Reminding The SEAL (Navy SEAL Military Romance) (13 page)

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Copyright 2015 by Pure Passion Books
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All rights reserved.

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Loving the Navy SEAL:

A Stepbrother Romance Collection

By: Pure Passion Books

Crossing the Line: Surrender to the SEAL

Bonded to the SEAL

Bonded to the SEAL: Breaking the Seal

Stepbrother: Lucky Day

Crossing the Line: Surrender to the SEAL

Chapter One

Lee-Ann gritted her teeth, “ARGH!”

She shook her head, messing up her red mass of hair. Her cheeks felt hot to the touch and her neck burned with the heat of her anger at the memories as they resurfaced. This, all because of one man. The one who humiliated her three years ago. The same man who made her life a living hell was returning, and Lee-Ann Mitchell was not looking forward to it.

She jumped off the bed and stomped her feet on the carpeted floor, like a hysterical four year old. It was a tantrum of sorts, being that she protested the return of her only enemy, the one she most detested. Her hair was all tangled around her heart shaped face, and she blew a frustrated breath to get it out her eyes and mouth.  The most prominent memory surfaced as she glared at her own reflection in the mirror. She’d been sixteen and he was twenty three, just a few months before he left.

“Let go, Josh!” she remember shouting at him as he grabbed her and pulled her out of the party.

Yes, she’d snuck out of the house after being told she could not go, but that gave him no right to manhandle her in front of everyone. One of her friend’s parents were way for the weekend, and he told her he was having a small get together. Only, the entire school found out about it, including Joshua Stanworth, her stepbrother. What was supposed to be a small private party turned into a huge rave.

He had ignored her until they were outside her friend’s house on the lawn. “You are too young to be at a party like this.”

“Says who?” her green eyes wide and blazing.

A small group of her closest friends had gathered, watching and whispering. She had grown red with embarrassment and her anger had flared like a flame fed by gasoline. She’d started walking back to the party when he grabbed her, lifted her off the ground, and flung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Put me down, you sonofabitch!” she screamed, pummeling his back with her fists while violently kicking her legs.

“Watch your language,” he’d said, as calm as the summer sea.

“Put me down or I swear I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” Josh asked.

“I’ll scream!”

“You already are screaming, Lee-Ann,” he sighed as they reached the car.

He dumped her into the front passenger seat and locked the door before quickly skipping around to the driver side. He slipped in beside her and turned to face a steaming sixteen year old with a plethora of words no lady should be reciting. Josh started the engine and moved the car along at a slow pace, sliding the automatic windows down a few inches to let in the cool California breeze.

The car they were in was his dad’s car, a Bentley. It was one of the three cars his father owned but only allowed him to drive this one. Josh owned a motorcycle, but since he was picking her up, he feared perhaps she would jump off and hurt herself. She would have if he’d come get her on it.

“This is kidnapping,” she shrieked at him, breathing heavily after her bout of cussing.

“It can’t be kidnapping if I’m taking you home,” he stated in his usual easy tone.

She scowled at his profile. His blond hair was a little too long, hanging loosely at his nape. His jaw clenched as if he was angry, but he kept his eyes on the road so she wasn’t sure. The muscles in his forearm moved as he maneuvered the steering wheel easily. Lee-Ann pursed her lips and continued to glower at him.

“Be careful not to let your eyes hurt,” she heard him say. His lips had hardly moved.

She angrily turned to face the dashboard and folded her arms, sinking back into the plush seat. “I hate you,” she muttered.

“No you don’t,” he grinned.

Lee-Ann stomped up and down the room, shaking out the memory.  She gripped the side of her head and grabbed handfuls of her hair as if she wanted to tear it out. “I hate you Joshua Stanworth!” She shrieked.

She hadn’t composed herself yet when a knock came at her door. Her mother, Barbara Mitchell-Stanworth, popped her head around the door, just opening it a little, “I’m leaving to pick up Joshua, want to come with me?”

She looked at her mother incredulously, “Are you serious, Mom? Do I look like I want to welcome back that jerk?”

“Lee-Ann, what’s with you and this grudge you have against Joshua? What has he done to you?”

Her mother came into the room and sat on the bed. Her soft brown eyes looking at Lee-Ann as she turned to face her with her hair looking like she’d been caught in a fight with the cat. Barbara, in her mid-forties, wore a cropped bob for her bleach blond hair. When she smiled, her squint lines deepened. She was two inches shorter than her daughter, who stood at five feet seven inches.

“Mom, don’t you remember how he used to humiliate me?”

“He did no such thing honey. You humiliated yourself,” Barbara’s tone was calm and quiet, and there was amusement somewhere in there. “Look, try freshening up a bit. You don’t want Josh to see how much he affects you now, do you? If you dislike him so much, don’t let it show,” Barbara came and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Never let your enemy know how much they affect you, or you lose,” her mother smiled and kissed her cheek.

“You’re right, Mom,” she was much calmer now, as she picked up her brush and started brushing her hair. “He will not know how much I detest him. So, when I take my revenge, he won’t know what’s coming.”

“Honey, please be careful. The last time you were like this, you almost burned the house down,” Barbara patted her daughter’s shoulder and turned to leave. “By the way, Gracie called while you were in the shower. I told her you’d call her back.”

Gracie was Lee-Ann’s best friend, her only remaining friend, but Gracie could wait. Lee-Ann had other things on her mind. She snickered after her departing mother, while her mind was working, trying to come up with a way to make her stepbrother pay for all he’d done to her. With vigorous strokes, she brushed her red hair until it shimmered, falling in soft waves midway down her back.

“Composure…that’s it,” a sly smile played on her lips.

Lee-Ann closed her eyes and breathed deeply, concentrating on her plan to take down Joshua. She didn’t care that she was now nineteen and going off to college soon. Nor, did she care that Joshua was coming home from service in the military and probably had changed. All she knew was that she never got a chance to get back at him for all the times he’d humiliated her. Another memory flashed across her mind.

Her fifteenth birthday should have been a happy one. Her mother tried her best to make it memorable but her father was too busy with his latest bimbo to care. He’d missed her birthday and hadn’t even bothered to call. Later that week, he made some lame excuse about being away on a business trip.

When her parents separated, she hoped against all hopes that they would have gotten back together. However, there were so many times she found her mother crying, that she began to hate her father. Every time she decided to forgive him, he did something to make her resent him. Not long after her birthday, he married a girl not much older than she was. That was the last straw.

“You should go out and find yourself a man, Mom,” she told her mother one night when her mother was crying her eyes out.

“Lee-Ann, don’t say such things,” Barbara blew her nose. Her eyes had been red and puffy, and her hair looked a mess.

“Mom, why can’t I say such things? Did you see Dad’s new wife? How old is she? You can’t sit here crying every night. You’re beautiful and sexy Mom. You deserve better!”

Barbara had looked at her, wide eyed, but something seemed to have clicked behind those red rimmed eyes. The following morning, her mother booked an appointment at the salon and had her hair done. After a while, she began to lose weight and was even doing yoga. It was a total transformation and Lee-Ann was happy. What she didn’t count on, however, was that her mother would actually have gone out and followed her advice.

They were having a girls’ night when Barbara started acting strangely. A trend they’d started, just the two of them on Saturday night. They would order pizza, make popcorn, and watch movies. That particular night, her mother was quiet more than usual, and she was afraid Barbara would start her crying again.

“Mom, what’s the matter? You aren’t thinking about that schmuck, are you?”

“That schmuck happens to be your father, but no,” she’d replied, fidgeting with her popcorn. “I have something to tell you.”

“What?” She’d insisted, turning to face her mother on the sofa where they were sitting.

Barbara hesitated and cleared her throat, “I met someone I like very much.”

“What?” her voice rose a notch. “When? How? Who?”

“His name is Timothy Stanworth and I met him a couple of months ago. I…we…I mean…we’re getting married.”

The blood had completely drained from her face. She had gotten up from the sofa and went to her room without a word. That had been the beginning of her nightmare. She’d lost her father to a woman half his age and lost her mother to Timothy. Not only that, she’d gained a nemesis in the process. What made it worse was that they had to move from San Jose to Irvine. It was still in California, but her mother said she had to sell the house because their father had left a lot of debts.

With a lot of willpower, she brought herself back to the present and placed the brush on the bureau. With precision, she put on some makeup and then changed her shorts and put on a pair of jeans. She hardly recognized herself as she adjusted her top in the mirror and flicked her head back.

Her mother should be back anytime now, so Lee-Ann left the sanctuary of her room and headed down the stairs. She had just made one step down, her left hand on the banister when she heard voices and the front door closing. She hesitated, unsure of whether to go down or not, or let Joshua wonder about her. She was about to turn around when his voice reached her.

“Hi Lee-Ann. How have you been?” he was standing at the bottom of the stairs.

She looked down at him and caught his blue eyes. They held for a few seconds as he began to move up the stairs. His sandy blond hair was cropped very low, and as he moved, his thighs bulged in his cargo camouflage. His matching t-shirt was stretched to its limit across his broad chest and arms.
He really looked like a soldier
, she thought. There was something unreadable in his eyes that caught her attention and she wondered what it was. She looked away and lifted her chin, making a step down, but stumbling embarrassingly.

“Goddamit,” she mumbled under her breath.

Joshua was halfway up the stairs by the time she righted herself. “You need to watch your language, Lee-Ann,” he chuckled.

“Don’t you start with me you…,” she glared at him and pouted.

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” he asked with a grin. “Give me a hug, huh?” He dropped his large duffel bag and slung his muscular arm around her neck, ruffling her hair. “I sure am happy to see you, Reds,” he was neck holding her like he used to when they were younger.

“Let me go, you Jackass! You’re messing up my hair,” she screeched.

“What’s the matter, Reds? You don’t look so happy,” he released her neck but had pulled her up against him and was engulfing her in a bear hug with his huge six feet three inch frame. Surprisingly, the hug was gentle, and he released her before she could figure out what he was up to. “You’re grown up, don’t like my neck holds anymore.”

“I never liked those neck holds!”

“You should have said so,” Joshua picked up his bag and started walking to his room across the hall from hers. “My friends are coming over in a bit. Can you stay in your room while they’re here?”

“Why should I do that? You can’t leave for three years and then tell me what to do as soon as you get back,” she protested.

“I guess you’re right. These guys haven’t seen a girl in a while, so they might get the wrong idea. I was only trying to protect you, so suit yourself,” he pushed his door, went in, and closed it behind him.

“Argh,” she stomped away to her room.

She didn’t want to meet his friends anyway, so when she heard him come out of his room, she stayed put. After a few minutes, she crept to the top of the stairs and listened. There were several voices downstairs, which meant his friends were there. For about half an hour, she stayed in her room, but she’d gotten hungry.

“I’m not starving because of you, Josh,” she muttered and made her way down the stairs.

There was no one in the living room and only her mother in the kitchen. Curiously, she looked by the swimming pool which was located at the side of the opulent Victorian style house. The poolside was empty as well. That left her stepfather’s den in the basement and she headed there. The room seemed empty as it was in darkness. She looked around and turned to leave when he spoke.

“Miss me already?” he had been sitting in his father’s recliner which swallowed him in its shadows.

“Don’t be silly. I was just making sure your friends were gone,” she retorted.

He rose slowly from the chair. His huge frame casting a shadow on the wall of the dark room, almost menacingly. Like a leopard slithering towards its prey, he came towards her. She found her heart leap, perhaps from some fear deep within, and it annoyed her. Lee-Ann pursed her lips and strode away.