Navy Rules. Geri Krotow

you treated Tom, as if he was supposed to do what you wanted with no regard for what he’d worked so hard for. He was my best friend. Of course I was going to warn him if I thought he was making a mistake. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t find you attractive. It just wasn’t ever an option.”

      They were inches apart. His gaze wasn’t on her eyes anymore. His chest still heaved, his anger still simmered. But he stared at her lips and she felt his desire as if it were her own.

      “But this isn’t about me. It’s about you, Winnie. I have a child and you didn’t tell me. How the hell am I supposed to take this?’”

      “I’m so sorry, Max. I never meant to hurt you.”

      “Just as you never meant to hurt me by not returning any of my calls or emails after the Air Show? Weak, Winnie, even from you.”

      “I didn’t want you to feel you owed me anything for that…that night.” Of course, that was before she’d realized she was pregnant.

      “That’s not why I was calling you, Winnie.”

      His windbreaker rasped as he lifted his hand to her face and tilted up her chin with one finger.

      Winnie looked into his face and prayed that her knees wouldn’t buckle. His eyes, red-rimmed from anger and probably the wind, reflected something she never expected from Max once he learned about Maeve.

      Interest. Desire.

      “I wanted to be with you, and not just on that night.” His gaze shifted to her lips again and she willed her defenses to kick in and push him back.

      Instead, she met him halfway.

      She felt the instant shock of recognition as the smoothness of his lips touched hers. His kiss ignited the fuse that always lay between them.

      She knew she shouldn’t be doing this, she should be concerned about the girls in the next room, somehow fighting this need to have his mouth on hers. Coherent thought wasn’t an option with Max’s tongue in her mouth and his hands wrapped around her head.

      His hair was wet at his nape and she liked how the short strands rubbed against her palm. Her other hand was on his shoulder, but instead of pushing him away, she was holding on for her very sanity.