SEAL Kissed: A Navy SEAL Military Romance (Hot Dirty SEALS Book 1) (3 page)

“
A
re
you here with your date?” The silence between us is making me uncomfortable and it’s all I can think of to say. Reed’s grip on me loosens and immediately I miss him pressed against me.

“No, remember, I don’t do girlfriends.” His laser beam focus makes me squirm. “Well I just thought with that big box of condoms that maybe you had someone special you were, you know, giving it to all the time.” Oh god, I’m a blubbering idiot. Sometimes my mouth doesn’t know when to quit.

He must notice the curious look on my face because he continues. “I like variety, Emerson. I never go back to the same woman. Never.”

He’s not joking. He really doesn’t do girlfriends. “Oh, yeah, me too. I like variety too. And you know, you can never be too careful.” Where the heck did that just come from? Now I’m sounding like a slut. But why do I care what he thinks? He’s a proud self proclaimed man whore.

He sucks in a breath and narrows his gaze on me. His lips are smashed in a straight line and the vein in his neck throbs. Oh, maybe the big bad wolf has an achilles heel after all. “I always carry extra latex,” I say patting my knock off pleather handbag hanging from my shoulder. Anger rolls off of him, his fists now flexing at his sides, the cracking sound only encouraging me to rile him up some more. Apparently this wolf doesn’t like it when a girl leaves his territory. Time ticks by. I can’t take his silent analysis. I wish I could get in his head and know what he was thinking.

It’s just now I notice he’s dressed in a suit. The cut of his jacket shows off his broad shoulders and pinched waist. My eyes follow his burgundy tie and drift down the crisp white shirt neatly tucked into his slacks. Such a different person from the man I meant earlier today. The stubble on his face from this morning is gone. His dark hair has been tamed and his tattoos are hidden under clothing. Appearances can be deceiving, and the little voice in my head reminds me this is not a man to be messed with. The flashy suit and tie can’t contain the cocky arrogance boiling under all that material. His energy surrounds me, flaring the fire already inside of me. The burn makes my back bow, pushing my breasts out front and center. Reed doesn’t miss a beat. His tongue glides along his bottom lip before he clears his throat.“Why don’t you come home with me?” I regret giving him the impression I sleep around but I’m not good enough for someone like him. If he ever discovered where I came from he would run and I can’t say I would fault him for that.

“Why are you twirling your hair like that,” he asks. I swallow hard and force myself to stop. Only now I don’t know what to do with my hands. “Do I make you nervous?” He’s close again,his warm breath a whisper on my skin while his steely green eyes hold me captive. Sparks fly up my spine from his touch on my lower back. His fingers make little circles right under the hem of my shirt.

There’s a tightening in my stomach. “No. You don’t make me nervous,” I lie. My pounding heart wants to leap from my body. A ripple goes through me.

“Emerson, I don’t think you’re being truthful.” The muscles in his jaw twitch.

Even though I want to, I can’t break eye contact with him. Briefly I wonder if this is what lust feels like. This is all so foreign and new to me. I don’t have the time in my life to let my emotions take over. I’m not like other college girls. My heart isn’t strong enough to handle rejection and breakups. My loneliness brings me solace. I need to focus on college and finding my mother.

“Then let me take you out to dinner.” He looks down and pulls me closer.

“I don’t think so,” I say, wrapping my hair around my fingers. “You could be a serial killer. I’m not into that type of variety.”

He responds with a chuckle.

“
E
xcuse me
, miss. Did you let management know about my complaint?” Reed and I both look at the beautiful woman interrupting us. She’s talking to me. His hands immediately drop to his sides. The spark that was there just a moment ago is squashed and long gone.

He’s embarrassed of me. I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole. Warmth floods my face and my ears burn. There’s no doubt my fair skin is redder than a hot house tomato. This entire time he’s been playing me. Treating me as if I were just a some sort of twisted game. My shame turns to anger, and I want to physically hurt him. I don’t step on ants but I want to inflict harm on this man. Yesterday I would of sworn there was no such thing as a thin line between love and hate. Well, twenty four hours later and I have proven myself wrong. My shoes feel like they’ve been filled with concrete and I’m cemented in place. As much as it hurts I can’t peel my eyes from the spectacle unfolding before me. Maybe it’s for the better. It can serve as a reminder of why I plan to live my life alone.

She rests her hand on Reed’s shoulder and turns to him. “I think this place would have better climate control for all the money they charge.” She does the thing with her hand and fans her face. It’s warm in here but not the sweltering heat she is making it out to be. “Reed, you know I don’t like being too warm, it’s not good for my pores. My dermatologist said so.”

Reed is still looking at me as this woman jabbers about the temperature and her complexion. She’s definitely comfortable with him and I watch as her slender hand sinks into the pocket of his suit jacket. I’m not sure why but a pang of jealousy rips through me that it’s her hand touching him and not mine. The words he spoke earlier suddenly come back to me.
I don’t do girlfriends. I like variety.
And you buy condoms by the case, the little voice of reason shouts in my head. My cheek begins to quiver and my eyes burn. This is what happens when I’m not careful and let my guard down. Especially with a man like Reed. He’s behaving like he doesn’t even know me. My instincts were right. He’s a hazard to my health. Screw this. I can’t stand feeling this way.

Her hand is still digging around inside his pocket. “Ahh, here it is. I knew you must have been the one to take my engagement ring from the girls.” The princess cut diamond sparkles under the light as she holds it up to admire. “I couldn’t help but pass it around. The girls were all mesmerized by its clarity and size.” She slips it onto her finger and holds her hand out for me to regard.

My eyes flash from the ring to her face and then to Reed. “It’s a beautiful ring for a beautiful woman,” he states before kissing her cheek. He seems indifferent that I’m even standing here watching this cherade. My soul feels crushed and I’m not even sure why, I don’t even know him. The butterflies in my stomach have now turned to hornets. My heart rate spikes and droplets of sweat trickle down my back. My breathing is already coming out in pants. I need to get out of here now. My arms wrap around my middle and I run towards the door, bumping and pushing anyone who gets in my way.

“Emerson!” His voice is fading fast. I can’t stop. I need to keep going. If I can make it outside I know I will be all right. Just in time I burst out of the building and swallow the cool salty air. My breath comes out in gulps. Leaning forward I balance myself with my hands on my knees and am grateful for escaping the club of pretentious people.

I
t took
a year of saving before I was able to purchase a used digital camera with a zoom lens from an online discount site. I take it everywhere I go. My finger barely touches the shutter button before it clicks. Firing off six frames a second, I'm capable of capturing thousands of pictures in just a few hours. Those are my worst days. Those are the days I’m so desperate to find the person who brought me into this world. The person who left me with nobody. I’ve searched all over for her, my heart longing to look at a familiar face and see my own eyes looking back. I have so many questions. Did she ever touch me? Hold me? How come she didn’t want me? What was so wrong with me that made her walk away? My eyes start to burn and I fight to hold back the tears.

Taking the side streets I drive through San Bernardino county. It’s a well established illegal drug mecca of the west coast. I'm thankful my piece of crap car fits right in with the neighborhood.

I adjust the camera settings from manual to automatic. I spend the next two hours clicking away at all the drug addicts and homeless women loitering around the homeless shelter. Feeling satisfied, I go back to my apartment and upload all the photos onto my computer. The counter in the little window of my Nikon reads over three hundred pictures. Its taken me all day to examine every single photo. No familiar faces look back at me. It’s like I came from nowhere. I’m the creation of a whore and her john.

A bad recipe nobody wants to repeat. The panic begins to swell up inside of me. It begins as a sense of doom. The feeling of filth becomes too much. I pull my clothes off, barely tossing them into the hamper as I dart into the shower.

The scalding water reddens my skin. I scrub at my body but it’s useless. There’s nothing I can do about the dirty blood that runs through me.

T
hree weeks have gone
by since I’ve seen Emerson. After my brother Jake, also a SEAL, traced her license plate number I was able to find her apartment. How he found out so much shit so fast is beyond me. Jake is the boy genius in the family. He’s been hacking into computer systems and screwing with peoples lives since we were kids. Whenever we need information on the down and low he’s the one to call.

Following an unsuspecting woman is new to me and I’m not even sure what made me do it. I glance over to the passenger seat to see my best friend Marigold panting and snorting all over my leather interior. “It’s ok girl,” I say scratching the top of her head. Adjusting the air conditioning vents I direct them right at her, Pugs are notorious for not handling heat well. Can’t have my best girl passing out on me while I’m tailing this woman.

I don’t believe in hearts and flowers or love at first sight but as I follow three cars behind it occurs to me she may be meeting up with another guy. Gripping the steering wheel, I hit the gas and pass the car in front of me.There’s something about the whole sexy librarian look that heats me from the inside out. The straight laced prude guise rolling from her is like an aphrodisiac feeding my already salacious appetite. Her wardrobe is a wall she’s using to hide herself and lucky for her I can see right through it. She just needs an arrogant cocky bastard like myself to set her free and let her be all the woman she is meant to be.

Her natural curvy body fills me with a raw carnal hunger I’ve never experienced, the sensation pounding in my chest like the hammer on my AK 47 assault rifle. Seek and destroy. And I’m more than up for the challenge.

For three cock achingly long weeks visions of her long legs wrapped around me have filled my days and nights, and a man can only take so much. My dick sparks to life causing me to shift in my seat and reposition myself. I pass the next two cars and flip off the last driver who beeps his horn at me. “Asshole,” I shout as I fly by him, hot on Emerson’s ass.

Stomping through the parking lot she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear that fell from her bun. I never knew khaki pants with a buttoned down blouse could look so hot. The buttons pull across her generous breasts, and it’s with great disappointment I don’t possess the superpower to make them pop with my wicked thoughts. The way her tits bounce with every step tell me they’re real and I can’t wait to get my hands on them and my mouth on her nipples.

I hang out in the parking lot all day, like some damn high school kid working up the courage to ask a girl to the prom. Hundreds of women have walked by, some with screaming kids attached to their hips while others were pulling a significant other with an invisible leash. Killing time playing Game of War on my phone for the last five hours has left me with a headache and double vision.

Shoving some bacon treats into my pocket I walk in the grassy areas between parking spots with Marigold on my heels. Normally she would wonder off but the temptation of bacon is too strong for her and she obeys me like a recruit. A summer storm is rumbling in the distance and I’m feeling antsy. I check the time and note the store closes in ten minutes. I pick up my brick of a dog, leaving her in the locked truck with the air conditioning on full blast and a bowl of water on the floor.

Standing behind a chocolate chip cookie display I feel like some type of creepy stalker watching Emerson set her table with free samples. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me, a Navy SEAL trained to kill a man a hundred different ways with my bare hands and I’m cowering behind the Deal of The Day arrangement in aisle nine. Reaching down I pull my balls out of my ass, crack my neck side to side and walk up to Emerson. I’ve never been nervous around a woman before but for some reason there’s a strong desire to impress her pounding every bone in my body. It’s an unknown territory to me and I fucking hate it.

She’s speechless, the element of surprise working in my favor. But she changes fast, her shock replaced with anger. Her arms cross over her chest, making a temporary shelf for her soft round breasts. My eyes linger for a second too long and her face colors, a hint of scarlet spreading from the apples of her cheeks to the tips of her ears. Excitement flickers down my spine and tightens my balls faster than rapid burst gun fire.

“Out of condoms so soon?” She asks, her breasts still perched on her arms like delicate candies being saved for Christmas day. Grown men are intimidated by me, but Emerson doesn’t flinch.
What the hell is it with this girl?
It’s like she’s immune to my charm and it makes my cock swell faster than a patriot missile blasting through the night sky.

Her sassy attitude turns me on, tempting me to take her with my mouth just to shut her up while undoing her tightly pulled bun. “Maybe, maybe not.” My monotone reply burns her more, and she begins rearranging the little plates of single serve cookies, slamming each one a little bit harder than the previous.

“Go find someone else to fuck. I’m not interested.” She’s fidgeting, shifting from one foot to the other. Her hand goes to her neck before pulling the loose hair from behind ear and twirling it around her long slender finger. I lean closer, her rising chest only a hairs breadth away from me. All this talk of sex is making my cock an angry fucker, forcing me to shift my stance. “I’m not interested in fucking anyone else. Just you.”

“You can’t make me fuck you.” Her glasses have slide down her nose just enough so that she’s watching me over their rims. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and I get the feeling she doesn’t realize her natural beauty is stunning.

Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite and I toss one in my mouth, making a show of licking my fingers, her eyes never leaving my lips.

“I would never force any woman to fuck me.” I say, while picking up another cookie. I bring it up to her mouth, her lips fall open, her warm breath carrying a secret message over my hand as her tongue darts out, swiping the calloused pads of my fingers and taking the cookie with it.

She takes a bite, my gaze glued to the subtle movements of her long slender neck as she swallows.

“So you just woo them with your Prince Charming sexy scary look and then get to the fucking part? Does your fiancee know you don’t do the ‘girlfriend’ thing? That you’re a man who likes variety?”

Ahh, now I know why she ran out of the club. She thinks I’m engaged to Becca. “Let’s get something straight pretty girl. If you’re looking for Prince Charming you’re in the wrong place. I promise you there is nothing charming about me.” I narrow my eyes and see her flinch. Good. She got my point. She thinks I’m sexy scary. I like that.

“And Becca isn’t my fiancee. She’s my sister. If you would have stuck around instead of running from me I would of introduced you.”