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Her GEO Storm was parked in the far end of the lot, and Catherine walked briskly toward it, hunching her shoulders against the chilly air She opened her door, gratefully cliain with the same results The battery was co wheel, Catherine groaned She knew as s of a car as she did about perforery Her auto wrong with the engine

Cliood that would do was highly debatable, especially in the dark It took her several minutes to find the clasp that would release the lock In the diht fro

The only thing she could think to do was call a towing service She alking back to her building when a low black sports car rolled past her, then circled around

"Problems?" It was Royce Nyland

Catherine froze, her first instinct was to clai under control and send hi that would postpone another encounter She hadn't had the tih her emotions from the one earlier in the day Royce Nyland flustered her, and clouded her judgorize hie But every ti to alter her opinion of hiht out the worst in her and yet she'd never worked harder to i force She was sexually attracted to Royce Nyland

Attracted in a way that spelled trouble for the romantic between them was strictly prohibited The Navy didn't pull any punches when it came to emotional involvement between men and women, one a supervisor to the other Not even a hint of impropriety would be tolerated

For her sake as well as his, she nore the fact her heart raced every tiht him out whenever he walked into the rooard the strength and power that radiated fro fire Royce Nyland was as off-limits to her as a married man

"Is that your car?" he asked, obviously impatient with her lack of response

"Yesit won't start"

"I'll take a look at it for you"

Before she could tell hiears and drove over to where her Storm was parked with its hood raised By the ti in the driver's seat

"It looks like you left your lights on thisThe battery's dead"

"OhIaround the track with Royce was one thing, but standing in the far end of the parking lot in the shadoas another Instinctively she backed away

"I have a battery cable in ive you a start" It took only athe cables between the batteries of the two cars They worked together and within acontentedly

She climbed out of the car while Royce disconnected the cable Although it wasn't all that cold, she rubbed her hands together several times

"Thank you"

He nodded, tossed the cable into the trunk of his car and was prepared to leave when she stopped him

"Royce"

She hadn't izing had never coer, the unreasonableness of her attack "I shouldn't have said what I did the other night If there's any excuse, it's that I was tired and short-teain"