Free Hard to Hold on To by Laura Kaye Page A

she’d done in the gym.
    Easy swallowed hard and willed his body not to react. But, damn, it had been a long time since a woman had looked at him the way Jenna was doing now. Way he’d been feeling, it’d been a damn long time since he’d even put himself out there. Turned out being pretty well convinced you were a worthless piece of shit responsible for the death of your best friend didn’t put you in the dating frame of mind. Go figure.
    Annnd that thought quickly doused any arousal Jenna’s gaze had been stirring.
    “Okay, then. Be right back,” he said. When she nodded and smiled, he left for the bathroom, shut the door, and ditched his clothes. He’d taken some fast showers in his day. Hell, during basic, they’d had three minutes to get in and out of the shower all while their drill sergeant hovered over them with a stopwatch. This shower was on par with those.
    Last thing he wanted was for Jenna to get scared again. Not on his watch.
    Except . . . all he’d been thinking about was getting back to Jenna as quickly as possible. Which meant he hadn’t been thinking about what he planned to wear when he returned to his room. Where she sat waiting. For him.
    As he dried off and stepped out of the shower, Easy’s gaze snagged on a wad of clothing stuffed into the small plastic trash can under the sink. He knelt . . . and pulled out the Lenny Kravitz T-shirt Jenna had been wearing when they’d rescued her. Dropping his forehead to the fabric in his hands, Easy’s gut squeezed as he remembered the day he’d thrown away the bloodied clothing he’d worn during the ambush. He’d discarded it not because it’d been stained but because he’d never again be able to look at it and not remember how the blood got there in the first place.
    Carefully, gently, Easy folded the shirt into a neat rectangle and returned it where he found it—where Jenna had discarded it . . . in favor of one of his shirts.
    The thought hauled him off the floor. He wrapped the white towel around his waist. No choice but to brazen it out.
    He stopped in the bedroom doorway and eyeballed his duffel. He didn’t want to freak her out by parading around half-naked, but there was no help for it. Jenna sat perched on the corner of the bed, one foot bouncing in agitation, her hands fisted in the comforter. Damn, talk about brazening it out. She was scared. He’d put money on it. And so focused on just making it until he returned that she hadn’t even noticed him.
    He cleared his throat. “You okay?”
    Her gaze flew to where he stood, and then she did a double take. “Uh, yeah,” she said. He didn’t miss her quick face-to-feet sweep of his body, nor the fact that her foot stopped shaking.
    “Sorry, I was so focused on being fast that I forgot to take clothes.”
    “Oh, no worries,” she said, dropping her gaze to the floor.
    Easy crossed to his bag and crouched to grab a few things. He’d spent a lot of years in the Army honing his survival instincts. Like most elite operators, he had a knack for knowing when he was being watched. And those instincts were roaring right now. Heat flooded through his blood. He wasn’t sure what it was about Jenna, but she’d made him feel more like a man in the past few days than he’d felt in the whole last year combined.
    “I’m sorry I borrowed your shirt without asking.” Her voice was quiet, uncertain.
    And he was having none of it. Clothes in hand, he rose and turned, grabbing onto the towel at his waist so it didn’t fall. “Not even a thing, Jenna. You need something and I have it to give, I will, every damn time. You hear me?”
    He wasn’t sure whether he was more intrigued by the smile that played around her lips or the way her cheeks turned pink. “Yeah,” she said.
    He nodded and gestured to the hall. “Be right back.” Just before he walked out the door, he glanced over his shoulder, and found her gripping the bed and bouncing her foot again. Because he was leaving.
    Then he