Free The Sound of Consequence (Puget Sound ~ Alive With Love Book 1) by Susan Ann Wall Page B

He was an E7 in my unit. I was an E6, getting ready to go up for the E7 board. That was a pretty big deal at ten years in the army. Especially for my MOS.”
    “Wait,” Stacie said, shaking her head. “You’re losing me with all this army jargon. I don’t know what E6 or E7 or MOS mean.”
    Owen elaborated for her, explaining how ranks in the military worked and that MOS was the generic label for army jobs. When he was finished explaining all the technical stuff, he just shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe all this had happened to him.
    “I had always been a good soldier.” The hurt shown on his face and Stacie desperately wanted to wash it away for him. She just didn’t know how. “Something snaps when you see your wife in bed with another man. I lost control.”
    She couldn’t see how any woman would want to cheat on him. What little she knew about him revealed a passionate, attentive man who was incredibly sexy and fun to be around. Just being with him was exciting. And she knew how exciting he was in bed. Stacie could hardly blame him for losing control. She’d never known the kind of betrayal that cheating qualified as, but somehow knew it was devastating. “It doesn’t seem fair that you got punished for that,” she said, squeezing his hand.
    “There had been a lot of adultery and a lot of violence in my unit and my commander was fed up, so he decided to make an example out of me and the guy who screwed my wife. Fortunately for me, my first sergeant was on my side. Instead of getting a dishonorable discharge, I got busted down to an E4. That meant I had to be discharged because my time in service exceeded what was allowed for the E4 rank.” He paused for a moment and shook his head again. Stacie could tell it was painful for him to relive the experience.  She leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek. 
    “What happened to your wife?”
    “Ex-wife,” he said harshly, then looked down at their hands as he squeezed hers. “I filed for divorce immediately. She begged me to take her back, but I was done.  I think we had fallen out of love a long time before then, if we were ever really in love. We got married too fast and once we were married, it was too easy to stay together. I guess in the end, she really did me a favor.”
    Stacie could relate, staying in a loveless relationship. It had been that way with Greg for a long time. She had tried to convince herself for months, possibly even years, that she still loved Greg and that marrying him was the right thing to do. She was relieved to have finally found the courage to leave.
    Owen lifted his eyes and smiled. As he gently swept a stray hair from her face, the light caress of his fingers left a pleasant tingle in their midst. “I’m a hell of a lot happier now.”
    The gesture made her a little nervous. Had he just said that without touching her, she wouldn’t have thought too much of it, but his touch was so gentle, so romantic. And the piercing gaze of his eyes, as if he was looking straight into her soul, telling her she was the reason he was happy. This was going to be a disaster. If he kept looking at her like that, talking like that, touching her like that, she was going to fall in love with him. Just what she didn’t want.
    Stacie was thinking about an escape strategy when he pulled his hand away and took a sip of his wine. Drinking seemed like a good idea, so Stacie followed his lead. Then he started talking again and the sound of his sultry voice had her completely distracted from thinking about another escape.
    “Once the divorce was final, I sold most of my stuff, shipped what was left out here, and racked up with Bryan for a while. I closed on the condo about a month ago. I’ve still got some unpacking to do though.”
    “Yeah, I noticed some boxes when I was there,” she said, blushing a little at the recollection of being in his condo.
    “You had time to notice the boxes before you did your amazing disappearing