Page 60 of Keeping a Warrior

Matt went still. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

The mood in the room took a turn as faces darkened and lips firmed.

“Yeah. How come you didn’t trust us, Soup?”

“We’re goin’ into battle together, man. Can’t trust us with something so important?”

“I get not telling other people, but us?”

“Guys, I—” Matt held his hands up as chairs scraped back. He edged toward the door. “I’m really sorry. It’s just—”

“Just what?” Grizz’s tone was easy, conversational, but Devon wasn’t fooled in the least. “You know everything there is to know about me, about Smudge, about Maddox, but you think it’s okay to hide something like the fact you’re gay from your platoon brothers? You don’t trust us to have your back? No one will dare give you shit with us around.”

“But I—but—”

Devon winced in sympathy. The military as a whole was a very conservative organization, and in this hypermasculine environment, she could understand Matt’s reluctance to possibly being seen as weaker, lesser.

Yeah, she could definitely relate to that.

Matt kept edging toward the door as the guys advanced on him. Suddenly, in a last ditch effort to escape, he made a break for it. With a roar, his teammates took off after him. Devon ran into the hallway just in time to see Smudge tackle and take him down, hard.

He was wrestled to his back, struggling, and Grizz yelled at Devon to throw him some duct tape.

She hesitated, torn between following orders and not wanting to be a party to this, when Rhys took the decision out of her hands and tossed Grizz some tape.

Within seconds they had Matt trussed up like a calf at a rodeo. The guys lifted him over their heads and bore him off. Devon hurried after them, alarmed to see they were heading toward the building with the huge training pool. Were they going to throw him in all tied up? Luckily, the pool was empty of trainees at the moment, and with loud whoops, the SEALs tossed Matt unceremoniously to the decking.

“Oh, my God.” Devon clapped to her mouth as the men started stripping, and all she could do was stand frozen in place, captivated by the sight of so many hard bodies—young, strong men at the peak of physical fitness. And Rhys...

He’d gotten naked right along with them. Devon gulped, tracing her eyes over firm buttocks and long, muscular legs. Her cheeks grew hot, her palms damp.

Turn around, she begged him silently, twisting her fingers into her pants. Turn around.

She had to see. She wanted to see.

Rhys bent to yank Matt’s boots off, his wide stance treating her to a glimpse of his balls. They hung low between his legs, round and—

What the hell are you doing?

Hot, liquid shame raced through her. Rhys didn’t know she was watching him. If she were a man, and this was a group of women, what she was doing would be a gross violation. Checking out Rhys’s naked body without his knowledge was no different.

Hurriedly she backed around the corner out of view and leaned against the wall to bury her face in her hands. What the hell was wrong with her?

The yelling of the guys echoed in the cavernous room. Devon had to see what was happening. She crept back around the corner and put her hands over her eyes, widening her fingers into slits.

Peering through them, she saw Matt, still trussed up, lying on what looked like a raft. He was being towed to and fro in the water by grinning, shouting men, some of whom came up to smack his ass or kiss him ostentatiously on the cheek. Slumping in relief, Devon tiptoed away while Matt’s teammates swam naked with and around him, showing him without words that they were comfortable with him, that they loved and accepted him for who he was.

Navy SEAL–style.

Loud voices in the hallway made Devon look up from the tactical magazine she’d been perusing. The guys tumbled into the team room, hair damp, clothes sticking to them in spots. They were hyper, laughing and shouting.

“Where’s Soup?” she demanded, but nobody would answer her, too busy helping themselves to Rip-Its and handfuls of animal crackers from a big jar on the counter.

“No, seriously, the CO is getting here in a few. Where’s Matt?”

Still no answer, and Devon noticed Shane lurking along the periphery of the group, pale and silent. She hurried over to him.

“Have you seen Matt?” she asked quietly.