Free Her Daring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 5) by Caitlyn O'Leary Page B

toes.
    “Anyway, I didn’t always cope well, and I used alcohol.  When you asked me how many women, I said seventeen, but the truth is I’m not positive.  There were some one night stands I might have forgotten, and I’m not real proud looking back on that.” 
    “Dare, cut yourself some slack.”
    “I can’t, Rylie.  I’m in charge of my actions.  This went on for about a year.  The Senior Chief Petty Officer of my unit sat me down and helped pull my head of my ass.  I don’t know what I would have done without him.  I drink now, but I never get drunk.  Never.” 
    She leaned over and gave him a hug.
    “What was his name?
    “Leif Heinrickson.”
    “I hope to meet him one day, and thank him.”  Darius thought about his friend and winced.  He knew it might be awhile before Leif would be ready for that ‘thank you.' 
    “Are you ready to tell me your story?”
    Rylie nodded, then shook her head.
    “Rylie?”
    “Can I just tell you about Roger?”  She asked, looking up at him with pleading eyes.
    Darius remembered how the house she had lived in with her foster parents had ended up burning down, and she had supposedly died when she was seventeen.  When she had been in Houston with him and his team, she lashed out at Drake and had made reference to her foster father coming into her room at night.  He knew her ‘ugly’ was going to be bad.  If she wanted to put off the story, he couldn’t blame her.
    “Honey, you tell your story, at your pace.”
    “Well, there was this nice man named Roger. I’m sure you’d like him,” she started with a peppy smile.
    “Okay, let me stop you there.”
    “What?”
    “You don’t have to tell me the ugly.  You don’t have to tell me all the gory details, but no more bullshit, okay?  Do you really think I’d like this guy, Rylie?”  He paused.  “Really?” 
    She ducked her head and said quietly.  “No.”
    “Then can you just tell me the way it really was?  You started by saying you were messed up when you got involved with him.  So how was it with the two of you?”
    “I was nineteen, and he was forty-two.”
    “Jesus!”
    “He was a nice guy.”
    “Bullshit, he was a predator.”
    “No, he wasn’t.  He was one of my professors at the community college.  He might have come on to me a little bit, but I was more than willing.  Look, there’s lots of reasons that I’m not going in to right now.  But I was fucked in the head about men, especially older men.  I figured it would be good for me to jump into the deep end.  When Roger showed an interest in me, I figured it would be perfect for me to have an affair with him.  It wasn’t like it was a love match or anything.”
    Darius’ head hurt.
    “He was really nice.”  She looked out the balcony window, and he stared at her profile.  She looked pensive, so he stroked her jaw.
    “What, Rylie?” he asked softly.
    “He was really nice, kind of.  It was confusing.  It was like he was nice only in certain ways, on the surface.  The kids said he was creepy.”
    “Sawyer and Charlotte?”
    “Yeah.  I should never have let him become involved with my family.  I should have kept him separate.  But we were together for a year.  Even though it was just an affair, he tried to make it more kind of.  It was weird.  I still don’t quite understand it.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “He always said he wanted nothing serious.  I was just trying to practice, so I thought it was perfect.  But then he started to act really weird.  He tried to tell me how to act.  How to dress, who I could talk to.  He once saw me studying with one of my classmates in the library and went ballistic.  It was so weird.  I had to quit that college to get away from him.”
    “Couldn’t you have reported him?”
    “I didn’t want him to get in trouble.  It was my fault.  I came onto him to begin with.”  Of course, she would think that.  “But the good news was that I definitely got over