We hadn’t spoken of a romantic relationship between us since he found out about Noah. We both seemed to be afraid to broach the subject. I certainly was. Despite my efforts, my heart had become hooked on this man again. I didn’t think I could stand to hear him say he didn’t return my feelings so I left the subject alone.
We were both concentrating on what was best where Noah was concerned and that was just the way it should be.
Our tissues were thrown in the bin and our ice-creams devoured when I looked at Wyatt I nodded when I saw the question in his eyes.
Was it time?
I was thankful that he allowed me to lead the conversation even though he was eager to deliver the news.
“There’s something we would like to tell you,” I said to Noah.
Something in my tone alerted him that this was serious because he looked up sharply and his eyes went wide as he cocked his head to the side curiously.
I wondered how I should deliver the news and even after almost a week to figure it out all I settled on was just blurting it out so that just what I did.
“Wyatt is your daddy,” I said.
Even though we were in the middle of a park filled with people, everything seemed to go completely silently as both Wyatt and I watch Noah carefully for his reaction.
He seemed to be mulling it over in his mind then final said, “Is that why we have the same last name?”
I wasn’t surprised that he noticed the fact. He was a very smart child.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “That is why.”
His fist pumped the air then he nearly shouted, “Yes, I knew it!”
His smile could light up the world in that moment. He turned it first on me. Then on Wyatt. Wyatt’s smile was just as bright and the happiness from the two of them brought tears to my eyes. Wyatt stood and came around to Noah’s side of the table. He knelt so that their eyes were level.
“Hey buddy, I promise to be the best dad I can be to you if you will have me,” Wyatt said, his voice husky with emotion. “What do you say? Do you want to have me for a dad?”
“Oh yeah,” Noah said, then threw himself into Wyatt’s arms. When he pulled back he threw me – and Wyatt given the way his eyes widened –for a loop.
“Are you and Mommy going to get married now? Like Casey’s mom and dad,” Noah asked.
Casey was a girl who attended his daycare.
Wyatt sent me a look and I immediately rushed to answer, not wanting to put him on the spot or have him feel pressured.
“Oh no, Noah. We’re not getting married. Sometimes mommies and daddies don’t get married but that doesn’t mean that they don’t love their little boys and girls with all their heart. Do you understand what I am saying to you?”
I took a moment to think it over then said, “I think so.”
The rest of the day was filled with a happy Noah and Wyatt getting to know each other better.
It filled my heart with joy to watch them together even though I now believed that any hope of a relationship between Wyatt and I had died.
I had ruined it. Last time it was Wyatt leaving me, this time it was me pulling away from him.
TWENTY-ONE
Hailey
The last few weeks had been life-changing.
Wyatt and I had settled to co-parenting and managed our scheduled so that Noah had plenty of time with both of us. Wyatt and I had resumed being study partners. Our bio final was coming up soon and we were hitting the books at his place.
For once Noah wasn’t around. He and Wyatt seemed attached at the hip for the most part but he was spending the night with my parents.
I was looking down at the text book but was seeing none of the words printed there. All of my senses were wrapped up around Wyatt and it was killing me to have him so close yet be unable to touch him.
We were sitting out our customary study place at his kitchen table. He was next to me and his cologne created a heavy fog around my brain. I could feel the heat coming off his body
Our relationship now was that of friends. Co parents. Study partners. We hadn’t screwed around at all in the weeks that had gone by. While Wyatt’s flirtatious nature was back in full swing, I didn’t allow myself to place hope in it since I thought that flirting was just part of his personality. It didn’t mean anything. Not to him.
But I meant so much to me.
I was in love with Wyatt.
It had been a long hard road but I was finally able to admit to myself.
It hurt every second of every day to keep the knowledge to myself. Having him close all the time and seeing what a great dad he was to Noah had me tied up in knots.
The silence in the room caught my attention and I looked up from my books to find him watching me.
He had asked me something and I hadn’t heard a word.
I blushed and said, “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
He put the pen he had been holding down.
“You seem distracted tonight. You all right?” he asked.
“Oh no, everything is fine,” I rushed to reassure him and move the focus off me and my troubling emotional state.
“Are you sure nothing’s bothering you?”
“Wyatt, I’m fine, just nervous about the test I guess.”
He pressed on further, “How are things with Joe?”
“Great,” I said, grateful to have focus off me. “He and Dad are trying to work on their relationship. And he’s with that girl, the one he saved from the abusive guy. I’m pretty proud of him after all that.”
We made some more small talk and I slowly began to relax when the mood suddenly changed with Wyatt’s next words.
“I missed you these last few weeks,” he said.
I frowned and I said, “I’ve been right here.”
“I know but I want more.”
Was this really happening? He stood and pulled me to my feet.
“You do? But I thought for sure…”
“I have missed us. Having you close to me and not really having you is eating me alive, Hailey.”
He pulled me close with his hand behind my head and kissed me.
When he pulled back he said, “I want to be more than just Noah’s dad to you. I want to be your lover, your friend, your everything. Say yes.”
He took the words right out of my mouth and I was the one to kiss him this time.
“Oh yes,” I whispered against him lips, hungry for him.
He groaned and I clenched my fingers in the collar of tee shirt to keep him where I needed him. His hand pushed my shirt up my back before going back down to dip into my pants, cupping my behind through the lace-trimmed cotton underwear. I kissed along his jawline. He groaned when I nipped his chin.
“I need to see you.”
Wyatt ripped my shirt from me. The torn material was thrown carelessly to the side as Wyatt look at what he had uncovered with heated adoration.
He stared for so long that longtime insecurities reared their heads for a tiny second before he demolished them with two words. “Fucking gorgeous.”
His hands kneaded my breasts and he latched onto my nipple through the fabric of my bra. I tossed my head back and held his head to me. He started off slow, his head moving in time with the stroke of his tongue. I felt each tug low in my core. I was unable to keep my hips still.
He moved to the other peak but pulled the cup down before engulfing as much of me as he could.
Oh yes! Fire rushed from where his mouth suckled and spread quickly. Colors burst behind my eyelids. The ends of my hair touched my back and I shivered, leaning into the warmth of Wyatt’s hands.
My head rolled back to the front. I opened my eyes. He was looking up at me, those long lashes fanned over his eyes. He pulled stronger on my nipple and I moaned. He let it go with a wet, smacking sound only to flick his tongue in a slow circle.
Pulling his face up to mine, I pushed my tongue into his mouth. His hips jumped beneath mine and he groaned, matching my aggression.
My hands traveled do
wn his chest, still disappointingly shirt-clad. I needed to remedy that situation.
I tore at his clothing and his shirt fell to the floor in no time.
I didn’t get very far in my unclothing venture because he lifted me and carried me to the bedroom.
“I need to have you in a bed this time,” he said.
When we got into the room I switched our positions and got on top of him.
I copied his growl when the zipper of his full-length jeans didn’t cooperate. Larger hands joined mine.
I pushed them along with his underwear down his hips when the task was done, nipping at his lower lip before licking it in the process.
I gripped him. His hips arched off the mattress.
“Damn, Hailey, you’re killing me.”
I knew what movements made him tremble, which ones made his breath shudder out on a rough praise and I used every one as I stroked him. His head moved back and forth on the wall yet his eyes were zeroed in on me. His hands on my hips clenched and released.
“Oh shit, baby. I need to touch you, too.”
His move was too fast for me to intercept, not that I wanted to. My back was against the bed and his large body blanketed mine. I didn’t lose my grip on his cock and continued to fondle him. His hips pushed into mine as he leaned down to engulf my bare nipple while his hands work on unfastening my pants.
There was a tearing sound as his fingers entered my undies and slid through my wetness. The tightness of the pants restricted his movements. He knelt and pulled my shorts and panties down.
He didn’t return to his previous position but instead placed his head between my sprawled thighs. He spread me with his fingers and didn’t do anything but look.
He closed his eyes and inhaled deep. I felt my cheeks blush but it wasn’t embarrassment I felt. There was just heat as I tittered on the edge of something elusive.
Wyatt opened his eyes. “I’ve been dying to do this.”
His finger brushed against my clit. It was a light touch but my breath whooshed out in a trembling exhalation. Moisture was coating my inner thighs. “You’re so wet.” He repeated his action before his finger sank deep. “And so fucking tight.”
He stroked my thigh and withdrew. Caressing my slick skin, he gave my clit that same fleeting touch and entered me again. His tongue and mouth were drawing patterns on the insides of my thighs, moving closer and closer to my center as his finger started a slow rhythm.
“I can feel you.” His teeth scraped no more than an inch away from my puffy lips. My thighs quavered. “Every time I touch you, your pussy clenches and you get wetter and wetter.” He twisted his finger and he touched a sweet place no other man had. I was rising to meet his fingers. “Do you like that?”
The words were a hot caress against my skin. I nodded, incapable of speech.
“Then you’re going to love this.”
He laid his mouth on me. His eyes closed slowly, a little moan escaping. His tongue found my bud. My breathing echoed around us when he curled his mouth around it, the sucking motion of his mouth concentrated there. His finger felt fuller and I realized he added a second. Together, mouth and fingers dragged incoherent sounds from my throat and involuntary actions from my body.
“Wyatt, please.” There was need in my voice and I was losing all sense of me, falling down a never ending spiral. My hand on his head, I pulled him closer, trying to capture the feeling.
I exploded with a choked whimper. His hands kept my trembling hips in place as he continued his torture until he rang every bit of the climax from my body.
Any lingering reservations I had about doing this with him melted in the heat of my desire.
“I love you,” I admitted.
“I love you,” he told me right back.
EPILOUGE
Wyatt
We had come a long way since I found out about Noah being my son.
It was graduation day for both of us.
I had accepted a residency a couple of hours away from Bradberry and immediately asked Hailey and Noah to join me. She had agreed, after turning down a residency in the South. Labs and focus was more her thing than patients. She ended up applying to multiple labs nears my new hospital and got to take her pick. She was always smarter than I was.
And Noah wasn’t a little boy any more, and I think I honestly was enjoying his coming into his own, more than when he was little. He had a funny sense of humor, and he was always messing around with Hailey and me. He was becoming a really cool kid, and I thought I had a hand in that.
We were out celebrating our graduation at a restaurant in the upper class part of town and the upcoming move with my mom, Hailey’s family and of course, Noah.
The boy gave me a conspiratorial wink and I winked back. He was seven now and growing like a weed.
I got down on one knee and watched Hailey’s eyes widen. She covered her mouth with one hand as they grew damp with tears
“What are you doing?” she asked from behind her hand.
I took her free hand in mine and smiled up at her as I said, “Hailey, I knew we had a rocky start once we reconnected but these past few years have been the best of my life. You have made me the happiest man alive by giving me the best son anyone could ask for and loving me unconditionally. I love you and the life that we are building. I can’t imagine living without you. I don’t want to. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
Tears were freely running down her cheeks by the time I was done and she dropped to her knees in front of me and took my face between her hands. She pulled until our mouths met.
“Is that a yes?”
She nodded while laughing around her tears.
“Yes,” she answered but the word came out muffled against my lips.
“She said yes!” Noah announced to the onlookers, most of who promptly laughed and applauded.
“You knew?” Hailey asked.
“Of course. Dad asked my permission,” Noah said, chest puffed up and beaming with pride.
His smile was infectious and I broke out into a grin too.
I turned back to look at Hailey, “I love you.”
She smiled, her eyes sparkling with just the mist of tears. “I love you too.”
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Covert Love
A Second Chance Military Romance
By Nicole Elliot
ONE
Jade
Someone is following me.
As the thought hit me, I stopped walking and glanced over my shoulder. At the far end of the market, I saw four men carrying weapons.
Are they after me? Maybe leaving the base on my own wasn’t such a good idea.
Panic set in, but I took a deep breath while thinking of my best option. I continued forward a few steps, trying to blend in with my covered head.
After a few steps, I noticed a strange old man in traditional garb staring up at me from the shade of his booth.
“Can I help you?” he asked in English, surprising me.
“Some men are following me.”
He motioned with his hand.
“Step inside out of the sun and have a seat.”
His shop – if you could call it that – seemed innocent enough. Shelves full of candles filled the walls. He sat cross-legged on a mat near the entrance.
Not all locals are bad guys, I reminded myself.
“Thank you. It’s so hot out today.”
“Scorching.”
I stepped into his booth and sat down on a wooden box across from him.
“What is a woman like you doing here by yourself?” he asked, studying my face.
“I’m a journalist working on a story,” I said. “About FOB Cobra, the base nearby.”
“I know it well,” he said, nodding his head.
“It’s not safe for a Western woman like you to be alone here.”
“I know. I snuck out today to talk to locals without the military around. I thought I might get a better story.”
“My name is Abdul-lateef,” he said. “And you?”
“Jade Hart.”
He smiled, showing a mouth with a few missing teeth.
“What a beautiful name.”
“Thank you,” I said.
He smiled.
“It’s good for people to hear the truth about Afghanistan. Are you an honest reporter?”
As his ancient eyes stared into mine, I shifted in my makeshift seat.
“I would say so.”
He nodded solemnly.
“Would you like water?”
“Sure.”
I watched as he leaned over and dipped a metal cup into a bucket of water next to him.
“Do you have a bottle?” I asked.
He tilted his head and stared at me.
“This water is clean. Look.”
After taking a sip, he offered me the cup.
“I believe you, but I have a sensitive stomach,” I lied. “I need bottled water.”
Outside, I heard an angry male yelling in Pashto.
“They’re looking for you!” the old man said, standing up. “Come with me. I’ll hide you.”
I stared further into his booth as he held out his hand.
“Come, come. We must go.”
“I don’t know…”
“Everything in Afghanistan is not as it seems. I can help you.”
If you were to measure my panic in that moment, it would have been off the charts.
“No thanks,” I said, stepping outside the booth.
He frowned, looking hurt. I scanned the market for any signs of the Taliban faithful.
Where did they go?
“Come, come,” the man said urgently. “Trust me.”
“Sorry, I trust no one.”
I stepped away from his booth, trying to blend in with the locals. If I made it to the edge of the market, I could find a taxi driver to take me back to FOB Cobra. It was one of the older forward operating bases still in operation in Afghanistan.
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