Page 74 of The Billionaire Who Saved My Cat From The Mafia

I give him a squeeze.

“You’re pretty bossy today,” he says.

I giggle.“You love it.”

“True.I think I do.”

I squirt a dollop of shampoo in my hand and massage the suds into his hair.It’s thick and heavy when wet.I smile to myself, aware that I’m already accustomed to how his cowlick parts his hair slightly off-center and to the left.Like his nose.

Special K leans back into my touch, letting me support his head.He groans with pleasure.And I feel something break loose in my chest.

What are wedoing?

What am Ifeeling?

How is it so good and so right—and how is it happening so fast?

He places his hands on my ankles and opens my legs, pushing free and swimming out into the center of the spring pool to rinse his hair.I watch him drop down and disappear under the roiling surface.

He’s under for a long moment—averylong moment.I’m wondering how long I should wait before I dive under for him.Then I shake my head at my own ridiculousness.He’s a SEAL.He can probably hold his breath for ten minutes if circumstances require it.

Without warning, he shoots high out of the water, facing me, and I gasp involuntarily at his beauty.His perfect masculine body sparkles as water rushes in rivulets down powerful shoulders, cut arms, the swell of his chest, and the rippling muscles of his flat stomach.

He raises his palms to the top of his head, flicks the water from his hair, and then opens his eyes as he grins at me.

Be still my heart.

Even if I were standing on dry land, I’d be as wet as a beaver’s handbag.

He does the breaststroke over to me, his smile softening and his eyes glistening, and I don’t know what I expect him to do next, but it isn’t this.

He raises up long enough to give me a tender kiss, then goes right back where he was, his body between my legs, his back to me, and he reaches around to bring my legs around his waist again.

Without thinking, I wrap my arms around his big body and hug him close.When I feel him relax against me, I turn my cheek and press it to the flat of his broad, powerful back.

And I just hold him.

“Where was I?”he asks.“Did I mention the attempted murder thing?”

“Uh…”

“That’s what I was charged with, and why I ended up in the brig.”

“You don’t owe me an explanation.”

“I know.I want to tell you, though.”He reaches up to place one of his large hands on top of mine.

“Then I’m listening.”

He sighs.“So, on one of my first nights in country, I happened upon a crime in progress.An Army Ranger I’d never met was raping a civilian—an innocent girl no more than sixteen.She was crushed under him, crying, and once I understood what I was seeing, something in me snapped.”

I nod, my cheek brushing against his skin.I say nothing.

“This… thisevil assholewas supposed to be a protector, you know?But here he was, harming a child, basically ruining whatever future she might have had in that culture.I mean, our world is already collapsing under the weight of all the suffering and injustice, and here he was, tossing more on the pile.”

“What happened?”My question is so soft I’m surprised he hears it.

“I lost my shit, Boots.I pulled him off the girl.She ran screaming and he came up swinging, but I took him down.The next thing I knew, four guys were pulling me off, the Ranger was lying face-up in the dirt while someone tried to resuscitate him, and I was dragged off in handcuffs.Eventually, they flew me stateside, and I sat in a military jail in Florida while the Ranger was in a coma at Bethesda Naval Hospital.”