Free Hot SEALs: Discarded Heart (Kindle Worlds; Danger Incorporated Book 2.5) by Olivia Jaymes

things I loved about her. Her innate honesty. You were the first one to say I love you. You were courageous and I thought you were the most amazing woman I’d ever known. Hell, I still do.”
    How was she supposed to stay strong when all she wanted to do was collapse in his arms? It wasn’t fair and it pissed her off but he was right about one thing. She’d changed since she became Alex’s mother. She’d become a shadow of her former self, playing it safe at all times and eschewing risk. It hadn’t happened overnight but here she was a real wimp. The kind of woman who could bore herself to tears.
    “Fine. Just dinner.”
    “And a movie,” he pressed but she shook her head in exasperation. He’d always been like this. Give the man an inch and he thought he was a ruler.
    “Maybe a movie. Don’t push me, Cal. I can easily just go home and eat in front of the television by myself.”
    “Okay, you win. Dinner and maybe a movie.”
    “What did you have in mind? The diner?”
    Cal’s arms loosened and he stepped back and began packing away his tools one by one. “Actually I heard about that new steak house in Virginia Beach and I’ve been wanting to try it. Are you game?”
    He knew very well she loved a well-cooked filet with a baked potato on the side. Her answer was a given.
    “Then I definitely need to change.” She looked down at her faded blue jeans and white blouse, already second-guessing the entire evening. “Is that okay?”
    “Of course. I can’t go like this either. Why don’t I pick you up in about an hour?”
    Like a date. With kisses and stuff. She was such an idiot. Cal made her do things she wouldn’t normally do.
    “An hour,” she echoed, grabbing up her things and making her way toward the car. She didn’t want to think about how unwise the entire idea was. “I’ll be ready.”
    As ready as she’d ever be.

Chapter Ten
    CAL RAN HIS finger around his collar again as he and Mika sipped their coffee. They were sitting in the new steakhouse in Virginia Beach after enjoying a delicious meal and excellent service. The restaurant had certainly lived up to its hype and he and Mika had managed to keep the conversation light and friendly for most of the meal.
    He was still nervous as hell. Everything he wanted was riding on this so the pressure was on. He’d always thrived on the adrenaline but the sweat pooling at the back of his neck was no joke. This tiny woman held his future happiness in her hands.
    She was nervous too.
    She fidgeted in her chair, crossing and uncrossing her legs while she jangled her foot to some beat that only she could hear. Now that dinner was drawing to an end she was playing with her spoon, her gaze riveted to the flatware as if it was the first utensil she’d ever seen in her life.
    “So what do you think about a movie? I’ll let you choose. They have them all here in Virginia Beach.”
    The Applewood cinema only showed two movies at a time and they were whatever Sam’s wife enjoyed, which meant they were usually chick flicks of some sort where someone dies in the end and everyone cries. Not a car chase, alien, or superhero to be found.
    “It’s kind of late.”
    Mika still didn’t look up, needlessly stirring her coffee, the china clinking with every turn of the spoon.
    Cal quickly checked his watch and grinned. “It’s nine o’clock. That’s not late unless you’re Alex’s age. We’re all grown up and we can stay out when it’s not a school night.”
    Mika finally looked up at him a reluctant smile on her lips. “I’m usually passed out on the couch by nine-thirty. It’s funny because I used to be such a night owl.”
    Laughing, he remembered a few crabby, cranky mornings but he’d always known the way to get on her good side. “I never could convince you that the sunrise was something worth getting up for. You once threw your alarm clock at me when we were going fishing.”
    “Why do fish get up so early anyway?” Mika wrinkled her nose and