Back on shore after setting up the picnic area, Brett turned up the radio and rested back on the blanket to get a tan while Cameron built a sand castle with his bucket and tools. This is the life, Brett thought to himself as he slipped on his shades.
After a long week with the Corps, he could not think of anything better than spending time with his little family. He couldn’t recall once doing anything this fun and relaxing with Amy. She would always complain about it being too hot or not feeling like leaving the house. But Courtney was full of life. They were always going to the movies, out to eat, to see an exhibit, grilling outside or hitting the beach. And most of the time, she could find things to do without spending a dime.
For the first time in his adult life, he was seeing what other married men referred to as a happy home. It was a shame that he had to wait so long and wait until he was widowed to do it, but he still liked it just the same.
Closing his eyes, he drifted off in a blissful place somewhere in between sleep and a tranquil meditation.
Work had been hard since Baby Lawless arrived. Most nights, Brett had to take a stimulant to stay awake long enough to spend some time with Cameron and Courtney. The only thing he didn’t need a stimulant for was sex. His nostrils flared at the thought of it. He raised his head and watched Courtney catch a wave. Damn, she looked good. She was one hell of a woman and things had gotten even hotter and heavier since he said he loved her. And he did love her, even though they were sort of hiding it.
The thought of losing her made his stomach ache. Where would he be without her? She had swooped in like some comic book hero and basically saved his life and his career. And little Cameron seemed to be an altogether different kid.
“Wow! Look at Mommy,” Cameron said amazed as he pointed out at the water. He giggled infectiously. “I want to do that, Daddy.” His eyes were bright with wonder as he watched Courtney ride in on a large wave.
Brett sat up. “What did you just say?” He took off his shades and planted his large hand into the warm sand under him.
Cameron looked over and blinked. “I want to swim on the surfboard.” He had not even realized what he said. He looked innocently up at his father and smiled, waiting for Brett to tell him yes.
“Yeah, well, you’re a little too small for surfing right now. But I’ll show you how in just a few years.” Brett laid his head back down and sighed. Had his son been around Courtney so much until he thought that she was his new mother? An idea hit him. Lost in his thoughts, he came to the realization that Courtney had become both his and Cameron’s entire world. It was the smile in her eyes that had stolen them away. No woman he had ever known before possessed that kind of light inside.
***
Word came from up top that Second Reconnaissance Battalion was on its way back to Afghanistan by Christmas. It was for sure. The news hit Brett like a ton of bricks. Separation anxiety began to immediately set in. He had not left yet and he was already homesick.
The six-week haul to 29 Palms was definitely in his near future, and a serious conversation with Courtney about taking over all of Cameron’s parental care was even closer. This was that gray area for Brett. He needed her now in a different way, and his main worry was that the need would be misinterpreted as him using her.
During readiness for a deployment, he would never be at home, and she would feel the full burden of their arrangement. He only hoped that the stress of such responsibility would not run her away. When he first met her, it might have been for the fear of not having a babysitter. But now, he was worried about running her away because he couldn’t see his life without her. And without asking, he knew that Cameron could not either. She had become a part of them, and he prayed to God that she knew it.
Training had been going on a month and a half straight since Lawless arrived at Lejeune. And while he had gotten used to the running and the uniform inspections, the ops on the beach late at night and even the long stints in the field, he could never get used to the thought of going to Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan. The memories from that hellhole made him raw with emotion and ragged with anger. There were so many men who had been killed there, so much work to do. No matter how he looked at it, what he did for his country was more important than his private life, because it was his work that provided his family’s safety. No way in hell he would let those insurgent bastards gain even an inch against his country. And no way in hell that his men would ever let them forget what happened on September 11, 2001.
Thinking about all of the sacrifices and their contribution to the greater cause made being out training not so bad for Brett. It had been five days since he had seen or talked to Courtney or Cameron. Having spent nearly the last week burrowed in the bush training, outside of getting in a shower, the only thing he could think of was getting back to them.
Stinky and sweaty, he threw his gear in the back of his truck, flipped off Joe and headed straight to Swansboro. On the way, he thought of how many times he had made the same trip after the same field operation and ended up arguing with Amy. It made him stop, even with his uniform on, and dash into Food Lion for flowers and a bottle of wine. While Amy wasn’t worth the risk of being reprimanded for wearing his uniform off base, Courtney was.
By the time that he pulled up to his home, it was nightfall. He parked beside Courtney’s truck, grabbed his backpack and made his way in the house. From the outside, there wasn’t a light on. He wondered if he should be worried, but his gut didn’t wrench. So, he dismissed it.
He unlocked the front door quietly and turned off the alarm. The house smelled of expensive room spray and was illuminated by candles. He stopped at the door, dropped his backpack and pulled off his cover. “Courtney?” he called out.
“In here,” she answered.
He went to the dining room and found her sitting at the table under a candlelit dinner with nothing on but his Charlie uniform shirt and a pair of red, Patton leather stilettos. Her long legs were perched up on the table. Her shirt open. Her hair down. And her lips covered in a clear gloss.
Brett immediately had a hard on. With a crooked smile on his lips, he walked up to the table and sat down the bottle of wine. He carried the grocery store roses over to her. The plastic crackled under the hold of his grasp. “For you,” he said, bending down to kiss her lips. God, he loved those lips.
“Missed you,” she said, taking the roses.
“I see.” He kissed her again, this time deeper.
She had to pull away for a minute, familiar with how his touch affected her. Her heart pumped hard. “And I fixed dinner.” She pointed at the meal waiting for him.
“I see.” His hands racked through her thick mane. It fell over on his arm across his tattoo and smelled like fresh roses.
“Wanna eat first?” she asked as her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She rested her head in the palm of his large hand and relished in being in his presence again.
“Not really,” he answered, moving her shirt over to expose her perky brown globe. His eye twitched as he bent to kiss her pebbled nipple. His warm mouth enclosed the tip of her. Suckling and kissing her, he pulled at his belt. He managed to speak with a mouthful of breast tangled in around his tongue. “Where’s Cameron?” His quiet eyes moved up to gaze on her own.
“Exhausted. He’s been at school, then the beach, then the library. He conked out. Actually, I conked him out. I wanted to make sure that he didn’t have enough strength after dinner and a bath to stay awake.”
Scooping her up in his arms, he headed towards the den. “Well, I don’t want to wake him up, considering all that you’ve done to get him to sleep,” he whispered as he tugged at her earlobe with his teeth.
Suddenly, Courtney turned up her nose. “Baby?”
“Hmm?”
“What’s that smell?”
Brett had almost forgotten. He bit his lip. “Me. I forgot. Sorry. I need to take a shower,” he said, setting her down on her own two feet. He wished at that moment that she didn’t have
a sense of smell, because he was certain that he could gut out his own stench. Courtney, however, might gag.
“I can come with you,” she said with a naughty grin. “Wash those places that are hard for you to reach?” Her heavy lashed eyes flapped like wings.
Brett shook his head. It sounded good in theory only. “Think about it. Grown men out in the field for five days with an inch of toilet paper and no restrooms, sweating and working for twelve to fourteen hours straight. You sure you want some of that?” Humor laced his deep baritone.
When he said it like that, suddenly Courtney lost some of her enthusiasm. “Okay, I’ll wait for you in the den,” she said as she strode back over to the dinner table. “And being the good woman that I am, I’ll even fix you a plate for after.” The candlelight brought out the golden brown of her eyes and the beauty of her flawless skin.
“You may want to eat a little bit yourself, ma’am, to fuel your energy,” he said, walking to the stairwell. The thought of Afghanistan crossed his mind and he knew that after he made love to her, he’d have to break the news. But as she bent to make his plate and he got a view of her perfect backside decorated in only a red thong, he decided that there was no way in hell he would bring it up before. Hurrying quickly up the steps two at a time, he ran into the bathroom to shower.
***
Courtney had never been tied down before, but she had to admit that she liked it when Brett Black did it. It seemed the Staff Sergeant had use for the matching tie that went to his uniform. He had bound her to the leg of the couch and punished her over and over again with his mouth, then his rock-hard body and finally with his eyes as he gazed down at her covered with his seed.
He did right to take her to the den. She had screamed so loud until she had to bury her beautiful face in his chest to muzzle the sound. He had enjoyed every moment of it.
Legs splayed open, heels on, she had bucked hard against his body, taking every inch of him until she had come so hard until she could no longer put together words.
Brett finally untied her when they were done. Her long, shapely arms were limp above her. Attentively and carefully, he tended to her fresh carpet burn made red by the constant friction against the floor. She didn’t notice it before, but now she was certain it would leave a mark on her side.
His naked body was glistening with sweat as he stood over her. Breathing hard with his muscles rippling down his marble-like torso, he wiped her off with the throw cover, laid her down on the couch and went to the downstairs bathroom to grab a tube of Neosporin.
Alone in the dark room, Courtney rolled over to her side and struggled to fill her lungs with air. It hurt to swallow from the constant screaming. White dancing spots flashed in her eyes as she squinted to look across the room. Dehydration had set in and all she wanted was balm for her lips and water for her throat.
Running her shaking hands down the leather, she took in a deep breath and smelled him all over her. She inhaled through her mouth and exhaled out of her nose to slow her breathing, but she could still hear her heart beating loudly through her chest.
That was the most intense sex I’ve ever had, she thought to herself.
Did sex with him only get better? It seemed to. Every time he touched her, he did something new, something more passionate. It kept her wanting more, waiting for the next time. Even though he was only in the next room, she felt their separation. Love was a strange thing. Suddenly because of it, she was emotionally connected to this man unlike any lover she had ever had before. Her thoughts assailed her with such veracity until she had to simply stop and clear her mind.
Preceded by the echo of heavy footsteps down the hall, Brett walked back into the den and closed the door behind him. He turned on the lamp on the end table and quickly knelt over her. She looked over at him with a lazy smile and watched him rub the salve into her soft flesh, kneading the muscle with the palms of his hands. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said sincerely as he worked.
His blue eyes washed over her, looking for any other bruises he might have inflicted in his mad sexual rage. Five days was a long time to be away from home. It had shown when he came out of the shower and met her in the den two hours before. He had attacked her mercilessly, left no orifice unattended, no bare skin untouched.
As he recalled his sex session, he licked his lips and reminded himself to brush his teeth.
“You didn’t hurt me,” Courtney said, opening her lazy eyes. With a smile, she turned to him.
“No. Don’t move,” he grabbed her waist.
“Baby, I’m fine,” she giggled. “I feel…amazing.”
Brett’s eye twitched. “Well, you most definitely felt amazing, but I still should not have been so rough,” he said as he sat on the floor beside her. Cocking his legs up, he pushed his back against the couch and scratched his head. “Don’t go to sleep, okay,” he said, looking back at her.
“Why?”
“I need to talk to you?”
“That doesn’t sound good,” she said, sitting up. She moved her smooth legs over his shoulders.
Nuzzling the back of his head in between her sticky thighs, he picked up on her feminine scent. His body instantly responded. It already wanted more.
“Down boy,” Courtney ordered, looking over into his growing lap. “What’s on your big brain, not your little one?” she asked with a huff.
Brett sucked his bottom lip. “We received word today that we are headed to Afghanistan in December, before Christmas.”
Courtney’s smile disappeared. Running her hand through her long, dark locks she reached out and grabbed his shirt to cover her body. “Afghanistan? For how long?” she asked.
“Seven months.” His voice was flat.
“What are we going to do about Cameron? What are we going to do about us? I mean, my goodness.” She moved her legs from around him and scooted off the couch. Standing up in her heels with his shirt wrapped securely around her, she looked down at him and waited for an answer.
Brett remembered the many conversations that he had been forced to have with Amy about the same subject. None of the discussions ever ended well. She would always start out with the same questions and end up telling him that she wasn’t sure if she could wait for him, if she could do one more tour. Maybe he should have listened to her. He didn’t expect tonight’s discussion to be any different. It was only a matter of time before Courtney packed her things.
“I just found out today. I didn’t want to wait to tell you,” he said, looking up at her. Man, she looked beautiful standing in front of him, vulnerable, eager for his every word. He tried to focus, give her his full attention. She deserved at least that. “If you can’t deal with this, I understand, Cort. You didn’t sign up for deployments and…” his words trailed off. Unable to finish his sentence, he looked down at the floor. Hell, she knew what he meant. He didn’t have to explain any further. It was too damned painful anyway.
“That’s not what I meant,” Courtney corrected. She bent down in front of him and put her long manicured hands on his knees. “Look at me. Please.”
He looked up into her hazel eyes lost for words. She reminded him of summers on his family farm, of wheat and the ocean and everything that was good in the world. The thought of losing her crushed him into pieces.
She continued with a slap on his knee. Her tone was more upbeat. “I meant, what are we going to do about our little family…in case? Look Brett, I’m a military brat. Okay. I know what going on deployment means. As much as I hate to say it, you could stand the chance of never coming home.” Her eyes watered. How could she ever lose him? How could she ever manage to stay apart from him? A strain formed in her throat and her lip quivered.
He wiped her tears quickly. “Five tours so far and I’ve been lucky.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve been blessed. Lucky is finding a parking space. Blessed is surviving a war over and over again.” She sniffled. “So the question is what are we going to do? Cameron has become both of our respo
nsibility. And I’m not leaving him or you.”
Brett smirked.
“What?” she asked.
His voice was gruff and deep. A dimple exploded in his cheek. “Just something Joe said to me the other day. He said…uh…Marines fall in love in like five seconds and marry in ten minutes. He called us serial husbands.”
Courtney grinned. “Well, Marines have a shorter shelf life than normal people. So, they have to move faster,” she said, touching his face.
“I don’t want to pressure you into anything, but would it be too much for you to think about it? Think about marriage? About marrying me?” He stumbled over his words and cursed under his breath. No one had ever accused him of being eloquent.
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