Cruisin' For A SEAL: SEAL Brotherhood #5 by Sharon Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

that wasn’t who she was, either.
    She wasn’t American, although she had an American passport. Even though she had an American last name: McAdams, the one lasting thing her father had given her besides her life.
    She wasn’t Italian, either, even though her mother was, and had grown up near Savona, and had retreated to Italy upon the death of her husband. Sophia had missed her teenage friends in California, but soon became Sophia of Savona and put most of her American upbringing in the past, because it was easier to forget the pain of losing the first man she’d ever loved, her father.
    Though she’d tried for years to forget, when her ears picked up an American accent, she felt drawn to it like a moth to the flame. Her attempts to find adventure in the cities and towns of the world by working for the cruise ship lines had nearly worked. She’d said a temporary good-bye to her mother yesterday, although she’d join Sophia in Brazil for the wedding next month.
    Had her mother also felt anything like what Sophia impulsively longed to do with this American man?
    She should have just pretended it was a mistake, not told Mark about Matheus, kept her distance, because of her job. The rest of the dancers could be sworn to secrecy, but sneaking around didn’t suit her at all.
    If you get that itch again, I’ll be around. Not going anywhere for twenty days.
    God help her, but it was way more than an itch. It was almost like a blood bond, like in those vampire books she loved to read.
    Dinnertime was always crowded with other dancers, entertainment crew and some of the tour staff. She retired to the quarters she shared with Li, the Chinese contortionist.
    Lying on the top bunk, Sophia stared at the romance novel cover poster from her favorite author that she’d pasted on the ceiling with special adhesive. It showed the torso of a hunky Navy SEAL, taken as the SEAL emerged, dripping, from the ocean.
    She was struck by how similar Mark’s body was to this cover model. Big shoulders, veins cording over his biceps and the muscles of his forearms. Impossibly narrow waist she remembered hugging with her thighs. His massive body pressing into her and igniting everything that could burn.
    No, he wouldn’t be easy to forget, but in time she would. Just had to wait out the hours at first, then the days. Eventually the lonely nights in her tiny bed, in the belly of the ship would do their work. Rocked to sleep in a windowless space, as her world got smaller in the darkness, the colorful memory of that sparkling interlude would fade, and she’d forget. Eventually she’d surely forget.

Chapter 7
    ‡
    F redo watched Mia and Jasmine at the slot machines as he, Kyle, and Nick shared a beer in the bar next door. Her graceful arm was mesmerizing. He couldn’t stop watching her, really watching her, since she’d laid that gentle peck on his cheek back in Savona. It had been almost like she gave him permission to engage. And he’d been completely charmed by that little touch of her lips. He’d been carefully washing around that spot on his face for the three days since.
    What that little kiss told him was that she did have some kind of feeling for him. Perhaps a sisterly thing, but, heck, it was a far cry from the scorn and acid turndowns he’d gotten constantly in the four years since he’d first met Armando and his family.
    He didn’t mind that she was a wild child. He understood that. She was beautiful, and she could get away with things because she was so gorgeous. She made it impossible for men around her to even think, let alone speak. At least that’s the effect she had on him.
    What he did mind was that she had made terrible choices in men. She chose men who could not protect her. Who would not love her? She picked them almost at random.
    He was fascinated how her shapely legs crossed, how her third toe with the ruby toe ring glinted under the twinkle lights of the casino. The red flip-flops casually dangled, tempting her