by Susan Stoker
The second she did, he notched his cock to her opening and pushed just the head inside.
She groaned and stretched her arms over her head and arched her back.
“I want to take you bare at some point,” he told her.
“Okay.”
“We’ll talk to your doctor about the best form of birth control for you.”
“I’m not sure I can have kids,” Mary warned him. “Or that I even want them.”
“All the more reason why it’s important to talk to your doctor,” Truck said, holding himself still by sheer force of will.
“Do you want kids?” she asked.
“I want what you want. If that’s kids, then I’ll do whatever it takes to give them to you. If you want a house full of dogs, cats, and hermit crabs, then that’s what we’ll have.”
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, and Truck knew they’d have to have this conversation again at some point, but when his cock was desperately throbbing and he wanted to be balls deep inside her wasn’t the time. “I’m big,” he warned.
“I can take you,” Mary said immediately.
“I’ll go slow.”
“I can take you,” Mary repeated. “Fuck me, Truck. I’ve been waiting for fucking ever.”
“That’s my line,” Truck snarled. “From the second I heard you berating Ghost for not looking for Rayne faster after their one-night stand, I wanted you. When I put my hand over your mouth and you turned around and saw me, you didn’t flinch. You didn’t even look at my fucking scar. I knew then you were mine. I can’t explain how I knew, but through everything that’s happened between then and now, I never doubted that. I did whatever it took to have you right here.”
Truck pushed inside her body a bit more and moaned. She was incredibly tight, and he knew he wasn’t going to last long this first time.
“Your scar is just what’s on your skin, it’s not who you are,” Mary whispered, even as she hiked her knees up higher.
Truck slipped inside her another inch.
“Just as yours aren’t who you are,” Truck said between clenched teeth.
“If you don’t stop talking and fuck me, I can’t be responsible for my actions,” Mary told him.
Moving a hand between their bodies, Truck used his thumb to manipulate Mary’s clit. She arched even more, and as she clenched around his dick, he pushed to the hilt inside her.
Truck immediately froze. His thumb stopped moving on her clit and he threw his head back and held his breath, trying to gain some control. He could feel her muscles like a vise around his cock. She was so hot, and nothing in his entire life felt as good as being inside her. Nothing.
When he felt as if he could move without immediately blowing his wad, Truck looked down at Mary and saw her smirking up at him. He loved the mischievous look on her face, loved how satisfied she looked.
Her arms were still above her head, opening herself up to him. She might’ve been unsure about them making love earlier, but if her posture and relaxed position under him were any indication, she was anything but unsure right now.
“That was close, wasn’t it?” she asked smugly.
Truck grinned. “Yup. The second I felt you clamp down on my cock, I wanted to blow. Wanted to fill you up with my come until it overflowed and you were dripping with it.”
That wiped the smug look off her face. It was replaced by a look so passionate and needy, Truck groaned.
“I never thought we’d end up here,” Mary said seriously, bringing her arms down to clasp around his neck. “I mean, even when we got married, I never imagined that you would want me like this.”
“I’ve always wanted you like this,” Truck said. “Always.”
“Can you deal with this?” Mary asked, her chin dipping to indicate her chest.
Instead of answering, he asked, “Can you deal with me being Delta, and the possibility that one of these days I might come home with something more serious than a banged-up head and a few more scars like the one on my face?”
“Of course,” she said with a huff.
“Right. So why would you think I’d not be able to deal with the aftermath of your cancer?”
Her mouth opened and closed. Then opened again. Truck could see the conflict in her eyes. He leaned down and kissed her hard on the lips. “Don’t,” he whispered when he was lightheaded from lack of air. “I know you love me, you don’t need to say it.”
“I don’t deserve you,” Mary said.
“Bullshit,” Truck retorted. “We deserve each other. Who else would put up with us?”
“True,” she agreed. “Now…will you please fuck me already?”
Truck smiled. “With pleasure.”
His hips drew back and then, without warning, he plunged inside her.
Mary groaned and threw her head back again.
“Hands back over your head,” Truck ordered.
She complied immediately, fisting the sheet under her hands as she arched her back.
Truck pushed up to his knees and lifted Mary’s ass. His first few strokes were smooth, but he soon lost control and began to pound into her. Not so out of it that he didn’t want her to get off too, his hand went back to her clit and he roughly thumbed it while he fucked her.
Within seconds, he felt his balls tighten and knew he was on the verge of coming.
“I love you, Mary,” he grunted.
Love you, Mary mouthed as she stared up into his eyes. She might not have said the words aloud, but the sentiment behind her actions went straight to his heart.
And that was all it took. Truck shoved into her as far as he could get and frantically thumbed her clit. He began to come a heartbeat before her. And the way her body clenched around his cock made his orgasm all the more intense.
They were both breathing hard by the time Truck recovered enough to straighten his legs behind him. The pillow under Mary’s ass stayed in place as he pulled out of her with a groan and put his head back on her chest. Truck felt her playing with his short hair. His head was back to throbbing, but he didn’t dare mention that to the woman under him. She’d have a pill stuffed down his throat so fast he wouldn’t know what hit him.
“Thank you,” Mary said softly.
That made Truck lift his head. He rested his chin on his hand on her chest and asked, “For what?”
“For seeing me, and not a breast cancer survivor.”
“You’ve always been just Mary to me,” Truck told her. “A pain-in-my-ass Mary.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Whatever.”
Truck laid his head back down. He should probably get up and take care of the condom before it made a mess all over the sheets, but he couldn’t summon the energy.
They fell asleep that way. Truck woke sometime later and got up and cleaned himself. He brought a warm washcloth into the bedroom and got a sleepy Mary cleaned up as well. Then he took the pillow out from under her ass and smiled as he turned it over and stuffed it under his head. He’d do laundry tomorrow, but he hoped her scent would permeate the pillow itself so he’d always have her with him.
Not bothering to get dressed, and feeling thrilled beyond belief that Mary didn’t make any move toward her chemise, he pulled her into his arms.
The redness on her chest still looked painful, even though Mary insisted she couldn’t feel anything from her collarbones to the bottom of her rib cage.
He had absolutely no opinion about the reconstruction of her breasts, except that he wanted what was safest for her. She could get Dolly Parton boobs or a modest B cup, he didn’t care. He also didn’t care if she decided she didn’t want to go through reconstruction at all. He could totally see her sporting a beautiful tattoo across her chest to celebrate her femininity and to say fuck you to the cancer. Whatever she wanted, it didn’t matter. He’d love her no matter what her decision.
Truck kissed the side of Mary’s head and smiled when she grumbled and turned her back to him. He snuggled up behind her, loving how she pushed h
er ass against his groin. Mary was prickly, but she was his. That was all that mattered.
Chapter Eighteen
Truck held Mary’s hand tightly as she knocked on Emily’s door with her free hand. They were late, but he didn’t think anyone would say anything about it. Mary looked like she’d recently been fucked to within an inch of her life…and she had.
He’d woken up horny as hell and ready to show his wife how they were going to spend the next three months of his recuperation. He’d eaten her to an orgasm, then put her on her hands and knees and taken her from behind. Then he’d dragged her into the shower, and she’d gone to her knees and shown him that she wasn’t going to let him call all the sexual shots in their marriage, which was more than all right with him.
Truck would’ve gotten them out of the apartment on time if she hadn’t teased him when they were making breakfast. In retaliation, he’d spread her out on the table and feasted.
“We’re late,” Mary mumbled.
“Yup,” Truck said without an ounce of remorse.
Mary glared at him. “You could at least attempt to look sorry,” she scolded.
Truck buried his nose into the skin at the side of her neck and wrapped an arm around her waist. “But I’m not. And our friends are gonna take one look at us and forgive us for being late.”
“They will not, Trucker, you better not—”
“Where have you been?” Emily asked huffily when she opened the door. “Everyone’s waiting to…oh…” Her voice trailed off when she got a good look at them.
“Hi, Emily,” Truck said, straightening but not moving his arm from around Mary’s waist. “Sorry we’re late.”
“That’s okay…we were just sitting around talking anyway…come in.”
Truck winked at Mary when Emily’s back was turned and she rolled her eyes at him.
They walked into the house, and Truck marveled once more at the view from the living room. There were floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked miles of Texas’s rolling hills. He had to admit that he’d been bummed when he remembered Fletch’s old house. The team had a ton of great memories there, not to mention Fletch’s great neighbors, but he didn’t blame his teammate for wanting to start anew.
There may have been a lot of good memories in his old house, but there were also a lot of bad ones too. Scary ones. And Fletch had told him that he didn’t want his baby anywhere near whatever bad vibes might still be lingering around the old place.
He was surprised to see Fish and Bryn there. Smiling, Truck went over to the couple.
“Fish! I didn’t know you were going to be here!”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Well, we almost did miss it,” Bryn corrected. “We had tickets for last weekend, but when you got hurt we had to cancel them, and it was almost impossible to get another flight. There aren’t any direct flights from Spokane to here, so we had to fly to Denver, then Dallas, then we had to rent a car to drive down here.”
Truck smiled. He liked Bryn. He knew her Asperger’s made it hard for her to understand the right things to say and do socially, but to him she was refreshing. He never had to worry about where he stood with her. She’d tell him straight out. “Well, I’m glad you made it anyway. How long are you staying?”
“Probably only another couple of days. Bryn needs to get back. She’s giving a presentation at the local library on preppers.”
“Really?” Truck asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. She’d gotten in trouble a while back because she’d gone out to meet who she’d thought was a prepper, but in reality was a mentally unbalanced domestic terrorist. Truck hadn’t been able to assist in saving her because he was marrying Mary, but he’d heard all the details after the fact.
“Really,” Bryn confirmed. “Most preppers are misunderstood. They aren’t bad people. A little paranoid, but what they do is fascinating, and the general population can learn a lot about sustainable living and being prepared from them.”
“We’ll let you say hi to the others,” Fish said with a smile.
Truck nodded and steered him and Mary farther into the room. He saw that they were definitely the last ones to make it to the party. Rayne and Ghost were standing near one of the windows holding plates and talking to Chase and Sadie. Harley and Coach were sitting on one of the couches. Hollywood was standing behind Kassie, who was in a large, comfortable-looking leather chair, holding little Kate. Beatle and Casey were in the attached kitchen, and Blade and Wendy were being entertained by Annie.
But when Annie saw Truck and Mary enter, she popped up and ran over to them. “You’re finally here!” she yelled enthusiastically.
“So we are,” Truck said with a smile.
Mary greeted Annie with sign language. The little girl responded in kind, and they smiled at each other before Mary gave her a big hug.
“Are you hungry? We have a ton of food. Mommy didn’t make it though. She’s been too tired. My brother’s keeping her up late and Daddy says it’s a good thing there’s takeout, otherwise we’d starve.”
Truck tried to hide his smile behind his hand, but knew he’d failed when Emily said, “Thanks for spilling all the Fletcher secrets, baby.”
Everyone chuckled at that. Truck settled into the corner of the couch and pulled Mary down next to him. Conversation started up again, and he got an update on what was going on at work. He laughed when Ghost told him Trigger and the other Delta Force team were more than happy to take up the slack with missions while he was out of commission. None of the men on the other team were married or seriously dating. Truck remembered when he and the others were the same. They lived for missions and hadn’t given settling down a second thought.
Looking around, Truck couldn’t imagine ever going back to that life. He might have forgotten the last three years for a while, but nothing felt better than seeing the families he and his friends were making. And having Macie back in his own life was like icing on a big chocolate cake.
He listened to the general chitchat going on around him and closed his eyes in contentment and let the relaxed and happy vibe settle into his gut.
“You okay?” Mary whispered.
“More than,” Truck told her, opening his eyes and looking into hers. “I’m happy. Being with you makes me happy. But also, being here with our friends, seeing how content and settled everyone is, makes me happy.”
She smiled up at him and Truck felt his dick twitch. Yeah, he had a feeling he’d never get tired of making love to his wife.
“Everyone settled and comfortable?” Fletch asked in a loud voice, addressing the room in general.
When everyone agreed, and after Beatle and Casey left the kitchen to join them, Fletch took his son from Emily’s arms and held him close to his chest as he spoke. “Thank you all for coming today, and a belated thank you for being there for us when Em went into the hospital. Knowing you all were there meant the world to us both.”
Everyone nodded, and Truck tightened his arm around Mary and kissed the side of her head.
“I know everyone’s been wondering what we’ve named this little bean.” He looked down at his son with a gentle smile. Emily went to his side and Fletch put his arm around her shoulders. Annie snuggled up against her mother, and the family of four stood in front of their best friends for a long moment.
Then Fletch cleared his throat and continued, “We had quite a few family conversations about names. Annie, of course, refused to participate in any kind of discussion that included female names.” He stared down at his little girl with mock disapproval, and she giggled. “But we had quite a few male names to weed through and narrow down.”
“I thought Franklin was perfect,” Annie said with a little grin.
Everyone chuckled, as they knew Frankie was her “boyfriend” who lived out in California.
“We thought about honoring our parents, but that didn’t feel right,” Fletch went on. “I refused to name my child after me, because he would’ve gotten beaten up on the pla
yground every day if his name was Cormac.”
Everyone laughed again.
“I wouldn’t have let that happen!” Annie protested. “I’ll beat up anyone who dares hurt my brother!”
“Shhh,” Emily soothed. “No one is gonna be hitting anyone.”
Fletch reached over and smoothed a hand down Annie’s head. “Anyway, so we threw out a few more names and none really seemed to fit. After much back and forth, we decided on Ethan.”
Everyone oohed and aahed and said the name was perfect.
“Now, Daddy?” Annie asked once everyone had quieted down.
“Yeah, squirt, now.”
Annie walked over to where Truck and Mary were sitting on the couch. “I liked Ethan, but he needed a middle name. Mommy and Daddy suggested lots and lots of names, but none really felt right. I thought and thought and thought about what little Ethan should have as his middle name. It needed to be something strong. Something that would remind him to always be brave. He needed a hero’s name.”
Then the little girl climbed up into Truck’s lap. Mary shifted, giving her room. Truck put both his arms around Annie and didn’t take his eyes from hers.
“We named him Ethan Ford,” Annie said. “All of Daddy’s friends are heroes, but you’re the first person I thought of. We couldn’t name him Ethan Truck, but your real name is just as good, even if it’s not as cool.”
Truck blinked. His eyes went from Annie to Fletch and Emily. His chest got tight, and he swallowed several times, trying to keep the emotion at bay. He thought he’d conquered it—but then Annie put her hand on his scarred cheek.
“You’re brave. You tooked care of me when the bad guys came and stole me and Mommy. You take care of everyone, and even if you’re hurt, you just keep doing it. That’s what I want for my brother. I want him to know he was named after the strongest person ever. He probably won’t grow up as big as you, but that’s okay, because me and you will be there to beat up anyone who’s mean to him.”
