Body Shot (Last Shot)(22)

Hayden absorbed it all. She should feel guilty, playing hooky like this, but truthfully, as she filled her lungs with fresh air she felt an amazing sense of freedom and delight. The guilt would probably slam her later.

“Have you always lived in San Diego?” Beck asked.

“Yes.” She glanced at him. “Does that sound insular?”

“Are you saying you’ve never in your life left San Diego?”

“Of course I have.” She smiled. “I’ve traveled. For a while I considered moving to Boston.”

“Boston?” His jaw dropped and he stared at her. “Why?”

“Massachusetts has a big biotech cluster. I thought I might need to be there to get my company started.” She shrugged. “But I decided to stay here. My aunt and uncle are here, Carrie’s here. And things seem to be going okay.” She paused. “What about you? Are you from here?”

“Nope. Oddly enough, I grew up in Boston.”

A startled laugh escaped her. “Seriously?”

“Yep.” He smiled at her. “Left there when I was eighteen, though. Went to college in Los Angeles, then came here to join the SEALs.”

Her feet halted and she tipped her head to look at him. “Really? You’re a SEAL?”

“Not active. But I was for about nine years.”

“Oh, wow.” She blinked. “I had no idea.” She gestured at his beard and long hair pulled back into that oddly sexy bun. “You don’t look like a SEAL.”

“SEALs are a lot more relaxed in their grooming standards. Once we were done training and earned our trident, lots of us grew our hair and beards.”

Hayden found herself feeling rocked by this information. She’d figured he was a bartender who’d probably dropped out of college and lived to drink tequila, party, and surf. Actually, he looked like a rock star, and she could not reconcile that image with a Navy SEAL. But then again…in a way it made sense. He was very sure of himself. Very strong. Very commanding. Somehow she’d known there was more to him than what was on his attractive surface, depths to him that he kept hidden beneath a seductive façade.

Fascinating.





Chapter 6


Beck took in Hayden’s stunned expression, then the way it slid into thoughtfulness. He knew what she thought of him. But hey, he’d had his stunned moment too when she’d told him she was a biochemistry professor working on a cure for cancer. Jesus fucking Christ.

But really, dragging her away from her work for an hour wasn’t going to make a difference in the big scheme of things. He hoped. Except…guilt pinched his gut, because he had no intention of it only being an hour.

This wasn’t like him. He didn’t do relationships. He didn’t usually take girls into the office and nail them, and when he did go out with someone he kept things light and casual. Women got weird ideas about commitment and marriage and babies, and no way in hell was he going there. A family man he was not.

So he wasn’t even sure why he’d asked her to come to the beach with him. He’d honored his promise of replacing her panties and that should have been it. But somehow he had a million questions he wanted to ask her, about the work she did, about why her eyes lit up with passion and excitement when she talked about it, making her so fucking gorgeous he couldn’t breathe. He might not understand any of it, but he still wanted to know about it.

And not gonna lie, he also wanted to explore that hidden sensuality again, because holy hotness. When he’d walked into her condo, she’d been all pink cheeks and fluttery eyelashes, looking a lot like she had last night after…

Whoa. Seriously? Or was his dirty mind making a big leap?

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Her eyes narrowed and she took a step back.

He stepped toward her. “Like what?”

“Like you want to…erm…” She took another step back.

He followed again, smiling. “Want to what, gorgeous?”

Her eyes shifted. “Never mind.” One more step back.

“Like I want to fuck you and make you lose your mind again?”

She sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back again…this time into a wave that broke. She screamed and barreled forward, right into him. He caught her in his arms, laughing, lifting her up and spinning her around. “Baby, now you’re all wet.”

“You have no idea,” she muttered, burying her face in the side of his neck.

He carried her out of the reach of the waves and lowered her feet to the sand. Cold water had dripped from her lower legs onto his, and he was surprised it didn’t sizzle, he was so fucking hot.

“Good to hear.” He dipped his head and nuzzled her hair. “But you’re gonna get us arrested if we keep going like this.”