One Intrepid Seal. Elle James

makes you qualified to recover him?” She was feisty and gave as good as she got.

      Diesel chuckled. “I’m in the navy. My team was tasked with the mission to rescue you and Klein.”

      Silence stretched between them.

      “Four years active duty in the army and two years on the MMA circuit.”

      “MMA?” he asked.

      “Mixed Martial Arts.”

      “Why the army?” he asked.

      “Why the navy?”

      “Family legacy. My father was a marine, my grandfather was in the navy. I guess you could say it was in my blood. I like a challenge,” Diesel said. “Your turn. What’s your story?”

      “Why do you care?” she said.

      Diesel sighed. “Look, I’m just trying to get to know the woman I’m sleeping with in the jungle.”

      Again, she was quiet for a few moments before speaking. “My parents died in car wreck a few days after I graduated high school. I had nothing keeping me there, no home to go to. A recruiter said, Join the army, see the world. So, I did.”

      “But you didn’t stay in the army.”

      “No.” The one word was spoken in a tight, sharp tone.

      “Deploy?”

      “Yes. And when I got off active duty, I became an MMA fighter.”

      Diesel stopped suddenly, his brows rising. “Seriously?” He touched her arm. An MMA fighter was the last thing he expected to come from her mouth. “I mean, you’re in great shape and all, but I didn’t picture you as someone who’d fight for sport. Why the MMA?” he asked.

      “I had some anger management issues I needed to resolve.” She shifted. “Are you finished with the interrogation?”

      “I am.”

      “Good, because you’re supposed to be sleeping.”

      Diesel suspected there was a lot more to Reese’s story than she was sharing, but he wouldn’t push her more. If she wanted him to know more, she’d tell him. He had enough to go on, for now.

      He’d hoped talking would make him less aware of her tight body. When she’d been in his lap, he’d been so turned on, he’d thought for sure she’d notice. Her body was honed, her attitude determined, but she was vulnerable enough to make him want to protect her. And if that meant holding her in his arms through the night, so be it. He swallowed a groan on that last thought. Maybe it was a good thing they split the watch and slept in shifts. Nowhere in his life did he have room to fall for the long-legged, curvaceous bodyguard, even if she was pretty hot in the red glow of the flashlight. And she had gumption. No. He needed to complete this mission and move on.

      He lay on his back, unable to ignore the warmth of her thigh pressed against his. Swallowing a groan, he focused on sleep. He’d never had trouble falling asleep before he’d met Reese. Why start now?