Hot SEAL, Confirmed Bachelor- Cynthia D'Alba Page 0,57
fierce and full of fire, as though he was branding her or trying to burn memories. She had no idea what was going on. He never hinted at his work. She just knew their conversations since the gala had been rushed hellos and goodbyes.
And she knew she missed him.
Missing him and craving his touch wasn’t supposed to happen. He’d told her in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t looking for, or interested in, anything longer than these summer months. She forced her conscious mind to not dwell on her growing attraction. However, her traitorous unconscious mind like to fill her dreams with hopes and images not meant to be.
The person on the phone when Ben arrived had been Seth Garrett. Since the gala, she’d talked to him on the phone a number of times. Raising two little girls alone was hard on a man, and since she’d been in his shoes raising a daughter without a spouse, albeit only one daughter in her case, she didn’t mind giving advice and suggestions.
She felt for the guy. His wife had been killed by a drunk driver. One minute there and the next gone, so much like what she’d experienced. The shock and grief could be stifling, not to mention one of the most stressful events a person could go through. Moving to a new state was another highly stressful event. Then add starting a new job and he had the trifecta of stress. However, moving closer to his late wife’s parents as well as his own was, in her opinion, the right move, especially when the girls were only two and four years of age. In her case, she’d have never made it without her parents, and from what he’d told her, both his parents and his in-laws provided him and his girls with tremendous support.
They’d met for coffee a couple of times and lunch once. He’d needed her help picking out a birthday present when his oldest turned four. One evening, he’d called in a panic because his daughter wanted her hair braided and couldn’t figure out how to do it. She’d explained the emergency to Katie, who’d volunteered to come along and entertain the youngest while Holly taught Seth to braid.
She’d been surprised at Katie’s mature response to the situation, but her daughter had explained that nights when Holly would brush and braid her hair were some of her best memories. It’d been all Holly could do not to burst into mom-relief tears that she’d done something right.
Tonight, Seth had called simply to talk and tell her about his hair-braiding success that morning. He’d wanted to take her and Katie out to dinner as a thank you. Holly had been abrupt on the phone when Ben had shown up. She’d have to call Seth back at some point and apologize. She would also need to think about his dinner offer and decide if she would take him up on it or not.
And if she did take him up on the dinner invitation, what exactly did that mean?
A heavy arm settled across her waist as Ben shifted and she looked at the sleeping man. He was simply perfect, from his face, to his body, to his mind. He kept secrets from her, and in his job as a SEAL, she could accept that. However, he’d hinted enough about his childhood that she knew he had some deeply buried skeletons there.
His arm tightened and he pulled her close. “You awake?” His gravelly tone awakened every cell in her body.
She slid down next to him. “Hey, sailor,” she said with a grin she hoped was saucy. “On leave in town?”
He chuckled and rolled her under him. “I’ve got a few hours free, and I know how I want to spend them.”
“Lucky me,” she said as he stroked her with his fingers, tongue, and lips.
That evening, she wore his shirt while she fixed dinner. The aroma from the browning beef couldn’t compete with the scent wafting from the shirt, a combination of testosterone, pheromones, bath soap, and something that was all Ben.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pressed his naked chest against her back. He nuzzled her neck with his lips. “I remember there was one of Bethany’s bachelorette parties on her schedule while I gone. How’d that go?”
“Fun. Went to a new bar she’d heard about. Turns out it was a gay bar.”
He laughed, his chest vibrating against her back. “And how did that work out for you?”
“We had a blast.”
“How did