Love Under Two Navy Seals

The Lusty, Texas Collection

CARA COVINGTON

Copyright © 2012

Chapter 1

“When I get my hands on those two, I am going to murder them.” Julia Benedict quickly looked left and right, grateful when she saw no one close by. That meant no one had overheard her gritted-teeth, pithy comment. Inhaling deeply, she closed her eyes and reached for calm.

Calm had other ideas, and completely eluded her.

And just when I’d convinced myself that I had this situation under control.

Had it only been three weeks ago that Grandma Kate had dropped that bombshell at Tracy’s engagement party? Somehow, it seemed as if a lot more time than three weeks had passed since then.

Julia stood for a long moment just outside of Darryl’s Duds, clutching her shopping bag in a very tight, finger-cramping grasp.

When Mrs. Parker, over at the pharmacy, had winked at her, and told her that her young men were very fine specimens indeed, and then congratulated her on having found them, she’d thought perhaps the woman had been indulging in a little too much of her own herbal tonic.

But now Darryl Jessop, owner of Darryl’s Duds, had just said something similar, and Julia understood that her quiet, solitary, and predictable life had somehow undergone a sea change without her permission.

‘Sea’ change. Very funny, inner imp. I could murder you too, you know
.

Julia sighed as she realized exactly what had happened. She had to give those two Navy SEALs points, she supposed, for having ballsy imaginations. Theirs constituted one hell of a reaction to her failure to return their phone calls.

How could they have done this to her? More to the point,
why
would they have done this to her?

What the hell was going on, anyway? They’d been the ones to go away first. Julia felt her conscience kick. Her imp—likely unhappy with having been threatened with death—got into the act.

You know very well why they “went away”, Julia Benedict. Stop being so damn pigheaded.

“Um, you don’t look very happy there, friend of mine.”

Julia opened her eyes and turned to find her best friend, Tracy Jessop, looking at her, concern plainly written all over her face. Julia smiled—at least that’s what she intended to do, but by the look on Tracy’s face, she guessed her attempt fell somewhat short of the mark.

“Darryl”—Julia used her thumb to indicate the store behind her—“just asked me if I wanted to peruse the Victoria’s Secret Catalogue to order something special for my wedding night.” Just repeating what had happened a few minutes ago in the store was making her furious all over again. “Because, you see,
apparently
my men have already given him the green light to order anything my little heart desires—anything at all no matter the cost because, and here Darryl quoted one of my men, ‘I am worth spending the big bucks on’.

“Darryl has their credit card information, you know, and can place the order right away. They even authorized that he could use priority shipping.”

Tracy looked shocked, and Julia nodded, her friend’s reaction soothing her outrage just a little.

“Wow. That’s…I don’t even have words for what that is. But I do have one question,” Tracy said. “
What
men?”

“You mean they haven’t been into
Lusty Appetites
, too? They haven’t introduced themselves as the men who’ve won my heart, the men who’ve gotten themselves reassigned and relocated
just
so they could be close to me?”

“I’m pretty sure if such an event had occurred, either Ginny or Michelle would have come running into the kitchen and told Kelsey and me about it right away. So that would be a definite ‘no’.”

Julia exhaled. “They probably will be, unless I can stop them, first. But that means I’m going to have to go and knock on their door when, damn it all to hell, I was
hoping
they’d just get frustrated by my lack of response and simply…go away. Damn it!” Julia stomped her foot, very aware that she likely looked and sounded like a recalcitrant child—but really not caring, no, not caring at that moment one little bit.

To prove it, she stomped her foot again.

“Um, Julia? How about a nice cup of hot tea?” Tracy stepped closer and slid her arm around her. “Grandma Kate is always extolling the virtue of taking a few moments out in the day, or when things feel as if they’re getting out of hand, to enjoy a nice cup of Darjeeling or Earl Grey. Yes, that’s what you need, a nice cup of hot tea.”

Julia let herself be led down the block to
Lusty Appetites
, the restaurant owned by Kelsey Benedict, recently married to Julia’s cousins Matthew and Steven. The restaurant was also where her best friend Tracy worked as sous-chef, specializing in the most heavenly pastries Julia had ever tasted.

Usually one to handle her own problems by herself, Julia realized she wanted to tell Tracy everything—something she’d rather deftly avoided doing since moving back to Lusty nearly two months before.

Julia worried her bottom lip with her teeth, a bad habit she could have sworn she’d outgrown, and tried not to appear too obvious as she looked around the dining room of the restaurant.

She very much feared she was nearing an emotional meltdown and sincerely hoped there wouldn’t be too many witnesses.

Tracy led her to a table at the very back of the dining room, one close to the kitchen and out of the flow of traffic. Julia noticed that there weren’t very many people dining at the moment, anyway. She began to feel indignant on both Kelsey and Tracy’s behalf. What was wrong with everyone? The food here was some of the best she’d ever eaten. Why, this restaurant should be standing room only!

And then she remembered it was just after three o’clock on a Thursday afternoon.

Too late for lunch and too early for dinner, Julia figured if she
had
to have a major emotional meltdown in this most visible of Lusty’s businesses, she couldn’t have picked a better time of day to do so.

“I’ll be right back,” Tracy said. “You just sit and relax. Close your eyes and breathe deeply.”

Julia figured she must really look a mess, because Tracy had taken a moment to hug her before disappearing into the kitchen.

The door hadn’t even stopped swinging when her friend was back, sliding into the seat across from her.

“Ginny Rose is going to bring us out a pot of Darjeeling and a couple of the éclairs I made this morning.”

“Good. Your pastries always make me feel better. Is your dad still stealing them out of the freezer behind your mother’s back?”

“He is.” Tracy grinned. Her smile had always made Julia smile in turn, but this one looked particularly mischievous.

“What?”

She leaned closer. “I’ve been making them for him lately using low fat oil and artificial sweetener. He thinks he’s getting away with a huge sin, when in fact it’s actually a very small one.”

“That’s sneaky,” Julia said. “I like it. I’m sure Aunt Heather does, too.”

“She does. Dad doesn’t know it, but he’s been eating very healthily for the last year.”

Ginny Rose came out of the kitchen just then carrying a tray. She looked at Julia and offered her a smile as she set the tea pot, sugar, lemon, and cream on the table. Tracy drank her hot tea with cream. Julia realized the young waitress remembered her preference for sugar and lemon, when she’d actually only had tea here once before.

The small show of thoughtfulness really touched her. “Thank you.” Oh great, now her bottom lip was quivering. Julia bore down. The last thing she wanted to do was cry in a public place.

Ginny said nothing, just gently touched her shoulder, and then went back to the kitchen.

“I’m not going to say if you hadn’t resisted my prodding you to tell me what was troubling you lately that you likely wouldn’t be near tears now,” Tracy said. “I’m just going to say, anytime you’re ready, friend, I’m listening.”

“You just did say that!” Julia laughed. She realized Tracy had done that on purpose when her friend simply smiled and shrugged.

Julia kept silent as Tracy poured out the tea. Then she sighed. “I don’t know where to begin.”

“How about you begin with the very first moment that was different?”

Julia smiled. “I never used to be a sucker for uniforms, but when those two Naval Officers walked into the conference room, I swear my heart actually skipped a beat.”

“These would be the Navy SEALs Grandma Kate rented her house to a few weeks ago—that she told us about at my engagement party.”

Julia sighed. “Yes. Lieutenant Commanders Devon Wakefield and Andrew James—he prefers to be called Drew.”

“And?”

“And I guess you could say it was lust at first sight. We were all three of us on a committee helping to organize Fleet Week in New York City last year. We attended three meetings on three separate occasions. Then we went out to dinner a couple of times.”

“And?” Tracy reached over and placed her hands over Julia’s.

She hadn’t even realized she was shredding her paper napkin. Tracy’s touch was gentle as she stroked her hands. Julia turned one hand over so that their fingers clasped.

“And I…um…gave in to the lust, and the three of us spent the night together. And it was…” She let the thought trail off. She’d had so many dreams since, reliving that one night. She didn’t want to relive it in her waking hours, too. She looked and saw that her best friend was waiting patiently. Julia blinked, and inhaled deeply. “And then they shipped out, and I left New York and…that’s it.”

“Were you mad that they had to ship out?”

“Oh, no, of course not! In fact, they told me they would have to leave soon before we…well, before.”

Tracy sat quietly for so long, Julia began to feel twitchy. Not willing to admit to herself the real reason for her mood, she met her friend’s gaze. “What?”

“I was just trying to figure out why you’ve left out the most important detail of all,” Tracy said. “I know it’s not because you don’t trust me. So it has to be something else.”

Julia shook her head no, a slow back and forth gesture.
This
was why she’d resisted Tracy’s prodding. Because she knew she’d end up telling her best friend the truth. Julia closed her eyes. She’d never acted the coward before. Why was she doing so now?

She opened her eyes and met Tracy’s gaze again. She felt the tears gather and her vision blurred.

“You’re right. The most important detail is that I fell in love with them both. And instead of dealing with my feelings, and them, I came home.” Julia inhaled, and let the last of it out. “The truth of the matter is, I’ve fucked everything up, very,
very
badly.”

* * * *

Devon Wakefield let the water pelt him from every direction. Never in his life had he experienced a bathroom quite like this one. He grinned as he imagined him and Drew having Julia in here with them.

They’d only had one taste of the lovely Julia Benedict, but it had been enough to know they both wanted her for a lifetime.

Dev shook his head in disgust. Somewhere along the line during that one hot night of the most earthshaking lovemaking of his entire life—he refused to call it just sex—he and Drew had fucked up very,
very
badly.

No, we didn’t fuck up. We just didn’t get it right away
.

It had taken them forty-eight hellish hours of being pinned down by insurgent fire in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, of watching three of their team members die, of believing that they themselves were not going to make it out alive, for them to have an epiphany.

They’d made three vows that last night, in those darkest hours before they’d finally been rescued.

They’d vowed to bring their fellow team members home and see to it they received heroes’ honors. They’d vowed to help the other survivor of that mission from hell, Kenny Sheridan, get home, get healed, and get on with his life.

And they’d vowed to tell Julia Benedict how they felt, and try to convince her that they could make a family, and a home, all three of them together.