Page 103 of Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs 2)

"If you're not back in my bed soon, then you'll never

share it with me again, Clint McIntyre," she told him fiercely.

"You do your debriefing; you tie up your loose ends-" Her

breathing hitched, her eyes blinking furiously at her tears.

"If you leave me, don't come back."

He breathed in roughly, and damn her, he could feel his hands shaking. The look in her eyes wasn't much different from the look he'd seen just before she tore into Jenna.

"I know you," Morganna whispered, her hands digging into his forearms as she glared back at him. "If you think

you're going to run away, then come limping back when you can't stand it any longer, like you've done for years, then

you've lost your mind. I'll cut your heart out and feed it to my cat."

"You don't have a cat, Morganna," he told her softly.

"I'll buy one," she snapped. "Then I'll go to the biggest, baddest honky-tonk I can find and marry the biggest, meanest redneck so he can kick your ass." A single tear fell down her cheek. "Don't you do it, Clint."

What the hell was he going to do about her?

"McIntyre, we need you with us," the investigator called cut as he loaded Manuelo's dead body and Jenna's unconscious one.

"I'm coming." Clint nodded tightly before turning back to Morganna.

"I mean it, Clint," she snarled, her finger poking into his chest as her expression turned fierce. "I'm going home, and if you aren't there when this is all said and done, then don't bother ever coming into my life again."

"You're better off without me," he whispered. "You know you are, Morganna."

She breathed in deeply; the fight to hold back her tears was breaking his heart.

"You heard me," she repeated huskily as she stepped back from his arms. "If you don't love me, if you can't fight with me, for me, then by God, I don't need you and I sure as hell don't want you. Think about that one."

He let her go. His arms tightened at his sides as he fought the need to pull her back, fought every instinct inside him that had the vow to return hovering on his lips.

"I have to go," he finally growled as someone called his name again.

"Go," she whispered. "I'm going home. And I expect to see you there. Soon, Clint. Very soon."

He knew Morganna. He knew her moods and he knew her stubbornness, and he knew she was serious. If he didn't come back as soon as possible, then he could kiss his ass good-bye. And if he did return? The thought of ever hurting her, of turning on her as his father had turned on him, terrified him.

And the vasectomy wasn't the safety net he had thought it would be. He knew his woman, inside and out; it wouldn't be long before he would be trying to reverse it, before he would give in to the need she had for children, for a family. Hell, keeping her barefoot and pregnant would be the only way to keep her out of trouble and to send him to hell.

Clint made himself turn away and move to where Kell waited for him. The other man's green eyes watched Morganna thoughtfully before turning back to Clint.

"Hey, we got the bad guys. That's all that matters. Right. The knowing glint in Kell's eyes had Clint tamping down the protest rising to his lips. No, that wasn't all that mattered. There was more to life than catching bad guys. There was getting the girl. Clint looked back to Morganna and met Reno's hard gaze instead.

It wasn't all that mattered, and Clint knew it, just as Kell did. But Clint left anyway. He turned, following Joe to the elevator, and moved inside with him and the rest of the team as Kell followed.

Clint's last sight of Morganna was her eyes meeting his as the elevator doors closed, and he felt the certainty that if he didn't return soon, then he would lose her forever. And if he did return ... ? He could lose her anyway.

Chapter 28

TWO DAYS LATER

HE MISSED MORGANNA. AS CLINT pulled his pickup truck out of the Federal Building parking lot, he finally admitted the truth to himself. He hadn't slept worth shit in his apartment the night before. The bed, normally the height of comfort, had developed lumps. He couldn't get comfortable, no matter how hard he tried.

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