“If you come to dinner, believe me, you won’t be able to get out of it.”
“I think I might like to be invited to dinner on a regular basis.”
She stopped walking away from him at that comment. Turning around, she studied him. “You would?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“No.” She smiled. “My family is really nice.”
“So, you’re adopted?”
“I was orphaned, then I was fostered. My parents died when I was five, and I was shuffled through the system more than I can count. Just when I’d get settled, I’d get pulled out and put into another home. Lynne and Scott are my seventh set of foster parents.”
“Shuffled around. That must have been tough for you.”
“It was hell, to be frank, but that’s all in the past. I’m grounded now. A San Diego police detective and I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do anymore. Speaking of my job, we’d better get going.”
“We should. It can’t hurt to have a quick bite and head out in about an hour.”
His face was so earnest, so tender, the comment made her smile.
He was no man for her to fall in love with. He tempted her and teased her, seduced her into letting go of everything that comprised her life. He interrupted her routine. He challenged her rules and regulations, made his own kind of reality.
A seductive one.
It wasn’t something she could embrace. She had her plan, and it didn’t include a dedicated Navy SEAL. But as she thought of the time they had spent together in her bed, she couldn’t think of a single need he hadn’t met. He had offered her more than his body. He had offered her tenderness, comfort, his strength.
The phone shrilled and Sienna picked it up.
“Hello,” she said into the receiver.
“Sienna, are you all right? Hobart said you’d taken down gunrunners and you were bleeding.”
The concern in Kate’s voice made Sienna smile. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t say it’s just a scratch,” Kate scolded.
Sienna pulled at a loose thread on the arm of the couch, lowering her voice a little bit more. “It is, though.” Both women laughed.
“Yeah, sure. You work too hard, Sienna.”
“This case can’t wait,” Sienna said. “I expected you to call last night. Didn’t Hobart tell you what I wanted?”
There was a long pause. “Yes, but I’ve been jumping through hoops for St. James. I did manage to get the request to the FBI. They said they couldn’t promise anything.”
Sienna could detect the stress in her friend’s voice. “Is everything all right?”
Kate’s sigh was filled with more than just frustration. “Some old case that’s causing him some indigestion. He thinks I messed up.”
“Did you?”
“Who, me?” Kate snorted. “No way. He’s wrong.”
Sienna felt a sudden overprotective feeling for Kate, who had the sweetness of a lady and a spine of steel. “You tell St. James to play nice or I’ll come over there and kick his butt.”
“Not exactly a good way to start seducing a guy.”
Sienna shifted the phone to her other hear. “How goes it?”