The Loner by McKenna Lindsay

Author:McKenna, Lindsay [McKenna, Lindsay]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9781460315194
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-06-25T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

COLD SLEET BEGAN to pummel the area as they quickly finished eating their MREs. Shelby stared through the near darkness at Dakota. “You know I don’t want you out in this miserable weather,” she said.

“Don’t worry about me tonight, I’m tired.” It was the truth. But right then his body caught a sudden burst of energy. Desperate energy. Why hadn’t Shelby taken the first choice? He surrendered inwardly. Maybe it was a year’s worth of being alone and lonely that snapped his control where she was concerned. Maybe...just one night...just one and he’d get her out of his blood. “I figured you’d choose door number two. You have such a soft heart, Shel. You feel sorry for any poor son of a bitch. Even me.” It was more truth than teasing. No one needed a broken, scarred vet in her life. He’d only make it more miserable.

Shelby muttered defiantly, mouth quirking, “You’re such a bastard, Carson.”

He came over and smiled down at her. All around them the sleet continued to thicken, the sound like tiny pebbles striking the limbs and pine branches. “It worked, didn’t it?”

She could see the fatigue in his eyes. “Yes. And you’re getting your ass into that tent. I refuse to lie awake worrying about you out in this crappy weather.”

Without hesitation, he got down on his knees, opened his sleeping bag and pushed it inside the cramped quarters. “You’re such a marshmallow, Shel.”

His shoulders were broad and she could literally feel the heat rolling off his body as she knelt beside him and pushed her sleeping bag into the tight space. “Yes, I am,” she said. “But so are you.”

He barely twisted a humored look in her direction. The chips of ice had stuck to strands of her hair. “No, not me. Somehow, soft and SEAL aren’t synonymous. No one has ever called us marshmallows, either.”

Laughing, Shelby turned around, leaned back on her heels as she opened her pack to locate food. “They both start with an s, smart guy. You put on this fierce, tough front, but in the end, you have a big heart, Dakota.”

His eyes narrowed intently upon her. Instantly, she felt that stalking energy around him. The night was nearly complete. “For example,” she went on conversationally, pulling out two protein bars, “you saved Storm. You could have let that grizzly finish the job, but you put yourself in jeopardy by standing your ground. The bear would have known Storm was hiding in that burrow.”

“Get inside,” he growled, gesturing to the opening in the tent. “We don’t need to chat out here and get wet if we don’t have to.”

Shelby grinned as she moved into the tent. She caught the glint of acknowledgment in his eyes regarding her argument. The two bags were right next to each other, the tent high enough to sit up in, but that was all. Dakota dragged in their packs and stowed them at the door after he squeezed his bulk into the tent. The Velcro on the openings were quickly closed.

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