Full Surrender

Finally, the family had released them six weeks later, once they’d made plans to relocate their sons to relatives in the south of the country, where they would be safe from retaliation.

“Me, too.” Danny shook his head. “Sorry to bring that up now, Steph. But thank you for telling me.”

“That’s okay.” She folded her legs under her, retreating from him. “As long as we’re talking about that, is there anything else you’d like to know?”

“Honestly? Yeah. What happened after you came home?” He rose up off the floor to sit beside her on the couch. Close, but not touching. He stared out at the bay, the sun fully set and the sky streaked with red in its wake. “I wrote to you. Called you.”

“Oh.” She hadn’t been expecting that. At all. “If you did, I don’t remember. I changed phone numbers frequently to avoid...everyone. After the book came out, I hired an agency to deal with the letters because there were a lot of irrational accusations about not being supportive of the war, or using the war to further a media agenda.” She waved away the still-painful memories, half wondering if her former boyfriend, Josh, had ever seen a communication from Danny. It was his job to go through the letters, after all.

Would it have made him jealous? Or had the agency merely discarded the communication, deeming it too personal? “I still receive hateful letters, in fact. But I’m sorry if I missed a note from you. It was a dark, miserable time.”

Danny’s chest tightened to think she’d been harassed.

He’d waited a whole year after she’d been released to try contacting her, knowing she’d need time to recover. Besides, he’d been in training for his first assignment and then he’d been on board the USS Brady, working long hours thousands of miles from home. It hadn’t occurred to him the fallout from the book she’d written would bring her so much grief.

“I understand. I just wondered.” Danny had read her book, but he didn’t think he could talk about her abduction experience now without giving away how much he’d fallen for her five years ago, or that he’d kind of gone off the deep end when she’d been held hostage. “That was part of the reason I was surprised to see you today. Not just that it’s been a long time. I figured you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

She wove her fingers through the fringe on the blanket he’d draped over her. “I’m sure the kisses just now told you nothing could be further from the truth.”

Glancing his way, she gave him that mischievous smile he was crazy about.

“You did seem awfully agreeable.” He dropped a hand on her knee. She was wrapped in the woven fabric as if in a cocoon, but he could see the outline of her leg. “I just want to be sure I don’t cross a line and send you running again.”

“You should trust me to know what I can handle.” She toyed with the fringe. He could see the tops of her breasts through the gap in the weave since she’d let go of the T-shirt.

“It’s me I don’t trust.” He was seriously pushing his boundaries to look right now. He wanted her in his bed and he wanted her all night long. But no matter what she said about being ready for this, she didn’t have a clue what he wanted from her.

Sexual healing was only the beginning. He was going to show Stephanie that she belonged in his life, safe in his arms, forever.

5

RELUCTANTLY, STEPHANIE retreated to the guest bedroom alone.

She didn’t know why she’d expected her new affair with Danny to follow the same course as their wild encounter five years ago. But that was kind of what she’d hoped for. They’d fall into each other’s arms and have sex until they couldn’t see straight. Spend every waking moment together—and every sleeping moment, for that matter. And she’d be a new woman when it came time for him to leave Norfolk again.

Brushing her teeth with one of the spare toothbrushes Danny had pointed out, Stephanie stared into the cedar-framed mirror over the pedestal sink and knew she’d been naive to think an affair could unfold like that now. For one thing, they were both older. She’d known going into this that she was more world-weary, more cautious. That was half the reason she’d had a tough time with relationships.

But she hadn’t really considered that he would be more wary, too. As she pinned up her hair and washed her face, she reminded herself that he wasn’t the same fun-loving rocker who could take a week off from his father’s business because it was a family company. Danny was a navy lieutenant, a surface warfare officer with people who depended on him. He’d walked away from the lucrative Murphy holdings to join the military, no doubt taking one hell of a pay cut. For that matter, he’d walked away from his rock band, as well.