“I don’t want to spend another day without you by my side, Ali. I want you to marry me. Say that you will.”
“Don’t you think we should take some time to get to know each other again? It’s been so long.”
“I don’t need another fucking minute to get to know who you are. You’ve been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Just because I was fucking stupid and walked away doesn’t mean that you ever weren’t a part of me. I know that the woman you are today is a hell of a lot stronger than when we were kids. I know that you’re a great mom to our son. And I know that you still crave me the way I crave you. The rest will work itself out.”
To say I had stars in my eyes would be an understatement. I looked up at him like he was my life. And he was. Besides Axel, he was the only man who ever owned my heart and he would be the only one that ever did.
“I’ll marry you,” I said quietly. The grin on my face said it all.
He pulled me up onto the bed with him and held me in his arms. “That’s all I needed to know. So, Vegas this weekend?”
I snorted and looked back at him. “Are you crazy? You ask me to marry you and then you want a quick wedding? People are going to think I’m pregnant.”
“With any luck, you are now. I want to fill you with so many babies that you’ll be popping out one a year.”
“One a year?” I asked incredulously. “I hate to tell you this, but I’m already thirty-five. The chances of me giving you any more than one baby are slim.”
“You have plenty of child-bearing years left in you,” he grinned.
“That may be, but I don’t want to just start popping out kids. I want some time with just you and me.”
His face fell slightly and I knew that he was thinking about all the time he missed out on with Axel. I rested my hand on his chest, feeling the steady thump underneath my hand. “Hey, I know that you missed out on so much with Axel and I’m not saying that I don’t want to have kids with you, but I just want you for now. I want some time with just the two of us. I want to be able to take you to bed whenever I want and not worry about the baby waking us up.”
His eyes softened and he kissed me hard. “I’ll wait if that’s what you want, but I want at least one more kid with you.”
“I make no promises,” I said hastily, “but I won’t prevent you from trying every night if it means that much to you.”
He kissed me hard again and slid between my legs. I could feel his erection pressing against me, prodding at my entrance. I couldn’t believe he was hard already.
“We just finished like two minutes ago. How can you be ready again?”
“I’ve been fucking hard since you came back into my life. It’s gonna take a lot of fucking to calm him down.”
I leaned in to kiss him and then jerked back. “What about Axel? Where is he?”
Chris grinned at me. “I told him I was going to be fucking his mother all night and if he didn’t want to be around to hear it, he had to go hang out at Ice’s house for the night.”
“You did not!”
“Baby, he’s practically a man. If he hasn’t had sex yet, he’s thinking about it.”
“Yeah, but I can guarantee he wasn’t thinking about his mother having sex.”
He shrugged. “Maybe it’ll make him rethink having sex for another year. Think of all the sex talks it’ll save you.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll have a talk with him and make sure he knows everything he needs to about sex.”
“You mean, how to be responsible and make sure that he’s emotionally ready.”
“Right,” he chuckled. “That’s exactly what I was going to talk to him about.”
I went to protest, but he covered my mouth with his and took me again for the rest of the night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Chris
“ANY WORD ON Slasher’s body?” I asked Cap as I walked into his office the next day.
“Nothing yet. According to Sean, they’ve been dragging the river, but no sign of him yet.”
“Dammit.” I hit the arm of the chair I just sat in and leaned my head back, blowing out a deep breath.
“Relax, man. You shot him. You saw him fall in the river. You were there for a good ten minutes. He didn’t surface. What are the chances he survived?”
“Would that be good enough for you if it were Maggie?”
“No, I suppose not,” he said as he ran his finger across his lips. “Look, I wish there was more I could do, but if I start asking too many questions, it’ll look suspicious. We got away clean, but I don’t want to make any waves. Sean’s going to keep in contact with the department down there as much as possible. They promised to keep him in the loop. Right now, all we can do is sit and wait, but they may never find his body. The Tennessee River is large and who knows where his body would end up.”
I nodded, knowing he was right. I just wished I had some closure. It would make me feel better about everything.
“Hey, Chris. Your kid is about to take on Knight,” Ice grinned as he walked into the room. I stood from my chair so fast that it went flying backwards.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“He’s down in the ring. Said that he wanted to start training. Did you know that kid is going to enlist?” Ice shook his head and tapped his head. “Hard headed just like his old man.”
This was not happening. Knight was a ruthless killer and there was no way I was letting him in the ring with my kid. I stormed down to the training area and slammed into the room. Axel was loosening up and Knight was wrapping his hands. Fuck no. There was no way this was happening.
“Axel,” I barked as I walked across the room. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Training,” he said firmly, getting back to his warm up.
I glared at Jules, who was outside the ring, talking to him about different defensive moves. What the hell was going on here? When did everyone just start doing shit without talking to me first? This was my kid they were putting up against a killer.
“Jules, you want to tell me why the fuck you’re giving my kid pointers?”
“Oh, sorry, man. Did you want to do it?” he smirked.
I growled low at him and walked right up to him, pushing him back a step. “You fucking know that he shouldn’t be in the ring.”
“Relax,” Jules brushed off my concern. “Knight’s not gonna kill him. I hope.”
“You fucking hope? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Look, if it was anyone else, you would say that this’ll show you what the kid is made of. Here’s your opportunity to find out.”
My eyes widened comically. Was I really fucking hearing this right? “Let Knight take out his frustrations on some other kid. Not mine.”
“Let’s do this,” Knight said, jumping up and down as he got in fight mode.
“Chris, chill.” I looked at my son, that still called me Chris, and tried to put myself in his shoes. If he was going to do this, if he was going to train to be in the military, I wanted him to be the best of the best. I couldn’t train him. I would be too easy on him. Knight really was the best option for training him. I just hated that everyone else seemed so relaxed about it.
“Knight, you fucking hurt my kid and I’ll put a bullet in your head.”
“Sure, Chris. I’ll let you think you’re that good.” He rolled his eyes, which pissed me off even more. I took a step back from the ring and watched as the fight began. The first round was over before it began. Knight took one well placed punch and Axel was down on the mat. The second round was slightly better. Axel got in a few swings before Knight knocked him down. The third round had me holding my head in my hands, praying that Knight didn’t fucking kill my kid. Blood was dripping from his face and he had a slight limp. I couldn’t watch anymore.
“Oh shit,” Ice said next to me. I didn’t want to look. Whenever someone said oh shit and Knight was around, i
t was usually because Knight was about to go into kill mode. He wouldn’t really take things that far would he? I looked up and my brows furrowed. It wasn’t Knight that everyone was looking at. It was Axel. He had a crazy look on his face that I knew all too well. It was the same look I got in my eyes when I knew exactly how shit was going to end.
Knight stepped forward with all the confidence he normally had, but then Axel stiffened and somehow I knew it was all over. Knight was being too cocky and went at him with all the intensity that he bottled up during the fight, and Axel just watched him come. He was patient and I saw him calculating Knight’s moves. Knight spun, swinging his leg to kick Axel in the chest, but Axel saw it coming and grabbed his leg, slamming his elbow down into Knight’s knee. For the first time ever, I saw Knight fall to the ground, Axel taking him down with his body weight on top of Knight. He rolled back, putting himself behind Knight and wrapped his legs around Knight’s neck, pushing himself off the ground to give himself leverage. Knight couldn’t get his hands anywhere near Axel’s head and with his leg fucked, there wasn’t much he could do.
I watched as Knight struggled for control, struggled to break the hold, but he was done. His hand slammed down on the mat as he tapped out. The whole fucking room was silent as Knight gasped for breath and Axel took in deep breaths next to him.
“Holy fucking shit,” Ice whispered. “Your kid just took out Knight.”
I nodded, unable to say anything else.
“Where the fuck did you learn to do that, kid?” Knight asked as he stood, limping on one leg.
“What? Did you think I was just a pussy and didn’t know what I was doing?” Axel asked.
“Well…yeah. Fuck, I didn’t know you could fight.”
“Never been trained,” Axel responded. “But I’ve been beat on enough to know that you watch and learn the other guy’s moves. You wait for your moment and you strike. I honestly didn’t think it would happen here, but I guess I got lucky.”
“You’re one hell of a fighter, kid. You come back every day and train with me and you’ll be a better fighter than me some day.”
They shook hands and I still stood there completely fucking shocked. I didn’t know what the hell just happened, but I was damn proud.
Knight limped over to me with a rare grin on his face. “Your kid’s not bad.”
“Tell me something. Did he really take you down or did you let him take you down?”
“A little of both,” he shrugged. “I was planning on letting him beat me. You know, give him some confidence. The kid has moves though and I had let my guard down. I was just planning to see what he would do. Lesson learned.” He slugged me in the arm and headed off for the locker room.
When Axel walked over to me with a bloody grin, I winced, wondering what Ali would say to me.
“Relax, I’ve had worse,” he said as he rinsed water around in his mouth.
That didn’t exactly ease my mind. It did just the opposite. Now I was fucking pissed that he had had a worse beating than that.
“I don’t get it. If you could fight like that, why didn’t you try to get away sooner?”
He shook his head slightly and looked away. “Don’t kid yourself. Knight let me win. But it was different with Slasher. I would have tried harder if I thought it would have made a difference, but there were always other people hanging around. Even if I had been able to take him out, I wouldn’t have gotten very far. We got lucky that night we escaped. If even one of those guys hadn’t been totally fucking stoned, we wouldn’t have made it out of there alive.”
I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed tight. “You’re never gonna have to deal with that fucking shit again. I swear it.”
“I know. Why do you think I want to train so badly? I’ll never allow myself to be put in that position again.”
“So, what are you thinking? You want to join the military? Because you know I would send you to college if you wanted.”
“I know,” he nodded. “But I have something else in mind.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“I, uh…I want to be a SEAL.”
“A SEAL.”
I stared at him, gauging the seriousness of his expression. There was no wavering or uncertainty. He was fucking serious. I nodded.
“Alright, then, You have a lot of fucking training to do and we’ll make sure you get there. It’s gonna be fucking tough, but if you stick with it, you’ll be ready for BUDs.”
A gleam filled his eyes, but then he frowned. “There’s just one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know how to swim.”
My head dropped back and I swore. “Fuck, I guess I know what’s first on the agenda.”
✯✯✯✯✯
“Your son wants to join the most badass branch of the military and he doesn’t know how to fucking swim,” I said to Ali as I walked through the door of our house.
“Which branch is the most badass?” she asked curiously as she headed into the kitchen. When she came back out, she handed me a beer, which I immediately chugged.
“SEALs.”
“And why are they the most badass?”
“That’s some of the most intense training he’ll ever have to go through. First he has to meet the basic requirements and then he has to pass BUDs training before he even makes it into the SEAL training program.”
I was almost expecting fear or something in her eyes, but she just shrugged. “I’m not surprised. As soon as he met you and you started telling him about the military, he’s been talking about it nonstop.”
“You’re not mad?”
She walked over to me and wrapped her hands around my waist. “If he becomes even half the man you are, he’ll make me the proudest momma in the world.”
“He’s already better than either of us, Ali. He’s gonna make us fucking proud by the time he’s done.” I rested my chin on her head and wished that I hadn’t missed out on so much of his life, which Ali must have been thinking too.
“I wish that you would have raised him.”
“Me too, but things work out the way they do for a reason. Who knows what kind of man I would be today if I had been raised differently. Aside from not having you and Axel in my life the last seventeen years, I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out. I have one hell of a family at my back.”
“I have a feeling that things are gonna be pretty good from here on out. I’m not worried about a thing.”
That was exactly the way I felt. I pressed my lips to hers and let my tongue slide in when she opened for me. This was heaven right here. I slid my hand to her hip and gripped her tightly, grinding myself against her. I needed her right now. Her moan had me tripping over myself to get her up the stairs. After a few seconds of not being able to detach myself from her and walk at the same time, I flung her over my shoulder and skipped two stairs at a time to get to the bedroom. My zipper was about to burst open and when I slid my hand under her shorts, I felt that she was already wet for me.
I set her down just inside the doorway and pressed her up against the wall inside our room. We fumbled for each other’s zippers and I was sinking inside her moments later. I groaned at the feel of her tight, warm pussy surrounding my cock. Her feet were still stuck inside those damn shorts and I was still in my pants. I lifted her and let her shorts and underwear fall onto the floor and then lifted her around my waist, holding her up by the ass.
I toed off my pants and shorts and started fucking her against the wall. I could have been more romantic. I could have taken her to bed, but part of me wanted these memories spread all over the house. Just her and me and every place I fuck her flashing through my mind. I was ramming her hard when I heard the slam of a door downstairs. Ali’s eyes went wide and she started shoving at me to put her down.
I grinned and shook my head slightly. There was no way I was pulling out of her right now. I held her tight as I reached over and quietly shut the door.
“I’m not
having sex with you while our son is downstairs,” she whispered.
“I’m not finished with you and I’m not pulling out just because our kid is here. He can take care of himself.”
I pulled out and sank into her ever so slowly, rubbing my cock against her clit every time I pulled out. Her eyes were fluttering and her moaning was getting louder and louder. I put my hand over her mouth to keep the sound in, but it must not have worked because I heard footsteps on the stairs.
I flipped the lock on the door and sank into her again. She looked over at the door, chest heaving as the footsteps stopped outside our door. I thrust into her again and again, loving the little gasps she made when I shoved in hard.
“Guys?”
“Go away!” I shouted with a smile.
“How can you still be hard?” she whisper-hissed. “Your son is on the other side of the door.”
“Eww. Are you guys fucking in there? Nasty.” I heard his footsteps clomp down the stairs and then the front door slam. I chuckled as I looked back at a pissed off Ali.
“What?”
“He’s our son and he was looking for us.”
“He’ll get over it,” I said as I thrust in again. I nipped at her neck and licked at the salt of her skin as I took her harder and harder. “Fuck, Ali. God, I love you.”
Some incoherent mumbling fell from her lips and then she was pulling on my hair and slamming her hips against mine. “Oh, God! I’m so close.”
I winced in pain as she yanked harder and harder on my hair. I didn’t mind a little pain during sex, but this was fucking brutal. And a total fucking turn on when I saw the pleasure filling her face. When she let out a breathy sigh, I fucking came hard and I had a flashback to coming in my shorts to that same sigh when we were kids and she was rubbing up against me. When I set her down, I had to hold her up so she didn’t slide down to her ass.
“That was so wrong,” she mumbled. “I can’t believe I let you do that to me when our son was outside the door.”
“I’m pretty sure when he has sex for the first time, he’ll completely understand why I didn’t let him interrupt us.”
Whiskey: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 7) Page 22