Page 7 of Honk if You Love Real Men (Tempting SEALs 1)

The sign read:

MEN AND EQUIPMENT WORKING.

Chapter Two

The encroaching smog from the inland valley had smudged out the sun an hour ago, leaving the sky the dusky purpled blue of a bruise, Estrella winced when she rubbed her arms. Her skin was tender to the touch. She felt pummeled, as if the unanswered stretch of restless anticipation had manifested as a physical pounding.

She stood on the spacious balcony of the sixteenth-floor apartment. Her view to the pool, a blue rectangle set in an illuminated white concrete frame, was obstructed only by the dusty brown fronds of a row of palms. The binoculars had long since been abandoned.

Her shoulders slumped. Jesse Drummond had left work hours ago. He wasn’t coming.

She should’ve known. Her attempt at seduction had been a laughable failure. He’d seen right through her with his diamond-cutting gaze.

Her fingers curled around the pitted edge of the stone railing cap. His forbidding demeanor should have been off-putting. Honestly, it had knocked her off balance for a minute or two. But she’d been drawn straight back to him, inexorably. Beneath the hard surface was an intensity that fascinated her.

Maybe too much. She didn’t want another “passionate” man in her life. Her volatile ex-husband had left her with an appreciation for calm routine and quiet.

But Jesse . . .

He would be an experience of short duration. Flame to her moth, and afterward she would be burned free of the craving that had taken hold at the first sight of him.

She leaned over the railing, searching the pool area one more time before she gave up the last sliver of hope.

A figure moved out from beneath the palms. Her heart leaped. Was that him?

There’d been little activity at the pool after five. She’d waited there for more than an hour, her skin prickling at every sound. But no one had arrived except a couple of caftan-clad women carrying cocktails. They’d sat under the cabana awning and played cards, sending her arch glances until she’d scurried away, certain they suspected her of loitering under false pretenses.

False pretenses? She was full of them.

Didn’t matter, not this time.

Estrella pushed aside the misgivings as she watched the solo newcomer wander around the pool’s perimeter. Had to be Jesse. She straightened, pressing her knuckles against the ache in her chest, barely holding back a shout of greeting. Excitement wasn’t sophisticated. She wanted him to think she did this all the time. Or at least now and then, she amended, catching sight of her less—than-refined self in the gleaming glass of the sliding door as she went inside.

“Never mind.” She closed and locked the slider, careful not to leave fingerprint smudges.

The descent of the elevator took forever. She hurried through the atrium in the lobby to a side corridor that led to the pool. But once she was out the door, she hesitated. Could she actually go through with this? Have sex with a virtual stranger merely for the physical satisfaction?

She wasn’t old-fashioned, only inexperienced. Well, perhaps old-fashioned too. She’d been raised by strict but loving parents, who’d given her little reason to rebel. When she’d arrived at the age where sexual feelings were as inevitable as a rising tide, Tony had come into her life, overwhelming her with his devotion. There had been little question that they would get married as soon as her parents allowed.

But now Tony was gone. Her parents were far away. At last, she was free to make her own decisions.

“I want this,” she whispered, creeping through striated shadows toward the pool. The air was clotted with the astringent scent of chlorine and the overly sweet honeysuckle that climbed the thick block wall surrounding the pool.

The sound of splashing water reached her. She stopped, no longer hidden, but safe in the darkness beneath the palms.

She sucked in her nostrils. It was Jesse.

As she watched, he bent and swished a hand through the water, making it lap at the border of Mexican tiles. His hair swung forward against his jaw, smooth and silken, shining clean. Of course. He’d gone home to shower and change. His shirt was a crisp white cotton, worn loose and untucked with only a few of the buttons done up and the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. His dress shirt, she thought, touched that he’d worn it for her.

He stood tall, searching the facade of the building. She half raised her hand, an involuntary I’m here! Her voice was frozen in her throat.

With only a cursory glance around him, Jesse stripped out of the shirt, kicked off his shoes. In one motion, he lowered his pants, either taking his briefs with them or proving that he’d gone without, because when he stepped out of the discarded garment he was entirely nude. And head-to-toe glorious.

Estrella shrank to a crouch. Not to conceal herself. Simply because no strength remained in her legs. She was drained of all but the ability to stare.

No, he was too grand for that. She must behold him.

Behold his beauty. The animal grace. She’d thought he’d looked good sweating on the job with tight jeans the perfect foil to his blatant masculinity. Now he was unrestrained.

---