Free Trusting the SEAL (Saving the SEALs Series Book 3) by Leslie North Page A

signed up. After boot camp, they accepted me into the marksmanship program then into SEAL training. Now, here I am.” He picked at some non-existent lint on the front of his dark blue T-shirt. “What about you? From what I read, I figured a pretty gal like you would give Paris Hilton a run for her money.”
    “Nah.” She scrunched her nose and stared up at the darkening sky. “I’m more of a peace and quiet, recharge with nature kind of girl.” She sniffed the air then smiled. “Do you smell that? Garlic. My Aunt Nana--she wasn’t really my aunt, but I always called her that anyway—she had this Italian restaurant and I used to hang out in her kitchen all the time when my mom was working. Dad never came around, so I was on my own most of the time.” She gave a small shrug, her sad tone tugging at Spencer’s heart. “This one time, when I was about nine, she got called away on a family emergency and put me in charge while she was gone.”
    “Put you in charge? At nine?”
    “Yep.” Toni grinned at him. “I loved it. I ran everything for the whole night. Front of the house, back kitchen. Everything. All the staff knew me, and most likely they were just playing along to appease me, but that’s when I knew.”
    “Knew what?”
    “That I like running the show.”
    “Only child?” he asked.
    “Yep.”
    “Me too.”
    “Really?” She faced Spencer, her hip grazing his. “Guess we do have something in common then.”
    “Guess so.”
    Her gaze lowered and she wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry again about that disagreement on the plane. I tend to get pretty passionate about things I believe in, but that’s no reason to be rude.”
    “Forget about it.” He gave a small shrug. “I understand the whole passionate thing. That’s why I’m here after all.”
    “To serve God and country?”
    “No, to—” He wanted to say more, but was interrupted by the ding of the elevator arriving in their foyer. He straightened and cleared his throat before stepping back inside from the balcony. “Bet that’s dinner. Be right back.”
    Spencer showed the room service waiter into the dining room and watched while he unloaded their meal onto the black marble tabletop. The smells of curry and garlic and lemon tickled his nose and made his stomach rumble anew. Toni wandered in and took a seat across the table from where Spencer stood. Once the guy had laid everything out, Spencer tried to give the man a tip.
    “No, sir,” the waiter said, bowing. “You are here under the hospitality of the sheik. To take your money would be an insult to his royal highness.”
    “Of course.” Spencer made a small bow of his own to the man, thanking him in his native tongue. “ Shukraan. ”
    “ ’Ahlaan wasahlaan ,” the man said, bowing once more before leaving.
    Toni lifted the domes off of several plates and inhaled deep of the rich aromas of roasted shrimp and spiced beans. “Man, I’ve missed this kind of food.”
    “How many times have you been to Jubail?” Spencer asked as he waited for her to fill her plate, then did the same himself. He took the seat across from her and dug in to the delicious meal.
    “Only once, several years ago. I’ve visited Jordan and Dubai a few times too for the foundation.”
    Her mention of Williams Wishes brought his thoughts back around to the mission. “How many of these e-readers would you say you hand out in a given year?”
    She frowned, chewing and swallowing a large bite of pita bread slathered with hummus before answering. “Last year we donated over twelve thousand in five different countries around the world. We’re on track to double that amount this year. Why?”
    “Just wondered.” He filed the information away to share with his team later and opened two bottles of the pale ale, passing one to her before taking a large gulp of his own. The prawns on his kebobs were each nearly the size of his hand and tasted like pure sweet and sour goodness. “That’s a lot of