by Sybil Bartel
No animosity in his tone, he pointed out the obvious. “Relationships have been built on a lot less.”
My head spun and my heart hurt. “Now you’re talking relationships?” I forced an incredulous tone.
“You don’t want one?”
I blinked before I recovered enough to speak. Then I threw out cruel words. “You just want someone to come home to.” I justified my callousness, telling myself he’d said as much.
Not one thing changed in his patient, honest tone. “Not someone. I want to come home to the quiet, reserved, wild-haired beauty who hides behind sharp retorts and haunted eyes.”
I started when he said haunted eyes, but then I threw it right back on him. “You can’t hide the war you fight in your eyes.”
“I’m not trying to,” he said with complete honesty.
I climbed off him, not knowing what I regretted more, the instant loss of his body inside mine or cutting off the most real conversation I’d ever had.
I didn’t have time to contemplate it, he grabbed me before I could get up. I was on my back and he was pushing my thighs wide with his knees in about half a second flat.
Settling his massive body between my legs, he braced himself on his arms on either side of my head and hovered above me as he stroked my cheek. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t pull away.” He brushed my hair back from my face and kissed my collarbone. “Don’t leave.”
I didn’t want to get away from his scrutinizing attention, and I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to hide here in his condo in the sky forever. But I couldn’t.
I turned my head so I didn’t see his eyes on me when I said what I had to. “I have to leave sometime.”
He gently grasped my chin and brought my face back to his. “Do you?”
“You’re leaving.” It was the easier response.
He stared at me. His chest rose and fell, his eyes held mine and then, ever so slightly, he tipped his chin and gave me too much rope. “Stay here until I get back.”
“I have my own place,” I lied.
“We both know that’s not true.”
“What exactly do you think is going on? Right now, between us?” I was stupid enough to ask, and even stupider to hope.
His chuckle held no humor. “I’m unsuccessfully trying to offer you a place to live in the hopes that I not only get inside that sweet cunt again, but that the woman attached to it will be here when I get back.”
Completely thrown by his statement, I let my guard down. “Are you always this honest?”
“You want me to lie?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Life’s too short.”
All I knew was lies. “Life’s short no matter what anyone says.” I knew that all too well.
“Even more reason to seize it,” he countered.
“Is that what you were doing when you joined the Marines?” There didn’t seem to be any certainty in that kind of choice past sacrifice and valor.
The slight tip up of the side of his mouth that had been lingering since his half chuckle completely disappeared. “No.” He inhaled. “I was running away.” His finger pushed an errant curl off my forehead. “Like you are now.”
“I’m not running.” I was underneath him.
“Three months.” He brought his lips to my ear and whispered, “Stay here. That’s all I’m asking. That and your real name. Would that be so hard? Twelve weeks of your life rent free?”
A day was hard. “Brookelyn is my name.”
He kissed my neck and rocked against my entrance. “No it’s not.”
Desire shot through my core, and I stupidly let my thoughts bleed out. “What makes you so sure?”
His mouth moved to my throat. “Because you didn’t answer when Dax called you.”
“Not answering every time someone calls my name means it’s not my name?” I hadn’t answered because I was shocked to see Nathan. I still didn’t know how he’d found me.
“No.” Garrett mercilessly dragged the head of his cock the length of my heat. “Not denying it does. Do you still want me to come inside you again?”
Oh God. He felt too good, and I felt too weak. In that moment, nothing could’ve made me say no, not even a gun to my head.
“Yes,” I whispered.
He shoved into me.
NO HESITATION, I SHOVED INTO her addictive cunt.
Her pussy wet from her desire and my release, I sank to the hilt and everything except the woman in my arms disappeared. Hot and perfect and so fucking tight, it was as if she were made for me. Fuck, I wanted to stay inside her forever.
My mouth on her, I tasted the heat between her breasts. “Tell me…” I drove deep into her. “Tell me your name.”
“Brookelyn,” she panted, arching her back into my thrust. “Brookelyn.”
“Jesus, woman, I could fuck you forever.” Sliding in and out of her, I let go of her lie because I didn’t have words for how fucking perfect she felt.
“Garrett,” she moaned, her head falling back.
I pulled one of her hard nipples into my mouth and sucked. Her fingers dug into my biceps, and I lost my fucking mind. Riding her, I couldn’t remember the last time I fucked. Too many years downrange, the women between deployments, they all paled compared to the wild-haired beauty under me, matching me thrust for thrust.
I didn’t know what the fuck made her different, but she was.
So goddamn different, possessive shit clouded my head.
Sucking her other nipple, licking my way up her neck, biting her bottom lip, I thrust against her G-spot and threw out words that were both outrageous and idiotic. “Wait for me.”
“I can’t….”
I ground my hips and hit her clit.
She moaned. “I can’t wait much longer.” Her eyes fluttered shut. “I’m gonna come.”
“Look at me.” Grasping her chin, I stilled.
Her eyes, unfocused and so damn sexy, opened and landed on me. “I want to come.”
Low and almost inaudible, I growled. “You’re gonna. But I’m not talking about your orgasm, beautiful.” I brought my lips against hers. “I want you here when I get back.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, and I didn’t wait for a response.
I shoved my tongue in her mouth and I fucked her. Hard, but slow, I drove into her mind-numbing heat. Over and over, I ground my hips and edged her clit with my thumb. I kissed her, I fucked her, I tasted every inch.
I didn’t want to just make her come.
I wanted her to beg for it.
I wanted her to shake with need, and I wanted to blow her fucking mind.
I wanted the next ninety days to not be just a goddamn countdown for me, but for her as well. I knew I was a fucking fool. She was hiding more shit than I probably wanted to know about, but her body under me, writhing, covered in sweat, I was cocky enough to think I had a handle on her.
“Please,” she begged. “I need to come.”
Stroking her G-spot, I inhaled through my nose as my jaw tightened. “Not yet, beautiful.” I rimmed her clit once, twice. “Not yet.” Fuck, I was ready to explode, but I wanted her orgasm to fucking last. “Almost.” I dropped my voice, and she started to shake. “Almost.” I nipped her ear. “You feel that?” My cock fucking swelled and I was done. I had no control to stop what was coming. “You feel how fucking hard I am for you?”
“Come in me, come in me.” She frantically thrust against my thumb, my cock. “Oh my God, Garrett.” She gripped the back of my neck and her hips jerked.
Then her wet, quivering pussy was coming.
Clamping down on my cock like a fucking vise grip, she exploded. Her arms locked, her head fell back, her back bowed and a cry, more shock than groan, erupted from her chest.
My muscles went rigid, my brain shut down and for two whole contracting spasms of her sweet pussy around my dick, my world fell into slow motion.
Back stiff, balls tight, jaw clenched—I fucking lost it.
A flood of semen shot from my body, and I filled her needy cunt with pulse after pulse of my release. My cock exploding with the strongest orgasm I’d ever fucking had, I didn’t just fill her. She filled me. Every mind-fuck possessive thought known to man sank into my consciousness.
I wanted to fuck her, body and soul. I wanted to know every thought in her complicated head. I wanted to smell her on my sheets, and I wanted to breathe her in every damn day my eyes opened and I was still alive.
I wanted to own this woman.
Fuck, I wanted to own her.
It was the only excuse I had for letting the next words come out of my mouth.
“You. Are. Mine.” Balls deep, my release and her desire soaking my cock, I thrust hard. “All mine.”
“YOU. ARE. MINE,” HE growled, plunging into me as if to drive his seed deeper. “All mine.”
A shiver raced up my spine and lodged in my throat before fluttering down to my stomach like fall leaves in a breeze. I didn’t have a comeback. I only had hunger—a yearning so deep, it was choking me from inside.
I didn’t want to say anything, but I couldn’t say nothing.
“Don’t,” I pleaded, hoping he would misinterpret me.
“I’m coming back,” he reassured, misreading my plea.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.
He grasped my face. “I’m coming back,” he reiterated, enunciating each word.
“You’re making this into more than it is.” I hated myself for the lie.
He stilled. “You don’t want it to be more?”
I didn’t want to lie again, so I said nothing.
His sigh was deep and more complicated than I knew how to handle. Gentle, he drew out of me before falling to his side and pulling me into his arms. His release seeped out of me and spilled onto my thigh. Immediately I felt a sense of loss I couldn’t put into words. Having this man’s seed inside me, the intimacy of it, what it represented, what we’d shared, it was all at once unfathomable, yet it was everything I never knew I’d wanted. Simple, honest and pure, a life with a man like him by my side, a life with him… the thought alone made me shiver.
He rubbed my back then brushed my hair from my face. “Talk to me.”
I hated talking. Always. But if I were being honest with myself, I didn’t hate it with this man. “About what?”
He kissed my forehead. “About how you feel right now.”
“Tired,” I admitted. Emotionally and physically, but physically in the best way possible. “And a little sore.” And I never wanted another man, besides him, to ever touch me again.
Concern etched across his features. “Bad sore or good sore.”
Heat touched my cheeks and my voice came out in a whisper. “Good.”
He almost smiled. “I’m glad.”
Having his arms round me and his easy acceptance, it gave me a false sense of security and I opened my mouth. “What makes a man want a woman?” I felt stupid the second I asked it. It was immature and embarrassing, but I wanted to know why he wanted me. Why he’d come after me. I was stupid enough to hope it was more than a hero complex, because really, a man like him, he could have any woman he wanted.
The back of his hand ran down the side of my face. “I don’t know about other men, but I know why I want you.” He curled a strand of my hair around his finger. “Besides the fact you’re beautiful, and putting aside the whole incident at Dax’s, I saw something in your eyes.” He held my gaze. “Something I thought I recognized in myself.”
I was stupid enough to ask. “What?”
His smile was tired and it didn’t reach his eyes, but it was still a smile. It wasn’t fake or calculated or used for any kind of effect except a mere expression of his feelings.
His hand rubbed down my back. “How about I tell you that another time?”
I was greedy. “When?” He was leaving and I wasn’t staying. We didn’t have time.
He kissed my forehead then rolled to his back. One arm still under me, supporting my neck, he stared at the ceiling. “If I tell you, will you tell me if I’m right?”
My guard immediately went up.
Before I could say anything, he chuckled. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.” He glanced at me. “Your whole body stiffened.”
“It did not.” Did it?
“Do you know one of the things you learn to look for when you’re staring through a scope for hours on end?”
“No.” And I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“Body language.” He stroked my shoulder. “You can learn a lot about people without them ever speaking.”
“That sounds… disconcerting.”
“Only if you’re at the wrong end of my scope.”
He didn’t say it in a bragging way. He merely stated it as fact, as if he were telling me the weather. I didn’t know if I was more impressed with his humility and what he did for a living, or if I was frightened of his skill and obvious abilities.
Not knowing how to respond to him, I said the first stupid thing I thought of. “I’ll make sure to remember that.”
“Your body language gave you away.” His hand rubbed over my shoulder. “Your muscles tensed when I asked if you’d tell me if my observation was correct.”
“I was just… taken off guard.” And not used to someone being honest for the sake of honesty.
“I thought you were alone.” He turned his head and gave me his penetrating gaze. “Not lonely, but alone.”
I didn’t want to lie to him. “It’s a choice.”
He slowly nodded once. “Do you prefer to be alone?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. I’d been alone since I’d met Nathan. It wasn’t a choice of preference, it was a choice out of necessity.
“You’re taking too long to answer.”
“Does anyone want to be alone?” At a very basic level, humans needed each other to procreate.
His tired half smile came back. “This is what I mean about beginning to understand you. I think you left half that thought unsaid.”
“Would it matter if I did?”
“It matters to me.”
“Why? You don’t know me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You want me to be real?”
“Yes.” It was knee-jerk and reactionary, and I wanted to take the single word back as soon as I said it.
“I don’t have time to fuck around.” He rolled back to his side to face me, his massive body moving with shocking grace. “I have hours.”
My heart both sank and soared. I knew where this was going. He’d basically said as much. Stupid, post-orgasmic bliss, taken in with him and everything he represented, I didn’t know what all it was, but my guard was down and I said the last thing I should. I gave him an in. “Okay….”
His eyes dark and serious, his gaze consuming, it felt like he could see right through my lies.
“I’ve been with enough women to know it doesn’t feel like this.” He stared at me. “It’s never felt like this. There’s more than chemistry here. I know it.”
I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to rage. But I didn’t move a muscle. How could you tell someone they couldn’t compete with your past sins? That you were bad and they were good?
His chest rose and fell faster. “I want to chase what’s going on right here, right now, between us, and I’m willing to gamble to give us that chance. I know you don’t know me, but if I give you my word, I stand by it. I’m offering for you to stay here, no strings, no rent, no shit like that. You simply live here. Use the pool, enjoy the view, eat whatever food is in the pantry, hell, move furniture around for all I care. Just… stay.” He inhaled. “I want to wait for you, and I want you to wait for me.” He searched my face as if looking for an answer. “I want you here when I get back. I want you. I can’t say it any plainer than that.”
My throat burning with unshed tears, I couldn’t speak.
“But if you tell me I’m wrong,” he continued, “if you can honestly say you don’t feel anything here, that you don’t feel anything between us, just say the word.” His stare bore into my soul. “I’ll stand down.”
I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth and bit it hard.
He gently cupped my cheek. “But I don’t think you feel nothing. I’m looking into your gorgeous eyes and I’m seeing what I’m feeling directed right back at me.” He leaned closer. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel this between us.”
In that moment, I hated everyone. I hated my father for getting sick and dying, I hated Nathan, and mostly I hated myself for a single decision too many years ago when I was too young and too naïve to know any different.
But I still hated myself for it.
“Brookelyn?”
I hated that name.
Nathan named me.
He’d said my hair was as chaotic as the streets where he grew up. He said it reminded him of the borough of New York he’d called home for the first eighteen years of his life. He’d said it with his charming smile, but just like everything else Nathan said, I didn’t know what was real or what was a lie.
It didn’t matter.
I was Brookelyn now.
Brookelyn with an e. Because he said my hair curled like a string of cursive e’s.
Brookelyn.
The stupid girl who fell for the too good-looking college-aged guy hitting on an underage, vulnerable girl working two jobs to pay bills she was never going to be able to afford. I couldn’t have been an easier mark for Nathan.
So now I was Brookelyn, and my father, the only person in the whole world who’d still called me by my real name, was dead. God, I wanted to hear the warrior lying next to me speak my name, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what it was.
So I whispered a lie. “Okay, I’ll stay.”
The warrior’s face transformed with a smile. “You will?”
I nodded, and he pulled me into his arms.