Page 3 of Honk if You Love Real Men (Tempting SEALs 1)

Brenda chuckled. “Sex-pack?”

Estrella pressed two fingers to her grin. “Oops. Did I say that?”

“Yep. That man’s got you unhinged. Never thought I’d see the day, but I guess it took a Grade A prime beefcake to catch your interest, huh?” When Estrella didn’t respond, Brenda peered closer, a tissue wadded under her reddened nose. “What’s the plan?”

“How do you know I have a plan?”

“You always have a plan.”

Estrella blinked. She and Brenda had met on the bus, discovered they lived within a few blocks of each other, and become friends. At first, fresh from her divorce and the accompanying trauma, Estrella had kept their acquaintance casual. She wasn’t ready to trust.

Brenda’s warm acceptance and caustic attitude had won her over. They’d never sat down and had an actual heart-to-heart, but during the course of the year Estrella’s past had leaked out: the early marriage that had blossomed into a huge mistake, the troubles she’d had in breaking it off, the eventual decision to start her life over, even if she had to leave everything that she knew and begin at the bottom, alone, hundreds of miles from home.

“Eve is going out of town for a week.”

Brenda’s penciled brows arched. “And?”

“She’s leaving me the Miata.”

“That trippin’ red convertible? You’re kidding me!”

Estrella nodded. “She trusts me.”

“You get to take it home and everything?”

“No. She doesn’t trust me that much. She thinks the car would be stripped bare in ten seconds flat in our neighborhood.”

Brenda laughed. “Ack. She might be right.”

“I’m only to do the chores in it. Knowing Eve, I’ll have a list of exactly where to go and what routes to take. She may have even calculated the mileage. But that doesn’t mean I can’t . . .” Estrella flipped a thumb over her shoulder.

Brenda closed her open mouth. “Mm-hmm, girl! You’re gonna drive by the construction zone and catch Drum’s eye.”

“Maybe.”

“You’ll have to dress different.”

Estrella looked down at her pink polyester. “Ya think?”

Brenda was calculating the situation with her reddened eyes pulled into slits. She squinted at Estrella. “You gonna throw your bra at him?”

Only under more optimal circumstances, Estrella thought with an extra fillip of anticipation, though she said in an utterly calm way, “Course not. But I’ll come up with something.”

The bus had slowed with a wheeze of the brakes. Estrella swung up out of her seat. “Here’s my stop. I’ll see you tonight, Bren. Pop an Advil so you can make it through the day.”

“I’m already dosed up.” Brenda sneezed into the damp tissue. “Bud nod flyin’ as high as you.”

Estrella laughed as she skipped down the bus steps, as light as the churros her mother used to make every Saturday morning—crisp golden dough, sizzling with hot sugar. She’d been practical and hardworking for too long. Why not find a way to entice this Drum person to share the fantasy?

Jesse Drummond wasn’t sure how many times the tempting bit of fluff had passed before he noticed, but once he had, he was looking for her continually. When the red Miata reappeared and his jackhammer sputtered out of control for the third or fourth time, Tea’s head came up. Jesse’s coworker switched off his machine, took out a grimy red bandanna and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Hey, Drum,” he yelled. “You’re spittin’ gravel. Got somethin’ botherin’ you, boy?”

“Nothing.” Jesse leaned into the machine, the vibrations going straight through him, rattling his bones. They were drilling out an old sewer cap, which would have to be moved back twenty feet.

He shot a glance at the stalled traffic and said it again, to himself beneath the racket of the hammer. “Nothing.”

The convertible gleamed in red and silver, freshly waxed and polished. Behind the wheel, the driver’s ponytail swished to the heavy bass beat of a popular rap song.

Tea didn’t follow the distraction. He shrugged and mouthed, “All right.”

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