Saving the SEAL Baby Daddy

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, MARCH 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.

  Cover Design by L J Mayhem Covers

  www.relaypub.com

  Blurb

  When Maria Blanchard asked Navy Seal Trevor Daniels to father a child with her, no strings attached, Trevor had no idea just how explosive his chemistry would be with the fiery woman who had been a wallflower during their high school years. He vowed never to contact her again after the positive pregnancy test. A year later, when one of Trevor’s dark ops missions ends with the death of his captain and suspicions aimed at him, Maria’s the only investigator he knows who can help him crack the case.

  Maria Blanchard had been raised to be a proper Southern Belle, an archetype so wrong for her she’d retreated into books during her high school years. When the police academy finally gave her the guts to be the strong woman she’d always desired, she realized she didn’t need anyone to achieve her dreams. Not to get her dream job, and certainly not to get her dream baby. Still, when her childhood crush agreed to father her baby, she hadn’t expected her heart to open along with her legs.

  When Trevor shows up on Maria’s doorstep in need of her help, he calls in his favor. However, being wanted for a military crime means that Maria won’t just be helping Trevor, she’ll be harboring a fugitive, and the father of her child. Unable to say no, when her pride and her heart are screaming yes, Maria agrees to help Trevor one final time before they break ties.

  But as their bond grows stronger and love ignites, it becomes a rush to save Trevor’s life before they lose out on a future they could only dream of.

  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

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  End of Saving the SEAL Baby Daddy

  Thank You!

  About Katie

  About Leslie

  Sneak Peek: The Protective SEAL

  Also by Katie

  One

  If pre-baby Maria Blanchard could’ve seen her post-baby self now, she’d have been horrified.

  Gone were her carefully dyed and pampered platinum blonde locks and perfectly applied makeup, her designer clothes and slick, sophisticated demeanor. In their place was long ombré-effect brown hair (well, more like missing-a-few-color-appointments-until-your-natural-color-grew-out effect hair), minimal makeup (and by minimal, she meant mascara only), and a top and pants she’d bought online during a late-night breastfeeding session. At least the color of her top was nice, a sort of teal-green that brought out the gold in her eyes. And the fit hid the last of the weight she’d gained during her pregnancy that never seemed to go away, no matter how much she dieted and exercised.

  Yep. Things were definitely different. But she wouldn’t change it for the world.

  She checked her watch, then walked into the living room to grab her phone. Tonight, she was going on a date, for the first time since her three-month-old daughter, Camille, had been born. A mix of excitement and nervousness swirled in her stomach. John was an attorney who worked in the law firm down the street from the offices she rented for her PI business. She’d been pleased when he had asked her out, finally, after months of casual hellos and conversations as they’d waited in line at the deli between their workplaces. He was smart, funny, and seemed like a genuinely nice person. And yeah, maybe he wasn’t heart-stoppingly gorgeous. She’d been with a man like that before and look what that had gotten her.

  The child of her dreams. That’s what.

  Now, she wanted stable, kind, safe. Those things were best for Camille’s future. Best for Maria’s future too. She’d gotten exactly what she’d wanted out of her affair with Trevor. No sense reconsidering her choices now. Even if he had offered her more then, she would’ve turned him down. Besides, she and Trevor Daniels had had a deal. A contract. He had given her a baby and she had given him his freedom. They’d both fulfilled their parts.

  End of story.

  Maria searched through the clean onesies piled on the couch in search of her phone. It had to be here somewhere. The babysitter she’d hired should’ve been here by now and she was going to be late meeting John if she didn’t leave soon. Thankfully, Camille was fully fed and sound asleep in her crib, so that was one less thing to worry about.

  Near the bottom of a stack of pink and yellow cotton outfits, she found her phone and pulled it out, clicking it on only to see her screen flooded with text messages from Cindy, her office assistant, whose daughter was supposed to be babysitting Camille tonight. Apparently, Cindy’s daughter had come down with the flu and wouldn’t be able to make it.

  Maria didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Part of her was disappointed that she’d miss out on some adult conversation and food she didn’t cook herself for a change. But another part of her was guiltily relieved that she could stay home and just rest, not have to put on her best manners and her prettiest smile because of a man she may or may not want to take things further with.

  With a sigh, she flopped down amongst the fluffy cloud of onesies, the scent of fabric softener wafting around her, and called John to let him know the news. Of course, he was nice as could be about it, which made her feel even worse for being such a slug about her socializing.

  Back in high school, she’d been little miss popular. The girl everybody knew and liked.

  These days, she was Camille’s mom. Period.

  Of course, her daughter wasn’t the sole focus of her life. She had her career, and she loved her work as a private investigator. But when it came to social interaction, there really was no one she’d rather be with at any given moment than her baby. Motherhood was everything she’d hoped it would be and more. A lot more. An occasionally exhausting amount of more.

  After ending the call, Maria stared up at the ceiling, the sounds of some reality show on TV droning low in the background as she contemplated her choices for the night. She could do the responsible thing and fold all these onesies and put them away before washing her face, changing her clothes, and going to bed at a decent hour. She could lie there amongst the laundry and fall asleep in her makeup and clothes. Or she could leave the onesies, make a sandwich, watch a movie, maybe actually read a book again.

  Ugh.

  At thirty-one, she’d figured life would be more exciting than this, even with a kid.

  Then her stomach growled and made the decision for her. Sandwich it w
as.

  She’d just started to sit up when a knock at the door derailed her plans.

  Her pulse quickened, and her muscles tensed. Her date was canceled. So was her babysitter. So who could it be?

  Being a private investigator meant she made a living out of exposing the secrets of people who didn’t necessarily want to be exposed. As a result, she took her safety very seriously. Her home address was as off the record as she could make it, and anyone who knew her knew better than to drop by unannounced. Maria stared at the front door as a second knock came. She wasn’t expecting anyone else that night. Whoever it was, they were persistent too. Her gaze flicked over to the locked drawer in her desk where she kept her Glock. While there wasn’t any one she could think of as being a threat at the moment, being a woman in her line of work was to live with the constant fear of revenge.

  Slowly, Maria edged toward the front door, praying that the knocking didn’t wake up Camille. The last thing she wanted was to clue in whoever was on her doorstep that she had an infant in here. Risking her own life on a daily basis was one thing. Risking the life of her child was something else entirely.

  She hugged the wall and lifted the edge of the curtain covering the window closest to the door, hoping for a chance to ID her unexpected guest. As she peered out into the shadows, Maria saw the last person on earth she ever expected to see again.

  With a curse, she unbolted and unchained the door, then whipped it open, lowering her voice to a harsh whisper. “Trevor Daniels, what the hell are you doing here?”

  Two

  “Nice to see you too, sweetness,” Trevor said, the old endearment slipping out before he could catch himself. He had no business calling her that. Judging by the darkening scowl on her face, Maria thought so too. For a minute, he wondered if she’d even let him in her house. He studied her more closely in the dim light. She looked different from the last time he’d seen her—more lush, curvier, more natural. Beautiful.

  When he thought of her, he tended to picture the girl he’d known in high school, the one that nearly gave you a toothache she was so sweet. Of course, she’d long since left that girl behind. But even the woman he’d slept with before his last SEAL deployment to Afghanistan a year prior, the one who was so put-together and confident, had now disappeared too. In her place was this stranger with Maria’s face, a bit plumper, a bit messier, a bit softer from motherhood. It looked damned good on her.

  Whoa. Trevor cut those thoughts off at the knees. He was here because he needed a favor, not to get laid. Again. He mentally kicked himself. Not helpful, dude. Not at all.

  With the light from inside haloing around her head, he saw her hair was mussed. Mascara was slightly smudged too, at the sides. His heart stuttered. Oops. Maybe she wasn’t alone.

  He hadn’t really considered that when he’d come up with this plan. Should have though, he supposed. He’d gotten on with his life after their brief affair, no reason to think Maria wouldn’t have too. He ignored the unexpected ache in his chest that thought caused and exhaled slow.

  “Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Trevor asked at last, peering past her to see an empty couch and piles of laundry scattered everywhere. Right. So no other man, apparently. He felt way happier about that than he should. “Please, I need your help.”

  It was a dirty trick, playing to her sympathies like that. But then, he was a desperate man.

  The sound of gravel skittering behind him had Trevor whipping around fast. He didn’t like being out in the open like this for long, not in his situation. Beneath the streetlights near the curb, a raccoon darted away, and his jackhammering pulse slowed a bit.

  He turned back to the door to find Maria watching him far too closely for comfort with those pretty green-gold eyes of hers. Her expression was a mix of wariness, anger, fierce protectiveness, and begrudging interest. He understood her guardedness. Somewhere in this house was his daughter. The infant daughter he’d never seen—who he had agreed to never contact. If that didn’t get Maria’s back up, nothing would. But he meant no harm here, he just needed a place to hide out for a while until he could get his life back together again and figure out who was trying to frame him.

  His hopes dwindled the longer they stood there in silence, staring at each other. Yeah. This had been a mistake. He mumbled an apology and turned away, only to hear her call out from behind him.

  “Come in. But I swear to you, if you try to pull anything, I will shoot you without hesitation. I have a loaded gun in the house and I’m not afraid to use it.”

  Trevor bit back a smile at her vehement words. He always did love a strong, assertive woman. “Thanks. No trouble, I promise. Not for you anyway.”

  She stepped aside to allow him through the door, and as he passed, he caught a whiff of her rose-cinnamon perfume. Okay. So maybe not everything had changed after all. He stood just inside the foyer as she closed and locked the door behind him, then waved him into the living room.

  Maria cleaned off two places on the couch for them to sit, then watched him, arms crossed. The pose only served to highlight those fantastic breasts of hers, fuller now than he remembered. Images of him and her together, entwined in the sheets, lost in each other, filled his head before he shoved them away. This was stupid. They’d had a deal. He’d held up his end of things. So had she. He’d come here tonight looking for help from a friend and investigator—not for another night of passion. So why couldn’t he stay focused? He’d been too long without a woman. That was it. Yep. Besides, he had enough to deal with right now to think about getting involved with anyone. Not until he’d cleared his name. Not until he’d reclaimed his honor.

  “You still haven’t told me what you want, Trevor,” Maria said, her voice low. “And keep quiet. Camille’s asleep.”

  Camille. So that’s what she’d called their daughter. He liked it.

  “Camille, huh?” He scrubbed a hand over his dark brown hair, his buzz cut growing out a bit. It hadn’t been a deliberate choice, but he was glad of it now—better to disguise himself that way. He looked around at the room, laundry and toys and clutter everywhere. Lots of pink and white and yellow. Very girly. Very different from his days in the military.

  Speaking of the military….

  “Uh, yeah.” He stared over toward the space on the couch she’d cleared for him, then abruptly halted as he accidently stepped on a squeaky cow toy and a loud moo issued. Maria winced, and he held his breath, praying he hadn’t woken their daughter. Pissing off Maria wouldn’t win him any points and right now he needed all the help he could get. After a few tense seconds of silence, he exhaled slow and made his way to the sofa, keeping a careful eye to make sure he didn’t step on anymore rubber farm animals. Those things were almost as bad as IEDs, man. Maria took a seat on the opposite end of the couch from him and waited, her gaze steady on his. He swallowed hard before pleading his case.

  “Look, I realize I’m in breach of our contract here. Once you got pregnant, we were supposed to sever all ties. But I didn’t know where else to turn.”

  Maria raised one brow at him, but otherwise didn’t respond.

  “Something happened on my last mission. Something bad. Specific details are still classified, but I can say that my SEAL unit was sent to gather intel on an international arms dealer. We’d gotten the information and were uploading it to the cloud from our secure site when there was an explosion. My captain was killed before all the data could be uploaded. I went to debrief afterward, as usual, thinking they wanted to ask me about the rest of the intel we’d gathered, but they started questioning me about my captain’s death instead. Like they thought I had something to do with planting a bomb or something. I didn’t. I swear to you, I had nothing to do with any of that. I’m innocent, I didn’t kill anyone. But I think they’re going to try and frame me for the captain’s death to draw attention away from the failed mission. Why? I don’t know. But that’s what I need to find out.”

  “And you think I can help you with that?” Maria s
aid, her tone low and tense. “I can’t afford to get involved in anything dangerous right now, Trevor. I have our daughter to take care of.”

  “I’m not asking you to do anything dangerous. I would like to hire you to help me find out the truth. That’s all.” He sighed and picked up a onesie, toying with it to help get rid of some of his nervous energy. It was so small and soft and sweet—like it belonged in a different reality from him and the ugliness he faced every day. He shouldn’t have come here, but it was too late to turn back now. “Please. I need someone on my side who I can trust. Someone who’ll believe me when I say I’m being framed. We’ve known each other since we were kids, sweetness. You know I’d never do anything like that. Never. I’m loyal to a fault. I’d never take justice into my own hands.”

  She narrowed her gaze on him. “If they thought you were guilty of murder, why’d they let you go?”

  “That’s what I need to find out.” He set the perfectly folded onesie aside. “If they truly had something on me—real evidence or fabricated—they’d have put me in a jail cell, not released me. But that doesn’t mean I’m off the hook. The only way I can clear my name is to find out who the real culprit is. I need to find out what really happened on that mission and who killed my captain and why. Otherwise, they’ll come after me again, and next time I might not be so lucky.”