Damaged Love

by Sarah J. Brooks

  I contemplated the question, but I really didn’t think I could wait. I wasn’t used to having to hold my bladder. It gave me anxiety right away.

  “No, I don’t think I can.”

  I saw a look of compassion from Zed that reminded me of the night I met him and the intimacy that we had once shared. The night Marcus had been shot Zed was so sweet to me. He didn’t seem annoyed by my answer. Instead, he leaned forward to the driver and whispered something.

  Within a minute, we had pulled into a gas station, and Zed got out and walked with me to the restroom. When a couple walked past, Zed grabbed my hand and held it like we were a couple. I tried to hide the shock of the moment but was pretty bad at it. When the couple finally walked around the corner, Zed let go of my hand.

  I didn’t quite understand his reason for the hand holding, but it seemed that he really wanted to blend in as much as possible. Or perhaps he just didn’t want me to run away and start screaming that I had been kidnaped. I went to the restroom, and Zed waited outside; when I finished, we went back to the SUV together, and we quickly returned to the interstate to make our way to wherever we were going.

  My eyes took in everything I could see, and I tried to remember each turn we made. I didn’t know for sure these guys were safe, and I wanted to be prepared for my escape if that needed to happen.

  Chapter 22

  “Can you just tell me where we are going? Please,” I begged Zed.

  He finally looked at me, but he still didn’t respond. It was like there was a big secret about where we were going. Obviously, I didn’t know what was going on; I couldn’t tell anyone where we were even if I was asked. Why wouldn’t they just tell me something?

  “We will be there shortly,” Zed said and smiled over at me. It was the first flash of the man I knew since he had come to grab me.

  Then he patted my hand with his. The gesture of kindness overwhelmed me, and I started to cry. Everything over the past few weeks had been so emotional. At that moment, I sat in a vehicle with three men I didn’t know and was so overwhelmed. I couldn’t take it anymore, and I continued to cry.

  What had happened to my life? I had been living a nice boring life where I remodeled my family home and took photos in my spare time. Now I was in the middle of murder and mystery that I didn’t want to be at the center of. Yes, I liked Marcus. Yes, I wanted him to be alright, but I didn’t want all the rest of this. It was too much for my fragile emotions, and I needed it to end as soon as possible. It was funny to me that the most normal thing about my life at that very moment was the men that I had in it. Dating more than one person didn’t seem all that unusual given the fact that I was in the middle of this mysterious mess.

  Zed reached out, held my hand, and squeezed it. He didn’t say anything, and neither did the two men in the front of the vehicle. But his kind gesture erased my concerns that he was some sort of double agent. I could tell he genuinely wanted me to feel more comfortable and certainly wanted me to stop crying.

  Didn’t all men hate crying? It was that universal thing among all men. They loved their women but hated the emotions that often took control of them.

  I took a couple deep breaths and did my best to calm myself.

  “I’m sorry,” I said as I gathered myself back together and stopped my tears.

  I really didn’t like to be one of those women who cried all the time. I wanted to be strong. The last few weeks and everything that had gone on with Marcus had brought up so many past emotions of Michael. When I lost him in that car accident a few years before, it had changed my ability to cope with so many more things.

  “It’s alright,” Zed said and pulled his hand away from me.

  We were north of Chicago now, at least I thought, and exited the interstate. We moved quickly through some side streets and onto a country road. Again, the driver seemed to know exactly where he was going. He also did not care that the dirt road was not meant for going 60 miles per hour.

  We pulled into a driveway to a very large Victorian house. It was in the middle of nowhere, and the sign at the front of the driveway read Sweet B & B. It seemed like a very odd place to be with an SUV full of combat men. Their Special Forces type skills did not fit with the sweetness of a bed and breakfast. I didn’t really know what their skills were, only that they were some sort of tactical team, but I thought they all had pretty similar skills to Marcus.

  I watched as we pulled up to the back of the house and the driver got out. He went into the house and then motioned for the rest of the men to come in.

  “We are here,” Zed said as he got out of the SUV.

  I waited for a moment, and then he opened my door. I stood there for a minute before I followed the men inside. I obviously wasn’t being held prisoner as none of the men seemed to care that I looked around the house and made mental notes of everything I could before I went inside. Zed waited at the door for me as I came up the front steps full of trepidation.

  I breathed in deeply and walked into the house.

  It looked like an old bed and breakfast; everything was outdated and very run down. It wasn’t a current, working business, that was for sure. The entryway was covered in huge flowered wallpaper, and there was a large chandelier hanging from two stories above. Stairs curved around from one side of the room to the other as they made their way up to the second level.

  I stood there, took in everything, and then felt like someone was watching me. I turned around and saw a man standing in what looked like the sitting room. He looked very familiar, but my brain did not register who it was at first.

  The man was dressed in old clothes and had shaggy dark brown hair with a thick brown beard. I looked at him, and he looked at me. He smirked, and it suddenly hit me.

  “Marcus!” I said and ran and wrapped my arms around him.

  He kissed me, and the roughness of his beard rubbed against my face. I had never kissed someone with a full beard before, and it was an entirely new sensation for me. My lips moved gently around his, and I tried to avoid feeling his hair against my lips. Our tongues moved with each other, and then I noticed that there were four guys in the room behind Marcus. They tried not to look at us but awkwardly looked at one another.

  “Hey babe,” he said, and he grabbed my hand, and we walked to the dining room on the other end of the front entryway.

  He looked tired, more than tired; Marcus looked exhausted. I could tell he had been busy, and I didn’t need to ask him more about what he had been busy doing. It was very apparent that he had been trying to figure out who had found his home and tried to attack him there.

  “I was worried about you. Then Zed punched Marv and made me go with him; I didn’t know what was going on.”

  “I got word that they were stalking your house and looking for me. I didn’t want someone else to grab you, so I sent Zed and the guys. Sorry if it scared you.”

  “Marv tried to attack Zed and got punched. He probably has already called the local police. I’m sure he thinks I was kidnaped by someone.”

  “Don’t worry, we will straighten it out. For now, I need to rest; if that is alright?”

  I couldn’t argue with him. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks. He held my hand, and we walked up the stairs to the room he had his things in. It looked like he had just arrived at the house because nothing was unpacked.

  I noticed a bathroom off to the side of the room and a small closet on the other side. Probably out of habit, Marcus looked through both parts of the room before he pulled the covers back on the bed.

  He was about to get into bed, and I grabbed his hand. He was filthy; he obviously hadn’t showered or slept in a long time. But I knew he would feel better if he took a shower. I grabbed his hand and dragged him to the bathroom. He came with me reluctantly.

  His normal arrogant self was gone, and instead, a gentle and kind man stood in front of me. He didn’t have the energy to be tough. Instead, he stood there and let me unbutton his pants and slide them off of him.

>   I grabbed his shirt and pulled it up over his head and then took the rest of his clothes off. He stood there without talking and just waited as I turned the shower on and got it to just the right temperature. I opened the door, nudged him into the shower, and dirty brown filled the floor as the water washed over his body.

  I took my clothes off and got into the shower with him. I grabbed a bunch of shampoo and filled my hand. I let it pour onto his head, and I scrubbed his hair and even his beard with it. I used my soapy hands to rub up and down his body and clean as much of the dirt off of him as possible.

  Marcus stood there with his eyes closed as my hands moved over him. I turned him around and let my hands continue to move over his back and down his legs. Then I reached around and let my hand maneuver his cock. I could feel him let out a breath when my hand wrapped around him, and he leaned forward against the shower wall to steady himself.

  I didn’t keep going, though. Instead, I let my hands move around his body again and rinse off all of the soap that I had applied. I used the warm water and moved it around his body until all the dirt looked like it was finally gone.

  The muscles on his body were beyond that of any person I had ever seen. Even though I had seen them and touched them before, his body still awed me. It was like every single muscle was at its peak. As my hands moved over his calf and thighs, I didn’t feel an ounce of fat. His body was almost pure muscle. My hands moved up to his ass, and I felt the power of his glutes as they formed a perfect round ass. Then I moved up to his back and let my hands glide over all the muscles that extended around his torso.

  Suddenly he turned around and kissed me.

  The passion in his eyes made my body melt. Marcus pinned me up against the side of the shower and let his hands move over my body. His fingers lingered over each of my nipples and then moved around to grab my ass and pull me toward him. The stress of what he’d been through in the last few weeks looked like it had really gotten to him. He had a lot of pent up sexual frustration, and I really thought it would make him feel better if he could get a release.

  I felt his body enlarge as he pressed up against me. My hand instinctively wrapped around his cock and moved up and down as I enjoyed his throbbing member.

  My breath quickened with the excitement of his desire. The warm water lapped against my skin, and his hands moved smoothly over the water to all areas of my body. I closed my eyes and took in the moment.

  He seemed to have gotten a sudden burst of energy and turned off the shower and threw open the curtain. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist and then lifted me up out of the shower. I dripped water everywhere as he brought me to bed. He took his towel off, laid it on the bed, and then threw me onto the towel.

  His eyes devoured me as he stood over me. The animalistic look in his eyes was more than I could take. I broke his gaze and turned away.

  Marcus climbed into bed next to me, and I prepared myself to be taken by him. I wanted him to ravage me. I wanted to feel his hard cock thrusting inside of me. I wanted to moan out in pleasure with each thrust that he delivered.

  He lay on his side and pulled my ass up against him. I felt his hard cock resting in the crease of my ass cheeks. We lay there in the spoon position, and he wrapped his arms around me. The exhaustion must have gotten the best of him because he kissed the back of my neck and pulled the covers up over our naked bodies.

  I loved that he had the willpower to wait, even though I did think he would have enjoyed a quick release. Instead of some half-hearted lovemaking, he was man enough to lie next to me and go to sleep. That was admirable and something I doubted many other men could do.

  I didn’t mind at all, not making love. It felt so good to have his arms wrapped around me. Each of his long, strong arms made their way around my body and almost back to him. I felt like a small little thing next to his massive muscles. But I felt safe. No matter what else happened in the future, at that moment, I felt safe, and that was all that mattered.

  I closed my eyes and was set to get some sleep, but it just wouldn’t come. Marcus seemed to have a very rough sleep, and I wondered what he dreamed about. His body jerked and moved throughout the night and woke me up several times when I would drift off to sleep. He seemed to be having nightmares and fought off bad guys while he slept.

  No information he had ever given me had really exposed what he did for a living. I knew just the basics. He was doing some sort of undercover work. But I didn’t know why he was so dirty. I didn’t know why he had not slept in days or showered. All I knew was that I wanted to be there for him. I wanted to do what I could to help him feel better. I realized I started to have some major feelings for him, and I didn’t know where else I would possibly want to be.

  I finally found a period between his nightmares when I could fully fall asleep. My body was exhausted, and I felt it release into relaxation as I fell fast asleep.

  I woke up to a hard shove, and I was thrown from the bed onto the ground. I screamed out in shock and grabbed my face. It took me a moment to figure out what had just happened, and I looked around to get oriented. I was all the way on the ground on the other side of the bed. I really didn’t know how I had gotten that far over, but I felt like I had been hit really hard in the face.

  I looked up at Marcus, and he had woken up from my scream.

  It took us both a couple moments before we had figured out what had happened. He had thrown me from the bed in the midst of a nightmare, and his hand had hit me on the side of my face.

  The pain was intense, but I didn’t cry. I had never been hit before. It took me awhile to realize what the pain was. I held my hand against my face and just looked up at Marcus in bewilderment.

  Marcus jumped from the bed and came to my side.

  “Are you alright? I was having a nightmare. I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m fine. It just startled me. I won’t die.”

  Marcus looked horrified at what had happened. He pulled my hand away from my face and looked at the red mark on my cheek. Luckily, he had been half asleep when he hit me; I doubted that I would still be conscious if he had really hit me with all his strength.

  “Oh, God, Isabella. I’m so sorry.”

  “I know you were asleep. It’s alright. What were you dreaming about?”

  “I don’t know. Someone held me down, and I couldn’t move. I was trying to free my arms and swung them around. That must have been when I hit you. I can’t believe this.”

  Marcus placed his hand gently against my face as he looked at me in horror.

  I could tell that he had never hit a woman before. Not out of anger or even in an accident. He looked devastated.

  I looked up at Marcus, and his eyes looked sad and a little terrified. There was no way I was going to make him feel worse about what he had done. I was fine; everything was just fine, and he didn’t have to worry about it.

  “I’m fine. It’s alright,” I said as I grabbed his face.

  His beard tickled under my fingers, and I tugged on it as we kissed. His passion came to life, and he lifted me onto the bed. We were both still naked, but he had a renewed level of energy. Even the disrupted sleep he had all night had given him enough of his energy back that he seemed like his old self.

  The power was back in his body and the light back in his eyes. I couldn’t help smiling at the lust of energy that was going on between the two of us at that moment.

  His arms wrapped around me, and his eyes locked onto mine. I felt his intensity and wanted to feel him inside of me. I reached for his cock and let my hand bring him to life. I loved being naked with him, every moment of it. Our chemistry was perfect together, and it felt like home when we were next to each other.

  I let my hand move up and down his cock a couple times before Marcus pulled my hands away.

  He wasn’t about to let me be in charge; he pinned my arms above my head. His lips took one of my nipples into his mouth, and I lost all control. The warmth of his mouth sent tingling sensations thro
ugh my body. I had missed him so much. It had only been a few weeks, but the touch of his body and mine together was perfection. I wanted more. I needed more. I needed Marcus to be with me every night. I didn’t want to be apart from him again.

  I wiggled my hands free from his hold and moved them to explore his body. I wanted to feel his skin. I wanted to take it all in again.

  “I’ve missed you,” I whispered as my hands moved through his hair.

  Marcus didn’t respond. He grabbed my hands and pinned them back above my head. The intensity in his eyes showed me that he missed me too. He also looked more than ready for that release of tension that I knew he needed.

  His throbbing cock slid near me, and he teased me by moving in closer and closer, and then he pulled his hips away from me.

  I moved my hips and searched for his cock. I pressed forward as I tried to meet up with him, but he prevented it. He wanted to control this situation and wasn’t about to give me the satisfaction that I desired so dearly.

  He moved close to me again and let the tip of his cock slide into me; I moaned with anticipation as I felt his bulge. He denied me again and pulled his cock away from me. He loved to deny me; it was a power he had and used with pleasure.

  My eyes met his, and I could see a smile under his rough beard. The edges of his eyes curled up in pleasure as he noted my desire had built more and more to have him inside me.

  We continued to look at each other as his cock slid into me ever so slightly. I wanted him all the way. I needed all of him inside of me, but I couldn’t show how much I desired him. I leaned up to kiss him, but he pulled back.

  Then in one swift motion, he slammed his cock deep inside of me. I let out a moan and closed my eyes as I took him in. It felt so good to have him fill me up. The girth of his body fit perfectly inside of mine. It was an intense feeling that I longed to have more of. I longed to have more of Marcus.

  “Open them,” Marcus commanded.

  I didn’t know what he meant at first, but then I opened my eyes and looked at him. That was what he wanted. He wanted me to look into his eyes as he moved inside of me.