Tempted by a SEAL by Cat Johnson Page A

again, as if Mack was going to come flying through it to catch her snooping.
    She slid the drawer closed and breathed in, relieved but still baffled.
    Two batteries. Probably left over from a four-pack he bought for his TV remote control, if she had to take a guess.
    No junk. No pens or paper or tissues. Not even any condoms.
    Still tired and cold, as well as perplexed, she crawled back into bed. Maybe Mack would decide not to go in and instead slip back under the covers with her.
    Smiling at the thought, Lydia laid against the pillow.
    The sound of the water stopped and after a few moments more, the doorknob of the bathroom jiggled.
    She opened her eyes at the sound of Mack’s soft curse. He sat on the edge of the mattress and laid his hand on top of her leg. “You’re making it hard to leave.”
    She wasn’t sure what about her being buried deep beneath his fluffy comforter was so tempting but she’d take the compliment. “Then don’t. Stay here.”
    “I wish I could.” He sighed and glanced at the clock. “I’d better get going.”
    “You don’t even have time for coffee?” She realized she didn’t know if he had coffee, but amazingly enough he did have a coffee maker. She’d seen it on the counter.
    He shook his head as he stood. “No time.”
    That answer saddened her. “Okay. I guess I’ll, uh . . . ”
    What? Talk to him later? See him around their parents’ house at Christmas? She didn’t know the answer to that. Maybe he’d supply it.
    Lydia left the sentence open ended but Mack didn’t fill in the blank. Instead he leaned in and while cupping her face with warm large palms, kissed her long and deep.
    When he broke the kiss he stood and with a much too brief glance at her, breathless in the bed, said, “Bye.”
    After a small lift of his lips into a smile, he turned and strode out the door.
    She heard the apartment door slam seconds after that.
    He was gone. And she was there, alone, in his apartment naked beneath his comforter.
    Mack had to be the oddest man she’d ever met. This whole situation seemed extremely strange for a weekend fling—if indeed that’s what this was. Not that she had much to compare to as far as men or flings went.
    Time to get dressed and head back to school, less for her classes and more for Marissa’s opinion. On Mack. On his leaving. On pretty much everything that had happened the past two days.

CHAPTER 13
    The sun was up but not by much as Mack pulled his bike into the parking spot. He saw Rocky parking his truck a few spots away.  
    After pulling off his helmet, Mack lifted his chin in Rocky’s direction as the man ambled close. “Hey.”
    “Hey.” Rocky returned the greeting as they turned as one toward the building. “So, what do you think we’re getting called in about? The hostage situation in Mali?”
    Mack blew out a breath. “Who the hell knows? It could be anything.”
    Turkey shooting a Russian bomber out of the sky.   Russia bombing Syria. Terrorist attacks on civilian targets in Paris, Mali, Egypt, to name a few, and that was all just in the past couple of weeks.
    ISIS. Al-Assad. Peshmerga. France. Russia. Turkey. NATO. Mack was barely able to keep up with all the players and what was happening publicly in the world lately.
    Add in everything happening around the globe behind the scenes, the stuff the press didn’t know about so they couldn’t splash it all over the media, and it added up to a clusterfuck worthy of Hollywood, only it was real.
    There was no way Mack could be sure why his team had been called into a meeting hours earlier than he’d planned on being back on base any more than he knew where they’d be sent or why.
    It would be pointless to even venture a guess. Whatever it was had to be important to yank the whole team in on a one-hour recall, just when he’d been hoping to spend the morning with Lydia.
    Rocky drew in a deep breath and let it out. “I guess we’ll know soon enough.”
    “Guess we will.” Mack made a