HOT SEAL Lover (HOT SEAL Team - Book 2) by Lynn Raye Harris Page B

or bad, but people seemed to take it for granted that they weren’t going any farther tonight. They were setting up camp at the side of the road, starting cooking fires, lingering around vehicles that weren’t moving.
    She turned back to the van and searched for Remy’s dark form. He looked just like the other SEALs, but there was something about the way he moved—or maybe it was the way she responded to him—that meant she knew which one was him.
    He helped Penny take a few steps on shaky legs, then Paul jumped from the van and Cash followed. The others climbed from the van in front of theirs. The SEALs didn’t relax, however. They were alert, watchful, hands on weapons as they surveyed the area.
    She didn’t know what they were waiting for, but she shivered again at the chill in the air and the intensity of the situation.
    Viking—she knew the big blond SEAL from Matt and Evie’s house, Buddy’s, and also it was hard not to associate him with a Viking once you heard his team name—came over to her.
    “How you doing, Ms. Girard?” he asked, his voice so serious and formal.
    “I’m great, thanks. You?”
    He grinned then, and she felt a little wave of relief flood her that he could be so friendly during a—what? Siege? Refugee crisis?
    “Considering we got all of you out of Baq, fantastic.”
    She smiled. “Bullshit. You’re an adrenaline junkie. Like my brother. All of you are. This stuff trips your trigger.”
    His grin got bigger. “A bit.” And then he sobered. “But seriously, the most important thing is getting you out of here and on a plane back to the States. Which we will do, don’t worry.”
    “I’m not worried,” she said.
    “Good.” His gaze strayed over her head, and then he touched his helmet as if he were tipping his cap before turning and walking away.
    She felt Remy’s approach rather than heard it. When she turned, he was there, looking gruff and unapproachable.
    “Don’t stray,” he ordered. “We don’t know what’s out there yet.”
    Her throat ached as she looked at him standing there. He was tall and tough. Strong. She felt safe when he was near. And yet she’d run away six months ago and kept running until he’d stopped calling her.
    For a moment, she regretted that more than she could say. But then she remembered the utter devastation she’d felt at Ben’s betrayal and knew she’d done the right thing. Men lied. They cheated. She knew it better than most.
    She also knew that you could never tell who would hurt you. How could she explain it to him though?
    “I’m not straying. And I’m not stupid, contrary to what you might think.”
    “Never said that.”
    “Didn’t you?”
    His jaw flexed. “Not directly, no.”
    He’d implied it during his tirade in the van earlier though. He knew it as well as she did.
    “As if Cash couldn’t figure out what you meant when you went off on me. He’s not stupid either.”
    “You may not be stupid, Christina—but you did something pretty oblivious when you came to Qu’rim.”
    “It was a meeting. In and out and done.”
    “But it didn’t work out that way, did it?”
    She sighed and rubbed a hand up and down her forearm. “Look, I get that you’re pissed at me. And I get why…” She bit the inside of her lip. And then she decided to go for it. “I really am sorry for… for everything.”
    His face hardened, his eyes glittering hot. He knew what she meant, and he wasn’t buying it. “You aren’t, babe. If you were, you would have answered your phone any one of the hundred times I called you. You’re only sorry that we’re here, like this, and you feel uncomfortable. I get it—and you got nothing to worry about. I’m not hung up on you. I’m not harboring hurt feelings or crushing on you like a lovesick teenager. It was never about that—it was about how good it felt with you and how I wanted more of the same before we called it quits. But I’m over it now, so don’t worry your pretty head that