Page 76 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

There was a team, led by Lucy, handling the social media for the show. They had someone posting as Stefan, as per the contract he’d signed, which he obviously hadn’t read. If he had, he would have objected to having an Instagram account, she was sure. But have one he did. They posted pictures of SEAL-type things and inspirational quotes. He’d hate it.

Too bad for him. He wasn’t there to complain.

A text alert sounded from her cell. She dove for the device, just as she had for the past month, only to feel the disappointment when it wasn’t from Stefan.

Guilt hit her for feeling like that when she should be perfectly happy to get a text from Alicia. In the past she would have jumped for joy at the invitation to join her best friend at McP’s for a drink.

Instead, she typed in a reply. “Thanks. Can’t. Working.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. She did need to get back to work. Besides the never ending new show brainstorming because Joanne always wanted more, Shelly had been given more responsibilities than ever.

This was her punishment for getting Joanne to notice her and all the great things she was capable of, she supposed.

She turned to her computer screen and couldn’t stop herself from scrolling through the latest news. Doom-scrolling took on all new connotations now that she was obsessed with everything bad happening in the world as she tried to guess where the guy she’d made the mistake of falling for might have been sent.

As Shelly wasted time she didn’t have to spare searching forcurrent locations of US Navy SEALsin the browser on her computer, Lucy crept through her doorway.

Shelly frowned at the expression on her coworker’s face. “What’s up?”

“I, uh, got an advance copy of the sixth episode.”

“Okay.” Shelly racked her brain to remember which one that would be.

“You and Stefan are uh, featured pretty prominently.” Lucy cringed.

Shelly couldn’t figure out—then it hit her.

The fast-roping challenge. The day he’d kissed her in the Jeep. The night they’d gone back to her hotel room.

She swallowed hard and asked, “How prominently?” And did she have to ban her parents from watching that episode?

How much had the cameras caught? How much had the microphones picked up?

Oh, God. This was a nightmare.

Before Lucy could answer, Jonas skidded to a halt, grabbing onto the doorway to stop his trajectory.

“I know, Jonas. Episode six,” Shelly told him to prevent the horror of having Jonas repeating what Lucy had just told her.

“Stefan’s here,” Jonas gasped.

“What?”

“He just got off the elevator.”

“So why didn’t you bring him back with you?” she asked, jumping up from her chair while trying to fix her hair and tug down her skirt all at the same time.

“Because that new intern grabbed him to sign an autograph.”

“Great.” Shelly rolled her eyes.

A month apart and now she had to compete with the new intern for his time.

“Hey,” Stefan said after walking up behind Jonas.

Her heart pounded and her mouth dropped open at the sight of him.

The weeks had taken their toll. He had a month’s worth of beard growing on his face and his hair was longer than she’d ever seen it. And he was still the best thing she’d seen in weeks.

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