Amber Leigh Williams - Navy Seal's Match

He believes he can’t be saved—she’ll prove him wrong!

Former SEAL Gavin Savitt always knew who he was—until his last deployment ended tragically. Now he’s home, his mind hijacked by trauma and the shadow of his once-perfect sight. Yet in this new hazy, unclear world, one person stands out—Mavis Bracken.

There are a million reasons why Gavin shouldn’t be with Mavis, including that she’s his best friend’s little sister. Yet he longs for her touch, her freckles and her special way with wild, skittish beasts like him. He just needs the courage to take his life back. And Mavis won’t let him give up without a fight.

AMBER LEIGH WILLIAMS is a Harlequin romance writer who lives on the United States Gulf Coast. She lives for beach days, the smell of real books and spending time with her husband and their two young children. When she’s not keeping up with rambunctious little ones (and two large dogs), she can usually be found reading a good book or indulging her inner foodie. Amber is represented by the D4EO Literary Agency. Learn more at amberleighwilliams.com.

Also By Amber Leigh Williams

Navy SEAL Promise

Wooing the Wedding Planner

His Rebel Heart

Married One Night

A Place with Briar

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Navy SEAL’s Match

Amber Leigh Williams

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08465-9

NAVY SEAL’S MATCH

© 2018 Amber Leigh Williams

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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“I’ve never wanted to be less sensible...”

Mavis gulped air into her lungs. “That’s my point. This...all this... It’s nice for now. But what happens in the end?”

The words shot Gavin’s smile dead. “When I leave?”

Mavis lifted a shoulder. “Isn’t that what you’ll do eventually? You’ve been very clear. I’ve told you, I know you don’t know your place in the world anymore and I’m aware of who you are—who you’ve always been. You’ll go looking for it if you can’t find it here. You—”

“I run,” he concluded, gaze dull and far off.

She couldn’t stop herself from reaching for his hand and gripping it tight. “I want you.”

The truth snatched his head around, back to hers, brows hitched. He looked surprised. Then impressed.

Mavis nodded. “And that isn’t something I’m capable of ignoring anymore.”

“Anymore,” he murmured. His jaw softened. “How long have you been ignoring it, exactly?”

Dear Reader,

Readers were introduced to Gavin as a boy in the first book in my Fairhope, Alabama series, A Place with Briar. Even then, he seemed caught between two worlds. Now in his thirties, Gavin has finally come home, though the wounds of war have sunk deep enough that any semblance of peace he hopes to find there seems to have dried up. He’s caught between the need to flee and the desire to cling to the only home he’s ever known.

It takes an outsider to know and understand one. This draws Mavis to Gavin and his journey back to himself. All too quickly, they forge an irrevocable bond that is tested time and again throughout the story.

The hardest part about writing Navy SEAL’s Match was addressing how Gavin struggles and comes to grips with post-traumatic stress disorder. Alternately, the greatest discovery along the road with these characters was that although love goes a long way toward healing him, Gavin and Mavis embark on their journey knowing that it won’t take the disorder away. Yet they still choose to pursue it. In a lot of ways, this book is for service members and those who love them, through the good times and the bad times. It is a great joy to give you my sixth Superromance novel and Gavin and Mavis’s story.

Always,

Amber Leigh

PS: If you know a veteran in crisis, please contact the Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 or visit veteranscrisisline.net.

To those who serve.

And to Karen Reid—editor and friend.

May the Force be with you always.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

MAN DOWN! ZACCOE’S DOWN!

The flashbacks had to stop. They came at him in the middle of the night when he was ready for them. They came at him in the middle of the day when he wasn’t.

Fall back! Get him to the Bradley!

Gavin Savitt jerked from the clutches of sleep. Colors bled through his eyelids. He could hear civilian life. Better, he could hear the soft wash of waves against the shore and the chatter of wind chimes, the kind that hung from the eaves of his father and stepmother’s bayside bed-and-breakfast. There was laughter, far off. Gulls crying overhead. He tasted sunshine on his lips.

The soothing sounds of the half of his childhood that had been good and whole and stable should’ve brought the unrest to a standstill. Should’ve obliterated it. It was fear that made the flashbacks hang around. The fear was all too real these days and had been his since his final deployment as a navy SEAL six months ago.