Page 10 of Kyle

“The spit. I already wiped it off before it could drench my tee.”

“Please tell me you’re kidding,” I whispered and closed my eyes.

“Yeah, I’m just joking with you.” He chuckled, but this time my body shook with his, and it was so much better feeling it rather than just seeing it.

I was so stupid. I had to stop these thoughts before I embarrassed myself more than I already had.

I opened my eyes and focused on the book he was holding in his left hand. His right was still knitted with mine.

“Are you reading my book?” I asked unnecessarily as I could see part of the back cover.

“After your head landed on my shoulder, I couldn’t reach down under the seat to grab mine out of my bag. Yours was already in the seat pocket so I grabbed it.”

Oh. My. God.

“Um…”

“I didn’t take you for a romance novel kinda gal. But then, I had no idea this kind of romance existed, or I would’ve picked one of these up a long time ago.”

“Um…how much of that have you read?” I asked, dreading his answer.

I had no idea how long I’d been asleep but considering it looked like he was more than fifty percent done with the book it had to have been a while.

“Enough to know, this Susan Stoker woman just may be my favorite new author.”

Oh. My. God. He didn’t just say that.

“I’ll email her, I’m sure she’ll love knowing a former SEAL likes her work.”

His broad shoulders continued to shake and try as I might, I couldn’t stop the tingling.

“Do you know her?” he asked. I glanced up and his brow arched.

Wow, that looked good on him, too.

“What? No. I was kidding.”

“Have you read this book?”

“Um, yeah. It’s one of my favorites.”

“That water rescue at the beginning was intense. The hero subscribes to my brand of justice. Straight up, slices the asshole’s finger off then starts the interrogation.”

I thought about the scene in question and grinned. I could totally picture Kyle as a romance novel hero. Actually, he was a real-life hero. Jesus, what was wrong with me? I’d gone bat shit crazy—now I was comparing Kyle to my book boyfriends. The only kind of boyfriends I had because I was damaged and learned no man wanted damaged. Not even good ones like Kyle.

“Only I wouldn’t have left the woman in San Francisco,” he continued.

“Why not? They didn’t think she was in danger,” I asked.

“Because he obviously had a thing for her.”

“What should he have done? Tossed her over his shoulder caveman style and taken her back to the mountains?”

“That’s one option.” I could hear the teasing in his voice, but I still trembled at the thought of Kyle tossing me over his shoulder carrying me off to his mountain home to love me forever. “The end was creepy as fuck. All those people in the cages. Who thinks up shit like that?”

“Susan.” I laughed. “She always has great twists. In this one book the bad guy was hiding in the heroine’s house. I was so freaked out after I read it, I was so happy I lived in an apartment or I may’ve had to nail the attic door shut.” I shivered thinking about some crazy person hiding in my house, then something hit me. “You read the whole book?”

I studied the paperback and it was open to the middle.