Someone to Watch Over Me

After his last tour in the Marines, Seth Thornton finds himself adrift when he returns to Fair Haven, Washington. A capable soldier who moved up the ranks, Seth struggles to find his place in a town he once called home as the memories of war continue to haunt him—until the day he encounters the beautiful Rose DiMarco.

Seth saves Rose when a man accosts her, yet to his surprise, she spurns his help. Her beauty and her headstrong ways captivate him, and he can’t forget about her.

When Rose becomes his new neighbor, she suddenly presents a temptation that the normally aloof Seth cannot resist. He wants her more than he’s ever wanted any woman.

Rose DiMarco fled Seattle to escape from an ex-boyfriend who made her life hell. Fair Haven is supposed to be her haven, but her ex isn’t about to let her go. When he threatens her, she never expects her sexy new neighbor Seth to defend her and declare himself her protector.

And she definitely doesn’t expect to long for Seth in every possible way: she wants his kiss, his embrace, his caress. His love.

But as Rose’s ex-boyfriend vows to divulge all of her darkest secrets, she fears that Seth will never look at her the same way again when he knows the truth.

While Rose must confront her demons, Seth must choose between returning to the horrors of war—or embracing a love that could set him free.

Blood, sand, heat. It smells of copper and he can’t see anything in front of him.

He shouts, hoping he’s not the only survivor, and he hears a groan through all of the noise. He wonders if his eardrum is blown from the blast.
He follows the noise. It’s instinctual at this point.

He wonders if he imagined it when he can’t find the source of the sound.

Then: he sees something. He kneels next to his comrade, gently turning him over. He doesn’t know if his friend is dead. When he hears him choke and gasp, he realizes he’s alive.
But given the wound in his belly, he will be dead within minutes.


He tries to get his friend up, get him help. He can’t die out here when they’re going home in a week. Not like this. His friend has a new baby girl and his wife needs him—


Another blast rocks him. He collapses onto the sand, hits his head on something hard and painful, and it all goes black.


* * *


Seth Thornton barely caught the scream in his throat as he woke up. Thrashing under the too-heavy bedcovers, he sat up, gasping for breath. He could taste the sand and blood on his tongue, even though he’d been in Fair Haven, Washington, for a year now. After his third tour as a Marine, he’d finally earned inactive duty.


Except that inactive duty had meant that Seth had no idea what to do with his life now. Who was he, if not a soldier? He knew war; he knew guns; he knew death and he knew victory. But mostly, he knew loneliness, and it was like a pall he couldn’t overcome.

Even with his twin sister, Lizzie, getting married and having a baby, even knowing he could do whatever he wanted with his life now, it wasn’t enough.


He blew out a breath. “I’m turning into a total sap,” he muttered as he got up. After taking a quick shower and getting dressed, he made himself a cup of black coffee—his usual breakfast—and after he’d downed the mug, he decided to get some fresh air.
It was better than sitting in that apartment and reminiscing about his best friend’s death.


Outside, it was an obnoxiously beautiful day. June in Washington State heralded the end of the rainy season, and the sun shone so cheerily that Seth scowled up at the sky. What did the sun have to be so fucking happy about?
It didn’t help that he had nightmares more often than not.

When he could sleep, the memories crept up on him, taking over his dreams, until he’d wake up even more exhausted than when he’d gone to sleep. Lizzie had stopped asking about the dark circles under his eyes because he tended to snap at her, but he saw the worry in his twin sister’s expression.

You can’t keep going on like this, she’d said just a week prior. Nobody can.


He would, because he didn’t have a choice.


Right then, Seth heard a woman swearing. Very colorfully, in fact. Intrigued, he rounded the corner to see an overstuffed armchair seemingly hanging in midair, the only evidence of human involvement being the slender ankles and feet standing on the concrete.

The woman swore again as the chair began to tip onto the ground.
Seth grabbed the chair just in time. It was heavier than it looked. Grunting, he was about to ask which apartment the woman lived in when he was arrested by a face that he couldn’t forget.


Rose DiMarco. The woman he’d met outside The Fainting Goat, the most popular bar in town. Those wide blue eyes, that pert little nose. The dark brown hair tipped with blue.


She stared at him in surprise. “You.”


“You,” he drawled. “How have you been, princess?”


That pert little nose wrinkled. She tried to lift the chair away from his hold, but he had at least a foot on her and a whole lot more muscle.


“How about you tell me which apartment is yours, unless you want to stand out here all day?”
Rose hesitated before sighing. “It’s number 115. Just right around the corner here.”


Seth’s eyebrows shot up, but he bit his tongue in time. It just so happened he lived in number 117—right next door.
What a fascinating coincidence.


They maneuvered around the corner and into the apartment, setting the chair down with a thud in the mostly bare living room. Seth took in the boxes—most labeled BOOKS—and then he took in Rose herself.


Her long hair was in a braid down her back, her cheeks flushed. He told himself she was flushed from the exertion, not from him, but it amused him that she not only remembered him, but that she’d reacted to his presence so decidedly.


He’d seen her outside The Fainting Goat fending off some asshole, and when said asshole had grabbed her, Seth had come to her rescue.

Except that Rose had taken issue with his interference, and Seth had wondered where the hell this beautiful, fiery woman had come from.

He hadn’t seen her in a month, no matter how many times he went to The Fainting Goat. He’d almost wondered if he’d dreamed her.


Now here she was. His new neighbor.