Navy SEALs Complete Series: 3 Books + 3 Novellas (Tempting Navy SEALs) by Lora Leigh Page A

sexual coercion. Yet.
    Moving back to her coffee, she leaned against the counter, crossed her ankles, and bit into the near-orgasmically delightful confection. His eyes followed every move.
    “You’re not going to even try to understand, are you?” he asked quietly.
    “That you’re being unreasonable?” She licked the thick, fluffy cream from her lip with a flick of her tongue. “I understand that completely, Clint. I actually expect it from you.”
    A frown marred his brow. “What the hell does that mean?”
    “It means that since the moment you caught me wearing makeup and dressing like a girl instead of a tomboy, you’ve resented me. You see me as a pretty, worthless party girl without a brain in her little head. Unfortunately, I’m not willing to play into your image of that forever. I’ve actually grown quite sick of it.”
    Morganna picked up her coffee, sipping at the hot brew as she watched his expression closely.
    “That’s not true.”
    “Of course it’s true.” She smiled gently, inhaling a ragged breath. “You think I’m just like your mother. Unable to settle down or care for her children while her husband is off fighting wars.”
    There. It was out in the open. Morganna steeled herself against the hard expression that came over his face, the ice in his eyes. God, she hated it when he looked at her like that.
    “This has nothing to do with her.”
    “Of course it does. It always has.” She shrugged, fighting back the tears, the pain. “Do you think I haven’t realizedwhat the problem was all along, Clint? You believe I’ll screw around on you while you’re gone, simply because I wear makeup and like to dance. Because she did. As far as you’re concerned, I have no more honor than she did.”
    “You’re reaching, Morganna.” He shook his head.
    “Am I?” Her smile was forced, as was the calm edge of her voice. “I don’t know, Clint. The evidence is pretty overwhelming from where I sit. We were getting along fine when I was a little tomboy chasing after you. Once I started wearing makeup and having a life outside you, you hated me.”
    “I don’t hate you.”
    “You can’t keep your hands off me and you hate yourself as well as me for it.”
    Her heart was racing as his brows lowered ominously, his expression becoming darker. “Morganna. That has nothing to do with this operation—”
    “Of course it does.” She lifted her chin defiantly. She was not going to cry over him again. She had spent weeks crying a year ago when she made the mistake of going to his apartment to comfort him after his buddy’s death. “It has everything to do with it. How can a party girl, one step above a tramp, possibly contribute anything worthwhile to such an important cause? I’m a hazard to the entire operation, aren’t I, Clint? It doesn’t matter that I’ve been training for this for years. That I fought for this assignment and that it means something to me. All that matters to you is that you can’t handle it.”
    “Because you’re inexperienced and that will get you killed.” His jaw clenched almost violently. “You’re not cut out for this life.”
    She stared back at him silently for long moments. She didn’t fight the pain he could cause her. It would rise and ebb, like the tide. What tore at her heart now would ease to no more than a dull ache in a few weeks.
    “Taking me off this assignment isn’t going to make a difference,” she finally said. “When I return to the agency, the commander will find me something else. Perhaps notsomething that means as much to me, but something I believe in. What will you do then, Clint?”
    He didn’t answer her. Clint rose slowly from his chair instead, his expression blank, though his eyes churned with emotion as he watched her.
    “Don’t make the mistake of coming back to one of those clubs tonight,” he announced, his voice hard.
    She tossed the donut to the top of the box as she stiffened defiantly. “Don’t make orders you