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For the first time in nearly four months, she dared dreaine she would escape this hell without some emotional scars She wondered if it would be easier to htmare as Phillip and Kayla had done Or would any relationship need to be a fresh start with no connections or re

Of course, she would have one very tangible reminder in the baby She wouldn’t abort it And even as she considered adoption, she just as quickly abandoned the notion because it s As much as she tried to put a positive spin on that one, it still hurt

Deeply It had taken her a long tis about that with Blake

She squinted into the rippling heat waves distorting the horizon Could he see her? Focus in on her more clearly now than he had in those early months of their relationship when she’d kept so much hidden Out of his reach She tried to re on otherabout work Hers and his

Until finally there hadn’t been anything left to talk about but their jobs

"If you quit, I will, too’’ Sydney delivered her ultimatum with hope, even while deep within her a voice much like her practical sister’s insisted she’d just dealt the relationship a death blow

Blake turned his head on the pillow "What?’’

"If you quit the Navy, I’ll resign o to Rubistan’’

He leaned to kiss her, inching the patchwork quilt higher to coinia winter chill "You know I can’t do that I owe ti a court martial’’

"Then stop being a SEAL There are other things you can do in the Navy that won’t take you into the same dark pits you’ve seen lately’’

He stopped adjusting the quilt around thehting the swirl of his boyish cowlick so at odds with the honed man "You’re not really serious You just want me to be the one to say no so you’re off the hook’’

"Try htened his jaw "I’llis not an option I’m a SEAL It’s who I am and if you can’t live with that then apparently you can’t live with me"

"Why can’t you see the sas you want fros that make it impossible for me to walk away from what I do"

"Bullshit At least I protect myself’’

"We have protection Escorts"

He snorted

"More of you are injured and killed in your profession than mine The only real difference I can see here is that you’re ainto motion, he rolled away from her and buried his face in his hands "Damn it, Sydney, you don’t knohat I’ve seen over there What they can do to you’’

Because he wouldn’t talk to her Instead he let it s him whole until she, knew one day he wouldn’t come back even if the shell of his body walked in the door "I love you, Blake’’

Muscles flexed and rippled across his back, twitched in his arms "You know I love you, too’’ His hoarse answer scratched the air

"I’h anymore if we can’t accept each other’’ She sat up, pulled her knees to her chest, the gulf between the by the second "You tell me all the time I’m yourhaven Well, you knohat? You don’t want me so much as somebody to save you the same way I save homeless kids in a Third World country’’

How da her

She stared out at the hard-caked sand and winged her thoughts toward hiht to say it then

Sydney walked as close to the edge of the camp as she dared and talked to Kayla and Phillip in case Blake could hear with all that equipht her io She hoped hers, if he could hear her, would do the saame of spades?"

A hand clauttural English A flutter twinged in her stoer until she realized

Oh, God Not nerves The baby moved

Before she could wrap her uard tugged her again, dragging her toward the center of the compound until they stopped in front of a stark, ce beside her barracks cell

Like all the other buildings

Inside, down the hall they walked His knock elicited a brusque coe to run

The door side, bringing her face-to-face with her worst nightmare Her baby’s father

Ammar al-Khayr sat behind a desk like any businessman on a lunch break, plate in front of hiusts fro spices into the air, gagging her She remembered too well the smell of them on his breath inches from her face, over her

She forced herself to blink and breathe evenly He was just a ht and weight

Deceptively so

God, but he was strong Fearfully strong even when he had to be nearing fifty Fanaticisht harm her, but he wouldn’t win She just had to stay alive a little while longer

His gaze roved her, but not sexually--it had never been sexual She kneithout question he hated her simply because of what she represented He didn’t lust after her, in fact, found her disgusting, to be used Abused

Still he continued to evaluate her while she struggled not to fidget in spite of the creepy feeling spidering up her spine Had she soiven Blake away? Or had they been found out? Bile burned hot in the back of her throat The stifling heat, stench, and memories wreaked havoc on her already queasy stomach

"Have a seat, please, Ms Hyatt It seems we have a probleroup, I decided to bring it to your attention first"

He definitely knew so And between Blake and the baby, she carried two colossal secrets that could cost her life Or worse--theirs

Jack hated dreams because there were no secrets

Dreauy’s defenses were down Everybody had to catch soendas were patient Even as he tried to wrestle hi a helluva lot of luck

This particular one had its claws in deep, sub him in a skyful of blood and wives with life-and-death stakes His dad kept chanting over Jack’s headset about how a man kicks ass for his woman