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  SEAL NEXT DOOR

  A NAVY SEAL ROMANCE

  BROOKE NOELLE

  SEAL NEXT DOOR

  BY BROOKE NOELLE

  Best. Neighbour. Ever.

  On the run from her abusive ex, Chloe moves in next door to a less than charming retired ex-Navy SEAL, Jake. They both have so much they are trying to move past and starting a new relationship is the last thing on their minds.

  When things get dicey, though, will the hero in him be able to stay away?

  Seal Next Door is full of drama, sizzle, action and suspense with a very satisfying HEA!

  Copyright © 2018 by Author Brooke Noelle. All rights reserved.

  It is illеgаl tо сору, distributе, or сrеаtе dеrіvаtіvе works from this еbооk in whole or in раrt. No раrt of this report mау be rерrоduсеd or trаnsmіttеd in аnу form whаtsоеvеr, еlесtrоniс, or mесhаniсаl, іnсludіng рhоtосоруіng, rесоrdіng, or by аnу informational stоrаgе or retrieval system without еxрrеssеd wrіttеn, dated and signed реrmіssіоn from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Author’s Note: This is a wоrk of fiction. Names, character, places and inсidеntѕ аrе еithеr the рrоduсt of the аuthоr’ѕ imаginаtiоn or are used fiсtitiоuѕlу, and аnу rеѕеmblаnсе to actual реrsоn, living or dеаd, business establishments, еvеntѕ or locales is entirely соinсidеntаl.

  Table of Contents

  SEAL NEXT DOOR

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter One

  Chloe

  How did my life get so screwed up?

  I tapped a finger against the porch railing. It was in dire need of stain, and the picket fence surrounding the small front lawn needed some white paint. The flower beds were dry and dead. The grass was dead in the front and the backyard. The inside of the house fared no better either. The carpets needed to be ripped out, the hardwood floors restored, and every room needed to be swept and scrubbed down.

  This was what my life had become over the past few months— run-down and in desperate need of fixing. My heart ached just thinking of the past year. Gone. Wasted. It tasted bitter at the back of my throat.

  The small neighborhood was quiet against the backdrop of a buzzing Denver. I gazed along the shaded street while waiting for my mom’s esteemed realtor to arrive and hand over the keys. My dad’s small inheritance he had left behind for me in case of an emergency had paid for this house and a few small repairs that needed to be done. Everything else would somehow be up to me to figure out.

  A job would be the next thing to look for. The shelter back in California had given me a basic flip phone to contact my mom with. My books, computer, iPhone, and clothes were all locked up in Luke’s apartment still. I paid for it, so it’s mine, not yours. That had been his response when I’d asked him to send my things through the mail. I had even offered to wire over a small bit of money for him to do it, but he’d only take the money. If he couldn’t hold me hostage, he’d hold my possessions hostage.

  I sighed inwardly. How I ended up with someone like Luke was beyond me. A wolf dressed like a sheep was how I had described it to the shelter. Nothing about him screamed danger. He had charmed the hell out of me my freshman year of college. He had been the man on campus then. I had been the quiet book nerd looking to enjoy a few California sunrays. Colossal disaster. I still had the bruises on my arms and legs to prove it.

  Those dark and horrible memories tickled the back of my head. I swiped at them in annoyance, tugging the long curls of my hair out of my hair clip. Don’t think about it. Just ignore it. Keep going forward like they said.

  “Hello there!”

  I blinked to find a middle-aged woman in a knee-length floral dress standing on the other side of the fence. She smiled kindly at me with her dark hair pulled back in a bun. A little girl clung to her hand, impatiently tugging at her mother’s arm.

  “Hello,” I said, forcing a smile.

  The woman put a hand on the gate to open it. That was when I caught sight of the casserole dish in the palm of her hand. I stepped down from the porch to open the gate for her.

  “Very kind of you,” she said, beaming. “I’m Erika Smith. I live four doors down. This is my daughter, Julie.” She ran a hand down Julie’s dark locks fondly. “She’s one of the youngsters you’ll see running around here.”

  “Hi,” Julie said.

  “Hi,” I parroted back.

  “We wanted to bring you this,” Erika continued, holding out the casserole dish. “We heard from the realtor that you would be moving in today but had no working appliances just yet. I do hope you have something to sleep on besides that nasty carpet in there.”

  I took a hold of the casserole dish. The smell of chicken and rice filled my nose. My stomach gave an appreciative rumble.

  “Thank you,” I said, holding the fine ceramic carefully in my arms. “I have an air mattress in my car that I’ll sleep on tonight. The rest of my furniture will be here tomorrow hopefully.”

  “Oh, good. I’m so glad someone bought this house. The last occupants didn’t take care of it at all, as you probably know.” Erika’s eyes raked me up and down then. They settled on the bruises on my forearms, and I couldn’t tuck them away with the casserole dish in my arms. Thankfully, she looked away a second later. “You look so young to be buying a house. How old are you?”

  “I’m twenty-three,” I said, uncomfortable with that knowing look in her eyes. “Thank you again for the casserole, Ms. Smith. It smells good.”

  “Call me Erika,” she said airily. “It makes me feel old when you say my name that way.”

  “Right. Erika —”

  The roar of a diesel truck interrupted us. I glanced over my shoulder to see a tall and strong man hop out from the driver’s side. My heart gave a start when he swept an icy gaze across me and Erika. His blond hair was tousled back sexily. Muscles strained against the cuffs of his gray shirt. I glimpsed a cross tattoo on his right forearm before he turned on his heel to walk around the truck to the passenger side.

  “That’s Jake Mason,” Erika whispered to me, leaning over the fence slightly. The passenger door opened, and a little boy jumped out a second later. He pretended to crash roll on the driveway before scrambling to his feet. “That’s his boy, Darren. He goes to school with Julie.”

  Julie gave an impatient whine then. “M-m-m-mommy. Can I ask Darren to play before dinner?”

  “Maybe, honey,” Erika said placidly. “That depends on Darren’s dad.”

  “Why are you whispering?” I asked.

  Erika blinked. “Am I?” She laughed lightly. “I supposed it’s habit, dear. Jake over there is a bit of a grump over noise, so I suggest you keep it down.”

  “I’m not loud.”

  “M-m-m-mommy!”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Erika took a step back from the gate to call out in exasperation. “Jake! Does Darren have time to play before dinner?”

  The little boy immediately stopped at the question. He turned to look up at Jake with a hopeful expression.

  Jake shook his head, placing a
hand on Darren’s shoulder. His gaze skimmed over us indifferently.

  “Not tonight, Erika,” he said, his husky timbre filling the summer air. “Darren has homework he needs to finish. Have a good night.”

  The curtness threw me a little. I looked over at Erika, who didn’t seem too surprised or bothered by it. She caught sight of my expression.

  “You’ll get used to him,” she said. “He’s a bit rough around the edges, but he’s quite helpful when you need him. He’s just an ass at times.” Her nose crinkled. “Don’t expect him to be around at night though.”

  I couldn’t help it. Curiosity got the better of me. “Where does he go at night?”

  “Beats me,” Erika said, shrugging her shoulders. “A job I assume. He doesn’t talk about himself much. All I know is that JoAnne’s daughter, Hayley, is the trusted person for watching Darren at night.”

  I didn’t care about any of this information. Men were at the bottom of my list now. He is sexy though. I ignored that thought. He was a bit of a prick from what I had gathered. The last thing I needed was another man like that in my life. That had been the reason I had gotten into trouble in the first place.

  I spotted my mother’s realtor driving down the street in our direction. I closed the gate as politely as possible.

  “Thank you again,” I said, taking a step back. “I better go. That’s the realtor with my house keys.”

  Erika flashed a dazzling smile. “Of course, dear. Anytime.” She reached over to pat me on the shoulder. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to come get me. Remember to keep the noise down.”

  She walked down the sidewalk with Julie hopping along. They disappeared behind a large oak tree a minute later.

  This was a new beginning with new people around. Everything would be okay again. Things would be better once the dust settled. I repeated those things to myself firmly.

  I looked over my shoulder to see Jake grabbing the mail from his box on the front door. He looked at me with a blank expression before stepping through the front door, slamming it shut behind him.

  “So much for making friends with the neighbors,” I muttered, and started in the direction of the realtor when she stepped out to jiggle the keys at me.

  “Ready to see your new home?” she asked kindly.

  “Yes,” I said emphatically. Even if it was a complete mess inside, it was my place. It was my fresh start.

  Chapter Two

  Jake

  It was just my type of shitty luck to have a young and sexy woman as a neighbor. I had moved here to Arvada just to escape women in general after my divorce. Now I had an attractive and young one living next door to me. It was horrible and shitty luck that I couldn’t shake off.

  I never blamed the universe for what had happened. I had made the decision to marry Sidney despite my family warning me to steer clear of someone like her, but the sex had been far too good to let her go. Sidney knew her way around a bedroom, but that had been part of the problem. She was so damn good at it that she lured other men in too.

  My father’s voice echoed in my head as I watched the young woman talk with someone who appeared to be a realtor from the living room. “Son, 99 percent of women are cunning and manipulative. That’s just how God made them. Look for the rare 1 percent, but don’t dare to dream of ever finding it.”

  Cunning. Manipulative. Greedy. That was exactly who Sidney was. I had a rundown house, barely a few bucks in my account, and full parental custody of Darren after a year of fighting each other in court. Within a matter seconds, that judge had ordered me broke and Darren to be split in half every summer and holidays while Sidney lived in a nice beach house with my savings account in her name.

  Bitterness tore through me. I let the curtain drop down before picking up the stack of mail in the hallway. I sifted through it to toss the junk in the trash can. The television had clicked on in the living room. I could feel the tension radiating off Darren even before I stepped in to turn it off.

  “You need to finish your project, buddy,” I said, taking the TV remote from his grasp.

  “I can finish it later,” Darren said. He folded his small arms over his chest with an angry huff and looked away from me. “You never let me play with my friends anymore.”

  “You can play with them at recess during school,” I said, but that didn’t appease him. I caught sight of his scowl. “I’m serious, Darren. Finish that project or you won’t get to play outside for a while.”

  “What’s the difference?” Darren mumbled.

  He got to his feet anyway to grab his backpack by the front door. I let out a sigh the second he was out of sight and hearing range. There were many times I wondered if the judge had picked the right parent to raise Darren full time. I had no doubt about how much Sidney loved him. She was good about the affection part, and while I loved my son more than life, I couldn’t find it in me to embrace him like he wanted.

  I had my father to thank for that. What a kick he would get out of me blaming him for it. I couldn’t even remember the last time he had hugged me, let alone said he loved me.

  I popped in the pizza we had picked up on our way home from school. Darren sat quietly at the kitchen table, circling randomly in his workbook. That was another thing I didn’t understand when it came to Darren. I could hardly ever hold still and focus. I had to move. My career in the Special Forces had been short thanks to an enemy bullet fracturing my spine the first few months of a tour. I was lucky from what the army doctors had told me at the time. Most of us never came back, and if we did come back, we came back with injuries so grotesque that it was unbearable. I missed those days, because then I had been moving somewhere with a mission. Now I moved at a slow pace around the house between getting Darren to school, going work, and paying bills.

  “How about some football after pizza?” I asked.

  Darren didn’t look up from his workbook. “No, thanks. I want to watch TV.”

  I shook my head.

  “You can’t just sit on the couch and watch TV,” I said. “You need fresh air and exercise.”

  “We had plenty of that back with Mom.”

  My jaw clenched. This was something Sidney and I had surprisingly agreed on in court. Darren was traumatized enough with everything that had happened. He didn’t need to hear either one of us talk about the other in a bad light. Still, I had no idea how to explain to him what divorce meant.

  “I know,” I managed to say. “I’m sorry, bud. There’s just nothing I can do to make things better, is there?”

  “No,” Darren said quietly. “Nothing.”

  Darren silently ate his piece of pizza next to me at the kitchen table. It took all of my strength not to reach out and ruffle his blond locks of hair in the hope that it would cheer him up. I’m sorry. That was what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t apologize without explaining the entire truth of what had happened. That could come later, when he was old enough to understand that relationships could go awry without any cataclysmic event setting it into a downward spiral.

  The doorbell rang right as I scooped up the paper plates from the table. Darren shot out of his seat with an excited grin.

  “Hayley’s here!” he shouted, rushing into the hallway.

  I arched an eyebrow. I had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason Darren liked Hayley out of all the other babysitters who tried to watch him was because she fed him chocolate and candy. Whenever he brushed his teeth in the morning after Hayley babysat him, there was always chocolate on them. She got him in bed on time though; I’d grant her that. I didn’t complain either, because I needed her there at night when I left.

  Footsteps approached the kitchen.

  “Hi, Jake.”

  “Hayley,” I said, turning to look at her standing in the kitchen with a curt nod. “I just got him some pizza for dinner tonight. He’s finished with his homework too.”

  “Right,” Hayley said, turning to look at Darren bouncing around her. “I guess that means we have some time
to play a few games then, eh?”

  “Not for too long,” I said over Darren shouting happily. “Just for thirty minutes is all.”

  “D-d-d-daddy!”

  I ignored the crestfallen look Darren sent me. I caught a hold of Hayley’s gaze pointedly. She gave a nod of understanding.

  “You heard your pops,” she said. “Just for thirty minutes. I have my own homework to do tonight as well.”

  “Feel free to use whatever you need,” I said. I clasped Darren’s shoulder as I passed by him. “I have to get ready for work.”

  I entered my room to change for another long night. I slipped out of the rumpled clothes I had slept in all day when Darren had been in school. I gave my bed a longing glance. Nothing sounded better than settling down with Darren for the evening and going to bed at a normal hour again.

  Crime never rested though. It thrived at nighttime.

  I dressed in the usual attire of my pants and a black shirt with my bullet proof vest over it, and I grabbed my Glock 22 from the gun safe next to my bed. The sound of an air pump clicking on startled me for a second. Forcing my finger away from the trigger, I realized with growing dread why the sound was so loud.

  My window was still propped open to let the summer air in. I bent down at the waist to see what I suspected— my new neighbor's bedroom window was wide open too, and I could see her blowing up an air mattress with a pile of sheets and blankets next to her.

  My eyes focused on the tightness of her ass cheeks, which were peeking out from beneath her gray cotton shorts. I looked away sharply when I felt myself harden. Slamming my window shut, I pulled the shades down violently.

  More shitty luck that our bedroom windows faced each other and she also liked to keep her windows open to let the night air in. Go fucking figure. I’d also undoubtedly be getting some shows at night, and enjoying them too.

  Chapter Three