SEAL's Embrace - Makenna Jameison Page 0,3

line first, not saying a word as he stood behind a few women. They looked nervously at him, and Grayson knew Jackson’s intimidating size probably scared them off. While the other guys were joking around, he was always content to stand back and listen. Observe. And his intensity had been known to intimidate more than a few people over the years.

“Hell, I might just enjoy this longer mission,” Logan “Hurricane” Hudson said, glancing over at a table of laughing women. “I know Raptor met a girl on our last op, but hell. I could go for that, too.”

Troy chuckled. “We all know none of us are getting any action while here in an official capacity.”

Logan shrugged. “They’ll come back to the States eventually. I’m sure someone here’s gotta be based out of San Diego.”

“You’ve got a one-track mind, Hurricane,” Ethan joked.

“For women? Absolutely.”

Someone coughed quietly behind them, and Grayson almost did a double-take, spotting the auburn-haired women from earlier standing behind Blake. She hadn’t appeared to notice him ahead of her yet, no doubt because she was shorter than every man on his team. Making a quick decision, he abandoned his spot in line and moved behind her.

Blake eyed him, smirking, knowing exactly why he’d changed places.

“So what’s good here?” Grayson asked her.

She looked up at him, startled.

“Come on, help a guy out,” he teased. “If I pick the wrong thing and its horrible, I might get stuck eating an MRE later on. I don’t know if you’ve tried them, but those things are God awful.”

The other guys turned to watch their conversation, Troy chuckling quietly. Ethan elbowed him in the ribs. “Let the man work.”

She flushed, seeming to realize all the attention was on her. “Just ignore them,” Grayson said. “We may work together, but they’re more like an annoying group of brothers I always have around.”

“Ouch,” Ethan said. “I just stuck up for you.”

“I’m Grayson,” he said, holding out a hand to the woman.

Flustered, she held out her hand and shook his. “Hailey,” she said.

He took her slender hand in his own, loving the way his much larger hand engulfed hers. It was weird, but he instantly felt protective toward her. His SEAL team was hovering behind her, standing in line, and he realized how much smaller she was than most of the people in here.

Although there were certainly many women in the military, fewer than twenty percent made up each branch. And this woman was a civilian. The majority of people filling the loud cafeteria tonight were men, and Grayson instantly felt like he should look out for her. It was a strange feeling—she’d clearly been in country longer than him. They weren’t in some sort of immediate danger. He was here with his team for a few days, not stationed at Bagram. But something about her made him stand up and take notice.

Her green eyes met his, and he reluctantly released her hand, instantly disappointed at the loss of her touch. She barely came up to his shoulder, but when he looked down at her, he swore he could feel the sparks and chemistry between them. Her lips had parted slightly as they shook hands, and he kept his gaze on her face, not the tempting swells of her breasts.

She was slender and much smaller than him, but he could tell she was curvy in exactly the right places. And he detected the faintest vanilla scent as he stood close to her. It was arousing as hell, and a part of him wanted to duck down and see if it was her hair or some sort of lotion or perfume.

She was beautiful. Maybe a little bit flustered by his sudden attention, but damn. The last thing he expected today was to see a woman who sent his heart racing. He was on an op with his buddies for God’s sake. Yet here she was, in the middle of a base in Afghanistan. With her auburn hair and green eyes, she was a knock-out. And the way she flushed slightly at his attention was as appealing as hell.

“It’s nice to meet you, Hailey. That’s Blake right next to you, and Logan, Ethan, Troy, and Jackson,” he said, naming each member of his team. Why he felt the need to introduce her and make her feel more comfortable, he wasn’t quite sure.

She glanced back at the others, and they nodded hello but went about grabbing their food. Hailey looked back at him.

“I didn’t mean to surprise you, but