His Beauty_The Wounded Souls

by Leah Sharelle

  Holy shit.

  Trust.

  I fucking trusted Mia with my life. My issues with my leg had all been mine, nothing to do with her. I never believed she would react like the other women. A fact I probably should have already conveyed to her, but I was an idiot, after all. I slowly pressed my lips to Mia’s, which were so soft, so plump, and so mine. Everything about Mia was mine and would be until I took my last breath on this earth. I angled my head and deepened our kiss. It was always like this, starting out sweet and soft but revving up in a matter of seconds because my need for her was that potent.

  Her whimpered moan filled my senses as her tongue slid over mine, sucking it deeper into her mouth, making me moan. Making me hard as fucking steel. Without breaking the kiss, I turned us and walked back to the bed.

  “Take it off, Beauty, and then make love to your man,” I whispered. I didn’t know what was going to happen tomorrow, I had no fucking clue, but the number of ways this mission could go wrong was phenomenal, and my gut churned, feeling like battery acid had taken up residence in there, just at the thought of my Mia in danger. I couldn’t lose her, it was unacceptable, and clenching my fists, I suddenly felt the intense need to go work out, to punish my body until I couldn’t feel anymore.

  “Hey, babe, look at me,” Mia demanded from on her knees in front of me, her hands resting on my thighs.

  Instantly, I relaxed with her touch. It was all her—her touch, her voice, her support, her fucking delectable body, which drove me insane with lust and need, and her carrying my baby safely inside her. I raised my eyes and looked straight into her chocolate ones. I hoped our baby girl had her mother’s eyes, which were so kind and like a window to her soul.

  “I don’t want to think about anything other than you being deep inside me, your mouth on me, and your hands soothing my burning skin. I burn for you, Cooper, ache with need for you. I love you.” She finished in a whisper, her words a match to the flame that was my heart.

  Reaching for my belt, I made quick work of removing it and my pants and shoes. Next, I stripped off my dress shirt and sat there naked with Mia still on her knees in front of me. Her eyes were firmly on my hard as steel dick that was currently bobbing against my lower stomach. Her clever tongue swiped across her bottom lip, leaving wetness, which I wanted to suck away. Her taste imprinted on me, I wanted more all the fucking time.

  I watched as her hands moved in a gentle pattern over my thighs and then lower. One hand traced a path all the way down to my calf while the other... Oh shit. I couldn’t help but tense as she touched my prosthesis. Today, I had on my usual every day one, which was just the regular plastic kind. It was lightweight, and I found it more comfortable to ride my bike and do just the normal, everyday stuff at work with it. I had two others, a titanium one and a sports blade. I still enjoyed running, and the blade was fantastic for that. I guess I was luckier than others were with it being a transtibial amputation, and I was finally starting to realise that now with Mia’s help.

  Mia reached down and clicked the button at the bottom of the prosthesis, just near where my ankle would normally be. Taking off the leg, I watched in awe as Mia removed the socks and then the liner, which had a pin at the bottom that clicked into the prosthetic. She did all this on her own with no words, no awkward questions or fumbling. Fuck, she must have researched it because that was the only way she would have known how. Not even Mannix had helped me with this procedure, no one other than the hospital staff when I first got it had. Christ on a crutch, how was it possible that I loved this beautiful woman even more right now?

  Without any prodding, Mia reached for the lotion and squirted a small amount into her palm, then gently massaged it into the end of the stump and around the top where the suction of the prosthesis could cause redness and, at times, sores if the suction wasn’t right. I felt tears prick at my eyes when her head lowered and she placed the gentlest of kisses right there, the ugly scars and puckered skin that haunted me being tendered to with love by my woman.

  Her eyes reached mine, and I saw nothing that even resembled disgust. Just love.

  Pulling her to me, I held her sexy body against my naked one. I needed to bury myself in her for the next five hours until the sun came up. I needed to feel her slick walls choking my dick as she came beneath me and over me. But I also needed a moment. This was the last step to acceptance of who I was now, a big fucking step, fucking huge. Overwhelmed with feelings, I took a moment and buried my face in the crook of Mia’s neck. Her soft, warm skin like a welcome as I let the tears I felt earlier fall.

  “Thank you, my beauty.” I sobbed.

  “Always, my love,” she whispered.

  Finally, I felt whole again.

  36

  Mia

  I couldn’t help the huge smile that was on my lips. Or the tears leaking and falling into my hair and down onto my pillow, but they were good tears, great tears, unbelievably fantastic, wonderful tears.

  Steel had been asleep for the last hour, finally drifting off after the fifth time he brought my body to ecstasy. I had to say, he was relentless in his pursuit of that magic number. My body was covered in whisker burn and love bites, but I was not complaining. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, my man had an impressive repertoire of ways to make my body sing for him. And only for him.

  The hand that was firmly on my lower body moved in slow strokes. Even in sleep, his need to touch me is infinite. How did I get so lucky? How did I manage to have all my dreams come true? Whatever the reason, I would never do anything to ruin this chance I had been gifted. I only hoped the meeting with Tori wouldn’t tear down my happily ever after

  ————

  “This is your earpiece. It’s small so it won’t be detected, and the little switch on it turns it off. Do not turn it off. The microphone is just under your collar here.” Steel pointed to where Ford stitched the tiny black button-looking thing on the inside of the collar of my T-shirt. It was so small that I couldn’t even feel it. Ford explained it was a wireless Bluetooth device, making it totally undetectable and safer for me.

  I nodded in understanding without taking my eyes from the sexy man in front of me. He was dressed all in black, military style, the special ops kind. All of the guys were not only dressed the same but were all sombre and strictly business. Sending in someone they cared for or, in Steel’s case, loved was hard on them. They were used to doing this sort of thing on their own as a team, and it was killing them that they had to use me this way.

  Steel had been quiet most of the day. After we woke up and went for round six in the bath, he made me breakfast, kissed me passionately, then left and didn’t return for more than seven hours. I knew where he went—the gun shop with Booth to grab all the weaponry they needed for this mission. When they got back to the compound, all the guys, sans Deck, locked themselves in the war room. Lunch came and went, and Stella cooked a lovely meal for her, Vegas, Rainn, and me. I, of course, received a text from the stud to remind me to eat plenty. So bossy.

  He emerged about an hour ago—dressed like a sexy ninja—and without emotion dressed me in a bulletproof vest and the communication devices. When I said ‘without emotion,’ that was what everyone else could see. But for me? I could read the man’s face like a book. Every tick of his jaw and every flash of his beautiful green eyes showed his struggle. So, the least I could do was to make it easier and not sass at him.

  Looking over his shoulder at the bar, I could see Rainn was going through the same as me. Mannix was in front of her, helping her with her earpiece. It was decided that Rainn would be at the Bar and Grill before I arrived there. Tori might have been a slut, but she wasn’t stupid. She would never believe the guys allowed me to be at work on my own. So Rainn was roped in. I couldn’t tell if she was happy about it or not because her face was passive, not giving away anything, except for the way her hand glided over Mannix’s as he fixed the same bulletproof vest I was wearing to her body. But when his hand stopped over her stomach, she flinched away.
Even from my position across the room, I detected the beads of sweat on her perfect wrinkle-free forehead.

  “You putting on weight, sexy dancer?” I heard Mannix tease, but the scowl Rainn gave him was anything but amused.

  “You saying I’m getting fat?” she yelled at him, but there was something not right. This was them, back and forth good-humoured insults, but Rainn was overreacting. What was going on with her? Mannix stood to his full height, gripped her hips, and gave her a slight shake.

  “What the fuck is going on with you, lady? This isn’t you or us. You have been different lately. Why?”

  Forgetting for a moment about the task I had been given by the club, I stood transfixed as the scene between the two bed-buddies played out in front of everyone.

  “This isn’t us? Are you serious, Mannix? What us? I dance for you, and we regularly hook up and fuck. That’s it. That is us,” Rainn yelled at him, pushing him in the chest.

  The move had absolutely no impact on the road captain. He not only stood his ground but he reached out and planted his mouth squarely over Rainn’s mouth. Holy shit! His hands cupped her arse and brought her off her feet. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and the sexy dancer used him like she would her pole, grinding and writhing against him.

  Oh, God, I can’t go there. Mannix is practically my brother-in-law. I can’t be thinking about what is going on in his pants, and I really have to stop watching this, like right now. Oh my, is his hand going...

  “Jesus Christ, Mannix, stop!” Rainn cried out as she untangled herself from his body and wrapped her arms around herself.

  Mannix’s face was a combination of arousal and pissed off, and his fists were clenched. I could tell from my vantage point that he was just as affected by their passion as Rainn was. Only Rainn looked mortified and scared as well as horny.

  “Did that feel like we just fuck? You better start talking, Lady, because your attitude lately has me itching to spank that sexy arse of yours,” he told her.

  Hmm, I wonder if Steel would consider adding spanking to our repertoire. The very thought of him reddening my butt had me rubbing my legs together.

  “Beauty, you want me to put you across my lap and spank you until you come all over me?” Steel whispered in my ear.

  I nearly groaned when he took my earlobe between his teeth and gave it a gentle tug before soothing it with his tongue. Oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I shouldn’t be wet right now, but I was. The tingling sensation between my legs just intensified as my dirty mind went to places it had no business going considering the job I was about to do. Damn it, the job. Focus, Mia, focus.

  Smacking Steel lightly on the chest, I smirked at him. “Definitely later, stud. Maybe you can even tie me to the bed, and we can play Christian Grey. Ooh, maybe Stella will let us borrow her leg spreader.” That was my favourite scene in the movie, and on movie night, the other girls in the flock and I watched it over and over.

  “Jesus, Beauty.” Steel’s pained groan against my neck made me giggle. He was so easy to rile up.

  An extremely loud, shrill whistle interrupted the drama of Rainn and Mannix and my sexual desires.

  “Fucking enough!” Booth’s booming authoritative voice got our attention.

  “Mannix, you get yourself to the Bar and Grill and get in position.”

  “Pres, this shit needs to be settled,” Mannix argued, but Booth shook his head.

  “Later, brother. Whatever is going on between the two of you don’t need to be done in front of an audience. Agreed?” Booth said. His intense grey eyes lingered on the club’s stripper, seeing something the rest of us didn’t.

  Mannix spared a glance at Rainn, who seemed to be lost in her head. Her face was white as a sheet, and her posture held a look of defeat to it. What the hell? What had Rainn acting like a wounded kitten instead of the sexy kitten she normally was? Nodding his head, Mannix gave the mandatory chin lift.

  “Okay then, Darth, you get Mia and Rainn to the bar. You are on tonight as detail, and Tori will know this. Give Creed and Steel a ten-minute start to get into position, then once you drop them off, show your face, do a sweep as normal, and then go black. I will be in the vacant building across the street as planned, which no one knows we own.” As Booth barked out orders, he was arming himself with handguns and what looked like grenades.

  Oh, God, this was serious. What kind of trouble were they expecting?

  Steel grabbed my hand and laced his fingers with mine. My heart was beating like crazy, but Steel’s touch was grounding, and I instantly calmed.

  “Steel.” Booth invited my man to take over.

  Giving my hand a final firm squeeze, Steel leaned down and kissed me with exquisite tenderness, making tears burn in my eyes. As he pressed his forehead against mine, his eyes closed, and he was panting. He needed to focus on something other than me right now if we were to get through this whole.

  Pulling up my figurative big-girl panties, I pressed a chaste kiss to his soft lips.

  “Go do your thing, stud.” I turned and made my way over to Rainn. It was so hard to walk away from Steel and his warmth, but I had to. He had the lead on this mission—which he’d insisted on, and I agreed with that. The men of the Wounded Souls were protective and capable men. Capable of keeping Rainn and me safe without a doubt, but there was no one I trusted more to keep our little girl and me safe than Steel.

  37

  STEEL

  “Comms, check,” I demanded in a low but hard voice.

  “Whiskey, check,” Mannix answered.

  “Bossman, check,” Booth came through in deep growl.

  “Vader, check.” Darth grunted.

  “Apollo, check,” Creed said through gritted teeth. He hated the name we anointed him with.

  Holding in a laugh, I confirmed my comms check, too.

  “Superman, check.” I couldn’t help but grin. My mission name was so cool—well, mine and Deck’s name. If he had been here with us, he would be proudly sprouting his code name—Fonzie.

  “Beauty, check.”

  Ah, fuck, there went my heart. Mia’s beautiful voice poured into my ears. There was fear in her voice, but I detected a hint of humour, too. At the compound, when I fitted her with the communication device, she had been so impressed with herself. She’d spoken into it with an exaggerated military voice. Since then, she had been trying to come up with a more impressive codename for herself, but as far as I was concerned, she couldn’t do better than beauty or the most beautiful name in the world—Mia.

  I fought the smile that threatened to come out and pushed the small button at my throat that allowed my voice to be heard.

  “Need you to go quietly now, Beauty. No more talk.”

  “Roger that, Stud. Sexy pregnant mama out.”

  “Oh, fuck me.” Creed’s low growl came over the airwaves.

  I was too busy laughing to reply. She liked that codename the best, but Darth and Creed refused to give her permission to use it.

  “Enough. Concentrate.” Booth’s firm command brought back the seriousness of this mission. He was right. My woman was in the Bar and Grill with Rainn, wired with a listening device, waiting for the club’s traitor to turn up.

  Instantly, I got into the mindset of a sniper. The ability to take my heart out of the situation and concentrate on the task at hand was ingrained in me, but could I take my heart out? Mia owned it, and she was inside putting herself and our baby at risk all because she trusted me, loved me.

  “Brother, get in the zone. You are no good to her any other way. She needs Superman right now, and so does your child and Rainn,” Creed said into the comms, and just like that, a switch flipped, and I was who I was supposed to be at that moment.

  “Team five, be alert. We’ve got a vehicle entering the car park,” Darth reported.

  I flicked the safety off my rifle and got myself comfortable. Mia’s life was in my hands, and there was no way anything was going to happen that would take that life away from me. Wasn’t happen
ing.

  38

  Mia

  Giggling, I stopped talking to Steel. This was serious, but that codename was just too funny for me not to use it at least once.

  “Something funny?” Rainn asked with a scowl on her face as she slammed dirty glasses into the dishwasher situated behind the bar. The Bar and Grill had a huge commercial dishwasher in the kitchen for the big jobs, but the guys had put a smaller one under the bar for quick washes on the busier nights and to make it easier on the bar staff. But the way Rainn was punishing the glasses had me worried they wouldn’t survive before they got washed.

  That was it! She was going to tell me what was wrong with her.

  “Rainn, what the hell is going on with you lately?” She had me exasperated. “What happened to the fun-loving, friendly Rainn? The Wounded Souls’ best dancer and party girl. The chick who can do anything from decorating, babysitting, and helping a poor, hapless woman find out where her menstrual cycle is at so she can figure out if her one-night stand turned fiancé got her pregnant. I want that Rainn back,” I shouted at her. It was completely out of character for me and was totally the wrong time to be getting into this with her, considering, but enough was enough. Stella, Charlotte, and I had discussed having some sort of intervention for her, but it looked like this needed doing now.

  Rainn threw—yes, threw—one last glass onto the wire shelf and turned on me, fire in her emerald green eyes.

  “For fuck’s sake, Mia! There is nothing wrong,” she yelled back at me. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips, and the vest the guys made us wear sat above her belly button. The shirt she had underneath tightened that revealed a—

  Oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Oh no, no, no, no, no. This was not good. It was bad, bad, bad. Thinking quickly, I pointed to my comm and made a quick slashing motion at my throat. The guys could hear everything we were saying, and worse than that? Mannix was a few dozen feet away in the supply cupboard.