Five Ways To Surrender

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“Navy,” he replied.

“Don’t you need a ship nearby to be in the navy? Or at least a body of water?”

He chuckled. “Not if you’re a navy SEAL.”

“You’re a navy SEAL?” she asked, unable to keep the awe from her voice. “Aren’t they the best of the best?”

“So we’re told.”

She glanced back at him. “What were you doing in the village?”

“Intel had it that ISIS was in the vicinity,” he said. “We were on a recon mission.”

“Recon?”

“We were only out seeking further intelligence. We weren’t there to engage.”

“But you did,” she pointed out.

“Only because they surprised us. We thought they’d be several miles up the road. We were supposed to have some drone support.”

“I take it you didn’t get it?”

“No.” His voice was hard.

“Did the rest of your team make it out?” she asked softly.

“I hope so.” For a long moment, silence reigned in the cave.

“What brought you to Niger?” he asked.

Alex stared out at the night, thinking back over her reasons for leaving Virginia and her home. “I needed a new start, and I wanted to go somewhere I could make a difference with my teaching and my ability to speak French.”

“Sounds like a breakup,” Jake said.

She shrugged, though he wouldn’t see the movement. “Yeah. It was something like that.” She had broken up with her fiancé, realizing he wasn’t the right man for her. They’d been together since their first year in college. He’d proposed after they’d been together for six years.

When they’d started planning the wedding, something had made her step back and rethink her decision to marry Paul. He’d been a good friend, and she liked his company, but there wasn’t any spark and no fire in their kisses. Sex with Paul had been something she did because she knew it was expected, not because she couldn’t wait to get naked and in bed with him.

Rather than go into the sad details of her less-than-exciting life, she asked, “What about you? Are you married? Do you have kids, a dog and the house with the white picket fence back in the States?”

He didn’t answer for a while.

“You don’t have to answer,” Alex said. “It’s none of my business.”

“You’re right,” he said. “It’s none of your business.”

A flare of anger surged inside Alex, but she bit her tongue and refused to rise to his tart retort.

“I figured the life of a navy SEAL wasn’t conducive to marriage or long-term relationships. So, no. No wife, no kids, no dog or white picket fence. Just me and my team. I keep it simple.”

Alex told herself to leave the conversation there. But she couldn’t help asking, “Did you ever want more?”

Again the silence stretched between them.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t ask such personal questions,” she whispered.

“The answer to your question is yes. There was a time when I was fairly new to the team that I thought I wanted it all. I thought I could have it all.” He sighed. “I was wrong.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex said.

“For what?”

Her heart pinched. “That things didn’t work out for you.”

“I’m not. The relationship wasn’t meant to be. Once a SEAL, always a SEAL. It takes a special person to put up with our lifestyle. I don’t believe she exists for me. Now, let me sleep.”

“Right. Zipping my lips here.” She clamped her mouth shut and refused to ask a hundred more questions of the navy SEAL. He needed sleep, and it truly wasn’t any of her business that he didn’t think there was a woman who could love him and the life he’d chosen to lead.

Deep in Alex’s heart, she knew the man was wrong. But who was she to tell him that there was someone for everyone when she hadn’t been completely convinced herself?

* * *

JAKE LAY FOR a long time with his eyes closed, willing himself to sleep. Normally he didn’t have a problem dropping off into light sleep when he knew he needed the mental and physical recharge only rest could provide.

But sleep wasn’t coming, and the more he lay there, the more he realized it was because of the woman sitting by the mouth of the cave. Since finding her in the village, he’d had a difficult time focusing on the mission at hand.

Alex’s silky black hair, hanging down to her waist in straight lengths, made Jake want to reach out and run his fingers through the strands. And those ice-blue eyes made him look twice. He could swear he saw the vastness of the universe reflected in their depths. And her alabaster skin fairly glowed in the darkness.

She was beautiful, smart and physically capable of keeping up with the grueling trek through the hills and rocky terrain. She hadn’t complained, even after sliding down the side of a hill, scraping the skin off her hands and backside. She was one tough lady, and she stirred up more feelings inside Jake than he cared to acknowledge.

The last time he’d felt this way he’d been too eager to make a relationship permanent, only to discover the woman he had fallen for wasn’t willing to wait for him to return home from deployments.

Trish had left him after his very first deployment. While he’d been gone, dreaming about her, she’d found a civil service employee on the navy base who would be home each night to see to her every want and need. With him, she would never have to worry that he’d return from work in a body bag or be deployed nine months out of the year to some godforsaken place he couldn’t even discuss.

That was when Jake had sworn off meaningful relationships that lasted more than a date or two. He didn’t have time for the games, and he didn’t need the heartache. His team depended on him to have a level head and solid focus.

He opened his eyes and stared at the silhouette of the woman he’d rescued from the village overtaken by the ISIS terrorists. She wasn’t someone who took the easy way out. She’d come to Africa to start over. And, boy, had she. Teaching orphans in a poor village had to be completely different from her life in the States, yet she’d done it. Not only had she taught them, she’d gotten her orphans out of the village when the terrorists stormed the streets. And she’d returned to help her missionary sponsors.

How many women had he known who would fearlessly head back into danger to help someone else?

Alex had gumption. She was the kind of woman who wouldn’t settle for safe and boring in a relationship. But was she the kind of woman who could stand long separations from her significant other? What had been the reason for her breakup?

Jake found himself wanting to know more about Alex. But he needed to sleep so that he could be refreshed enough to continue the trek out of the hills and back to some measure of safety, away from the terrorists.

Thinking about Alex was pointless. Once he got her out of this situation, he probably wouldn’t see her again. Why waste his time mooning over a beautiful woman? Hadn’t he proved he wasn’t cut out for anything more than a quick fling?

Alex didn’t strike him as a quick-fling kind of woman.

With a sigh, he closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep. And he must have drifted off, because he woke with a start after what felt like only a few minutes.

“Jake,” a soft, feminine voice called out to him.

He sat bolt upright, his gaze going to Alex. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, but I’m nodding off. I can’t keep watch through my eyelids.” She wrapped her arms around herself and yawned. “And it’s getting cold out here.”

He glanced at his watch. “Four hours to sunrise. You should have woken me an hour ago.”

“You were sleeping so peacefully I hated to disturb you.”

He rose and crossed to where she sat with her back against the wall of the mouth of the cave.

Alex shivered and yawned at the same time. “I can’t quit yawning,” she said into her hand.

“Then lie down and catch some z’s. I’ll keep watch.”