A SEAL's Fantasy Read online

  Before she could, before she could even issue her warning, one of the creep cadre sauntered over.

  “You okay?”

  The temptation to say no, to ask for help, lasted about a second and a half. Lara flicked a glance at the gorgeous mountain of a guy holding her arm, then jerked her head at the four guys, indicating they should split. Even if they did manage to take him, the price they’d want for helping her was more than she was willing to shell out.

  Nope, she’d take her chances with the gorgeous mountain.

  She could handle him.

  Forcing herself to ignore the mental images of the various parts of him she’d really like to handle, she cocked her head to one side, giving the hand on her arm a flick of her fingers.

  “You’ve got an interesting pickup line, big guy. What do you call this? The Neanderthal approach? Grab a woman in an alley, grunt a few times about fake relatives and show off your studly moves for the local cockroaches?” She hoped her smile was snarky and not shaky, but her nerves were wound too tight to tell.

  If she’d hoped to offend him into letting go, she straight up failed.

  Instead, he shifted. His thigh grazed hers and while his fingers didn’t actually move, she felt as if he’d just caressed her arm. His dark eyes turned molten, and his lips quirked into a sexy little smile. Heat swirled through Lara’s system like a whirlwind, filling her body with longings and her mind with crazy thoughts.

  “Tell you what, sweetheart. Why don’t we get out of this alley and I’ll work up a line you’ll like much better.” His words were silky smooth. So slick and easy that she doubted he’d ever had a single unsure moment in his life.

  Now her nerves were racing for a whole different reason.

  Eyes wide, Lara wet her lips.

  His eyes dropped, amusement fading.

  Lara’s stomach clenched.

  Not out of fear.

  This was pure, liquid desire.

  She’d rather be afraid.

  But she also wanted out of the alley. She knew all eyes were still on them, that the creep cadre was only waiting for a chance to unleash their ugly.

  “Why don’t we go out front,” she suggested after clearing her throat a couple of times. Out front were real people. Tourists and cops and traffic. She figured it’d take her three, maybe five minutes to ditch him there.

  “Let’s go,” he agreed.

  As if he knew she was going to bolt, he kept hold of her arm as they made their way to the end of the building. As soon as they rounded the corner, Lara relaxed. Like a lullaby, the sounds of traffic, people and music soothed. She glanced at the mountain out of the corner of her eye, then wished she hadn’t.

  He shouldn’t look as intimidating out here.

  But he was.

  The dim alley lighting had hid his scariest feature.

  Lara cringed, averting her eyes in hopes that the stained, dirty sidewalk would wipe the image away.

  He had dimples.

  Damn him.

  Dimples on a guy—those were fatal.

  “Coffee?” Dimpled and Gorgeous asked.

  “What?” Lara looked up and almost sighed. She didn’t have time for a guy like him.

  It’d take hours, maybe days, even, to explore that body. Weeks just to get through her own fantasies about sex with a gorgeous, dimpled guy. God knew how long it’d take if he had fantasies of his own.

  Nope. She glanced at her watch. She was already late.

  She risked another look at him, noting the stubborn set of his chin and the determined light in those dark blue eyes. Blue, she thought as her nipples tightened. Blue eyes and dimples. The man was toxic.

  Her mental debate took all of two seconds. She wasn’t going to convince him to let her go and she couldn’t match his strength. There was only one option left.

  Seduce him stupid.

  Depending on the street crowd and traffic to keep her from going overboard, Lara shifted. Just an inch to one side, but the move pushed her breast against his arm, her foot brushing his so their thighs touched.

  She softened her stance, offering a soft smile, then gauged his reaction through her lashes.

  His eyes flared hot, his gaze narrowing. He didn’t take her silent offer, though. Since he clearly wasn’t stupid, she figured he was either a gentleman—ha—or he was waiting to see how far she’d push it.

  Far enough, she decided.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to meet somewhere more, um, private?” she murmured, wetting her lips and shifting so her hip bumped his at the same time. A zing of desire shot through her from hip to core—a hot, needy surprise. She let it show in her eyes, even more turned on at his instant reaction. His smile deepened and his body curved as if to welcome hers.

  A guy who caught on that quick, reacted that well? What would he be like in bed? Could he read her needs as fast? Would he meet them? Lara loved the idea of fast, wild sex. So hot and intense that her brain couldn’t have time to engage.

  For a second, she forgot the reason behind her flirting. In that one moment, she was totally ready to blow off classes, quit her job, move across the country. All he’d have to do was get naked and worship her body.

  “Why wait?” he asked, his voice seductively low.

  Why, indeed.

  Someone bumped Lara, shoving her backpack into her waist, the edges of the books jabbing her like a knife. She blinked, then frowned. Why? Because she had a life, dammit, and wasn’t about to have it messed up because some guy was sexy enough to fog her brain.

  Keeping that firmly in mind this time, she locked her eyes on his and leaned forward. He was so tall she had to shift onto her toes, touching the tips of her fingers to his chest for balance. And yes, because she really wanted to touch that chest. She had to work to not let herself be distracted by the hard muscles. Instead, she came within a hot breath of his lips, then gave him a sexy smile and a flutter of her lashes.

  Someone jostled her again, and music pounded around them as the dancers from Circus Circus hit the sidewalk. Music and acrobatics followed as they gathered a crowd. Lara didn’t have to check the time to know it was 8:05 and that she was late for class.

  “We don’t have to wait,” she assured him, tapping her finger against that deliciously hard chest. It was all she could do not to follow it up with a pet of her palm. Since she figured good girls who resisted incredible temptations deserved a little something, she let herself lean forward that last inch and brush her lips over his.

  Uh-oh.

  He was so yummy.

  Soft, warm lips that tasted so good.

  His mouth shifted as if he were about to take control. Lara figured she wouldn’t get a better shot.

  Taking advantage of his distraction, she gave a swift tug and pulled her arm free. Whooping and hollering, the crowd of dancers reached them, providing Lara just enough cover to run. She sprinted into traffic, not looking over her shoulder until she hit the opposite side of the busy four-lane street.

  Damn. He’d untangled himself from the feather boa and was already in the second lane. Biting her lip, Lara looked left, then right. Spotting a cab at the corner, she used her long legs to their best advantage. Ten seconds later, she threw herself in the backseat, panting to the driver to hurry.

  Angling to her knees, Lara twisted to look out the rear window. The mountain was only two car lengths away.

  “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” she chanted.

  The taxi driver must’ve looked in his mirror, because suddenly he laid on his horn, then, muttering, hit the gas, drove up on the sidewalk and around the lookie-loos still stopped at the light.

  As the car squealed around the corner, Lara relaxed enough to wave, a little finger wiggle, at the mountain.

  The guy wasn’t even winded.

  Nor, she noticed as she wrinkled her nose, did he look upset.

  Instead, he only grinned and waved back.

  “Lover’s quarrel?” the driver asked.

  “Something like that,
” Lara said, settling into the seat and giving him an address.

  Nerves screaming with relief, she tried to shake off the adrenaline and settle her mind.

  It wasn’t fear that was dogging her, though.

  She laid her head back on the cracked seat, closed her eyes and took stock of her body.

  Nope.

  That wasn’t fear tightening her nipples or making her thighs tremble.

  That was desire. Pure, lusty need.

  Figured.

  The first guy to turn her on in three years showed up now, when her entire focus was on—had to stay on—finishing her computer training and getting the plum internship the school offered. Which meant no distractions, no men, no sex. She’d made a vow—this time nothing was going to get in the way of her success.

  It wasn’t that vow that put him firmly off-limits, though.

  Nope. Sadly, she’d ditch her vow in a heartbeat for a sexy guy. That’s how she’d lost a plum role and effectively destroyed her career when she was dancing on Broadway. She’d called in sick one weekend to run off for a romantic trip. Snowy sleigh rides in the country, a quaint bed-and-breakfast with candlelight dinners and sex. Incredible, hot, wild sex. When she’d broken her leg, her boyfriend had left her in an E.R. two hundred miles from home and she’d been fired.

  A year later, she’d given up a boring but lucrative teaching job at the dance institute to follow Mr. Perfect to Reno. A smart girl learned, after enough failures, to keep her vow and focus on the career.

  Still, it wasn’t the vow that had her sagging in relief over the near miss.

  What put the sexy hunk with the gorgeous dimples off-limits was one simple fact: he knew her brother.

  And anyone who knew any member of her family wasn’t anyone she wanted to know. Even if he did have the good taste to admit that he’d deny a relationship with Phillip, too. That was guy talk, his way of trying to charm her.

  “We’re here.”

  Mulling and just a few breaths away from pouting, Lara grabbed her bag, glanced at the meter, then handed the driver the last of her cash and slid from the cab.

  Phillip was a SEAL?

  Lara blinked, trying to take that in. She’d known he was in the Navy. He’d been at Annapolis when she’d run away. No noncom status would suit a Banks, by God, nor would the heir apparent dare skip college. Two birds, one stone, that was Phillip.

  A lot of people had been surprised that he’d joined the Navy. Phillip wasn’t exactly the fighting type, the let’s-serve-our-country type or the gung-ho-sailor type. But Lara had known better. Their grandfather, great-grandfather and a fistful more greats over the years had been naval officers for various countries, and he’d always been fascinated by the stories.

  So the Navy didn’t surprise her at all.

  But the SEALs? That was a straight-up shock.

  She tried to imagine her brother doing heroic deeds, part of an elite team in the special forces. But the picture just wouldn’t jell in her mind.

  Then she shook her head.

  What did it matter? She hadn’t seen her brother in eight years. And even then, they’d been strangers.

  One thing she did know, though, was that then or now, Phillip wanted nothing to do with her. So whatever his buddy was up to, her brother hadn’t instigated it.

  The only thing worse than gorgeous, sexy guys wanting to lead her into temptation were gorgeous, sexy guys with their own secret agenda.

  Lara settled into her classroom chair, ignoring the flirtatious wink from the guy at the station next to her and the glare from the woman on the other side. She smoothed a loving hand over the computer in front of her before sighing.

  Nope.

  She didn’t need men, no matter how gorgeous.

  3

  THREE HOURS LATER, Lara stepped off the bus, shifting her bag into the crook of one arm while she dug out her keys. She didn’t angle them like a weapon. Her neighborhood was run-down and on the cheap side, but it wasn’t sleazy like the alley behind the casino.

  It was the best she could afford. A far cry from what she’d grown up with, but a major step up from where she’d lived three years ago when she’d landed in Reno.

  That didn’t mean she was satisfied.

  Soon she’d be making good money, she promised herself as she crossed the street. She might not be able to swing the snooty gated community of her childhood, but she’d own a home. Not here in Reno. She wanted a place in the country, where she could look for miles and not see another person.

  Someday.

  Someday soon.

  Except that damned cab ride had cost her three days’ meals.

  She gritted her teeth. Leave it to Phillip to cost her more than she could afford.

  She’d stopped blaming the sexy hunk about an hour after she’d escaped.

  Sitting under the bright fluorescent lights of the classroom, she’d decided that tall, built and gorgeous was only the messenger. Between taking notes and coding HTML, she’d changed her mind about Phillip sending his friend. Maybe big brother had finally decided to clue her in about their parents’ death. Not one to get his lily-white hands dirty, he’d probably asked his friend to pass on a message. Guys being guys, the dimpled hunk had probably agreed out of loyalty.

  Phillip. Prince Perfect, as she’d called him growing up. She’d never have figured her uptight, upright brother to inspire that kind of devotion, but who knew. It’d been a lot of years since she’d seen him. Maybe he’d developed warmth, or oh, inspired miracle, even a little compassion in the last decade.

  Or the gorgeous messenger was simply a card-carrying member of the penis brigade, loyal to any and all who sported the same equipment.

  Men were funny that way.

  Lara knew the only person worthy of her loyalty was herself. It hadn’t taken long to figure that out—all she’d needed was for every single other person in her life to let her down before she’d clued in.

  Climbing the steps to her building, she felt the weight of the day pressing on her shoulders. She’d danced the matinee and the early show, escaped a gorgeous mountain, then attended both class and lab.

  She still had about twelve hours of homework before Monday night and eight shows to dance over the weekend. If she nailed this assignment, she’d have the top grade in the class. This cyberinspection program was the last of her course load and the school offered internships to the best graduating students with three top-flight security firms.

  Six more weeks and she’d be working for one of those three. With a happy sigh, she rounded the hallway to her corridor. A year’s internship while she still danced on the side and she’d be ready to go out on her own.

  Lara Lee, Cyber Detective.

  She grinned, then blinked. Frowning, she noted the hall lighting was out. Weird. The super was a lech, but he was a conscientious one.

  No biggie. She was the second door, so seeing her keyhole wasn’t a problem.

  She’d just gotten her key in the lock when she felt him.

  It wasn’t his body heat that tipped her off.

  Nope, it was the lust swirling through her system, making her knees weak and her nipples ache.

  Taking a deep breath, this time she did shift her keys between her knuckles as she turned around.

  “Do you always lurk in the shadows?” she asked.

  “Hall light is out. Shadows are all you’ve got here.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I already told you. I need to talk to you about your brother.”

  “And I already told you. I don’t have a brother.”

  Not anymore.

  “Lieutenant Phillip Banks. Of the Maryland Banks’s. Parents were Randall and Ellen. Dad owned an investment firm and dabbled in politics. Ring any bells?” His words were easy, the look in his eyes as mellow as the half smile on his full lips. “Brother went to Annapolis right out of school. Top honors, joined the Navy as an ensign.”

  Her eyes narrowed, noting the slight change in his
tone. His expression didn’t change, but he didn’t sound as though he admired those accomplishments too much.

  “My last name is Lee.” All her legal documents said so. It’d cost her a quarter of the small trust her grandmother had left her to make sure of it when she’d run away. Then, before she could stop herself, she asked, “Why are you running errands for this guy, anyway?”

  His dark eyes flashed for a second before he gave a lazy shrug.

  “Sweetheart, do I look like anyone’s errand boy?” he asked, leaning his shoulder against the wall. He still blocked her exit. He was that big. But at least he wasn’t looming anymore.

  She couldn’t resist.

  She let her eyes wander down the long, gloriously hard length of his body. Broad shoulders and a drool-worthy chest tapered to flat abs, narrow hips and strong thighs. His boots were black, worn and very, very big.

  She wet her lips and met his eyes again.

  He didn’t look mellow now.

  He looked hot.

  As if he’d like to strip her down and play show-and-tell.

  Tempting, since she’d bet that’d be worth seeing.

  “Sorry,” she said truthfully. “I’m not the woman you’re looking for.”

  * * *

  DAMN.

  Not for the first time in his life, or even the first time today, Dominic cursed Banks. The guy was a major pain in the ass. Even while captured by a psychopathic drug lord, he was still causing trouble.

  Didn’t it figure that long, lean and sexy was gonna be just as bad.

  He wanted to grab her, haul her off to the nearest horizontal surface and show her exactly what he was looking for.

  Which meant they’d both be naked, there’d be a bottle of warm body oil and a bowl of whipped cream nearby, and he’d be showing her with his mouth.

  Insane.

  He was on a mission. It might not be recognized by the brass, but it’d been handed down by his superior officer. So to Castillo, it was a duty.

  She was his duty.

  He’d never lusted after a mission before.

  Not in the rock-hard-dick, blood-pounding-desire kind of way.