Forever Lovers (Military Romance)
By: Suellen Smith
Published by Suellen Smith at Romance Novel Publishing
Copyright 2015 Suellen Smith
Amazon Edition, License Notes
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PROLOGUE
Death is always something that happens to someone else. A finality that when it does occur,
you suddenly find yourself in another dimension – floating as your soul departs from the body and
begins to vanish from the light before it dims where there is only darkness and silence. When that happens, there is nothing, only a deep blackness devoid of life until you realize that you didn’t die. You know that you have returned to the planet earth because you feel a horrific jerk like an atom bomb exploding in tiny bits and pieces with a sudden jolt of reality. It is the price of a ticket back to life and the payment is the pain of a soul living in terror and torment that is unendurable even to the damned who are condemned to hell for eternity. It is in that instance, you truly wish that you had died. But no one can hear you and your wish is not granted.
______________________________
Quinn stood broodingly clutching the oak doorway leading from his luxurious bedroom to the picturesque Italian villa where he watched the agitated waves of the Mediterranean beat itself repetitiously against the rock hard cliff below. It was something that they had done for many centuries and would continue to do so unrelentingly long after he and the human race were gone.
Quinn stared at the vast rolling waves as he entertained the thought of jumping off the cliff so that he could join them and escape the pain of the living. Scowling sullenly, he stood motionless thinking that at thirty-one, he should be at the height of his manhood – getting married, having a family, exploring life, but he wasn’t. That was just the harsh ugly reality of his current moment in time, one that had spiraled out of control with no guidance or consideration from his own hand. Quinn’s eyes focused again on the scene below as he became mesmerized, lost in the thought of joining the turbulent waves hitting and hitting against the rocks hoping the rage within him would disappear and dissipate like the water that receded out to sea. But, like the crashing waves below, he knew that it would change nothing – solve nothing.
Quinn rubbed the back of his neck with anxiety, he knew he needed to let go of the past for his own self-preservation, but he couldn’t help but think of Lily and how things might have been different. Just one more indulgence, he promised himself. Then, he’d leave Lily behind and begin repairing his life by deleting her from all memories of his past. He knew that only then, could he start the process of gluing together the pieces of his broken life into one by making himself whole. But, like Humpty Dumpty, he wasn’t so sure that he could be put back together again.
CHAPTER 1
Quinn began reliving the first time he’d seen Lily. She was only four and he was almost ten. She was the flower girl for Uncle Luke’s wedding and he was the ring bearer who she had just tried to kick him in the hotdog. Fortunately, she missed. Technically, Uncle Luke was not his uncle nor was Uncle Matt, Uncle Bear, or Uncle Dawg. They were just really good friends of his parents, Swan and Troy. He had just tweaked Lily’s hair in retaliation for aiming and missing his family jewels when he saw his father with his arms crossed frowning at him with disapproval. He started to mouth, “What’d I do?” when he realized that his dad had probably seen him give Lily’s dark red curly hair a not so subtle yank and anticipated that more was about to come. Quinn had never ever kicked his twin sisters, Jade or Jasmine, who were four years younger than he nor did he ever remember wanting to do so. He had always taken great pride in being their big brother and taking care of them, which he took quite seriously. So much so, that the twins never had a date until they were nearly seventeen and Quinn had long graduated from high school leaving town for the Naval Academy in Maryland. But, Lily had always brought out the worst in him.
Quinn had seen Lily occasionally over the years as she was growing up whenever she came to visit the twins, but she always stuck her bratty little nose in the air and would dismiss him like he was of no consequence. She only talked to him when absolutely necessary. He never realized that she had a crush on him and that was the only way she knew how to compensate for feelings that she didn’t understand. For some reason, her snootiness really got under his skin. It annoyed him so much, that when he found out Lily’s middle name was Ann, he started calling her Little Orphan Annie, which didn’t exactly endear himself to Lily, but it made him happy when he realized that he was getting under her skin as well.
For Lily, Quinn’s teasing helped not to think of him so much as a prince any more as she stuck her tongue out at him whenever his back was turned. That made Jasmine and Jade laugh. Like her mom, Platinum, always said – sometimes it makes you feel soooo much better. The “Little Orphan Annie” taut was one of those times – he never knew how she retaliated.
One particular weekend when Lily was in junior high, she came to visit. It stood out in Quinn’s memory so much that even now, it made his lips twitch just thinking about it. His parents had gone out of town and he was left in charge of Jade and Jasmine. Lily had come to visit the twins for a few days during that time. The twins were fifteen and Lily was only thirteen, just old enough to begin thinking about the opposite sex and certainly old enough to get into trouble with very little effort. Their cute little figures were somewhere between child and women, but developing fast enough for the boys in their class to start noticing. Lily was still pretty colt like with her long lanky legs, but she definitely had the promise of some delicious future curves to come.
It was hot summer Saturday afternoon and a small group of the twins’ classmates had come over to swim at the Slater house. The boys probably wouldn’t have come if they’d known Quinn was there, but after realizing their mistake and not wanting to appear to be cowards, they stuck out the afternoon and did their best to pretend that he wasn’t there. Unfortunately for one of them, he was not successful.
Quinn had left the swim party just long enough to go into the house, make a phone call, and grab a beer – make that a coke. He was probably only gone about ten minutes. When he came back, six of the boys had their heads in the crotch of six of the girls, three of which were Lily, Jade, and Jasmine of course, playing water polo with the girls straddling their heads on top of their shoulders.
Crap! He knew that game! If he only had a Babe Ruth, which was a candy bar that looked like a turd, he’d throw it in the pool to clear it out like it did in a movie he once saw. Quinn improvised and made a decision that now would be a pretty good time to have a little diversion and get everyone out of the pool by bringing out the pizza. At least, he hoped it would break up the game of Crotch Around the Neck. It was a successful tactic, but only until the pizza was all gone.
The party was going along innocently enough after that if only one of the boys hadn’t forgotten himself and indulged in his surge of hormones, which was probably due to a crotch wiggling around his neck for the past fifteen minutes. He cornered Jade against the side wall of the pool between his arms. He had just swooped down for a little “kissy” with Jade as an active participate. It was the last straw for Quinn. Suddenly, the kid felt himself being lifted effortlessly out of the water with a furious Quinn standing over him as he stood dripping and embarrassed like a wet dogg
ie. “It’s time for you to go home and take your buddies with you,” he nodded his chin in the direction of the other teenage boys. “The party’s over.” A subdued teenage crowd couldn’t scrabble out fast enough!
Jasmine and Jade were furious, but they were, however, no match for Quinn’s temper as he marched all three of them, including Lily, into his father’s den as the gate slammed on the last boy’s behind. Everyone knew that’s where all the serious talks happened with Dad as they realized unhappily that Quinn was stepping into his role during his absence.
As soon as they entered the den, Jade flounced over to the nearest ottoman. As she plopped down, she crossed her arms in defiance. Litter mate, Jasmine, joined her. She gave her twin sister support as she crossed her legs and began to swing the top one in agitation while she leaned into Jade with her own look of reinforcement and protest. Lily, not quite understanding what was happening, meekly followed the twins lead. She sat down on the floor next to them with her elbows propped upon the coffee table and her sober face resting in the palm on her hands, waiting, as she tried to figure out what she was missing. Quinn got right to the point. He stood in front of his father’s desk taking the same serious stance as his father with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. He looked down at the defiant twins as their cherub faces looked up at him reminding him all the more what babes on the bisque of womanhood they still were. It was a scary transition for any parent of daughters – much scarier than getting their first driving permit to Quinn’s way of thinking. He certainly didn’t envy that responsibility on a daily basis. Then, he looked at Lily who was looking at him with a question mark on her forehead and who was always included in the center of any of their fracas. She would follow the twins lead no matter what.
Quinn cleared his throat, beginning what was supposed to be Dad’s lecture. Next time he spoke to him, he’d expect him to cough up a new BMW for the bullet that his dad had dodged in absentee. He decided to begin his fire and brimstone oratory with, “You should know by this time just how important it is to always be a lady,” he paused hoping that comment would sink in before he continued. “You should be respected by the opposite sex and that should always be upper most in your mind. Having your own self-respect is even much more important than being popular. Giving up one’s virginity should never be taken lightly. It can only be given once and should only go to a person you love and not before you are a grown woman.”
Before he could finish his last sentence, the twins were obviously becoming amused and they had each begun rolling their eyes. Lily had the same blank slate that she had when she sat down. Quinn was smart enough to end it right there. “Have I made myself clear?” Jade and Jasmine nodded their heads, sucking in their cheeks trying to keep from giggling.
He looked at Lily for confirmation when she piped up with her head still resting on her palms,
“What’s a virgin?”
At that comment, Jade and Jasmine laughing hysterically, hopped up as they left falling over and into each other as they scrambled to get out of the room. They left leaving him to answer Lily’s innocent question.
“Shut the door behind you!” Quinn grumbled as they left.
Their laughter quickly faded. They all knew the room was sound proof because as children they had all tried to listen to conversations inside, but to no avail. In later years, Quinn suspected his dad took his mom in there to get a little nookie away from prying noses and big ears of their children. He wasn’t so sure that that wasn’t why the office was sound proof. He could hardly fault his dad as his mom at forty-three was still quite a looker.
Quinn squinted down at Lily’s adorable mop top of mahogany curls trying to decide if she were joking. Since, she was biting her lower lip, a habit that he had long recognized she did when she was nervous, he decided she was not. So, the next problem was trying to tell her about being a virgin and at the same time not making her afraid to have sex when she was mature and the time was right.
It was an endearing innocent question. He let out a whoosh of hot air he had been holding in and sat down in the chair next to where she was sitting on the floor. He thought that nothing in the SEAL manual at the academy would ever cover this subject. He shot from the hip thinking he would keep this simple, “A virgin is someone that hasn’t had sex.”
“Oh,” silence as Lily processed the information with an expression that definitely suggested that she was not yet finished asking questions. He braced himself.
“Are you a virgin?” Whoa, what happened to simple?
He cocked his head, amazed that a thirteen-year-old could almost make him blush. Considering her question carefully before he gave her a serious answer, “I’ve been in love.” He was trying not to let the conversation get out of hand and go in a direction that he had no intention of going.
“A lot?” Lily asked with a direct unblinking stare of her sky blue eyes lined with inky black lashes.
“No,” which wasn’t exactly correct as he had never been in love – in like perhaps, but never in love. He liked women, women liked him. He knew how to make them happy inside and outside the bed. Most of the time, he treated women with the same respect to the fairer sex that he hoped the men in Jasmine and Jade’s life would treat them, which was part of the reason women always still liked him even after the affair went south. That was all the relationship that he had ever had, but he didn’t tell Lily that.
Lily just nodded her head silently, got up, and walked with her head held high displaying a quiet dignity way beyond her years, out the door of the den. She shut it softly behind her. Somehow he wished she’d kicked it shut or at the very least, slammed it on the way out. That was the old Lily who was predictable and he understood, not this new one.
Quinn’s eyebrows puckered, he didn’t know why the way she left bothered him so much. Maybe it was the way she carried herself, like she was hurt or disappointed in him as a lover would be. But, that was silly. Lily had never acted like he existed, much least cared. He immediately dismissed such a notion. He grumbled, “Teenagers!” He could not begin to imagine how Mom and Dad ever coped on a daily basis or why he got the privilege of chaperoning this weekend. He drummed his fingers on the arm of the leather chair thinking that it seemed they often left town when Lily came for a visit wondering why that was.
Lily did indeed care what Quinn thought, but she’d slit her wrists before she’d ever give him even the slightest hint that she did! Not wanting to go near the twins after the awful humiliating “Dad talk”, Lily walked outside to beautiful Huntington Beach that overlooked the peaceful Pacific. It was a place where she often found comfort and solace when she came for a visit. As she walked, tears began to gather and flow. She was painfully devastated that Quinn had been in love and that meant that he –. It was such an awful thought that she could hardly get her childlike mind around it. Somehow, in her childish dreams, she’d thought she’d grow up and Quinn would fall deeply in love with her, marry her, and they’d live happily ever after like her parents, Platinum and Luke. She cried because she was so naive that she hadn’t even known what a virgin was! It mortified her that she knew Quinn thought of her as a child and she had just confirmed it with her stupid stupid question. Why was she always opening her mouth and inserting her foot? Her dad continually warned her to think before she spoke. Why hadn’t she this time? His favorite quote was, “Better to keep your mouth shut and everyone think you’re a fool than to open it and erase all doubt.”
Lily kicked the sand startling a nearby seagull that took flight over the ocean and into the wild-blue yonder. Oh, how she wished with all her heart that she could follow him. She vowed right there under the hot sun and the cool breeze of the ocean beach that someday all would change and Quinn would look at her differently, like a grownup woman!
Three years later, when Lily came to visit Huntington and Quinn was left to chaperone – again, she got her wish. It was definitely a turning point in their relationship.
CHAPTER 2
It w
as Memorial Day weekend three years after the “Dad talk” and Quinn was meeting the twins and Lily down on the nearby beach to go surfing. He had already texted them that his plane had landed and he would soon be there.
Quinn loved to surf. It was a sport that he started developing with his dad at five. They’d often gone out on the surfboard together and he’d learned to paddle and ride mini waves with a life jacket as his dad paddled protectively behind him.
Ten years later, Quinn was a natural and began to win surfing competitions at fifteen. He could always hold his breath under water for a really long time making it much easier than most to perfect his skills. That kept his proud dad constantly teasing and checking behind his ears to see if he were growing gills.
Surfing was in his blood. So much so, that he would soon be trying out for the Navy SEALS at twenty-two — a dream that had finally become a reality in nearby San Diego on the naval base of Coronado. Today, he planned to chaperon and practice his underwater breathing techniques as he kept his eye on the twins and what he thought of as his adopted sis, Lily – his nemesis.
Quinn was just coming home for the weekend. He had text the twins and Lily that they could go on down to the beach early before he got there. Eager to watch the waves and wait for Quinn, they left with their surfboards in hand – a five minute walk from their fabulous beach house. They knew that they absolutely were not to go surfing until he got there. Quinn knew that they would follow that rule as women are often not as strong as men and can more easily get pulled under a pounding wave even though they were experienced surfers. Lily, coming from landlocked Kansas City, was not nearly as experienced. She, however, had learned from the best – himself. So, he was confident that no problems would arise. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
The girls left about an hour before Quinn arrived home. The minute they set foot on the beach, they were like magnets to the surrounding males that honed in on them with their built in satellite of testosterone.
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