Page 47 of Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

“And Burt had almost ten years on my mom.” Which was so not what she should have said. Because that was insinuating…things.

He was quiet for a while and whatever he had going on in his head was all in his head. An unreadable secret. If she had an ounce of sense, she’d stop trying to figure it out.

“FYI, I don’t want to sleep with you.”

She jerked hard enough some coffee sloshed over her mug and spilled onto her fingers. “Excuse me?”

“The guys seem to think I want to sleep with you, and I just want make sure it’s clear that that is not the case.”

She could only stare at him, mouth gaping open, eyes practically bugging out of her head. She’d never even been kissed by a guy, let alone slept with one, and he was sitting there saying…

Well, what she would’ve known always and forever. Of course he wouldn’t want to sleep with her! He was older and mature and had seen and experienced a million things. She was a girl who talked to animals and had never been kissed. Yeah, him not wanting to sleep with her was no surprise. Him announcing it though… What the hell?

He got to his feet. “I just wanted to make that clear.”

“Believe me, I never thought otherwise,” she muttered, even as a blush suffused her face. How were they talking about this?

“The correct answer is, you don’t want to sleep with me either,” he returned.

Before she processed that, he walked inside, Star tagging along after him as Ranger stayed put next to her.

She blinked after Alex, emotions grappling for purchase—embarrassment or shame or the undeniable truth that sleeping with him was quite the interesting prospect.

She tried not to think about that. She’d rather be irritated that he’d declare what the “correct” answer was. Rather be offended he’d be so up front about something like sleeping together. She’d rather be all those things, instead of embarrassed.

And she’d especially rather be all those things than interested.

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