Holiday at Magnolia Bay (Southern Born Christmas Book 1) (10 page)

She traced a finger over his forehead. “You keep too many secrets up here.” Her guess was as accurate as a sniper’s shot. Her lips followed her finger as her warm breath fanned his heated skin. “It’s not healthy to keep that all locked up inside.”

“Everything up there is classified,” he joked, hoping she’d drop the subject. While he’d love to open up to someone, to be able to share the heavy burden he carried, he couldn’t.
Especially not to someone as guiltless as Jenna.
The knowledge of who and what he really was would destroy her.

She ground her hips against him again and Drew reached for the condom. Fortunately, she wasn’t innocent in the bedroom. Sheathing himself, he lifted her over top of him, slowly bringing her down until his eyes blurred. “Besides,” he murmured. “Tonight is supposed to be about forgetting.” She rode him until they both went over the edge and he finally tumbled into a dreamless sleep.

‡

F
or a sunny
Saturday afternoon in late August, the lobby area of the Turtle Rescue Center was crowded with tourists browsing the many exhibits and the gift shop. Hand in hand, Jenna led Drew through the employees’ only door into the hospital area of the facility, eager to show him why she was so passionate about the Center and the hatchery project. They’d spent the past sixteen hours discovering each other’s bodies and now Jenna was determined they learn about what interested the other one. Although, given that Drew was a red-blooded American male, his interests could lie exclusively with her body, but she was going to try and uncover the mystery behind the man no matter what.

Drew stopped just inside the doors, quietly assessing the large room. A few techs were checking water temps in several of the large pools, but having recognized Jenna, they ignored her guest.

“Wow,” he said. The sound of awe in his voice made Jenna beam. “This isn’t what I expected.” They walked between the large pools housing sea turtles in various stages of recuperation. He stopped to watch one of the grad students carefully place lettuce and other greens in the smaller bins housing the terrapin turtles that had been rescued.

“You sound like my father.” She adjusted one of the filters as they passed by. “He thinks we just collect box turtles by the side of the road and nurse them back to health in a terrarium. Which we do, by the way.” She pointed to the terrapin. “But our main focus is the sea turtles.”

She showed him the operating suite where surgeries were performed on the giant creatures and the smaller rooms where more minor injuries were tended. All the while she explained the types of procedures they performed each and every day in an effort to stave off extinction for the creatures. Drew asked questions about the hatchery, and Jenna was filled with a sense of awe of her own realizing he had actually done more than ‘skim’ the prospectus she’d left him. She shot him a smile of genuine appreciation.

“What’s that for?” He brushed his lips over her hairline.

“It’s just nice to converse with someone outside the field who gets it. My family thinks that I’m nuts.”

“Your parents aren’t turtle fans, I take it?” Drew asked.

Jenna grimaced. “My father believes I’m wasting my education, that I should have taken my biology degree and become a doctor or a nurse. Something more productive to society than
saving seafood
—his words, not mine. The hatchery would be a coup not only for Magnolia Bay, but for my career as well. If nothing else, my parents—especially my father—might finally take me seriously.”

They stopped outside the empty incubator room where the hatchery was intended to be housed. “You mentioned your dad was in the military?” Drew asked.

“Still is,” she said, hoping he would drop this line of questioning.

No such luck. “What branch?” he asked before she could redirect him.

Avoiding his eyes, she led them both into the cool room filled floor to ceiling with racks for trays where the eggs would be inseminated and incubated until they were viable enough to be transplanted to the man-made nests along the Center’s shoreline. “My father is also in the Navy,” she answered. Jenna knew there was more than one man in the entire U.S. fleet with the last name of Huntley and she would have been in luck had he been anyone but a Navy SEAL.

“Rank and duty station,” he demanded sounding so much like her father that she actually cringed. This is why she didn’t get involved with military men—Navy SEALs in particular. She’d spent her life navigating the egos and eccentricities of the military’s elite. Last night was obviously an aberration because Drew had quickly reverted back to his natural character. Jenna sighed. As incredible as their time in her bedroom had been, with his demeanor, she certainly wouldn’t have a problem keeping her heart out of play.

Jenna crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Admiral and the Pentagon. Joint Chiefs of Staff, to be precise.” She watched as recognition dawned on his face before his mouth grew tight.

He raked a hand through his crisp hair. “Tell me I didn’t just sleep with Hercules Huntley’s daughter.” The question was more of a command, his voice almost lethal.

She refused to be cowed, nearly laughing at the comical name that made her father seem human, as if that were possible. The admiral
had
been human once, though. Before Robbie died. Afterwards, he’d reverted back to the machine the Navy had molded him into. A lot like the man standing before him. “It’s not exactly as though we did a lot of sleeping.”

Drew unleashed a barrage of obscenities as he did that head squeezing thing again. Jenna heaved a frustrated sigh.

“For crying out loud, it’s not like I’m going to be telling him I did the wild thing with one of his precious elite warriors!” She slammed one of the cabinets closed. “Not that it would matter. My father hasn’t listened to a word I’ve said in—never mind.”

When she looked up, he was piercing her with that all-knowing direct stare that always seemed to unnerve her. She tried to keep her own gaze unflinching, but he was going to defend her father. Tell her what a great man, a great officer, he was. That’s what they always did. Put the blame on Jenna for not measuring up.
For not being Robbie
.

“So last night, was I just a tool to get back at Daddy?”

His question stunned her, made her stomach roll. “God, no,” she whispered. “Last night was about two people acting on a very real attraction to one another. It was about enjoying—” she wanted to say ‘the most incredible sex ever, but she was too embarrassed to admit that to a man who probably had that kind of experience every time he was with a woman. She huffed an angry breath. “You came to
my
door, remember?” Tears stung the back of her eyes and her throat ached so that she couldn’t possibly push any more words out. His accusation was worse than having him defend her father.

Drew’s arms suddenly snaked around her, pulling her body against his larger one. She nestled her cheek against his muscled chest, breathing in the familiar fragrance of her bath soap he’d showered with mingled with that unique scent that was pure male. “I just wanted to make you feel better. To stop your suffering,” she murmured against the soft cotton of his T-shirt. “I definitely wasn’t thinking about my father.”

She felt his low chuckle rumble in his chest. “I should hope not.”

Jenna smacked her palm against a solid pectoral muscle to no avail. Drew just laughed even harder.

“You definitely shouldn’t mention to the Admiral that you’ve met me,” she warned him.

He placed a finger beneath her chin and lifted it making it impossible to avoid his shrewd gaze. “I’m not afraid of your father.”

The laugh that escaped her mouth sounded bitter even to her own ears. “I doubt he’d maim you. You’re too important to the mission. But I’d hate for him to lose respect for you because of your taste in women.”

Something dark flared in Drew’s eyes before he tamped it down. He really was machine-like in the way he could do that.
Except during sex.
His shields weren’t up then. Jenna had been able to read his emotions loud and clear last night. Pleasure, contentment, and desire practically seeped out of his pores. But today, he’d returned to buttoned-up Drew. An exact replica of her father.

“Don’t ever say that about yourself,” he demanded, his voice a low growl. “Any man would be lucky to have you.” He gave her body a little squeeze.

The intensity of his stare was making her a bit woozy with desire, and she licked her bottom lip. Drew’s body tensed against hers in response.

“Not any man,” she said in an attempt to diffuse the sexual tension of the moment. “I’d never be like my mother and hitch my wagon to a Navy SEAL. I’ve seen what that can do to a woman.” Jenna wanted to let him know that her heart was safely contained and whatever passed between them was just something to be enjoyed for however long they had each other. She had never envisioned herself in that type of relationship before, but it felt invigorating to know that she could call the shots for the first time in her life.

He blinked twice and his face became even harder. “That’s good because I’m only passing through.”

“Well,” she whispered. “My door is always open should you need additional help managing your flashbacks.”

Drew smiled then, a grin of potent satisfaction, as his lips traveled closer to hers. Jenna felt a little unsure of her ability to walk on the wild side at her place of work. Anyone could interrupt them, but the magnetic pull of his lips was difficult to resist.

In the end, they were interrupted. Imogene pranced into the incubation room with Perry fast on her heels.

“Oh my, what have we here?” Imogene grinned as if she’d just found a pair of Jimmy Choo’s on the discount sale rack while Perry leveled a heated scowl at Drew.

Jenna quickly stepped out of Drew’s embrace. “I was just showing the Lieutenant Commander the Center,” she said trying hard not to make her tone sound the least bit apologetic. After all, she had nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, Perry and his Sort-Of-Fiancée were on the hot seat for an apology.

Perry mumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like “tour of your tonsils” while Imogene clapped her hands. “Excellent! If the Lieutenant Commander’s happy, his aunt will be happy, too. Perhaps you can convince her to abandon her idea of involving the town in the fundraising, too. It’s causing quite a delay in our plans.”

“You misunderstand my relationship with my godmother,” Drew said without elaboration. Imogene looked genuinely perplexed by his statement. Jenna should put the woman out of her misery and tell both Imogene and Perry that Miss Evie had already given the project her financial backing, but she was enjoying finally having the upper hand over someone—a fact that probably didn’t say much about her underlying personality. Right now, though, she didn’t care. She just wanted to spend as much time with Drew as she could before he returned to wherever his next mission took him.

“We’re leaving now,” she said threading her fingers through Drew’s and tugging him toward the door. Perry moved as if he wanted to say something, but Imogene’s hand on his chest stopped him from speaking. “You two have a nice evening,” Imogene called after them.

*

“You’re looking well
rested,” Aunt Evie remarked a few days later. Drew’s godmother was lounging on one of her pretty but not at all functional sofas in her sunroom. Despite it being summer, she was sorting through what looked like Christmas decorations. Zarah hissed as Drew took a seat across from the boxes. He shot the annoying feline a death stare to which Zarah responded by lifting her hind leg and licking her girl parts.
Another reason to hate cats.
Fortunately for the hairball, Drew loved his godmother who in turn loved the damn cat.

“What can I say, the Atlantic Ocean seems to agree with me,” he lied. It was true he had been sleeping better, the flashbacks only hovering in his subconscious. But his nocturnal swims weren’t the reason they’d quieted. Instead it was his other night-time guilty pleasure, specifically Jenna Huntley’s sexy body. They’d not only spent their nights together, but the hours when Jenna wasn’t working, too. He found himself enjoying her easy companionship, relaxing for the first time in many months as he rediscovered the everyday pleasures that people living outside a warzone enjoyed. Drew had taken pains to be discreet in his relationship with Jenna, but judging by the size of Aunt Evie’s grin, he wasn’t deceiving anyone.