Hot SEAL, Red Wine

Book excerpt: Ellie Gorman hasn’t had a vacation in years. Working herself to the bone day and night on Wall Street has kept her mind from wandering too often to the only man she’s ever loved. The man she left fourteen years ago after their high school graduation. When her best friend lures her to join a girls’ cruise, Ellie relents. The sun will do her good. Relaxation is her top priority. No stress for a full week. Noah Seager has spent more than a decade fulfilling his dream of joining the Navy SEALs and serving his country. But he’s exhausted and worn out. It’s time to retire, find himself, and start a new chapter in his life. A vacation with his best childhood friend is the perfect way to decompress. Even better—a cruise. Neither Noah nor Ellie are prepared to run into each other at the bar on the lido deck as soon as they board the ship. They’ve been set up, and they plan to toss their meddling friends overboard…as soon as they can find them. Fourteen years ago they’d been very much in love. They’d known. Everyone had known. And then the bottom had fallen out of their worlds. Ellie has a secret she has never shared with a single person. Noah has lived with the pain, hurt, and frustration of being dumped for unknown reasons. He never should have let her go, and that realization slams into him with a powerful punch as the two get reacquainted. While Ellie struggles with admitting her deep feelings for Noah have never subsided, Noah fights his own internal battle. She insists she can’t and won’t ever reveal the nature of their breakup. Can Noah convince her to let him back into her life anyway? And more importantly, can he let their past go, bury it, and live a fulfilling life with the woman he never forgot, knowing he will never have all the answers?