Burning For Nero (SEALs Going Hot) by Cerise DeLand Page A

worry.”
    Tessa smiled, her expression tight with concern for Cass.
    “But if you want the man,” Cass said, understanding Tessa’s reasoning and giving voice to her own, “you’ll take all that he is.” Professionally and personally, would she take all that Tony was?
    If he wants to give it, yes. I want him.
    “Let’s hurry,” Cass told the young woman. “I have a lot of talking to do.”
    “Wish I were a fly on the wall for this one.”
    “For future use?”
    “Yep. Nero family motto? Be prepared.”
    ****
    “Bottom line, Lieutenant,” the neurosurgeon told Tony as he handed him a set of diagrams, “you do this set of exercises, not those others they gave you in Virginia. Your problem is not the way the bones are set, but how you’re beginning to use it again. Those other PT exercises were aggravating the main nerve and not stimulating the lesser ones in your hand and arm. Do these.”
    So he hadn’t crippled himself. Damn. What a relief. “Thanks, Doctor. I’ll be happy to do them.”
    “Shall I tell your family to come in now?” The doc picked the x-rays off the clipboard and put a hand to the door.
    “No, I’m ready to go. I’ll tell them the good news.” Tony put his feet to the floor and reached for his shirt.
    His parents and Gil had been waiting all night on those ridiculously uncomfortable looking chairs and he wouldn’t keep them any longer. As the doc opened the door, Tony spied a brunette and a blonde standing talking to the threesome.
    Tessa and Cass had come here, too.
    He blew out a gust of air. Okay. Time to suit up . He pulled his T-shirt over his head and marched out the door. He had a plan of attack that he’d now alter to her arrival here, but that was cool. He was nothing if not adaptable.
    With only a look at his father and a nod to his mother and brother, he raised a brow at his sister and picked up Cassandra Phillips with one good arm, and marched toward the elevator.
    He strode past doctors who smiled. Nurses who dropped their jaws in surprise. Orderlies who chuckled. A few men in uniform. One in a wheelchair who stared.
    Meanwhile, Cass wriggled.
    “Stop that.”
    “Will you let me down?”
    “No.” When the elevator opened, he stepped inside. The thing was small and they were luckily the only passengers. “Push one.”
    She huffed, but did as she was told.
    Getting the hang of this, are we?
    “You should put me down. I’m heavy.”
    “Not for me.” For a man who had lifted three times her weight when he was soaking wet, covered in sand, she was a twig. The door opened. Without breaking a sweat, he continued down the hall to the exit door.
    “Open it,” he told her when they approached the glass portal.
    She pushed it wide.
    “Good girl.”
    And he kept on walking across the covered porch. Overlooking the parking lot, he paused. He figured she had driven since Tessa hated to. “Where is your car?”
    “To the far right.”
    He took the stairs at a jog. She jiggled in his arm.
    At her compliance, he suppressed a smartass grin.
    He strode to the driver’s side and told her to get out her key and unlock the car. She struggled with her purse and he enjoyed every second of her contortions. As her key lock beeped, he resigned himself that he had to let her drive.
    “Now hear this. I am putting you down and you will get in this car.”
    “Yes, sir,” she said in a compliant little voice.
    His cock twitched to life at her sexy tone. Oh, he planned to get her all to himself where she would never want to leave him. She landed on her feet, gaining her balance, then opened her door and sank into her bucket seat.
    Once he was inside, she reached around him to help him secure his seatbelt. “Don’t want to lose you.”
    He would have responded but the way she pressed against him, her full breasts flat to his chest had him thinking of more physical reactions to her leading statement. Gritting his teeth, restraining himself, he faced forward. “Go out the main