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A Seal's Touch
Tawny Weber
Subject: Navy SEAL Taylor PowellMission: Find a sexy fake girlfriend…with even sexier benefits!Lieutenant Taylor “The Wizard” Powell has a reputation for getting out of tricky situations. Bad guys, bombs, weapons—no problem. Finding a girlfriend in order to evade matchmaking friends? Not so easy. He's banking on contractor Cat Peres to help him out…not realizing his tomboy friend has a whole lot of sexy surprises hidden in her toolbelt.Cat can't remember a time when Taylor wasn't the object of her hottest dreams—so she can’t help but agree to his plan. Their only rule? Friends, no matter what. Except the deliciously hot chemistry that ignites between them takes them both by surprise…and having nothing between them might just ruin everything.
Subject: Navy SEAL Taylor Powell
Mission: Find a sexy fake girlfriend...with even sexier benefits!
Lieutenant Taylor “The Wizard” Powell has a reputation for getting out of tricky situations. Bad guys, bombs, weapons—no problem. Finding a girlfriend in order to evade matchmaking friends? Not so easy. He’s banking on contractor Cat Peres to help him out...not realizing his tomboy friend has a whole lot of sexy surprises hidden in her tool belt.
Cat can’t remember a time when Taylor wasn’t the object of her hottest dreams—so she can’t help but agree to his plan. Their only rule? Friends, no matter what. Except the deliciously hot chemistry that ignites between them takes them both by surprise...and having nothing between them might just ruin everything.
Can’t resist a sexy military hero?
Then you’ll love our Uniformly Hot! miniseries.
Harlequin Blaze’s bestselling miniseries continues with more irresistible men from all branches of the armed forces.
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NO SURRENDER by Sara Arden April 2016
DARING HER SEAL by Anne Marsh May 2016
Dear Reader (#ulink_e0ee4b25-3a1e-558c-936d-eb96c25ae3f5),
The friends-to-lovers theme is one of my favorites because there is a deeper level of intimacy between people who’ve known each other for a long time. And, of course, it’s fun to see them discover each other in this sexy new way.
Added to that, I had such a great time exploring beaches and bonfires and oceanside fun in A SEAL’s Touch. In doing so, I realized that there’s something extra sexy about a beachside romance, especially when it’s between two people who’ve been friends for years. Add in a military ball and there’s more romance than either Taylor or Cat had bargained for.
But it was so fun to write, especially because I enjoyed seeing these two characters who thought they were so wrong for each other realize just how right they were. I hope you enjoy reading Cat and Taylor’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it!
I’d love to hear what you think. Stop by my website, tawnyweber.com (http://www.tawnyweber.com), for lots of book information, contests, giveaways and more!
Happy reading,
Tawny Weber
A SEAL’s Touch
Tawny Weber
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
A New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than thirty books, TAWNY WEBER writes sassy, emotional romances with a dash of humor featuring hot alpha heroes. It’s all about the sexy attitude! A fan of Johnny Depp, cupcakes and her very own hero husband, Tawny enjoys scrapbooking, gardening, spending time with her family and dogs, and hanging out with readers on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TawnyWeber.RomanceAuthor/).
Fans are invited to check out Tawny’s books at her website, tawnyweber.com (http://tawnyweber.com/). For extra fun, join her Red Hot Readers Club for goodies like free reads, complete first chapters, recipes, insider story info and much more.
To James.
My best friend, who has my heart and my trust.
Contents
Cover (#u7be7674c-317b-54ae-ae27-2456b3336989)
Back Cover Text (#ue6139b6e-ca61-52fd-ab76-f746a9eb5422)
Introduction (#ub978397e-de1a-5819-afde-78b1c4df3d30)
Dear Reader (#u2c590b63-a4fd-5412-a2e2-00ad6e9a73e8)
Title Page (#u2dac6a22-c438-58fb-a534-c48886745a20)
About the Author (#uf6fc103c-7f02-54d9-bff8-b3e80826c253)
Dedication (#u524303b1-3d66-50f5-9ab0-2418cffcebd3)
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Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
1 (#ulink_bb83fa92-a86d-5a16-8776-fc7ed7facb8b)
FRESH OFF A mission deep in the vicious heart of the Afghan desert, Taylor Powell strode down the gangplank of the aircraft carrier, his pack under one arm and the sea air dampening his skin. The sun, just starting to peek over the horizon, would melt the mist away soon enough, but for now Taylor welcomed the chill.
It’d been damned hot where he’d been.
His fingers tapped a tattoo on the butt of his sidearm. Yeah. It’d been hot. A ghost of a frown slid over his face, the only sign he’d allow as images flashed through his mind. Maybe a little too hot.
He breathed deep the fresh sea air, letting it cool his lungs and his thoughts.
“Yo, Wizard. You owe me fifty bucks.”
“Don’t you mean you owe me fifty?” Taylor slowed, throwing a grin over his shoulder at SEAL team member Shane O’Brian. “Face it, Scavenger. You’re getting soft.”
“Soft, hell,” Shane muttered with a grin.
“Now that you’ve hooked up with that sweet little brunette, you’re like a stuffed teddy bear. Supposed to be so big and tough, but feather soft inside.”
“Feather soft, my ass.”
Taylor made a show of looking the Scavenger up and down, from the tip of the guy’s combat boots to the brim of his cap tilted low over his eyes. An inch taller than Taylor’s own six feet-two, the only things that kept O’Brian from skinny were his muscles.
“You putting on weight?” Squinting at the other guy’s flat stomach, Taylor shook his head. “Shoulda stuck with rations instead of scarfing down seconds of your lady’s cooking.”
“You miserable all by your lonely self?” Scavenger shot back. “Poor guy, stuck bouncing from woman to woman because none of them want to keep you?”
“Yeah.” Taylor’s grin turned wicked. “It’s rough having women fall all over me, every one of them hot for good times, good sex and no strings. I gotta tell ya, I’m not sure how I sleep at night trying to figure out which one I’ll hook up with next.”
“Dog.” Scavenger threw back his head, laughing. “You would be such a dog if you really thought like that.”
“Can’t say I mind the bevy of beautiful women and lack of strings,” Taylor admitted with a shrug. After all, he liked—no, he loved—sex. But the only thing he was willing to commit to was his country.
“Then you’re in for a good time.”
“You don’t say.” Catching Scavenger’s grin, Taylor frowned. “Correction, say. What’s up?”
Scavenger shrugged but unless the guy was standing at attention or facing an enemy, he had a lousy poker face. Still, it was hard to tell which was more apparent. Amusement. Or guilt.
“You sending me a stripper for my birthday?” Taylor hazarded a guess. “I’m partial to blondes with big—”
“Your birthday isn’t until December and with any luck...”
Damn.
“With any luck, what?”
When Scavenger didn’t respond, Taylor grabbed his arm.
“What?”
“It’s nothing.” Scavenger grinned. “The ladies are on a tear, is all.”
“Ladies?” Uh-huh. “So what kind of trouble is your girlfriend starting?”
“Hey, don’t blame Lark. Alexia started it.”
Damn and double damn it all to hell.
“Matchmaking?”
“You’re quick,” Scavenger said in an admiring tone.
Quick?
Hardly.
Given that the commander’s wife had been trying to hook him up for months, that Irish’s new bride had started asking him to dinner to meet her friends and that even the sweet hippie Aiden had married was talking about casting charts to find his perfect match, he was feeling pretty slow.
But he wasn’t going to admit that.
“Nobody quicker,” he said instead as they crossed the asphalt. “Which is why you owe me fifty bucks.”
“The hell I do. I hit the ground first. It was my shot that took out the security system.”
“You should have hit the ground first since you jumped first. What’d you do on the way down, man? Take a side trip? I landed first. It was my shot that took out the mark.”
“Yo, Ice. Got a second to settle an issue?” Scavenger called out to the guy a few steps ahead of them.
“Settling issues is my specialty,” the tall, blond SEAL said, his expression as deadly serious as his aim.
“Who hit the mark?” Scavenger asked, jerking his thumb between the two of them. “Me or the Wizard?”
“Are you kidding?” The Nordic mountain slowed, his pale blue eyes shifting left then right, piercing both men. “While you guys were getting ready to play hopscotch with guerillas, I was infiltrating a high-tech installation’s security, weaving a virtual time bomb through their system without setting off any alarms.”
Hopscotch. The image flashed through Taylor’s mind of a baby-faced terrorist, barely five foot nothing in ragged clothes and dirt-encrusted bare feet. There should be rules about who could play. There should be rules about who was safe.
A vicious knot wrapped itself around his guts and was ignored. He’d learned a long time ago that rules were like fairy tales. Believing didn’t make them real.
But there was no point telling Ice that.
The man was a SEAL.
He already knew.
So Taylor pretended he was trying not to grin and gave a cocky nod.
“Yeah. You were busy playing hero.” He waited a beat. “So who hit the mark? Me or Scavenger?”
Ensign Dag Eckart gave a sad shake of his head before striding off. Taylor exchanged grins with Scavenger as they waited with matched stances. Feet wide, arms crossed, chins high. It only took about a dozen steps before, without a hitch in his stride, Ice jabbed a thumb over his shoulder toward Taylor.
