“Hey, I’m just—”
Before Alex could finish, Sally Mae piped up with, “Are y’all really Navy SEALs?”
He turned to the blond, ponytailed teenager. “FormerNavy SEALs,” he corrected. “Who told you that?”
“Miss Maddy,” Donna answered. “She said you were the baddest of the bad, and we didn’t have to worry about a thing as long as you’re protecting us.”
“Man, that’s hot,” Louisa said.
“He’shot,” Sally Mae added.
“Yo, they’rebothhot,” Donna finished. “The big one in a fierce, scary kind of way. Andthisone”—she tilted her chin toward Bran—“in a dreamy kind of way.”
Bran felt a muscle twitching in his jaw. And when Sally Mae asked, “Are y’all the ones who took out Bin Laden?” he turned and pointed his finger at Maddy. “Madison Powers!” he thundered.
“What?” She blinked at him from the beach.
“Control your charges!”
The teens dissolved into giggles and Maddy shook her head with exasperation. “Come on, girls!” she called. “Leave Grumpy Gus alone.”
“Don’t you mean hot, shirtless Grumpy Gus?” Donna hooted as they traipsed down the stairs to join Maddy and Mason on the beach.
“I need a shower,” Bran told Alex. “I feel dirty.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “I think you’ll survive.”
Rick exited the cottage, looking a little incongruous in his khaki shorts and shirt with the SCAR-L rifle slung over his shoulder. But Bran had to give it to the guy. He’d comported himself pretty well, all things considered.
Now, if only the little shit would stop looking at Maddy with all that yearning and lust in his eyes…
“So how’s it going with Maddy?” Alex broke into his thoughts, clicking off the light inside the cottage and closing the door behind them.
“So far it’s been just great,” he said sarcastically, watching Rick jog down the steps and join Maddy and the girls. When Rick placed a hand on Maddy’s arm, leaning close to whisper something in her ear, the thing inside Bran unsheathed its claws and bared its fangs.
Alex pursed her lips. “I’m not talking about the creepy masked men and the gun battles, doofus. I’m talking about…you know. Like,how’s it going with Maddy?How is it seeing her again? She’s prettier than she looks in her online pictures. And pluckier too. Although you can’t really tell pluckiness from Internet photos, can you? No. That’s ridiculous. But my point is, I can see why you’re all goo-goo, gah-gah over her. So?”
“I’m sorry.” He used her earlier words against her. “What was the question again?”
“So how’s it going with Maddy?”
“In how many languages can I saynone of your goddamned business?”
“Because when you look at her,” Alex continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “the expression in your eyes saysI’ll take a slice of thatalong withand how about some right goddamned now on the side.”
“You better go catch up with Mason.” He hated that his feelings for Maddy were so obvious. “He’s liable to take off in the dinghy and make you swim out to the catamaran.”
“Uh…change the subject much, Señor Subject Changer?” She pursed her lips.
“It’d serve you right,” he continued. “Since you didn’t bring the dinghy with you the first time around.”
“So, how’s it going with you and Maddy?”
He gritted his teeth. “You’re like a dog with a bone.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You shouldn’t,” he insisted as the motor on the dinghy’s outboard engine grumbled to life.
