Chapter Seven

The one who I am here to see will be family soon. “I needed to see you.”

His blatant statement made her eyes grow wide. “Why?”

He sent her an incredulous look. “Because since I met you in Norfolk, I can think of nothing but you. Jesus, Alexis, I know this will sound corny, but you have bewitched me. Totally.”

Alexis shook her head. “We can’t do this,” came her inevitable protest.

“Don’t give me that whole code of behavior or modus operandi shit, Alexis. Where is the nearest military base from here?” At her silence he continued, “See, there is no reason for that to be an issue. You do realize that, although it is frowned upon, people do fraternize in the Navy.”

“It may not be a problem for you, being a commissioned officer, but for us non-coms it is. I am not willing to risk my career for a roll in the sack with you, no matter how much I want to, only to have you need to put me somewhere where I won’t be able to ruin your career, or to please your ‘trophy’ wife. I worked my ass off at Harvard and I love serving in the Navy, so no matter how tempting it may be…” Her eyes roved over the exposed part of his body as her voice deepened with desire, “And it is tempting, but not worth my career.”

His tall body rose gracefully out of the chair and lifted her boldly out of hers, cradling her in his steel-lined arms. He walked to the countertop and set her down, wedging his body between her spread thighs. “I would never,” he stated as his hands found the hem of her shirt and moved under it, searching for the skin he knew would be smooth as silk. “Never do anything like that to you. I’m not looking for a roll in the hay with you, my little healer. I was thinking something much more permanent than that.”

“What do you want from me?” she gasped as his large hands moved up her sides over the lace of her bra.

“I want everything from you.” He took a deep breath and moved his hands down out of her shirt and placed them on her sides. “Everything.” Then he stepped back and allowed her to jump down from the counter.

“So you took a chance in coming down here, to maybe run into me and what, try out sex with the HMC?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “For that matter, how did you know where to find me?”

He moved towards her again, “I’m a SEAL. That’s what I do. And I know you are on leave for the next twenty days.” His eyes looked at her directly. “Just like you know all about my file.”

“I don’t know anything about you, Commander.” She was using his title as a barrier.

“Don’t start with that shit again, Alexis,” his warning came, knowing she was using his title as a barri-er.

“I have things to do.” The fiery woman stomped off to the living room where she began to clean it up and get it ready for the evening.

Scott followed her. He leaned in the doorway and watched her move around her living room, picking up things and fluffing pillows. “What were you doing over there last night?”

She never missed a beat with her cleaning. “If you must know, I was on a date.”

“With whom?” Those two words were growled with such animosity she stopped and looked at him. His eyes were shards of blue ice and there was a very pronounced tick in his jaw.

“That is none of your business.” Alexis said with one hand on her hip.

The hell it isn’t! “Believe what you will, but you’re wrong. It is my business. Everything about you is my business.”

“So says you,” she muttered.

“At least you are beginning to see it my way,” came his smart-ass remark. His hard body plunked itself down on the couch she’d just finished straightening as if it were within his every right.

Throwing the pillow she held in her hand at him, she just sat down in a leather chair and watched as he snatched it out of the air, nice and easy-like. “So, tell me what you are doing here, in my neck of the woods?” she asked.

He shrugged a shoulder. “I told you, I came to see you.”

“Well, you have seen me.”

Not as much of you as I want to. “Take a vacation with me,” he blurted out.

“What?”

“Come on, take a vacation with me. I have some down time, at least a week. We could take a cruise,” he suggested, then grimaced. “Sorry, I forget you are on the water all the time. A rail ride, spend a few days with me. Get to know me, inside and out.”

She sniffed slightly and lifted her chin. “I am on vacation.”

“Is this really the vacation you want? Or would you rather spend time with me? I will do whatever you want—anoint you with baby oil, rub you down anytime you want. We can go to movies, whatever. Spend about a week with me, have room service, let me take care of you.”

There was a weird, almost glazed look on Alexis’s face as she just stared at him silently for a few moments. Then she laughed. “I get it, this is another dream. Very funny, Lex; come on, wake up. As if Commander Leighton would actually come to your house wanting to make passionate love to you…no matter how much you wish he would…” she mumbled as she stood and walked back to her bedroom, rubbing her head and totally ignorant of the wide grin on the very real and now very knowledgeable Commander Leighton.