Free To Dare a SEAL (Sin City SEALs) by Sara Jane Stone Page B

boyfriend,” Natalie said—loud enough for Jack to hear her—and turned her attention to the game. “And I don’t flirt.”
    Jack leaned forward and looked at the blonde. Out of the corner of her eye, Natalie saw his gaze drop to the blonde’s most distracting asset—but only for a second. “She means that,” he said. “‘Go away’ is her default response when a guy approaches her.”
    “And you like that?” The other woman appeared shocked as she signaled the dealer for yet another card. Someone—maybe Mack-by-the-bar—should drag her away from the table before she lost too much.
    “Yeah, I do,” Jack said. “I know she has her reasons. And one day I’m hoping that she’ll let me in and share them with me.”
    “Don’t count on it,” Natalie said as she counted her chips. She’d gone over twenty dollars. She’d won. Thank you God. “I don’t like to share.”
    “Darlin’, when it comes to you, I don’t count on anything,” he drawled. “But I don’t give up easily.”
    “Maybe you should have.” She pointed to her chips. “Probably would have kept more dignity than outright losing to me.” She smiled. “Time to go, Jack.” She slid off her stool, taking her pile of chips. “We have a long afternoon of shopping ahead of us.”
    “Have fun,” the blonde called. “And don’t forget. Make. Him. Jealous.”
    “Ma’am.” Jack flashed his charming smile at Mack’s girlfriend. “Right now, I’m so jealous of an injured hero who had the privilege of teaching her to play cards that I can barely think straight. The footsy was just a bonus.”
    Natalie frowned as she reached the steps leading to the pool deck. Barely think straight? What had that meant? If one conversation could throw Jack’s concentration, it was a miracle he’d survived his first deployment with the SEALs.
    “That was almost too easy,” she murmured as the water splashed at her waist. “Almost like you didn’t want to win.”
    He stood on the other side of the metal handrail, one foot on the bottom step. “Are you suggesting I threw the game?” he asked.
    “I think you were pretending to be distracted by our conversation. The blonde in the bikini top…that’s another story.” She climbed out of the pool, selected a dry towel from the poolside stack, and headed for the lounge chair where she’d left her cover-up. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Jack run a towel over his dripping wet pecs, his sculpted six-pack…
    Jack moved to her side and dropped his towel on the chair. She shifted her gaze away from his muscles and noted the stiff, halted way he grabbed his dry shirt from the chair and pulled it over his head.
    He turned to her, and she realized she was clutching to her chest the oversize T-shirt she’d used in place of a fancy beach cover-up. He reached out and placed one finger under her chin, then tilted her head up until she was staring into his blue eyes.
    “You’re right, I don’t get distracted,” he said, his tone low and serious. “And I don’t give a damn how small that woman’s bikini top was. The only tits, shit—the only breasts I want—”
    “You can say tits, Jack.”
    He looked hard at her. “The only breasts, the only tits—the only anything —I want to see are yours.”
    The way he looked at her—he wasn’t smiling. He always offered a hint of charm with his words. Maybe he turned serious like this on missions with his team, but—
    “And I don’t cheat, Natalie. I’m not like my brothers. I played the cards I was dealt, plain and simple. Your tricks and that woman’s breasts had nothing to do with my loss. Understood?”
    “Yes.”
    He dropped his hand and turned to the cabana. A few of the guests still lingered out front. “I’m going to change into dry shorts,” he added. “Then we’ll shop.”
    She’d hit a nerve. There was a lot she didn’t know about Jack Barnes. But she had a feeling that his past cut deeper than she’d first