Someone Like Her Read Online Free PDF Page A

day of SEAL training, he managed to keep his hands—along with other parts of his body—from claiming her.
    Maria pressed her nose against Jake’s shirt and breathed him in. It had been a long time since he’d called her by the pet name. Not since her twenty-first birthday had he called her Chiquita Banana, and she’d missed it. Missed him.
    Their kiss had been tender and special. At least to her. She assumed to him, probably all in a day’s work. She felt his stomach muscles tense under her fingers, and he pulled her hand away, gently pushing her back into her seat.
    “I know this is hard, but you have to finish telling me.”
    She’d much rather he kiss her again.
    It was hard because talking about it meant reliving it, a reminder of her stupidity. When she slipped her hand back into his, he let her. “I had my finger on the doorbell when the girl ran out of the house and crashed into me. I pushed her away and told her to run. When I turned to haul ass myself, he grabbed me and pulled me inside.”
    “Go on.”
    He spoke in his SEAL voice, the one she heard the guys use when they got serious about something. Likely, he would yell at her again when he heard the rest.
    “We fought. He hit me in the face with his fist, so I kneed him in his balls.” She could still see the fisted hand coming at her and had known she only had a slim chance of getting away. “Then I hit him on the head with my purse. It was the creep’s bad luck that I forgot to take out one of my textbooks, and it dazed him. I ran out the door, jumped in my car and sped away. End of story.”
    “End of story?” Jake echoed, still in his take-no-shit SEAL voice. “Somehow, I doubt that.”
    “Well, there’s one other little thing. The second time I hit him with my purse, he grabbed it and wouldn’t let go. I had a choice of wrestling him for it or running. I ran. Now he has my wallet, so he knows my name and address.”
    With his free hand, Jake pinched the bridge of his nose. “Shit.”
    That about summed it up. “I’m sorry. I never dreamed something like this would happen.”
    “How did you get the cut on your arm?”
    “There was a water glass on the coffee table, and when we were fighting it got broken. At one point he had me down on the floor and my arm got cut. That’s when I kneed him.”
    Jake’s eyes grew hard and as cold as the glaciers in Antarctica. He probably didn’t know who he was more angry with, her or her attacker. Not that she blamed him. And he really wasn’t going to like what she was going to say next.
    “After we go to the police, I want to find the girl.”
    “Excuse me?”
    If she hadn’t already been used to Logan’s intense scowls, she might have confessed her worst sins then and there. Was that look something they learned in SEAL school?
    Jake gave her his fiercest glare, not sure which part of her statement to address first. Innocent brown eyes stared back at him—too innocent.
    She arched a brow. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
    The staccato sound of his fingers as they rapidly tapped on the steering wheel drew his attention. He stilled them and gave a shake of his head. “I’m almost afraid to know what’s going through your mind right now when you say you want to find the girl, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Are you telling me you haven’t called the police?”
    “No, I was waiting for you.”
    That didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand. You should’ve called them the minute you got a chance.” Something flickered in her eyes. What was he missing? “Maria?”
    “I can’t breathe in here.” She opened her door and got out.
    At the front of his car, she leaned back against the grille. Her body folded in on itself—shoulders bent over—and a shudder passed through her.
    “Why didn’t you call the cops?” he asked, coming to stand in front of her.
    Her answer was directed at the hands she held tightly clasped in front of her. “Because I’m afraid of