Free The Trouble With Temptation (Second Service Book 3) by Adrienne Bell Page A

it.” He threw her words back to her.
    “You’re very confident.” She smiled widely, before taking another cheese-drenched bite.
    “It’s only cocky if you can’t back it up.”
    “So, tell me,” she said, giving him a look of open curiosity. “What’s happened in your life to make you into this self-assured superman?”
    “Just life in general.”
    “Let me guess. You learned self-confidence from the same place you learned to pick locks?”
    Ty smiled. “Could have been.”
    “And where was that?”
    He took a chip and winked at her. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
    She laughed. “It sounds like a hell of a story.”
    “It is.”
    “Maybe you’ll tell me some time.”
    “Maybe.”
    Ty was saved from having to say more when a group needed to get by them on the bleachers. Morgan pressed her legs against his to give them room. He wrapped his arm around her back to steady her as they scooted by, but he didn’t remove it once they had passed.
    Morgan didn’t pull away. She leaned into his side.
    How long had it been since he had been out on a date like this? With someone he felt totally comfortable with? Someone who teased him? Someone who made him laugh?
    The truth was he liked Morgan. He liked her a lot. If it wasn’t for this operation he would have answered her questions. He would have opened up. He would have told her about his time in the Navy. His childhood. His struggles.
    There was something about her that made him want to tell her about his life. He never saw any judgment in her eyes. Just understanding and protection…and joy. Lots of joy.
    Morgan tilted her head to the side, so it rested on his shoulder. Her body relaxed underneath his arm as she drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Her warm weight molded against his body. Ty’s defenses began to lower.
    He’d been on high alert for the last twenty-four hours. Ever since he’d first spotted Morgan hunkered down in front of her brother’s office door.
    He’d never expected her to keep her promise. She’d told him what she thought he wanted to hear, but her truthful eyes had told him everything he needed to know.
    She wasn’t going to give up. She couldn’t. Her brother was in danger. People she cared for were caught in the middle. There was no way she was going to let the chips fall where they may.
    Ty could understand. He’d never been able to be a bystander. He needed to be involved. He needed to help. It was something that burned inside him. And it looked like that need was inside Morgan Kincaid as well.
    Of course, she didn’t have his Navy SEAL training. She’d never set foot in Quantico. All her sympathy and joie de vivre wouldn’t save her from the Bratva .
    But Ty would. No matter what.
    Last night, after she walked into her building, he’d pulled his bike into the alley across the street and kept watch. It hadn’t been hard to figure out which apartment was hers. It had to be the one with the lights on all night long.
    Fortunately, the night had been quiet. There’d been no strange activity outside her building, no suspicious cars slowly driving by. By daybreak, Ty was satisfied that Barinov’s men weren’t planning an immediate attack.
    The thought didn’t give Ty too much comfort. He’d been following Barinov for too long. The man never made an empty threat. Ty could only hope that slashing Morgan’s tires had been a warning and not a promise.
    Either way, the vandalism was a reminder that Ty couldn’t relax. Not even on a night out. No matter what Morgan had planned for tonight’s entertainment.

 
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    Morgan worried too much.
    It was a side effect of her overactive imagination. At least, that was what her mother always told her. And this one time Morgan was apt to agree.
    She’d been running over every terrible scenario in her mind from the moment Ty had picked her up. Scenarios where the Russians ran them off the road, or waited in the bushes as she walked