Wounded Courage (Lucky Thirteen)

by S. M. Butler

He grinned but didn’t move immediately. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  I nodded. “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”

  He took my answer at face value and stood up, quickly shucking off his clothes before he rested his body over mine again. His cock, which seemed incredibly impressive resting between us, hard and long, nudged at the folds of my sex.

  “We should have protection. I didn’t think—”

  “I’m on the shot and you’re a SEAL. It’s fine.” I wrapped my legs around his waist impatiently.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered against my mouth, his fingers stroking where I wanted his cock to be. Each swipe of his finger sent degrees of heat through me.

  “Fuck, Murphy, you’re driving me crazy.”

  Two fingers dipped inside. “You’re tight. And wet.”

  “For you,” I whispered back. “Please.”

  My body ached for him to fill me, so when he did, it was like instant relief. Slowly, he slid inside, the thick crown entering me. Letting out a shuddering breath, he let gravity do the work, sliding slowly into my pussy so deep I thought I was going to burst.

  But it was a good feeling. So fucking good. The nerves down there throbbed incessantly, my body stretched to the max where we were joined. I rocked my hips, wanting him to move, but his hand shot to my hips. “Hang on, doll.”

  His voice was strained, and for a moment I thought he’d hurt himself. Every muscle in his Greek God of a body was contracted and tensed. He blew out a breath.

  “You okay?” I asked, suddenly worried. The muscles in his throat were tensed, his body hard and trembling.

  He nodded once. “You just feel too damn good.” It was another minute before he pulled his hips back, his cock creating warm friction along the wet walls of my insides, and then thrust forward again. We both moaned, loudly.

  “Holy shit.” I moaned.

  He intertwined my fingers with his and planted them down on either side of my head, pinning me to the mattress. Being under him, and letting him take control was one of the best things I’d ever felt. I pulled my knees up toward my chest and let them fall to the side, letting him go deeper into me with each stroke. He grunted his approval, giving me hard, powerful thrusts over and over until I thought I was going to explode.

  He released my hands and went down to his elbows, his face just over mine. I could feel his hot breath, the exertion of his actions and the tenseness of his muscles. I wrapped my arms around his neck. He slowed his pace, thrusting deep inside and then slowly pulling back to do it again. His blue eyes were locked on mine, never wavering.

  Murphy thrust hard up into me and I let out a moan of sheer, utter joy. Sex has always been good before, but this… I’d never felt so alive. Passionate fire engulfed me, even as he paused to lean over my breasts. He licked each one, sucked in the nipple and raked his teeth across them. I think he bit down hard enough at one point that I’d probably have marks but I didn’t care. It was so good. I begged for more.

  He readjusted so he sat on his haunches, and pulled me up with him. My legs rested on either side of his hips, and in this position, he was so impossibly deep it almost hurt.

  No words passed between us, only eye contact as his hand slipped down to start rubbing that bundle of nerves while I moved up and down his shaft. I moaned and followed his lead, letting him set the pace he wanted. He supported me, held me up as we fucked each other in a sitting position. I felt myself growing wetter and wetter, until that little ball of nerves he was strumming throbbed inside my core. Then it all crashed over the cliff. White hot ecstasy blazed over my vision, through my body down to my toes, curling them under. He kept moving, until he’d wrung every last bit of that climax from my body.

  I sagged against him, my arms around his wide shoulders. His hard length inside of me was throbbing. I wanted him to finish there. I wanted to feel his release.

  “You good, love?” he asked. I didn’t have any words, so I just nodded against his collarbone where my head laid.

  He gathered me close and stretched us out on the bed, so I was on my back, still joined to him. I loved how he kept up eye contact with me, always watching me, kissing me, holding me. With wicked deep thrusts inside me, he interlaced his fingers with mine again, and continued to make love to me. Pressure build deep inside me, and before I knew how he managed it, and mostly before I knew it was happening, he’d coaxed another orgasm form me. His thrusts became shallow and rapid, signaling his own oncoming climax. He buried himself to the hilt as it caught up to him, his body shuddering, and his cock jerking inside me. Warmth coated my insides, setting off little aftershock orgasms, so soon after the one I’d just had.

  He collapsed, but landed on his elbows instead of his weight on me. He touched his forehead to mine, his hands cupping my face. For a few minutes, we just laid there together, trading air we breathed and kisses that no longer had that hardened edge we’d had before. He treated me with gentleness, with love.

  “I have to go clean up. So do you.” He whispered.

  “Yeah.” I could already feel the warmth of our joining escaping. For a moment, I was sad that I was on the depo shot. There was a heaviness in my stomach, a hollow feeling inside me. For the first time, I allowed myself to think of the future, one where Murphy and I were together, and happy. Maybe married with kids? Who knew? But this was by far the worst time for that ever. Instead, I let him leave me, shivering with the cool air that rushed between us. He grabbed the towel left on the dresser, and cleaned me up thoroughly. He pressed a kiss to my abdomen before he stood up and grabbed his pants.

  I got up, and grabbed his shirt before he could get it. I slipped it on, breathing in the scent of him. So good. It was huge, covering me down to mid-thigh.

  He saw me wearing his shirt and smiled. “Is that a ploy to keep me here? Wearing my shirt?”

  I shrugged. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but if it worked to my advantage… “Maybe.”

  “Come here,” He said, settling on the bed. I curled up with him. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No, that was perfect. I liked it. A lot.”

  We fell into a silence, his fingers gently stroking along my skin. He found the edge of my shirt and slid his hand along my hip. “You’re not wearing underwear.”

  “Nope. I just had fantastic sex with a gorgeous guy.”

  He growled, and suddenly, I found myself underneath his big powerful body, getting kissed like he was about to stop breathing altogether. His hard length grew along my thigh.

  “Wow you’re fast.”

  He laughed. “Not this time, Addy.”

  He touched me until I thought I’d explode, and this time when he entered me, it wasn’t a fevered race to the finish line. Indeed, as he promised, this time wasn’t fast at all.

  ~*~*~

  Murphy

  Guilt hung on the edge of my heart as I got dressed and left Addison’s room. She’d fallen asleep about an hour before, and I could have stayed there forever. But I couldn’t. As I shut her door, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled with alarm. I turned and promptly cursed.

  Dylan Urban’s mouth curved upward in a sly smirk from his spot on the couch. “I knew you were banging her.”

  I glared at him. “You want to shut up before you’re missing teeth.”

  “I knew it!” He shook a finger at me. I growled, but Urban only lifted his hands in surrender and laughed. “Sorry, man. You know I got nothing but mad respect for you.”

  “Good. What are you doing here?”

  “My shift. I was a little surprised at 0300 that you weren’t here to relieve, but I figured you were inside. Y’all were passed out in there, so I decided to just hang out here.”

  “You came in?”

  “Couldn’t just assume everything was good.”

  I’d taught him that. Thoroughness. Damn it. “Look, you didn’t see me here, okay?”

  “Murph, man, what about Hardy?”

  “What about h
im?” Like he wasn’t already constantly weighing on my mind. But I’d had these feelings for Addy for years. I’d fought them, as much as I could, but it was too much. Having her here, seeing her all the time, knowing that she was vulnerable and alone here, I couldn’t stop it once I tasted her. Some leader I was. Some example I was.

  “He’s going to kick your teeth in when he finds out.”

  “Look, I’ll handle him,” I said. “Just… let me tell him.”

  Urban frowned, glancing over my face. He sighed heavily. “Fine. Tell him soon. We don’t do secrets, remember?”

  “Yeah, I remember.” When I’d taken over as the LPO on the team, we’d all agreed that to be a team, we had to be honest with each other. No secrets. No lies. All honest, bare truth. Even though we weren’t technically considered a SEAL team anymore, we were all SEALs in our heart. In body. In mind. We defaulted to this position, because that’s how we ticked.

  “You should go change. Master Chief said he wanted to see you and Hardy at 0530 in the briefing room.”

  “Roger that,” I said. I popped my neck, suddenly feeling every bit of the hours I hadn’t slept. “Thanks, Urban.” My body was stiff from the recent activity. I felt like I’d run a marathon, and yet the guilt sat deep. Addison was Hardy’s sister, and I’d taken advantage of our friendship.

  He nodded. “We’re good, man. Just… he deserves to know, and I don’t think he’ll hate the idea.”

  I laughed wryly. “She might.” Honestly, after leaving like I had, I doubted she’d even speak to me again. What kind of guy ran off in the middle of the night after sex? An asshole, that was what kind. I wasn’t any different than my parents, running off into the night.

  Urban chuckled as I walked away. “If she can stand fucking you without a bag on your ugly mug, I’d say she likes you.”

  “Ass.”

  “Love you too,” he singsonged.

  I shook my head, exasperated. Urban was kind of ridiculous, but the kid grew on you after a while. Even if you wanted to turn around and punch his face.

  Addison

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me it’s in San Diego. Who hides billions of dollars in San Diego?”

  I sighed. “It’s only thousands. I told you. We have multiple storage facilities like this all over the world. It was safer that way.”

  He groaned. “Where is this one?”

  “Chula Vista. That’s all I’m saying because if you try to open that unit without me there, it will explode.”

  Chris slapped his forehead with his palm. “You booby trapped a storage unit?”

  “Just that one. It’s rigged to go off if someone applies enough force to the door without proper authorization. I have the only key that will disarm the system.”

  “What if the people at the storage place had tried to open it?”

  “They get their money every month. More than enough, actually, and that ensures that they stay far from it.”

  Chris shook his head. “I can’t just take you to San Diego.”

  “Why not?”

  “There are protocols.”

  “Look, get what permission you need. I’m telling you, what’s inside that unit is worth it.” I replied, sitting down on the couch. “Go on. I’m not going anywhere. You guys won’t even let me on a computer.”

  Chris left me alone, but I had no doubt there was another SEAL outside “hanging out” in the common room. I wondered if it was Murphy briefly, but he’d been gone this morning when I woke up. I was trying not to overthink that, or overanalyze why he would leave without telling me.

  I waited an hour, and finally laid down for a nap to wait him out. At least they weren’t treating me like a prisoner. It was one thing to not be able to leave, but they weren’t locking me away. It seemed like they were truly worried about my safety.

  Now that my leg was almost walkable again, I realized it was time to start thinking about how I was going to meet up with Giroux. I didn’t want Alex’s money. Not without him, and even less did I want it now that I had Murphy.

  But did I really have Murphy? Or was last night a one-time deal? There was a rawness over my heart with the possibility that it was just a weird happenstance, that it didn’t really mean what I wanted it to mean. Maybe he was done now that he’d gotten in my pants. But this was Murphy, a guy who’d never been so carefree with girls. I could count the number of girlfriends he’d had growing up on one hand, and the number of them that he’d truly been serious about was even smaller. I couldn’t see him as being the one to love and leave. But still… I was afraid of it being true.

  I got dressed and stepped out into the common room just as Chris came in. Dylan was sitting on the couch, of course, because apparently, he was now my babysitter of choice. He was always stuck on duty with me. And of course, Murphy entered shortly after Chris did.

  Dylan pointed back and forth. “Did you guys plan that entrance?”

  Both Murphy and Chris ignored Dylan.

  “We’ll be leaving in the morning. Addy, I don’t have to tell you how dangerous this is, do I?” Chris asked.

  I glanced at Murphy, but he’d gone into statue mode on me. I met my brother’s gray eyes. “Not at all.” Chances were, as soon as I left the safety of the underground facility, there would be trouble, but I wasn’t about to tell them that. I wanted to leave.

  “The Giroux family will be looking for you.” So would every other criminal family who hated the Giroux. At least Simon wouldn’t kill me right off the bat.

  “I know that,” I replied. God, did I. The last thing Simon and Jean wanted was to be partners with me. But with my newfound power, I could take down Giroux Enterprises on my own, from inside. I’d have the money to fund it, and the manpower at my disposal. “I’ll be fine.”

  “What’s so important in this storage space?”

  “A year of work. Details on Giroux inner workings. Extortion deals, arms deals, drug trafficking, brothel recruitments. We detailed everything.” I had a feeling if I didn’t get my brother and Murphy on my side, I’d not be going anywhere soon. I had to give them some good carrots to bite on.

  “Why?”

  This was something I’d hoped to avoid. The singular word came from Murphy’s mouth, and it bit deep into my soul.

  “I’d rather not say.”

  “You have to be honest with us if you expect us to help you,” Chris said.

  I inhaled, letting my chest rise considerably before exhaling. I avoided their eyes for a moment, trying to gain courage. But in the end, I knew I’d done what was right for me at the time. Alex had been trying to get out. For me. So we could be together.

  “Addison?” Chris spoke.

  “It was our nest egg.” I glanced up, to two frowning expressions. “Alex was going to fake his death and then we’d run off to some tropical island, get married, and live happy lives away from Simon Giroux and his brood. The fact that we would have this information would keep them from coming after us.”

  Silence greeted that admission, which didn’t surprise me. I didn’t want to look at Murphy. He wasn’t at all forthcoming with his emotions on a regular basis, and I’d just thrown him one hell of a curve. Finally, I forced myself to look at him.

  The expression on his face was not at all as stoic as I’d hoped. Pain flittered through his eyes, his muscles clenched and tense. Perhaps he hadn’t realized that I was going to marry Alex, or that I was still processing his death two months later. But what I hoped was that he didn’t think that he was a rebound or that I just needed sex. I needed him. Like I needed air.

  Yes, I was going to marry Alex. But really, Alex had just been a substitute, and a poor one, for the guy I really loved, and the one who never wanted me.

  ~*~*~

  I flipped the laptop lid and let the computer boot up. It automatically connected to the inflight WIFI. We’d just taken off in a private jet that I was pretty sure wasn’t standard SEAL equipment. It was like something out of a movie. We’d gotten in a chopper
that then took us to a small airfield where the plane was sitting, fueled and ready to fly north to the United States.

  This trip was just Murphy, Chris and me, and I wasn’t completely sure how to handle being alone with either of them.

  I stared at the screen, watching the cursor blink in the empty address bar on the browser. Something had occurred to me, sitting there, ready to check my email. I wasn’t sure I wanted to open it with family in the room, or the guy I was currently or had currently been sleeping with. I hadn’t checked it since before Alex died, so I was a little nervous that some of Alex’s more… raunchy emails were still in my inbox, waiting to be read.

  I stared at the screen more, unsure of what I should do. What if there was something really incriminating there? Something that would ruin their trust in me.

  “You look like a lost puppy.” I turned toward Murphy who sat in the chair across from me. Between us the small round table created a welcome barrier, especially when I didn’t know where we stood at the moment. My brother was in the back cabin, sleeping.

  “Just thinking.” I told him.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “My email, of course. You know, since I have this computer here open and ready to check it.”

  “Okay,” he frowned. “What about it?”

  “I have to check it.”

  “Check your email?”

  “Yes.” I didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t really want to. I mean, I just slept with the guy, didn’t know what page we were on, and I wanted it to be more than just one night.

  “And it’s going to bite you?”

  “No, but I haven’t checked it since before Alex died.”

  “Oh.” He leaned away from me, which left me cold, but he didn’t leave. He draped his arm over the armrest beside him. “What do you think will be in there?”

  “I don’t know. I’m a little afraid to open it here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because…” I cleared my throat and glanced around. “Because while I trust you and my brother, I’m not sure that I trust anyone else. What if…” I trailed off with a long sigh. “I’m turning into Simon. I’m so paranoid.” It was kind of like airing my dirty underwear.