by Katie Knight
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, OCTOBER 2019
Copyright © 2019 Relay Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Katie Knight is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.
Cover Design by Mayhem Cover Creations
www.relaypub.com
Blurb
Lila never expected to have a whirlwind romance with a Navy SEAL, and she certainly didn’t plan on falling in love. Something else she didn’t expect? Finding out she was pregnant not long after Preston Lawson deployed. Worse yet, when she tries to tell him he’s about to be a daddy, she’s informed that Preston was killed in action, leaving her alone and desperate. But after years of struggling to get by, she’s finally created a stable life for her and her son and plans to celebrate Christmas in a big way: by heading to the very lodge where she met Preston. The lodge is decorated perfectly for the Christmas spirit, and Lila is content—if not a little lonely. Until Preston, the I’m-supposed-to-be-dead Navy SEAL shows up out of the blue.
Preston never thought about settling down. His unit was his family. His life was the Navy. So three years ago, when a clerical mistake left him officially dead and he was offered the opportunity to use his new anonymity to participate in Black Op missions, he accepted. But when he’s given leave right before Christmas, he gives into nostalgia and heads to the lodge where he and Lila—the woman he’d fallen in love with—first met. He was hoping for some Christmas spirit, but he never expected to find Lila. Or learn that he has a son. Preston knows in that instant his life will be inalterably changed—for the better. But while he and Lila grow closer, it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to harm her, and Preston will do everything in his power to keep her safe. In the end, Preston will have to decide whether protecting Lila and their son safe means staying with them or leaving them behind.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
End of The SEAL’s Christmas Baby
Thank You!
About Katie
About Leslie
Sneak Peek: The SEAL’s Unexpected Triplets
Also by Katie Knight
One
Three years ago…
There were worse ways to spend a June evening than watching a beautiful woman dance in the rain.
Preston Lawson leaned one shoulder against the side of the cabin he’d rented for the week and stared across the yard at Lila Holden as she twirled and laughed while rain soaked her pretty auburn hair and her white T-shirt, plastering both to her body.
What a fine body it was too. Curvy and soft, and seemingly made for him. She fit him perfectly, and not just physically, but emotionally too.
And that’s exact why Preston had to say goodbye to her.
She’d expect—and deserve—a more serious commitment if he stayed, and that was something he couldn’t give her. His heart twisted a bit inside his chest, but damn it, leaving was for the best.
Besides, it wasn’t like he had a choice. He was getting deployed again with his SEAL team in a couple of days and would be gone at least six months. Sure, he and Lila had been hot and heavy from their start two months ago, but it was best to end it now, on a high-note and with a clean break.
“You better come in soon, honey, before you catch your death,” he called to her. Her response was to spin faster, throwing her arms out wide. For a gal who’d lost her entire family, she had more zest for life than anyone he’d ever met.
Lila glanced over at him and laughed. “I have a better idea. How about you come out here and join me?”
He snorted and shook his head, perfectly happy beneath the overhang of the porch, dry and warm. And yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her, or ignore the potent draw he felt to hold her tight for just a little bit longer. He wasn’t a trusting man by nature—life had repeatedly taught him the unfortunate lesson that nothing lasted forever and most people were out for themselves. Which made the fact that somehow, some way, Lila had burrowed her way into his heart from day one that much more unbelievable. Yet, there she was, right there in his soul, as close to him as his SEAL team mates or the memory of his long-lost parents, gone nearly twenty-four years now.
“So, what do you say, sugar?” Lila came up to him, peering up at him. She held a hand up and crooked her finger at him, her expression enticing. “Want to have a little fun?”
Tamping down the pinch of melancholy inside him, Preston reached down and grabbed her hand, hauling her up on the porch beside him instead, pulling her close as she squealed in delight. “How about we go inside and have fun instead?”
In response, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him long and deep. His body responded immediately, and he held her, pressing his hips to hers to allow her to feel the full extent of her effect on him. Man, he couldn’t get enough of Lila. Odd, since he’d never been a guy driven by his emotions or desires. In fact, he normally did his best to suppress that side of himself. In the military, they prided themselves on self-control and analytical, strategic thinking, not sloppy feelings. Feelings could get a man killed in combat, reacting out of anger or frustration. No. Usually, Preston kept a tight lid on his emotions, but with Lila they all seemed to want to come pouring out.
Another good reason to get out of town.
One more night. He’d spend one more night holding her, touching her, hearing those soft little moans she made as she came apart in his arms, then he’d set her free. Leave for his mission and never look back. That’s how it had to be.
Preston bent slightly and swept Lila up into his arms, carrying her inside their cabin at the remote wilderness lodge, then kicked the door shut behind them. The sound of raindrops plinking on the tin roof above created a nice sense of intimacy as he tugged her wet T-shirt off over her head then ran his fingers down her damp skin, loving the way she shivered against him.
“Cold?” he asked, nuzzling the side of her neck as he undid the clasp on her bra.
“No,” she said, stepping away from him, sliding the straps down her arms then tossing the bra away, leaving her naked from the waist up. Preston’s pulse kicked up another notch and his hard cock strained against the fly of his jeans. Hard to imagine this would be his last night with her.
For the past eight weeks since he’d been home on leave, they’d been pretty much inseparable. He’d met her his first night here. She’d been waitressing in the restaurant attached to the lodge and
he’d been a lonely soldier home on leave between missions. He’d had his share of girlfriends in the past, but nothing long-term, and nothing like Lila.
She made him feel happy and content and made him dream about a different future than the one he’d planned for himself. Made him think that a career in the Navy might not be all he wanted for himself. Dangerous that, since a military career was basically all he knew. He’d enlisted right after high school graduation, fresh out of his umpteenth foster home and he’d never looked back. Until now.
The final reason he needed to let Lila go.
But not yet. Not tonight.
She shimmied out of her shorts and panties and he couldn’t seem to take his clothes off fast enough. Forget finesse. Forget everything except being beside her, being inside her, being as close to her as humanly possible for as much time as they had left.
Once they were both naked, he picked her up again, kissing her gently as he carried her over to the queen-sized bed and placed her in the middle of it, stretching out beside her. Her skin felt like silk beneath his fingertips, so warm, so soft. He kissed his way down her neck to her collarbone, then to her breasts. He took one taut nipple between his lips while he toyed with the other between his thumb and forefinger, paying homage to her gorgeous body in the best way he knew how.
Lila traced her fingertips up his back to his shoulders, stroking the short hair at the nape of his neck and he shuddered. Her throaty laugh damned near made him embarrass himself on the spot. She arched beneath him as he continued kissing a path down her abdomen.
“You are so beautiful, sugar,” she said, her words husky with need.
He smiled against her lower stomach. “Men aren’t beautiful. We’re rugged, tough, sexy.”
“And beautiful.” She gazed down her body at him and smiled and his whole world brightened.
Bad. That was so, so bad. Yet amazingly good.
Ignoring the rush of confusing emotions inside him—need, want, desperation, sadness, hope—he gently spread her thighs then traced his tongue over her slick folds. Lila gasped and slid her fingers through his hair as he pleasured her with his mouth and fingers. He selfishly wanted to make sure she’d never forget him after he left. He wanted her to remember this night together same as he would, on all the long, lonely days ahead.
It wasn’t long before she dug her nails into his scalp and called out his name softly, digging her heels into the mattress as she climaxed hard around his fingers. He continued to nuzzle her sensitive flesh as she drifted back down to earth, then he kissed his way back up her body to her lips. They shared another passionate kiss as he put on a condom then positioned himself between her legs.
Preston buried himself inside her in one long stroke, then held still as her body adjusted to his size. So warm, so wet, so tight. Heaven on earth. Heaven in her arms. Heaven that would be gone all too soon, so he’d best savor it while he could.
“You feel amazing,” he said, resting his weight on his elbows on either side of her, using his hands to smooth back the dripping wet hair from her flushed face.
“So do you,” she said, locking her legs around his waist and pushing her heels into his buttocks, urging him to move inside her. “I love you, Preston Lawson.”
His breath caught and he blinked down at her, stunned and speechless. He cared about her, more than he’d cared about anyone in a long, long time. But love? He didn’t do love. Didn’t do commitment. Didn’t do long-term because in his life, his situation, you never knew where you’d be from one day to the next—or if you’d survive.
Instead of demanding the words back, however, she pulled him down and kissed him, moving her hips in time with his thrusts, bringing them both to the brink far sooner than Preston anticipated.
A familiar pressure built at the base of his spine and his balls tightened. He reached between them to stroke her slick folds, circling her most sensitive flesh until she cried and out and her body convulsed around him, milking him as she tumbled over the edge into orgasm again. Preston wasn’t far behind—thrusting once, twice, before his muscles stiffened and his back arched and he came hard inside her.
Time slowed as wave after wave of ecstasy crashed over them before finally leaving them breathless and sated on the bed, her fingers in his hair and his head resting on her chest, over her heart. The steady rhythm threatened to pull him under into sleep, but he fought to stay awake. He was painfully aware he’d not responded to her declaration of love and that he needed to say something.
Not because he didn’t care, but because he did.
“Lila, about what you said. I—”
“Shhh,” she said, smiling down at him and placing a finger over his lips. “I know. You don’t have to say it back. I don’t expect you to. I just wanted you to know how I feel, since you’re leaving again in a couple of days. Something nice to take with you overseas. Just do me a favor, okay?”
He scooted up to lay beside her then drew her into his arms, kissing the top of her head and inhaling the sweet floral scent of her shampoo. “If I can, I will.”
“Stay in touch with me?” she asked, her voice tentative.
Preston closed his eyes, wincing internally. She’d told him about her past once, about how she’d lost her parents in a car accident right after high school. About how her brother had enlisted in the army and gotten himself killed in Iraq, leaving poor Lila all alone. She still had some distant relatives in the area, but she didn’t keep in touch with them. He knew how much her request meant to her and it damn near killed him to deny her. “I’m sorry, honey, but I can’t. I wish I could. I really do. But I never know where I’m going to be or if I’ll be allowed any contact at all with the outside world.”
“I don’t need a lot. Just a phone call every now and then, something to let me know you’re okay.”
The words hung in the quiet room like a shroud until finally, he bit the bullet and manned up. “Honey, we went into this knowing we didn’t have much time. Maybe it was sweeter because of that. More intense.”
“No. The sweetness is because of what I feel for you—what I’ve never felt for anyone before. I said I love you, Preston, and I meant it.” She sniffled and buried her face in the base of his neck. “I know I shouldn’t, and I know it’s stupid, but I can’t help it. We don’t know each other that well and you said upfront you don’t do relationships. I’m not asking you to give me any more than you’re willing or able to, but I wanted you to know how I felt. Needed you to know. No matter what happens after you leave, no matter what the future holds, you’ll always have a place in my heart.”
“That doesn’t sound stupid at all,” he said, tucking her words deep inside him. His chest squeezed and his heart ached, but he had to stay strong. Had to stay alone. Alone was easier, cleaner, less complicated. Then her soft sob gutted him and he couldn’t stop himself. He tipped her chin up and kissed her gently, then smoothed away her tears with his thumb. “If I can, I’ll come back to you one day. I promise I’ll try.”
Two
Eight weeks later, Preston was flat on his back in a makeshift military hospital on the outskirts of Aleppo trying to wrap his head around the fact that one of his team mates had paid the ultimate price for a disastrously failed mission. He’d spent the night here, the phantom sounds of war and the screams of the dying echoing in his head. Thankfully the drugs they’d given him had knocked him out enough to keep him from going nuts.
This morning, though, his ears still rang from the barrage of gunfire and exploding mortar shells on the battlefield and his chest hurt like a sonofabitch where he’d taken both a bullet and some stray shrapnel. Though the last few hours of chaos leading up to the extraction were a blur, he could still pinpoint the exact moment he’d known they’d been made. The bite of the hot desert wind smacking his face, the eerie silence before all hell broke loose. The shock in his teammate’s gaze seconds before the IED had blown him to bits.
Preston’s stomach cramped and he barely had time to grab the plastic
basin off the counter before he dry-heaved his guts out. There wasn’t anything in his stomach. He hadn’t eaten since before the mission early yesterday morning. He never ate before ops. His nerves were too tightly strung, and he needed all his energy focused on finding their target, not digestion. Still, it didn’t stop the nausea rolling over him, this sick sense of loss and betrayal.
Those bastards had known his SEAL team was coming. Preston wasn’t sure how, since it was a black ops mission, but somehow, the enemy had found out their plans and they’d been waiting. He needed to find out who was responsible for the information leak and why they’d done it. Justice for his team and for Randy, who’d died.
Jesus. Randy. The guy had only been twenty-five, newly married, had a baby on the way.
They all knew their number could come up at any time, but man. No one actually expected it to happen, especially to one of their own.
Eyes drifting closed as the combat surgeon continued to check his wounds, an image of Lila the last time he’d seen her at the cabin drifted into his mind. He’d promised her he’d try to come back to her one day. Pain pinched his heart. Bet Randy had promised his wife the same thing…
“All done,” the doctor said, snapping off his gloves and tossing them into a portable hazmat bin nearby. “I’m going to go ahead and discharge you. You’ll need to keep the dressings clean and dry until we can recheck you in a couple of days, understand?”