Free Fatal Heat: A Navy SEAL Novella by Lisa Marie Rice

months old.
    Get a grip on yourself . It was so hard to reconcile what she knew of herself with the messages her body was sending her.
    Paige was cool and cerebral. A little detached. Always had been. She’d never been ruled by her hormones like her roommate in college had been. Moira had had a real good time in college. Real good. But she’d dropped out because Study of Gross Male Anatomy hadn’t been on the curriculum and nothing else had interested her half as much.
    Paige had been a straight-A student all the way.
    She’d always liked sex, it was one of life’s greatest pleasures. Somewhere above Spaghetti all’Amatriciana but definitely below that amazing massage she’d had at the Broken Tree Spa overlooking the Pacific. And it had always been a pleasure she could do without when there was no one suitable around.
    So that was her experience of sex, which was worlds away from this compulsion, like a dark creature living inside her that filled her head with heated images. Every time she moved, she was reminded of Max, particularly when she sat down.
    She, who was so very self-sufficient, couldn’t wait for Max to get back from San Francisco.
    Not just for the sex, either. She wanted to hear what the doctor said about his leg. She wanted to tell him what an incredible dickhead the project leader was being. Maybe she’d share her worries about Silvia. If he laughed them away, she’d feel better about it. If he took her worries seriStuworriesously, she might think of contacting someone.
    She trusted his judgement absolutely.
    That was something new, too. Paige never trusted anyone’s judgement as much as she trusted her own. But the few times Max disagreed with her opinion, he made her think. For such a macho man, he had the capacity to reason things out in a way that made sense to her.
    She missed him. She wanted him home right now.
    It was as if she had this tropism, like a plant to the sun.
    She wanted him home, now.
    Her vagina clenched.
    Whoa. She definitely needed to think of something else. Some work ought to do it. There was some data she needed to enter into a spreadsheet and some reports she had to catch up on. Work cooled her down, centered her.
    She dove in and was lost to the world when her cell phone rang.
    “Hello?”
    “Paige!”
    She sat up, electrified. “Silvia! Where are you? I’ve been trying to—”
    “Paige, I have to be quick! I’ve sent you info on Twitter. To Barbie, go check it now. Make sure you put it somewhere safe. Something terrible is happening, Paige. I think we’re going to have to go to the FDA. Maybe the FBI.”
    Paige’s eyes widened as she clutched her cell phone. “Where have you—”
    “No time, Paige! I’ve been running away from them all week. I think I’ve finally found a place where I can be safe. A friend is going to help me cross over into—” The connection was broken and Paige stared at the cell phone’s display. She checked the call register. It wasn’t Silvia’s cell phone number, which was memorized in her SIM card. Silvia was either using someone else’s cell or had bought a disposable one.
    Something terrible is happening.
    The urgency in Silvia’s voice spurred her. She accessed Twitter and scrolled. She and Silvia had set up a private communication system—@Barbie1 and @Barbie2—to complain about their bosses. Two years ago, Paige had had what they called a “seagull boss”—he flew in, he crapped all over everything, and then flew out—who was angry at the failed results coming from his pet project. In one notable incident, he threw the hard copy of the failed test—all two hundred pages—in the air, accusing her of not doing her job. Of being a Barbie doll hired for her looks.
    Instead of being kicked in the ass, he’d been kicked upstairs, but not before writing an epically negative report on her.
    Silvia had been there, and ever since then, they kept a close eye on all the assholes. Currently the biggest asshole in sight was