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

entrance and turn right on Wisconsin Avenue.”
    She checked his blank expression, then frowned. “I want to talk to you and I can’t do it well if I’m driving.”
    “Agreed.” He shot her a stern look. “Just do as I ask.”
    She raised her brows. Dark circles rimmed her eyes. Her face was drawn. Without any makeup, she was a beauty to him. Even dog-tired. The past two days had been one wild ride for them both. “I didn’t notice you were asking.”
    He flexed his back. “Asking, needing you to do this. Drive.”
    Pissed, she shoved the key into the ignition and squared her shoulders. They were well north of the medical center when he told her to take a right at the next street.
    “We’re not going back to Annapolis?”
    “We’re going to talk.”
    She growled her objection, but turned at the light.
    The sun was coming up, big, bold and brilliantly hot for a July day in the nation’s capital. Where they were going, he hoped it might be cool, pleasant, even breezy. He needed that kind of atmosphere for what he planned to tell her. She drove without question, a scowl marring her lovely features. That was okay. She’d have her say.
    “Pull in to this street,” he told her as they came upon Rock Creek Park, the shady oasis that ran through the suburbs. “Park there and we’ll get out and walk.”
    She wasn’t happy, but she did what he requested of her. When she stood before him, she put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You better talk to me and fast, Lieutenant, because I don’t want to play games with you.”
    He gave her a consoling smile, but he’d give her no quarter. He wanted what he came for and by god, he was going to get it too. “Let’s go in this direction. The path leads to a small stream. We’ll get out of the sun. What I have to say won’t take long and then how about I buy you breakfast before we go home?”
    He guessed his conciliatory tone did the trick because she got the starch out of her spine and strolled beside him. As they entered a more secluded part of the path, he was grateful for the privacy. A few bikers were out, a few walkers with their dogs taking an early morning stroll.
    “How’s Jon?”
    Cass checked his expression, then tried hard to smile at him. “Fine. Sleeping peacefully when I left. I can’t thank you enough.”
    “You will do a lot of things for me, but you won’t thank me for that ever again.”
    She blinked at his reversal of tone. “Whatever you say. What did the doctor say about your arm?”
    “It will get better. The physical therapy exercises I was given were not the right ones. Easy to mistake one kind of trauma for another, he said. I should be good to go back to active duty status in about two months.”
    She inhaled. “I’m so relieved. I would hate to think that you were permanently injured because you saved Jon.”
    He took her by the shoulders. “Look at me. You have to know that if I had been disabled by it, I would do it all again and again.”
    She did smile at him then. Broadly. Tears collected in her lovely green eyes. “I do know that. I do.”
    He wanted to hold her, pull her into him, caress her, keep her near him, safe and happy. But he had much to tell her and he’d save the embraces for later. If she agreed.
    So he dropped his hands, stuck them in his pockets and walked forward. When she remained where she stood, he turned and urged her forward with a tilt of his head. “One issue that I debated this weekend was an opportunity to apply for an instructor’s position at SEALs training camp.”
    “In California?”
    “Yes.” Cass had visited there a few times when Ray and Tony were in BUD/s. As he remembered, she really liked the San Diego area and called it Shangri-La. “I wasn’t certain I would qualify what with a bum set of fingers and arm. Didn’t know if I should look into getting out of the Navy and going into civilian contracting.”
    “Security work?”
    He nodded, noting that she walked more easily