RULES OF LOVE (A Navy SEALs Romance) by Bella Grant

don’t want to break your toes.”
    “You won’t,” he said quietly, his eyes on hers as he moved.
    He wanted to do things to this woman, but he tried to keep his thoughts away from scenes of him helping her undress slowly before he carried her to her bed and laid her on it. Images of him driving her to cry out his name and forget about the man who’d hurt her.
    Beau hummed as he spun them slowly around the room, Naomi’s feet on his and him holding her weight so she wouldn’t feel any pain in her leg. She grinned at his offbeat tune and lost it when he dipped her to the floor, pulling her back up into a spin. They rocked back and forth to his hummed version of some 1940’s serenade.
    “How very romantic of you,” Naomi teased, and for a moment, she leaned into his touch.
    The dangerous thoughts moved in again, and Beau’s hand pressed against her back, holding her closer. He waited for her to resist, but she didn’t. He breathed in her scent, closing his eyes on the subtle vanilla and citrus.
    “What are you thinking about?” he whispered in her ear.
    “Wondering what this would be like if we met years ago,” she said, words filled with bitterness. He leaned back in surprise at her answer. “You?”
    They stopped swaying, her cold gaze locked onto his, and without thinking, he lowered his head and let his lips brush against hers. Beau waited to get punched as Naomi’s body stiffened in his arms, but she pressed her lips against his in return. The kiss was soft, unsure. Tension radiated from her, but there was more beneath it. Heat, an intense longing. The same responses he felt as his lips moved against hers. His hands moved to those hips he’d been dying to hold, and just when he thought they were making progress, her entire body became rigid. She staggered backwards off his feet.
    “I’m sorry,” he said as he reached out to steady her.
    Naomi moved out of his reach and held up her hand. “Just stay there, please.”
    What the hell did I just do?
    “Naomi? Are you alright?”
    She nodded once but didn’t meet his eyes. “I’m fine… I’ll be fine.” She glanced at him then quickly away, but in that one second, he saw fear in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
    “No, it was me. I shouldn’t have done that.” Beau rubbed a hand over his face, more aggravated with himself when she didn’t say anything else. That was a smart move. Now, you’re just gonna drive her away completely. Way to go, champ.
    Her phone rang, and she grabbed it from her back pocket. “I have to take this,” she said, barely loudly enough for him to hear. She turned her back on him and disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind her.
    Beau screwed up, and he couldn’t fix it. Whoever hurt Naomi made sure it had stuck. Never mind an electric wheelchair. He was going to rip the guy apart with his bare hands if he ever learned his name.
    Beau returned to the bedroom and hauled the rest of the tools up into the crawlspace in the other room. He set to work, mentally yelling at himself the entire time to stop thinking of Naomi Veri as the sexiest woman he’d ever kissed but rather as just another civilian who needed his protection.
    One hour later, nothing had changed. Beau was in trouble.
    ***
    “You are a lifesaver,” Eddie whispered to Jackie when she answered her phone.
    “Oh, really. So I take it you and the macho man are still not getting along?”
    “Wouldn’t say that. The damn man just kissed me.”
    Silence. Jackie was never this quiet, and Eddie thought she lost the connection until her friend came back on the line. “He kissed you? Is he still alive or do you need help burying the body?”
    “It didn’t last too long,” she said, regretting the moment she pulled back. Everything felt fine—the building heat and the throbbing need—until his hands touched her hips, hips that had once been held by another man, and she’d lost it.
    “You can tell me all about it, but I need you to do me a