Which would be nice, he supposed, but the very thought of it was a punch in his gut. Wisdom wasn’t what he wanted from her.
They reached the sand, and Kylie slipped off her heels to carry them. Drew tried not to notice how she looked, but she was too gorgeous to ignore. She wore a white sundress that revealed a hint of cleavage, her hair upswept so that her neck and shoulders were exposed. The light dusting of freckles on her shoulders made him want to reach out and touch her. He knew how soft and warm her skin would be, just as well as he knew how she’d smell like sweet citrus…
No, he had to stop that kind of thinking right now.
No more, he told himself. Not another thought.
They reached the waterline where the sand was cool and damp from the waves. Kylie stopped walking and turned to face him, her expression serious but otherwise inscrutable.
“I wasn’t fair to you,” she said.
“Wasn’t fair to me how?” His chest tightened, afraid of what she might or might not say.
She looked up at him, her big green eyes brimming with emotion. Her soft pink lips turned up at the corners, forming the slightest of smiles. “I shouldn’t have held your age against you. You’re clearly old enough to know what you feel and what you want, and I denied that. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” he said stiffly, wishing that wasn’t all she had to say.
But then she spoke again. “I realized something else.”
“What?” he asked, his voice barely audible above the sounds of the waves.
“I’ve fallen in love with you.”
He blinked, the news striking him momentarily dumb. Even he hadn’t dared to hope she’d say that.
“You have?”
“Yes.” She was watching him carefully, probably anxious for his reaction. “I’ve done a lot of soul-searching since I came back from Hawaii, but that was one thing I didn’t have to do much searching to figure out.”
She smiled tentatively then, and he could see that she needed desperately to hear his response. But he was afraid to believe the answer to his happiness could be this simple. There had to be a catch, a problem—something. Questions swirled in his head.
“But what about your career? And what about caring what everyone else thinks?”
“None of it matters,” she said, sounding both vehement and frustrated. “I love you!”
“I love you, too,” he said, unable to pretend it wasn’t true.
Then he took her in his arms and bent his head to kiss her. She felt better than he remembered, her lips eager but pliant. She kissed him with enough enthusiasm that he couldn’t doubt she was happy to be in his arms again.
When they broke the kiss, she said, “I don’t want to be apart from you again.”
“If you’ll marry me, you won’t have to be.”
Her eyes widened in shock at his words. Then she smiled again. “Are you serious?”
He hadn’t planned on saying it, but he’d been speaking from his heart, he knew. He’d known from their first night together that there was something incredibly special about them together, and it hadn’t taken him much longer to know she was the woman he wanted to spend his life with.
“Dead serious,” he said. “Will you marry me?”
She wiped a tear from her cheek and nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I will.”
Drew felt like doing a cartwheel right there on the beach, or letting out a victory yell, or…The idea of them never being apart again might sound nice, but given his new assignment as a S.E.A.L., and Kylie’s steady rise in the ranks of the traditional Navy, they were going to spend months—even years—of their lives apart.
His heart sank.
As if she sensed his sudden change of mood, she said, “I decided to take early retirement.”
Drew stared at her, stunned and uncomprehending. “But…You’re a great officer. I thought you loved your career.”
She shook her head. “I used to love the challenge of it. But it was always what my parents wanted for me. It wasn’t until we were in Hawaii together that I started realizing what I want for myself.”
“What is that?”
“I want a life, not just a job. I want a family someday, and a partner, and time to spend with my partner. If I stayed in the Navy on the track I’m on, I’d never have any of that.”
“But some people manage it,” he argued weakly, not really wanting to change her mind, but feeling obligated not to take her away from something she loved.
“True, but I know in my heart that I couldn’t, and I don’t want to do the important stuff halfway.”
“What do you want to do, then?”
“Training with you in Hawaii reminded me of how much I love diving. For now, I’m taking a job as a diving instructor here in San Diego. And I’m going to get back into taking pictures, maybe specialize in underwater photography. See if I can get a freelance gig going with it. When you move to your next duty station, then I’ll figure out what to do there.”
“Wow,” Drew said, stunned.
This really could work. They’d still have the inevitable separations of the military, but they wouldn’t be compounded by dual careers with dual deployments.
“You’ll really get early retirement?”
She nodded. “The Navy has more officers of my rank than it needs right now, so they’re happy to get rid of me.”
He took her hand, and they walked toward the hotel garden and the promotion party.
“What made you change your mind?” he asked, his wounded pride finally having a chance to smart now that he felt secure that he was getting what he wanted so badly.
“I didn’t really have to change my mind. I always knew I wanted you, from the first time I ever laid eyes on you. But I did have to allow myself to face the truth. In some ways you’re more mature than I am, and I had no business thinking age had much to do with it.”
He grinned. “Age does have something to do with it.”
“Oh?”
“I’m old enough to recognize a hot old chick when I see one.”
She slapped his shoulder in mock outrage. “Don’t push your luck, buddy. I may be old, but I’m stronger than I look.”
He caught her hands in his and pulled her against him. “Don’t ever doubt for a second that I think you’re the hottest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
Her eyebrows shot up suspiciously. “Hottest for an old chick?”
“Just plain hottest.”
“I don’t think I believe you.”
“Wait until after this party and I’ll show you exactly how I feel.” He pressed his pelvis against her abdomen so that she could feel his stiff cock.
Her gaze turned mischievous. “What if I can’t wait?”
“Then we’ll have to bow out early.”
“Like right now?”
“Sounds pretty reasonable to me,” Drew said, suddenly changing direction to head for the parking lot.
With Kylie at his side, nothing was out of the question.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-2154-7
SEDUCING A S.E.A.L.
Copyright © 2008 by Jamie Sobrato.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent a
nd Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.eHarlequin.com
Seducing A S.E.A.L. Page 16
