Free Navy SEAL Seduction by Bonnie Vanak Page A

threatening Fleur, I want to know who. She’ll be safe, Lace. She’s a smart little girl, too.”
    She buried her face into her hands. “If something happens to her...”
    He squeezed her shoulder. “Nothing’s going to happen to her. I promise.”
    Lacey lifted her head, her blue eyes bright. Not with tears, but glittering anger. “You made a lot of promises to me in the past, Jarrett. Am I supposed to believe you this time?”
    Sucker punch. Damn. “That was a low blow, Lace. I never broke my promises to you.”
    “No, you only left. You didn’t need me. You had your SEAL buddies and the Navy.”
    His temper started to uncoil like a rattlesnake. He struggled to leash it. “I had a job to do.”
    “You left me right after I lost our baby. I needed you and you left. You weren’t there for me when I needed you most, so why should I trust you now?”
    Ouch. Now guilt twined with the anger. “I was there for you at the hospital and when you were released. The doctor said you’d be fine.”
    “After, Jarrett! Not the physical part.” She pressed a hand to her heart. “Here. Where it hurt the most. You were home five days and then you were deployed. You left me to deal with the loss of our baby by myself.”
    “I had a job to do, Lace.”
    “You could have asked for leave.” Lacey’s slender shoulders trembled. “I knew how important the teams were to you, and how important you were to them. I was so proud of you that you chose that path to serve, Jarrett. I hated it when you left, but I never complained because that was the life you had chosen, and the life I chose to share with you. But just that once, I really needed you to stay home, and you left, anyway.”
    She got him there. He could have. In fact, his CO asked if he was okay to take the mission. And dumbass he was, he told his CO, yeah, I’m good to go, everything’s a-okay, let me go eliminate some tangos, let me fight so I can forget this panic I felt when I thought I’d lose not just my baby, but Lace, as well . He’d gone charging into the mission with a muddied mind, trying to push aside grief and acted recklessly, almost suicidal in the risks he took.
    If not for Ace pulling him in, reminding him there was no I in team and he needed to get himself together, Jarrett could have lost it for good.
    By the time he returned home six weeks later, his head was clearer, but Lacey was gone.
    “Five days.” She held up five fingers. “You were distant the whole time. You barely said a word to me.”
    “I waited on you hand and foot and hired a housekeeper to cook and clean...”
    “But you never talked with me, Jarrett. We never talked about the baby. The nursery we’d planned, the first coat of paint, the crib my dad bought for us.” Her voice cracked. “I was living at home with you, but I was already alone. No wonder they call you the Iceman. Because you were one cold bastard.”
    He sucked in a breath and his temper surged. “You left me, remember? You left me and all I had was an empty house when I came home.”
    “I left you to go to my parents’ house because I needed someone other than a paid stranger to do housework and cook. And what was the point of trying to make it work out? The job always came first, Jarrett. Always. My dad told me not to marry you because you were a SEAL and the divorce rate among SEALs is very high. He wanted me to stay in college and get my degree and wait. But I loved you and didn’t want to wait. I’d have done anything to make it work, Jarrett. I gave up my education, I gave up my friends to move with you onto base because I had faith that we could make it work.”
    She drew in a deep breath. “And I never complained, not once, not even when you’d come home and go quiet for days. I knew you were trying to get your head together because of the awful things you’d seen...”
    “And done,” he cut in.
    “I didn’t want to be one of those nagging wives who pestered you to communicate. I gave you