Page 4 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

It didn’t matter to them that most of the rest of the world had already gotten rid of their landlines.

As he pressed the cell to his ear, he realized peer pressure would never sway his parents like it had him today.

“You missed the weekly Sunday video call,” his little sister Irina said, forgoing the usual, socially accepted practice of sayinghellowhen answering a call.

“I was away.”

“So where were you this time?” she asked, the excitement clear in her voice.

“Training.” It was his stock answer for questions like this.

Lies were easier when you had an answer prepared. Although after all the years he’d been a SEAL, he could come up with them on the fly as well. Apparently lying got easier with practice.

“I don’t believe you,” she said.

He laughed, picturing his sister’s face screwed up in an unhappy scowl. “I don’t care if you believe me or not.”

“Ooo. Wait. Were you in Ukraine?” she asked, sounding every bit the recent political science college graduate that she was.

“No,” he answered truthfully. Although, given the state of things there, it had been a good guess.

“Hmm. A bordering country then. Poland? Oh my God, Stefan. If you got to go to Poland and Mom and Dad haven’t even been back since they left—"

“Irina. Stop. I was not in Poland. I told you. I was training.”

“Yeah, sure.” The comment dripped in sarcasm. “What kind oftraining?” she quizzed him, still sounding skeptical.

He could hear the air quotes she’d no doubt used as she’d said the word.

“Fast roping out of helicopters, mostly,” he answered, flashing back to his last actual training.

“Mmm-hmm. And where was thissupposedtraining?”

“The desert just outside of Vegas,” he answered with another truth. That training had actually happened, just not this week. Or even this year.

“If you’re not lying, then I’m really jealous. Vegas? I so want to go there. You get to go to all the cool places.”

He heard the pout in her voice.

“Yup. That’s true. Join the SEALs, see the world. Maybe they should make that the new recruitment slogan,” Stefan replied to her ridiculous statement with his own sarcastic comment. “And if you want to go to Vegas so badly, then go.”

“Mom and Dad will never let me.”

“You’re over twenty-one. You can do whatever you want.”

“Not while I’m still living under their roof for free, as they remind me so often. Besides, they would just say it’s not safe. Which is why my big strong brother should take me with him.”

“Yeah, don’t hold your breath.” He wasn’t the pick up and fly to Vegas to gamble on the Strip type.

Too much traffic. Too many crowds. He’d never be able to relax there. What kind of vacation would that be?

Nope. Give him a solo run on the beach.Thatwas relaxing.

“So what’s going on there?” he asked, hoping for a subject change.

“Mom’s been cooking up a storm, getting stuff ready for Easter.”

He stifled a groan as he could almost smell the scents that filled the house this time of year. “Sorry I’m gonna miss it.”

---