Page 28 of The SEAL's Duchess
“Not much beyond rocks are hard and water’s wet. Why?”
Her mouth twitched, the corners of her serious expression threatening to give way to a smile. “Look at this.” She slid a faded document across to him, a yellow highlight drawing his eye. “Three separate mentions of geological concerns in some assessments from the nineties. But when I cross-reference them with the follow-ups that should have been filed…” She opened another dusty folder. “Nothing. No additional surveys. No resolution.”
Ryder studied the letterheads, the dense technical jargon. “What type of concerns?”
“Seabed instability. Potential for shifting sediment layers. These vulnerabilities warranted further investigation.” Her voice lowered. “But no investigation ever happened. Or if it did, the results were never filed.”
She spoke as if the fight was personal, and hell, if it didn’t drag him closer, caught in her current.
“That’s a hell of a find.”
“It’s just the beginning.” She tapped the stack into order. “I need to dig deeper. See what else was overlooked.”
He glanced at his watch, then back at her. “Have you eaten anything since you’ve been here?”
Her brows lifted. “I was going to grab a coffee after I finished this section.” She looked at the wall clock and winced. “God, it’s already ten-forty.”
“Let me take you to lunch,” he said, the idea forming fast. “To make up for last night.”
“Ryder, you don’t need to?—”
“I want to.”
Her eyes widened. Too intense. He cleared his throat. “I want to show you something that’ll make your trip to Aurora Cove worthwhile.”
She gave him a curious look. “You think it hasn’t been worthwhile already?”
The question caught him off guard. Layers he didn’t know how to untangle, and before he could, she smiled. “I’d love to have lunch with you, Ryder.”
His shoulders dropped, tension bleeding out—only to be replaced by a sharp coil of want. He boosted to his feet, jamming his hands in his pockets where they could not betray him. “Great. I know just the place.”
He held the door open for her as they stepped out into the cold. Her sleeve brushed his arm, light as snow, hot as fire.
God help him—because if she smiled at him like that over lunch, he wasn’t going to come out of this clean.
13
Ryder’s truckrumbled along the highway. A paper bag of sandwiches from Benji’s nestled in Ivy’s lap alongside a coffee flask Louisa had pressed into her hands, its metal surface smooth and warm.
She breathed in the cab’s scent—motor oil and man.
Beside her, Ryder drove with sleeves rolled to his forearms, one hand easy on the wheel, hair rumpled in the sunlight—as if she’d slipped into someone else’s dream.
Heat from the vents loosened the knot between her shoulders. Through the windshield, sunlight shuttered through the pines, scattering gold across banked snowdrifts.
Her phone buzzed against her thigh. George’s name lit the screen. She flipped it face down.
Not now.
She closed her eyes, lulled by the growl of the engine and the warmth seeping into her bones. What would it be like if this were her life? This wild, untamed place. This man with powerful hands on the wheel, taking her somewhere she’d never been. The thought flitted through her, delicate and unguarded.
She caught herself, forcing her eyes open.Risky territory.But the warmth lingered anyway.
“Road gets rough from here.” Ryder downshifted as the tarmac gave way to a rutted track that climbed steeply into the forest. Branches scraped the roof. He checked his watch. “I need to pick up Ellie at one, so we’ve got a couple of hours.”
The reminder of his daughter, of his real life, should have sobered her. Instead, her shoulders dropped another degree, her body settling deeper into the seat. This adventure felt safe.Everythingfelt safe with him.
The truck lurched over a rut, throwing her forward. She braced against the dash, but Ryder’s palm closed over her knee, steadying her. For a second too long, he left it there. “Almost there.”
