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Steam curled in thin streams from her mug as she lifted it to her lips. Damien’s mug sat next to the recliner he preferred.

A snicker escaped her. That recliner had been ‘her’ chair before Damien had appropriated it. She could not bring herself to mind. She loved having him in her house, in her life. If the very existence of their love stunned her, it was hardly a surprise. Except for Stacy, no one had ever loved her until Damien had battled his way into her life and into her heart.

She looked up as he came downstairs, fresh from an early morning shower. His damp hair gleamed in the lamplight and his eyes sparkled with anticipation. He wore a crisp white shirt and dark blue slacks that did nothing to hide that superb male physique. Though totally oblivious to it, he radiated sheer masculine sex appeal. But she noted the slight tremor of his fingers as he picked up his coffee.

“Nervous?” She kept her tone light but smiled encouragement despite the strong urge to go back to sleep.

He grinned sheepishly. “I haven’t worked as a civilian in twelve years. I’ll have to get used to it.”

“Somerset has government contracts,” Laurie teased. “Just think of their nasty supervisors as nasty military commanders.”

He chuckled then linked their fingers across the small space over the table between the end of the sofa and the chair. The newscast went on and, relieved there was no mention of her father, Laurie gradually relaxed muscles she had not realized were tense. She only had one problem to deal with and decided it shouldn’t really be a problem, only an unexpected surprise.

At the end of the news reports, she gave Damien a smoldering kiss at the front door, wished him a good first day, and went upstairs to get dressed. Her lips tingled pleasantly and she knew she would think of him all day. Several minutes later, ready to face the day, she carried her second cup of coffee onto the back porch and watched the morning sky brighten.

After Stacy left for school, Laurie settled into the corner of the sofa with yet another cup of coffee. But she couldn’t concentrate on the women’s talk show she watched every weekday.

Sometimes she acquired good ideas for plot twists or characterization from the show. Today, however, it didn’t hold her interest. Her mind consistently wandered to the home pregnancy test ALWAYS A WARRIOR Patricia Bruening

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she had used earlier. The result had been positive. She was pregnant, about six weeks along by her best calculations.

She didn’t question that she had to tell Damien. But how would he take the news? She knew he would not run from the responsibility. After all, their wedding was only a few days away. But he had just started a new job, a totally new life. He had enough adjustments to make.

What would another, unexpected, change do to him? To escape the ever-present confusion circling her mind, she concentrated meticulously on housework.

As late morning became early afternoon, she entrenched herself in her office to continue working on her current manuscript. She didn’t get much done. She stared into space, ignoring the cursor blinking in the middle of the page of text depicted on her screen. Her mind whirled like a tornado around Damien and the baby. She finally turned off the computer she had not touched in two hours, leaned back in her chair, and stared pensively at the ceiling.

“Hi, Babe,” Damien said from the open door.

Startled, she flinched and gaped at him. Blood drained from her head in a dizzying rush.

Guiltily she shifted her gaze to stare at the keyboard in front of her. She had been unaware of the passage of time and had not heard him come home.

“Sorry. Were you busy? I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No,” she responded in a monotone, unable to prevent her gaze from meeting his.

His eyes narrowed and she squirmed under his intense scrutiny. He knew her too well, read her too well, not to realize something was wrong.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing nine months won’t cure,” she muttered under her breath. How was she supposed to tell him to prepare for yet another major change in his life?

She had not intended for him to hear but Damien had sharp ears. He turned pale and gaped at her in disbelief as he evidently took in her apprehension. He staggered and reached for the door frame as though he had been sucker punched. “Are you pregnant?”

Laurie nodded slowly but could not force a single word past the ache in her throat. She had not meant to blurt it out like that. He didn’t seem pleased. He looked shocked, hurt, and trapped. Well, she wasn’t exactly ecstatic over the news, either. She had never considered having another child.

He raked the fingers of both hands through his hair as he darted wild glances around the office. He looked at everything but her. Dejected, she stood and trudged to the window overlooking the back yard. She stared, seeing nothing though the film of tears blurring her vision. Her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

“Christ,” Damien muttered behind her.

His hands trembled on her shoulders. She stood, tense and rigid, and struggled to blink back the tears. He turned her to face him.

“Not again,” he said flatly, his eyes dark with a mix of anger, bitterness, and pain.

She glanced up at him, puzzled. Realization struck with the force of a sledgehammer. She wanted to kick herself. He already had two children he obviously never saw. Hurt and even ashamed, she dropped her gaze to his chest.

“Let’s sit down,” he suggested. He took her hand and urged her toward the sofa.

Laurie sat beside him and twisted her fingers together as she stared at the floor, convinced everything was about to fall apart. All she could think of was that he was so upset about the pregnancy she wondered if he might leave her. Anger and hurt fought inside her with no clear victor.

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“Damn it,” he muttered harshly. “This isn’t easy.”

His bleak tone put an ache in her heart, but she didn’t look at him. She kept her gaze riveted to the floor. It hurt. How could he be angry and upset about any result of their love? She didn’t understand it.

“I know,” she agreed tersely, confused. “I never thought about having another baby but it’s done.”

She winced at the pain and anger that turned her voice hard and cold but did not apologize. His reaction, despite her clumsy delivery of the news, hurt.

“I never thought about having kids at all,” Damien admitted bluntly. “But I did. I married my ex-wife because she was pregnant. A year later, we had another one.”

Calm strength suddenly infused her and she turned her head, looked into his eyes. There really was no problem here. She was not trapping him into something he did not want. Anger and pain had no place here, at least not over a baby their love had produced.

“Damien,” she said serenely. “We’re already getting married.”

That gentle reminder startled him into thoughtful silence. He stared at her until, as though everything had been rearranged in his mind, his face cleared and brightened. He smiled at her with genuine warmth and love. The sparkle lit his eyes and he reached for her, drew her into his arms.

“I love you. I will marry you. I want a family.” He stopped and looked deep into her eyes.

“This family. If that means I get more than I bargained for then .…” He paused a moment then murmured. “I guess I’m luckier than most men.”

“I didn’t intend to hurt you,” she muttered as she buried her face in the curve of his neck and shoulder. “Or to bring back painful memories or make things harder for you.”

“Shhh.” Damien rocked her slowly in his arms. “It’s okay. It just surprised me.”

He stilled, put a finger under her chin and tipped her head up.

“This baby is part of you, part of us,” he said softly. “I’m sorry I reacted the way I did. It was knee-jerk, a part of something I thought long buried. I love you, Stacy, and our baby.”

He flattened his hand on her abdomen in a protective, tender gesture that brought more tears, of joy this time, to her eyes. Blinking rapidly, she slid her arms around his neck and snuggled closer.

“She didn’t deserve you,” Laurie commented, her lips grazing the heated skin of his throat. “Your ex-wife, I mean.”

“What makes you say that?” Damien enquired, his tone tinged with amusement.

“She let you get away, didn’t she?” Laurie teased, then pulled back a little and looked up at him. “Tell me about her. What happened?”

“You don’t really want to hear all of this,” he stated coolly, a hard glint in his eyes.

“Yes, I do.” She clasped his hand between both of hers but kept her gaze locked steady with his. “Tell me.”

“All right,” he conceded curtly. “You asked for it. I only dated her for a couple of months before she told me she was pregnant. My mother tried to talk me out of marrying her but Dad insisted I do the ‘right thing’. We got married. I was working construction for a general contractor when my son was born six months later. A year later, we had a daughter. By then the construction industry was in a major nationwide slump. I couldn’t find a job that paid decent enough to support all of us. I joined the Navy and became a SEAL.”

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He stopped abruptly. Pain etched a harsh mask of suffering on his face, pain that rapidly turned to bitter anger in his eyes. The silence lasted so long Laurie wondered if he intended to finish.

“Go on,” she finally spoke, soft and low, as she squeezed his hand in a gesture of encouragement.

“I was gone a lot,” he muttered then drew in a deep breath and plunged back into his story. “I guess she didn’t like the separations. She partied. She did drugs. She cheated.”

Laurie shot him a quizzical glance. “I know you went on missions but those don’t usually last long. What about when you weren’t on a mission?”

“Then I was on a base somewhere and she was stuck at home.” Though he shrugged, sadness fought fury in his eyes. “She refused to go with me. She didn’t want to move around.

She didn’t want to leave her family, such as it was. I can’t blame her for it.” But the hard glint in his eyes said he did blame her.

“Sounds selfish of her, to me,” Laurie commented and her heart ached for him.

Damien looked at her in surprise, eyebrow raised, but continued. “When I was home, she wasn’t. I stayed with the kids while she did whatever she wanted. When we were together, we fought—viciously. After a couple of years of that routine, I came back to find divorce papers waiting for me. I didn’t fight it. There was no point. She got her divorce and my kids.”

He fell silent, obviously finished, but Laurie felt his pain and anger like a vise around her heart. She framed his face in her hands and looked into his eyes.

“Damien, she didn’t love you,” she said quietly but firmly.

“I know that,” he said bitterly as he grasped her wrists. But he didn’t pull her hands away.

“It was a relief. I was glad to see the last of her. But she took my kids, kept them away from me.

I haven’t seen or talked to them in years. She won’t allow contact. They’ve grown up without me.”

“Damien,” Laurie said softly, sadly, but no other words came to mind. She wrapped her arms around him and simply held him as she blinked back her sympathetic tears. Her heart hurt for him but at the same time she was fiercely glad he was with her. He clamped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair.

“I love you,” she whispered.

Without a word, he tightened his embrace but lifted his head until his gaze met hers. A gentle smile curved his lips as he eased back and then drew her into his lap. His eyes gleamed wet but no tears fell and she wanted to cry for him. He had lost more than she had ever known to keep his career. It was a measure of his love for her that he had given up that career for her, though she never wanted him to make so great a sacrifice. His eyes cleared then filled with love.

She lay her head on his shoulder and felt as well as heard his deep, contented sigh.

* * * *

Over the next few days, Laurie discovered she enjoyed the quiet time she had to herself during the hour between Damien’s departure for work and Stacy getting up for school. On the back porch, she sipped coffee and watched the majestic sunrise and the brightening of morning.

Peace and quiet enveloped her during that time and she was completely content. She had her daughter and the man she loved with her.

Saturday morning, however, was quiet different. She slept late and stretched under the covers as wakefulness gradually overtook her. Damien’s arm lay comfortably across her stomach and she snuggled closer, her back to his chest, seeking the warmth of his embrace. With every ALWAYS A WARRIOR Patricia Bruening

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deep breath he took, his chest rose and fell against her back. His breath caressed and warmed her skin.

She squirmed slowly, felt his arousal against her buttocks. The hitch in his breath told her he no longer slept. His arm tightened and pulled her closer. She wriggled and then rolled in his arms until her breasts pressed against his chest. Her nipples tingled, sending waves of pleasure over her senses.

“Morning,” she murmured, content to remain wrapped in his arms.

The low buzz of Saturday cartoons drifted up the stairs and through the open bedroom door. Stacy had been up for a while. Her Saturday routine never changed. She woke early to watch cartoons until noon.

Basking in family routine, Laurie looked at Damien and smiled. “I love waking up with you.”

He grinned then shifted abruptly and pinned her to the mattress, his leg across hers.

Moving slowly, he placed her hand on his erection and moved his hips suggestively. Desire flashed in her like a wildfire. Though his underwear covered him, her palm tingled and his heat scorched her. She stroked him, teasing and tantalizing, until he leaned closer and fastened his mouth on hers. His kiss was pure seduction and she reveled in it. His tongue teased her lips apart and she savored the unique flavor of him.

The abrupt loud ring of the front doorbell jerked them apart. Laurie flinched automatically then yanked the bedcovers to her chin. Low voices and footsteps ascended the stairs.