Page 45 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

He glanced sideways at her. “I’m starting to think there’s a lot you don’t know.”

“So am I.” And she didn’t like it. What else had they changed. What other surprises was she in for?

“Bye-bye,” Stefan whispered as the SEAL leaving rang the bell solemnly.

She imagined he was envisioning when it would be their turn to leave and he had to ring that bell.

“The remaining seven teams will move on to the next challenge. A one-mile swim.”

“In the ocean,” Clay added. “In swim fins.”

“The swim challenge is here? On the island?” Stefan’s eyes were wide as he stared at her.

“Yes. Why? What’s wrong?”

He seemed concerned. Meanwhile, she was just grateful—now that she was facing this challenge—that they’d made the decision during that planning meeting to cut the two-mile swim down to one-mile.

He shook his head. “You should have talked to me first. Or to Clay. Or hell, any of the SEALs. We would have told you not to plan the swim for here.”

“Why not?” she asked again.

“The water’s too rough. The surf here can literally break bones. Then there’s the sharks. Not to mention the kelp beds that make it feel like aliens grabbing your legs while you swim through them.”

She rolled her eyes at his obvious exaggeration. “I think I’ll be fine. You’re just trying to scare me.”

He lifted a brow. “No. I’m not. I’m not joking, Shelly. It happened during a BUD/S class. A candidate’s leg. Broken. And the water’s cold. Not uncomfortably cold, but like hypothermia cold. Once, a trainee died of hypothermia after the five-and-a-half-mile swim. Look it up. It’s true.”

Her eyes widened. “Yousuggested swimming as one of the challenges.”

He snorted. “I didn’t know you were going to run off and plan it for here. I figured it would be at Coronado. Like in the surf in front of the hotel where it’s safe. Hell, they’ve even moved the BUD/S required swim off this island and to the shore along Coronado. Only a lunatic would swim here willingly.”

“You did it,” she reminded him.

“As you keep saying, I had to. For BUD/S. And you are not in BUD/S. And I didn’t say I was sane at the time. In fact, during those final weeks of BUD/S when the class was already stretched to their limit and training moved to this God forsaken island, sanity was definitely in short supply.”

She shook her head. “It should be fine. None of the other SEALs are complaining.”

“Because most of them are so old they’ve forgotten what it’s like.” He scowled.

“Nick is younger than you,” she pointed out.

“All right. Then go ask him what he thinks about this challenge.”

One glance over at the pow wow happening between the two couples and Nick’s scowl as he shook his head told her Stefan was right.

She didn’t need to walk over and ask. It was clear how Zach and Nick felt about the challenge. Especially when they both stood, stalked over to Clay and a really animated discussion began.

“Okay. The other SEALs are not thrilled about that challenge either,” she admitted

“Told you.” He sighed. “You know, you could go to your boss and say no.”

“I could also lose my job.”

He evaluated her closer. “How strong a swimmer are you?”

She lifted one shoulder. “I was on the swim team at our town pool every summer during middle school. During high school I got a job during the summer and couldn’t do practice and meets anymore.”

His brows rose. “I guess that’s better than nothing. You might not die.”

---