“I do, but you’ve started on a new path. A new life.”
Jesse held both her hands and raised them to his mouth. “And you’re part of it. I think it’s a miracle I met you, too. Marry me, Charlene.”
Her head popped up with surprise. “What? Marry you? Did you take one of those pills of Shannon’s?”
He chuckled. “We used a lot of acronyms in the Navy like HALO and HAHO.”
“What are those?”
“They reference parachute jumps. High Altitude Low Opening and High Altitude High Opening. Each have a purpose. What you need is a HALF.”
“What does that stand for?”
“Have a little faith.” Charlene laughed, a beautiful sound to his ears. “We’re in Las Vegas. We don’t gamble, so we’ve got nothing to lose but our hearts to one another.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am.” He wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her to straddle his lap. Diving in with both hands, he coiled his fingers in her full, silky hair. “I am very serious. Be my wife. We have a lot of good years to live together.”
“And how am I supposed to keep up with you?”
“Hide my prosthesis?”
“Oh my, God. That’s horrible,” she screeched.
He laughed and drew her to him for a hug. “But it’s true.” He kissed her beautiful smiling lips. “Take a chance on me, Charlene Chase. Say, yes.”
“What about my daughters? I’d have to explain this to them, and I don’t know if they’d understand.”
“I think they will. I don’t believe they want you to be alone. It would make them happy to know I’ll love you for the rest of your life.”
“Mandy already likes you. She told me this afternoon she thought you had the hots for me.”
“She’s right, but it’s more than just making you come undone in my arms. Say, yes.”
“Jesse—”
“Say yes, and we’ll go out to celebrate. We’ll pick up Mandy and call Tina. Tell her to jump on a plane tomorrow and meet us. We’ll have plenty of company. This afternoon, I got a call from my swim buddy. He said the team is coming into town tonight. I want you to meet them and their wives. The guys are batshit crazy, but you might as well hear the stories now before I put a ring on your finger.”
“Jesse.”
“It’s going to be a long night if you don’t stop saying my name instead of one little word.”
“Yes?”
“Exactly.”
She grinned at him, and then lowered her chin. “Didn’t you hear me?”
She wasn’t asking, she was answering. He closed his eyes in relief and moaned with pleasure when her soft, pillowy lips pressed against his.
“Okay, maybe we’ll put dinner into second place.” He kissed her until he’d laid her on the bed and removed all her clothes and his. As he bent over to release his artificial limb so he wouldn’t hurt her, she stilled his hand.
“Please, show me.” Charlene slipped to her knees on the floor in front of him.
It took a moment to deal with all the unexpected emotions that tore through him.
She placed her hand over his and squeezed. “Jesse, I love you. If I’m going to be your wife, I’m going to love you with all my heart and take care of you like I take care of all the people who mean the most to me.”
He tried hard to hold back the tears, but they came anyway, and he saw them in her eyes as well. “I…I.” Her words carved a niche deep into his heart, replacing the poison of doubt all wounded warriors carry. “I don’t ever want to disappoint you. I can still carry you over the threshold. Assure you any hurdle we have to cross, I have the strength to support you.”
Charlene’s eyes softened with kindness and understanding radiating from their depths. “No one is perfect, Jesse, and you don’t have to be either. What you lost serving this country is a sacrifice, but you’ll never be less than a whole, intelligent, sensual man to me. It’s the man I met a year ago, and you keep proving it by your actions and with your heart.”
She paused, her words conveying a truth he didn’t know he needed to hear, until now. Since the mission, he’d only looked forward. He had doubts like everyone else, he just didn’t want Charlene to doubt him or see a weakness. She saw him, all of him, as human and falliable as everyone else, not as a crippled man. The journey back from warfare was a battlefield where uncertainty is the enemy. Many didn’t make it. Some took their own lives. He crossed those minefields without becoming a victim, but he wasn’t unscathed by the journey either.
“I can’t imagine the inner strength it took for you to recover, Jesse, but I don’t have to be psychic to know you’ll never disappoint me.”
A small grin curved his lips. Psychic. People needed faith not foresight to deal with life’s crooked turns. He’d scratched together enough to commit himself to chasing Charlie. He’d never been more right in his life when he fell in love with this amazing woman. He couldn’t speak so he nodded, then guided her hand to his prosthesis and showed her how to remove the limb.
She carefully laid it on the couch and crawled onto the bed, right over top of him, then kissed away the tear that ran along his jaw.
“You’re the bravest man I know,” she said, sighing as his mouth covered her tawny nipple and teethed it gently. “Stop distracting me when I’m trying to convince you, you’re my hero.”
He stared into her eyes, and his heart squeezed so tight it felt like it would burst when he saw the truth in them. His hands slid down her soft skin and into the arch of her back, then he cupped her ass in his palms. “I’m committed to you, Ms. Chase, but I really need you to kiss me, sweetheart.”
“Kiss you? I want to swallow you whole.” A bone-liquefying, shaft hardening smile broke out across her face.
Jesse Hunter, retired Navy SEAL, learned the hard way that the only easy day was yesterday, but he also knew, he was one lucky son-of-a-bitch.
A day later, an eclectic crowd rallied at The Little White Chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard. Lining the benches, Jesse’s former SEAL team with their wives and girlfriends, joked amongst themselves. The Harrington Corp employees had stayed behind one extra day to join them when they found out she and Jesse were getting married. Charlene gripped a small bouquet of white roses and wondered whether she’d lost her mind.
“Mom, you look freaked.” Mandy gave her a kiss on the cheek while Tina stood beside her.
“He’s so awesome,” Tina offered, her youthful cheeks turning a rosy hue. “I mean, who would have guessed you’d finally see the light and marry such a great guy.”
Last night, they’d all converged at a restaurant and got to know each other. The SEALs were a rough and tumble group, and they kidded Jesse ruthlessly. She saw how easily he fit in with these men. They talked a different language and were relentless about him finally getting hitched.
A few single SEALs were in the crowd and two of them paid so much attention to Margaret, she broke out into a sweat. The youngest of the bunch, a man the guys called Skids, kept looking at her oldest daughter, Mandy. Charlene warned that school came first while Jesse whispered something in Skids’ ear. The SEAL had shrugged and offered a gleaming white smile at Mandy, who seemed totally taken with the handsome young sailor.
When she asked Jesse later what that had been about, he said, “I told him to keep it in his pants. If he touched my step-daughter, I’d tie him to his namesake and cut the line at ten thousand feet.”
Since she didn’t know what skids were, Jesse gave her a short explanation about the landing gear on a helicopter, and that’s when she found out he knew how to fly not only a helo, but several types of aircraft. Charlie realized the man she was about to marry had many talents, but his most attractive was how he made her feel special.
“Are you ready, Mom? Everybody’s here.” Mandy said, pulling her back to the present.
“I have to wonder if I’m doing the right thing. You girls aren’t even finished with school.”
“You mi
ght not believe it, but this is a big weight off our shoulders,” Tina said, and her sister nodded in agreement.
“Why?” Charlene examined herself in the mirror and the dress they’d bought that afternoon.
“Because we don’t have to worry about you anymore. Jessie is such a nice guy. He’s totally in love with you.”
The girls shared a look, one a mother can tell she shouldn’t ask about, but does anyway. “What?”
Mandy shrugged. “Jesse said when we get home, we’re going to buy a new house, one with a swimming pool.”
Tina screeched and nodded. “Can’t wait.”
“Bribery,” she said, narrowing an eye.
“Mooom,” Mandy crooned. “It’s for his rehabilitation.”
“Pfft, rehab my ass. That man doesn’t need rehabilitation, he needs glasses.”
“You look beautiful, Mom,” Tina said, and hugged her.
Charlene let out a deep breath when the music started. “Oh, God. I’m doing this. Really doing this.”
“See you out there, Mom,” they chimed, and scurried down the aisle.
It wasn’t until she put her eyes on Jesse, waiting for her in a dark suit, that her fears evaporated. She’d never seen a man so handsome in her life. He gave her a slow, tingling smile.
Just before she reached him, one of the SEALs yelled out. “You’re sure now, darlin’?”
His wife smacked him, and he roared with laughter.
Jesse couldn’t stand it. “She sure is, asshole,” he shouted back, which made the entire place crack up laughing.
When everyone settled down and her hands were safely twined with Jesse’s, the Justice of the Peace began the service. When he got to the part about anyone not wanting them wed, he stole the show and Jesse’s best friend’s thunder.
“If anyone here, except that guy over there, sees any reason why these two should not be wed…” Their guests fell into laughter again.
It was the best—and the last—wedding Charlene Victoria Chase, now Hunter, would ever have.
Epilogue
“Oh gosh, Mom. Can I hold him?” Tina asked, standing beside the bed.
Her daughters had waited impatiently for Grayson Hunter to come into the world. “Of course you can, honey.”
Both the girls cooed at their half-brother.
“He’s so adorable.” Mandy touched his little hand.
Charlene smiled, tired but happy. Delivering her son had sapped every last ounce of energy. Jesse sat in a chair beside her, watching the girls fawn over his son.
“He’s amazing. And so are you.” He leaned over and kissed her for the hundredth time. “Thank you for giving us a son.”
“I don’t know how you talked me into this.”
He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “Didn’t have to do much talking. It was mostly action, sweetheart.”
Her cheeks heated. Jesse always made her laugh. She’d had moments of doubt during the year after they’d married, but he wouldn’t let her hang onto them. She learned to HALF, as he called it. Every day seemed richer than the last. Even their parents couldn’t argue with love. They’d been resistant at first, but it didn’t take long before they realized when two people find happiness, a number really doesn’t matter.
“He has my eyes,” Tina said.
“No, he doesn’t,” Mandy spit back. “He has Jesse’s eyes.”
“You’re such a suck up.”
“Girls.” Jesse lowered a look on each of them. “Grayson has your mom’s eyes, and I can’t stop falling in love with her and you and my new son, over and over again.”
Both girls sighed at the same time.
Charlene’s brow rose. Jesse had a way with the female population. The timbre in his voice. The playful smile and creases at the edge of his brilliant blues when he smiled, had them wound in his spell. They all loved him. He was part of her family, and they were part of his.
Maybe somewhere down the road their age difference would show, but she wasn’t worried about what people thought anymore.
Grayson yawned and his perfect, tiny hands squeezed together.
Jesse’s gaze clung to hers. “I love you. With all my heart and all our tomorrows, I’ll always protect my family.”
Natasza Waters
With thirty years plus serving in the Coast Guard, I have enough book fodder to last me another thirty. I hope you enjoyed Committed to Chase. There’s more military romance and contemporary tales to submerge yourself in if you liked this story. Come find me on Facebook or at your favorite Amazon outlet. Sign up for my quarterly newsletter for fun interviews with my characters, sometimes the models on my books come to visit, and of course there’ll be news of upcoming releases.
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AnitHero
by C.J. Pinard
Imperfect Heroes Series
* * *
He’s dealing with a haunted past of crime and war.
She's trying to stay clean and walk a straight path.
Is the chemistry storming between them enough to keep them together?
Ellis
I did my time, both on the streets and in the Marines Corps. Now that I’m out, I’m feeling sort of lost. I need to find a job and get past this disability the ugliness of war has left me with. The only thing that makes me feel grounded and stable is Talia Logan. She’s a red-haired breath of fresh air when I feel like I’m drowning in nightmares and responsibilities. So why can’t I just commit to her – make her mine? Because I’m jacked up and no good for anyone. Especially her.
* * *
Talia
The only part of my past I’m proud of is how I beat the addiction that almost killed me. I’m on the right path to a clean life, a college degree, and new friends. Ellis Anderson keeps coming over to worship my body and whisper sweet things in my ear that keep me hanging onto him. But he’s bad for me. A guy with too many demons that I don’t have the time or energy to deal with. So why can’t I just tell him to get out of my life? Because I’ve traded one addiction for another, that’s why.
Antihero is an Imperfect Heroes Novella. For readers 18+.
Prologue
Eight Years Ago
He looked left, then right, trying to ensure the coast was clear. The spray paint can in his right hand heated as his sweaty palm struggled to keep a grip on it. The muggy Florida night hung heavy all around him. He knew wearing a hoodie and jeans in July wasn’t smart, yet, he knew he needed to blend into the shadows as easily as possible. He sucked in a breath of humid air and glanced around one more time for assurance. Not seeing anyone, he looked back at his buddies, giving the nod that all was clear. The four of them stepped out of the alley, staying close to the brick wall at the back of the large sports supply mega-store.
A streetlamp that was supposed to project light and protection to the back of the store had long since burned out, and dumpsters were already overflowing with trash. The stench was overwhelming, but they paid it no mind.
As his buddy, Ripper, went to work on the padlock of the grated door barring entrance into the store, he shook the spray can and began to tag the back of the building.
O A B bitches! he wrote in black paint. He stepped back and looked at it, just as Ripper spoke, breaking him out of the admiration of his handiwork.
“Fuckin’ got it!”
He looked over to see Ripper punch the air with his fist, his gloved hand matching his black hoodie. His jeans were dirty and torn, and his designer tennis shoes had seen better days.
He grinned and chucked the spray paint can into the overflowing dumpster. He followed Ripper and the other two inside the store.
All the lights were off, and the store was eerily quiet. The first thing he saw was rows of kayaks up against the entire back wall, their accompanying paddles set neatly in the row holes on each one.
“Hurry up!” Ripper bark
ed, looking back at him and the other two.
Looking up, he stared at the signs hanging from the ceiling, indicating the different departments. He could easily see that they were heading toward the firearms and weapons department. His stomach summersaulted in excitement and nervousness.
The store was dimly lit, but there were a few low lights on throughout, giving them just enough illumination to see around. He turned toward Ripper’s voice and saw they were standing at a glass display case full of every kind of gun and weapon you could want. Handguns, shotguns, rifles, crossbows, buck knives, and bows and arrows were displayed beautifully under the glittering glass.
“LT, it’s your turn,” Ripper said, piercing him with a challenging brown stare, a crowbar held out in front of him.
He looked down at the proffered weapon and then back into Ripper’s commanding eyes. Nodding, he took the crowbar and licked his lips before taking a step back, winding the crowbar around like a bat he was ready to hit a homerun with.
“Stand back,” he said over his shoulder to the other three.
They took a step back as he swung the crowbar with all his might. An ear-splitting crash filled the quiet store. His elation at breaking the glass on the first try was quickly drowned out by the wailing alarm that followed. A blaring red light accompanied the alarm from out of the gun case, flashing on and off like a police siren.
The store’s floodlights soon popped on, and another siren began to screech.
“Oh shit!” Ripper said. “Grab as many as you can and let’s get the fuck outta here!”
He didn’t need to be told twice. He picked up a smooth black Beretta 9mm and three boxes of bullets. He then shoved the gun into the waistband of his pants and the bullets into the pockets of his hoodie.
Running with all they had toward the back door, the four of them made it into the alley, the warm humid night hitting them in the face as they ran.
Field Stripped: 15 Steamy Military Romances Page 67