Accidental Hero_A Marriage Mistake Romance

by Nicole Snow

  “Upstairs,” I whisper, giving Red a wink, careful not to wake the sleepy girl in my arms. “Let's put her to bed first.”

  Red holds my hand while we head into honeybee's room. I lay my little girl down, switch her lamp on its lowest setting, and pick up the book. It's the stories I've read her a hundred times. She won't miss anything if she's truly out.

  Red's fingers tighten on my shoulder. I stare into her curious eyes. “Have a seat. Ritual, darling.”

  And it is.

  Reading to my little girl keeps me grounded. Lets her know I'll always be there, no matter how much life changes, or how many new additions our family adds.

  She's got a big year ahead. A new mama, and a little sibling on the way.

  My eyes flick to Red's belly anxiously, wondering if I'll have a son or another precious girl. Whatever it is, I'm ready.

  I break open the book, holding Sadie's hand, and read her a silly poem about the moon. Can't remember where the legend comes from, but damn if it isn't powerful.

  Once, there was darkness. The moon didn't glow until it had a visit from the maiden of light, sent by the sun. She knew exactly how to wipe away the darkness. Her kiss breathed light into the void – the same spark that's shared down in the eyes of every child on earth, whenever they look up on long clear nights.

  Red's grip tightens on mine the more I read. There's a lot of pretty language in between, a few lines that are downright scandalous for a kid's book, describing the moon kiss.

  Good thing it's just us who hear it. I'm being eaten alive every second by hot green eyes.

  I'm so fucking ready to carry them to bed.

  “Here, darling. You do the honors. Read the last line...” I pass the book, sliding an arm around her shoulder.

  “And all this because the sun maiden shared her happy kiss, her light. The moon grew full, and he shared his light, too. Every time the earth looked up, it trembled, no longer lost, alone, or afraid in the dark.” She closes it slowly, giving me a soft smile.

  Goddamn, she still looks ravishing in white. I put the book on the nightstand, flick out the light, and lead her by the hand into the hall.

  I'm about to close the door when there's a soft, tiny murmur from the bed. “So happy, daddy. Like you happy. Make mama stay.”

  I stop and stare. Totally off guard. Slowly, I turn, wondering if Red just heard what I did.

  Red lays her soft, warm cheek against my neck, whispering into the room. “I'm here for good, honeybee. Here, with daddy, is where I'll always stay.”

  Smiling, her door clicks shut, and then we disappear behind ours. We'll have a proper honeymoon in Florida next week. I've promised my little girl manatee time, fresh OJ, and plenty of sun. Maybe even a Disney trip.

  All the things that make up heaven after a life changing winter.

  Of course, my patience is wearing thin. I've never had it in heaping quantities to begin with. I'm not waiting for our flight on Monday, or for the swanky hotel I've reserved on the ocean, to consummate this marriage.

  Tonight, I'm carrying my wife, my woman, my love straight to the sky.

  I'm taking her just like the moon in that story, basking in her light, and wrapping every steel inch of me in pink perfection.

  15

  Happily Ever One (Sadie)

  My husband strips me naked before his hands are even on my dress. It's his eyes.

  Never has he looked so hungry.

  Never have I felt so bare.

  Never, ever have I wanted him in me so bad while feeling like a total virgin. Not even our first time together, when he actually claimed my V-card.

  This is better. This is more.

  Holy hell. Marshal cups my face, bringing his lips to mine for what seems like the hundredth time today. It's incredible how his kiss grows sweeter.

  It's slower, harder, dirtier. It lights new fires under my skin, makes me fall into him.

  Maybe it's because we finally have all the time in the world for each other. I'm ready to relish every second.

  I kiss him back harder, urging him on. It doesn't take much.

  Marshal's hands grip mine, rough and thick and delicious as always. They travel my body like an explorer marking territory, taking what's his, and always seeking more. His shoulders go on forever. His huge inked chest rumbles against mine when he speaks, raising my blood a few more degrees.

  “You ready for your husband's cock?” he growls, a raw spark in his eye that says, you'd better be, beautiful.

  “Hell yeah.” I throw my hips into his, tracing his bulge, even through our clothes.

  It's almost a shame to lose his suit and tie. I love his rough everyday charm, the jeans and flannel, but the change of pace is even hotter. He's a class act, more like a distinguished prince than a former soldier and bootstrapping mechanic, dressed to dazzle.

  Oh, but I know how wrong I am for missing the suit once our clothes fall in hurried fistfuls. If it wasn't obvious with just one look, his stubble would tell me. It races against my skin, prickly as ever, fanning my lust.

  There's nothing delicate in his full naked glory. He's my beast, furious and filthy mouthed, inked and hard and always in control.

  A rough push is all it takes to put me on the edge of the bed. He growls into my skin, lips marauding downward, fingers perched between my legs, teasing my pussy. The tingle that's been there since this evening becomes an itch, and then a roar.

  “Fuck my fingers, Red. Fuck them till I decide you're done.” He pushes two stiff fingers into me. Holding his thumb just away from my clit, I buck into him, madness descending a little more every second I'm missing his cock.

  His tongue helps distract me for a few minutes. His face dives between my legs. Licks come tense, quick, unrelenting. They sweep up as my legs buckle, and the crushing fire inside me explodes.

  “Marshal, yes!”

  Yes.

  Oh, hell, I'm coming. Just like he wants me to: hot, forced, and totally his.

  Marshal's tongue takes my pussy apart with every lick. He turns me inside out, teases my inner heat, makes every whimper spilling out meld into one long beg.

  Please, please fuck me.

  It seems like I'm coming forever before my body lets my senses work again.

  We've changed positions. He's put me on all fours, pushed my ass up prone, gripping each cheek in his rebel hands.

  “You get how much I love you, darling?” he growls, pushing the swollen head of his cock past my aching lips. I whimper, bury my face in the sheet. “No? How about now?”

  Damn, another inch. His cock piercing hits the spot on my inner wall that makes me clench. So close, so hot, so full, but not the fullness I need.

  “Why the silence, Red? What the fuck's got your tongue?” His hand rubs my ass, soft and kneading. Then his voice drops an octave. My breath stops. “Answer me.”

  Such a simple command. Accented by the brisk, fiery slap across my ass, which makes me jerk up, breathing again. “Answer,” he says.

  “All of you, Marshal. I want it, please. Fuck me.” I barely recognize my own strained voice. I want this so bad it hurts, a thousand times worse than any delicious spanking.

  Will I come on the first stroke of my husband's dick? Is that the magic of our wedding night? I'm afraid I'm about to find out.

  “Just like that? Fuck my sweet, adorable, ass-like-perfection wife? Is it really that easy?” Marshal's fingers lace through my hair, tugging a fistful.

  Oh, God. I'm nodding hard.

  Then it happens. He pushes in to the hilt and I think my brain leaves this planet.

  It's dark out tonight, but I see everything from that silly poem. The maiden's kiss, the light, the sun, the moon, the stars. I see our loving reflection lit up every day in the future, in our children's eyes, and in Mia's.

  I see myself hunkered over him while he rocks our new born baby, so gently I'm crying. I see four kids and a French bulldog. A little boy and two twin girls, plus Mia. All ours. Equal parts miracle and be
autiful. I even see my dying breath, him at my side, eyes locked on me so intense they pierce the veil and say, I will fucking find you again.

  Not even the end could stop this man. His love bends the very laws of the universe.

  He's mine, I'm his, and that's just the end of it.

  Simple. Just like the rough heat splitting me in two.

  Release is an explosion. One hard whimpering, sheet clawing, cock pinching O.

  Then there are many. And I can't tell where they begin or end.

  He's striking nerves I didn't know existed, thrusting through my climax. His distant breath gets closer, heavier, more feral every time. My ass slams into him, rippling like never before.

  It's vicious, hot, and beautiful. Fitting. It's how loving him has always been: hard, glorious, and a little scary.

  But it always works out, doesn't it?

  Something sure does while he's power slamming into me, grunting a little louder every time, finding his release. His cock plunges deep, holds, and swells, setting me off all over again.

  I reach behind me, gripping his hands. I pinch his fingers so hard I think I do damage.

  I don't know. I don't care. The boundaries between our bodies are completely gone, no more divide between his pleasure and mine.

  There's just our heat, coming in waves. Burning like a howling napalm fire.

  His seed erupts, hurling into me in thick lava ropes, and I'm left pushing my face into the mattress, stifling my screams.

  He doesn't pull out for a long time. Marshal roots himself in me, kissing my neck, bringing me back from – hell, what was that? I can't find the words to explain it.

  Just know I can't wait for it to happen again.

  Eventually, he rolls me over, and pushes into me again, never going soft. He cradles my cheek. I look him in the eye while we're still, his fingers sliding through my hair, eyes driving spikes through my soul.

  It should be unpleasant, a love this intense. But Marshal Howard doesn't do weakness.

  “We're doing this a thousand more times, Red,” he growls. It ends in a kiss and his forehead pressed to mine.

  “Huh? Tonight?!” I look up, more than a little worried. I'm wondering if he's crazy enough to try.

  There's the grin I've fallen in love with, shining on his face like an early morning sun. “We'll put a dent in it by dawn, sure. But that isn't what I mean.”

  “No?” I study his starry blue eyes. Apparently, our sex is so good it's either made me miss words, or unable to understand them.

  Then his hand slides into mine and he kisses me again. “I'm talking about us, darling Red. You and me. Every day. It'll be a thousand fucking lifetimes before I even dream of asking for a breather. And that'll only be because I want a minute to step back, take you, and realize – fuck – you're still mine.”

  I smile like a crazy woman into our next kiss. That's how it hits me.

  When you've found the man who takes your light, who spins it into something beautiful, a thousand lifetimes isn't nearly enough. The heat death of the universe will happen before our love goes cold.

  We're destined to last until forever loses its meaning and just is.

  There's no beginning or end when there's just us. There can't be.

  Because Marshal Howard is fate, and now he's part of who I am, who I was, and who I'll always be.

  Stepbrother UnSEALed

  A Bad Boy Military Romance

  Content copyright © Nicole Snow. All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States of America.

  First published in August, 2015.

  Disclaimer: The following ebook is a work of fiction. Any resemblance characters in this story may have to real people is only coincidental.

  Please respect this author's hard work! No section of this book may be reproduced or copied without permission. Exception for brief quotations used in reviews or promotions. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thanks!

  Cover Design – Kevin McGrath - Kevin Does Art. Photo by Allan Spiers Photography.

  Description

  MY HERO, MY RUIN, MY RECKLESS TEMPTATION...

  DELIA

  I almost landed in my stepbrother's bed, and I want it to happen again.

  I'm too good for him. He's too crude for me. Fantasy is where this twisted thing should end.

  Chris Cleveland tempts me because he's wrong. Swoon-worthy, all-American Navy SEAL. Bad boy. Manwhore.

  I didn't know he was off limits the night we got hot and heavy. I didn't know our folks were hitched.

  Hell, I definitely didn't know I could ever want what I'm not supposed to have this badly, and one more smirk of his devilish lips just might bring me to my knees...

  There's a lot I don't know anymore.

  And he's about to teach me.

  CHRIS

  Love's a goddamned joke. I bed women between missions and rock their worlds with military precision. I never taste, touch, or tease the same chick twice.

  Get in, get out, and leave her a breathless mess always worked flawlessly – until Cordelia.

  I can't pry my perfect new stepsister out of my skull. I've never wanted to corrupt a girl so bad. She's my new target, my conquest, my obsession.

  Lucky I'm a SEAL. Losing isn't in my blood.

  But Delia's already lost, and her panties are about to be in flames.

  1

  Bastards and Beach Bums (Delia)

  “Holy shit! Do you see the meat on that boy?” My best friend Marnie's high, whiny voice cuts through the beach party's racket.

  She's so loud and desperate I expect the gorilla in the speedo she's been eye-fucking for the last ten minutes to skip fetching our drinks and drag her behind the rocks for some alone time. It won't take much for him to throw her over his shoulder and carry her off – exactly what the excitement lining her face says she wants.

  “Delia, did you see –“

  “I saw,” I say, draining the last dregs of my water bottle. “Believe me, I couldn't miss him. He's like the oldest dude here.”

  Her smile quirks. “Oh, come on. You're never jealous. Don't tell me you're pissed that I poached him first with a little flirting? We'll be down to geeks and dad bods by the time you make a move.”

  Laughing, she shakes her hips, causing her beauty queen body to bounce. I don't know how she tolerates those skimpy, skin-tight bikinis. Not that one wouldn't feel awfully nice right now in the California sun.

  “It's okay, Marnie. Really. He's a good pick. Not really my style, you know.”

  It's not just the overgrown body builder with the tangerine skin I'm talking about.

  I stare down at my tank top and shorts. I've probably got the most conservative beachwear here – same as always. Sometimes, I think everybody else enjoys these parties on dad's private stretch of beach way more than I do.

  Sometimes? Okay, make that all the time.

  She throws her head back and laughs louder, slapping me on the shoulder. “Oh, girl. Just what the hell is your style, anyway?”

  I shrug, and she leans in closer. “Kyle told me you two never fucked. Jesus, lady, you're about to start your senior year and you're still a virgin. Don't tell me you're going to be the only one in our circle to walk off campus with a fancy degree in hand and your cherry intact.”

  I wrinkle my nose. Marnie acts like a crazed lioness when she gets a few drinks in her, and I make a mental note to slip away once she's had a few more, maybe got her arms around her latest hottie.

  “I'm going to get you laid, you know. I've made it my personal mission.” She wags her finger at me and flips her blonde hair with the pink highlights back. “I know you brought a bikini. Go slip into it, show off your sexy, and maybe I'll ask big boy if he's got a friend when I'm done with him.”

  The smile she's wearing makes her look like a shark. Shaking my head, I fold my arms, one more reminder that I'm overdressed, even though I feel like I'm half-naked out here.

  “Jesus, no. I told y
ou, I'm just here to get some sun and a nice buzz. Oh, and remind me to flip Kyle the bird next semester for talking about crap he really shouldn't.”

  Trouble is, the idiot I'd broken up with a month ago was supposed to be the one. We lasted a few months, longer than my other boyfriends, and I'd actually been getting a little impatient about jumping his bones. He'd been the first man in awhile I could imagine going to bed with – until the day he sat me down and came out with the nasty, kinky stuff he wanted me to do.

  I'm no stranger to weird, overpowering sex. I crave it. Heck, I've read all about it in those books about billionaires with dirty mouths and a love for handcuffs and spankings.

  All the crap Kyle wanted? Picture the opposite.

  I wasn't ready to tie him up and slap him across the face while he called me mama. Not in this lifetime. Not with anyone.

  Seriously, why the hell is it so hard to find a normal man with a body like an Adonis on campus? Do the guys with an alpha bone in their bodies still exist outside romance novels?

  “Aw, c'mon,” Marnie whined. “We need to do lunch so you can dish right back. I'm sure it wasn't all one-sided, and I'd love to hear what the little rat was really up to.”

  I open my mouth to try to change the subject, and then I see Mr. Tangerine coming back, two martinis and a beer in his hands. Thank God.

  “Here you go, ladies,” he says, pushing one martini into my hand and flashing me a wink.

  Ugh. Some of these beach bums have the balls to try for two girls at once, and there's no way I'm falling for it. I nod, then turn my attention to Marnie as she gives me the look, as if to say watch this.

  “Damn, what kinda beer is that?” she asks, closing the tiny distance between her and Tangerine Man, a quick, jerky movement that causes her to crash her martini glass rim right into his thick chest. “Oh, shit! I'm so sorry.”

  Every bone in my body wants me to roll my eyes. The beach bum laughs, wipes the booze off his pecs, and then pulls her into him.