SEAL of My Heart Read online

  SEAL of My Heart

  Sharon Hamilton

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  uthor’s Note

  I always dedicate my SEAL Brotherhood books to the brave men and women who defend our shores and keep us safe. Without their sacrifice, and that of their families—because a warrior’s fight always includes his or her family—I wouldn’t have the freedom and opportunity to make a living writing these stories. They sometimes pay the ultimate price so we can debate, argue, go have coffee with friends, raise our children and see them have children of their own.

  One of my favorite homages to warriors resides on many memorials, including one I saw honoring the fallen of WWII on an island in the Pacific:

  “When you go home

  Tell them of us, and say

  For your tomorrow,

  We gave our today.”

  These are my stories created out of my own imagination. Anything that is inaccurately portrayed is either my mistake, or done intentionally to disguise something I might have overheard over a beer or in the corner of one of the hangouts along the Coronado Strand.

  Wounded Warriors is the one charity I give to on a regular basis. I encourage you to get involved and tell them thank you:

  https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org.

  Copyright © 2014 by Sharon Hamilton

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. In many cases, liberties and intentional inaccuracies have been taken with rank, description of duties, locations and aspects of the SEAL community.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Author’s Note

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  About the Author

  The SEAL Brotherhood Series

  Other Books by Sharon Hamilton

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  hapter 1

  Airports were mostly happy places for Kate. She pretended she was going on an exotic vacation, a tour of lands where everything from the smells to the language and customs of the people was foreign. In her fantasy, she’d meet a gorgeous, mysterious man and they’d spend a romantic week together exploring, indulging in glamorous restaurants and glittering casinos, and sensual delights.

  And even though she was engaged to be married to the most eligible bachelor in Sonoma County, the favorite son of the favorite first family of wine, she couldn’t help it. The fantasy lurked just around the corner in her psyche, waiting to wrap her in a sensual blanket and whisk her away from the reality of her humdrum future.

  It worried her some that she wasn’t happier about her upcoming wedding or that she was even considering escape. Why didn’t she feel more like a blushing bride-to-be? Something seemed…wrong, uncomfortable, but she forced herself not to think about it, writing the whole thing off as stress-related panic over the big day.

  Her airport fantasy persisted, though, and was kicking in big time this afternoon. She felt like having an adventure, something far away from everyone she knew, perhaps something far different from what she’d ever imagined for herself and her life. And, as she examined the crowded terminal in San Francisco, she couldn’t quell her quickening excitement while she boarded the plane, even though Portland was not even close to being an exotic land, and her sister was a poor substitute for a dark, handsome man who would sweep her off her feet.

  It was going to be a fairly full flight and she wasn’t lucky enough to have an early boarding ticket. She preferred to sit by a window, but figured it was unlikely. Scanning down the rows ahead of the slowly shuffling line of passengers, she only saw one open window spot on the left, with someone occupying the middle one. When she came upon it, a briefcase lay on the cushion at the aisle. The young man in the middle seat was fully occupied in reading a book.

  He looked up, as if he’d heard her silent plea for the window position. His warm brown eyes lit on her face casually. She knew he wanted to scan her figure but stopped himself, and then he smiled.

  What was it about handsome men who smiled easily? Did the smile mean he would like permission to engage? Did it mean he liked what he saw? Did it mean he was hiding something? He didn’t look like the type to feel awkward, certainly not as awkward as she felt.

  Her eyes darted to the open position next to him, and his glance followed hers.

  “You want the window?” he asked.

  She didn’t say anything, stuck in place as if her feet were encased in concrete. A passenger from behind pushed into her back, reminding her she was holding up a line of travelers yet to be seated.

  “It’s yours if you want it,” he whispered in a bedroom voice.

  Damn.

  These sorts of attractions to strange men weren’t supposed to happen to a happily engaged young woman whose life was planned out nearly moment-by-moment. In spite of her fantasy life, which was not planned out and definitely not scripted, she decided to allow herself to get dangerously close to this stranger.

  He was dangerous because he was perfect in enough ways to upset her ordered life. And he matched her fantasy man to a T.

  “Thank you. That’s very kind of you,” she said.

  Kate saw he was not only good-looking, he also revealed himself as tall, very fit, and muscular as he eased gingerly across the aisle seat and slowly uncoiled the muscle and sinews in his upper torso. And, boy, did she react…enough for him to hear her heartbeat, probably, or see the slight involuntary shaking of her knees or the quiver of her lower lip. She caught his scent with a hint of lemon from an aftershave applied earlier in the day. She loved lemon on a man.

  She actually heard a low growl of approval and that made her traitorous panties go wet. It was all the right and oh-so-wrong kind of chemistry, in front of impatient strangers. Over two hundred of them.

  And she didn’t care.

  Kate turned a shoulder, crouching to sidle in front of him, her butt grazing the tent in his pants with interesting discoveries. She didn’t dare say she was sorry. Just best to pretend it never happened. She settled at the window, placing her Kindle and her slim briefcase on the seat next to her and stashing her purse on the floor. Then she watched, o
ut of the corner of her eye, as he settled himself back into place and then connected his seatbelt with long, strong fingers.

  So far, so good. No harm, no foul.

  She became extremely interested in the loading of bags into the cargo hold, the position of the little vehicles servicing the plane, the weather, other planes taking off in the distance, all the while willing her breathing and her heartbeat to return to normal. When she thought sufficient time had passed, she let her eyes drop to her lap, and then she shot a furtive look at the stranger at her side without turning her head.

  He was reading his book again, not paying the least bit of attention to her. She told herself it shouldn’t matter what kind of book it was, but she was dying to know in spite of herself.

  She could tell he knew she was watching him, because his eyes scanned the pages, and his lips stayed pressed together, but began to quirk up in a smile. The laugh lines at the corners of his eyes were deliciously short. His shiny, dark hair was slightly curly, a little longer than it should be, which made her think maybe he was an older college student. A retread.

  She faced forward while the cabin doors closed. Then she sighed, and it did seem to let out some of the tension.

  He brought out a small set of expensive ear buds and plugged them in, adjusting the pieces into his ears before resuming his reading.

  Kate closed her eyes and told the fantasy in her head to chill, explaining to herself and the cast of fantasy characters who wanted argue about it that she wasn’t in any danger of doing anything inappropriate, and that today’s trip was going along a normal, well-worn path. She told them it was going to be a boring day.

  Until he tapped her on the shoulder. He was smiling again and holding his book out to her.

  “You read romance?” he asked.

  “Y-yes.” How hard was it to admit the truth?

  “Well, I’ve just finished my sister’s book, and she said to give it away to someone else who might like to read it, so it’s yours if you want it.”

  Of their own volition, her fingers snatched the book. Did he notice how quickly she’d made up her mind?

  Be With Me. The title was familiar. She’d read about this particular book on one of the blogs she followed. A time travel romance, by Linda Gray. It was exactly what she needed to get her mind off the handsome stranger to her left.

  “Thank you.” She smiled in spite of herself. Trying to play it cool.

  She glanced back down at the book, and flipped open to the title page, and found a signature.

  “My sister,” he said, nodding at the page. “In case you were thinking I read romance as a regular thing.”

  “I’ve known some men who read romance,” she lied.

  “Really?” His eyebrows scrunched atop his nose. “I’ve never known any.”

  “You just said you read this book.”

  “That’s different.”

  After a short pause, she asked, “You don’t think they’re manly?” She was enjoying this a bit too much. A fall was coming. She knew it just as surely as she knew the plane had started to move and announcements were being made over the loudspeaker.

  Mr. Gorgeous had to lean in closer to her to be heard, and she found herself meeting him halfway—involuntarily, of course, just so they could hear each other over the blaring intercom.

  “Kinda embarrassing about all the sex scenes,” he said. “I mean reading them in public, with a cover like this.” He ran his finger over the front cover and touched the back of her hand in the process. The male torso on the cover looked oddly familiar.

  She looked back up at him. “That’s you on the book?”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “She says she uses me as her inspiration. My sister. My sister wrote the book.”

  “She writes romance?”

  “Yes. Does quite well, I guess.”

  This was definitely not the twist she’d expected. She examined the shirtless torso on the cover again, the ripples of muscle, the huge arms, veins that snaked out along his shoulders and forearms, and one dangerous vein that disappeared into the top of a pair of jeans hung almost low enough to—to—He was hotness personified. And as handsome as he was on the cover, all wet, dark and brooding, in the flesh he was even more impressive.

  She didn’t know where her next comment came from. “Your girlfriend must be jealous of all the women who fantasize—”

  “Don’t have a girlfriend. So, does your fiancé get jealous of you reading romance?”

  Fiancé? Oh, yes…there was that huge two-carat diamond on her left hand that people practically had to wear sunglasses to admire properly. How could she have forgotten? But still, it meant he’d checked her hand out. Not like she’d waved it in his face to draw attention to it, but the thing was hard to miss, all the same.

  “My fiancé—my fiancé—” That’s when she realized the answer to his query. She was about to marry a man who knew nothing of her tastes in romance. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t entirely sure he’d approve of her reading them. And how was that going to work? “He’s never said anything. I doubt he notices.”

  “Really?” The guy gave a puzzled smirk. “Lets you wander around, reading about strange men and the things—” Now it was time for him to stop. He leaned back into his headrest, his eyes straight ahead as if fascinated by the texture and pattern of the fabric on the seat in front of him. He adjusted his pants discreetly. Rested his hands palm-down on his massive thighs. A circle of thorns was tattooed onto his forearm. His chest expanded with each inhale, expanding a good two inches, then his upper body relaxed back into the seat, his abdomen going concave. His jeans were loose-fitting, and she was busy figuring out they were loose for a reason when he suddenly opened his eyes and caught her examining his package.

  Oh shit.

  She darted a peek back out to the little window to her right and blushed in spite of herself.

  “I’m sorry,” she said out of the side of her mouth, knowing he was still looking at her.

  “Don’t be sorry, darlin’.” It was a deep, luscious rumble. “That just made my day.”

  They were interrupted as the plane accelerated to takeoff speed. She felt the pressure of the G-force against her chest as they were lifted into the air, swinging around San Francisco Bay below until everything began to resemble a miniature scale model of Silicon Valley.

  After they leveled off, the stranger extended his huge, callused hand, flexing the tat on his forearm, and said, “Hi. My name is Tyler Gray.”

  “Kate Morgan,” She lay her palm against his and enjoyed the warm squeeze he gave her. She could feel what those fingers were capable of.

  He was the first to withdraw his hand. He clutched his right thigh as he cleared his throat, licked his lips, and began speaking with a croak until he paused to clear his throat again. “Having a sister who writes romance is kind of embarrassing. I don’t normally tell people about it.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “Most of the time on her covers, they cut off my head, so all you see is, well, my chest and a little below.”

  “I noticed.”

  Where in the hell did that comment come from?

  “I’m happy to do it for her.”

  “For her. Sure. Nice of you to do it for your sister.” It was her time to tease. Was he blushing? “You’re actually blushing, Tyler Gray. Do cover models blush?”

  “When we’re affected.”

  That one was going to have to hang in the air a bit until she could figure out what it meant. Affected?

  “Sometimes I do a shoot with a model. Things can heat up, even though I don’t know the girl.”

  Did she want to hear this?

  “I imagine it can affect her, too.” The girl would have to be blind!

  “Well, sometimes funny things happen. I’m sure you can imagine.”

  She could. She really could. And her mind shouldn’t be going there at all. Not. At. All.

  The pause between them felt a little awkward. “What brings yo
u to Portland, or are you going on further north?” she asked.

  “I’m going home to spend some time with the folks before—” he hesitated. “I’m in the military and I deploy in ten days.”

  “Ah.” So that hard body was beginning to make sense. And his longer hair triggered a realization. She’d read enough romances to peg him as a Special Forces guy. “I’m guessing you do something dangerous.”

  He seemed to like that statement. “Some would say so.” He was studying her reaction like his life depended on it. Without her meaning to, her eyelids fluttered and she found herself looking at his smooth, full lower lip, the clenched jaw muscles bunching under a day’s stubble, and the swallow that moved his Adam’s apple down his powerful neck. He had exactly the body parts she loved to see in a man. The soft lips that could give pleasure, the eyes that wouldn’t waver from her face. Honest, and relentless. Full of courage and unflinching. She liked men who would look back and not hide their attraction.

  Because that meant she didn’t have to hide hers.

  And there it was, like a dragon coming to life, the danger, and the power of getting swept away. The fantasy coming to life again, transporting her from where she sat, on a plane to visit her sister before her upcoming wedding, to the edge of an adventure, next to a man, God help her, she wished she could get naked with.

  C

  hapter 2

  Navy SEAL Tyler Gray was heated up with testosterone like he sometimes got just before a firefight overseas. The urge to act with swift resolve and commanding force was a little misplaced, since he sat in the middle of a bevy of heavyset travelers cocooned in their seats. Some were falling asleep, some were talking nervously. Babies cried and kids wiggled. But Tyler Gray had the biggest hard-on he’d had in weeks.

  It was damned inconvenient, but the lady was affecting him in such a lovely way, and he was absolutely powerless to act on it. His libido was heightened, cheering for a total lack of control in a breakout move that couldn’t accomplish anything but alienate her for all eternity. He understood the urge to mate, to procreate. Boy, did he have that in spades at the moment. In fact, he almost felt fated, like characters in some of his sister’s steamy vampire books.