Read Close Quarters (Her SEAL Protector #1) for Free Online Page A

always hopping between Houston, New York, LA and Paris for work, and then later to date all those model, actors and musicians to help her forget Dad. Peyton got to college and discovered this whole new wonderful world that I couldn't fit into anymore. Hell, even you ran away from me. You gave me the most perfect kiss of my life and then tossed me aside for something even more wild and dangerous than my father's work. "
    Screwing the cap back onto the tube of lotion, she slid off the bed and moved toward her suitcase. "I finally realized that my whole life everyone else was always leaving me behind to go on their own adventures. I wasn't ever enough of a reason for anyone to stick around."
    "Wrong." He growled the word with more emotion that he had ever mustered for anyone. With his leg still aching, he couldn't get to her fast enough. It made him feel weak, and he had to squash the urge to snarl with frustration. He didn't want Jamie to think he was angry with her. Holding out his hand, he said, "Come here, Jamie."
    She swallowed anxiously and eyed his hand. After a moment's indecision, she dropped the tube of lotion on top of her suitcase and stepped toward him. He wrapped his fingers around hers and tugged her onto the bed. She sat next to him, her hip bumping his as they faced one another. Her eyes widened when he cupped his hand along the back of her neck and shifted closer. He could feel her breaths on his neck, the little puffs of air faster and more forceful now.
    "You were reason enough for me." He dragged the hand he still clutched to his neck and pointed out the gnarled scar there. He had taken a piece of shrapnel during a firefight after a helicopter crash that had stranded his team and the crew who had survived the nasty impact. "While I was bleeding out on that stretcher during the medevac, I saw my parents' faces and Peyton's, but it was your smile and the memory of your laugh that made me fight."
    She traced the puckered ridges of the ugly mark. "But you never said anything when you came back. I thought—"
    "I told you earlier. I was a complete and total jackass, Jamie."
    "And I forgave you for it," she reminded him.
    Caressing her cheek, he told her exactly what she needed to hear. "You went off to chase your daddy's dreams because you wanted to find out what made them worth leaving you, but you won't find your answers buried in the sea or dangling upside down from a bridge, Jamie. You've got to stop running."
    Her eyes closed briefly. "I'm so close to finding it, Leland. Two years I've searched for that thing, and I'm finally this close."
    "It's dangerous. You could get seriously hurt trying to find this shipwreck."
    "Oh, and your job isn't?"
    He started to tell her that was different, but she was right. His work was dangerous, and he had already been seriously hurt numerous times.
    "I can't stop now, Leland. I'm in too deep."
    Something told him she wasn't talking about the depth of the ocean she had been searching. "And once you've found this shipwreck? What happens then?"
    "I walk away," she said calmly. "I'm finding this galleon, recovering it, and then I'm done."
    "Just like that?"
    "Just like that," she confirmed with a nod. "By the time I finish this project, Peyton will have finished her doctorate. I'll go to work at the headquarters of Lush & Luxe, and Peyton will come work with me."
    He couldn't help but smile at the way she described the working relationship she would have with his little sister. Not for me, but with me.
    "And what about you, Leland? When do you stop?"
    "Never," he answered honestly. "This is what I am, Jamie. I don't know how to be anything else. If I'm lucky, I'll find a way to go into the private sector when I reach the end of my contract."
    She snorted playfully. "I have a hard time believing you'd enjoy babysitting some high-rolling businessman or a wealthy socialite for a company like the Lone Star Group."
    "I can't raid terrorist compounds forever. Keeping some rich girl out