“No need. Sit with your friends,” she ordered. “It won’t take me a minute.”
“At least let me help.” Harm washed his hands in the sink and returned to pull lettuce off a head on the counter.
Talia laid bread on the counter. “Mustard or mayo?”
“Both,” Harm replied.
She spread mustard on one piece of bread and layered ham slices over it.
Harm laid the lettuce on the ham, while Talia slathered mayonnaise onto the other slice of bread. She laid it on top of the pile of ham and held it from falling off to the side. “Could you hand me the knife?”
Harm reached around her, his chest brushing against her back.
Talia stiffened, her hand freezing on the sandwich.
“I’ll cut that,” he said.
She held the sandwich with one hand.
Harm’s arm curved around her, and he held the knife over the bread. About that time, he caught a whiff of her perfume and couldn’t think past wanting to get closer to identify the scent.
“Are you going to cut it?” she whispered.
Entirely too aware of his hostess, Harm pressed the handle of the knife into her palm. “Maybe it would be best if you did the honors.”
She nodded. “Right.” Her hand shook as she sliced through the bread, ham and lettuce. With quick efficiency, she laid the two sides of the sandwich on a plate and poured potato chips beside it. “Here you go.” Talia shoved the plate toward Harm. “You can help yourself to the drinks in the refrigerator. If you prefer tea or coffee, I’ll make some for you.”
“Thank you. I’ll have a beer, but I can get it myself.” He took the plate from her hands, his fingers brushing against hers, sending an electrical current up his arm and all the way down to his groin.
Talia snatched her hands away and tucked them into the back pockets of her jeans. By the way she was acting, she might have had a similar reaction to his touch.
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he carried the plate to the table. He liked that he unnerved her as much as she did him.
Diesel reached out as if to snag Harm’s sandwich.
“Touch it and I’ll break your fingers,” Harm warned. That sandwich meant more than something to fill his belly. Talia had helped make it. For him.
The other SEAL held up his hands in surrender. “Just kidding with you. I kind of like my fingers the way they are. Need them to shoot.”
“You know better, Diesel. No one comes between a SEAL and his sandwich,” Pitbull said. As if to prove his point, he stuffed the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth and grinned like a chipmunk with his cheeks full of nuts.
Big Jake stood, carried his plate to the sink and stopped at the refrigerator on the way back. He snagged two longneck bottles of beer and handed one to Harm. “Didn’t think you’d want to leave your food unattended with these vultures around.”
“You got that right.” Harm shot a narrow-eyed glare at the others sitting at the table and then gave a chin lift to Big Jake. “Thanks, man.”
“You’re welcome.” He patted his flat stomach and stretched. “I think I’ll be hitting the rack.”
“I’ll show you the room,” Talia offered.
Big Jake grabbed his duffel bag and followed Talia out of the kitchen.
Harm couldn’t focus on his food until Talia had left the room. His pulse hadn’t slowed since he’d touched her hand.
“I’m going to marry that woman,” T-Mac said.
Harm’s gaze shot to his teammate, and he nearly crushed his sandwich in his fist. “Why do you say that?”
T-Mac laughed. “Seriously?” He tipped his head toward the door Talia had disappeared through. “She makes a mean ham sandwich, she’s beautiful, and most of all, she’s not afraid of snakes.”
Dr. Vega set her bottle of water on the table, a frown wrinkling her pretty brow. “And you think those are enough reasons to marry someone?”
“It’s enough in my book,” T-Mac said.
“You barely know the woman,” Pitbull said.
“And how long have you known Marly?” T-Mac raised his eyebrows and smiled at Marly. “No offense, Marly.”
She shook her head, her sandy blond hair swinging around her chin. “None taken.”
Pitbull lifted Marly’s hand. “We’re different. There was a connection between us from the start.”
Marly lifted his knuckles to her lips and pressed a kiss to them. “Well, not from the start, but shortly after. I was more interested in making him sweat in the copilot’s seat of my airplane.”
“And I did,” Pitbull said.
“Yes, but you held strong.” Marly smiled into his eyes. “Even when you were scared out of your mind.”
Pitbull frowned. “I wasn’t scared out of my mind.”
“Uh-huh.” Marly pressed his hand to her cheek. “Even when we landed in the middle of a herd of zebras?”
“Crash-landed,” he corrected.
“I prefer to call it a controlled emergency landing.” Marly lifted her chin. “I was in control the entire time.”
“Yes, you were,” Pitbull said and leaned across to kiss her lips.
Harm watched their public display of affection and found himself wishing he had that kind of relationship with a woman. His thoughts immediately went to Talia and quickly switched back to T-Mac.
He’d be damned if his teammate stole Talia’s heart out from under him. Not that he held her heart. She’d loved her husband.
The tension ebbed from Harm’s body. T-Mac didn’t have a chance with Talia. For that matter, neither did Harm. It would take a very special man to win her heart after the love she’d shared with her husband. Harm wasn’t sure he, T-Mac or anyone else on his team was that special. He loved them like brothers, but none of them were as creative or sensitive to the plight of the animals on the savanna. Yeah, they cared about their existence, but not to the point where they’d choose to give up their lives in the States to run a resort in Kenya.
Talia deserved someone strong, yet sensitive and creative, who would love her so very much he’d be willing to risk it all to keep her safe.
Harm bit into his sandwich, thinking about Talia’s husband, Michael. Any man who would bring his woman out to the wilds of Africa without a backup plan had to be too focused on his own dreams and desires to think about the needs of the woman he promised to love, honor and cherish. Somewhere in those marriage vows should have been another promise...to protect. By dying, Michael had left his wife exposed to all the dangers inherent to life in Africa. He should have had a plan in place for her should he be injured or killed.
The man obviously didn’t love her enough, or he would have left instructions on what to do in the event of his death.
Talia was a lone woman in a country where she didn’t have family or a support system. And from the sound of it, the local witch doctor was using her femininity against her and turning the community against her as well.
“T-Mac, you need to focus on women within your reach,” Pitbull said. “Talia lives in Africa. What kind of relationship could you have if she’s half a world away from you ninety-nine percent of the time?”
T-Mac shrugged. “Love will find a way. I mean, look at you and Marly. All she had to do was blow up her airplane and voilà!”