Rescued (Navy SEALS Romance Book 1) by Rachel Hanna

moment was gone and it was their first date.
    There had been a lot of first dates that ended in bed. There'd been a lot of first dates that had ended still in bed the next morning.
    He wasn't looking for that with Taylor, a thought that confused him enough to kiss her once, lingeringly, before moving her gently so he could stand.
    He took a long breath. So did she.
    "I had a lovely time tonight," she said, her arms around his waist as she looked up into his eyes.
    He framed her face with both hands and kissed her softly. "So did I."
    She walked him to the door and he was already regretting the loss of her warmth pressed against him. He pulled his clammy t-shirt over his head. "I'll text or call tomorrow?" Last second he made it into a question when he hadn't initially thought to.
    "I'd like that." She stood on tiptoe and kissed the side of his mouth, as if afraid to initiate anything more.
    Then the front door was closing behind him and she was on one side and he was on the other.
    He took a second to get his bearings. He'd been through all sorts of training for trauma. This felt like something that maybe should have been covered.
    He'd call her tomorrow.
    Tanner made himself go down the front steps and out to his Jeep and home.

    H e didn't call her on Tuesday. On Tuesday he studied for a massive anatomy exam he was probably going to ace but a little more time with the books would be well spent. On Tuesday afternoon Angel and Jake sat down in his office uninvited and talked at him for a long time about the Las Vegas job until he agreed they could lower the bid if that's what it took to get the job and get them out of his office.
    "Anything. Blow up buildings no one's asking you to blow up. Then bill them. But let me study?"
    Angel's dark face wreathed in a smile. "You're not studying, boss. You're staring into space."
    Tanner glowered. "That's how I think. Go away."
    Angel and Jake exchanged glances, looked back at him, exchanged glances again, this time love sick ones with fluttering lashes. Dark, compact Angel and blond bodybuilder Jake made a weird couple.
    Tanner threatened to fire them. Not that he could fire his partners. But it made them leave. Sometimes being the oldest and the most unattached of the group sucked. At twenty-eight, he had a year on Knox and six years on Jake.
    He shut his office door behind them. Sat back down at his desk. Opened the book up to a random page. Stared at a spot about three inches over the top of the book.
    Thought about Taylor.

Chapter Eleven
    T uesday late afternoon the call came in. Capsized fishing boat on the still roiling ocean. The storm the night before had moved out into the Pacific and was causing havoc.
    "Coast Guard?" Tanner asked.
    "Strung out thin," Mike said, suiting up. "Storm off the coast was stronger than by the coastline. There's a lot of rescues going on."
    "What've we got?" Angel demanded. He'd be monitoring everything from the land side. Mike was taking the lead. Mike was part seal more than SEAL. He moved in the water like other people moved on land, only better.
    "One of the whale watching boats," Mike said, his voice muffled as he rolled the top of his wetsuit down over his head to his waist. "Thirty passengers, crew of two, doesn't sound like anybody did anything wrong, sea's just too much for them. It's belly-up, people in the water."
    "Life rafts?" Jake asked.
    "Enough. Everyone's on something. But there are high waves and not enough tour people to take care of the tourist people in the rafts." That was Angel, finishing up the report they'd gotten. "I told them we'd be in the air in five. You've got one minute."
    But Mike, Jake and Tanner were already running for the door. Knox came through it, nodded, slid to a stop at the communications array and waved them off.
    The Chinook whirled to life, blades slicing the air, and Tanner took them up, angling them instantly over the coast, less than five minutes from call to flight time, heading out over the dark blue