Born Ready
Subject: Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Scott Everly.
Current Status: On vacation, mostly.
Mission: Keeping a sexy, smart-mouthed biologist out of trouble.
Obstacle: Keeping himself out of trouble...and out of her bed!
Semper Paratus. Always Prepared. It’s the Coast Guard motto. But Lieutenant Commander Scott Everly sure wasn’t prepared for the sight of red-hot marine biologist Jackie Birchard in her red-hot bikini. She’s wading in dangerous waters, and even if he’s off duty, Scott isn’t just about to let this sassy little mermaid out of his sight....
With a major research project on the line, and a chance to prove herself, Jackie isn’t interested in anything resembling a romantic complication. Then again, isn’t raw, lusty sex—especially with a tasty specimen such as Scott—a basic human necessity?
After all, the U.S. Coast Guard is always prepared...and ready for action, too!
Six more military heroes. Six more indomitable heroines. One
UNIFORMLY HOT!
miniseries.
Don’t miss a story in Harlequin Blaze’s bestselling miniseries, featuring irresistible soldiers from all branches of the armed forces.
Don’t miss
BORN READY
by Lori Wilde
and
ONCE A HERO…
by Jillian Burns
March 2012
Uniformly Hot!—The Few. The Proud. The Sexy as Hell!
Available wherever Harlequin books are sold.
Dear Reader,
I love the Uniformly Hot miniseries, so I was thrilled when I got the chance to write another one. And since the U.S. Coast Guard is the most neglected branch of military service, I thought why not honor those brave men and women protecting our nation’s borders? Immediately, I pictured my hero, Scott Everly, in action—stalwart, strong, always prepared. (And let’s not forget hot and good-looking.) Everything a good protector should be.
Then came the job of choosing the right heroine for this masculine coast guard, and that’s when Jackie Birchard was born. She’s the daughter of a Jacques Cousteau-like oceanographer, who recently broke off from her father’s influence to blaze her own trail in marine biology. When she and Scott meet, things do not go smoothly.
But love has a way of creeping up on you, and it’s no different for Scott and Jackie. I hope you enjoy learning about scuba diving, the Florida Keys, marine biology and the endangered Key Bleeny as much as I enjoyed researching them. So sit back, relax and join Scott and Jackie on their Florida beach.
To see the “making of”
Born Ready,
visit my blog at http://wildelori.blogspot.com/. You’ll find a mosaic collage featuring Key West, Scott, Jackie and the activities depicted in the story, along with a musical playlist of songs I listened to while writing the book.
Happy reading,
Lori Wilde
Lori Wilde
Born Ready
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lori Wilde
is a
New York Times
bestselling author and has written more than forty books. She’s been nominated for a RITA
®
Award and four
RT Book Reviews
Reviewers’ Choice Awards. Her books have been excerpted in
Cosmopolitan, Redbook
and
Quick & Simple.
Lori teaches writing online through Ed2go. She’s also an RN trained in forensics, and she volunteers at a women’s shelter. Visit her website at www.loriwilde.com.
Books by Lori Wilde
HARLEQUIN BLAZE
30—A Touch of Silk
66—A Thrill to Remember
106—Packed with Pleasure
123—As You Like It
152—Gotta Have It
175—Shockingly Sensual
230—Angels and Outlaws*
260—Destiny’s Hand*
346—My Secret Life**
399—Crossing the Line†
411—Secret Seduction†
423—Lethal Exposure†
463—The Right Stuff††
506—Zero Control
518—His Final Seduction
561—Sweet Surrender
610—High Stakes Seduction
648—Intoxicating
*The White Star
**The Martini Dares
†Perfect Anatomy
††Uniformly Hot!
To the U.S. Coast Guard. Thank you for keeping our borders safe.
Contents
1
Semper Paratus (Always Prepared)
—Motto of The United States Coast Guard
SIX MONTHS CHASTE.
Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Scott Everly had gone six long months without sex, although in all honesty it felt more like six years.
Unintended celibacy weighed heavily on his mind and body as he paddled his kayak through the mangrove channel, using vigorous physical exercise to sublimate his baser needs. He’d tried it all. Jogging, strength training, boxing, but in spite of his daily workouts, insomnia plagued him.
Digging deep, he pushed himself harder, rowing full-out until his shoulder, back and chest muscles ached with just the right kind of sweetness.
“Better than sex,” he lied to himself. “Who needs sex when you’ve got all this?”
The early Monday-morning sun bathed warm rays, the color of Florida grapefruits, across the deep green, tree-shrouded landscape. It was good to be home again, even if it was only for three weeks. He was on leave, although the joke in the ranks was that a Coastie never went on vacation; they were born ready for action.
While he loved his commission in D.C., he missed Key West and his family something fierce. He was a Conch through and through, but when it came down to it, as long as he was near water, Scott was a happy guy.
As third generation Coast Guard, sea brine flowed through his veins, and he considered himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth to be doing a job he loved.
Scott had come home for his younger sister’s wedding a week from this coming Saturday. How could it be that Megan was old enough to marry? It seemed like just yesterday that he was pulling her pigtails and putting bullfrogs down the back of her shirt.
He breathed in the heated scent of summer—ripe mangos, tangy lime, earthy loam and murky tide pools. The air smelled rich, sticky and uniquely Key West. A fish jumped, tail slapping against the water, before sinking back below the wet depths. Overhead, blue-white clouds bunched in the waning darkness, voluptuous as a plump woman’s bottom. Scott had an urge to reach up and pinch the sky.
Knock it off.
He was daydreaming about goosing clouds? How pathetic was that?
“Snap out of it,” he growled under his breath.
It’s been too long, old buddy. Way too long.
He was thirty years old, in the best shape of his life and he hadn’t had sex in six months, one week, three days and twenty-one hours. Not that he was counting or anything.
His last relationship ended because his girlfriend had wanted him to leave the Coast Guard. Too dangerous, Amber had said. He’d already been injured twice. Why push his luck?
He’d flat out told her no. She’d known who and what he was when they’d started dating. If she cared about him, she wouldn’t ask him to change.
She said she couldn’t bear it if he ended up like this father, killed in the line of duty, and she refused to be like his mom. Widowed at forty.
Hell, she might as well have asked him to quit breathing. He’d learned one thing from that relationship. His ideal mate had to accept him just as he was—military career and all. He was done bending himself into a pretzel to please a woman.
Unless of course it was in bed.
Grinning, he stuck his oar into the water, pushed aggressively against the current. A gator slipped from the banks into the channel right behind him, but Scott didn’t pay much attention. He was bent on getting sexual frustration out of his system before meeting an old friend for breakfast. Alligators were a fact of life in Florida and as long as you didn’t do anything stupid, they generally minded their own business.
Six months.
The longest dry spell he’d had since college. He was a charming guy and he knew it. He’d been graced with his father’s good looks and his mother’s outgoing personality. Usually he had no trouble coaxing a willing lady into his bed, but as much as he wanted sex, short, hot liaisons had oddly lost their appeal.
What he couldn’t figure out was why. Maybe it was because his baby sister was getting married. Megan’s wedding made him realize he wasn’t getting any younger, but then again neither was he ready for commitment.
So what do you want? Sex or a relationship?