Page 68 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

“Come on. I’ll help you.”

She didn’t say a word. She just lifted her violently quaking hands over her head and let him strip off her wet shirt. Huddled into herself when he went to work on her boots then tugged them off along with her sodden socks. Lifted her hips after he’d worked the zipper on her fly and let him shimmy the wet cloth down her legs until she was shivering in her bra and panties.

“Hang on,” he said gently as he stood and tested his balance. Iffy, but better than he’d expected.

As quickly as he could, he stripped down to his boxers then spread their clothes out to dry on the branches of spindly willow and salt cedar limbs and on rocks that still held the residual heat from the sun. Then he hurried back to her side.

“Black,” he said easing down beside her where she sat on a small patch of coyote willows and horsetail grass in her black bra and bikini panties. “Even better than red.”

“One … track … mmm … mind,” she stuttered between chattering teeth as he drew her tightly against him, fusing their flesh together so their body heat would combine and draw from each other and eventually increase both her body temp and his.

“Sorry my hands are so rough,” he apologized as he briskly rubbed her back, her arms, her legs where she’d knotted them with his in an effort to speed the warming process.

“F … friction. Good,” she managed and already he felt her skin warming beneath his hands.

“Elena. Beautiful,” he grunted back in his best caveman voice.

“Okay. With th … at remark you officially hit m … my definition of certifiably in … insane.”

“Why?” He kept up the constant rubbing, relieved to feel a slight decrease in the severity of her tremors. “Because you think you’re not sexy as hell—even though you’re half drowned?’

“Because not f-f-f … five minutes ago, we almost died and you’re s-s-s … still coming on to me.”

He smiled against her wet hair. “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”

“Seth … do me a f-f-f … favor, will you?”

“Anything.”

“Shut up.”

He grinned. God, the woman had guts. He hugged her tighter. She could be bitching and moaning and working herself into hysterical tears. Instead, she endured.

“You’ve got spunk, you know that, Martinez? I like that in a woman.”

“King,” she said in a leading tone.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” He kissed the top of her head. “Shutting up now.”

HEAT. WEIGHT. PRESSURE.

All good. All wonderful.

Elena fought against the pull toward consciousness. She liked where she was just fine—drifting between sleep and wakefulness.

Heat. Weight. Pressure.

The force of it reassured her. Warmed her. Stirred her. Heat …

Weight …

Pressure …

In all the right spots. In all the right ways.

Seth.

Holding her. Warming her. Protecting her.

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