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her not seeing him as “nice” was a good thing. “You didn’t answer my question.”
    “I didn’t, did I?” She smiled. “Do your worst to interrogate me, Major Cava. I’ll never talk.”
    He liked her playfulness. “Oh? I have ways of getting information, Ms. St. James.” He covered her hand on his arm with his own, aware his hand dwarfed hers. “And I always get what I want.”
    “Do you now?” She batted her eyelashes at him then licked her lower lip in a suggestive way he couldn’t miss.
    “Are you trying to embarrass me in public?” He groaned. “Cut it out.”
    She gave his crotch a subtle look, but he caught it. “I can’t help it. I keep seeing your little show whenever I close my eyes. I have to tell you, I’m impressed. Most girls are happy with six inches, but I think you’re a bit more than that.”
    He tugged her with him into the alley behind his sister’s coffee shop and backed Genevieve against the wall. “Okay, here’s the deal. We go out, talk, like you said we should, and play nice in public. That means no more provoking me by licking those fuckable lips or staring at my cock.”
    “Or else what?” she asked, her voice husky.
    “Or else we skip all this getting to know each other bullshit and I bang your brains out. I’m game, sweetheart. Just say the word.” Praying for the latter, he waited.
    “Lunch, in public.”
    He sighed and stepped back. “Fine. But quit teasing me.”
    She turned a pretty pink. “Sorry. You’re just too cute to resist.” She grabbed his elbow again, and they walked down the street toward a popular seafood restaurant overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.
    “Cute?”
    She smiled. “Sorry. I meant handsome. I’d say hung like a horse, but that’s a little crass even for me.”
    He blinked. “Ah, okay.” Damn. He felt his cheeks heat. “So you’re from where, exactly?” Rumor had her from somewhere up north. Virginia, he’d heard.
    “Maryland, just north of Baltimore. My parents and sister moved to the city a few years back.”
    “What do they do?”
    “My mom is a software engineer, my father a retired sailor. My sister teaches.” She smiled, the love in her voice softening her features. “Elementary school. She has the patience of Job.”
    He chuckled. “I have a hard time teaching Marines. I can’t imagine small kids.”
    “I know. Bethany married her high school sweetheart. She’s expecting twins in seven more months. I’m going to be an aunt.” Genevieve’s eyes sparkled, and his heart raced.
    He led them inside the restaurant and requested a table in the back, outside and overlooking the water. The waiter seated them, took their drink orders, and left. Only a few other patrons sat nearby, so they had most of the restaurant to themselves.
    “Sounds exciting.” He scanned the menu, decided on a meal, and saw her do the same.
    “What?” she asked when she saw him looking at her.
    “You make quick decisions.” She always had at work. “I like that.”
    “I don’t have time for dithering. I see what I want, I weigh what I know, I decide.” She snapped her fingers.
    “Well, decisiveness is a basic leadership trait.”
    “I know. You can’t work around Marines for years and not realize what makes you people tick.”
    “Oh?”
    The waiter interrupted her response. After giving their orders, they returned to the conversation, and she answered him.
    “Yeah. You guys work hard and play hard. Loyalty is everything. Never leave a man behind, get the job done with the worst equipment—”
    “I hear that.”
    “And no whining.” She nodded. “I agree with a hundred percent of all of that. Now if I could just get half the Marines at work to stop staring at my breasts when talking to me, I’d be golden.”
    Considering his gaze had dropped to her delectable cleavage, he could only laugh. “Well, hell, you have a nice body. Can’t blame a guy for looking.”
    “I guess not. But it’s uncomfortable when it’s your