Mom had said that they’d take Sam again tonight and that Delia and Ron would stay with them until the cleaners had cleaned their house. I wanted the three of us to spend time together, but after what happened today and my hand bleeding, I could see why she wanted to give us some peace.
When they’d gotten back to the house, I’d looked through the window for a child size motor bike. I hadn’t been able to see one, so I’d gone out to meet them. Hunter organizing Ross to make replicas of parts of his bike for Sam’s absolutely melted my heart.
Something had happened between the three men though, because the Dad’s seemed adamant that they’d played a role in the bike, whereas Hunter had Sam back him up that he’d been responsible for the whole lot. When the Dad’s had tried to argue it, Hunter had mumbled franks and beans and that had stopped them. I would have tried to get to the bottom of it, but I was too tired. I also wanted to cuddle with Hunter for a bit. While we were apart, I’d think back to all the times that we’d just sat cuddling, even if we didn’t talk. It had made me cry every single time because I missed it and wanted to be in his arms so badly. Now that I could, I was going to make up for lost time.
Not long after we’d eaten, the parents had left with Sam, and Hunter and I had cuddled up on the couch with a movie on the television.
“Tell me about being pregnant with Sam and having him,” Hunter suddenly asked, turning slightly to look at me. Seeing how important this was to him, I paused the movie and went and got a photo album from the cupboard in the corner.
Sitting back beside him, I swung around so that my legs were over his and opened the book. On the first page was a picture of my pregnancy test. I’d actually sent a copy of it to Hunter, but it was in one of the many letters that were returned. In fact, copies of all of the photos that I’d sent to him were in this album.
As we flipped through each page, I explained each photograph and milestone to him as Hunter listened and watched not wanting to miss anything. I was shocked by the amount of questions he had, and the hunger that he had to learn literally anything about my pregnancy and Sam’s birth and first years, but I wasn’t going to lie and say that it healed one of the last cracks on my heart. He actually cared.
“What was his first word?”
I burst out laughing as I told him. “No.”
It took Hunter a couple of seconds to understand that Sam’s first word had been ‘no’ and that I wasn’t refusing to tell him it, but when it hit home a sound that I hadn’t heard since the day before he’d left filled my house – his booming laugh. People have many laughs. Working in the bar I hear them all. The obligatory hah, the chuckle, the fake, the giggle, the belly rumble and then the one that takes over the entire body. Hunter’s was currently the last one on that list, but it had been one that he’d been famous for before…before the world became a heavier place for him. I was so delighted and relieved that Sam and I could do that for him.
Not wanting to interrupt, I turned the page and the letters that I’d forgotten were stashed at the back fell out.
Hunter stopped laughing as he picked one up and saw the writing on the front.
“I remember this one arriving,” he said, running his thumb over the front of it slowly. “I’d just come back from the first mission. I had spent the entire flight back contemplating driving here to see you, or letting you go and when I got home there were four letters waiting for me from you.” He leaned forward and stared down at the envelope in his hand. “It took me a week to decide what to do. The wrong decision.”
There’s comes a point in life, when peace is dependent upon forgiveness. Someone that you’ve hurt or wronged forgiving you. Right now, I was capable of forgiving him, but a part of me was still hurting and scared that he’d do it again. Would he leave us again when it got too much? I didn’t think that he would.
Squeezing my hands tight, I went with my gut.
“Hunt, no matter how much we wish we could, we can’t change the past. Our decisions are final. Not to sound like a cliché, but we’re in control of now.” I was trying to stop the cliché’s from flying out of my mouth, but it was hard because it was the truth. “You’re learning to accept what you had to do during your service, right?”
Hunter tensed slightly, before muttering, “I’m trying and it’s starting to happen.”
“Then do the same with this. It’s time to accept it, and we look at now and focus on just now.”
He continued to stare at the letter in his hand before reaching over and picking up the rest of them. “Can I take these? I want to read them.”
“They’re yours.” Now that he’d suggested it, I wondered if reading them would actually help him. It didn’t sound like a bad idea.
I reached over with my sore hand to touch him and try and give him some comfort, but his sharp intake of breath and the red on his arm where my hand had just brushed, had me turning over my hand and seeing the blood coming through the bandages. “Shit, it did this earlier too.”
Holding my wrist and helping me up off the couch, Hunter took me through to the bathroom in my bedroom. He popped me up on the counter as he washed his hands and got the new dressing ready for it. “It did this earlier? When?” He asked as he removed the old dressing and hissed at the mess my hand was in.
“When all the stuff with the car and Sam happened. Your mom changed it because my mom couldn’t face it and we thought that it had stopped.” I was trying not to kick him as he cleaned around it.
“If it’s still doing this tomorrow then we’ll need to take you back, Piper. The stitches look okay, but it’s a bit red. Is it sore?”
“Well, yeah, but no more than normal I don’t think? It’ll be fine, it’s early days, right?”
Hunter finished taping the bandage and washed his hands again. There were a lot of differences between the almost man who left all those years ago and the man that returned, but things like this where he was so efficient medically because he’d had to be, had the power to take my breath away thinking about why.
“Right, you’re fixed,” he tapped my nose and helped me down from the counter top. “Keep it as high up as you can for now though okay?”
Grinning at him, I lifted my hand into the air and walked around him toward the door. “Good enough?”
I didn’t expect the smack to my ass, but it had me laughing hard all the same. “Yeah, smart ass! Right, bed. Do you need any of your painkillers?”
My hand was throbbing, so I nodded as I started getting undressed one handed until Hunter came back and started helping me. The simple actions of helping someone get ready for bed had a different weight to them all of a sudden. An accidental brush of a hand here, unsnapping my shorts…it all felt weighted and the look in Hunter’s eyes no doubt matched my own.
Feeling my breath speed up, I licked my lips nervously noticing his pupils dilate slightly as he watched me.
“Pipe…” his voice was a low deep growl as he closed the space between us. I would have expected the kiss he gave me to be hard, but it was soft and almost nervous.
Licking along his lower lip, my tongue met his as he gently pushed his way past, and into my mouth to lick across my teeth before brushing against my tongue. The sweeps became harder and more intense and his arms tightened around me.
Stumbling backwards in the direction of the bed, I used my good hand to lift his shirt off him and reached for the buckle of his belt. Groaning in frustration when I realized that it was a two-handed job, I panted, “I can’t do it.”
Hunter gently pushed my hand away and took over, stripping the rest of his clothes off himself in over half the time than I reckoned it would have taken me.
Gently lowering me down onto the bed, he bent over me with his feet still on the floor and swept his hand up my side as he kissed me. I tried raising my lower half off the bed to make contact with him, but he was too tall and I missed completely each time. Determined to reach him, I wrapped my legs around his lower half and tugged, trying to knock him off ba
lance.
“Piper…” I cut him off with a kiss, starting to reach desperation. “Pipe, I’ll crush you, baby. Wait, I promise…” he broke off to start kissing down my body stopping to suck and lave on my nipple. Groaning, I twisted slightly, whether to try and get closer or to move further away, I wasn’t sure. “Still, baby.” He placed his huge hand across my ribs to hold me still as he continued with his torture.
Leaving one breast and nipple almost screaming for attention, he started to kiss down my body as I whimpered. His hand that wasn’t holding me down trailed up my side and as he reached my neglected breast, he firmly plumped it, before pinching my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. The unexpected nip had me screaming and I could feel myself on the precipice of a fucking huge orgasm.
“Hunter,” it was a gasp more than anything as he reached my core.
Not waiting around, he swiped his tongue up me, pressing more firmly when he reached the bundle of nerves that was desperate for attention. Suddenly his hands left my body and joined where his mouth was. Holding me open with one hand, he pushed two thick fingers inside me and sucked hard on my clit. The orgasm that took over my body took my breath away and when I finally came back down, I’d thank God that Sam was at my parents because my scream would have scared him. Hearing Hunter groan, I felt him suck even harder as he moved his fingers, drawing out the nirvana.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, I jerked my lower half away from his face and made a grab for his hair. “Hunt…I can’t…no more…” I begged.
Crawling back up my body, he picked me up with an arm under my waist and moved me to the center of the bed before lying down on top of me.
“I don’t want to move too fast, Piper,” he whispered, looking torn. “I don’t want to fuck this up.”
All thoughts flew out of my head as I reached up, grabbed his hair and pulled him down toward me. I was trying to show him my feelings in the kiss, but I could still feel him holding back.
“Hunter, please baby.”
His eyes flared as he suddenly changed. Kissing me hard, he lifted my leg and put it above his waist as it naturally curled around him. I could feel him at my entrance rubbing back and forth before he pushed in further and started to stretch me. I hadn’t been with anyone since him so I wasn’t used to his girth inside me. The feeling was a slight pain, lots of pressure and it was beautiful. I knew how much I’d missed Hunter, like half of me was gone, but I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed having him inside me.
Both of my legs were shaking as I lifted the other one around him to hook around his waist. Hunter was doing a small push and retreat, gaining a small amount of ground inside of me each time, but it wasn’t enough. Tightening my legs even more, I lifted the lower part of my body as I pulled him into me on the next thrust inward.
“Oh fuck, Piper,” he growled into my neck. I wasn’t sure if it was my legs that were making him shake, or if it was him doing it. He was panting into my neck as he tried to regain control.
“I need it, Hunter.” I punctuated it with a small nip to his earlobe, breaking whatever control he had left.
Rearing up, he pushed my legs higher up his back until they were pretty much around his ribs. The position was one where even with him not moving, he was hitting all of the right spots inside me, driving me even more insane.
Once he had me situated, he started to thrust and retreat, with more power each time. My skin was so sensitive that the rubbing back and forth of it on the sheets beneath me was driving me closer and closer to the explosion that was building.
Arching my back, I lifted my hands and pressed them against the headboard above me to give me some traction and the ability to push back against him every time he thrust.
“Fuck, I can’t…” Hunter shook his head and a drop of sweat landed on my right side.
On one powerful thrust, I let out a scream and started to throb around him, not quite coming, but so fucking close that I was struggling to breathe.
Leaving my left hand pushing against the headboard, I lowered my right arm quickly and wrapped it around his back that was covered in sweat and dug my nails in. That was it; with a roar, he thrust even harder, taking my mouth in the most intense kiss I’d ever had from him.
There was so much that passed between us in it. History, present, future, apologies, love…it was all there and pushed me over the edge. This time, the scream that came out of me was so sudden and powerful, that it was painful.
Lowering my other arm, I dug the nails of both hands into his back feeling the skin move under them, but not feeling the pain in my injured hand, as every muscle tensed in my body at the same time and my back arched. With my new position, every frantic thrust as Hunter chased his own release, resulted in the root of him brushing against my clit making the orgasm even more ferocious.
Trying to avoid another scream that might end up with every single household in the area knocking on my door or them calling the police, I bit down on Hunter’s shoulder only vaguely hearing his grown as he came.
Long moments later, covered in sweat and still wrapped around each other, Hunter shifted to his side, keeping us attached the whole time. We were both trembling and trying to catch our breath.
“I love you, baby,” he whispered into my hair. “I love you more than my own life.”
Smiling into his chest, I mumbled the reply I used to give him when we were teenagers, “ditto,” before falling asleep, wrapped up in his arms and feeling safer and more complete than I’d felt in four years.
I was afraid to fall asleep with Piper, but for the first time in years, I had a night without nightmares and I hadn’t even taken the medication that the shrink had given me. I hadn’t gone into a deep sleep, though. My body knew that it wasn’t safe to do that, but I didn’t wake up with the sour smell of fear and sweat everywhere and the terrified feelings that I’d become used to experiencing every night. Instead, I woke up with Piper’s face in my neck and my nose buried in her hair which smelt clean and fresh. I’d dreamt of moments like this when I was in the pits, prayed and dreamed of the safety, the cleanliness of it, of her.
Looking over at the clock beside the bed, I whispered an expletive when I saw the time. Sam would be home soon and the guys were expecting me too.
“Fuck!”
Pipers shoulders started to shudder as she laughed against me. “Nice!” she snorted into my chest.
“Sorry, baby,” I lifted the hair away from the side of her face so that I could look down at her. “Our boy will be home soon and I’ve got a meeting with the guys in just over an hour too.”
Her eyes clouded slightly as she looked back up at me. Piper was never one to keep you guessing what she was thinking or feeling though, that was the refreshing thing about her – there were no games. She proved this immediately, “What are we going to tell Sam?”
I’d been wondering this myself and had spoken to both our Dad’s about it the previous day.
“Your Dad said that we should just act like us around him so that he gets used to it and then we can explain about us,” a sudden doubt hit me. “That’s if there is an us. Do you want that?”
I pushed down the thoughts that always came up when I had moments of doubt and insecurity. The shrink had explained that they were also a part of the PTSD and that taking control over them was the only way to do it.
“I want that, Hunter. I want that badly.” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and it took everything in me not to take her and show her how much I wanted her, but now wasn’t the time.
“So, it’s done,” I tried using a Gandalf type of voice like I used to when we were younger, and it worked. Apart from a slightly trembling lower lip, she was grinning up at me with a sparkle in her eye that I hadn’t seen since I’d been back.
Lowering her eyes to my lips, she lifted her good hand and started running her fingers through my beard. A thought hit me. “Do you like it?” I hadn’t thought about her opinion on it. I wasn’t a woman, but a beard was
a big change. Wasn’t it?
“I wasn’t sure at first because it felt like you were hiding behind it,” she twisted a bit of hair around her finger. “But now? I love it!” Her eyes darkened as she looked up at me and I knew that she was remembering the night before when I was using on her pu…
“Mama!” Both of us looked at each other in horror as Sam’s voice rang out from the front door, little footsteps heading in our direction. “Mama!”
Springing out of bed, I grabbed my jeans and tugged them on trying not to hurt myself. As I did them up, it occurred to me again that before something like that might have triggered a reaction in me because it was an unexpected presence. All it did now was make me smile that I had my very own little cock blocker.
I’d just pulled my shirt over my head and Piper was wearing her dressing gown when the door opened at such a force that it slammed into the wall.
“Daddy,” my heart swelled as Sam squealed and ran toward me. “Daddy’s here!” Grinning, we walked over to Piper.
Compass (Valiant MC Book 1) Page 7