Tempted by a SEAL (2 page)

Maybe a night of getting sweaty in bed with a female instead of from a nightmare would help his psyche.

It certainly couldn’t hurt.

Plan in place, he grabbed his wallet and his apartment key. Outside, he glanced at the neon beckoning him from across the street.

Next stop, oblivion—God willing.

CHAPTER 2

Lydia sighed and looked around her. She pressed the cell phone, clutched in her hand like the lifeline it was, closer against her ear. “God, Marissa, I hate this place already.”

“How can you hate it already? You haven’t even gotten there yet.” Her best friend and roommate’s question only had Lydia getting more depressed.

“If I hate it this much before I even get there, I seriously doubt things are going to get any better once I do.”

Marissa let out a huff. “That makes no sense, but anyway, where are you now?”

Lydia surveyed the area through the windshield of her car. “In front of some scary looking bar in a neighborhood I’m sure Mommy and her new hubby would not approve of.”

“You’re supposed to be driving to your mom’s new house. Why are you in front of a bar? What town are you even in?” Marissa squeaked out the question.

“I don’t know exactly. I passed some signs that said Norfolk. I just got off 64. The GPS says I’m still about half an hour away from the house in Virginia Beach.”

Some five-bedroom monstrosity her mother’s new husband had bought to woo her with. Crazy since Lydia had no brothers or sisters and was away at college all the time. And supposedly her new daddy only had one son, also an adult and out of the house.

Lydia supposed she should have driven right there from her apartment just off the campus of William and Mary, but she couldn’t bring herself to go directly to her mother’s new home.

New home. New husband.

That thought had the acid rising in her throat.

How could her mother get remarried so soon? The ink on the divorce papers was barely dry, which begged the question had this man, Joseph MacIntyre, been in her mother’s life before the divorce?

She didn’t know, but her mother claimed it had been less than a year from first contact on the online dating site to marital bliss, and that seemed a bit rushed in Lydia’s opinion.

Lydia’s father was a good man. He didn’t deserve this kind of treatment.

Divorce or no divorce, she knew her father loved her and her mother more than anything. Yeah, he had some problems when it came to gambling, and holding down a job, but didn’t taking wedding vows mean you stuck it out, for better or worse?

Lydia sighed. Maybe she shouldn’t judge. What did she know about marriage? She didn’t even have a boyfriend.

“So you’re heading to your mom’s now?” Marissa’s question dragged Lydia back to the present.

She groaned. “Do I have to?”
 

“Don’t ask me for permission to ditch this visit.” Marissa laughed. “I’m not your mother.”

“Technically, I don’t have to be there until tomorrow morning for some stupid family brunch. I never confirmed I’d be there tonight. I only said that I’d try.”

“But if you don’t go tonight, where are you going to spend the night?” Her friend’s question brought up a good point.

Lydia huffed out a breath. “I don’t know.”
 

She didn’t know the area. She had only pulled over and parked now so she could safely make the phone call and rant to Marissa.

Maybe it was serendipity she’d chosen this exact spot, right across the street from a cheesy-looking bar.

Knowing she’d spent an hour in the kind of place that would make her mother’s head explode if she knew could be just the right amount of rebellion to keep Lydia sane through the rest of this weekend.

Maybe she’d even suck face with some tattooed biker bad boy. It would be the icing on the cake of her night out geared to spite her mother and new daddy.
 

Hell, she might even invite her bad boy to the brunch tomorrow. That would be sure to add some excitement to what would otherwise be a painful, awkward and most likely boring morning.

What the hell would she have to talk about with a man she hardly knew at all and his grown son who she’d never met?

Lydia smiled at her idea. “I’m going inside this bar for a drink.”

Marissa’s gasp was audible. “What? Alone?”

“Sure. I’ll be fine. One drink then I’ll head over to hell—I mean Mom’s.”

Lydia would go in, have one light beer, stay for a little while to absorb the local scenery and then go. She’d be okay to drive the rest of the way to Mommy and step daddy’s house if she limited her consumption to one beer.

The dashboard GPS showed the rest of the trip was on one straight road and then a couple of turns on side streets to get to the house. Easy. No chance she’d get lost or delayed. She could still make it before her mother went to bed after the eleven o’clock news ended, like she always did.

“You better call me and check in, okay?”

Lydia smiled at Marissa’s concern. “Yes, Mom. I will.”

“You joke, but you do the same thing to me when I’m out without you.”

“That’s because you keep staying out all night without telling me first.” Lydia lifted one brow and waited for her roommate to try and deny that fact.

“I’m sorry. I get busy and forget to call.”

Get busy
was Marissa’s euphemism for going home with some guy.

The difference between them was that Lydia spent a lot more time home alone worrying about Marissa than the other way around.

Marissa had more men fawning over her than she could handle. She could be the real life model for the Barbie doll with her crazy long legs and flowing golden tresses.

Meanwhile, when they were out together, Lydia was consistently relegated to the position of
the hot blonde’s chubby brunette friend
.

But Marissa wasn’t here tonight and Lydia would have a crack at any available guy inside without anyone being distracted by her hot friend.

That realization was the last bit of motivation Lydia needed to cut the car’s engine and pull the keys out of the ignition. “I’m going in. I’ll call you later when I’m on the road again.”

“When will that be?” Marissa asked.

That depended on what she found inside.

Lydia eyed the façade of the building. It made her as nervous as she was excited. It might be so horrible, she’d turn right around without even ordering. Or she could have so much fun she wouldn’t want to leave until closing time when they kicked her out.

“No idea. I’ll text and let you know.”

“You’d better!”

The knowledge that for once Marissa was the one sitting home and worrying about her for a change instilled more than a bit of confidence in Lydia.

Of course Marissa was sitting home on a weekend because she had a huge paper due, and not for lack of male interest. Lydia tried not to dwell on that reality.

“I will. Bye.” Lydia disconnected the call and tossed the cell phone into her open bag on the empty seat next to her.

Now that she’d made the decision to go in, she couldn’t wait to get moving. Besides, if she hesitated, she might change her mind.

Lydia reached into the passenger seat and hefted up her oversized and overstuffed purse.

She hadn’t been planning on going out, so she didn’t have her bar purse—the small one that only fit her ID, cash, lipstick and phone. But she probably wasn’t going to be staying long anyway and from the looks of this place, she wouldn’t be dancing. The large bag she was carrying shouldn’t be a problem.

Glancing at the row of cars and one motorcycle parked along the curb and the few available spaces, Lydia confirmed her car was parked as close to the safety of the streetlight’s illumination as she could get.

After double checking that the car’s locks were secure, there was no more reason to delay. Time to go. Inside, a beer and possibly a bad boy awaited her.

Forcing down the nervous feeling that entering the bar alone raised within her, Lydia lifted her chin and yanked open the door.

CHAPTER 3

The bartender paused in front of Mack. “Another one?”

Mack raised his gaze from the now empty glass he’d been hunched over, partly because he was mentally and physically exhausted, but mostly so no one would bother him.

He wasn’t there for small talk, but he was there for the booze.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Mack nudged the empty tumbler forward with one finger.

As he leaned back while the bartender upended a bottle over the glass, he glanced around and took in his surroundings. The place had filled up a bit more since he’d arrived.

It looked like the usual late night crowd, most a good ten maybe twenty years younger than the patrons who came in during daylight hours.

Mack was more than a bit familiar with the comings and goings of the establishment’s customers.

That wasn’t just because he lived directly across the street and had a view of the place from every one of his apartment’s windows. It was more because he had frequented the bar during all hours of the day and night himself.

Working vampire hours a lot of the time had made him an equal opportunity drinker. Daytime. Nighttime. Anytime.

He didn’t judge anybody else, so he figured they had better not judge him either. Not if they knew what was good for them, anyway.

The one whisky he’d downed hadn’t improved his mood any. Maybe he’d have better luck with the second.

Mack pushed the change he’d left out from the first round closer to the bartender. “Take it out of there.”

The bartender nodded and grabbed a bill from the stack.

They’d done this dance many times. Mack knew the next round would be free. He would down it and leave the remaining cash on the bar as a tip before making his way across the street to his bed.

Three drinks, straight with no ice to water down and ruin the whisky—that would hopefully keep the nightmares away. For tonight, at least.

Tomorrow would be another story.

In the morning he had that waking nightmare of meeting Daddy’s new wife and her daughter. What fun.

Mack felt the guilt niggling at the back of his brain. He should be happy his father had found someone to make him happy after the loss of his mother.

He wasn’t.

Pressing the glass to his lips, Mack downed a large swallow. It burned a path down his throat.

He felt the fire all the way through his chest. Clear to where his cold dead heart was lodged, still beating away somehow when so many others no longer had that luxury.

Funny that he had plenty of heart when he was fighting. Hell, maybe all that took was balls, not heart. Maybe he was as far past caring as he suspected he was. He didn’t seem to be able to feel all that much for other people at the moment.

“I said no!”

A voice that rose above the usual volume of the din of the bar had Mack twisting in his seat to get a better look.

He zeroed in on the source of the annoyed-sounding exclamation and saw the woman he’d noticed briefly before when he’d surveyed those around him.

Okay, he’d noticed her because her ass, round and firm as she perched on the bar stool, had looked particularly enticing.