Page 9 of Under Fire

“We’ve had it for fifteen years,” she admitted. “It was nice when we got it. My mother drove it for years before…”

Then she stopped. That wasn’t something she wanted to get into.

She hoped he hadn’t noticed. Maybe he was as bad at reading people as she was.

A silence growing between them, the rugged, tall man ejected out of her small economy car, moving over to pop the hood. Through his thin gray T-shirt, she could see the definition rippling up and down his core. He was solid and athletic, and she bit her lip as she found herself unable to look away, kind of in disbelief. That only intensified when he shot her that icy blue gaze, amplified by his outdoorsy tan.

“Before? Before what?” he cross-examined, reaching into the car’s engine, yanking at something.

Alisa felt her throat constrict. He didn’t miss a beat, did he?

“You going to finish that sentence?” Warren followed up, standing straight.

“It used to be my mother’sbeforeshe passed away,” Alisa let it out finally. “I guess that’s been just about four years now.”

Warren’s body stilled as he was watching her. “I’m sorry.”

She let herself breathe in slowly. Cancer was a bitch. Everyone was sorry. That was something they all said when they heard, but it just felt different coming from him. It felt more intense. More real. Like he meant it, truly meant it.

Like he’d lost someone as well.

“Thanks.” Alisa nodded slowly, observing him turn back to the engine.

But then a weird laugh escaped her lips as she blurted out, “I’m just wondering who’s going to be next…me?”

Warren’s blue eyes caught her once more, throwing her balance off. Then he turned back to his work, not replying to her offbeat remark. She sucked in a breath, feeling ten times more self-conscious than before. Nowshelooked like the psycho.

She wasn’t a fucking people-person.

As he worked wordlessly, she relocated into the shade by his house, still just feet away from him. Then, he stood up, striding to look for something in his garage. As he walked by, she couldn’t help but blurt out what was on her mind.

“So, you’re a SEAL—” she started, but he shot her a glare, telling her to stop.

“Keep that quiet.”

“Why’d you tell me, then?”

He shrugged, reaching for a wrench on his workbench before turning back to the car.

“I just had to trust you,” he replied, giving her a warm and fuzzy feeling all over her body.

As he bent back over the engine, he fired her an expression that screamed ‘don’t fuck with my trust’.

His muscular arms deep in the block, she couldn’t help but admire. That same wetness in her pussy tingled.Damn, special forces, huh?

It didn’t take Warren much longer before he stood, wiping sweat off his brow while leaving a dash of engine grease on the side of his face.

He nodded at the car. “This should be enough to get you going for now, but you’re going to need to get this car to a shop—or a junkyard.”

Alisa let out a breath. The shop meant more expenses, more money she needed to beg for. And she couldn’t go without a car. Her body language certainly didn’t disguise her distress.

He watched her, assessing.

“Look… I could do the work. It’s fixable. I just have to get a part.”

“Really?” She parted her lips, apparently trying to understand his offer.

“Sure.”

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