Page 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

By the time she and Shawn got up and showered and were making breakfast, it was almost noon. Maggie was sore, but in the best way possible. She would’ve never pegged Shawn as a sex fiend, but she couldn’t say she was upset about it. Not when he’d made sure she’d orgasmed every time before he did.

Every derogatory thing Roman had said about their sex life had been blown out of the water in one session with Shawn. The lackluster sex she’d had with her ex had nothing to do with her , obviously.

And now that they’d been intimate, Shawn couldn’t keep his hands off her. He touched the small of her back, ran his hand over her arm, brushed against her in the kitchen, and Maggie loved every second. This was what she’d always dreamed about in a relationship. This closeness. This desperate need to be around each other. It wouldn’t always be this way, she knew that, but this was a hell of a good start.

She hadn’t expected to even get into a relationship with anyone ever again. Not after Roman’s unbelievable betrayal. But Shawn had taken her by surprise. His earnestness and openness had won her over. It wasn’t as if they were getting married tomorrow or anything, but she could definitely see herself in a long-term relationship with him.

“You didn’t sleep much, are you sure you’re okay?” she asked when they were sitting at the table eating the muffins and sausage casserole they’d made for brunch.

“You saying you want to go back to bed?” he asked with a grin.

Maggie rolled her eyes. “No. I’m sore. I was being serious. You didn’t get much rest.”

The lightness in his expression disappeared in a heartbeat. “I hurt you?” he asked.

“No. Not at all. But I told you it’s been a while for me. Obviously. And you’re not a small man.”

The frown didn’t leave his face. “I’m sorry.”

“Shawn,” Maggie said, leaning closer to him and putting a hand over his. “I’m not complaining. I’m just saying that a few hours’ break for me wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“Right. Tonight, you can teach me what you like when I go down on you. Then maybe I’ll masturbate and come on your pussy and belly. That should give you a decent break.”

Maggie felt herself blushing. “Holy crap, Shawn. I had no idea such a dirty talker lurked inside you. ”

“Neither did I. You bring it out in me,” he said with a smirk.

Maggie couldn’t help but return his smile. And she couldn’t stop the image of him kneeling between her legs, stroking himself, from flashing through her brain.

“What do you want to do today?” Shawn asked, smiling as if he knew exactly what she was thinking about. “I need to do some laundry, got a duffle bag full of dirty shit that would probably stand up and walk by itself if it got a chance.”

And just like that, Maggie’s mellow mood vanished. “We need to talk,” she blurted.

Shawn turned to her. “Okay. You know I’m always here for you. Last night…rather, this morning…it meant something to me. You mean something to me. I’m not a man who hops into bed with women, which you already know. I want to be exclusive, Maggie. I want to be your boyfriend, your man. I’ll do everything in my power to stand by your side, support you, and be your sounding post when you need one.”

He was killing her. Because she wanted that too. All of it. But there was a very real stumbling block to them becoming an official couple. And she wanted to talk to him about it. Tell him about Roman. “I want that too,” she said. “I want to be your girlfriend, and being exclusive goes without saying.”

“If you don’t want to have my baby immediately, one of us will need to do something about birth control,” he added as nonchalantly as if they were talking about what the weather was going to be that week. He met her gaze and continued. “Because I have a feeling I’m going to want to be inside you as much as you’ll let me. I’ll wear condoms if you want. Though it’s probably ridiculous of me to admit how much I enjoy coming inside and on you. Okay, that was weird, wasn’t it? I can tell by the look on your face that it was weird.”

Maggie couldn’t help but giggle. “A little. But if you’re weird, so am I, because I like it when I can feel your come dripping down my thighs when I stand up. And I appreciate you offering to cover the birth control. Not every man will do that. They’d simply expect me to take care of it.”

“If you get pregnant, it affects both of us,” Shawn said firmly. “And it shouldn’t only be up to the woman. You tell me what you want. I’ll do what you decide.”

“I can go on the pill. Or get a shot.”

“Okay. If that doesn’t work out, we’ll figure something else out. In the meantime, I’ll get condoms so we don’t have to abstain while we wait for you to get an appointment with a doctor.”

This man. How’d she get so lucky?

Wait…she wasn’t lucky. Not at all. She’d spent two years behind bars because of how unlucky she was. Especially in love. That thought sobered her.

“Are you done?” she asked, gesturing to his plate.

Shawn nodded, and Maggie immediately stood and grabbed his plate. The food she’d eaten suddenly sat like a lump in her belly. She needed to get this discussion out of the way. The sooner Shawn found out who her ex was, the sooner he could get with his connections to see what he might be able to do about mitigating the threats. And he needed to know who was behind his team being sent on that worthless mission. Know that the possibility of them being sent to really horrible places was on the horizon, simply because Roman was a vindictive asshole.

She put their dishes in the sink and turned to go back to Shawn—and gasped when she ran into him. He’d followed and was standing right behind her.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t hear you.”

“I am a SEAL,” Shawn said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Come on. I don’t like how stressed you look all of a sudden.” He grabbed her hand and led her toward the couch. He sat and pulled her down next to him. They were touching from knee to hip, and he had his arm around her, his hand resting on her opposite hip.

Maggie would’ve preferred some space between them for this conversation, but at the same time, she loved being so close to him. She was a mess, and all she wanted to do was get this done so they could move on.

“I’m ready to tell you about my ex,” she blurted.

“Okay. I’m ready to listen without judgement,” Shawn said calmly.

Taking a deep breath, praying this wasn’t going to backfire, Maggie started to speak.

“I thought he was great at first. He was so gentlemanly. Taking me out to eat at the fanciest places. Wining and dining me. He honestly made me believe he cared about me. He’d show up at the pharmacy where I worked with lunch. He complimented me all the time. Thinking back, I realize now that it was over the top. Too much, too soon…and I can’t believe I fell for it. But I did.

“The next thing I knew, I was sleeping at his place—he never came to mine—and we were a couple. Or so I’d thought. He was super possessive, always wanting to know where I was and when I’d be home. At the time, I mistook it for protectiveness. I didn’t realize he was intentionally separating me from the few friends I had when he started telling me they were bad news, or how he thought they were talking about me behind my back. I was old enough to know better, to not fall for his shit, but…I really wanted to be in a relationship. Wanted to be loved.

“By the time I mentioned I was going to LA for my job four months later, to visit another pharmacy up there, and he asked if I would take something to a friend of his, I didn’t think twice. Not even when he wouldn’t tell me what was in the bag…or when, instead of putting it in the backseat with my suitcase, he shoved it under the passenger seat.

“I was a total idiot. But again, it never once occurred to me that with his position in the Navy, he’d ever have anything to do with drugs . It absolutely never crossed my mind that when I was caught with his drugs, he’d deny everything. That he’d tell the police I was an addict. Insinuate that I was stealing pills from the pharmacy.

“He destroyed not only my belief in myself—the belief that I was a competent, independent woman—but my professional reputation and my entire life. And when he looked me right in the eye as he testified against me in court, and lied to my face and everyone in the courtroom, I knew he had no soul. Everything he’d said to me, everything he’d done to get me into bed, had been part of his plan to use me all along. It was just bad luck that I’d been stopped for speeding the first time he’d tricked me into delivering drugs for him. I think he was planning some sort of long-term transport thing, using me as his unknowing mule.”

“Who is he, Maggie? I need a name,” Shawn said.

Maggie was as tense as she could ever remember being. Shawn wasn’t much better. He was sitting straight up, his gaze boring into hers. But his hand at her hip was gentle. A finger rhythmically brushed against her over and over again. Soothing. Letting her know that he would be there for her no matter what.

“Roman Robertson.”

Shawn blinked. “What?”

“Roman Robertson. That’s who my ex is. Do you know him?”

“ Rear Admiral Robertson?”

Maggie shifted next to him. She couldn’t read his tone. “Yeah. I guess. He told me his rank once, and I looked it up, but I’m not familiar with the Navy and ranks and stuff, so I don’t really remember.”

“Fuck,” Shawn said.

Then he stood up and begin to pace.

Maggie stilled .

“That can’t be right. There has to be another Roman Robertson. Or he’s impersonating the real Rear Admiral Robertson. Did you ever see his military ID? Did he bring you on base at all?”

Maggie swallowed hard. This wasn’t going how she’d thought it would.

No, that wasn’t right. Unfortunately, this discussion was going exactly how she’d feared…before she’d been intimate with Shawn. This was the reason she hadn’t wanted to tell him who her ex was. Because she was afraid he wouldn’t believe her. And now her nightmare was coming true. “No. And no.”

“I bet this asshole read about the rear admiral’s name in the paper or something. Maggie, honey, the man you know as your ex has to be impersonating the real Roman Robertson.”

“No, he’s not. He told me that he was the reason why you and your team were sent on that mission so fast. Because he made it happen. And that next time, he’s going to send you somewhere horrible, like North Korea or Russia, just because he can. He doesn’t want you to make it home, Shawn. He told me.”

“Honey, we’re SEALs. We get sent to places like that all the time. And we also get deployed with little to no notice frequently, as well.”

Maggie stared at him—and she suddenly felt cold. So damn cold.

Shawn didn’t believe her .

It had taken everything within her to tell him the name of her ex—and he was dismissing her out of hand.

It hurt. A lot.

She lowered her gaze and instantly felt herself shutting down. Putting up the shields she’d hidden behind anytime her life went to shit. It happened more than she cared to remember. It happened when she was caught with those drugs, and the officer refused to believe they belonged to Rear Admiral Roman Robertson.

But this was different. She hadn’t felt this kind of hurt since the night she’d overheard her adoptive parents arguing, when she was sixteen. Fighting over Maggie and the trouble she’d been getting into recently. It was just typical teenage stuff…she’d snuck out one night and gotten caught. Started coming home after curfew. Was talking back. Even at the time, she knew it was stupid, but the peer pressure she’d felt at school to fit in, to be “cool,” had made her act in ways she wasn’t proud of. But instead of sitting her down and talking about it, her parents began blaming each other.

Then her mom had actually admitted to her dad that they’d made a mistake in adopting her all those years ago. Saying they’d done it for the wrong reason, to try to help their marriage, and it hadn’t worked.

They’d both admitted to each other that they regretted adopting her.

Those words still haunted her. They’d flipped everything she thought she knew about family and trust upside down. Of course, she’d known her parents weren’t happy. They argued all the time. But hearing them flat-out say they didn’t enjoy being parents and wished she wasn’t around was devastating.

It changed who she was as a person. Maggie became more withdrawn. Cautious when it came to opening up to others. As soon as she graduated, she moved out and didn’t look back. It was telling that neither of her parents had ever made more than a cursory attempt to keep in touch with her after she left.

By the time Roman came along, she was desperate for love. And look how that turned out? But even after everything Roman had put her through, after being in prison , Shawn still managed to completely destroy the walls she’d used for years. She’d trusted him, quickly and completely. Had truly believed that maybe, just maybe, she was worthy of being loved after all.

Instead…with his instant denial of her story…she felt as alone right now as she had the day she realized her parents didn’t want her around.

Last night should’ve meant everything . It had to her. But now, hearing Shawn’s complete disbelief that her ex could be the rear admiral, she realized it meant nothing. She was just the first notch on his bedpost. He’d decided it was time to get rid of his pesky virginity and she happened to be there.

It was a crushing blow.

She thought of the recording she’d made. It might prove to him that she wasn’t lying. That he was wrong, and her ex really was this rear admiral he obviously knew. For a moment, she wanted to do whatever it took in order to make him believe her, to fight for their relationship.

But she shouldn’t have to. He should believe her…right? Should trust and want her unconditionally.

Then again, why would he? Her parents didn’t.

Anger filled her at the fact that Roman was ruining her life again . And she knew he wouldn’t stop there.

She didn’t want him to dupe another innocent victim the way he had her. He’d pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. The Navy, the people who worked for him, the people he interacted with.

No. She needed to let Shawn hear the phone call. The threats.

And she would. But not right this moment. She was too raw. Too disappointed in him. She needed to wait until she’d had time to shore up her shields once more. That way, if he still didn’t believe her, even though she had solid proof of Roman’s asshole-ness, it wouldn’t be quite as devastating as it was right now.

“Maggie?” Shawn questioned.

She had no idea what he might’ve said while she was stuck in her thoughts. So she simply uttered, “Okay.” Refusing to look up, she studied the pattern on the carpet under Shawn’s feet.

“Honey, look at me,” he said.

She didn’t want to. Really didn’t want to, but Maggie lifted her head anyway.

“Rear Admiral Robertson was never a SEAL, but he’s still highly decorated. He was a medic and has been on some extremely harrowing missions alongside not only SEALs, but other special forces teams as well. He’s well-respected, and he was specifically asked to come to Riverton to help manage the teams.”

“Okay,” Maggie echoed woodenly.

“Can you tell me more about this guy? What does he look like? Wait, you said you stayed at his place, can you remember the address? I can have my connections see what they can find out. Figure out who this guy really is. Get him to stop harassing you.”

Suddenly exhausted, she wished he’d just leave. She couldn’t take much more of him trying to convince her that she was wrong.

“I’ll need to think about it for a while. I don’t really remember,” she muttered, trying to make the lie sound convincing. She needed Shawn gone so she could lick her wounds. She’d say whatever was necessary to make that happen, because she was holding on to her emotions by a thread. “Besides, he’s probably moved since I was last there. I was gone for two years.”

“Shit, yeah, that’s a good point. Okay, we’ll figure something out. We won’t let this guy continue to harass you. And trust me, he can’t do anything to me or my team. There’s no way he can infiltrate the Navy system. He just told you those things to make you think he has power over us that he doesn’t.”

Shawn was wrong. But at the moment, Maggie was too devastated to try to convince him. Later, when she felt stronger, when she was no longer so…emotionally involved, sh e’d sit him down again and pull out all the stops to make him understand that she wasn’t lying. That the Roman Robertson who was threatening her, threatening him , was the same person he held in such high esteem.

“Okay,” she repeated yet again. “You know, I just remembered. I have an appointment with my probation officer today. In an hour, in fact. I need to get ready.”

“Oh…all right. I can go home and start my laundry. We’ll meet up later?”

“Sure,” Maggie said. Anything to get him to leave. She needed to be alone. To strengthen her shields once more. Shawn had obliterated them, and now when she needed them most, they were totally gone.

He stepped closer to where Maggie was still sitting on the couch and knelt in front of her. “We’ll figure this out, honey. I swear.”

It took every ounce of control Maggie had not to burst into tears and scream at him and tell him that there was nothing to figure out. The Roman she knew was the same man he knew. Even if he didn’t want to admit it. “Okay.” She felt like a robot, saying the same word over and over, but that was all her brain could manage to get out at the moment.

Shawn leaned forward and kissed her briefly, then stood and headed for the door. Maggie got up and let him kiss her once more, before shutting and locking the door behind him. She sank to her butt right there against it, lowering her head to her knees.

Preacher frowned as he drove back to his apartment. He wasn’t in the mood to chat with the older lady who owned the house where he rented a room, so he was relieved when her car wasn’t in the driveway. He went up to his room and started a load of laundry, then sat on the edge of his bed and stared into space as he went over everything Maggie had told him.

Anger filled him at the thought of someone impersonating Rear Admiral Robertson. The man was a legend. Had been to hell and back and now helped run the SEAL program as a high-ranking officer. There was no way he was involved in drug smuggling or dealing, and he couldn’t imagine the man treating anyone, especially a woman he was dating, the way Maggie’s ex had treated her.

For a split second, Preacher wondered if anything Maggie had told him was true. Yes, Adina had vouched for her…but was she telling the truth about the drugs found in her car not really being hers?

Almost as soon as he had the thought, Preacher dismissed it. Maggie wasn’t lying. He’d bet his SEAL career on that. Whoever her ex was, he was obviously smart. Knew how to masterfully impersonate others. How to manipulate.

He needed to call Kevlar. And maybe Wolf. No…Dude. The former SEAL had asked him to call if he needed assistance. And the older man knew the rear admiral, so metimes worked with him to arrange training sessions with the newer SEALs.

Maybe Preacher would even call Tex.

Between all of them, they’d get to the bottom of this. Figure out who was gaslighting Maggie and put an end to it once and for all.

Maggie was sitting on her couch, knees drawn up to her chest, stewing about what had happened earlier that day. She’d lied about the meeting with her probation officer—but that was all she’d lied about. She knew in her bones that the Roman Robertson she’d dated was the same person Shawn knew. She just had to prove it.

Analyzing their conversation again and again, she reluctantly admitted she’d reacted emotionally instead of rationally. She shouldn’t have kicked Shawn out so fast. She should’ve done more right then to make him believe her. In her defense, she’d been so blindsided by his immediate denial that they weren’t talking about the same person. But he was an honorable man—Shawn, not Roman. Of course it would be hard for him to believe something so horrible about someone he admired and looked up to. If someone had told her that Roman was as much a dick as he was when they were dating, she probably wouldn’t have believed them either.

The man had everyone snowed, which was how he’d gotten away with everything he’d done for so long. He wasn’t stupid, he knew how to work the system. But he also felt he was untouchable, and sooner or later, he’d screw up. Maggie just had to hope it happened before he landed her back in prison.

Sitting up, she reached for her phone. She needed to apologize to Shawn. Admit that she’d lied about the meeting and ask him to come back over, or offer to meet him somewhere. She’d be calmer the next time they spoke. She’d share the phone recording. Let him hear the threats. Maybe he’d recognize the man’s voice. She’d do whatever it took to convince him that Rear Admiral Roman Robertson wasn’t a man to be looked up to.

Pressing on Shawn’s number in her contacts, Maggie waited impatiently for him to answer. Disappointment filled her when it went to voicemail. Taking a deep breath, she left him a message.

“Hi, Shawn. It’s me. Maggie. I wanted to apologize, because I lied about having a meeting with my probation officer today. I needed some space after it was obvious you didn’t believe me about my ex. But I understand. I know it’s hard to believe. Trust me, it was a surprise to me too that such a highly respected man could be such a heartless animal. I have a phone recording of his threats…against me, and against you and your team. I can give you the address he had two years ago, and I’ll even go online and show you pictures of him. It’s him , Shawn, and I’m worried about you. And myself, now that I’ve told you. He said that if I ever told anyone about him, that I’d pay. Please. Call me back. Thanks…um…I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

Maggie’s stomach rolled as she hung up. She’d been about to tell him how much she loved him…but that would be crazy, right? It was too soon. Way too soon. Look what happened with Roman. She’d leaped into that relationship and ended up a convicted felon as a result. Thankfully, she’d caught herself in time, but the worry in her gut didn’t dissipate as she waited for Shawn to call her back. She had to convince him…for both their sakes.