Her Forbidden Marine (Hearts Ablaze: Men in Uniform Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

unnecessarily, laughing softly.  She looked back at Jade and gave an exaggerated shrug, like “what can I do?”
    Matt cleared his throat.  “I’ll go grab a few drinks while you and Amy catch up.  What do you and your friend want?” he asked, tilting his head toward Jade before gazing down at Amy.  Her brown eyes met his, and he silently willed her to understand that he was sorry for brushing her off earlier.  And practically every other time they’d come into contact with one another.  She looked so vulnerable gazing up at him that he wanted to kick himself for not checking on her sometime, anytime, over the past year.  As fucked up as it was, he’d told Brody he’d look out for her.  And he’d failed at even doing that.
    “Oh, uh, thanks,” Becky said, looking surprised.  “Jade wants a martini.  I’ll have whatever’s on tap.”
    “That’s my girl,” Matt said without thinking and then hastily corrected himself.  “I mean, I uh, remember you were a beer girl.  Drinker.”  Becky eyed him curiously, and he turned and made his way over to the bar without saying anything else.  Hell.  Way to keep your cool.  He edged through the crowd, noting that Sam already had his arm slung around the slinky blonde, and gestured to the bartender that he was ready to order.  Tonight was already turning out to be a lot more complicated than he’d planned.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    So much for getting out of there at an early hour, Matt thought, glancing down at the time on his phone and seeing that it was past midnight.  Tap Room was open for another hour, but after Sam had left with a lady friend, Matt decided it was time for him to call it a night.  He’d been planning on only staying for a beer or two, but after seeing Becky there out of the blue, his pulse had spiked and adrenaline had been pumping through him all evening.  Hell, if Jason and Sam hadn’t left with their respective women, he’d be tempted to call them up and see if they’d join him on a midnight run right now.  Anything to clear his head.  A little action between the sheets would also take the edge off, but he wasn’t going there.  And who was he kidding?  He’d stuck around until midnight to see if Becky made another appearance. There’d been no signs of Becky at the bar, where he’d hung out with Jason, Amy, and Sam, but he wasn’t about to go back to the table where he’d left Becky and her friend to see for himself.  Not when he’d vowed to stay away.
    A giggling brunette bumped into him, and Matt glanced down, noticing that the woman had had way too much to drink.  “Oops!  Sorry, sailor.”
    “He’s not a sailor, he’s a Marine,” the dark-haired beauty beside her hissed.  “Sorry, my friend’s had way too much to drink.”
    “No problem,” he said, stepping around them and attempting not to roll his eyes.  They looked really young—probably only twenty-one or so.  Not that he was exactly an old man at thirty-two, but hell if he didn’t have the patience for those kinds of girls anymore.  The ones who went out and got drunk every weekend, who went home with whatever guy asked first.  A couple of years ago and he’d have been all over that but now?  Not in a million years.  He zipped up his coat, feeling the bite of the cold January air.  It had been flurrying when he’d arrived hours earlier, but now the air was just damn arctic.  There just was something wrong with walking around outside and seeing your breath fog up in front of you because it was so cold.  He didn’t think he’d ever get used to that, no matter how long he was stationed in Virginia.
    He headed up Main Street toward his car and was surprised to see Becky walking alone up ahead of him.  There weren’t many people around this late at night, and many of the patrons still at the restaurant had parked in the lot attached to it.  What on earth was she doing wandering around by herself at this hour?
    “Becky!” he called