“If you’ve found what you’re looking for there’s no reason to continue searching…is there?”
“I definitely don’t see the point in that,” he says, as he slides in again. This time he’s come closer by an entire foot, leaving another foot between our faces. “But how do you know…for sure…that you’ve found what you’re looking for?”
A little moisture is about to turn into the Amazon rain forest if we keep this up, or even if we don’t. The closer he gets the harder it is to stay in this chair. The more he moves in, the more I want to move this conversation to the nearest bedroom…or desk, or up against the wall.
“Well, I am very confident in my choice, but,” I pause as his eyes narrow and his pupils dilate as they hang onto my words. “I guess there’s only one way to know for sure.”
“I guess you’re right,” he says, as he leans in until his face is within an inch from mine. I angle my neck and feel the goose bumps cover my skin from head to toe the moment his hand touches my face.
I feel his breath on my lips, and my heart rate accelerate and then when I can’t take it anymore I feel his lips gently meet mine, and the 21-gun salute that I missed out on yesterday explodes inside me.
CHAPTER 7
Brittney
I feel his hands latch ahold of my waist as he lifts me up out of the chair.
My legs wrap around his waist as he’s now standing, holding me suspended in air like I weigh nothing.
I take his face in both hands. My fingertips extend to the sides of his scalp. I’m turned on by the feel of the sides of his head and the super short hairs that cover it. They’ve been cut to such exacting standards and with such military precision. Everything about this man exudes toughness and masculinity. I’m trying not to dig into his masculine, exposed scalp with my grip. I can’t help myself as I grab his head tight and force his mouth down harder onto mine.
I don’t want gentle. I want to be fucked by a real man.
And he’s a man who knows what he wants, running his hand up the back of my neck and onto my head, pressing my kiss deeper into his.
His hands are calloused and coarse. His fingers are strong and thick. He’s got more hand strength in his pinkies than most guys have strength in their entire body.
I reach for my blouse, unbuttoning the top buttons as quickly as I can. He grabs the third one down with his teeth, ripping it away as I finish with the top two.
He buries his face in my cleavage as his hand slides down my back, causing my spine to shoot up in an erect position before arching back. He presses forward from the middle of my back towards his face, sending his face deeper in-between my chest as he kisses every exposed piece of flesh above my bra.
I drop my hands, palms out, as my head flops back. It’s like I’m on a platter for him, a meal ready to be devoured. But this isn’t a meal served on a horizontal table, this is my flesh held vertically by the only man I’ve ever met who was strong enough to do so, and the only one I ever allowed to try…not that I had much choice in the matter, nor would I want to. He took me in a way that showed he knew exactly what he wanted, and it was exactly what I wanted too.
He adjusts his hand on my back and my body lowers a bit, allowing him to kiss my lips again.
I kiss him hard and hear bells ringing.
Wait! Shit! Those are real bells. The kind tied to door handles to announce a visitor’s arrival.
My legs release and he grabs my waist, placing my feet safely on the ground.
He runs his forearm across his lips trying to remove any signs or what our mouths were doing to each other’s faces as he steps toward the door. I dart into the kitchen, and try and frantically button up my shirt. Shit! There’s a button missing.
“Hi daddy!” echoes from the other room, hitting me like a ton of bricks.
“Hi sweetheart. How was your day?”
What in the world is going on?
CHAPTER 8
Sean
This definitely isn’t the way this was supposed to happen.
“We finished up early. I dropped by hoping you’d be here. I hope that’s okay?”
“Yeah, it’s great, but it’s always best to call ahead. I’m often out handling other matters.”
“I know. I know. I’m really sorry. It’s just that we were in the area and I thought I’d give it a shot.”
“No problem. Thanks for everything today. I’m sure I’ll be hearing all about it real soon. And I can’t wait either.”
“My pleasure. She’s such a cutie. See you tomorrow.”
I turn to show Julie out and by the time I turn back Isabella’s running towards the kitchen.
“Isabella, don’t—-”
It’s too late.
I hear Isabella’s footsteps stop, and I know what just happened. I also know what’s coming next. She’ll clam up and be scared. I have to get in there asap.
“Oh. Hello,” she says to Brittney just as I’m turning the corner to the kitchen.
“Hello there. I’m Brittney. What’s your name?”
“Is-a-bell-a,” she says, sounding it out like it might be the first time Brittney’s come across the name.
“That’s a beautiful name. Is it Italian?”
“Yes,” she says. She starts to giggle. “And my favorite food is Italian food. My mom and dad picked a good name for me.”
“They sure did,” Brittney says. “It’s beautiful.”
And what’s beautiful to me is just how quickly Brittney and Isabella have taken to each other. Isabella is the nicest little girl once you get to know her, but up until that point she’s always shy and reserved. I’ve never seen a single instance where she wasn’t…until right now.
“Would you like some candy?” Isabella asks. I smile, laughing at the irony. Isn’t it the adult who’s supposed to ask the kid that?
“Sure! What kind do you have?” Brittney says.
“There’s a bunch. They’re in that bowl up there. If you can please get it we can have some.”
That little bugger. Her teamwork skills are sharp as a tack.
“What if I can’t reach it?” Brittney jokes.
“It’s okay. I know where they hide the big bag,” she says. “I can reach that one, but it’s better if they don’t know I know where it is.”
I tap my foot a few times on the floor and Isabella turns around.
“Whoops,” she says.
CHAPTER 9
Sean
The next day
“I’m really sorry about yesterday,” I say as I pull out the chair for Brittney.
“No problem,” she says, but I can tell it definitely is or at least it’s lingering, slowing our forward progress.
“Drinks, sir? Madame?”
“Bottle of white, please,” I say.
“Coming right up,” the waiter says.
“This place has the best fish.”
“So the white,” she says.
“Their chicken and pork are also excellent,” I say. “Do you like seafood?”
“Sometimes, but I’m not sure I’m up for it at the moment.”
“Chicken salad?”
“Sounds perfect.”
I shut the menus and the waiter’s already back with our wine. He pours our glasses and I put in our meal requests.
“To bumping into you again after so many years,” I say.
“Cheers to that,” she says.
We clink glasses, and the wine hits my palette.
“A lot has happened in the last few years.”
“For both of us,” she says.
“After yesterday’s surprise I think I should go first. I need to set the record straight.”
She brings her wine glass in closer to her chest, holding it with two hands. She says nothing, which tells me she’s waiting for me to proceed.
“My wife and I split right about the time you saw me last. We didn’t tell anyone at first.” I pause. “What I do was very taxing to her. Here today, gone tomorrow. Never knowi
ng for sure when I’d come home, or even if I’d come home. After so many years I think worrying about me outweighed the good times we had together.”
I take a drink.
“Anyways, so we break up, and she’s off doing her thing and I’m doing mine. A few months later I get a call…find out she’s pregnant. She’s pretty far along, not that there was ever a conversation of terminating the pregnancy. It wasn’t convenient, to say the least, but it is what it is. She had always wanted a baby. We even took some measures to increase the chances of a pregnancy, but they never worked. Strangely enough, we had stopped about a year prior, and then all the sudden a baby arrives out of nowhere. Two divorced old people having a kid,” I say, trying to lighten the mood a bit. I don’t consider my ex and I old, but I’m trying to look at things through Brittney’s eyes.
Brittney’s body language hasn’t changed one bit since I began the story. I’m actually glad. Normally a conversation is a bit more of a two-way street, animated on both sides. Not with her. I can see she’s really soaking in what I’m telling her. That’s exactly what I want. I want to lay my life out there on the table so she can decide if it’s something she wants to be a part of. She’s got a bright future in front of her. I’m a single parent who’s always on the go.
“Once the Marines found out I had a child on the way, they rotated me back stateside and put me in increasingly more parent-friendly positions…hence the stint with the NCIS.”
“I thought NCIS positions were usually filled by civilians.”
“You’ve done your homework. They are. I got lucky. I got to do something most Navy personnel don’t, and especially not Marines. I’m on loan, so to speak, to the NCIS. I work with a lot of civilians.”
“How is it, after all these years?”
“It’s nice to try something different, and my experiences battling terrorism overseas help a lot, especially getting into the mind of the enemy. There are some things you can only learn by having had boots on the ground, and that’s where I come in.”
“Is that why you’re here?”
“I keep an apartment in New York. I’ve had it for years. Got lucky and bought it years and years ago, before the area got cleaned up and took off. It was about as close to a teardown as you can get, but with a little sweat equity I turned it into what it is today. Now I wouldn’t sell it for the world.”
“But your daughter? She’s also here?”
“Her mom and I are trying to do as best we can to both influence her upbringing in a positive way. The strange thing is her mother got a job at the Pentagon and now she’s the one who’s always on the go. I’m mostly stuck behind a desk in Quantico, where I live in military housing with my daughter. I brought her with me this time so she could spend some time with her mom. That and she loves coming to my place here in New York.”
“Is that where she is right now? With her mom?”
“Yes. Her mom took her to the Children’s Museum earlier and now they’re off to the Toys R Us flagship store in Times Square.”
“Awww. She must be loving it.”
“To tell you the truth, she probably loved the museum even more. Somehow the idea of wanting a lot of material things never really struck her as important.”
“She probably just wants time with her parents.”
“That’s exactly what she wants.”
Brittney gets it. Thanks to having a dad who serves she knows what it’s like. There’s nothing more valuable for a child than time together with their mom and dad. No amount of toys, or iPhones, or money even comes close.
Brittney leans forward in her chair a bit and sets her glass of wine down.
“I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but since we’re on the same subject I have to.”
“Ask. Nothing is off limits tonight.”
“Is there a chance of a reconciliation with your wife?”
“Ex-wife, and definitely not. We’re better off how we are now. It’s a lot better for both of us. We’re both career driven, or at least I used to be, so it’s important for her to be able to devote so much time to her work. That means I get a lot more of the parenting duties, but I enjoy every minute of it. Being a father to Isabella has brought me an incredible amount of happiness. My ex is focused on her career now and for the foreseeable future.”
“But if she suddenly changed her mind and decided she wanted a reconciliation?”
“Still no. The feelings just aren’t there anymore, from either side. We both love Isabella, but not each other. And that’s the truth.”
Brittney nods and takes a sip of her wine.
“What about you?” I ask.
“I’m not that complicated. Since we last saw each other I just finished high school, applied for college, got in, and here I am.”
“I’m sure a few more things than just that happened.”
“Okay, okay. You got me. I got my braces taken off.”
“Very funny,” I say.
“Not really though. I mean I’ve just been so focused on moving my life forward that I haven’t had time for much else.”
“Another career woman,” I say. “You ladies are giving us men a real run for our money these days.”
“Well, that’s the thing. We outnumber you in the workforce, but not when it comes to our bank accounts.”
“It’s changing. Slowly, but it’s changing.”
“I wish it would happen faster.”
“Me too, believe it or not. It’s a generational thing though. The men are trying to hold on, so to speak, when they’re better off just letting go and letting the women do what they do. It would advance us all forward, and equal pay for equal work is a big part of that.”
“So you support a career woman?”
“Absolutely.”
“But what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you see yourself with someone again?”
“If you asked me before this weekend, I would have said no.”
“And now?”
“My head tells me it’s too early to tell.”
“And your heart?”
“The rest of me is acting like a Marine ready to charge in head first.”
“So there’s a game of tug-of-war going on inside you?”
“Not really.”
“How so?”
“Because when it comes to matters like this I don’t listen to my mind. I listen to what’s inside…what I feel…the way you make me feel, and there’s no amount of pretending to reason with myself, or logic, and analyzing that can stop me from wanting what I want. You.”
CHAPTER 10
Brittney
Dinner was incredible, and not just the food.
When Sean said those words it reminded me why I wanted him so much to begin with.
And the conversation at our table only got better.
Although there were quite a few top secret parts to the case he was working on, he’d requested and received permission to bring on an intern to help. He suggested it would be a great way to show a college student the way things really work, which could help the student decide if this type of public service was really right for them. It also gave NCIS a head start on recruiting its next generation of leaders.
He reminded me he wouldn’t be able to share everything with me, but he’d share everything he could. I was more than excited. This fit exactly into the template for the future I’d constructed for myself. And the best part was I’d be working side by side with someone who I respected, admired, and trusted. And even better, or worse maybe, was that he was also someone I had the hots for…bad.
And it was more than mutual. As soon as we finished dinner we called a car and headed back to his place.
We barely get the door shut and he’s already got me pinned up against the wall.
He grabs my left hand with his right and brings it over my head, pressing it against the white wall behind.
He reaches for my blouse with his other hand, quickly unbuttoning button
s in-between hard kisses that meet my lips, hold, and just as quickly pull away.
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