Excerpt of Navy SEAL Noel by Liz Johnson

“Jess, calm down. I won’t hurt you.” The words made no sense to her muddled brain, but they continued, quiet and assured. “Don’t scream. It’s all right. I won’t let anything happen to you.” It wasn’t the words that made her sink into him, but the voice that, even after all this time, she’d recognize anywhere. Her eyes hadn’t been playing tricks on her that afternoon. Will Gumble was in this compound. In her very room. “I thought I saw you—I thought that was you, but…” Her words were little more than a whisper despite his assurance that it was safe to speak. Her stomach pitched, fear and relief mingling with alarm and the echo of a remembered betrayal. But dealing with her emotions would have to wait until she felt steadier on her feet. Exhaustion and the ebbing of her fight-or-flight adrenaline rush had left her legs like jelly. She leaned into Will. He held out his arms, as though he knew just what she needed. As though he was still someone who cared about taking care of her, being there for her. But she didn’t want him holding her. She wanted answers. She wanted to understand what on earth was happening. Most of all, she wanted to silence the little voice in her head that kept saying Will’s appearance was simply a dream or hallucination. Yanking herself upright at the last possible moment, she shoved his chest with both hands. “You scared me to death! Why did you break into my room? What are you doing here?” His lopsided grin had always started with a little quirk to the left before spreading across his mouth. And that hadn’t changed, even as he looked down at the tiny black-and- white-checkered floor tiles. He scraped his fingers over the black whiskers covering his chin. “Your dad sent me.” “My dad?” “Well, I couldn’t say no to my new XO, could I?” “So you’re still in the navy?” Oh, she sounded bitter—so much more bitter than she wanted to. Why couldn’t her words be flippant and nonchalant, as if it didn’t really matter that she no longer knew even the most basic things about him? He’d popped back into her life, and she didn’t want it to matter. But it did. Maybe because of the extreme situation. Sure. She’d just keep telling herself that. His smile flickered for a moment before he nodded slowly. “I am.” Forcing a chuckle, she said, “I figured when my dad realized I was missing, he’d send a SEAL team to bring me home.” “Not a full team—he just sent one.”