Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT Caribbean Nights #9) - Kat Cantrell Page 0,21

what Jared’s told me.” Sitting back in her chair, she arched her back to presumably stretch it, but the movement did a lot for her front too, lifting her breasts prominently.

It was very distracting. That was the only explanation for why he blurted out, “And you know what I’ve told you. Before. When it was just a dream.”

Audra had encouraged him to quit the Navy and come back to the Bahamas to build a life in paradise. He’d spun that dream out in his head to keep him sane in Iraq while traversing some very dark places.

During their Skype conversations, he’d rambled on about it often enough. She’d always listened raptly, as if he’d been speaking the gospel and she couldn’t wait to become a convert. Her belief in him had carried him through some of the worst nights.

Her expression softened a touch. “Come in, Charlie. You’re here. I obviously have an opening. Sit down and tell me what this is all about.”

He did it for no other reason than the fact that he needed to solve his Anderson problem. It was the only thing that could have gotten him within ten feet of her in the first place. Why not continue the trend?

“I have a good team of guys,” he told her as he relocated the snorkeling equipment still parked in the lone chair and then slid into it. “I picked the best of my platoon to come with me. They trust me. Follow me. I—”

This was ridiculous. How was he supposed to sit here and talk about his guys to a woman who didn’t understand the bonds of friendship? His temper started bubbling again, and that wasn’t going to work, not if he didn’t want to end up on the other side of the door, frustrated and fighting a hard-on.

Except that seemed to be how they rolled these days. Gone was the easy attraction and simple desire. Everything had layers now, even something as elemental as a physical reaction.

Yet he seemed incapable of staying away from her, constantly pushing his way back here. Something was wrong with him if masochism had become his default.

Rolling her shoulders, she sighed. “I know Jared’s been causing problems for you. I’m sorry.”

His gaze flew to hers, but she seemed sincere. “Then you know I have to resolve it, one way or another. His injunction against commercial ventures is killing my business. The coral reef off Countess Cay is undergoing restoration. We can’t snorkel there. Ilhota Rosa is a key part of my income stream.”

That was the only thing that mattered. Not their history, not the fact that it was physically painful to be at odds with Audra, and definitely not the images in his head of what he’d like to be doing with her instead of talking.

“My report didn’t help.”

Good, she wasn’t playing dumb. Maybe this conversation was finally going to happen like it should have from the beginning. “No. If anything, it made it worse. I have an idea that might work, and I need your help.”

She rolled her shoulders again, grimacing. Obviously, she was in pain or at least experiencing a good bit of discomfort. To hell with that. They couldn’t have a rational, adult discussion if he was going to spend the whole of it concerned about her.

Charlie stood and skirted the desk, coming up behind her, shushing her squeak of protest as his hands slid into place at her neck.

“Let me,” he said simply, and she relaxed under his ministrations as he kneaded her shoulders. “Did you fall asleep in a weird position or something?”

“You could say.” She whimpered as he moved up her neck, massaging the place where her neck met the base of her skull. “You don’t have to do this.”

Her warm skin felt like heaven under his roughened fingertips and bled into his embattled soul. “Yes, I absolutely do have to.”

Though he’d really intended it as a utilitarian way to relieve her stiff neck, the position reminded him of the first time he’d had his hands on her bare back, when she’d asked him to apply sunscreen. She’d been wearing a tiny green bikini that day, and he’d used the lotion as an excuse to get his hands on her body, taking far more liberties than he should have.

Kind of like now. His movements slowed involuntarily as his fingertips reacquainted themselves with her contours.

Audra had a gorgeous body that two years had not changed. Shame it was covered with this rather nondescript dress that would