Hot SEAL, Open Arms is OUT!!!
Hot SEAL, Open Arms is released. And I'm so thrilled to have it out.
I've set this book in Texas and I really enjoyed writing it. I love writing about different locations and giving my characters different careers. I love the challenge of writing the circumstances that they'll face in their daily lives and spicing things up by throwing roadblocks in their way in their work and their personal relationships.
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Here's an excerpt:
Wyatt slipped off the desk and caught her arm. “Hey, take a breath for a minute.” It came natural as breathing for him to cup her cheek with his left hand. He couldn’t feel the warmth of her skin, or the texture as his palm rested there and he regretted bitterly that the first time he touched her he couldn’t feel her skin.
Her gaze locked with his. Her pupils dilated, leaving only a narrow rim of light blue. She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. A wild, pulse-pounding desire to snuff out that regret by bringing her in close and feeling how her body fit against his reared up. He wanted to taste her lips, her skin.
It had been over a year since he’d held a woman. Just as long since he’d been intimate with one. And at the moment he was very aware of both.
He brought his right hand up to cup her other cheek. Her skin was warm, and she smelled of hay, and, underneath that, a more feminine scent. Her fingers curled over his wrist, but she didn’t pull away.
A knock came at the door, and he reluctantly dropped his hands and took a step back. “Come in.”
Gerald poked his head in the door. “Your dad’s foreman called and said they’ll transport the calf tomorrow before three.”
“Okay.”
Gerald looked back and forth between them before he shut the door.
Wyatt searched for something to say and managed, “What did you suggest to Katie’s mother?”
“That she ask the principal to view camera footage from the hallway where he shoved, Katie to prove it was on purpose.”
“That’s a good plan. And let’s hope Mom follows through with it. And as much as you want to do something to help, you can’t overstep the professional boundaries. They might pull Katie from your program. And that would devastate her and upset you.
“Yes, it would. I need to get off to a good start with this.” Kinley leaned back against the desk and stared at the wooden floor.
“In SEAL training, you learn to distance yourself from the human elements of a mission, so you can see things dispassionately and maintain your focus. I’m not saying you need to go that far, but you need to protect yourself, Kinley, and your business. You’re Katie’s confident and her support, but at the end of the day, it’s up to her parents to protect her.”
“You’re right.”
They were both subdued. And after that moment of intense need, Wyatt searched for a way to come back to it in some way. “You’re brave to take this on. It’s not easy, but you’ll find your way.”
She looked up. “Is that what you’re doing, Wyatt? Finding your way?”
“Yeah, pretty much. It’s taken me eight months to get this far, and it’s been a year since my surgery.” Eight months since his teammates left the country without him. He’d grieved and raged against the injustice of it, but in the end, he had to accept it.
She looked up. “I can only guess how hard it’s been.”
She had too much empathy for her own good. And he certainly didn’t want her pity. “You stepped into your grandparents’ footsteps and took on this place and added to it. That couldn’t have been easy.”
“But I didn’t have to start from scratch.”
Maybe he didn’t have to either. He just needed to take things slow, and make certain she wanted the same thing he did. She was already taking him into her confidence. He suddenly experienced a rush of anticipation similar to when he stood at the door of an aircraft preparing to leap out. “What do you do when you’re not working, Kinley?”
“Sleep.”
They both laughed. “I’m going to bring my drone to work tomorrow, and after we lock up, I’ll show you how to fly it?”
She cocked her head to the side as she studied him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I think you’d enjoy doing something new, something you haven’t tried before. Something fun.” Something not related to horses and the business.
“I think I’d like that, too.” She straightened from leaning against the desk. “I’d better go.”
He allowed himself to study her trim waist and hips and the tight, spiraled curl of her ponytail that fell mid-back as she walked to the door.
She looked back over her shoulder, “Thanks for letting me vent.”
“Any time.”
When she flashed him a smile at the door, he felt the weight of it arrow right to his groin. If he was reading things wrong, it would be embarrassing as hell, but he didn’t think he was.
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