Read Online Red Heat by Nina Bruhns - Free Book Online

instrument buoys attached to drifting sea ice to collect weather and water data. No doubt his years of working with the navy’s SOSUS network didn’t hurt his expertise in the field.
    “Done your homework, I see,” Edwards said with a pleased expression.
    “A little,” she said. “This assignment was a bit last minute, so I’m still catching up on details. Looking forward to hearing more about your project.”
    He smiled. “So, you really hate the ocean?”
    She grimaced. “Yeah. Almost drowned as a child. Never quite got over it. Being on a submarine is kinda testing the limits of my psychosis.”
    He laughed. “Well, sugar, the good news is, if anything goes wrong on this tub, trust me, swimmin’ll be the least of your worries.”
    Wow. “Gee, thanks. Ree-ally needed to hear that.”
    Still laughing, he caught sight of Nikolai, who was silently following their conversation as he ate standing up behind her. Edwards slid over to the very end of the two-person bench and motioned for her to scoot in closer. “Have a seat, Skipper. We can squeeze in one more. I’m sure Miss Severin won’t mind the close quarters.”
    Nikolai’s eyes met and lingered on hers for a nanosecond before he smiled at Edwards and shook his head. “Very kind. But I’m sure Miss Severin will have enough close quarters with me before too long.”
    The master chief’s brows hiked. Julie’s suddenly queasy stomach did a somersault.
    “We ran out of staterooms,” Nikolai explained, “so I’ve invited her to share mine.”
    She couldn’t believe he’d made their arrangement public. She was sorely tempted to pack up and move to the torpedo room just to spite him.
    Edwards blinked twice, then grinned. “I see.”
    No. He didn’t.
    Okay, fine. Maybe he did.
    God help her.
    “I’m afraid I must get back to my duties now,” Nikolai said, scraping the last bite from his plate. “I’ll see you later, Julie. Master Chief.”
    “ Julie , eh?” Edwards said with eyebrow still cocked. “Interesting development.”
    “No. It’s not.” She glared at Nikolai’s retreating back. “The captain assured me he’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
    Edwards’s gaze slid to the front of her coveralls, pausing on the gold Cyrillic lettering on its left side. His steady grin didn’t fade one iota. “Yes, I can see he already is.”
    It was her turn to blink. “Excuse me?”
    “The name on your poopie suit.”
    Poopie suit? She creased her brow, then realized he meant her coveralls. She glanced down at her chest. “What about it?”
    “Has anyone on the crew seen it?”
    “Sure. Probably all of them. Why?”
    “It says ‘Commander Nikolai Romanov.’ You’re wearing his uniform. Therefore, there isn’t a man on this boat who doesn’t know he’s your . . . protector.”
    She felt her face flood with heat. He had got to be kidding . Her hand went instinctively to her chest to cover up the name. Then she realized the futility of the gesture and dropped it.
    Awkward. “My suitcase was . . . uh, lost . . . when I came aboard.”
    “So I heard.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “Tough break.”
    “No freaking kidding.”
    “I’m sure we can scrounge up some more duds for you. Meanwhile, it’s not such a bad thing to be under the skipper’s protection.”
    She made a face. “Are submariners really so dangerous that a woman on board needs protecting from them?” she asked jokingly.
    “Submar- ee -ners,” he said, correcting her pronunciation. Right. She’d forgotten about that quirk of pride. Something about them not being “sub” to anything, especially not marines. “And yeah, I guess we do have a bit of a reputation with the ladies,” Edwards admitted with another laugh. He leaned in conspiratorially. “But it’s the scientists you really gotta watch out for. They might look like nerds, but they’re Euro pe- uns,” he said, drawing out the last word, “if you know what I mean.” He winked.
    “I’ll keep that in