Present Day
8:45 PM...
Tactical awareness...
It meant knowing all the exits in the bar. Having a close approximation of how many people were inside making merry. And recognizing the two guys in the corner drinking whiskey and wearing ten-gallon cowboy hats carried concealed weapons in calf holsters under their Wranglers—Texans, ya gotta love ’em.
For Spiro “Romeo” Delgado, tactical awareness also meant knowing the exact moment Mia Ennis walked into the place.
The hairs on his arms stood up. His stomach balled into a tight fist. And the oxygen in the room was reduced by half—which was something considering Schooner Warf Bar was open air along three whole sides.
These physical symptoms caused by her mere presence were nothing new. He’d been suffering from them ever since she’d been hired on to oversee the excavation he and his former SEAL Team members and current Deep Six Salvage partners were doing on the legendarySanta Cristina.
The state of Florida required a site with any sort of historic significancemustcontract a trained and certified professional to document the salvage process. And since there wasn’t amorehistoric relic in all the Caribbean than the grand ghost galleon, enter Mia Ennis, acclaimed marine archeologist.
But back to the skitchy arm hair, mutinous stomach, and insufficient O2 levels...
No two ways around it, they happened because Romeo had a thing for the brainy little strawberry blonde.
Nah. Not athing.That word didn’t come close to capturing what he felt.
It was more like he craved her like a drowning man craved air. Like a starving man craved an all-you-can-eat buffet. Like a poor man craved a winning lottery ticket.
It was a bone-deep hunger—emphasis on the ‘bone’ and the ‘deep.’
Blame his insatiable appetite for her on her athletic figure, or her creamy skin that always held a hint of a blush, or her fascinating, amber-colored eyes that he was forever sinking into.
Lioness eyeswas how he thought of them. And like those big cats that roamed the Serengeti, Mia moved with an innate grace that hinted at the kind of lover she would be.
The slow kind. The savoring kind. Thethoroughkind.
Sweet Mother Mary.Yeah, thatlastthing was surely the cause of his unprecedented preoccupation. Because while he was no stranger to attracting and being attractedtothe opposite sex—hisnom de guerrewas ‘Romeo’ for shit’s sake—never in his life had he found himself plagued by incessant thoughts ofonewoman.
Mia was an earworm that spun endlessly inside his head. Only instead of catching himself humming, he often caught himself dreaming about kissing her lips.
Those perfect lips that were so small and plush and pink. Like a rosebud just waiting to be plucked.
Dreaming about, but never daring to doit because even if she’d been interested in a little hunka chunka—which she’d assured him she wasnot—she was what was known in the dating world asrelationship material.
We’re talking the kind of woman whose vocabulary doesn’t include the word “fling.” The kind of women who only has affairs that are chock-a-block full of potential and meaning. The kind of woman that expects a man to take a page from Beyoncé’s book and...put a ring on it.
And he? Well, he’d gotten his reputation as a straight-up skirt-hound because he liked his liaisons fun and dirty, with no holds barred and no expectations. Uncomplicated and...most importantly...short-lived.
When it came to romance, Mia Ennis was the heart-and-flowers yin to his one-night-stand yang. Which meant he’d be smart to stop wishing she was someone different, a good-time girl only out for a little fun in the sun, or thathewas someone different, a man made to go the distance, and instead satisfy himself with what theydidhave. Which was a mutual like and respect for one another. A...friendship.
Never mind the look he sometimes thought he saw in her eyes. A look that, despite her words to the contrary, told him she might be curious what it would be like if they were ever to do the No Pants Dance.
As Wolf, their resident philosopher liked to say,“Only a fool tests the water with both feet.”Which Romeo took to mean he should never jump into something he knew might end up drowning him or someone he cared about in heartbreak.
And hot damn, Mia’s eyes are the deepest pools of all.
Glancing away from Doc and the black-haired woman sidled up next to him, Romeo watched Mia gracefully weave her way across the little dance floor to find an empty table under a palm tree. Mason and Alex followed close on her heels, but he barely spared them a glance.
As always, when Mia was present, he only had eyes for her. And suddenly, all he wanted was to be near her.
As a friend,he quickly reminded himself before tapping Doc on the shoulder. “Hey, bro. The others just showed up. Want to join them?”
Doc waved a distracted hand, keeping his attention on the dark-eyed Venus who rested her boobs on his arm like she was tired of holding them up on her own.
