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The SEALS in my Destiny

I started out being a paranormal reader after I discovered romance later in life. How I wish I was raised by a mother who loved to read these wonderful love stories. But I grew up on the classics.

Paranormal heroes did it for me in all the right departments, especially because of all their special equipment and, well, let’s be frank between friends here, their prowess. One of the thing I always thought about Anne Rice’s vampires was that she missed the opportunity to let them have sex.

I was wrong about paranormal hunks being the truly manliest of the manly.

SEALs are. And I think the reason is because they are real people. They really exist (or did I miss the memo about the zombie apocalypse starting today?) The training that is required to become a SEAL is literally the finest in the world. Many other military special forces come to learn and train with our US Navy’s finest.

My SEALs are character portrayals “lifted” from stories I’ve overheard or read. I’ve been the the SEAL museums and attended funerals and graduations from BUD/S. The more I know about these fine men, the more I love them.

In “SEAL Destiny,” my contribution to this beautiful anthology guaranteed to send the right kind of sizzle where it’s needed most, the hero, Special Operator Chief Luke Paulsen is wanting something uncomplicated and pleasant to drown out a bad memory of holding a lifeless Marine and then avenging his death. He has begun to think of himself as unloveable. Too damaged to go forward with all the happy stuff hanging out at the San Diego beach where he’s sitting, sipping beers and watching the sunset.

But fate has taken his hand, and drops the best kind of sexual healing candy possible right in front of him. Someone who is the opposite of what he thought he wanted, but someone who was everything he really did need.

One more soldier healed by love. I wish I could save them all this way. Hope you’ll join the journey with all of us at High Octane Heroes, and keep the dream of love alive, even in the face of death.

Book 3 in the SEAL Brotherhood Series is out today, also for your reading pleasure.

From “SEAL Destiny” by Sharon Hamilton

A week later, SOC Luke watched the sun pour itself into the horizon on one of San Diego’s white sand beaches. The afterglow felt good. So did the blush on his face from the three beers he’d finished. He usually drank with the rest of his SEAL Team III. But this last DT, Dissociative Tour, in Afghanistan had given him a cadre of young marines eager to prove themselves, along with Carson, the medic-in-training.

But Carson had drawn a different card and would be taking the short flight home. Luke raised his long-necked IPA to the sunset and toasted the man.

“To all the young hearts you won’t break,” he whispered to the soothing waves and the sunset.

It was a damned shame. He thought Carson would have made an excellent doctor.

Luke heard laughter as two lovelies in shorts ran past him to splash in the surf. Slender tanned legs kicked droplets of white foam into the air. He loved watching the girls’ carefree spirit, just being goofy and lacking an ounce of self-consciousness. He couldn’t help but smile.

The dark-haired one with the cutoff inside-out sweatshirt that showed her muscled midriff stopped and turned to face Luke. Her brown eyes were wide set. Her thin nose led to full lips that were stained bright red. She licked those lips and pushed her chocolate-brown hair from her forehead, exposing a delicious ridge of little lines on an otherwise smooth and flawless forehead. With a tiny angle she tilted her head to the side and waved in that embarrassed way her mother must have told her never to do. Especially to a strange sailor sitting alone on the beach with empty beer bottles at his feet.

Luke waved back, using the same three middle fingers she used, sending his communication off with a shy smile. He imitated the angle of her head and felt the dangerous curiosity and wonder of their chance meeting.

He wanted her in the worst way.

The blonde was pulling her friend, pleading, but she wasn’t having any of it. Luke’s unspoken message had touched her, and those golden tethers of his thoughts drew her to him, just as if he had special powers. It was lovely when that happened. He could almost believe in the supernatural, like those paranormal guys his sister read about in her romance novels.

The exquisite young thing with the well-defined legs came to within striking distance. If he wanted to, and hell yes he wanted to in the worst way, he could reach out and bring her to his arms and he could tell she wouldn’t resist. But it would be so much better if he showed a little restraint.

Those who wait? What was that saying?

No matter. Luke felt the confusing enchantment like vamps did in those books. It was a pleasant fantasy. Let her have her way with him. Yes. He could tell she felt she had a date with destiny.

I can be your destiny for one night, darlin’.

She disposed of her friend with a sharp command and, alone now, stepped closer to Luke. “You look like you could use some company,” she said as she swung her upper torso from side to side.

Her feet had implanted themselves in the sand, and he watched her pink nail polish peek out between the grains.

Lady, you have lovely toes.

But, she’d asked a question that needed an answer. “That depends,” he murmured, stunned at the joy it gave him let his eyes walk slowly up her body, every lovely inch, heightened by the knowledge that she let him. He watched the tops of her breasts quiver under the thin cotton blouse. He’d learned to assess subtle changes in body language and heart rate. He noticed the blush in her cheeks and the red blotches on her chest just below the delicate V of the top of her breastbone. His gaze roamed over her quivering chest again, and he smiled. He couldn’t wait to hear her response.

“Depends on what?” she asked.

Her brown eyes mirrored truths he wasn’t sure he’d divulge to himself.

“If it’s complicated,” he said. “I like uncomplicated.” He was telling her something he was trying to convince himself he believed.

She took in a sudden brief inhale. Her gaze quickly diverted to the ocean, giving him a full pure look at her upper torso, every curve and valley, until he thought perhaps he could even taste her skin. What Luke saw in profile was a strong, handsome woman with a body made for hard loving, who was unafraid.

Then she turned back and faced him fully. Her body dropped to her knees in front of him, so quickly he thought perhaps she’d gotten suddenly ill. “I don’t do uncomplicated,” she whispered. “I like it complicated and rich. I like entangled. I like feeling everything and being sorely missed when I’m gone.”

She didn’t physically touch him, but she had mated with a part of his body that rarely was visited.

His soul.

SHARON HAMILTON

Sharon’s award-winning spicy Navy SEAL stories in the SEAL Brotherhood series, have consistently made best sellers lists and review sites. Her characters follow a sometimes rocky road to redemption through passion and true love.

Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany are not like any vamps you’ve read before, since they don’t go to ground and can walk around in the full light of the sun.

Her Guardian Angels struggle with the human charges they are sent to save, often escaping their vanilla world of Heaven for the brief human one. You won’t find any of these beings in any Sunday school class.

She lives in Sonoma County, California with her husband, and two Dobermans. A lifelong organic gardener, when she’s not writing, she’s getting vera vera dirty in the mud, or wandering Farmer’s Markets looking for new Heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers.