Page 43 of Hazard

He continued to stare at her, giving her a long look. He opened his mouth.

“Could you get me some water,” she asked.

He brushed his knuckles against her cheek, then rose and headed for the bathroom. Feeling so emotionally raw, she sighed when she heard the water running. She shivered at the memory of the nightmare, so close to what she had experienced, then shut her mind down.

She wouldn’t think about it right now. At least not until she had time to process it, not until she was able to deal with it rationally. Not until she could remember his name all on her own.

Her throat closed up as she accepted the water, and she took a long drink. Her anxiety got the best of her. What if she couldn’t remember? That thought twisted in her gut. How awful not to know the name of the man who had saved her, given his life for hers. It was so unbearable.

Hazard turned off the light, and he pulled her against him tightly, but even as he slipped back into sleep, she was just too afraid to close her eyes. That shadow waited for her in the darkness.

13

For Hazard, PT wasn’t just something he did for fitness, to keep him honed for their missions that were always physical. No, it honed his mind too, freeing him for everyday mundane things that could possibly distract him. He incorporated his fin training on leg days, and he’d already finished lifting weights with Skull. Their fitness routine was responsible for the ease with which they snapped back after grueling missions. A good night’s sleep and training kept up their endurance and strength, and none of them even felt the effects of being on their feet for those thirty-six hours. A combination of conditioning and youth, he supposed.

He’d left Leigh sleeping in the room with Boomer guarding her. He had told her he was going to PT in the morning, but she would be covered by Boomer. She’d tensed up at first, then relaxed once he told her it would be one of his teammates.

Nothing against the Marines, but he only trusted his brothers to guard this woman, this rollercoaster of a female that had dropped him from heights and loopty-looped him in so many crazy eights that made him dizzy as hell.

Boomer was a beast and had already finished his own workout before he came to Leigh’s room to relieve Hazard for his PT. He might be their comic relief, but Hazard was confident Leigh was safe in Boomer’s hands. Besides, he had three older sisters and was especially close to them. He knew how to talk to women—how to comfort them. He wasn’t scared away by a few tears. It might just be what Leigh needed. Boomer was the kind of guy Leigh could perhaps confide in.

Leigh needed to open up. He wondered if he was too close to this situation, or if Leigh found it too difficult to unburden herself to him. He knew something was wrong, something she wasn’t telling him, and he wasn’t sure how much he should push her on the matter. He’d related all of this to Boomer only because, like he thought before, Boomer might be able to help Leigh by being a neutral third-party guy.

Then she’d asked about his routine, and he told her about swimming, and fin practice with his Rocket Fins, and teased him about him practically being an astronaut.

Hazard was in the pool with Skull, and Bones. The humans were working their ankles by finning laps back and forth, and Bones was perfecting his already badass doggy paddling. The fins they wore for combat swimming were larger and made of a stiffer rubber than normal scuba swim fins, the reason being that SEALs did want to go as fast as possible in the water, but they wanted to be able to power through currents, riptides, and other strong ocean forces to stay on mission timelines. His breathing was exactly what he used in any surface swim mission he participated in and got him through BUD/S training—kick off the wall to get some momentum for a few streamlining dolphin strokes, then right into their tried-and-true sidestroke of top arm, bottom arm, kick, kick, kick, and glide. He started his exhalation underwater, then fully exhaled when he broke the surface as he stroked through with his top arm, inhaling when he powered through with his bottom arm, then kept up a smooth momentum through the water.

He knew that mentally preserving Leigh’s independence was so personal and important to her. He never wanted to step all over that part of her nature, but last night, he had gotten a glimpse into her past, and clues as to why she acted the way she did. It was clear she developed her argumentative style of interacting with people, part of what made her a good lawyer, from her constant need to defend her actions against parents who only had one goal in mind—mold her to their likeness, no matter how Leigh wanted to structure and live her own life. They had just expected her to be a carbon copy of them, their crowning family jewel who would make them proud.

When she’d bucked their authority, quit her job to become a prosecutor, and had rejected their choice in her corporate fiancé in a very visceral way—hives—she had impugned their very way of life, and they had punished her with their ugly retribution. It’s clear they had never supported her wishes and dreams, and he wondered if she even fully knew what they were now. Even though what she did for a living was admirable and honorable, hitting back at her parents by doing something to punish them, he believed, wasn’t the answer for her. He hoped that she would discover her joy as he had in his own job choice.

He’d gotten pushback from his own mom regarding his selected career, but she had respected him as a son and man, supporting him through her own reservations about him putting himself in so much danger every day. Even more grateful for his mom’s guidance and love throughout his life, he could only want to be that kind of person for Leigh—beyond these mission parameters.

That’s when his thinking shifted and shocked the hell out of him. He messed up his breathing, and instead of exhaling and inhaling correctly like the seasoned professional he was, he breathed in water like a recruit. Choking, he pulled up treading water, his nose and eyes stinging from the chlorination. He swam to the edge of the pool and coughed until he cleared the fluid, his throat feeling raspy and his chest full.

He wanted to be with Leigh beyond the current situation, like in the long run, like in figuring out how they could continue a relationship for real. Because everything about this woman felt real to him, culminating in the sex they’d had last night. He admired the hell out of her. Geezus, the way she fought to survive…it was incredible.

He swallowed back a groan. Just remembering how she’d brazenly stroked and squeezed his dick, then took him into her mouth made him sweat through the cool pool water. He pressed against the side, hardening all over again, needing solid contact against his pulsing hard on.

He couldn’t stop wanting her, no matter how hard he tried. His logical brain then filled in the gaps. That’s because you’re falling in love with her, genius.

That alarmed him even more, because he’d never been in love, and attributed his fumbling and stupid responses to her to that state of mind. He’d been blinded by lust whenever she was close to him. Excitement that had nothing to do with his dick and everything to do with this newfound knowledge surged through him, and all he wanted to do was get close to her again, burying himself deep inside her soft, lush body, and hear his name on her lips while he fucked her until she came.

She had been so goddamned mouthy, tough, courageous, and determined, he had missed all the mind-bending clues that not only was he so physically attracted to her, hence the lust, but his agile mind and thirst for new experiences wanted those arguments, confrontations, and debates. He loved every moment of tangling with her, even though through all those encounters she’d driven him insane.

He pulled himself out of the pool with one hard press of his arms, biceps bulging, then gained the deck in seconds. He went to his towel and wrapped it around him hurriedly to hide his now thick, throbbing, jutting dick.

“Hey, what happened there, bro? One minute we’re like sharks, and the next you’re coughing like a little boy with floaties.”

“Fuck you,” Hazard managed hoarsely.

Skull sat down next to him, and in true doggie fashion, Bones, who had been on his heels, shook his compact body, raining all that excess water all over them.

“Bones,” Skull said with a laugh. “You knucklehead.” He poured water in a bowl, knowing that both the chlorine in the pool and just being wet sucked moisture from the dog’s body. He was always thinking of his K9 partner. It made Hazard smile.

Bones’s pink tongue lapped at the water for several seconds, then he jumped up on the chaise lounge chair and suffered Skull’s long strokes and rubbing to dry him off, paying special attention to his paws. Hazard loved that damn dog. He swore Bones’s expression broadcast both indulgence and patience with Skull’s mommy attitude.

“Now you’re a foul-mouthed kid with floaties.” He gently went over Bones’s ears and eyes, then playfully grabbed his muzzle, and Bones play-snapped at him as he fended off the dog. “Wanna get in the pool again, and I’ll have Bones teach you how to doggie paddle?”

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