Under Fire (Love Over Duty #1)(10)

"I'm good," he said. "Seriously, but I don't feel like running anymore. Will you let me walk with you for a little while?" Unable to resist, he reached toward her and pushed her hair to one side. There was something compelling about her. Perhaps she wasn't traditionally pretty, but she was arresting in her own way.

Her cheeks became even more flushed, and she stepped away from his reach.

"I'm sorry, Louisa. I shouldn't have done that." Shit. He hadn't meant to make her feel bad, but just being around her was bringing his heart rate back under control. "Look, I'll leave you to your walk. I'll even give you a head start so it doesn't look like I'm stalking you."

Louisa shook her head. "Nope," she said. "You were  …  fine. I mean, I didn't mind, I just stepped back because  …  Well. I don't know what it is about you, but somehow I don't feel quite so weird around you compared to other people."

The words tightened his chest, and while he wasn't sure how he felt about that, he was more than willing to go with it. "Does that mean we're walking?"

With a smile that completely transformed her face, she turned herself in the direction in which she'd been walking and kicked her toe into the dirt. "I suppose it does," she said, and started off.

It felt like the most natural thing in the world to walk alongside her, and he wasn't prepared to question why.

* * *

"You want to race there, Louisa?" Six teased as she marched them toward the parking lot.

The confusing thing about stress response was you couldn't always be one hundred percent certain what had caused it. Certainly if someone pushed you off the top of a tall building, it was a reasonable assessment that it was being caused by the fact you were hurtling to your death at chronically fast speeds. But having a borderline pathological response to shyness while walking alongside a now shirtless and sweaty Six, with abs, and tattoos, and  …  Urgh, who the hell knew why the adrenaline was flowing? All she knew was that it was telling her flight, even though she was intellectually willing herself not to listen.

Louisa forced herself to slow down. To enjoy the experience. To take in the nature around her rather than how low Six's shorts hung on his hips. She noticed a large scar on his stomach that had long since healed. "What branch of military were you?" she asked, hoping he'd believe her breathlessness was a function of exertion, not  …  well, whatever it was.



       
         
       
        

"Navy, ma'am," he said. "A proud member of the SEAL brotherhood."

Holy shit. There was no military in her family. Spending Friday evenings at home watching movies like American Sniper and Lone Survivor constituted her only brushes with it, but even she knew that SEALs took on the toughest jobs in the toughest places. "That's pretty badass," she said, lamely. It wasn't like she was known for her witty repartee on the best of days, but around Six, even her most basic conversationalist skills withered like the shrubbery that lined the canyon path. "Wait. This is the part where I am supposed to thank you for your service, right?"

Six laughed. "You're funny, Louisa, and no, you don't have to thank me. It was my pleasure."

Shit. She'd spent the last five years in particular avoiding small talk for this very reason. "Well, I do thank you. Seriously, I do."

His hand slipped around her wrist and he pulled her to a stop. She turned to look at him  …  up at him. Christ, the man was tall.

"You're welcome," he said.

Her attempts to avoid eye contact failed miserably, and she was drawn to his face. Damn. It all felt a bit too close. Suffocating. She turned and started to walk down the other side of the hill. Suddenly going for a hike to wind down, to take her mind off the missing sample in the lab, didn't seem like such a great idea.

"What are you doing now?" she asked, more in an effort to kill time until she could dive into her car and retreat to the safety of her patio with a glass-no, bottle-of pinot. Then she'd fire up her laptop and chat with some of her online friends.

"I own a private security firm with two of my buddies from school who were SEALs too. It's called Eagle Securities. We have a building not too far from here."

"So you do things like last night? Protection, bodyguard-type stuff?"

From the corner of her eye, she could see Six nod his head. "Yeah, that and other things," he said vaguely.

Louisa felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and out of habit, because it was her preferred method of communication, she pulled it out and checked it. It was a message from Ivan.