Brianna's Navy SEAL by Natalie Damschroder Page A

did notice she made a lot of digs at your family. What's up with that?"
    Grateful for the opening, Brianna launched into the story. “Well, Jake always loved Kira, but when he thought he had cancer he told her so, and she didn't love him, so he tried to move on and started dating Darcy. Then Kira realized she did love him after all, and so Jake thought he'd break up with Darcy, and she pretended to be pregnant so he'd have to marry her, which he resisted but probably would have done just because he's such a great guy. When he figured out what she was doing and called her on it, she ran against him in the mayoral race and forced him to drop out because Kira was pregnant, and had gotten pregnant when Jake was trying to dump Darcy, and it was a big mess but she was just rotten."
    "Wow.” He laughed. “Take a breath. So how'd Jake get elected if he dropped out?"
    She grinned. “He's just that good. And Darcy's an outsider. She wanted to build a McDonald's, which threatened a couple of restaurants here in town. Apparently, she decided to come back and do it anyway. I don't know why."
    Cable pulled into his driveway. “So now you think she's after me to spite you?"
    "No way.” Brianna got out and walked with him to his front door. “I think spiting me is icing on the beefcake."
    They'd barely cleared the doorway when Cable slammed the door behind them and looped his arms around Brianna. “It doesn't matter what she's trying to do. I'm yours, Brie. She doesn't appeal to me."
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “How can she not appeal to you?"
    He raised one eyebrow. “I've seen you in workout clothes."
    It wasn't the right thing to say. She leaned back, but he didn't release her. “Seriously, Cable. If you weren't dating me, would you date her? And I want an honest answer, or I won't trust you."
    He shook his head. “I don't know.” He thought a minute. “Okay, yeah, sure, if you didn't exist, she might turn me on. There's nothing wrong with the package."
    She'd asked for honesty, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. “I don't know, maybe we should cool it. I've unintentionally been in triangles before, and they never work out well. It's not worth anyone's pain, even Darcy's.” She wasn't sure she really cared about Darcy's pain, but the rest was the truth. Last summer's little war hadn't just been about golden treasure. It was unlikely this triangle—quadrangle, if they included Ken—would end in harpoonings and sinking boats, but even simple hurt feelings were bad enough.
    Cable looked down at her with no expression she could read, but something roiling in his eyes. She squirmed away.
    "Maybe I should go home."
    "No way.” He unzipped his leather coat and hung it over the newel post, then reached for hers. “We're going to talk about this."
    Brianna let him remove her coat and followed him into his living room because she didn't want to go home, but the more she thought about it, the more important it seemed that she end things now, before they got deeper, before anything got out of hand.
    When she would have sat on the rolling chair in front of his desk, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the giant cushy sofa in front of the fireplace, the only other place to sit in the room.
    "Do you really want to stop seeing me?” he asked.
    Brianna frowned. He had to phrase it that way. “I think it would be better to stop seeing you."
    "That's not what I asked."
    "I know.” She took a deep breath and let her insecurity come out. “I don't want to stop seeing you, but ... I don't get the feeling you want me very much, and if you don't, you might as well, I don't know, head for greener pastures."
    He was silent for a minute. She kept her gaze on the patterns her fingers traced in the soft nap of the sofa. Finally, when he still didn't speak, she glanced up at him through her lashes. The intense look was back, with the roiling emotions even more visible in his eyes, but now he showed more on his face, too. Indecision,