Page 15 of Protecting Kelli
It was taking all her self-control not to stare back.
Flash was…he was beautiful. There was no other word for him. His biceps bulged with muscles, his abs were at least a six-pack, and his thighs were thick. The man was a mixture of muscular while still being long and lean. She could easily picture him in her mind wearing a skintight wetsuit while sneaking through the water doing Navy SEAL shit.
She had no idea what it was he did while on missions, but he obviously looked damn good while doing it.
Kelli felt frumpy and fat all over again. Looking at her toes sticking straight up as she tried to adjust herself in her tube, she could only imagine what he was seeing. Her black one-piece suit covered as much as possible. She’d refused to get one of those suits that had a skirt though; that just screamed fuddy-duddy, as far as she was concerned.
Her suit was actually cut high on her hips, which she thought helped disguise some of the weight she had in her thighs and stomach. It had a U-shaped back that dipped low, which she now regretted, as the rubber of the tube was already rubbing against her uncomfortably. Looking down, she could see her boobs threatening to pop out of the top of the suit, and her belly showed her love of cheese and those Little Debbie snack cakes—Christmas Tree Cakes were her downfall every holiday season.
“How the hell are the girls comfortable in those bikinis on these things?” Kelli blurted, as she shifted once more, trying to find a comfortable position on the tube.
“I’m thinking comfort isn’t exactly their first thought at the moment,” Flash said dryly.
“True.”
“Relax, Kelli. This is supposed to be fun. And soothing.”
“I have a confession,” she said, looking over at Flash once more.
“Yeah?”
“I’m not the best swimmer.”
He looked alarmed.
Kelli went on quickly. “Icanswim. It’s just, as much as I love the sun, spending time in the water at the pool or beach was never exactly my favorite thing to do.”
“Well, you’re in luck. Because I’m an excellent swimmer.”
Kelli figured that was probably the understatement of the century. She rolled her eyes at him and was rewarded with the huge grin returning to Flash’s face.
“I know you can’t tell me anything specific, but can youtell me a little about what you do? Like, when you’re on a mission?”
The next hour or so went by extremely pleasantly. She could hear the laughter and girly shrieks from the others ahead of them, and every now and then they caught up enough to see the group. Flash told her tales about his job, and she learned about the men he worked with. She chuckled at their nicknames—Kevlar, Safe, Blink, Preacher, MacGyver, and Smiley. Individually, they sounded like they were hilarious, and together? She had a feeling they were probably a handful.
But it was the way Flash talked about his friends’ girlfriends that had her feeling a little jealous. The women sounded…nice. Which was a totally inadequate word, but it had been a long time since she’d felt as if she were part of a tight-knit group like Flash described when talking about his friends.
And she couldn’t help but feel intimidated when he’d told her some of the things that had happened to the women, and how well they’d coped.
“Remi and Kevlar were actually left in the middle of the ocean to die?” she asked.
“Uh-huh. The worst part about that was, it was one of our own, one of our SEAL brothers who did it. Because the asshole was jealous.Jealous. It’s ridiculous. If he wanted to be team leader, all he had to do was talk to the commander and he could’ve made it happen eventually. Instead, when stranding them in the ocean didn’t work, he kidnapped Remi and tried to bury her alive, in some misguided belief that Kevlar would be so emotionally distraught he wouldn’t be able to function, leaving this guy to take over the team.”
The absolute fury behind what his teammate had done was easy to hear in Flash’s tone.
“Thank God for Blink being in the right place at the right time,” he finished.
“He’s the one who was a POW in Iran, right?” Kelli asked. She was fascinated by the backgrounds of Flash’s friends.
“Yup. He met Josie there. I wish all SEALs were like Blink and the rest of my friends. Unfortunately, they’re not. Maggie’s ex was also in the Navy, and that asshole had her locked in a box, then he actually arranged for our team to drop that box from a helicopter in Ukraine.”
Kelli gaped at him. “That sounds horrible!”
“It was. But MacGyver met Artem, Borysko, and Yana as a result of that mission, and now they’re thriving, living in the States with him and Addison.”
Once again, Kelli was officially intimidated. The men and women in Flash’s inner circle sounded like superheroes. They had their shit together, and when the worst happened, they were level-headed and brave. Afterward, they were somehow able to get past their traumas and have normal lives.
She screamed when she saw spiders in her apartment. She freaked out when she saw someone run a red light because of whatcouldhave happened if another car had gone through the intersection at the same time. And she couldn’t muster up the courage to take off her freaking cover-up in front of the Three A’s and the near-strangers they were shacking up with.
