. “I thought we agreed not to talk about this.” She dropped the pot onto a pile of other pots with a loud clang.

“You commanded me not to talk about it, actually,” he said.

“This is ridiculous. Are you always such a child?”

His jaw dropped. “You’re calling me a child?”

She turned around and put her hand on her hip. “Yes, I am.”

God, she was gorgeous, with her hair falling this way and that from its rubber band, and the pissed-off flush of her skin. He was getting hard just looking at her, and he had no right to look at her like that at all.

“Fine,” he said. “I won’t say anything else about it tonight.”

“Good.”

He stared at her, unable to tear his eyes away. He wanted to kiss her again, to feel her defenses fall away as she responded to his touch. And she would respond to him. He was sure of it.

His hand twitched. He knew his desire was painted on his face, much like the high color in her cheeks suggested her own. If she so much as batted an eyelash, he’d be all over her.

She looked at the floor, breaking their connection, and he cleared his throat. “I’m going to go take a bath.” His knee could use a good cold soak, which might help with his more pressing problem, as well.

He made his way into the bathroom, his mask of nonchalance falling away. He eased the zipper of his jeans down and shucked them off, sitting on the cold edge of the tub and ignoring his hard-on. His knee was throbbing as much as his cock. How much damage had he done to it, pushing it when he knew he was injured?

He turned on the cold water, letting it run clear before filling the tub. He wished he had some ice to ease the swelling of his knee, but the cold water would have to do. He got in and leaned back against the icy enamel, his mind still full of Olivia’s flushed face as she argued with him in the kitchen.

Man, she was beautiful, and somewhere out there was a man who knew it even better than he did. One lucky son of a bitch who’d asked her to marry him and she’d said yes, only now it was as if that had never happened, like the universe was offering her some perfect life or what was behind door number two — an embittered Navy SEAL who lived only to avenge his teammate’s death.

Soon it would be time for them to sleep, and he already knew those blankets weren’t enough to keep them both warm on separate couches, no matter who she was engaged to. He remembered what she felt like in his arms, so soft and curvy in all the right places, and his balls clenched with need despite the cold water.

There was a knock at the door. “I brought you some hot water,” Olivia said as the door opened. “I thought you must be cold in here without…” She froze when her eyes reached his body, naked for her to see. “Oh, geez.”

“Do the men you know bathe with their clothes on?”

Her cheeks were bright red. “You could have pulled the curtain when I came in.”

“You didn’t really give me the chance.”

She pulled the curtain closed. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t mind.”

She was quiet for a moment. “What are we doing, Trevor?”

Torturing each other.

Dancing around each other and their growing attraction. Denying each other the one thing they wanted, and pretending it wasn’t there.

“Nothing, unfortunately,” he said.