Page 55 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

“Nope.” He fished an apple out of his pack and sliced it in two with the blade from his Leatherman. “You never have.”

Just for the hell of it, he offered her half of the apple.

She regarded it, then him, with a wary look over the top of her open water bottle.

He laughed. “It’s a peace offering, all right? You might tick me off with some of your decisions, but hey, that’s not my call. You’re doing your job. And from where I sit, you do it damn well—even though I don’t always agree with your methods.”

She shoved her dark glasses up on the top of her head, her coffee-brown eyes still distrustful. “Okay … now you’re being just plain rational—which is scary. What’s the catch?”

He laughed again, bit into his half of the apple. “No catch, Ms. Assistant DA. Figured maybe it was time to bury the hatchet is all. So this is just me, trying to be a nice guy.”

She smiled another one of those secret, amused smiles. Secret and sexy.

“And that’s funny because?”

She bit into the apple. White teeth, lush lips, and pink tongue. Holy God, he definitely had to quit looking at her mouth.

“Because it surprises me to know there’s a ‘nice guy’ side to your persona.”

He grunted. “I’m a surprise a minute. And I think I’ve just been insulted.”

A sexy dimple dented her left cheek. “We haven’t exactly seen eye to eye on the last two cases, and you don’t exactly conceal your resentment.”

“Yeah, well, I’m competitive. So sue me.”

They lapsed into an almost comfortable silence as they drank, finished off the fruit and took in the vast and stunning beauty of Canyon buttes, high plateaus, mazes and crannies stretched out around, above and below them. The Colorado meandered in a long, thin silver ribbon half a mile below, yet still several miles away via the trails.

Five teams of two participating in the scavenger hunt had spread out this morning from the South Rim of the Canyon. The other four teams had taken Bright Angel Trail down then fanned out on varying side trails depending on their individual maps.

Seth and Elena were the only team to draw Kaibab Trail, which was further down the rim. The first couple of miles were the hardest. The chalk-colored limestone passes were steep as hell, hard on the knees and not for the weak of body or heart. You had to be a serious hiker to do the Canyon’s desert climate or it would eat you alive.

It had been over an hour since they’d seen any other hikers. Seth knew from experience that not many made it this far into the “big hole.” It was just too rigorous. As they progressed even deeper, traversing thirty thousand years of the Canyon’s five-million-year history with each downward step, the chances were they’d seen their last human until they climbed back out tomorrow afternoon—hopefully in time to see the condors fly in to roost in the jagged cliffs near the Canyon Village compound.

“So why did you enter the hunt?” he asked again.

She offered him her bag of trail mix. “While it may seem that I prefer the courtroom to anything else, I love the Canyon. I love hiking. And I love the idea of helping out for a good cause. How about you? Why’d you enter?”

He shrugged and poured the mix of nuts and raisins into his palm before handing the bag back to her. “Same reasons, I guess. My dad was a teacher so he had summers off. He and I used to camp somewhere in the Canyon three or four times a summer. I love it here. Never get to see it these days.”

She nodded then smiled again.

“Okay. What’s funny this time?”

“Us. Sitting here talking like civilized people instead of yelling over points of law.”

Seth scratched his head. Grinned. “It is kind of weird, huh?”

“Yeah. Weird. Best not get used to it. We’re in a bubble here. Two days from now it’ll be back to business as usual and I imagine we’ll be butting heads again.”

Business as usual? I don’t think so, Seth speculated to himself when she stood and brushed off her butt. It was all he could do to resist offering up his services to handle that chore for her.

Elena Martinez might tick him off sometimes, but she’d always intrigued him. Fascinated might be the better word. He’d never get a better chance than now to capitalize on this close proximity to the dishy assistant DA. They’d be spending a lot of time together during the next forty-eight hours. Alone time. He planned to make the best of each and every hour. Anything could happen if he decided to give in to a little carnal curiosity and she did the same. She was curious, too. He could tell. Just like he could tell she didn’t want to be but her resistance was slipping.

“No less than five, no more than twenty.” She shouldered her pack, adjusted its weight. “We’ve been here a little over fifteen minutes.”

Nope. The gorgeous Elena was no panty-waist, Seth thought again. She knew her stuff. Knew that less than a five-minute rest was worthless and more than twenty would cause their muscles to stiffen up.

He tugged a map out of a zippered pouch on the leg of his shorts. “If this map is accurate, we should be getting close to our first item on the list. That means we’ll be veering off the maintained trail soon.”

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