He spun to face the wall lest his brothers spy his predicament and choose this place, in front of the ladies, with his boner swinging in the breeze, to rib him about it.

Teeth gritted, Griffin reached for the heat control on his shower and yanked it to full cold. The shock of the icy cascade wrung a gasp out of him as his entire body clenched painfully.

“You okay over there, Sparky?” Sherri asked.

Did she have to be so observant? Couldn’t a guy freeze his pecker into submission in peace around here? He ground out, “I’m good, thanks. How about you? Need me to scrub your back, Tate?”

“Anna or Lily can get it for me, thanks,” came her chirpy reply.

All three men groaned at that. No doubt his buddies were also envisioning the three naked women, only feet away, erotically washing each other. Both Trevor and Axel had their backs turned and seemed more tense than usual. Maybe he wasn’t the only one having a hard time controlling his body’s autonomic reactions to being naked and in close proximity to three smoking-hot women.

What the hell was this world coming to? He was in the freaking shower with women. Women who thought they were going to be SEALs.

Over his dead, shriveled…body.

* * *

Okay, so it was definitely weird showering with men. Sherri was relieved the guys had the decency to turn their backs. She didn’t linger in the shower, for darned sure. She got clean and got out.

On her way back to the barracks, she grabbed a couple of sandwiches, an electrolyte drink, and an apple from the cafeteria. A local woman named Sue came in each morning and cooked for the day, leaving behind grab-and-go snacks and big kettles full of Cajun yumminess.

When she arrived in the Quonset hut, Lily and Anna already had their heads together. Anna said without preamble, “What do you think of this arrangement where only two of us get to be real SEALs?”

Sherri flopped onto her bed, leaned against the wall, and unwrapped the sandwich. “I think it’s inevitable. The public’s going to be ragingly curious about the first woman SEAL, and the military will channel and control that curiosity by feeding the press what they want it to know. If I were in Kettering’s shoes, I would do the same thing.”

Lily added, “Well, I think it stinks.”

“Me too,” Sherri replied glumly.

After inhaling her lunch, Sherri stretched out for a quick nap. Now that the SEALs were here, she suspected chances to rest were going to be few and far between.

It was midafternoon before Kettering poked his head in the door and told them to suit up in fatigues and combat boots.