SEALs of Summer 2: A Military Romance Superbundle Read Free Page A

fingers danced back and forth across the bare skin there, and on the next hand, Calli threw in, losing pathetically to Vince. And then their hosts bid them a good night and scampered upstairs to love each other.
    So. Annoying.
    Larken refocused her attention on her nemesis across the table.
    He looked…like nothing. Maybe he was a card shark. He wasn’t really winning many hands, but he wasn’t making any foolish bets, etc. And he had a wicked poker face.
    She was in trouble.
    On the next hand, a clearly drunk Mats went in with his few remaining chips.
    “Seriously, you know that you can fold, right? Nothing wrong with that.” She glanced at her own hand. Three queens. And there were still two more draws of cards. “I’ll see that.”
    Vince frowned at his cards, then pushed a matching number into the center of the table. “See you.”
    Jackson scratched his head.
    Leave it alone , Larken thought.
    Of course he couldn’t do that. This was the weekend where absolutely nothing would go her way. So Jackson grinned and pushed a big stack of chips into the middle of the table. Not quite all-in, but a big dare.
    She looked at her cards again. Damn double-damn . “Yep, I’m still in.”
    Vince shook his head and set his cards down, bowing out of the hand. They were all pretty evenly matched, chips-wise, but winning it would give her enough of a pot that she could start pressuring them.
    Which would have been awesome if she’d won, but five minutes later, as Jackson raked the chips toward him with a hearty laugh, she realized with a sinking feeling that there would be no winning for her.
    Not tonight, not this weekend.
    She glanced at her small pile of chips and sighed. Three more hands, if she was lucky.
    She wasn’t lucky. The next hand, Vince sat up a little straighter, and when Jackson went in, Vince called him on it. And won.
    Which made the next hand down to Vince and Larken, and she only had enough chips to make it through one round of betting. It was over.
    Vince had won. Or everyone else had lost.
    Hardly the United Nations of Bad-assery after all.

Chapter Three
    ‡
    “N ice break, new guy,” Jackson said, holding out his hand. Larken watched in disbelief as Trent brought over the tray of Vince’s winnings.
    “I don’t…” Vince started, then trailed off. His jaw flexed before he nodded tersely. “Thanks. I just had some good luck there.”
    Larken dragged the rest of her beer down her throat. Nope. There wasn’t enough beer in the world to make sense of why her stomach flip-flopped.
    She closed her eyes.
    So he was moving into her cottage for a week. He’s only here for the weekend . That didn’t make it better. What if he decided to extend his stay?
    What if he didn’t?
    She blinked her eyes open and looked across the table, expecting to see a cocky smile.
    Instead she found him watching her, his face serious and his eyes on her pressed together, worried lips. “You okay with this?” he asked quietly, and she nodded before she realized what she was doing.
    “Yep.” She shoved back from the table. “It’s been a long a day. I’m going to turn in. One of the guys can point you in the direction of the cottage when you’re done celebrating. I’ll leave the door open. Your room is on the right.”
    Without looking at him or her two teammates still left sitting at the table, she grabbed her key from the tray and stomped out.
    The dark path was illuminated by dim lights dotting the crushed gravel walkway every few feet. She sank into the privacy of the warm, tropical night and wrapped her arms around herself as she hurried toward the privacy of her own room.
    But Vince wasn’t going to let that happen, clearly. She heard the slap of the door swinging open, then shut again, and heavy footsteps as he ran to catch up with her.
    “Larken, wait,” he called out.
    She kept going.
    “Hey,” he growled as he closed the gap between them and grabbed the back of her arm, spinning her around to face