Stranded with the SEAL Read online

  Stranded with the SEAL

  Stranded in Paradise Romance, Book 6

  Elana Johnson

  Contents

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  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

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Sneak Peek! Stranded with the Quarterback Chapter One

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  Chapter One

  Iris McLaughlin tapped something on the huge desk calendar in front of her. “And don’t forget to get over to Henry’s,” she said, glancing up at Amelia. “He’s twice a week in this heat.”

  “Twice a week,” Amelia deadpanned, because Iris had told her all of this before. Maybe she was a little nervous about leaving the success of her business in someone else’s hands.

  She’d built We’ll Weed That from the ground up, literally. The company had started with her weeding a few people’s yards in her time after school back in her teens. She’d incorporated once she’d graduated, and she moved on to complete lawn care. Mowing, weeding, fertilizing, trimming.

  A few years later, she’d hired two landscape architects, and her business in Getaway Bay had taken off. She hadn’t changed the name, and now We’ll Weed That had a full-scale nursery, as well as unique yard designs to go with their landscaping upkeep.

  “Where are Sam and Betty?” she asked, deciding she didn’t need to go through the list with Amelia. She looked down the hall as if her general manager and her lead construction guru would appear simply because she wanted them to.

  “Probably kissing just outside the back door,” Amelia said, her eyes sparkling now.

  Iris giggled, though it probably was true. She didn’t want to go on this cruise with the happiest couple on earth, but they’d earned the prize. Never mind that she hadn’t been out with anyone in eight months and that her sister had just gotten engaged to a billionaire.

  Wouldn’t that be nice? she thought dryly, though she didn’t want to get stuck on Bald Mountain Bluffs for a couple of days the way Eden had. But she would take the handsome boyfriend with loads of money.

  Her daydreams continued, only interrupted when Betty came down the hall with her duffle bag over her shoulder. “Are you coming? We’ve been outside waiting for you for twenty minutes.”

  Had it been that long? Iris tended to run late to almost all of her appointments, no matter how early she left. “Coming,” she said, tapping the end of her pen on the countertop before ducking into her office to grab her bag.

  The three of them drove across Getaway Bay to the dock where the fourteen-day cruise disembarked. They’d go around all the Hawaiian islands, and out toward a group of islands that could only be seen in certain times of the year. Apparently, the beginning of March was a great time to see whales, dolphins, and the sometimes submerged islands, and every email she’d gotten about her cruise had indicated it would be packed full of people.

  Iris rode in the back of the company vehicle, her nerves twittering just a little bit. When they arrived at the office, Betty threw her a scathing look and said, “We need to hurry, or they’ll give our tickets away.”

  “They will?”

  “You have to check in by ten,” Betty said, practically running toward the door. “It’s after that already.”

  Chaos reigned inside the tiny trailer that housed the cruise’s office. Iris could barely get inside, and it was clear people wanted to be in here rather than outside because of the misters running and creating a warm, tropical atmosphere.

  Betty pressed her way to the counter, and Iris followed her. “Betty Terrace,” she said. “Sam Potter. Iris McLaughlin.”

  The woman there scanned the sheet in front of her, though Iris could clearly see everyone else had checked in. “You barely made it,” she said as a bell rang. The crowd started shuffling toward a side door. “That’s the bell for the orientation.” The woman stamped a piece of paper and started rattling off instructions.

  Iris barely listened, because the pull to go with the other bodies called to her. She waited beside Betty, though, until she said, “Great, thanks,” grabbed the papers, and hurried after everyone else.

  “I’m sorry,” Iris said, taking her sheaf of papers from Betty. “I didn’t realize what time it was.” How much time had she lost romanticizing things in her head? Too much. She always did.

  Betty smiled at her, though her eyes were still a bit hooked, and slid onto the second to last seat in the back row. Sam sat beside her, and Iris glanced around for another seat. People truly filled the room, and a blip of anxiety flowed through her when she realized this really was a fully-booked cruise. The room probably held fifty people—and the only seat remained was up front, next to a man who was so wide he practically filled both seats.

  Iris went that way, because the man at the front of the room was watching her, clearly waiting for her to sit before he began. She’d never been as grateful for her petite frame as she was when she slid in beside the tattooed military man.

  His hair reminded her of dark roast coffee, and his tan skin testified that he spent plenty of time out in the Hawaiian sun. He flicked his black-as-coal eyes in her direction, and she tried a smile on her face.

  Surprisingly, his lips twitched upward in return, and Iris focused on what the man up front was saying. “This is a great time for whale-watching,” he said. “And there’s a pod of humpbacks that have been seen every day for the past couple of weeks.” He glanced around with a huge smile on his face. “We should see those later today. We’ll dock tonight at Maui, but we won’t be getting off. We leave port in the middle of the night to sail around the island to Lanai. We will disembark in Maui on the way back.”

  Blah blah blah. Iris had seen the map of the cruise. She knew where she was going and when the boat would stop and where she could get off. She relaxed now that she was here, the cares and worries of her landscaping business somewhere in her past.

  “Our last stop is north of the Hawaiian island chain, at a group of islands that are rumored to convert even the most unlucky in love.”

  Iris perked up then. This line of mystery islands intrigued her, and she couldn’t wait until day nine, when their ship would arrive at them.

  “Several people got marooned there in the seventies,” the man continued. “And five couples ended up getting married by the pilot who happened to be a priest.”

  “That’s so romantic,” Iris sighed, wishing they could get off and explore the island.

  The guy next to her that was practically sitting in her lap scoffed, and Iris’s eyes flew to him. “You don’t think it’s romantic?” she whispered.

  His dark eyes sparkled like dangerous stars. “No,” he muttered. “It’s not even true.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I served in the military,” he said, as if his precise haircut, folded arms, and hint of his dog tag necklace didn’t already te
ll her all of that. And what did him serving in the military have to do with the islands? Maybe he was Coast Guard, but he looked more like a Marine to her, especially with those tattoos.

  The man up front went on to talk about things that were left behind when the couples got rescued, and how the islands were submerged in the fall and early winter when the rains came.

  “So buddy up,” he said. “You don’t have to share rooms, but we want to make sure everyone has someone else on the cruise accountable for them.”

  Iris felt like she’d been transported back to fifth grade, when teams were being picked for kickball. Not particularly athletic, she never got chosen until the very end. Eden, her older sister, was the athletic one. The one teaching everyone about outdoor survival, the one who knew exactly how to hike, where to look for food, all of it.

  She glanced around, noticing that people had already paired up around her.

  Everyone but the tattooed meathead who didn’t have a romantic bone in his body.

  “I guess it’s me and you,” he said. He didn’t look happy about the pairing at all.

  “I guess,” she said, still looking around. If Ivy were here, she’d know exactly how to charm this guy. But her twin had literally gotten all the flirting and talking genes, and Iris just stood there like she’d lost her ability to speak.

  “Now that we’re ready,” the man said into the microphone. “Check in with your buddy, and let’s get on the ship.”

  It seemed like all forty-eight other people under the tent moved as a single unit, and Iris accepted the fact that she’d have to report to this Marine from time to time over the next fourteen days.

  “I’m Iris McLaughlin,” she said as they joined the line to check in and board.

  “Justin Brunner,” he said, and even his name sounded angry.

  Iris sighed, trying to make it a quiet one. She didn’t succeed as Justin looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You’re not looking forward to the cruise?”

  “No, I am.” Betty and Sam had disappeared, and the vacation she’d been dreaming of vanished right before her eyes. “You?”

  “No,” he said. “This isn’t really my scene.”

  “Why are you here then?” And alone too. Of course, she was alone as well. Sort of.

  “Work,” he said, stepping forward.

  “Is that all I get? Work?” Iris wasn’t sure where the sass had come from. He certainly wasn’t the type of man to appreciate sarcasm, and the glare he gave her solidified that.

  “I’m developing an app for this cruise line,” he said coolly, handing the woman his ticket and adding, “Iris McLaughlin and I are partners.”

  “Welcome to Cruise Hawaii,” the woman said with the fakest smile on the planet. Justin smiled back, but it also radiated more of a chill than anything else.

  Iris handed her ticket to the woman, got the same spiel, and headed for the boat, once again the last one to make it up the walkway to the boat.

  Her nerves attacked, and her feet froze before she got on the ship. Go on, she told herself, especially when Justin turned back, an inquisitive look on his face.

  The boat horn sounded, and she was going to get left behind if she didn’t get on the ship right now.

  “Come on,” Justin said, sudden compassion in his eyes. He reached for her, and she put her hand in his as a woman on the dock yelled at her to go.

  Her skin tingled as Justin all but hauled her onto the boat, the gangplank got removed, and the vessel lurched away from the dock. Her legs trembled, and she lurched, falling right into Justin, who certainly had the arms to catch her.

  Chapter Two

  Justin could not believe he’d been saddled with the one female on the cruise that required special assistance. It was as if he’d attracted women like Iris McLaughlin. To many giggles and not enough substance.

  Maybe it was the tattoos.

  Or maybe there had only been one seat left in the audience, he told himself as he steadied her in his arms. “Have you been on a cruise before?” he asked.

  “Not really,” she said.

  “That was a yes or no question.”

  “No,” she said, stepping back and brushing something invisible from her blouse. She wasn’t dressed properly for a cruise either. Who wore heels and a pencil skirt to sail around for fourteen days?

  “Why now?”

  “I always reward my top two employees of the year,” she said. “This year, they wanted to take this cruise.”

  “And you came with them?”

  “Yes,” she said, something guarded in her voice. Justin wanted to know what it was as much as he convinced himself he didn’t care. Just because he and Iris were “buddies” didn’t mean they actually had to spend any time together.

  “Okay, well, I’m going to go find my room,” he said, lifting his bag. “I’m sure I’ll see you later.” The ship was a decent size, and there were only fifty people on board. He’d definitely be seeing her later, and he wasn’t sure if he was excited about that or dreading the moment.

  The Web Developer had paid for him to have a premium room on the main level of the boat. He went down a hall, away from the pool and restaurant and turned left before finding his room. It did seem quiet enough, though Justin had brought earplugs and knew how to use them.

  He couldn’t believe he’d agreed to come on this trip. He could build an app for a company without experiencing every step someone might take, but for some reason, Theo had really wanted him to have “the full experience.”

  Maybe because his last two blind dates Theo had set up for him had ended in disaster. Maybe this was his boss’s way of punishing him further. Justin shook his head as he tried to get his keycard to work. The light stayed stubbornly red, and while he’d spent many years in the Navy and then as a SEAL, his patience for this day was almost out, and it wasn’t even noon yet.

  Someone else approached, and he nearly dropped his card when he saw Iris. “Your room is right there?” She shook her head, a smile curving those pretty lips. “Figures.”

  Before he could ask what that meant, she swiped her card, got the green light, and went inside her room. The door slamming closed felt like a very final punctuation mark on their conversation for the day, and Justin went back to trying to get inside his own room.

  In the end, he had to hunt someone down and get his keycard reset. Only then could he get in the tiny room with the even tinier bed. This was almost as bad as sleeping in bunks on a submarine, and he’d done that for a while too.

  He could do this. It was sitting by the pool and eating as much as he wanted. There was a gym here, and he could lift weights in the morning the way he always did. He made a few quick notes for the app—have a way to call someone to a room in case a guest couldn’t get in, as well as the ability to add a buddy to a profile before the guests even showed up.

  Then, he wouldn’t have been surprised by the cute little blonde next to him. She hadn’t wanted to be his partner, he could tell. He hadn’t spent two and a half years in Navy SEAL training to be oblivious. He could read people easier than most, and he hated that he now knew every way off this ship from the location of his room.

  He knew where the lifeboats were, and how many, and how much weight they could handle. The SEAL in him hadn’t died just because he’d retired last year.

  A year ago this week, in fact, though Justin tried not to think about it. He’d gotten a good job, with a good company, and the Navy had paid for his college education years ago. He’d been stationed with the SEAL team in Pearl Harbor for the past five years, and he had no complaints about that either.

  In fact, his biggest complaint about Getaway Bay and his life here was the boredom. The most exciting thing that had happened to him in the year since he’d retired was building over twenty feet of a path that had fallen in a landslide last summer.

  The construction. The working with people again. The rescue. All of it had brought a part of him to life that he’d thought dead. He couldn’t go back
to the SEALs, and he didn’t really want to. But he’d been thinking about changing jobs, getting out from behind the cubicle walls, and doing something else.

  What, he didn’t know.

  And his attempts at dating had been worse than his attempts at finding another job. He’d never put much stock in marriage and family while he was with the SEALs. He’d seen too many lives torn apart when loved ones in the military didn’t come home. He hadn’t wanted to put anyone through that.

  But now that he was retired, he was extremely lonely. He wanted to share his life with someone.

  The pretty blonde next door?

  He scoffed out loud at the thought. No. But someone.

  His shoulders barely fit on the bed, but it would do. He’d slept in much worse places, that was for sure. He didn’t think there was anything about the room that needed the app—maybe the ability to call for housekeeping or report something broken. He made a mental note of it and exited his room.

  Iris seemed to have tuned right into his frequency, because she came out of her room before his spring-powered door could close. She held a white and yellow towel and had pulled all that blonde hair up into a ponytail.

  “Going to the pool?” he asked, and she spun toward him.

  A smile bloomed on her face, and despite himself, Justin smiled back. “Yes,” she said. “Apparently there’s karaoke later tonight.”

  “How did you know that?” he asked.

  “There’s a whole entertainment guide in the room,” she said. “You didn’t see it?”

  Justin hadn’t looked for it, so he simply said, “Nope.”