SEAL Under Covers (SEAL Brotherhood Series Book 3) (11 page)

The soft side of Gina was winning over, but just slightly. She couldn’t afford for it to show right now. Her eyes watered.
Am I like a moth to the flame?
She knew she couldn’t trust Sam. Not yet. Perhaps never. “But you have to, Sam. You have to forget there ever was an us
.”

Then she remembered the look Armando gave her as he had bent down and asked if she was okay. As he whispered things to her in Spanish, as he delicately told her of his craving and need for her. She knew she’d never have to worry about being safe around Armando, and if she’d never met him, her response to Sam might have been different.

But what was important to remember was that Sam was in lust with the girl she used to be, and Armando was attracted to the woman she was becoming.

With her tears subsiding, she gathered her wits about her and removed her fingers from Sam’s grip. “Come on, I’ll buy you some ice cream to wash down that burger.”

He winked at her. “Whatever you say, boss. I’ll do anything you like. Anything.”

Chapter 10

Armando left the impromptu gathering at Gunny’s Gym as soon as he noticed he was one of only three SEALs without a female escort. He’d even gotten some hazing about it, since there were usually at least one and occasionally two women on his arm most weekends. He knew it was the reason the younger SEALs liked to hang out with him. He was the luckiest man he knew when it came to finding female companionship.

But there was only one girl on his radar these days: Mia’s friend, Gina. Something about the woman made him stare off toward the waves while he recalled the way her body rose to his touch and fell as he pressed inside her. He’d loved hearing the little whimpering noises she made as he pumped her. Their bodies just plain fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, like what he was giving her with their lovemaking was something they both needed. He’d never felt that way with anyone before, not even Ginger.

He was on his way back to base to check out some equipment he’d special ordered when he saw Gina and Sam walking down the sidewalk next to each other, eating ice cream. They weren’t holding hands, but Armando noticed Sam’s large thigh brushed against hers from time to time, and, although she adjusted away from him carefully, she didn’t complain or ask him to stop. Or look perturbed.

Armando almost hit the car in front of him, which had stopped suddenly. He’d been so focused on Gina and that big biker dude. His disappointment, coming on the heels of the warm feelings he’d been experiencing earlier, left his insides cold.

He whipped around the block and parked so he could watch them walk on the opposite side of the street. Gina’s red tank top was getting all kinds of attention from the military personnel who sauntered by her in groups of three or four. Her frayed blue jeans with the white fuzzy worn patches on her left butt cheek was a real turn-on. If she’d looked behind her she would have seen the reactions of the passing men. He watched Sam’s confident grin as the biker made eye contact with every male who went by.
‘She’s mine,’
he was saying. No mistaking the fact that he was enjoying the walk and the challenges.

And Gina seemed oblivious to anything going on around her. Her forehead was wrinkled as she worked on that ice cream, musing over her private thoughts. Armando got hard just thinking of what those cool lips could do to his fat erection. But he also didn’t trust what he’d just seen with his own eyes.

Careful about the emotions, the lusts. Keep your focus, stay in control. That’s how you keep yourself safe. Stay alive.
He’d seen unbridled pride or jealousy kill Teammates before. So he decided, just decided, he wasn’t jealous.

Armando was a pretty good judge of people. Years walking around in the back alleys and bombed-out buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan had given him a sixth sense when it came to sorting out the bad guys from the good guys. Well, not exactly the truth. He had learned to separate the
really
bad guys from the
maybe
good guys. He didn’t care about the petty thieves and wife beaters as much as he was tuned to identify the ones who wanted to die and take a bunch of Americans with them. The ones who could kill a dog or child with a high-powered rifle just because a US serviceman or woman happened to stop and pat them on the head.

He thought about the day his Teammate took his shift at the clinic so Armando could have a prescheduled phone call home. Mia had gotten into trouble again and his mother was beside herself with worry. After he talked to both of them, Armando had fallen asleep on his cot. He awoke to sounds of an explosion and discovered the entire triage tent had been blown to the heavens, his buddy along with it.

Armando had considered leaving the Teams then. But in the end he decided he wanted to stay in, even if it was to just tip the scale a bit and do some payback for those who’d cost his buddy his life. He knew the following weeks and months of deployment were his atonement for his lapse of judgment, but he couldn’t afford to dwell there until he got home. In Afghanistan, he needed his wits about him if he was going to do the good he’d been sent there to do. He wore his pain silently, buried inside layers of steel. And he didn’t take another nap for the following four months, not until he came stateside. He was finding that masking technique useful right now.

His thoughts turned back to Gina and her ex-boyfriend, standing in the late afternoon sun. He saw something other than a couple in love. He saw a couple forced together by some circumstance. And the guy was enjoying it more than the girl.

Of course, he could be wrong, but he usually wasn’t.

His cell phone rang. It was Fredo.

“You sure ditched out quickly. Up for some poker?”

“Later. I’m over at the base checking out my material order.” Armando had a small cottage industry making specialized vests, ones with hidden pockets and straps, for other Team guys who wanted to customize their gear. Everyone liked to carry their ammo clips and other enhancements in different places other than what their normal uniform allowed. And no two were alike.

“Stop on by about eight, okay?” Fredo replied. “I think we’re gonna teach Sanouk some poker.”

Armando chuckled as he watched Gina and Sam stop by Sam’s huge black Harley. “If I’m not mistaken, that boy will be fleecing all of you tonight. He’s dumb like a fox.”

“A real testament to ol’ Gunny, I’d say.”

“Roger that, Fredo.”

Sam started up his bike and half the street turned to watch the source of the rumbling noise. Gina stepped back and deposited the rest of her cone in the garbage can nearby, and waved to the leather-clad giant, yet the man didn’t leave. Sam revved his bike several times as if waiting for something.

There was no goodbye kiss.

“Wow. That sounded familiar,” Fredo said.

“Okay, I’m on the strand and bought an ice cream. That satisfy your curiosity?” He felt a little bad about the sharpness of his tone. He could hear Fredo bristle over the phone.

“I’m not checking on you, Armani. I feel your need for privacy. Doesn’t happen to have anything to do with a certain girl, now does it?”

“Nope. It’s just ice cream.”

“You’re full of shit,” Fredo said and hung up.

Armando slipped the phone in his pocket and shrugged off Fredo’s remark. The Mexican SEAL was also good at reading all of Armando’s moods. Sharing life-threatening events tended to do that to a guy.

He watched her linger next to the biker as she stuffed her hands into her cutoffs. He knew he shouldn’t be interested in an explanation from her. She’d lied to him about the ex. What else had she lied to him about? Was it all an act? It would be better to just walk away and forget about her, about her lies, but he couldn’t for some reason. Well, he could. He knew he could. He’d been trained to do the unthinkable. But he didn’t
want
to. And this was the good old U.S. of A., where things were supposedly “normal” and “safe.”

And then Armando started thinking again about what those succulent lips of hers could do.

As Sam’s rumble faded, Armando watched her walk aimlessly down the concrete, then cross the street and move towards the beach not more than four cars ahead of his parked car. As she sandwiched through a narrow gap between vehicles, he saw her lift her suntanned arms in the air, holding her stomach in, revealing her bare midriff and just a taste of her muscled abs underneath the skimpy red top. He knew what she looked like with her jeans unbuttoned, knew what kind of panties she wore, and what it felt like to slide his fingers carefully into the juncture between her legs and touch her there. He also knew what her face tried to hide, that she needed his fingers inside her, she needed to be loved hard but cherished. That she liked it intense.

And he was just the man to satisfy her. Intensity in women was always a danger signal. Armando liked uncomplicated fun. He loved women who were sure of themselves and had good energy. Gina was all those things and more. Something dark lurked just under the surface of her skin. He thought he just might have nicked it a bit that night in the pickup truck. He’d never had sex in front of a highway full of cars before, even if they had been behind a small grove of trees. This relationship, especially now with Sam’s appearance this evening, was getting very complicated.

Sounds of the surf pounded in his ears as he followed her to the edge of the beach. He tried to will her to turn around and see him, but she was in heavy concentration. He wanted to be discovered. But she never turned, just kept walking toward the water’s edge. A few feet safely short of the waves she stopped and removed her sandals, then sat down.

She was like a beacon for him and he couldn’t help but follow her. Was this stalking? Would she be afraid if she suddenly saw him? Would she even want to see him after what he’d done to Sam?

Walk away. You have no business getting involved with her. You never question your inner guardian. Why start doing so now?

He decided to ignore his better self, the prudent self that kept him out of danger and saved his life on many occasions overseas. Wasn’t this just as important? Wasn’t he crossing through a doorway of no return if he continued to follow her?

He sighed and decided that, yes, he could handle whatever it was he was going to find out. Right now, he needed an answer.

Armando stopped behind her seated form, then walked around her, standing to the side, but within sight. She started at first and began to get up, so Armando immediately sat down next to her.

“Saw you cross the street, and, yes, I followed you here. Something I never do. Why am I doing this, Gina?” He faced the water’s edge but could feel her eyes on him. Then he turned and saw the worry in her face, the crease at the top of her lovely brown brows, the way her lips formed an O. Several strands of curly hair blew across her neck and chin. He wanted to smooth them back, but squeezed his fingers into the warm sand instead.

“How long have you been here?”

Of course she wanted to know how much he had seen. He wasn’t going to pussyfoot around if he could help it. Armando forced himself to focus away from her face and squinted at the ocean’s bright late afternoon sunlight. When he turned back to her, he nodded, saying, “I saw him.”

Her eyes got wider for a second as she quickly looked down at her knees. Her swallow was strained.

He wasn’t going to ask her. He wanted her to tell him without asking.

“Things with Sam are complicated,” she began. It was a good start, but not a strong one.

What’s complicated about an ex? Or is he her ex?

“Didn’t take you for one of those,” he chose to say instead.

“One of those?”

“Women who keep going back to a guy after he’s been violent.”

Her back straightened. He’d hit a nerve. That was a good thing.

“I’m not one of
those
women, thank you very much.”

Armando rubbed the back of his neck. She was lying to him again. Did the woman know the difference? “Do you even know the truth, Gina? Why can’t I get a straight answer out of you? You got a thing against being honest?”

Gina stood. “Screw you.”

Armando stood as well. “You already did, Gina. We fucked like bunnies in the back seat of my friend’s beater, remember?”

She turned away and started to march off towards the road. Armando wanted to grab her arm and stop her, but he knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. Her arms swung at her sides, her steps deliberate, ridiculously beautiful the way the flesh on her ass jiggled with each stomp. He placed his hands on his hips and decided that if she was walking out of his life, he’d better enjoy the view.

To his surprise she whipped around and came at him. She started yelling before she was within earshot, so all he heard was, “talk to me that way. You are a fuckin’ bastard of the first order.”

“Oh, the first order. As opposed to the second or third?” he quipped.

She scowled at him, huffing her displeasure. Along with her anger, she was a swirling tornado of other emotions, too, and he reveled in seeing her struggle to get a handle on her situation. Armando was grateful he’d been trained not to react. Let her work it out. He knew she would. He loved watching her fury. 

“Who in the devil do you think you are?”

He smiled down at his feet. He was getting a serious hard-on. Dang it. This would make things more difficult. All he wanted to do was take her down and love the livin’ crap out of her. He raised his gaze to her beautiful face, with her mahogany hair flying all around in the ocean breeze, her fingers bunching into fists and then extending. All scrunched up, her lips were so damn kissable, he licked his and uttered a line he knew he would pay for later, but he couldn’t help it. “I’m the one who made you come so many times you could hardly walk afterwards, sweetheart, and you wanted more. At least, that’s what—”

She slapped him. Well good for her. Yup, he clearly deserved that. He’d gone over the line a bit with that comment. But damn, even her slap was sexy. He wished she’d do it again. He wished she’d let him hold her until she stopped squirming, but that was out of the question. Didn’t mean he didn’t imagine what that would feel like, though. He was drawn to her high-octane energy.