by B. B. Hamel
“You hungry?” he asks me.
“Sure am. Another night of canned beans?”
He grins at me. “Of course not. I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh really?”
“Really, really. Come on.”
He takes my hand and we head back to camp. Mack follows, dragging his log along with him. We’re camped just over a short rise, our gear all set up and ready. The fire crackles and something smells amazing.
“Salmon,” he says, grinning. “Ta-da!”
“How?” I ask him, laughing. There’s nothing around here for miles.
“I caught them. I think it’s the end of the hatching season, the river is practically flooded with them.”
Two enormous salmon are roasting over the fire, and they smell incredible. He clearly prepped them, cut their heads off and everything, so I didn’t have to see their guts and stuff, which I appreciate. Once, out in Germany, he caught some fish but neglected to chop their heads off. I refused to eat them. Clearly he’s learning.
We settle down, leaning up against a fallen tree, and eat. It’s delicious. Mack gets his share and seems content to lie down next to us as the sun sets, sending swirls of pink through the sky.
“Beautiful out here,” Connor says.
I nod against him. “Yeah. It’s perfect.”
“You ever think about settling down?”
I shrug. “Sometimes, I guess.”
“How about right here?”
I frown and look at him. “What do you mean?”
“We’re here for a reason, Syd,” he says, grinning at me. “This property, something like four acres, is for sale. And I want to buy it.”
“You’re joking?”
“Not at all,” he says. “Think about it. We’ll own part of that river. We can have fresh salmon whenever. We can get more dogs, or chickens, or whatever we want. I’ll build our house and we’ll live like kings. There’s a road nearby, so I’ll build a driveway out to it.”
I stare at him for a second then burst into tears. I don’t know what the heck I’m crying over, because I’m so happy, so damn happy.
“Syd,” he says. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I say. “This is perfect.”
“One more thing,” he says. “Before we buy this place, we have to get married.”
“I guess so.”
“Good. Glad you think so. Because your mother is already on a flight.”
I gape at him. “You’re joking?”
“Not at all. There’s a chapel in town that’ll marry us.”
“Connor!”
“I love you, Syd. Let’s make a life here.”
“Okay,” I say. “God, this is amazing. Okay.”
I kiss him, deep and full, and I know this is what my life will be like. This is the sort of man Connor is. He gives me what I want when I don’t even realize it’s what I want. He takes care of me, protects me, makes me feel things I never envisioned.
I want a family with him. I want children and dogs and chickens. I want it all. Or maybe one day, we’ll change our minds, and go traveling again. I don’t know what the future holds.
But I know it holds more of him, and that’s all I need. More Connor, endless hours of Connor. He fills my life up, makes it complete, gives me meaning and direction.
“I love you,” I say to him.
“I love you too.”
We kiss, Mack barks, and it’s perfect, too perfect, just perfect enough.
Second Chance SEAL
Prologue: Piper
I never thought I’d see him again, that bastard, that player. I never thought I’d see his cocky smile peer over the edge of the covers at me, never thought I’d feel his muscular arms wrapped around my body.
We met at a wedding, and I thought it was over after that. Maybe I wanted more, maybe there was more between us, but as soon as we got back home, he disappeared without a trace.
I didn’t go looking for him, but I also didn’t stop thinking about him. I kept feeling his skin against mine, his lips against my soaking spot working me, pushing me, making me go further than I thought I ever would. With him, it was always right.
I moved on. I found someone new. He was history.
History never seems to want to stay dead.
When I went running back to him, needing his help but hating myself for turning to him, I knew it was only a matter of time.
It was only a matter of time until he had me down on my knees, dripping wet and begging for more, my mind a blank, my lips wide open, his fingers sliding along my skin.
I’d melt into a puddle for him, and he’d ask for more from me.
He knew I couldn’t say no. Worse, he knew I didn’t want to say no.
That cocky bastard. That total asshole.
He disappeared once on me, leaving me brokenhearted. I thought I moved on.
But as soon as I went running back to him, I knew I was going to get sucked back in.
I needed to survive the people that were after me, and then I needed to survive him.
1
Piper
Destination weddings suck.
Everyone knows it. Nobody has a destination wedding and thinks that they’re doing everyone else a favor. Destination weddings are expensive, difficult, and a pain in the butt.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t exactly turn my back on Lauren. We’d known each other since high school and I promised her way back when in gym class that I’d be her maid of honor. Apparently, promises made in gym class are sacred, because I booked that ticket, bought that dress, and drove to the airport.
Hawaii was going to be beautiful, at least. I leaned back in my seat, taking a deep breath of stale airplane air. I hated flying, but I had no other choice. It wasn’t like I could drive a car across the ocean. Well, maybe a boat, but that would take forever.
I sighed, glancing down at the crappy gossip magazine I bought in the airport terminal to help tide me over on the long flight.
Things were going to be okay, I kept telling myself. This was going to be a beautiful wedding. So what if the plane ticket cost me like half my savings? Lauren was my best friend, and she’d do it for me. I was going to this wedding and I was going to be the best maid of honor imaginable, even if that was the last thing I really wanted to do.
I glanced up and watched the people filter onto the flight. I could feel the plane bounce as the bag guys tossed the luggage into the plane’s holding compartment. Families in Hawaiian shirts filtered on, looking pale and happy, ready for their vacation. I willed myself to feel that same way, trying to dispel any negativity lurking in the back of my mind.
As it turned out, being the weather girl for a local news station didn’t pay a whole lot. I could just barely afford my New York apartment, and every day was a struggle to figure out how I was going to find some novel combination of clothes to wear the next morning on screen.
I never imagined I’d end up as a weather girl. I went to UC Berkeley to study Earth Sciences, and thought I’d end up trying to save the world or something like that. Instead, my uncle got me a job working for the network, and eventually I ended up in front of the camera. Sure, I still did actual forecasting work behind the scenes, but it wasn’t exactly my dream job. I made the best of it, and even enjoyed it sometimes, but I did find myself thinking about other possibilities of what I could be doing with myself.
None of that mattered, though. I was a poor, struggling weather girl going to her best friend’s wedding. That was everything about me. I was boring and normal otherwise, maybe a little nerdy, maybe a little quiet.
The last of the passengers began to filter on. I watched as they walked past, one after the other, until I spotted him.
He nearly took my breath away. He was tall and strikingly handsome with a strong jawline, bright green eyes, tousled hair, and slight stubble along his cheeks. His body was muscular, and the guy clearly worked out. He had one a pair of perfectly-fitting jeans, a tight white T-shirt, an
d a camouflage backpack, the kind you saw soldiers carrying.
As he moved down the aisle, he caught my eye. I felt totally frozen as a slight grin spread across his face. He moved past me, and a chill ran down my spine.
I turned and watched him sit down a few seats back. He was the last person on, and so the flight attendants were moving down the aisle, making sure everything was okay.
I watched as one of the younger attendants, a pretty blonde girl, caught his eye. She leaned down and said something to him, and he said something back, making her laugh.
I watched the whole exchange, totally horrified. Was this guy serious? He was on the plane for maybe thirty seconds and he was already flirting with one of the flight attendants. I couldn’t hear what he was saying or what she was saying, but I could tell that she was interested based on the way she was leaning toward him and smiling.
What a cocky asshole. He didn’t even have the decency to wait until the plane had taken off before he started in on the attendants. I quickly looked away before he caught me staring, frowning at the seat in front of me.
Why did I care what that guy did? It wasn’t like we knew each other. He was just some sexy as hell stranger that smiled at me as he walked past. And maybe he wasn’t even hitting on her, maybe he was just asking her some nice, polite question.
Yeah, right. I saw the way he was looking at her, like he wanted to drag her into that tiny bathroom and strip her clothes off.
The crazy thing was, I wanted him to do that to me. I had this overwhelming urge to let that total stranger take me back into that tiny bathroom and strip my clothes off, make me sweat, make me come.
That wasn’t like me at all. I crossed my legs, being careful of the seat in front of me, and opened up my magazine.
It was going to be a long flight. I just had to forget about that handsome stranger.
Except as the plane took off, I kept picturing him back there, and wondering what it would feel like if I did something absolutely crazy.
2
Gates
Hawaii was hot as fuck. Not as hot as the Afghanistan desert, or fucking Fallujah, but pretty damn hot. I stepped out into the heat and slipped on my sunglasses, looking around for Greg.
He was late, of course. Couldn’t trust that guy. I moved over to a shaded pillar and leaned up against it. The other passengers slowly filtered out, getting into taxis and shit. I caught sight of that cute girl, the sexy one with the gorgeous lips. I kept thinking about her the whole flight, although I was pretty busy trying to get in that stewardess’s panties. I watched as the pretty girl gathered her bags, and I was treated to a lovely view of her tight little ass. She stood in another shaded spot, waiting for someone to get her too.
Briefly, I considered going up to her, but I already had that stewardess’s number in my pocket. Plus, I was exhausted from the flight.
I wondered how she’d look sliding up and down my hard cock. She was slim, with great breasts and a gorgeous face. I loved her pouty lips, and wanted to slowly slide her down the length of my cock until she moaned for more.
Instead, I was stuck standing out in the heat, waiting on that asshole.
Twenty minutes. He was fucking twenty minutes late. Finally, he pulled up in this black convertible, grinning at me.
“You’re late,” I said, throwing my pack into the trunk.
“I’m here, ain’t I?”
I climbed into the passenger seat. “Good to see you.”
“Good to see you too, brother. Surprised you’re still in one piece.”
I grinned at him. “You know me. I’m made of tougher stuff than the average grunt.”
“That you are.”
Greg and I did a tour of Iraq together two years back. He’d been home for a year, while I just got back from my second tour a few weeks ago.
It was good to see him, even if he was a bastard. We were both in Hawaii for some wedding. It wasn’t normally my thing, but when a brother in arms got married, I made it a point to get there. That was a bond no normal person could understand, and I took it seriously.
“What are we waiting for?” I asked him.
“Got one more passenger.”
I laughed. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Lauren’s friend, Piper. You know her?”
“Nah,” I said. “Been too busy getting shot at in the fucking desert to meet your future wife’s friends.”
“Fair enough.” He craned his neck, looking around, and then waved. “Hey, Pipes!”
I watched as the pretty girl from the plane looked up, smiled, and walked over.
My heart started hammering in my chest. What were the fucking chances that it was her? She gave me this look, and I only caught it because I was trained to read people’s faces. She looked as surprised as I felt, and there was something else in that glance. I couldn’t tell what it was since I was too busy staring at her.
She was more gorgeous than I thought. Up close, she was fucking perfect. She smiled at Greg.
“Nice of you to show up,” she said.
“I’m here now,” he grumbled.
She laughed. I got out to help her with her bags.
“Pipes, this is Gates. Gates, Pipes. She’s the maid of honor.”
“Good to meet you,” I said to her, smiling.
“Same.”
She let me put her bags in the trunk and climbed into the back. I got into the passenger side.
“Ready, kids?” he asked.
“Let’s roll,” I said.
Greg pulled out into traffic. I glanced back at Piper and grinned as the wind whipped her hair. She didn’t seem to mind, though, and smiled back at me.
“You two have a good flight?” Greg asked.
“Perfect,” Piper said. “Except there was this creepy guy that kept flirting with the flight attendants.”
I stared at her for a second then burst out laughing. “I didn’t see any creeps,” I said.
“Oh, he was hard to miss. Soldier type. Big camo backpack, thought he was the coolest thing in the world.”
“Sounds like an okay guy to me.” I smirked at her. “Are you jealous that he was flirting with that stewardess and not with you?”
“Not at all,” she said.
“That sounds like a lie to me.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I’m a Navy SEAL, you know. I’m trained for these things.”
“Oh, are you?” She smiled. “You just seemed like a muscle-brained jock to me.”
“Ouch,” I said, still smiling. I liked her fire. I had to admit, it excited me way more than that vapid stewardess had. “Truth is, I’m very good at advanced interrogation techniques. I’d love to show you sometime.”
“No, thanks. I’m not into torture.”
“Don’t worry. I’d make it fun.”
She rolled her eyes. Greg started to laugh.
“Okay,” he said. “Enough of that. Be nice. You two have to get along at this wedding or Lauren will fucking castrate me.”
“Thought she already did?” I asked him.
“Funny,” he said. “Just behave. Got it?”
“Aye aye,” I said, glancing back at Piper.
She smiled up at me, and in that moment I knew exactly what she wanted.
The girl wanted to fuck me.
Despite that prissy attitude, she wanted to suck my thick cock until I fucked her rough from behind. I knew she was probably sitting back there, dripping wet and imagining all the fucking dirty shit I’d do to her body.
Right then and there, I knew I was going to give her what she wanted. Fuck that stewardess, I didn’t need her. Piper was the only girl that I wanted to taste at this wedding, and I was going to get what I wanted.
Greg drove us back to the hotel where we dropped Piper off. She left with a smile and a wave, though her gaze lingered on me for a second. When she was gone, Greg sighed.
“Fuck, man,” he said. “Why are you always such an asshole?”
“To be fair,
she did start it.”
“I don’t care. That’s Lauren’s best friend. Like I don’t get enough shit as it is.”
“Sorry if I blew up your spot, man. But I’m not the type to take shit like that.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” He grinned at me. “You ready for this?”
“Ready for what?”
“Bachelor party time, motherfucker.”
I laughed. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. It’s last minute, but I waited for you. The guys are already at the bar getting fucked up in my honor.”
“Well then, soldier, we can’t keep them waiting.”
He laughed, put the car into gear, and pulled out. We sped off into the hot Hawaii day, an afternoon and night of debauchery waiting for us.
But despite that, I just kept thinking about Piper. That attitude, those looks, those fucking lips. Maybe I’d been in the damn desert for too long, but Piper had somehow infected my brain, and all I could think about was getting her into my hotel room.
I was going to make that happen, and she was going to thank me for it.
3
Piper
I was so exhausted that I crashed almost as soon as I got into my hotel room. I stopped off to check in on Lauren first, but she was too busy getting swarmed by relatives to notice if I was around or not. So I went back to my big comfy bed and collapsed.
I slept straight through the night, and had one dream. In it, Gates took me by the hand, smiling that cocky smile, and dragged me into a tiny bathroom. He kissed along my neck, and even though I called him an asshole and a jerk, he just kept going. Soon, I was moaning as he fucked me, his cock thick and deep between my legs.
I woke up around five in the morning, completely rested and soaking wet.
I rolled over onto my side, trying to forget about that dream. It had been so intense and vivid. I didn’t know why I kept thinking about Gates like that. He was a total jerk and a cocky asshole, but that didn’t seem to matter. All I kept thinking about was his handsome face, his ripped body, his confident smile.