Commanding Her Seal (Plus Bonus Novella)(36)

“You must be Thora,” Fitz said with a pointed glance at Jack, who rolled his eyes and passed out the intros. Which was only fair since he was the linchpin of this operation.

“Fitz? Is that short for something?” Lilah asked as if it had just occurred to her to wonder.

“Fitzhugh,” he supplied readily. “It beats all of the other nicknames I’ve been given over the years.”

“Like what?” Lilah managed to transform that into a real question instead of small talk, which he appreciated in the face of the odd circumstance of suddenly feeling like a third wheel from the moment Jack had gotten his hands on his tawny-haired friend.

Jack snickered. “Chipmunk is my favorite.”

“And Jackass is my favorite of yours,” he shot back before his so-called friend served up Fitz’s first name on a platter in explanation. Theodore was a fine name for a president, and/or a fat chipmunk, but not for a SEAL. The guys had oh so much fun with it.

“I’ve never had a nickname,” Lilah confessed so forlornly that Fitz instantly started thinking up a few. Luscious Lilah was leading the pack, and there was no doubt that if he actually got her naked and breathless he could think of a few more.

She had the cutest little slice of pale stomach peeking through the space between her top and short skirt, and that was absolutely the perfect spot to start sampling the taste of her skin.

Probably he should stop being such a perv and let it alone. The woman clearly wasn’t the type you screwed around with on vacation, no harm, no foul, as you both jetted back to where you came from with fond memories and no strings.

That was the only kind of fling Fitz had any interest in. Or rather had any right to have an interest in, which wasn’t necessarily the same thing. SEALs made for crappy significant others, and Lilah seemed like the type who expected a guy to call the next day, or she’d have a lot more notches on her bed post.

It made her much more attractive than he would have credited.

“What’s the plan?” he threw in during the pause. If Thora intended to be ill some more, Fitz intended to hit the beach. Maybe Lilah could be persuaded to join him, preferably in a skimpy little swimsuit that would leave all her untasted skin readily accessible.

No. Bad boy. Bad, bad idea.

“Thora still wants to participate in the scavenger hunt,” Jack answered immediately. “We’ve already got the boat rented, and I bought food. So we’re good to go if you guys are.”

Perfect. He could kill his surprisingly strong attraction to Lilah Houston by throwing himself into the Galloway Games. Some honest physical effort would go a long way toward cooling his fervor for skin tasting. Funny how quickly that had turned into a thing.

Lilah fingered a stray lock of chin-length dark hair out of her face and zeroed in on her friend. “Are you sure? You didn’t seem like you were up to it.”

“I feel fine. Practically normal. I don’t want to disappoint everyone,” Thora said in a reedy voice that was accompanied by a full-body weave that would have knocked her on her butt save the strong arm around her waist.

Okay. So the semihug wasn’t strictly an excuse for Jack to put his hands on a foxy woman.

“Great,” Lilah gushed. “I’m really looking forward to it. When do we start?”

Fitz did a double take at the faked enthusiasm. So she wasn’t the one who’d sold this trip to her friend then. Unless he missed his guess, Jack and Thora had cooked up this scavenger hunt as a method to spend time together while continuing to pretend they did not, in fact, have the hots for each other.

Probably they should have picked a different guy for their team than a recon/surveillance expert if they hoped to keep their feelings for each other on the down low. And if Jack wanted to play it that way, far be it from Fitz to miss an opportunity to give his friend grief about it.

Jack jumped into a lengthy explanation of the logistics with enthusiasm while Fitz eyed Thora. Was he the only one who thought she still looked green around the edges, or was that just his desire to lay around on the beach talking?

Apparently everyone was cool with her insistence that she was okay. Thora perked up long enough to sip a Sprite through two cocktail straws, and Lilah impressively drained her dark beer in record time as they got caught up on the details. The race was on.

But continuing to crush on Lilah was not. Thora begged off dinner, and both girls retreated to their room with the promise of seeing them mañana, leaving the men at loose ends. Jack dragged Fitz to his house on the other side of the island from the resort, where Fitz caught up with the rest of his former teammates. The six of them seemed really happy to have landed on Duchess Island as co-owners of an excursion company. Crazy. Who busted their ass for an eternity to earn a spot on a SEAL team, only to give it up?