We went it, showered quickly and then met up in the kitchen. Hal was already measuring out ingredients when I sauntered in.

"I'm not much of a cook," I reminded him, "but is there anything I can do to help?"

Hal shot me a blindingly sweet, and sexy, grin. "Nah, I've got it," he told me. "You can just keep me company while I get it mixed up."

"Now that," I declared, "I can do!"

I moved to stand next to him, and he surprised me when he lifted me up to sit on the counter. I let out a startled yelp and he grinned at me.

I watched in surprise as he measured out flour, sugar, cocoa powder and all sorts of other things into a bowl and mixed all the dry stuff together well until the mix was a rich, dusky brown from all the cocoa powder that boded well for my future. Then he mixed together water, oil and eggs and added them to the dry stuff and then he dumped in almost the whole bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips.

I had to bite back a moan at that.

Hal looked up with a grin. The batter was thick, like molasses on a cold day, but I was ready to dive head first into the bowl and say screw baking them.

Before I could articulate my new plan for the day, he poured it into a pan, and I almost whimpered in sadness. But I perked up when he poured the rest of the chocolate chips on top and then put them in the oven and set the timer. Only thirty-eight minutes until brownie time.

And then I damn near swooned when he came over to me with the mixing spoon in his hand with a big blob of batter on it and offered it to me. I eagerly accepted, moaning in delight as the rich chocolate hit my taste buds and sent them into explosions of joy.

Once I'd gotten every single molecule of chocolate and sugar from the spoon, he swirled a finger into the bowl to scoop some of the batter from the side and offered me his finger. I licked the batter from his finger, and sucked it into my mouth to get it completely clean.

He cleared his throat. "This may have been a bad idea," he murmured as he tried to step away.

I held tight to his hand and pulled him closer. "No, it was a great idea," I told him. My hormones were running rampant, true, but so were my emotions. Here was a really great guy who just spent the last twenty minutes making me brownies from scratch just because I needed dessert, and now he was feeding me the batter.

As far as I was concerned, he was damn near perfect in my book, and I saw no reason why I couldn't mix my sugar urges with my less easily satisfied by Duncan Hines ones.

"Steph," he said in a strangled voice. "I promised not to pressure you."

"You're not," I told him. "I'm pressuring you."

"Oh thank God," he said as his free hand wrapped around the back of my head so he could hold me while he kissed the living daylights out of me. I moaned into his mouth, and that seemed to do something dangerous to him since he hauled me against him then, so tight that not even a single ray of light could fit between us.

If I thought the kiss on the beach was good, I had no idea what I was missing. This kiss wasn't soft at all. No siree, nothing at all was soft. This kiss was all passion and fire and boy was I ready to burn, baby, burn in Hal's inferno.

I ripped my lips away from his when I needed to breathe again, and he just moved those oh-so-talented lips to my neck, nipping at the pulse pounding in my throat before soothing the slight sting with the pad of his tongue. Then his lips nibbled down the column of my neck to the muscle where my neck and shoulder met. I shuddered when he suckled gently, and then I shook again when his laughter shook us both.

"Do you like that?" he asked in a voice so low that I almost didn't recognize it as his.

I nodded slightly, and he did it again. My head tipped back as I panted to catch my breath, and he fastened his lips on the fluttering flesh just above my collar bone.

"Hal!" I moaned, going crazy with need.

"Yeah, sweetheart?" he asked as he pulled back slightly. "What do you need?"

I swallowed hard. I knew how I wanted to answer that question. I wanted to shout that I needed him, to rip off both of our clothes and shove him down on the nearest semi-cushioned surface and ride him like I was at Churchill Downs and he was a pony in the race for the Triple Crown.

But I didn't.

I sucked in a couple of deep, shuddering breaths, closed my eyes, and tried to remind myself why we needed to go slightly slower than warp speed nine fleeing from the Borg.

I really have got to stop hanging out with Mooner so much. I'm watching so many Star Trek marathons that I'm actually thinking in Trekkie now.

"Steph?" he asked in a softer tone after a minute.

"Yeah," I replied. "Well, that was, um, intense."

Hal backed up slightly, sucked in his own deep breath and handed me the bowl with the brownie batter in it. "Yeah. I'll just check on the brownies."

I nodded, but he was already walking away.

He was back a couple of minutes later. I'd scarfed down all the batter while he was gone, and the bowl could almost pass for clean already.

"I'm sorry," I said softly.

He tipped my chin up to look at him. "Why?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Uh, 'cause that got a lot more out of hand than I thought it would," I explained. "And I'm sorry."

He just shrugged. "Don't be. It's fine."

I glared at him. "Look, I know I might be a tease when I'm doing a distraction or whatever, but I don't want to be like that in my real life!"

He seemed startled by my vehemence. "Hey now. No. Stop that. So things got a little out of hand for both of us. That's okay, it just means that there's an attraction level there."

I softened my glare. "You think?" I asked a little sarcastically.

He grinned at me. "Well, yeah, for me, I definitely think you're gorgeous," he replied calmly.

I blushed a little. "Thanks," I mumbled. "And, yeah, you're pretty cute, too."

I think his ears maybe turned a tiny bit pink. "I wasn't fishing for compliments, but I'm glad you think so," he replied.

I looked up with a grin. "What do seals eat if not fish?"

He started laughing. "Little girls from the 'Burg," he said as he grabbed me off the counter.

I squealed in laughter as we play fought in the kitchen. I ended up wrapped up in his arms again, both of my arms pinned to my sides. I could get away if I really wanted, but it would require me to kick him in the balls. I decided against it. He grinned down at me and dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose.

"Brownies should be done in just a…" he started just before the timer started beeping.

I looked at him, impressed. "How'd you know?" I asked.

He shrugged and let me go. "Situational awareness. You have to be aware of how much time is passing."

"Damn."

He shot me a grin over his shoulder as he fished out some potholders from a drawer and pulled the big 9x13 pan of brownies out of the oven. Dear heavens, but they looked delicious!

"We have to let them cool just a minute," Hal said, much to my intense disappointment. "Do you like crispy or gooey?"

I blinked at him. "What?"

"Do you like the crispy outer edges of the brownie pan or the gooey inner center?" he explained.

"Yes."

"Which ones?"

"Yes."

Then he got it and started smiling. "You don't discriminate, huh?"

"Nope. I'm an equal opportunity brownie fan. I love them all."

"So how about one of each then?" he asked as he got down some plates.

"Sweet Jesus, you really have figured out the way to my heart!" I exclaimed.

He just grinned at me. "I'm trying."

He poured two big glasses of milk then, and then checked the brownies. "They're still pretty hot, but I don't think you can wait much longer, can you?"

"I'm about to lose my ever lovin' mind as it is." It was taking every bit of will power I had not to grab the pan and run away. It was only the knowledge that I'd burn my hands that kept me from being the choco-klepto.

He grinned, got out a big knife and started cutting the biggest brownies I've ever seen. And I got two of them!

Hal handed me a dinner plate with two brownies the size of a small pet, a fork and my glass of milk before he grabbed his own and we headed to the table.

He watched me with an expectant grin while I took my first bite. It felt like chocolate lava in my mouth, but it was totally worth it, I decided as I moaned aloud. I took a quick sip of icy cold milk, looked at Hal and then grinned. "Excellent!"

He just grinned wider and picked up his own fork. "I'm so relieved. You'd never date me if I failed in this."

I shook my head. "Probably not," I teased with a wink. Eh, who am I kidding, I would even if he couldn't cook anything at all. I mean, who am I to judge?

He just laughed and took a bite of his own brownie. "They did turn out pretty good," he admitted.

"I think they're the best brownies I've ever had," I confessed as I took another huge bite. "These are really amazing."

He beamed at me. "I'm glad you like them."

"How'd you learn to bake and all that jazz?" I asked.

He finished his bite and took a sip of milk before answering. "My grandmother. She wasn't in real great health when I was growing up, so my dad would send me to her house to help her out as often as he could spare me at the farm. After I finished chores in the garden or around the house, she'd always want to fix me something for dinner. I had a big sweet tooth growing up, and she knew how much I loved her brownies. As she got older, she couldn't make them as easily, so she taught me how so I'd make them for the two of us."

I melted at the thought of this big, strong badass making brownies for his grandmother.

"What did your dad say?" I asked.

He shrugged. "He never knew. He just assumed she was still able to bake a little every now and then. He has no idea that I can cook."

"Can you cook anything else?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Grams taught me how to make a lot of things, but I've also learned that since I know the basics, there aren't that many things that I can't cook or bake now."

I shook my head. "That's a really great story. Thanks for sharing it with me."

He smiled, a tender one I hadn't seen from him before. "Thanks for letting me think about my grams again. She was a great woman. In fact, she's the one who told me to go to college and to get out of Tennessee, that I was meant for other things than a life on the farm. She's the whole reason why I wasn't afraid to apply to college and then to join the Navy."

"She sounds like a remarkable woman."

"She was."

"I wish I'd had someone like her to teach me to cook," I told him. "But my mom expected me to be perfect from the first time I ever saw a kitchen, and if I messed up a recipe, I could never live it down. It was just easier to stop trying than to deal with being bitched at for not knowing how to do anything perfectly the first time I tried it."

Hal picked up my hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. "I'll teach you what I know if you want," he offered. "Or I'm sure Ella could teach you how to cook without being so demanding."

I nodded. "I'll think about it."

"Do that. But only if you want to learn, not because you think I expect you to or anything like that."

"I know. But there are definitely times when I wish I knew how to do more than make a sandwich or nuke something, but I refuse to give my mother the satisfaction of going to her and asking for help. She'd just rant and rave about how I should have learned years ago, how Dickie would have never cheated if only I'd been a decent wife, and blah blah blah. I just can't deal with all that."

"I promise not to act like that, and I'm sure Ella wouldn't either. Plus there's all kinds of how-to cooking videos online now. I just tend to learn better with someone there I can ask questions, but you do whatever feels comfortable for you, sweetheart."

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Hal."

"Anytime, Steph. Anything, anytime."

I knew he meant it, too. He'd already demonstrated that over the years, but especially by recognizing how close I was to the edge and bringing me here before I self-destructed.

We finished out brownies, and surprisingly, two were enough for me. For now. We put the dishes in the dishwasher and then Hal turned to look at me. "So what now?" he asked.

I nibbled on my lower lip.

"Steph? What is it, sweetheart?" he asked.

"Could we maybe just sit out on the deck and watch the ocean for a little while? You can read or whatever," I assured him. "I don't need to be entertained."

"That's fine," he said. "I had no real plans for this week other than just to relax. I can relax with you. That's even better than anything I could have imagined," he said sincerely.

I smiled and headed towards the glass doors that led out onto the deck. Hal beat me, damn those super long legs of his, and opened it for me. I smiled my thanks and he smiled back, flashing those mesmerizing dimples at me.

I headed towards the big two-person chaise lounge, and Hal headed towards one of the single ones.

"You can sit here, if you want," I said a little bit bashfully.

He reversed direction instantly and sat down next to me. I leaned back against the reclined seat and stared out at the water. A few seconds later, Hal leaned back too. I reached over and took his hand in mine, twining our fingers together.

I don't know who this newer, bolder Stephanie Plum was, but I kind of liked her.

Hal sent me a heart-meltingly beautiful smile as he squeezed my hand, and I decided I liked new Stephanie a lot. I hope she stuck around even back in Trenton.

We held hands and watched the waves crash on the shore and then retreat for the next hour or so until my stomach decided it wanted something more than brownies for lunch. That pulled Hal from his trance.

"Lunch?" he asked.

I just nodded. "Eat in or go out?"

"How about I make sandwiches and stuff and we have a picnic out here?" I proposed. "Since you made breakfast and brownies, I can at least make sandwiches."

"I don't mind helping," he protested.

"I know, but let me do this," I insisted.

He opened his mouth to argue more, but new Stephanie shut him up with a kiss.

"You going to argue more?" I asked with a saucy grin.

"You going to kiss me again if I do?" he asked with a smirk. "If so, yeah!"

I grinned at him and got to my feet. "You stay put, mister. Or else!"

"Or else what?" he asked curiously.

"Bad, bad things," I threatened. "I don't know what, but bad!"

He grinned and fired off a salute. "Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

I stuck my tongue out at him and scurried into the kitchen. Fifteen minutes later, I headed back out with a veritable feast of ham and cheddar sandwiches on rye, turkey and provolone sandwiches on sourdough, sliced apples, carrot sticks with ranch (the ranch was for me), potato chips, and of course, brownies. I had found a couple of bottles of water in the fridge, so I had those tucked under my arms while everything else was on a large platter I'd found in the cabinet.

Hal leaped to his feet to help me with my burdens as I approached. "Wow, this looks great!" he said in awe.

"I may not be able to cook much, but I can make sandwiches with the best of them," I told him.

He grinned back at me. "I'd say so. I'm not sure I'll be able to eat this thing without sitting on it first to squish it down a little!"

Eh, so I'd done a little bit overboard with the meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato. Sue me.

I just smiled at his evident satisfaction with lunch. "Alright, sit and eat," I ordered.

He waited until I sat before he did, but then we both sat and grabbed for our big sandwiches. They really were quite huge, but I was starving and knew I could handle it. I had seen Hal eat before, and he was a big guy with a big appetite, so I felt confident in his abilities, too.

We chatted about our favorite things to do at the beach while we ate. Big shocker here, brace yourselves, but Hal's favorite beach thing was swimming. Completely stunning discovery, right? But after that, his favorite thing about the shore was just walking up and down the beach. Another exercise-related activity. Why am I not surprised?

Mine was just laying out soaking up the rays and watching all the people. Young, old, happy or sad, I just liked to watch the people at the beach. They all had different things on their minds.

Little kids were utterly fascinated by the sand and surf, and I especially loved watching really little kids who would creep close to the water to peer into the foaming, murky depths but then run screaming back to their parents when the waves came too close to their toes. They amused me.

Older people often seemed to be lost in thought when they either walked along the beach or sat and stared into the never-ending cycle of waves. I always wished I had ESP to know what they were thinking of then. Was it of long lost loves? Or more mundane things like how to pay off their student loans without eating Ramen every day for the rest of their lives?

I always wondered.

We had a good time talking, and I gently teased Hal about his favorite things involving cardiovascular conditioning. He just grinned and flexed a bicep for me. "It's how I got to be a SEAL," he commented.

I took a moment to appreciate the view that all his hard work had wrought. "I'm not knocking the view, I'm just saying it figures that you guys would rank working out as your favorite thing to do at the beach," I protested.

He smirked. "Like the view, huh?"

I peeked up at him through my eyelashes. "I'll take the fifth."

"Ah, so answering would be incriminating," he said with his eyes sparkling.

"Again, taking the fifth."

That just got me a big grin that flashed the dimples in his cheeks. I rolled my eyes at him and he chuckled.

"Alright, Ms. Constitutional Law, so what do you want to do now?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Nothing in particular. Any suggestions?"

"How about a swim?"

"Aren't we supposed to wait an hour before swimming?"

He shook his head. "If you were going to swim the English Channel, maybe," Hal replied. "But to just go for a swim in the shallows, you're fine. It's just an old wives' tale that going swimming in anything less than sixty minutes after a meal will lead to your definite drowning from cramps."

"You sure?" I queried.

"Sweetheart, I've swum immediately after eating, hell, while eating, more times than I can even begin to count!" Hal assured me. "And as you can see, I'm still here. No drowning for me."

"You promise to come save me if I get a monster cramp?"

He grinned. "Cross my heart."

"Fair enough." Then I went to go change back into my bathing suit and to grab my bag of beach essentials. We met on the deck again and headed back down to the beach.

Then Hal spent the next couple of hours teaching me to swim better in the calm seas. I could do the basics, but I certainly was not going to make Michael Phelps stay awake at night in fear that I'd beat his speed swimming records. Hal could swim like, well, a seal. He cut through the water with what seemed like no effort at all.

I was impressed.

I splashed around and managed to make some forward motion against the waves, but nothing at all like Hal. He was like a freaking shark, zooming through the water as though the waves had absolutely no impact on him. Either way, at the end of a an hour of swimming, the sun was starting to set, my arms, legs and abs felt like mush, and I figured this had definitely qualified as a workout.

Hal had to wrap one arm around my waist as I staggered out of the surf. "Damn, I hurt in places I didn't even know existed!" I exclaimed as I collapsed to the towel.

Hal just nodded. "Swimming is a great total body workout, especially when you have to fight the current. It takes a lot of coordinated effort to move."

"No kidding."

He let me lay there panting on the towel for a couple of minutes before he hauled me back to my rubbery legs. "Come on, you need to walk a little to help get the lactic acid out of your muscles. Otherwise, it'll be hurting by tonight and you'll be too locked up to do much tomorrow," he opined.

I groaned but let him set me on my feet so we could walk. Slowly walk. If he tried to make me run right now, I'd carve a gun and bullets out of the driftwood and shoot him.

That became our pattern over the next several days. We'd make breakfast together, walk on the beach, have lunch either at the house or on the boardwalk, swim in the afternoon and then have a nice dinner. We spent much of the time talking, and I now felt like I really knew Hal. I'd learned more about his background and family, and he'd learned more about me. He'd even told me a few stories about his time in the SEALs, but had apologetically explained that there was much he just couldn't talk about.

I understood. I didn't like it, my nosy side complained, but I did understand.

Author's note: Sorry for missing a week! I misplaced my flash drive that had the most updated version of the story, but I was able to find it today while home due to snow. I was grateful for the snow day and the chance to catch up on some work that I never seem able to accomplish at work with all the interruptions, and for the chance to find my missing flash drive. I hope everyone was able to stay warm and safe throughout the storms that've been pounding the East Coast.

Thanks for all the wonderful reviews you've left for me; they mean so much. Please let me know what you think about Hal and Steph's vacation and relationship so far!