by Tawny Weber
Subject: Navy SEAL Lieutenant Dominic Castillo
Mission: Protect—not seduce!—his sexy target
Dominic Castillo loves his SEAL team like brothers—except one, who made sure Castillo was left behind during the latest mission. But when his rival is kidnapped by a vicious drug lord, Castillo receives a black ops mission of his own: protect his rival’s sister. And any mistakes will either result in her death…or his.
Lara Banks clearly has no interest in being protected by a military man, especially an acquaintance of her estranged brother. So why is she doing her best to drive him crazy with pure temptation? Lara insists on having her naughty way with him—over and over—but is fulfilling their fantasies worth the price?
Castillo, on the floor naked. Oh, my…
Lust.
It was pure, passion-driven, desire-sparking lust. And this time, Lara wasn’t in it for testing a little sample.
Her tongue slipped between his lips, swirling along his before backing out to dance over his mouth.
Letting her body run the show, she slid closer, her knees angling down his thighs and her bare breasts pressed to his chest. Her mouth brushed his in a series of teasing kisses. Each one grew wetter, hotter, more intense.
A response echoed in her body.
But she wanted more. More kisses, more heat.
Her fingers scraped across the velvet hardness of Castillo’s shoulders, down the rock-hard curve of his biceps.
Isn’t he a big one?
With a little growl of anticipation, Lara decided to do some exploring. She nibbled her way over that irresistible dimple, dipping her tongue in before sliding kisses along the hard plane of his jaw.
Oh, he was tasty.
Angling her body over the promising bulge beneath the blanket, Lara bit the chain around his neck, tugging the dog tags aside with a jingle of metal.
Now this was worth waking up for….
Dear Reader,
There is something so compelling about a military hero. A focus, an intensity that always draws me in. And, of course, military men tend to be in awesome shape. I’ve got to tell you, writing about guys with hard bodies is a lot of fun!
When Dominic Castillo first made his appearance in A SEAL’s Kiss, I knew he needed a special story and a very strong heroine. One who could challenge his well-fed ego and keep him on his toes. Who better than the sister of his least-favorite person in the world? Lara is strong, confident and edgy, and she’s more than ready to handle anything Dominic can offer up. Because this story is part of the Unrated! miniseries, it means a lot of what he offered up was pretty sexy!
I hope you enjoy reading A SEAL’s Fantasy—and that you’ll check out the earlier sexy SEALs: A SEAL’s Seduction, A SEAL’s Surrender, A SEAL’s Salvation and A SEAL’s Kiss. I’d love to hear what you think. Drop by my website at www.tawnyweber.com or find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tawnyweber.romanceauthor.
Hugs,
Tawny Weber
A SEAL’s Fantasy
Tawny Weber
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A New York Times bestselling author of over twenty-five hot books, Tawny Weber has been writing sassy, sexy romances since her first Harlequin Blaze book was published in 2007. A fan of Johnny Depp, cupcakes and color coordination, she spends a lot of her time shopping for cute shoes, scrapbooking and hanging out on Facebook.
Readers can check out Tawny’s books at her website, www.tawnyweber.com, or join her Red Hot Readers Club for goodies like free reads, complete first chapter excerpts, recipes, insider story info and much more. Look for her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tawnyweber.romanceauthor.
Books by Tawny Weber
HARLEQUIN BLAZE
462—COMING ON STRONG
468—GOING DOWN HARD
492—FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME
513—BLAZING BEDTIME STORIES, VOLUME III
“You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs…”
564—RIDING THE WAVES
579—IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE MISTLETOE…
“A Babe in Toyland”
592—BREAKING THE RULES
612—JUST FOR THE NIGHT
656—SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE
660—SEX, LIES AND MIDNIGHT
688—BLAZING BEDTIME STORIES, VOLUME VII
“Wild Thing”
726—NICE & NAUGHTY
738—A SEAL’S SEDUCTION
739—A SEAL’S SURRENDER
750—MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
778—NAUGHTY CHRISTMAS NIGHTS
783—A SEAL’S SALVATION
791—A SEAL’S KISS
COSMO RED-HOT READS FROM HARLEQUIN
FEARLESS
To browse a current listing of all Tawny’s titles, please visit www.Harlequin.com.
To the Sassy Sweethearts—the most amazing group of awesome ladies!
You all rock. Thank you for all the book love and fun.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Excerpt
1
THERE WAS NOTHING like a little bare skin to turn twenty adult men into drooling adolescents. Throw in a long, hard pole and a pair of glittery high heels, and they were a sad bunch of throbbing glands.
“Take it off, baby. Show us what you got.”
As if she’d been waiting for those lovely and enticing instructions, the stripper offered a sharp smile and, quick as a whip, yanked her dress in half and threw it across the room.
Dominic Castillo listened to his brothers and cousins whoop and holler, half of them waving dollar bills as if they were winning lottery tickets and the stripper their prize. Once he’d have been right there with them, front and center. Not that he’d have to call out lame suggestions and wave money to get her attention. Nope, all Dominic needed was his charming smile to beat out all of his relatives for the sexy woman’s attention.
But tonight his dollars were safe in his pocket and here he was, on the quiet side of the bar, sucking down a soda and wondering what the hell had happened to his life.
A year—damn, six months—ago everything had been golden. He’d been a kick-ass SEAL rocking his way up the ranks, carrying out death-defying missions and loving every second of it. Women flocked to him; he had a great family and a brotherhood of SEALs who had his back and kept life fun.
Hell, he used to wake up most mornings expecting to see a big ole S on his chest.
Used to.
Now?
He carefully shifted his head from one side to the other, glad his brain stayed put.
He’d gone on dozens of missions in his five years as a SEAL. His solid muscles and the scars were a tribute to his dedication to his career. He’d been hurt plenty of times. He’d dodged bullets, pulled shrapnel out of his boot and, on one memorable occasion, plummeted through the sky when the team’s plane took on heavy fire.
Now he was sitting on his butt while his teammates carried out a mission he’d spent the past few months training for. All because of an equipment malfunction while he’d been fast-roping from a helicopter. When the cable snapped, he’d only dropped ten feet, but the impact had left him bruised, aching and sporting a severe concussion.
And feeling like a loser.
He blamed Banks. Lieutenant Phillip Banks, the biggest pain in the ass to ever earn the SEAL trident.
“I didn’t think you were going to be able to make it until the wedding,” Lucas said, watching the show with a bored look.
“Miss my
little cousin’s bachelor party? Bite your tongue.” Dominic forced a smile for his big brother’s sake. And, of course, to keep Lucas off his back. If his brother knew he’d been released from a doctor’s supervision less than a dozen hours ago, he’d nag like crazy.
“You mean you didn’t want to miss Lotta Oomph shaking her stuff,” Lucas said, snickering.
“I’ve seen plenty of shaking in my time,” Dominic replied dismissively, even while acknowledging that Lotta had an impressive shake. “Thirty states and eight countries, big brother. Can you top that?”
Lucas considered his beer bottle for a second, then tilted it and his head to one side. “Saw triplets pole dancing with their trained dogs in Reno once.”
“Matching dogs?”
“Right down to their spots.”
Dominic pursed his lips, imagining what that might have looked like, then gave his brother a nod.
“That’s worth at least ten states, China and Mexico,” he decided.
“I was in Mexico on a case two years ago. Gotta say, my job doesn’t take me to many strip joints. Guess we know which one of us works harder.”
As if, Dominic snickered.
Lucas ran Castillo Security. Providing private and corporate security for the past twenty years, Castillo was a family business, and it and their parents’ ranch employed, well, the entire family. Four generations of Castillos lived in Seaside, the tiny town in Sonoma founded by Dominic’s great-grandfather. From his grandfather Ramon to his little sister, Celia, they bred show horses, built security systems and provided bodyguards.
Except Dominic.
Dominic was a Navy SEAL.
The first, and so far the only, Castillo not pulling in an income from the family corporation. Which he’d worked damned hard for. When a guy grew up in a family as big as the Castillos’, standing out wasn’t easy. He’d never be as smart as Lucas or as sneaky as Marco. At six-four, he wasn’t even as tall as Jose.
What he was was his own man.
The one everyone came to for help. Advice. Directions, even. He was hell on wheels when it came to directions. Handy, since he generally served as the point man and navigator for his SEAL team. Something he was proud of.
“Seriously,” Lucas said, interrupting his mental back patting. “I thought Joe said you weren’t gonna make it home for the party. What changed?”
Buying time, Dominic took a drink, the cola doing nothing to relax his aching muscles. A beer would go down sweet right now. A half dozen of them would go a long way to ease the pain racking his body. But the doctor had warned that severe concussions and alcohol were a bad mix for the next few days.
“The team is on a mission, I’m not. That means I could snag an extra week’s leave and come home.”
Lotta started her countdown, tossing her spangled bra into the rowdy crowd, then taking a few swings around her pole. Dominic made a show of watching, hoping Lucas would let the conversation die if he seemed fascinated by silicone so tight it didn’t even sway as the stripper spun.
“Your team is on a mission and you’re not?” Lucas asked, an intense frown creasing his brows. “What happened? Turning yellow?”
“I can still kick your ass.” Dominic matched his brother’s glower. Then he shrugged. “They didn’t need me for this one. Plenty of them speak the language and I needed some downtime.”
And a little distance.
There was no way in hell he could sit around the barracks, resting, while the team kicked mission ass.
The SEAL team was like a brotherhood. Every man had the other’s back. Every man knew he was a part of the team, each one vital to the success of their missions. They lived together, they trained together, they fought together.
Sometimes it was the best deal in the world. Sometimes it sucked.
Dominic had grown up with five siblings. He knew that life wasn’t always smooth, that all relationships had plenty of ups and downs.
What he didn’t know was how to deal with a guy who wasn’t a part of the brotherhood. Who didn’t fit, didn’t even try to fit.
Especially when that guy was, thanks to his irritatingly stellar record, now the ranking officer on the team.
Who was so by-the-book uptight that he made Dominic sit out on a hot mission because the helicopter launched at 0700 and Dominic’s medical profile said he was grounded until 0830. Hell, they wouldn’t even have reached their destination by then. He could have gone if it wasn’t for Banks’s uptight ass.
Instead, the jerk had taken the team one man short and left Dominic feeling like a let down loser.
He freaking hated that guy.
“I’m thinking about transferring,” he muttered.
His eyes wide enough to pop out of his head, Lucas dropped his chair flat, the front legs hitting the floor with a bang.
“Out of the SEALs?”
Dominic had taken a bullet, broken multiple bones and was currently sporting bruises down to the bone over three-quarters of his body, not to mention a concussion hangover and a weak ankle.
But none of them hurt like the idea of leaving the SEALs.
“Hell, no. Just, you know, transfer. Virginia, Hawaii. SEALs are based other places besides Coronado. I might like to see a few, you know.”
“Because thirty states and eight countries aren’t enough?”
“I saw this act in Oahu once. Erotic fire dancer.” Dominic blew out a breath, then fanned his hand in the air as if cooling off the memory. “Let me tell ya, a woman who dances naked with a flaming baton knows her way around big, hot sticks.”
Lucas winced and shook his head.
“Sad, little brother. If that lame story is the best distraction you can offer up, you’ve obviously got something bugging you.” He waited a beat, as if giving Dominic an opening to confess. But Dom did the advising—he didn’t go looking for it. Finally, Lucas shrugged and lifted his beer again.
“You wanna talk, you know where I am,” he offered.
Dominic nodded, even though they both knew he wouldn’t take him up on it.
Not because he was such a snob that he couldn’t reach out from time to time for a little guidance. But there was a reason he was the advice guy. In the family, on the team, with his friends. He knew stuff. Military stuff, girl stuff, sex stuff. Thanks to his nana, he even knew cooking stuff.
He stared at his drink, muscles aching and head throbbing.
It was a damned shame he didn’t know what to do for his own stuff.
Two hours and three Motrin later he poured three cousins and one of his brothers into a limo. Patting the hood, he signaled the driver to hit the road.
Hands in the front pockets of his jeans, Dominic laughed as Marco popped his head out of the sunroof to serenade him with “Happy Birthday.”
“It your birthday, big boy?”
He turned, grin in place, to watch the woman saunter over. Even fully clothed, Lotta still exuded sex the way some women wore perfume. Strong, heady and inviting.
“Nope. He’s having a tequila-inspired calendar mix-up,” Dominic told her.
“Too bad. I was gonna offer you a little birthday goodie,” she said when she stopped in front of him. He wanted to tell her she’d be a lot prettier with about half as much makeup on, but didn’t figure it was his advice she was interested in.
“I watched you while I danced.”
Dominic looked down, noting that all it’d take was a cold breeze across her thin blouse to bring their bodies into contact.
Then he met her eyes, the hot interest and hard edge.
Message received.
“Isn’t that a coincidence? I watched you, too,” he said, giving her his most charming smile. He wasn’t interested—yet another thing he figured he could blame Banks for—but he didn’t believe in leaving women disappointed. He might not be going to give her a wild ride, but there was no reason not to make her feel good. In a fully clothed kind of way.
“Did you like what you saw?” she asked, her tone saying she had no dou
bts about that at all. She moved closer, so close that her ice-pick nipples stabbed his chest. Dominic had to wonder if she’d blasted those babies full of silicone, too.
“You do know your way around a pole.”
“I do good work with long and hard.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
Dominic looked her over again. He had a special appreciation for dancers. They were so damned good with their bodies.
Rethinking his body’s aches and pains, he debated a little naked boogie with the stripper. He did a quick check to see if lust was stronger than bruises.
Nope. Not enough lust or too many bruises. Either way, he wasn’t up for dancing.
Dammit.
“You interested in buying me a drink? I’ll fill you in on some of my specialties.”
The only reason the Castillo clan had vacated the club was because it’d been last call. Which meant the drinking destination Lotta had in mind was hers, his or of the rent-by-the hour variety.
Dominic loved women. Strippers, dancers, teachers, nurses. He’d dated them all. His only requirement was that the woman take the relationship as light and easy as he did.
He’d heard plenty of times that his sex life was better than most guys’ fantasies.
But if he had one particular weakness when it came to the fairer sex, it was for dancers. Ballet, jazz, exotic, tap. It didn’t matter. There was something about a woman who knew how to make the most of rhythm that drove him wild.
But even if his body had screamed otherwise, he just wasn’t in the mood.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” he said sincerely. “I’m not drinking tonight. Doctor’s orders.”
She narrowed her eyes, clearly wondering if that was a euphemism. Then she gave a good-natured shrug.
“You ever get released from those orders, you come back. I’ll do a dance just for you.” She skimmed her fingers up his chest, giving him a smile that promised that it’d be a dance to remember. Then she tapped her palm against his cheek and turned to go.
Dominic leaned back on his heels, his own smile turning a little cocky. He didn’t get guys who bitched that women were a pain in the ass. Himself, he’d never met a woman who wasn’t a pleasure, in or out of bed. All it took was a little charm and a friendly smile.