THANKSGIVING DADDY

by Rachel Lee

  A one-night stand between a SEAL and an air force major results in a holiday baby in New York Times bestselling author Rachel Lee’s new addition to the popular miniseries Conard County: The Next Generation!

  Honor, duty and loyalty drove Major Edith Clapton to risk her life flying Combat Search and Recovery in Afghanistan. Hunger, desire and lust drove her into the arms of Seth Hardin, a gorgeous navy SEAL she had airlifted to safety. Their epic one-night stand in the shadow of the Afghan mountains has left Edie facing the most important mission of her life: motherhood.

  After sharing her news, Edie is stunned by Seth’s insistence on being a father to his child—and the bewildering feelings this practical stranger has stirred within her. This wasn’t part of her life-in-the-navy plan! Should she flee back to military life for a desk job and single parenthood? Or give thanks for this unexpected family?

  “Am I still a challenge?”

  “You’re carrying my son inside of you. How could you not be a challenge? But you’re still sexy as hell.”

  Edie swore quietly.

  “Sorry,” Seth said. “If you don’t like peeks inside my head, don’t ask.”

  She faced him then. “You know, Seth Hardin, you’re driving me nuts. We can’t have a discussion like this on a public street.”

  He pointed. “Half a block that way.”

  She started marching quick time, looking for all the world as if she were on parade, back stiff, strides even and firm. He kept up without difficulty.

  “Don’t get breathless,” he said.

  “Oh, shut up.”

  He almost grinned. No more eggshells, at least for now. The gloves were off.

  * * *

  Conard County: The Next Generation

  Dear Reader,

  For many, many years now I’ve been asked to write a full book for Seth Hardin. He first appeared in Point of No Return a very long time ago and even though he had a romance as a secondary character in a Conard County single title, then another in a Christmas novella, I still get a lot of requests.

  It tickles me that so many readers wanted him to have his own book, but achieving that had become difficult. When I wrote his first romance with Darlene, I had no idea how many readers wanted him to have his own book. After that, the requests started to come in and I did the novella. Well, here we are two marriages down the road and the requests still come regularly. I had to find a way to work around that, but I finally did.

  So here it is, Seth Hardin as the hero in his own book. I hope you enjoy what ensues after he has a one-night stand with an air force pilot in Afghanistan. Things get complicated quickly, but love is rarely easy, especially with an unexpected baby on the way.

  Hugs,

  Rachel

  THANKSGIVING DADDY

  Rachel Lee

  Books by Rachel Lee

  Harlequin Special Edition

  **The Widow of Conard County #2270

  **Thanksgiving Daddy #2295

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  **The Final Mission #1655

  **Just a Cowboy #1663

  **The Rescue Pilot #1671

  **Guardian in Disguise #1701

  **The Widow’s Protector #1707

  **Rancher’s Deadly Risk #1727

  **What She Saw #1743

  **Rocky Mountain Lawman #1756

  **Killer’s Prey #1771

  Silhouette Romantic Suspense

  *Exile’s End #449

  *Cherokee Thunder #463

  *Miss Emmaline and

  the Archangel #482

  *Ironheart #494

  *Lost Warriors #535

  *Point of No Return #566

  *A Question of Justice #613

  *Nighthawk #781

  *Cowboy Comes Home #865

  *Involuntary Daddy #955

  Holiday Heroes #1487

  “A Soldier for All Seasons”

  **A Soldier’s Homecoming #1519

  **Protector of One #1555

  **The Unexpected Hero #1567

  **The Man from Nowhere #1595

  **Her Hero in Hiding #1611

  **A Soldier’s Redemption #1635

  **No Ordinary Hero #1643

  Harlequin Nocturne

  ΩClaim the Night #127

  ΩClaimed by a Vampire #129

  ΩForever Claimed #131

  ΩClaimed by the Immortal #166

  *Conard County

  **Conard County:

  The Next Generation

  ΩThe Claiming

  Other titles by this author available in ebook format.

  RACHEL LEE

  was hooked on writing by the age of twelve and practiced her craft as she moved from place to place all over the United States. This New York Times bestselling author now resides in Florida and has the joy of writing full-time.

  To my babies, all grown now. I’m so proud of you.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Flying with the air force combat search and rescue team had given Major Edith Clapton nerves of steel. At least when she was in the middle of all hell breaking loose. This op had been like many other ops, flying into enemy territory to pull out a recon unit, this time a group of navy SEALs. She didn’t want to know their mission. None of her business. Her job was to fly that Pave Hawk helicopter in and pull them out no matter how dangerous it became.

  This time there had been gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, enough to put her teeth on edge, especially during the part where she had to hover over a cliff top that simply didn’t seem big enough, getting far closer than she would have liked, given her rotors.

  It had been close, but there had been wounded in the team she was picking up, one of whom needed a litter, and under fire there was no way she could use a rope lift. They needed to be in and out as fast as possible, with minimal exposure to those attackers on the surrounding mountains.

  So trying to hover while nearly scraping the ground of a nearby cliff, holding perfectly still while fire came her way...well, it might take some time to calm down completely. The nerves of steel that helped her on missions never failed to desert her back at the base.

  After showering, she headed to the officers’ club, looking for a good meal and an illicit drink or two. Illicit because legally no alcohol was allowed in Afghanistan, but somehow it made its way in to the bases anyway.

  She drank only after a mission, and only a couple of drinks. There were too many others around her to remind her that alcohol could become a crutch. She didn’t want any crutches, but she did want to wind down. Every nerve and muscle in her body seemed to be shrieking.

  She nodded to the people she knew, which was nearly every officer at this base, and found herself a rickety table in the corner. They were supposedly at the rear of all the fighting, but that could change at any moment. In the meantime, this clone of the U.S. tried to pass for normal, with hurriedly built structures, a few fast-food joints and an exchange.

  It didn’t quite deceive anyone, but it was sure better than some of the firebases she had seen. For some, spending t
ime here almost amounted to a vacation.

  She saw the SEAL team walk in just as she was being served a steak. Yeah, a real steak. It hardly seemed fair when so many of her fellow troops would be dining on barely warmed freeze-dried rations tonight. It was, however, one of the perks of being stationed at a permanent base. Well, semipermanent. She let the politics of it all fly by her.

  She was on her second drink and halfway through her steak when one of the SEALs she had rescued pulled out a chair and sat across from her.

  “Mind?” he asked.

  “We’re not supposed to hang,” she reminded him. Like many of his type, he seemed to be all hard angles and planes encased in muscle. Short dark hair, brown eyes that held flecks of green. Just sitting there, he looked dangerous.

  “No one knows you pulled us out today. Besides, if we can’t trust the people in this room, who can we trust?” He stuck out his hand. “Seth Hardin.”

  She shook it, taking in the subdued captain’s eagle, which was stitched into the collar of his camouflage uniform. His rank was the naval equivalent of the air force’s colonel. “Edith Clapton.”

  “That was some flying job you did out there,” he said.

  “Thanks. Your guys okay?”

  “One just got winged. We’re still waiting to hear about the other. Your medics probably saved his life.”

  That was the other part of the job: she extracted, but in the rear of her helicopter she carried the bare bones of an emergency medical team when it was needed. Today it had been needed. They’d done some stripping in the cabin to make room. “That’s what we do.”

  He smiled faintly. “Doesn’t mean I can’t be grateful.”

  The waiter, a civilian working for a contractor, came over to take his order. He wanted a steak, too, and a couple of beers.

  “Time to forget,” he said.

  She couldn’t agree more. There’d be another mission, tomorrow or the next day, but for right now it was time to play the mental game of “everything’s normal and okay.” And maybe it was, as much as it could be in the middle of a war.

  “Let me buy you another drink,” he said. “It’s the least I can do.”

  “I usually limit myself to two.”

  A sparkle came into his green-brown eyes. “Usually. Maybe tonight is different. It’s just one more. I don’t want to give you a hangover.”

  She hesitated, then said, “Thanks.” Another whiskey. More wind-down. Just this once. Maybe it would quiet the tingling awareness of Seth’s masculinity. A need, probably adrenaline-fueled, to have wild sex with him and make the world go away.

  Damn, she’d avoided that through her entire career. She knew what some of the men whispered behind her back and she didn’t care. She just knew how badly getting involved with a fellow officer could mess up her career, and her career was everything to her. One little misstep and her promotion would never happen. Or she’d be accused of ugly things she never wanted to hear. The other whispers were preferable.

  As for getting involved with a civilian? Well, who the hell had time? On her stateside rotations, she was usually buried in training. Either her own or that of others. Catching up, keeping up and honing her skills, not to mention getting the master’s degree the air force had demanded before her promotion to major. And the war college courses. She didn’t have time for much else, and joining her comrades to hang out at a bar looking for quickies didn’t appeal to her at all.

  She had a few good friends, people she preferred to get together with for cards or some other pastimes. No men, no sex. It kept things clean.

  So why was she sitting here wondering if she’d been making a mistake all this time? Because one handsome dude had sat across from her and bought her a drink?

  Damn, she needed to unwind. Her thoughts were a little messed up.

  “That was some flying you did,” he repeated. “I can’t imagine maneuvering a bird that big into a keyhole like that and holding it steady, and you did it under some pretty heavy fire. You must have amazing nerves.”

  She shrugged her shoulder. “It’s what I do. I’ve done it a lot. The reaction waits for later.”

  “Yeah. It does.” His gaze said he knew exactly what she meant. Maybe he did. SEALs had nerves of steel, too, but maybe when they got back from a mission they needed to come down from it. Well, hell, yeah, she thought. She’d heard about more than one brawl involving them. Fighting out the tension probably worked as good as sex. How would she know?

  Halfway through the meal, he asked something that nearly sobered her up. “You find it hard to talk to civilians now?”

  “Yeah. They don’t know.”

  His gaze grew distant. “They can’t know. I don’t want them to know, but even if we try to talk they haven’t been here.” He shook his head and came back to her. “I honestly don’t want them to understand. Why should they? Bad enough we have to.” He looked at his hands, fisting them then unclenching them. “But we know, don’t we, Major? We know what we’re capable of.”

  He probably more than she, she thought. Oh, heck. “Call me Edie.”

  “Seth,” he responded. Then he shook off the mood and gave her a smile so charming it almost took her breath away. “Birds of a feather and all that. Who else can you talk to?”

  “I don’t know where you’ve been,” she reminded him.

  “You don’t want to. I don’t want to tell you, either. I just want to have some fun tonight. It was close today. We’re damn lucky you got there when you did. So I’m feeling grateful to you, grateful to be alive and grateful my team is alive. That’s a lot to be happy about.”

  He lifted his beer in toast. “To life. Wouldn’t want to be without it.”

  She had to laugh, and as the sound escaped her, she felt the last of her tension evaporating. She raised her own glass then sipped the whiskey.

  Things seemed to become a blur after that. Later she would think she should never have had that third whiskey, even while she was eating. Or maybe she’d had a fourth?

  She vaguely remembered somehow sitting at the bar with Seth as the place started emptying out. Sort of remembered him walking her back to her quarters, nothing but a tiny room, shoddily built. She remembered laughing, remembered him steadying her a bit.

  Remembered him apologizing for buying her too many drinks. “I should have been able to say no.” It was true. And she really wasn’t that drunk.

  She remembered clearly, though, waking in the wee hours. Finding him lying beside her. A quick panicked check told her she was fully clothed and so was he. They were just sleeping it off.

  But as soon as the panic eased, something else surged. Wild after years of self-denial, it rose violently, like an erupting volcano: desire.

  God, he was good-looking. She ran her eyes over him in the dim light from the shaded lamp across the room. Not much to see in his BDUs, but she drank him in anyway. Just once she wanted to know, and for some reason she wanted to know with this man.

  Stupid, she tried to tell herself, but her body continued to grow heavy with hunger, and a deep throbbing began between her thighs. She could die tomorrow or the next day. Why did she keep putting off something so important? Because of her career?

  Reasons that had made sense for a decade now all of a sudden weren’t making any sense. She’d seen men and women die out here, and knew how it could come without warning, despite every sensible precaution. Life was short, and the longer she was out here the more it felt like she was riding the edge of it. How many more missions before she bought it? How many times could she cheat death?

  His eyes opened and saw her looking at him. “You’re a beautiful sight to wake to.”

  She doubted it. Living out here had made her relinquish the last female trappings. Her red hair was short, well shy of being bald the way a lot of the men went for, but short enough to b
e boyish. No perfume, no makeup, and messy and grungy from sleep.

  But he saw something else. Flames seemed to dance in his eyes. “Me, too” was all he said.

  Every last thought flew out of her head. She never thought about her own lack of protection. She didn’t care that he actually pulled on a condom. She was simply past thinking.

  He assumed she had done this before, and she was vaguely glad. He didn’t hesitate, or question, or wonder. He just took, and that’s exactly what she wanted right now.

  Getting their uniforms and boots off might have been funny if they hadn’t been so driven. Damn, she felt like a pillar of fire, filled with need so strong she couldn’t fight it.

  He tore at her clothes, she tore at his. As quickly as they could, they got naked, then tumbled onto the cot again. A narrow cot, barely making room for the two of them. Who cared?

  It was fast, and it was furious. He licked and sucked at her breasts as her hands wandered naively over his back and shoulders. She didn’t know exactly what to do, but her hips rose to meet his, and that seemed to be the important thing.

  She’d never felt like this before. A whole new world of sensation was opening in her, and she loved it. She hadn’t imagined being with a man could be so good.

  Hot and heavy sensations filled her. Stifled cries escaped her. She was searching for something and didn’t really know what it was.

  Then he plunged into her. At once she gasped. A sharp pain seared her, almost ruining the moment.

  “My God,” he said.

  No, don’t let it stop, not now. She needed this desperately. Not knowing what else to do, she grabbed his hips and urged him on, bucking wildly in her need.

  After the briefest hesitation, he bent his head again to her breast and began to move in and out of her in a steady, deepening rhythm. Carrying her higher and higher, as if she rode a rocket.

  Culmination came almost too soon, as if her body had waited forever for this release. She peaked, rose up to meet him and whimpered as an almost agonizing pleasure filled her. Moments later, he drove deep into her, shuddering.