Page 10 of Lose Me In The Shadows

Kara misinterpreted his silence. She struggled to get off his lap again.

“Well, I appreciate you listening. Truly. But I think this is done.”

On his first birthday on SEAL Team 3, Micah and Conor had pooled their money together to buy Luke a watch. It was the first birthday gift Luke ever remembered receiving—his mom had died when he was too young to remember birthdays, and his grandparents soon after that, and there certainly hadn’t been any gifts after. He’d worn the watch for three years before it broke on a mission and sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Micah and Conor had offered to replace it for him, but he’d told them not to. He couldn’t explain it to them, but the sheer, surprising joy of something new and unexpected and priceless like that, that they cared enough to get him a gift, that for once someone else gave him what he wanted and needed—that feeling was irreplaceable, no matter how many gifts came after it.

For a while after, he’d felt its absence like a ghost.

That absence? It came back now in full force. Luke never thought about all he’d lost over the years, but he suddenly missed her touch like he missed that watch. So he gripped Kara tighter.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Oh. I figured…”

“You figured wrong. I was processing.”

“And?”

Before he could answer her, loud, thumping steps reached the cave, and a male voice cleared his throat. Luke’s reflexes kicked in, and he unwound their legs and rolled them so he covered Kara’s bare body with his. No fucking way was someone else seeing her naked. It didn’t matter that he barely knew her, her naked body was for his eyes only…and he wasn’t about to let her get embarrassed.

“Eyes closed,” he barked at the intruder—who happened to be a park ranger.

The ranger’s face was red in the dim light. “The park is clearing out. And you can’t do—what you are doing—here on public property. Get dressed and follow me back to the ranger’s office and we’ll decide what to do with you.”

Luke weighed his options. He couldn’t go to the ranger’s office: If he got arrested, Kara would find out his real last name, not the alias he’d given her, and if she was any good at internet digging, she’d discover who he was. Not to mention if Micah—who was still tracking her—found out she was arrested, he’d put two and two together.

Damn it. Lying was too fucking complicated for his simple brain. This was Micah’s gig.

“Don’t look at her,” he said, raising himself off Kara’s body and standing to his feet, making sure to use his whole height. His cock was out, his ass was bare, this wasn’t the best way to intimidate someone—but hopefully it would distract the other man from staring at her pussy.

“If you don’t want someone looking, you shouldn’t be fornicating in a public place,” the ranger countered.

Luke loomed over the other man, channeling Conor. “Let me repeat myself. You won’t be looking at her. We won’t be coming with you. You’re going to let us get dressed and leave and you aren’t going to say anything to anyone, or you aren’t going to like how I respond. Got it?”

The ranger bristled, but he was no match for Luke’s size or will. Finally, averting his gaze from Kara, he relented.

“Park closes in an hour. Best be getting back,” he muttered.

Luke watched as the man hurried back down the trail and out of sight. Behind him, he heard gasps.

“Kara, sweetheart?” he called, worried she was having another panic attack.

But she was laughing.

“Never in a million years did I expect to see one man intimidate another with his ass and dick out,” she said, collapsing into peals of laughter. Luke hadn’t heard her laugh like this—deep, husky. Free. “Who are you? That was impressive.”

“Come on, we should get dressed before we get another visitor,” he told her, crossing back to help her to her feet. He grabbed her shorts, keeping her panties for himself.

“Step in,” he said.

“I can dress myself,” she countered. “And what do you think you’re doing with those?”

“Let me,” he half-ordered, half-pled, delighted when she let him care for her this way. “And these are mine now,” he said, holding up her panties.

And so are you,he thought.

As he dressed himself, she cleared her throat.

“What were you going to say earlier? Before we were interrupted?”

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