CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
As Nova approached her and Snow’s room, she fished her key card from her pocket and swiped it.
As soon as the light flashed green and she heard the beep, she gripped the handle and pushed it open.
“Snow, you’re not to believe what I—”
The words died in her throat as she slammed into something warm, solid, and wet.
“Oof!” She muttered as a pair of strong hands caught her by the upper arms to keep her upright, while her own palms landed on bare skin.
Nova looked down and saw Snow standing directly in front of her, wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped low around his hips. Tiny droplets of water still clung to his tanned skin.
Her eyes traced over his broad shoulders, a sculpted chest, and abs that she wanted to run her fingers over. His black hair was still damp, with several strands hanging carelessly across his forehead, making those ridiculously blue eyes seem even brighter.
Her hands were still touching him, and her brain was screaming at her to pull them away. Unfortunately, the rest of her appeared to be enjoying the view a little too much.
Good Lord. No wonder romance novels raved about washboard abs. She had always thought it was an exaggeration. Apparently not.
She met his gaze to find his blue eyes dancing with amusement. He wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. And the smug little smile tugging at his lips told her he was enjoying every second of her embarrassment.
“Uh…”
Snow’s lips twitched. “Are you planning to stand there and stare?”
Nova yanked her hands back so fast she nearly slapped herself. “I…you…”
Christ, she couldn’t even utter an intelligent sentence. She folded her arms across her chest, mainly because she wasn’t sure where else to put them. “
“What are you doing in the shower?” she finally blurted out. “I thought you had a call with your team.”
He grinned. “I do.”
“Then why are you…like this?” Her eyes betrayed her, drifting downward for the briefest second.
His grin grew.
“One of the valves I was inspecting leaked some kind of oil residue, and I got it all over me.
She wrinkled her nose. “Fair point. But what about the team?”
“I’m on the call with them now.”
Before the words registered, someone from behind her cleared their throat, and Nova froze. She closed her eyes. “No, no, no. Please no,” she whispered more to herself.
Then slowly, she turned her head. Snow’s tablet was propped up on the desk, and the screen was filled with Bear, Joker, Nails, Duke, Aussie, Playboy, Jay Bird, and even Commander Connors.
And every single one of them was trying hard not to laugh, though Bear’s cheeks were puffed out like a damn pufferfish, Joker had his hand over his mouth, his shoulders were shaking, and Nails looked about two seconds away from losing it completely.
Her cheeks pinkened with embarrassment. She had literally barged in, collided with Snow, who was practically naked, and touched him in front of the entire team.
That’s it. She was going to have to fake her own death and go into witness protection. It was the only reasonable solution. There was no coming back from accidentally tackling a half-naked Navy SEAL while his entire team watched through a video call.
She took another slow step backward and cleared her throat. “Um…can we pretend that none of you just saw that?”
That was the final straw, as everyone burst out laughing. Even Commander Connors was laughing. She looked at Snow, who was fighting back his laugh.
She sighed in defeat. “You know what? Just get it over with. I would rather survive the laughter now than spend the next ten years wondering when you’ll bring this up.”
Before anyone else could answer, Commander Connors smiled. “Nova, sweetheart, I regret to inform you that you’ve just provided this team with enough ammunition to last the remainder of their careers.”
Playboy leaned closer to the camera with a grin. “Just so we’re clear, this is now officially known as The Great Towel Incident.”
“Great.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I survived law school, corporate politics, and so far an offshore oil rig, only to have my legacy become The Great Towel Incident.”
Her comment only made everyone laugh harder.
She groaned. “I hate all of you.”
“You’ll get used to us,” Aussie replied cheerfully. “But in our defense, we weren’t the ones petting Snow.”
“I was not petting him!”
Nova shook her head, unable to fight the small smile tugging at her lips. “Okay, as much as I would love to continue discussing my legendary entrance,” she said, pulling her phone from her pocket. “I found a few things that I think you all are going to want to see.”
The laughter faded almost instantly. Beside her, Snow’s amused expression vanished altogether, replaced by the sharp, focused intensity she had come to recognize whenever the mission took precedence.
“Explain,” he said, taking a small step toward her.
She held up a hand. “I will, after you put on some clothes.”
Behind her, Jay Bird’s voice floated through the tablet. “I support that plan.”
Nova pointed towards the bathroom. “I’ll just go wait in there while you change.”
Without waiting for another comment, she darted into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She leaned back against it, squeezed her eyes closed, and let out a long groan.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” she whispered to herself.
She pressed her cool palms against her burning cheeks, willing herself to stop replaying the last few minutes. It didn’t work.
Instead, all her traitorous brain supplied was the image of water trailing down Snow’s chest, those bright blue eyes meeting hers, and the unmistakable feel of hard muscle beneath her fingertips.
Thoughts of their almost-kiss the night before flooded her mind. She dropped her hands and stared at the ceiling.
She covered her face again and laughed at herself.
“Smooth, Nova, she muttered. “Real smooth.”
Even though she might have just completely humiliated herself, if that look on Snow’s face was anything to go by, he hadn’t minded one bit.
◆◆◆
Snow stood there for a second longer than necessary, staring at the bathroom door. His brain was still catching up, replaying the last several minutes on a loop with Nova bursting in, her small, warm hands on his chest, and the look on her face when she realized exactly what she had walked into.
He dragged a hand down his face, exhaling slowly as a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. Yep, that had just happened.
“Well,” one of the guys finally broke the silence over the speakers, his voice thick with barely contained laughter, “that was informative.”
Snow dropped his hand and looked toward the tablet, where every single one of them was staring back at him like they had just been handed front-row seats to the best show of the week.
“Are y’all done?” he asked dryly, grabbing a shirt from the back of the chair and throwing it on.
“Not even close,” Joker teased.
Nails chuckled. “I think we’ve officially confirmed one thing.”
“What’s that?” Snow asked, feeling afraid of what his good friend was going to say.
“Your towel has a higher success rate than your pickup lines.”
The room erupted in laughter again.
Snow rolled his eyes as he tugged on a pair of sweatpants, shaking his head while he fought the grin threatening to betray him.
“I’m glad the last five minutes have been so entertaining for all of you.”
“Oh, we’re entertained,” Bear said, grinning.
“Oh, come on. She walked into the room, and I happened to be standing there.”
“Half naked,” Jay Bird reminded him.
“In just a towel,” Joker clarified.
“And she forgot how words worked for a solid five seconds,” Aussie chimed in.
Snow opened his mouth to object, but immediately realized he didn’t have much of a counterargument. He could only imagine the comments if they knew what had almost happened at dinner the night before. That little detail, however, wasn’t something they needed to know.
The amusement slowly shifted into something more curious as Duke leaned forward in his chair, resting his forearms on the desk.
“Seriously, though.” His tone lost most of its teasing. “What’s going on between you two?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Oh, don’t give us that shit,” Joker said with a wave of his hand. “We’ve all seen the chemistry between the two of you. And judging by the way the two of you looked at each other…well, we’ve all seen that look before.”
Snow rubbed the back of his neck, buying himself a second to think.
The truth was, he didn’t really know what was happening between them.
But somewhere along the way, she had stopped being the attorney assigned to the mission and had become Nova, a woman he really wanted to get to know. Thinking that made him smile.
Bear caught it immediately. “There it is,” he said, pointing at the screen. “That stupid grin. I’ve seen that grin.”
Snow’s hand dropped from the back of his neck. “What grin?”
“The one that says you’re completely screwed,” Joker answered.
Another round of laughter rolled through the speakers.
“Come on,” Nails said, the teasing giving way to genuine curiosity. “Please tell me that you finally made a move?”
Snow snorted. “If by ‘make a move’ you mean accidentally getting caught in a towel while she walked in, then sure.”
The room was silent for all of three seconds. Then Joker smirked. “At least admit that you like her.”
Snow knew there wasn’t any point arguing.
These men had spent years reading him under pressure, across battlefields, and in situations where a single expression could mean the difference between life and death.
If they were all looking at him like he had already answered the question, it was because he had. Whether he had intended to or not.
“Fine. Yes, I like her. And I plan to do something about it once we finish this. Happy now?”
Derek spoke up. “Now that we’ve established that Snow has feelings for Ms. Hart, how about we turn our attention back to the reason Snow and Nova are on that rig?”
Snow crossed the room and knocked on the bathroom door. The door cracked open just an inch.