Free Saving the Seal: A BWWM Navy Seal Interracial Romance by Cristina Grenier

that he’d never properly challenged himself. Signing up for the SEALs had been a test of his own strength – one he’d never intended to pass.
    But instead, he’d excelled – proving to himself, his father, and his absent mother that he wasn’t as lost a cause as they might like to believe.
    As he spoke, Genny both listened and watched the man. The careful, precise way he handled his weapon and the tension in his body. He respected guns just as much as his father, if not more. And though he’d attested to her that he was through with the SEALs, it was more than evident in the way that he carried himself that what he was wasn’t a title. It was in his blood.
    But something prevented him from claiming it – from admitting what he was and would always be.
    She just had to discover what that something was.
    At the end of a two hour shooting session, they were informed that they would have to give up their lane to some infantry soldiers. Despite the fact that she was hot and sweaty, her head pounding from the effort of concentrating on increasingly further targets, Genny was sorry to see their time come to an end.
    Though Owen still hadn’t begun to speak of what it was that haunted him during his waking hours, he had spoken to her about his past – and that was no small thing. One would almost think he’d started to trust her.
    “So, Owen…” She relinquished her weapon to a pair of soldiers, removing her gloves to rub at her sore palms. “I’d like to talk about our next appointment, if that’s alright with you.” The lieutenant handed his gun over with a nod to the same two soldiers who had taken Genny’s before fixing her with an inscrutable look.
    “If it’s all the same to you, doc, I’d rather not.”
    Genevieve’s eyes widened.
    He had to be joking. She thought they’d been doing well. She’d gone through all of her appointments the last week on edge because she hadn’t known whether this tactic would work. Apparently, what she considered a success was not the same in Owen’s eyes. “You won’t come to another appointment?” She kept her tone tactfully neutral.
    “I don’t do well with appointments.” He replied succinctly, his hands sliding into his pockets as he looked down at her from his great height.
    Genny frowned. “You were fine with this one.”
    “This wasn’t an appointment.” Owen rebutted lowly. “This was a conversation. No office, no white couch, no doctor and no patient. Just you, and me.” Genny repressed a shudder at his low, almost intimate tone. They had been far from alone for the entire session – but he had a point. It had felt less like an appointment than any interaction she’d had with patients before. “If you can promise me that all of our appointments will be like this, then I’ll consider the next one.”
    Genevieve stared at the man in shock. She’d been hoping that this appointment would be a stepping stone that would eventually place them back in the office – perhaps a bigger one, but an office nonetheless. She didn’t have the authority to take patients from the facility more than once or twice a month.
    Which meant that she couldn’t promise Owen what he wanted. She took a deep breath, meeting his piercing green eyes.
    “Owen, I-”
    “Can you, or can’t you tell me that we won’t be going back to the hospital?”
    Goddamn it. The man was an infuriating, stubborn force of nature – and it was her job not to let him know it. Genevieve exhaled slowly in an attempt to keep her temper in check. “No, Owen. I can’t.”
    It was the honest truth. She never lied to her patients.
    Owen sighed, shaking his head as his expression darkened. “I suppose we find ourselves at an impasse then.” That was putting it lightly, to say the least. If the man didn’t agree to their next session, he would be the first patient she had ever lost. “Unless…” Genevieve’s spirit lifted as he continued, his gaze thoughtful. “Unless there’s some way