Hot SEAL, Red Wine (SEALs in Paradise)

by Becca Jameson

  His gaze roamed up and down her body, making her face heat. Suddenly it seemed much hotter than it had a moment ago. He slowly shook his head. “You look amazing.”

  “Thanks. You do too.” How she managed to utter a word was a mystery. Her gaze was drawn to his full lips as he spoke, reminding her what they had felt like against hers. Against her neck. Her breasts. Her thighs. It had been so damn long…

  “What are you up to these days?” he asked as he set his elbow on the bar.

  He sat so close to her. Unbearably close. She wished she could reach up and touch him, remind herself what his skin felt like. The strength. The smooth texture.

  “Ellie?”

  Shit. He’d asked her a question. She nodded. “I live in New York.”

  He nodded. “Right. Layton told me that. You work on Wall Street, right?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t find the vocabulary to elaborate. “You?”

  “I just finished my second tour with the SEALs.”

  She nodded. Good job, Ellie. Way to hold a conversation.

  He chuckled. “I don’t remember you being so quiet.”

  She forced a smile. “I guess I’m just shocked. You’re here. On the same cruise as me. What are the chances?”

  He frowned and glanced around, his eyes slowly narrowing. “Wait. Who are you with?”

  “Karla. Girls’ trip. We haven’t seen each other in years.”

  He tipped his head back and groaned. “I should have known.”

  “What?” She sat up straighter, her spine stiffening at his tone.

  He met her gaze once more, his expression serious. “I’m with Layton. Guys’ week.”

  Her mouth fell open, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. “No.”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  She looked around. “Where is he?” She would personally kill Layton and then Karla too.

  “Haven’t found him yet.” He swiped a hand over his face. “Why the hell would they do this?”

  “I can’t imagine.” Except she could. She could totally imagine. Karla had bugged Ellie about her breakup with Noah for years. Fourteen of them. Always prying for answers. Never getting anything out of Ellie.

  “Do you think they have some wild idea they can get us back together by arranging a friends’ cruise?”

  “It would seem that way.” She bit the corner of her lower lip hard. She was absolutely going to kill Karla. The moment she turned up.

  Noah slid off the stool, running his free hand down his face. He didn’t meet her gaze.

  A renewed flush rushed over her cheeks and down her chest at his discomfort. She felt it too, but seeing him clearly wishing he could fall into the ocean put her on edge.

  He finally glanced at her. “Look, I’m so sorry about this. I can’t imagine why Layton would set us up like this. It’s crazy. Water under the bridge. It’s been fourteen years. I promise I knew nothing about this. I never would have agreed to come on this cruise if he’d told me.”

  Ellie nearly choked. He didn’t have to be a dick about it.

  Although, to be fair, he had every right to be a dick about it. In fact, she was surprised by how cordial he’d been up to that moment. Smiling and seeming genuinely happy to see her.

  He tapped the bar with his fingers. “I’m going to go find Layton and toss him overboard. Don’t worry about me. It’s a big ship. We don’t have to see each other. There’s plenty to do.” With those sharp parting words, he turned around and walked away.

  Ellie stared at his back for long moments until she could no longer see him in the crowd. She couldn’t move or breathe. It felt like she was swaying back and forth. And perhaps she was. She was on a ship after all. It was still docked, however.

  Docked…

  She jerked her gaze up, wondering if she could still get off the boat. At that very moment two loud blasts of the ship’s horn sounded, signaling they were moving away from the dock.

  Dammit.

  Several announcements were made. She understood very few words. Her ears were ringing. She turned back to the bar and picked up the drink. It had melted enough to suck about half of it down in one swallow. She needed the alcohol.

  She glanced around again, looking for red curls and finding nothing of the sort. Undoubtedly, Karla and Layton had conspired to get both Noah and Ellie to run into each other at the bar right off the bat, so they could start forging the imaginary relationship that would never happen. It could never happen.

  What Karla and Layton didn’t know was why Ellie had walked away from Noah to begin with. She’d never told a living soul. Not even Noah.

  The damage had been thorough. There would never be any way to patch things up in forty years, let alone fourteen. Their friends were sadly mistaken if they thought they could arrange some sort of reconciliation.

  Sure, maybe Noah had found a way to pretend to be polite and cordial for a few moments after running into her unexpectedly. But there was no way he would continue to do so for seven days. It wasn’t like they could play nice, go to dinner together, plan the same excursions, hang out at the pool.

  This vacation had taken a serious dive into murky waters.

  Ellie wasn’t ready to face Karla yet. She needed more time to gather her thoughts. Her friendship with Karla had lasted over two decades. The last thing Ellie wanted to do was cause irrevocable damage to their relationship while she was still fuming at her friend’s horrible plan.

  Setting two people up was always a gamble. Setting two people up without their knowledge would be outside the bounds of normal friendship. Setting two people up to spend a week on a cruise ship without checking with them first was unforgivable.

  It wasn’t really Karla’s fault for thinking she might be able to get her high school friends to rekindle their relationship. She didn’t have all the facts. All she knew was what Ellie had told her over the years. That information had been spotty, but Ellie had never suggested she was over Noah in any way. Because she was not. She never would be.

  She sucked down the rest of her drink, noticing the deck was starting to clear.

  “Ma’am?”

  She glanced at the bartender.

  “You need to report to your muster station.”

  She nodded and slid off her stool, hoping her legs could carry her to the designated spot. She wished she’d had time to drop her carry-on bag in her room, but apparently not. She would have to drag it with her to listen to the speech about escape routes, passenger safety, and lifeboats.

  As soon as the drill was over, she would find her room and then hunt Karla down. By then, she hopefully would have calmed down enough to keep from shouting.

  She had no idea how she was going to live through seven days on the same ship as Noah. The once massive ship she’d seen from the pier just an hour ago suddenly seemed ten times smaller. It was shrinking by the minute.

  Chapter 2

  Noah tossed his cell phone on the bed and paced the small room. This could not be happening.

  He’d spent the last hour trying unsuccessfully to get ahold of Layton. He’d even called Karla and gotten nothing but her voicemail. Where the hell were those two?

  He ran a hand over his head and wandered toward the balcony. This was going to be the most challenging week of his life, but at least the room was amazing and the view off the balcony spectacular. If he had to spend the entire time alone in the room, he would manage.

  He had assumed he and Layton would be sharing the room, and had been surprised to find it had only one king-sized bed. Layton and he had been close friends since second grade, but no way would Layton have booked a room with only one bed.

  Noah hadn’t been able to help with the arrangements at all. He’d been stuck overseas until a week ago and then taking care of paperwork and debriefing for several days as he prepared to leave the SEALs.

  The few times he spoke with Layton, his friend had assured him everything was a go and not to worry. All he had to do was show up and relax.

&n
bsp; Noah hadn’t been on vacation in years. He’d been to a lot of countries with his SEAL team, but not one moment of that time could have been considered leisure.

  Unable to breathe, he opened the sliding door to the balcony and stepped out into the humid Galveston air. He grabbed the railing with both hands and stared at the shoreline as they moved farther and farther from land.

  He was officially trapped on a boat with the woman he’d loved more than anything in the world fourteen years ago. The woman who’d broken his heart and left him just days before he reported to the navy.

  Why the fuck did she have to look so damn good? She had been gorgeous at eighteen. She was a drop-dead knockout today. All that thick, wavy hair that hung longer than he’d ever seen her wear it. Those sexy green eyes that seemed to pierce into his soul.

  Those pink lips. Damn those lips. And when she bit the lower one… “Shit.” He’d almost reached out to pluck it from between her teeth before he caught himself and remembered not only was she not his to touch anymore, but he was supposed to be pissed with her.

  She was more filled out than she had been in high school, which was also in her favor. Her hips were slightly wider. Her breasts were fuller. That dress…

  He squeezed his eyes closed, wishing he’d never seen her again while knowing at the same time it would take him twice as many years to forget those few minutes on the lido deck with her. Every single move she made had gotten to him. The way she shifted on the stool. The way her skirt had ridden up her thighs when she sat. The way her hands shook when she realized they’d been set up.

  “Shit,” he repeated.

  A noise behind him had him spinning around, expecting to find the cabin steward delivering his luggage.

  Instead, his breath stopped in his lungs.

  There she was.

  Ellington Gorman.

  His first love.

  In his cabin.

  Why?

  He shoved off the railing and stepped back into the room.

  Her eyes were bugged out again, and she dropped her bag to the floor. “Why are you in my room?” she asked.

  “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

  She glanced around. “This is my room,” she repeated as if echoing her words would make them more real.

  “Apparently it’s my room too.” Yes, he was going to throw Layton overboard. Karla too. If he found them fast enough, maybe they could swim to shore without drowning. What were they thinking?

  “We can’t share a room,” she stated.

  “Obviously,” he agreed completely. Not a chance in hell. Perhaps he could take a few minutes to be nice to a girl he’d once dated in high school upon running into her for the first time in fourteen years, but this was asking too much. She fucking broke up with him. She literally broke his heart, though he’d never admit that out loud. He’d been a dude, for Christ’s sake. He still was a dude.

  She licked her lips. “We need to find our stupid friends.”

  “Agreed. I haven’t had any luck. They’re both ignoring my calls and texts. I don’t even know what room they’re in. I assumed I was sharing this one with Layton.” He pointed at the bed. “Though I was shocked to find only one bed.” He shuddered. The idea of sleeping in that bed with Ellie was almost as distasteful as doing so with his friend.

  She reached down, picked up her bag, set it on the bed, and began to dig around in it. “I haven’t checked my phone for a while. I was late. Almost missed the final boarding. In my rush, I hurried straight for the bar where Karla told me to meet her.”

  He couldn’t hold back his sarcasm when he said, “Imagine that. Layton also told me to meet him at the bar.”

  She found her phone, ignoring him, and touched the screen. “Dammit.”

  “What? Please tell me Karla at least left you a message.”

  She held it out, screen toward him. “Not a single word since I told her I was going to make it by the skin of my teeth a few hours ago.”

  “Fuck,” he proclaimed a bit louder than he intended. What he wanted to do was grab something heavy and throw it across the room. But he’d never been a violent man in his civilian life before, and he wouldn’t start now.

  “Okay,” Ellie started calmly. “So, we get another room. I’ll go to the front desk and straighten this out. You keep trying to find our friends.”

  She turned around, but just as she reached for the doorknob, he spoke again. “How close are you and Karla?”

  “She’s my best friend. Why?” Ellie looked at him over her shoulder, her brows drawn together.

  “Just wondering if you’d mind if I tossed their bodies over the side of the ship when I find them.”

  She gave him a slow smile, one like the million he’d received from her when they were teenagers. Conspiring. Cute. Sexier than he remembered. “Be my guest.” And then she was gone.

  He was still staring at the door when a soft knock sounded and it opened again. He expected Ellie, thinking she had something else to say or forgot something, but it was the cabin steward. “I have your luggage, sir,” he stated.

  Noah stared completely dumbfounded as the man piled four suitcases into the room. Two of them were Noah’s. He assumed the other two were Ellie’s.

  Insanity. Pure and total insanity.

  He nodded at the steward and then picked up his phone to call Layton again.

  No signal.

  Great.

  The phone was now essentially useless for the next seven days. Turning it off, he dropped it on the nightstand and glanced around the room. He’d never been on a cruise before, but he’d always been told how small the cabins were. People talked like they could barely move around. The only thing that fit in the room was the bed or beds. Just enough space between them to squeeze past.

  This room was somewhat larger than he’d expected. It was also located at the back of the ship with a balcony and spectacular view. Who the hell had paid for the room? Noah certainly hadn’t.

  It seemed absurd that Layton and Karla would have sprung for this room in order to get Noah and Ellie back together, but maybe they had. Apparently he didn’t know his friend at all. Perhaps the guy had won the lottery recently and didn’t tell anyone. He didn’t think, between the two of them, they made enough money to throw it around. In fact, he was fairly certain they were trying to start a family.

  Noah could afford the room. Not that he’d made millions of dollars with the navy or later on the SEAL team, but he also hadn’t had many expenses. So, he’d invested most of his salary every year, hoping for a nest egg to give him some wiggle room when he left the SEALs. That day was now.

  As pissed as he was, he would find out how much Layton had paid for this room and give the man a check. He wondered how long Karla and Layton would remain incommunicado. Hell, he wondered if they knew what room they’d assigned to Ellie and Noah. Perhaps theirs was close by. Could even be next door.

  He shoved off the bed and stepped back onto the balcony to lean around the right and then the left, trying to see any sign of his friends.

  Nothing.

  If they were in one of the rooms next door, they were hiding. Which was probably good because he figured he had the upper body strength to reach around the wall dividing the rooms, grab another human by the shirt, and drop whoever it was into the water.

  He could not spend time with Ellie. Not any time. Not one minute. Not a chance in hell. He sure as shit wasn’t sharing a room with her. As pissed as he was with Layton, he had an idea. Those two might have thought to spend a cozy vacation having sex and enjoying each other, but they were so very wrong. The moment he found them, he would make them separate. Karla could move in with Ellie. Noah would bunk with Layton. Even if there was only one damn bed.

  Yes. If Ellie was unable to get another room, his plan would work.

  He stepped back inside just as another knock sounded at the door. Expecting to find Ellie once again, he hurried over to open it. At least she was polite enough to knock and not just
walk in. Or better yet, maybe she didn’t have a key to his room anymore.

  Again, the person at the door was not Ellie. It was a ship employee in a navy polo shirt with the ship’s logo in the corner. She smiled brightly and held out a large basket filled with chocolates, wine, glasses, and fruit. “Delivery for Ellington Gorman and Noah Seager,” she declared, far too cheerily.

  Noah reminded himself nothing was this woman’s fault. He took the basket from her, forced a nod of acknowledgment, and turned back to the room as the door slid shut behind him.

  He set it on the desk space and dug around for a card. His fingers were shaking for reasons he could not explain as he opened the card and read it. He read it again. And again. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered just as the door to the room opened again.

  Ellie stepped inside, deflated, her face speaking for her. She dropped her bag on the floor and met his gaze. “Every room on this ship is occupied.”

  “Oh, I can top that,” he informed her.

  She slowly shook her head. “Please tell me you’ve found Karla and Layton.”

  “Yep. I found them all right.” He pointed to the basket. “They had this delivered.” He held out the card and delivered the final blow. “They aren’t on this ship. They never were.”

  Legs unwilling to hold him up any longer, he lowered to the edge of the bed.

  The card fluttered to the floor because Ellie hadn’t taken it from him. She stood staring at him without moving. Like a wax figure. She wasn’t even blinking.

  After a few seconds, her face turned white, and he thought she might faint.

  If he could have moved fast enough, he would have reached out to catch her before she hit the floor, but he was drained of all energy.

  Luckily, she didn’t pass out. She simply gave up the fight to remain upright, let her knees bend, and lowered herself to the floor. Her knees hit first, and then she dropped to her butt and leaned against the end of the bed, head in her hands.

  They remained that way in total silence for a long time. He had no idea how long. He was busy processing. Thinking. His thoughts were a jumbled mess, however. Nothing made sense.