Semper Fi (An Erotic Romance)

by Laura B. Cooper

  At this point I was exhausted; felt dirty and was desperately in need of something to eat. I’d texted Kelly and she was on the way with a change of clothes and breakfast. I stepped into the hallway and informed the stationary Marine guards to let her through when she got here. These guys were pretending to be guarding Buckingham Palace; nothing I said or did seemed to get a rise from them. Already I had an underlying game of trying to get them to express any real emotion. I knew they were there out of respect for our fallen soldiers as well as to guard anyone, including the Press from sneaking in here and sabotaging them. But I still taunted them whenever I was in the hallway.

  Kelly pushed through the heavy wooden door into Logan’s room. Her hands were filled with boxes of donuts, coffee and a back pack was thrown over her shoulder. I quickly jumped up from my chair to help her lighten her load. “Hey where are the rest of the donuts?” I chuckled as I opened a half empty box.

  “Those guys out there were hungry? What can I say, they were cute.” Kelly laughed.

  I ran to the door and peeked out the slight opening, sure enough the guards were all munching on donuts happily. How’d she do that? I swear my roommate has a way with men. I hugged her tightly as I settled back into my chair and filled my stomach.

  Kelly stood over Logan’s bed for several minutes; he was asleep and had been for a few hours. “He’s still hot,” she commented plainly.

  I chuckled. My cell phone started buzzing on the table between me and Logan’s bed. I picked it up in a hurry so it didn’t wake him.

  “What’s up?” Kelly said glancing across Logan at me.

  “My sisters. They’re here.”

  Chapter 21

  In the long run, it never mattered what I told my sisters. If they felt like they needed to be here with me that was the end of the subject. I stood up and walked to the hospital room door, there they were, being held off by Kelly’s donut eating Marines. I waved to them and motioned to the guards to let them pass. The Marines watched each of them file past with eager eyes. Individually my sisters were breathtaking, as a group they were downright awe inspiring. Each of them was laden down with bags and luggage as they approached the door. I couldn’t help but laugh. It looked like they’d packed everything they owned. “How long are you planning on staying?” I teased, each one of them kissed me on the cheek as they passed me in the doorway. Marlene was not with them. I assumed she was either entranced with Travis or simply still too humiliated to face me.

  They unloaded their bags against the wall and stepped over to inspect Logan. Monica stood beside his bed on the left with Mandy beside her; they stared at him lying helpless in the bed, his massive chest bare and open for everyone to see. They stared at him for several minutes before Mandy whispered, “You seriously had a hard time choosing between this,” she pointed at Logan, “and Travis?”

  Monica laughed and nodded in agreement.

  Logan’s eyes flickered; he seemed to be scanning his surroundings with a startle. Suddenly he was anxiously moving in the bed. As though the sight of all of us in the room was terrifying him, like he had to get away from us instantly. “Whoa! Slow down Logan.” I put my hand on his chest to settle him. His eyes moved from Monica, to Mandy, to Kelly and to me. “Am I in Heaven?” he asked quietly, the pain racking his words.

  There it was the infamous and quite familiar triplets joke. I should’ve known it was coming. We all laughed politely; of course it was nothing we weren’t already accustomed to. I bumped the side of the bed lightly in protest.

  “Hey woman! Can’t you see I’m all stitched up here? I keep telling you, be gentle with me. Damn rough ass woman,” he chuckled as he took my hand and held it to his pale lips. He truly was part of his group of Marines I noted. His comment was the same as Ryan’s had been! Logan shook off the sleep and pulled himself up a bit in the bed. I moved to adjust his pillows. It was the first time he’d really sat up in the bed. He grabbed my sweatshirt and held me close to his face. I kissed his lips; he may be injured and in pain, but his kiss still sent me reeling. The chemistry between us hadn’t been injured.

  He let me go and I stood beside him. “So tell me, who are all these angels that you’ve brought me?” He spoke low and gruffly as his eyes adjusted to the room full of women.

  “Well this is Mandy beside you straightening your bed, she has an OCD issue. Monica is a doctorate student; she’s the one at the end of your bed reading your chart. And our baby sister Marlene is recently in a new relationship and couldn’t be here.” I glanced at Monica and Mandy who both shot me disapproving looks. “Of course, you know Kelly.”

  “Nice to meet you all,” he mumbled as he grabbed Mandy’s hand and pulled it towards his face. He kissed her hand gently. She drew in a deep breath and smiled down at him. “I smell donuts,” he stared at Mandy still and spoke seriously.

  “Kelly!” He almost yelled searching for her in the room.

  “Yeah?” Kelly stood and stepped to his bed.

  “Girl, I know you’ve got donuts over there!” he toyed.

  Kelly was already smitten with him. In a second he had the full box of donuts on his chest and was digging in. He acted like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. The door to his room opened as he was shoving the fifth donut into his mouth.

  “Holy shit!” Jose stood just inside the door paused in his tracks.

  He finally gathered his wits and moved further into the room. He punched the side of Logan’s bed sending yet another bone rattling jolt through Logan’s leg.

  “Fuck man, can’t you see I’m all stitched up here?” Logan protested with a grimace.

  “You deserved it!” Jose muttered.

  “How’s that?” Logan countered, wiping donut glaze from his face.

  “Two weeks ago, me and the guys were starting to think you’d gone gay. I come in here and you’ve got four women pawing over you. Screw you man! You don’t share with your best buddies?”

  Logan laughed, grimacing with pain at every slight movement.

  Jose posed beside his bed and looked at each of us. “So I guess the best way to proceed with this party is to get everyone who’s available to raise their hand.” He paused, “Come on ladies, let’s get started!” He raised his hand as if to let everyone know he was certainly available.

  Logan grabbed his other arm and twisted. Even from his bed he could inflict injury. Jose jumped at the sudden pain. “Shit man! That hurts!”

  “Look here you Mexican gigolo, keep your paws off my harem!” Logan winked at me.

  Jose straightened rubbing his arm, “No woman in sight for all these years and all of a sudden you’ve got a fuckin’ harem. So NOT fair.” he complained.

  Logan smiled at him and shrugged his shoulders a little as if to say, “Its life buddy, deal with it.”

  “Well what CAN I have then?” Jose teased.

  Instantly Kelly was at his side, “Donut?”

  No one in the room missed the interaction, we all giggled at Kelly’s humor. Everyone except Jose who seemed instantly immersed in Kelly’s face.

  He stuffed donuts into his mouth much like Logan had, but his eyes remained on Kelly. Finally he held up the thick folder in his hand. “We gotta go through this Logan. The suits are waitin’ on our report,” he said dispassionately.

  The mood in the room changed quickly. Monica looked at me studiously. “Mattie, have you slept at all?” she wondered aloud.

  “A little,” I said, still standing over Logan holding his hand.

  Kelly stood, Jose’s eyes followed her every move. “Yeah, you know that’s a great idea. Let me drive everyone over to our apartment so we can drop off this luggage and get freshened up.”

  Monica and Mandy nodded. My eyes stayed on Logan’s face. He met my eyes, his pale green glimmer returned. “Baby, you really do need some rest. I gotta go through this crap paperwork anyway.” He could tell from my face that the idea of leaving him wasn’t an option. He shook his head. “Nope, I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m probably goi
ng to sleep all day anyway.” He shifted his injured leg a little, groaning at the pain. “But listen, I got a better idea. Why don’t you all go to my house? It’s closer and bigger, and it’ll give Gracie and Ronald somethin’ to do.”

  We all glanced at one another asking in triplet’s unspoken language if that was an acceptable plan. Everyone nodded in confirmation.

  “Good. Where’s my phone?” Logan mumbled, as if the decision was final.

  Jose stepped next to the bed with a serious expression on his face. “Man, no one wanted to tell you…”

  Logan’s eyes rolled in his head, “NO!?”

  Jose nodded and spoke to all of us. “Logan has the distinct honor of having supplied the entire mass of third world countries with iPhones!”

  Logan laughed lightly, “Another phone down the drain.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it.

  “Here, use mine.” I put my phone in his hand. He took the opportunity to grab my hand and hold it to his lips.

  “Thank you baby,” he whispered looking deep into my eyes. I knew he wasn’t thanking me in such a grandiose manner for the phone.

  Goose bumps raced over my body as he touched me. Then his attention turned back to the phone, a few minutes after talking to Gracie he informed us that Ronald was on the way.

  “Look out ladies, Gracie’s cooking every southern recipe she knows,” he moaned.

  I remembered Gracie’s comment about Logan’s dislike of grits. I love grits, and he was going to need to get over his aversion to them. Besides Logan needed something to think about while I was gone. I leaned down and whispered into his ear. Everyone in the room strained to eavesdrop but I kept my lips pressed against Logan’s ear. As I spoke into his ear his eyes grew larger and larger. A sudden hardness in the middle of his body caused my sisters to instantly turn to each other and pretend to be discussing something important. Their eyes darted back and forth towards his rising hardness on the bed. I quickly reached down and pulled my sorority blanket over him. I could see the disappointment in their eyes.

  I’d simply explained to Logan the buffet of southern foods we might try when he got home. I merely suggested we use my body as the platter.

  Ronald poked his head in the door, “Ladies! You ready?”

  We all nodded. I kissed Logan on the cheek and promised to be back later this afternoon.

  Chapter 22

  I reached for my cell phone on the bedside table. There was a text from Logan. It was the sound that woke me.

  Logan: 3:25pm Today-Another woman wants to wash my penis.

  I laughed, it was his way of telling me to wake up and get back to the hospital. Rubbing my eyes, I slithered from the bed and stood in the steaming hot shower. Smells rose up the staircase from the kitchen, and there was laughter. I pulled out the contents of my bag. Several tee shirts, a pair of jeans and the sluttiest underwear and bra I owned. Leave it to Kelly to throw a bag together for me of the tightest, most uncomfortable clothes I owned. I stepped to the closet and pulled on the door handle. Maybe Logan would have something I could throw on that would be warmer and cuddlier. As a sudden reminder of the mysteriously locked room, the door handle stood solid under my grip. It was locked. My eyes scanned the room around me, there was another closet. In that one I found a Marine sweatshirt much like the one Logan had given me only this one was well worn. I threw it on over my skin tight apparel and headed downstairs.

  The scene downstairs was almost heartwarming. Ronald had a blazing fire roaring in the fireplace, smells of heaven emanated from the kitchen and my sisters were piled under blankets around the family room. A lively banter was going on between Gracie and my sisters yelling between the kitchen and sofas. It was a picture postcard of a typical family, only the characters had been replaced by unlikely substitutes. I grinned at my sisters and followed the smells into the kitchen.

  “Well gooood morning sleepyhead!” Gracie went into motion pulling a plate from the cabinet. “Sit right down, I’m fixin’ your plate.”

  The plate was overloaded with homemade macaroni and cheese, fried salmon patties and green beans covered in the thick juicy oils of a ham hock. I didn’t hesitate to start shoveling the sumptuous caloric masterpiece into my mouth.

  “Hey Gracie,” I mumbled through swallows. “What’s in that room next to Logan’s?”

  Silence spread through the cavernous kitchen. “Tsk, tsk… child that’s a nasty situation there.”

  I nodded urging her to go on.

  “Just don’t know if I ought a tell you… I mean after Logan…” She paused mid sentence.

  “After Logan what?” I countered. I wasn’t taking no for an answer here. In the future I didn’t plan on having secrets; there was no need to have any now.

  “Tsk, tsk… Logan had Ronald call me that day he brought you home. Told me to get rid of all the pictures of her…”

  “Of who?” I waited.

  “Oh that trash Logan was gonna marry. I swonder I don’t know why he keeps all that stuff around. If he knew what I knew about that girl he’d a burned it all in a blazing glory.”

  I sat in stunned silence. Logan had instructed Gracie to hide all the photos of him and Leila. In an odd way it was a thoughtful measure. No one likes to go to the parent’s house for the first time and see a bunch of pictures of the guy you’re in love with… with another woman. I mean that’s awkward, so maybe Logan was just considering my feelings. There sure had been a lot of pictures missing from his Dad’s room though. Then it occurred to me what Gracie had just said.

  “What is it you know Gracie?” I was almost stern.

  Gracie pulled up a chair and lowered herself carefully into it next to me. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she leaned towards me. “Look here, none of them thinks I know what happened. But I’m here ta tell you, that I know a lot more than they think.”

  I motioned for her to go on.

  “That girl was pregnant when she died. Oh no one knew it but the family and the coroner, not somethin’ you want on the nightly news and all.”

  I gasped, my breath stuck in my throat and I coughed alarmingly. Gracie handed me the glass of sweet tea on the table in front of me. Taking a long drink I wiped my mouth with the napkin. “What happened Gracie?” My muscles shook in my thighs remembering what Patricia Johnson had told me.

  “Oh girly, that man tortured those women up there. Unspeakable things they all did. Then when that little whore showed up pregnant he made it all out like Logan had gotten her pregnant now he’d have to marry her. Poor Logan was so smitten with her he gladly accepted whatever his daddy made up. But Logan doesn’t know the truth either. That or he didn’t want to see it.”

  “God Gracie what’s the truth?” The whole thing sounded pretty horrible to me as it was.

  “Truth is that I doubt it was even his baby. That trash was over here all the time with the Senator when Logan was at school. I changed many a sheet around here the mornin’s she’d leave. That jackass just let Logan go on thinkin’ that he’d screwed up and killed his fiancé and baby. Never said a word about it.”

  “That’s awful Gracie! Logan’s Dad just let him go on thinking that it was his baby that died with Leila?”

  “Oh yeah, that Senator was a demon. Logan ran off into the Marine’s right after that all went on. The Senator was glad to be rid of ‘em, got rid of that sweet Elise too. Shame because she still loved him. Me and Elise were tight friends,” she said, shaking her head sadly. “But look here girl, you can’t tell Logan about the Senator and Leila. Even with you here now it’d kill him. That’s why I never could tell him. I’m tellin’ you that boy was destroyed. You’re the first happiness he’s seen in all these years.”

  I was still in my chair; it was a lot of information to digest at once. “Tell me Gracie, when you say Logan was destroyed, what was he like then?” It was the furthest thing from my active imagination that Logan could ever be anything other than strong and powerful.

  Gracie nodded; she understood th
at I needed to justify the two Logan’s that I was now seeing. “Aside from drinkin’ all the time, he sat up in that room all day long doin’ nothin’ but goin’ through the boxes of stuff she’d had at school. He had all her stuff moved here to his room and shut himself inside with it all. Went on for months until somethin’ snapped.”

  “Snapped?” I questioned.

  “Yep! Ronald and me came in here one mornin’ and stuff was thrown everywhere. All her stuff was thrown into that room; you know the one that’s locked. That’s the one where the Senator tortured those women. Told me I’s never to open that door for no reason. Course I did, and I know what’s in that sick place. Anyway, Logan and the Senator must’ve had a big fallin’ out because Logan ran off with those Marines soon after.”

  I nodded. “So his father made him join the Marines?”

  But Gracie shook her head sadly, “No I think the Senator told him his version of what really happened, and he ran off all on his own.”

  “It’s really sad; I can’t imagine Logan like that.” I mulled.

  “Yeah it was sad,” Gracie studied my face. “But child, you are healin’ him in more ways than one.”

  “So the room next to the one I’m staying in was the Senator’s torture room before?” I asked.

  “Sure was. He spent a lot of time in there with those women. Until Logan threw all that stuff of Leila’s in there. Then the Senator just locked the door for good.” Gracie nodded and added another spoonful of sugar into her coffee cup.

  “Gracie can I go in there?”

  She shook her head, “Can’t letcha do that. Logan locked it himself. Left the dang light on in there too but I ain’t got no key. Bet it’s covered in dust by now.” She meandered.

  Something in her comment raced through my brain. I struggled to put two and two together. The key! I had a key; the one Elise had given me. Maybe it went to the door. I jumped from the table and flew up the stairs.

  Chapter 23