Claiming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 1) by Kat Cantrell Read Free Book Online Page B

into an executive training facility.”
    “Like a resort?”
    “Maybe. Who knows, place might be a complete disaster. I’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything wrapped up back home, and now I’m here for God knows how long, and I’m looking at months of construction and backbreaking labor ahead of me. Whoever said that getting out and going private was easy? Ha. Joke’s on me.”
    Dex knocked back a third of his beer. “I know the feeling. We’re busting ass to get out of the red ourselves, and it’s a tough row to hoe.”
    They talked shop for a few minutes until a woman behind Dex caught Mick’s eye, and he completely lost interest in anything that had to do with bottom lines and advertising costs. “She looks thirsty, boys. I’m off.”
    Dex and Finn saluted and sent their mate off with a few pointed tips about safety. Mick jetted after the woman, and Dex glanced over his shoulder to see who had so thoroughly captured Mick’s attention. A redhead. When she smiled at Mick, she reminded Dex so much of Malika his mood instantly devolved again.
    He’d come here to forget, not to have constant reminders of why he liked anonymous, nameless, and low-pressure encounters with women who didn’t ask questions. Which pissed him off all over again because he couldn’t even seem to cross the finish line on that anymore.
    Malika had ruined him for women like Emma, the kind you committed to and went gaga over, and Emma had apparently ruined him for one-night-only women like Jasmine. Where did that leave him?
    “You know her?” Finn asked as he did a double take at Dex’s face.
    Which he promptly wiped clear. No point in rehashing that mess. “Nah. Redheads are not my thing.”
    “Sure seems like there’s a thing,” Finn commented, and his grin said he didn’t realize that Dex’s nerves were skating on a thin edge.
    Maybe he could pound out his frustration on Finn’s pretty face. But that would mean he’d have to explain why.
    It wasn’t like Dex had gone around blabbing to his friends about the last redhead he’d made the mistake of hooking up with. And there was a reason for that. Malika was the devil’s right-hand woman, and the less energy he spent on her memory the better.
    “Dexter my brother, how did you miss that ?” Jace asked with a mock toast in Mick’s direction as he joined the duo of former SEALs turned beach bums. “Would have figured you’d be all over a redhead that fine, and you gave her to Frasier ?”
    Dex loosened the fist that had formed automatically the moment his full nickname had spilled from Jace’s mouth. Unless Dex was planning to start that conversation about Malika and her opinion of men who shot other men and called it a necessity of war, he needed to chill out.
    While he had zero doubt every last ex-SEAL in earshot would fully empathize with him if he spelled out what an antagonistic, unpatriotic bitch Malika was, he was the only one in the group with sixty-eight notches on his rifle handle. It was different for the other guys, who had specialties beside killing terrorists. The revulsion on Malika’s face when he made the mistake of mentioning his contribution to the SEAL team… he would never repeat that experience save threat of death. And maybe not even then.
    Because part of him agreed with her. He was a monster who had chosen to hone a skill that meant people would die as soon as he entered the scene. He couldn’t undo that, nor did he feel like he should apologize for it. So he kept his mouth shut.
    “My tastes have changed,” Dex said easily. “Redheads were just a passing fad.”
    “Ah, so it’s blondes now, huh?” Jace said with an obnoxious brow waggle. “Like the one from the beach yesterday?”
    And that was officially the end of Dex’s evening out with his friends.

    The whole point of the jaunt to Grand Bahama Island was to fix his mood. That had worked.
    Dex slumped in the speedboat, content to let