Playing for Keeps (Texas Scoundrels) (36 page)

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Authors: Jamie Denton

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His wife
.

At first glance, she hadn’t changed, but upon closer inspection, he noted her hair wasn’t fashionably cut into the short style he remembered. Instead, she’d let it grow long, the thick, rich dark brown strands straight and teasing the middle of her back. She stood in the center of what looked like a playground, supervising a group of kids he guessed to be no more than four or five years of age.

He looked closer, examining the faces of each child, hoping to spot one who could be his son or daughter. Mattie had been eight months pregnant when he’d shipped out on his last assignment. Neither one of them had been happy about it, but as Matt had reassured him, she wasn’t the first military wife to give birth without her husband by her side, and she wouldn’t be the last. He was a Navy SEAL. They’d always lived with the uncertainly of when he’d be shipped halfway across the world, often with little notice of him being sent to some hot spot on a mission he could never talk about. Unfortunately, neither of them could have predicted it’d take him five years to come home again.

Guilt twisted his gut. He should have been there. They’d lost five years, five years of their lives they could never have back. Not for the first time, he briefly wondered if he’d made the right choice. His mission may have been quietly labeled a success, but at what cost? Granted, he’d done his job, but was it worth the expense of five years of their lives?

The answer filled him with self-loathing.

The springs in the chair squeaked when Paul shifted in his seat. He leaned forward, bracing his arms on the desk and gave Ford a level stare. “Things are going to be different when you get home.”

“Different how?” he asked cautiously. There was something Paul wasn’t telling him. He could see it in the superior officer’s eyes. “What do you know?”

Paul’s expression remained grim. “Mattie believed you were dead, Ford. She’s a young, vibrant woman. Surely you didn’t expect her to mourn you forever.”

Ford tensed. “What are you saying? That she moved on?” The combination of guilt and Scotch burned his gut, along with instinct that his deepest fear had been realized. During his long captivity, he’d always thought of the possibility of another man in her life. He’d prepared himself to accept it, at least he’d thought he had. Hell, he’d been “dead” for nearly five years, what did he expect?

For her to mourn you forever
.

Mattie was
his
wife. She’d promised to love, honor and cherish
him
.

Until death do
us
part
.

Shit.

“I’m sorry, Ford.”

Paul lowered his gaze and Ford stood, dropping the photograph on the desk. He crossed the gray linoleum to the window and looked out the cloudless Brussels sky. God, what if she’d actually married someone else? He made a sound, somewhere between a self-deprecating laugh and a grunt of pain. “Who is he?” Ice crept into his voice, seeped into his soul.

Mattie belonged to him. She’d been his since he’d first set eyes on her, shortly after he’d relocated with his mom to Hart, Texas when he was a sophomore in high school. The attraction between them had been immediate, and by the time they’d graduated, there’d never been any question they would spend the rest of their lives together. Against the advice of their families, before they’d left for college, they’d gotten married.

Those first few years of marriage had been spent working and taking classes. After the first semester, they’d decided he should take the fast track so he could graduate in three years, while Mattie worked full-time and only took classes part-time. The plan had been for him to join the Navy, attend OSC and flight school, while Mattie stayed in Texas at Baylor University to finish her degree, then she’d join him wherever he’d eventually be stationed. When he’d been invited to join the SEALs, he hadn’t hesitated to enroll in the specialized training program without even discussing it with Mattie.

That had been his first of many mistakes, something he’d had five long, hellish years to realize. He’d had no right to enter into a program like the SEALs without talking to her about it first, but he’d been young and full of himself, not to mention a selfish bastard. But she’d hung in there with him, despite everything, even moving her halfway across the country to San Diego’s Coronado Island, far from her family, friends and everything familiar to her.

“His name is Trenton Avery,” Paul said, pulling Ford back to the present. He slipped another photograph from the file. “He’s a lawyer out of Dallas. Big firm. High profile clientele.”

Ford ignored the photograph. There were more pressing matters at hand. Like how in the fuck he was going to get his wife back. “How long have they been seeing each other?”

Paul leaned back in the chair. “Ford, you should sit down.”

A buzzing started in his ears. He didn’t want to hear this. He didn’t want to hear that his wife was involved with another man. That some hot shot lawyer was putting his hands on
his
wife. Touching her, kissing her, making love to her. “How long?”

“Mattie got married two weeks ago.”

Ford turned back to the window so Paul couldn’t see the pain ripping through him.

“I’m sorry I had to tell you this. I think it’s best if I dispatch a courier to let her know you’re alive. It’s going—”

“No,” he said, his voice as cold as the ice settling around his heart. “I’ll be the one to tell my wife we’re still legally married.”

“That’s not a good idea,” Paul argued. “You do realize this is going to be a shock. She’s going to need time to absorb the information.”

“No.”

“Ford, protocol demands—”

“Fuck protocol,” he roared. “She’s my wife.
Mine
.”

“Was,” Paul said, his gravelly voice hard. He came out of the chair, his brows pulled into a disapproving frown.

“Like hell.” Ford crossed his arms over his chest and braced his feet apart. He’d be damned if he’d let someone else take what belonged to him. “Mattie is
my
wife.”

“Think about what you’re doing, Ford,” Ravalli continued in a more placating tone. “I’ve known you for a long time, buddy. People change. After what she went through when she heard you were dead, she can’t possibly be the same woman you left behind five years ago.”

“She’s still
my
wife. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let her go without a fight.”

* * *

About the Author

Ever since she heard her first fairy tale, Jamie Denton has been a staunch supporter of happily-ever-after. For her, there's nothing quite as heart-warming as the happy ending for a hero and heroine who overcome the odds. At the age of sixteen, Jamie married her high school sweetheart.

Still happily wed nearly forty years later, she still recalls the first time she saw her future husband and knew, even at
that
tender age, he was
The One
. With a history like that, what else could she write except romances?

Since selling her first attempt at a contemporary romance to Harlequin Books four days before Christmas in 1994, she has gone on to see over three million copies of her books in print worldwide. Not only have her books appeared on bestseller lists, but she is also the recipient of several awards, including nominations from Romantic Times for Best Harlequin Temptation and Best Harlequin Blaze and back-to-back RITA nominations, to name a few. Affair de Coeur magazine named ABSOLUTE PLEASURE the best contemporary romance of the year.

Jamie and her hero live with two very hairy Golden Retrievers in rural Pennsylvania. When she’s not writing, she’s refilling the creative well with gardening plans, a needlework project or trying out a new recipe in the kitchen. Occasionally, she can even be found curled up on the sofa with the dogs and a book. (What else but a romance?)

You can write to Jamie by visiting her
Website
or on Twitter @JamieDenton, and on
Facebook
.

Other Titles by Jamie Denton

Bliss, an Anthology

Berkley Publishing

The Promise of Love

Kensington Brava

How to be a Wicked Woman
The Matchmaker
Remain Silent

Dead Stop
Bodyguards in Bed

Harlequin Blaze

Sleeping with the Enemy (The FBI series)
Seduced by the Enemy (The FBI Series)

Stroke of Midnight (The NYE Series)

Ready to Wear (The NYE Series)
Absolute Pleasure (The FBI Series)

Hard to Handle (Lock & Key Trilogy)
My Guilty Pleasure (Martini Dares Series)