Free One Hot SEAL by Anne Marsh

the river isn’t a relationship or a
roomie tryout. How do you know you won’t regret asking me home with you?”
    He shrugged and helped her to her
feet. Somehow her bikini top had ended up in a nearby bush, and her bottoms
were lying in the grass. Nice.
    “All I know,” he said, “is that
I’ll regret not giving us a shot. So work with me here, okay?”
    She meant to get up and go, but
somehow the next word that came out of her mouth was, “Okay.”
     
    ~*~
     
    The Dawsons ran cattle on a thousand-acre
ranch that was one of the oldest in the county. His family had owned the place
since the eighteenth century. They had the kind of roots that ran even deeper
than the large collection of springs, reservoirs, and wells dotting the
property. From what she remembered of her high school days, Luke had two
brothers, one younger and one older.
    He also had his own place on the
ranch, which was a relief. The two-bedroom redwood home was tucked away in a
grove of California oaks. It had floor-to-ceiling windows for watching the nearby
mountains and wood-beamed ceilings. There was a stone fireplace in the great
room and a decent-sized kitchen. It was easy to imagine Luke here, raising a family.
    It was harder to imagine herself
here.
    Or maybe that was because Luke,
when he had a plan, was pretty much unstoppable. He’d swung by her storage unit
since, as he’d pointed out, he had both a truck and a garage. Paying rent on
the unit was a waste of money when she could leave her stuff at his place for
now. Since the sooner she could save up the money for the deposit, the sooner
she could get her own place, she’d agreed. Or maybe that was because Luke, in
the sweetest, nicest possible way, was kind of oblivious to her resistance.
    After two hours of loading and
unloading boxes—because, no, she wasn’t going to sit in the truck’s cab
and watch Luke haul her things around like she was a princess—she was
exhausted. Worse, he’d still done the bulk of the heavy lifting, because it
wasn’t like she could arm wrestle him into submission. Maybe there were ropes in their future, because
tying him up was about the only way she could come up with to regain some
semblance of control.
    Now, standing in Luke’s living
room, the only thing she could think about was finding the nearest soft surface
and face-planting. Actually, even the hardwood floor didn’t look so bad. He had
some kind of fuzzy, white-fur-looking rug in front of the fireplace, and she
could definitely crash there.
    “Are you sure it’s okay, my being
here?” She was pretty sure the room had just dipped. Or swayed. Whatever it
was, the floor wasn’t entirely steady beneath her feet. “Your family isn’t
going to mind?”
    She was pretty sure she’d run into
Luke’s mother once or twice in the grocery store. The older woman hadn’t seemed
particularly harpy-like, but Deelie hadn’t been sleeping with her son then
either. Long-term sex always complicated things.
    Luke watched Deelie sway on her
feet. He gave her two minutes max before she passed out standing up. While he
enjoyed camping himself, he was willing to bet that sleeping in the back of a
modified Caddy wasn’t particularly comfortable. Plus Deelie seemed to be
perpetually short of cash, which couldn’t be helping her in the peace-of-mind department.
It was nothing short of a miracle that she’d agreed to move in with him
temporarily.
    “I’m all grown up,” he said
agreeably, pointing her gently toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms.
Vicious curled up on the rug in front of the fireplace, which should work for
tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough to pick up some more doggie supplies.
    “Yeah,” she muttered sleepily, her
gaze dropping to his crotch. “I’ve noticed.”
    He grinned. His woman had no
filter. Sex with him also seemed to be one of her favorite topics, which made
him feel like he was a ten-foot-tall sex god. It was also kind of cute when she
blurted stuff out and