Page 37 of What About Love

“I thought the SEAL teams did all the diving and swimming.”

“Navy frogmen,” he scoffed. “AKA glory hogs. The difference between SEALs and SF is that we work harder, kick more ass, and run more ops, but don’t act like roosters and crow about our successes on the six o’clock news or try to get someone to turn it into a fuckin’ screenplay.”

Her hands came up in surrender. “Sorry, a touchy subject, I see.”

“You have no idea.” His irritation morphed into a grin as he took in her suit, from the high scooped neck to the regular-cut thighs, skating down her legs and back up. “I see swimming four times a week does a body good.”

He stretched his arms above his head once more, dropping a hand behind his head one at a time and pulling on his elbow with the opposite hand in lat and arm stretches. “The butterfly is a great entire body and cardio workout but killer on the arms.”

“Yeah,” she breathed, mesmerized by the display. “And low impact.” Swallowing with difficulty, she wrapped her towel around her torso, covering her nipples, which weren’t hard from the cold. “Um, I’m gonna hit the showers.”

“We’ll grab something to eat on the way to the office. Got a text from Cap. He scheduled a meeting at noon, which gives us time for target practice and another round in the simulator before that.”

The simulator. Wasn’t that just great? Nothing like a healthy dose of humiliation to start the day.

Suppressing a groan, she focused on the meeting with Cap. “Has something else come up since yesterday?”

“No clue. He didn’t say.” He tweaked her chin, like a big brother would then headed off to the men’s locker room.

When he’d disappeared, the woman from earlier came up to her again. “My mistake. I thought you were a couple. Is your brother single, sweets? If so, can you introduce me, please? He is fah-reaking gorgeous.”

Irritated by her assumption, although she’d thought the same only a second ago, she cast a smug look at the pretty younger woman. “Sorry,sweets, but if you think big brother is hot, you should see his boyfriend.”

“No!” she squealed, holding her stomach as if struck low by a mortal blow.

“Isn’t that always the way?”

“Figures,” she scowled. “All the best-looking ones are gay. Hell, if I was a man and that sexy wall of muscle glanced my way, I’d change sides, too.” She stomped away with a frustrated, “Damn!”

Angie didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt, more like a healthy dose of vindication, as she headed toward the locker room.

***

“SHOW ME WHAT YOU’VEgot, trainee.”

Rather than observing from the control booth, T stood beside her and a few inches back, his long arm easily reaching the touch pad on the wall that started the simulator.

“Are you going to stand right there and watch?” she complained. “You’ll distract me.”

One dark brow quirked upward. “If you can’t focus with me quietly observing, we’ve got problems.”

She turned back without another word. He was right. She had to concentrate and block out the surrounding distractions, no matter how infuriating and incredibly sexy they were. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, as the lights flashed a countdown, she ran through what he’d be looking at—her stance, her grip, her focus and, most importantly, her aim.

When the overhead light flashed green, a buzzer sounded. It was go time. Instead of a street scene, he’d programmed the pop-up target mode, beginners’ level. Randomly, a head and upper body outline, like on the firing range, would appear holographically for about two seconds.

She pulled the trigger and missed on her first try.

“Keep your eye on the target.”

She bristled. “I’m not a rookie, T.”

“You scored 37 percent last time, Angie.” He didn’t need to add what she already knew. That sucked.

She completed the round without further comment, or at least what she could before the simulator shut off, flashing red. Another fail.

“Dammit,” she cursed, hollering in frustration.

T walked to the control panel on the wall and pulled up a summary of her session. “Fourteen hits and twenty-six misses. It calculated a no-win scenario and shut down.”

---