Operation: Tempt Me

I really do
like surprises…

A man sat on
the wicker chair on her porch and was fast asleep. She knew exactly who he was.

Lt. Miller
Daly.

Oh. Holy.
Hell.

As if he
sensed her, his head shot up and his eyes opened, blinked once, and glared. The
heat from that stare was unmistakable. The dark brown eyes shimmered with
amusement. A smile formed by lips made for kissing.

When he
stood, the old floorboards creaked under his weight. She was totally unprepared
for his physical appearance. The picture he had sent hadn’t done him justice at
all. Simply said, he was gorgeous beyond any man she had ever met.

“Hello,
Cambrie,” he said, the casual tone showcasing a deep voice, strong like she had
dreamed.

What was she
supposed to say? She struggled to find her voice. “Hello, Miller. This is a big
surprise.”

“I was hoping
it would be.”

She swallowed
hard when he scanned her body head to toe and focused on her face again, his
smile growing. “I’m sorry. Did I miss an email or something? I didn’t expect
you.” She stepped onto the porch and felt so much smaller. He towered over her
even with her in heels.

“That’s
because I didn’t tell you I was coming. After the last email you sent, I didn’t
want to take any chances of you shooting down my visit. And I really do like
surprises.”

That smile
was intoxicating, making her at ease when she should be shaking. A man she
barely knew had traveled halfway around the world to see her. She cleared her
throat. “I’m…not really prepared for company. I just got off of work and, oh
God. Miller, look at me. This isn’t how I wanted you to see me.”

Prologue

If he didn’t
touch her, Miller would die.

The vision of
the woman that haunted his dreams nightly wouldn’t fade away tonight. Instead,
she hovered above him, only visible from the waist up. Long, dark hair flowed
around her in a wild, sensual halo. Lush, pink lips beckoned for his kisses.
The sexy smile she tossed him aroused him more. Her breasts filled the tight
blouse, her cleavage spilling over the satin material.

His cock
hardened, constrained inside his pants, begging to plunge into that pretty
mouth of hers.

Miller fought
the urge to burst through the dream and capture the temptress. Did she know she
played with fire? Driving him wild with desire was a sure way to get bent over
and fucked until she exploded with his name on her tongue. His hands reached
for her, but like always, she faded away, disappearing into blackness.

Fuck!

Pain tore
through Miller’s chest as he woke and shook the grogginess from his head.
Losing her beauty was akin to having his heart ripped from his chest and
stomped on. Each time she visited him on this mission, she stayed a little
longer than the last. Tonight there was something different about her, her
features taking a more definite form, but still he couldn’t see her face clear
enough to determine if he could recognize her.

Sitting up on
his cot, he rubbed sleep from his eyes and slowly opened them. Darkness
surrounded him in the tent he shared with four fellow Navy SEALs. Their mission
in the middle of a fucking Middle Eastern desert had deprived him of comfort
for too long. A decent night’s sleep in a real bed instead of on the rickety
cot would do wonders for him.

He stood,
attempting to be as quiet as possible so he wouldn’t have to take any shit from
the others for waking them. With a big gulp of the bottled water he kept on the
side of his sleeping area, Miller quenched his dry throat, but his head still
spun. Images of the sexy woman floated in and out of his vision until he shook
his head to lose them. He couldn’t risk seeing anything but the real thing, not
when his enemies surrounded the area, probably watching him even now in the
dark of night.

Miller cupped
his hand, poured water in it to splash onto his face before setting the bottle
back down. Who was this woman who shared his nights but never his bed? Oh, he
knew for a fact that he had never bedded the beauty. Hell, he’d remember that
mouth, those lips, her touch. Never had a woman kept his attention long enough
to dream of her. So where the hell did she come from? Talk about aggravating
the shit out of a man, edging him closer to insanity.

Miller needed
to take a piss. Grabbing his rifle, he stalked to the entrance of the tent
without a sound. A brief perimeter scan showed no obvious enemies, but they
lurked somewhere in the shadows and the surrounding volatile land. He stepped
out from the place he’d called home for the past five weeks and whistled.

Cade
Granville stepped from the darkness into the slit of moonlight, suited in full
body armor and helmet, his rifle held firmly, and greeted him with a smirk.
“Daly, you looking to relieve me?”

“Fuck no.
Dream on,” Miller said, walking toward the giant cactus that had been elected
as their outhouse.

“Asshole. I
hate doing surveillance rounds. Bored stiff.”

“Better than
getting a bullet in your ass, Granville,” he said, stopping behind the prickly
desert bush, his dream induced hard-on making completion almost impossible, his
thoughts still consumed with the mystery woman from his dreams. What he
wouldn’t give right now for the privacy to stroke his cock to thoughts of her
and relieve the pressure within his balls.

Goddamn
fucking mission! Man can’t even jerk off in peace. Irritated with himself for
being so obsessed with his mystery dream woman, Miller zipped his pants.

Maybe it was
the extreme boredom of this mission that his mind kept wandering to the
gorgeous woman. Normally, his team was entrenched in fighting and pursuit of
the enemy but not this time. All they could do for this stint was sit back and
observe…and wait. Wait to be attacked or wait to find their man. Too much quiet
time meant too much thinking for Miller. Damn, if he could get some decent
sleep then he wouldn’t mind so much.

Striding back
toward Cade, he grumbled, “Gonna take in some air. Be over there a few minutes.
Don’t shoot me, fool.”

“What air?”
Cade said with a laugh. “Haven’t felt a breeze at night since we’ve been here.
Only blessing is less heat than the hundred thirty degrees in the day.”

Miller didn’t
reply, just walked to the tent and stood on the side, staring up at the black
sky dotted with bright stars and a half moon. Cade was a great guy. All his
team members were. They were more like brothers than fellow soldiers. Hell,
they had to be if Miller trusted them with his life every day of their active
tour.

He rubbed the
mermaid tattoo on his arm, replicated from his nightly dreams over the past
year. “I know you’re out there somewhere, darlin’. I’m damn sure gonna find you
some day,” he whispered into the night.

Imagining all
of the hot sex he would have when he found the woman who lived in his
imagination, Miller smiled, his cock aching with need. “Gonna spank your ass
for haunting my sleep.”

Oh, hell
yeah. He owed her big time for torturing his dick.