A SEAL's Salvation. Tawny Weber

prep mode.

      The usual banter flew through the team as they did one last equipment check.

      And then they went silent.

      Brody had never worried about clearing his head before a mission. In the ten years he’d served in the navy, he’d learned a few things. Focus. Discipline. And confidence. Not the cocky bravado he’d perfected as a teen. But the absolute assurance that he was damned good at what he did and didn’t have a thing to prove to anyone.

      He was a finely honed weapon, trained with the necessary skills to carry out this rescue mission. He didn’t have a single doubt that he’d do his job, and do it well. Because he had nothing, nobody, in the world that meant a damned thing to him except his team. His platoon. His duty.

      He glanced around the belly of the plane. Cormack had his head tilted back, eyes closed as he muttered Buddhist chants. Masters looked fierce, as if he was going over the plan one more time in his head. But Brody knew he wasn’t. The plan was imprinted; they didn’t need to review it. Nope, the guy was mentally reciting The Iliad.

      Brody usually thought about nothing at this point.

      This time, just before he flipped the switch and became a military machine, the image of Genna Reilly filled his head. Her smile warming his belly, the wicked delight in her eyes reminding him of his past.

      Was she still as bright as the sun, drawing people to her like a spotlight? Did her laugh gurgle the way it had when she was younger, deep and husky? And just how would she look in that little blue nightie she kept writing to him about? Or more to the point, how would she look out of it?

      Was she still as sexy? Her hair a heavy curtain of long black silk, like in his fantasies? Did she make those same noises when she came? Or was sex just a way to pass time for her now? Like it was for him.

      It was her smile that became his focal point as he let all thoughts fall away. He shifted his shoulders, shrugging off everything but the mission.

      “It’s time,” Landon said. His words were low and calm. His expression contained. He scanned the team, gave a nod. “Let’s kick ass.”

      * * *

      GENNA WAS GOING crazy with boredom.

      It was like there was a switch in her head that enabled her to get through the same old boring job, blah life, day in-and-day-out monotonous yawn-fest of good behavior. And that switch had flipped off.

      She knew she should find a way to flip it back on.

      But she didn’t want to.

      If she did, she’d have to go back to making other people happy. Which still included Mr. Perfect, the troll collector, and all the pressures to go out with him on a second date.

      The guy was boring.

      Especially when compared with other people who needed to remain nameless, even in her own mind. People who wrote letters that made her melt before she’d even opened the envelope. People who were out living their lives, making a difference. People who, even though they didn’t even sign their name to their letters, made her want so much.

      Wish that things had turned out differently.

      Lunchtime chatter faded into a buzz as Genna contemplated what her life might be like if she’d never taken that dare ten years ago. Or better yet, if her father hadn’t ruined the best night of her life. If she’d rebelled instead of trying to soothe her miserable parents, and had done all the things she’d hoped to.