Read Online Claiming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 1) by Kat Cantrell - Free Book Online

the quandary that was this insane reaction he had to her.
    But then she slid one palm inside his shorts to cup his rear and her little finger wandered toward the front, where the ache could only be salved one way—by stripping that tiny bikini from her luscious body and having his way with her.
    “Dex.” Her voice shattered into nothingness as she sighed his name against his lips. “Look. I’m in the water and it’s not so bad because you’re here. And you’re kissing me. Tell me that’s not so bad either.”
    Her point wasn’t lost on him, even while under the influence of an Emma-induced haze of lust. She’d done something scary, something she hadn’t want to do but he’d made it easier for her. Totally against his will, but far be it from him to mention it.
    She was asking for validation that whatever had caused him to warn her away had somehow magically become better, simply because she was here. How did he tell her it was worse? So much worse.
    And he had just enough presence of mind to realize that if he took advantage of her hero worship in order to get her naked, he’d be exactly the dickhead he’d warned her he was. So he couldn’t do it. Because he couldn’t stand for the one person who saw him as something else to be given a reason to change her mind.
    It was the worst paradox of all.

B efore Emma could fully register what was happening, Dex had dropped his arms and stepped away.
    Her skin prickled as a chilly wave crashed against her thighs. Without Dex’s heat, the water had turned bleak and cold. And frightening. The moonlight didn’t penetrate the surface but instead cast the water with an opaque sheen that hid all sorts of dangers underneath.
    Dex was not one of them. She’d believe in his self-purported bad boy status when pigs flew.
    “Where are you going?” she asked point blank.
    This song and dance was getting old. She wanted him. He wanted her—and if he tried to lie about that fact when it was blatantly obvious what had been digging into her abdomen for the better part of five minutes, she’d deck him.
    “You’re in the water,” he muttered. “What more do you want from me?”
    Everything . The hard length that had evidenced his desire. His mouth on hers again. His smile, his gallantry, the sweet way he encouraged her to move forward no matter what lay behind.
    But she’d start with the truth.
    Advancing on him, she stuck a finger in the dead center of his chest. “So, I’ve had just about enough of this, Dex. I’m really bad at reading minds, so just tell me what’s so big and scary about you that you think I can’t handle it?”
    She couldn’t handle a lot about her life back in Boston. This trip was a chance to fix that and this hardheaded man was not ruining her redo.
    He glanced down at her finger and back up again, sardonic amusement twisting his mouth into a smile he probably meant to appear cruel. But she could see vulnerability flitting through his depths. Way deep down where he’d probably forgotten it existed. That, or he thought the darkness covered it.
    “Sure you want to go sticking your nose into things you can’t begin to understand?” he asked her softly.
    His voice had taken on an edge that skated down her spine, unleashing a shiver. It should have frightened her, especially given her track record with men who seemed fine but turned out to be monsters on the inside. But she could never be scared of Dex, no matter how many ways he tried to make her think she should be.
    No man who went to such lengths to keep a woman safe could ever harm her. If anything, she’d put money on him taking a bullet for her before she’d bet on him hurting her. Even now, when she’d made her interest in taking things to the next level extremely hard to misinterpret, he’d backed off. To save her. It was nearly poetic.
    “Yes, actually.” She eyed him. The stubborn set of his jaw just piqued her ire all the more. “You think you’ve cornered the market on dealing