Page 5 of Honk if You Love Real Men (Tempting SEALs 1)

He nodded. Keeping it cool.

“Shew.” She fanned her face. “It’s hot out here in the sun.”

No hotter than you. But that was what she wanted him to say.

An awkward silence swelled, as heavy as the heat rising off the pavement.

Tea’s head appeared again. He shot an encouraging look at Jesse. “Sure is, ma’am. Damn hot. Pardon my French.”

“Please call me Estrella. I don’t know how you stand it, sweating in those orange vests.” Her eyes drew a line down Jesse’s arm to where he’d loosely clasped his hands over a thickening erection. He hadn’t been this unable to control himself since his teenage days as a walking hard-on, when he’d been driven half-crazy by something as simple as the flex of muscle in Jenny Crocker’s smooth calf while she crossed her legs in third-hour English.

No wonder he’d never learned his subjunctives.

Tea nodded again at Jesse. “I brought water. Offer some to the lady, Drum.”

Jesse found the bottles where they’d rolled to a stop against the convertible’s folded roof. There was a bag of groceries, a bucket of cleaning products and a ziplocked bag from the dry cleaners in the back of the car. He moved forward again and held out one of the dripping containers to Estrella.

“Thanks.” She took the bottle and rolled it against her neck, then pressed the cold weight between her breasts. Her shoulders shifted and she let out a soft little moan that was so obviously erotic, his balls tightened. “That feels great.”

He stared, fixated as the first time he’d opened a Playboy and seen a naked woman. Her nipples were bullets, shooting down his best intentions. Damn. That thought alone proved that he’d lost it.

Almost angrily, he twisted off the bottle cap and downed half the bottle in one long drink before he went and handed the remainder to Tea, who muttered behind the hood, “What are you waitin’ for—get her number. I can’t stay under here forever.”

Great. The man was a fifty-three-year-old matchmaker in Timberlands and fluorescent orange.

Jesse returned to the driver’s side, bending closer with his hands propped on his knees. Their eyes were on a level now, and he was able to appreciate every nuance as Estrella’s lips ovaled around the mouth of the bottle. She drank, gulping and swallowing with relish until she caught his eye and became flustered.

She sputtered. “Bad news?” she asked, wiping a dribble of water off her chin with the back of a hand. When he didn’t respond—impossible with a a strangled throat—she prompted, “About the car?”

Time to cut and run.

“What did you do?” he asked in a conversational tone. “Loosen a plug wire just enough for the car to stall?”

“Wha—?” Her jaw snapped shut. He heard her teeth click.

“You wouldn’t be the first,” he said.

Her chin shot up, making the sable ponytail flip. “Does the trick ever work?” she purred, watching his face through slitted eyes as she held the bottle between her breasts again, making them appear even more plump and full.

Surprise. He’d been sure she’d deny the ploy, but maybe she wasn’t as frivolous as the rest of them. There was an attractive weight to her, a solid sensibility beneath the centerfold figure and flirty eyes.

He shook his head. “Nope.”

Her moistened lips pursed. “That’s no fun.”

“Welcome to my life.”

She leaned her shoulder against the car door, looking at him closely now, the false note abandoned. “Hmm, I’d almost think that’s an invitation—if you weren’t so humorless.”

Humorless? Maybe so. Most of the unessentials had been worn down by the grinding desolation of prison life. But he didn’t need humor to give her what she wanted.

Estrella recoiled. Something in his eyes, he realized.

“I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake.” Woodenly, she handed him the water bottle. “Forget this happened.”

He straightened. Just let her go, his head said. The rest of him wasn’t speaking, only reacting on instinct to her round sexy body. Fortunately, his reason prevailed; he had experience hanging on by his fingernails. “Tell me what you did to the car and I’ll fix it.”

“I didn’t—” She swallowed, not looking at him. He felt the loss in his gut. “Okay, you caught me. Check the distributor wires. That should do it.”

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