Absolute Valor (Southern Justice #3)

by Cayce Poponea

  I expected pain, tensing up as I feel the tip of his cock at my entrance. Chase is gifted in the endowment category, but is also well versed in having me ready. He presses forward leaving me feeling full—there is some pressure, but it’s far from painful. His sweet words and kisses don’t end when he is buried deep inside of me, if anything; he becomes more vocal, reassuring me about how good I feel to him.

  I can feel something tingling in my belly, increasing as he reaches between us and rubs my clit. My back arches involuntarily, a breath catching in my throat. Chase seizes the opportunity to wrap his lips around my nipple. I can’t stop the cries escaping my throat, mumbles and gasps which are incoherent, even to my own ears.

  “Chase…oh, Chase…Chase!” I chant, not the least bit embarrassed by my reaction or the breathy way his name repeatedly falls from my lips. I can feel the tingle building, almost like climbing up the side of a hill, the edge almost in reach.

  “I love you, Sweetness,” he grunts as his thrusts become sloppy. I can feel how wet I am as he pistons in and out, but my body is lost in this euphoria of these feelings, and the emotions he is evoking. “Let it go, you’re almost there.”

  I’m confused at first, I’m almost where? It’s less than a second later when he shifts his hips, rubbing his pelvic bone against my clit, that the world shifts, and my body stiffens. Wave after wave crashes around me, wrapping me in this warm and calm bubble.

  Chase thrusts three more times and it feels so good on the spot he is hitting. His body is covered in sweat, eyes are half lidded and I expect him to drop like a stone on the bed beside me. Instead, he kisses my face, starting at my forehead, each eyelid, and then cheeks. “Mmmm, that’s one,” he says, as I feel him growing hard inside me once again.

  Fingertips march up and over my shoulder, as a firm legs slides between mine, “You awake, Sweetness?” He already knows I am by the stretch I just used to back my ass into his hard cock.

  “So is somebody else.” I turn in his arms, initiating the kiss as I reach down, taking his cock into my hand. Chase has the stamina of a bull, which was evident by the way he was still able to take me in the wee hours of the morning. He had been patient and loving, showing me exactly what the big deal with sex was. He encouraged me to take what I wanted, as I straddled and sank down on him, his hands tucked behind his head.

  “Sweetness,” he groans, pulling my hand from around his dick and bringing it up to his lips. “As much as I want this, I have somewhere I have to take you.” Chase opens his mouth, wrapping his lips and tongue around my finger, sucking as he wiggles his eyebrows. Another thing Chase had shared with me, his love of spending time between my thighs by residing there every chance he got. “Come on, you’re gonna love this.”

  Exiting the barn, I noticed the tents from the night before are already packed up and gone. If it weren’t for the tracks from the delivery trucks, you wouldn’t be able tell anything had occurred. Chase helped me into his truck, which leads to ten minutes of making out with the door open before he backed out of the drive and onto the main road.

  The cool breeze of the morning filters in through the open windows, as Chase pulls me close, with one hand on the wheel and the other wrapped around me. He pulls off the main road, the bumps in the road tossing me into his side further. “Where are we?” I ask, looking around at the newly cleared land, when I catch the edge of a foundation and frame.

  “We’re almost there,” he assures me as he pulls the massive truck parallel to the house.

  The haze of the morning fog clings to the thick underbrush and sage grass at the edge of the clearing. I can see the shadow of a deer checking us out, his ears twitching before scampering off into the safety of the trees.

  Behind the shell of the house is a pond with a long dock extending to the middle of the water. At the edge of the water is the beginning of a gazebo, I can just picture it covered with vines and roses. I cross my arms, the shadows and the cool breeze giving me a chill. Chase comes up behind me, wrapping me in his arms and warmth.

  “Back in Menarogue, we were dropped in to do a mission when a sniper opened fire on us, shooting one of my guys in the chest. Doc came over and got the bleeding stopped, but we needed to get him out of there. The shooter was hunkered down in the rocks to our south, so Reaper adjusted his sights, and in a single shot, killed the sniper. We radioed command to have the chopper return, but the one that dropped us off was low on fuel. As we waited for a second chopper to come and take Kakos to the hospital, he made me swear I would never live with regret.” Turning me around to face him, the breeze whipped his sex hair around. His plaid shirt was open, revealing the muscles I had worshiped last night.

  “You took my heart and folded it up, and tucked it into your back pocket. Do me a favor and take something else of mine,” picking up my left hand, his eyes slid back to mine. “Take my last name, Audrey. Marry me?”

  There was no hesitation as fat tears filled my eyes and traveled down my face. Reaching out, I took his face in my hands, needing to touch my very own happily ever after.

  “Yes.” I pulled myself to him, needing to be as close as possible, terrified this was all a dream. “Yes, I will marry you.”

  “Little girls are precious gifts, wrapped in love serene. Their dresses tied with sashes and futures tied with dreams.”

  —Unknown

  I’d been awake for hours, the sounds of Audrey’s house foreign to my ears. Where my body was sated, but exhausted, having spent yet another night loving her into the dawn, my mind wouldn’t shut off. I was reliving not only the way she cried out my name last night, but how she clung to me after agreeing to marry me, as if I would jump up and tell her it was all a big joke.

  Audrey’s naked body slept soundly to my right, the ring on her left hand casting a multitude of rainbows around the room. I’d waited until after we picked up Grace from momma’s house to give her the ring, allowing our little girl to be a part of our happiness.

  Daddy complemented Audrey on having not placed Lucas’s name on the birth certificate. Even if he had been alive and still causing issues, we could get around him by threatening child support. Since he was dead, as soon as the wedding was over, he could have her name changed in a matter of weeks.

  Momma knew the moment we walked through the front door and already had her phone out, ready to contact the wedding planner to start on our ceremony. But Audrey had other plans, asking me to wait until my house was finished. She wanted to spend our first night as a married couple in our own home. I sent my contractor a text to hire additional crew members, I wanted the house move in ready by the end of the summer.

  She surprised everyone, except me, when she said she wanted to get married surrounded by the colors of the South Carolina fall, standing on the dock of our pond, with only the family in attendance. I was willing to marry her covered in honey, as they lowered me into a bucket of red ants—anything she wanted, I was going to stand behind her.

  Last night, we had dinner as a family. Audrey grilled fish while I cut up a salad. Grace was acting like a baby bird, perched in her high chair with her mouth wide open, grunting for food. Audrey took her into the bathroom to give her a bath and I loaded the dishwasher. By the time I switched off the kitchen lights, Grace was dressed in a pink t-shirt and diaper, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

  Two verses of a nursery rhyme later, she was softly snoring, her fists wrapped tight to my shirt. Instead of prying her fingers off, I slipped it over my head and let her cuddle up with it. Enticing Audrey with my naked chest to the point she had shoved me against the wall outside of her bedroom, unzipping my jeans and taking me into her mouth.

  I’d showed her places on her body she never knew were erogenous. A nip to the back of her neck could chase out the word “fuck,” a command I took literally and flipped her over as I slipped my cock into her from behind. She held onto the headboard as I’d pounded into her until she collapsed onto her pillow from her orgasm. As her hair fanned out across her sheets, her bod
y collapsing against the bed I removed my still hard and ready dick to spread her butt cheeks, diving my tongue into her sweet pussy from behind.

  Eating pussy was one of the many things the men in my family agreed on. Do it wrong and she will grow bored with you quickly. Do it right and she will bend to anything you wish. I’ve visited the southern region of my fair share of women, but licking the wet folds of the woman I am about to marry, tasting the essence only I’ve been able to get from her, is fucking bliss. I knew from the first lick she had never had a man between her thighs, not one who knew what he was doing. When her first orgasm crashed over her, I had inwardly pumped my fists into the air. I was the first guy she would marry, her first love, and I owned the first wave of pleasure she had ever experienced.

  When Audrey was approaching her orgasm, she would shift her hips and softly began to chant my name. So when the muffled sounds of “Chase” had come from her sweet lips, I pulled her up, spun her around and let her ride my cock, rocking her pelvis back and forth, until the chanting ran together. When she’d fallen limp onto my chest, I held her tightly as I managed to bring out one last chant before she closed her eyes to dream land.

  “Da da,” a voice broke through the crackle of the baby monitor, a gift from Nana Morgan. Turning to the side to make sure my daughter hasn’t woken her momma, I slip out of bed and into my jeans. Grace is sitting in her bed, clutching the tiny white lamb she carries with her everywhere.

  I switch off the monitor, wanting some time with Grace this morning. “Da da,” she calls again, holding her arms up for me to pick her up.

  “You’re in luck, princess. Your momma gave me the job as your daddy yesterday.” Tucking her sweet smelling curls under my chin, I carefully walked toward the kitchen to get her some breakfast. As we had made dinner last night, Audrey filled me in on all of Grace’s favorites.

  Sitting her in her highchair, I pressed the power button on the coffee maker I’d prepared last night. Grabbing the box of Cheerios off the top of the fridge, and a banana from the basket on the counter, and spun a chair around, and begin to feed her breakfast.

  “When I was a little boy, we had this great big yard to dig up worms and play games. Granddaddy, now I know you’ll never meet him, but you have Granddaddy Morgan to show you how things work and how to see the good in everyone, just like mine did.” Her big blue eyes are like tractor beams, sucking me into her world of wonder. I have the same shade of blue, something girls always found attractive in me. “I’ll tell you all about how to keep boys away, cause none of them will ever be good enough for you.” Grace shares her cereal and banana slices with me as I tell her of my childhood.

  “Princess, having family is the most important thing ever. Money, cars, jewelry—all of that is nothing if you are angry and alone. This family, the one you’ve already been thriving in, is going to spoil you rotten, while teaching you how to be humble and kind. Your Uncle Dylan will show you how to defend yourself and how to use the charm every Morgan is blessed with to get what he, or she in your case, wants. Uncle Austin will make sure you have every video game and newest computer available.”

  Growing up with two older brothers, we shared secrets and were constantly competing for everything. But we were there whenever one of us needed the other, even if it was to punch something.

  “Now, I know what you’re thinking, Daddy, I want some brothers and sisters of my own. Well, darlin’, I’m working on it. Let me get a wedding band on your momma and I’ll have you a mess of siblings”

  Austin had confided in me, he and Lainie were playing the waiting game. She had stopped her pill the night they married and he had been planting seeds ever since.

  “Your momma came into my world at a time when I needed to save someone, to see if the hero I was raised to be was still around. While I did save her, she showed me the hero wasn’t in the uniform I wore, but in the heart which beats for you and for her.”

  A creak in the wood floor gives Audrey’s position away. She’s standing in the entryway, wearing a white fluffy robe, her dark hair pulled back to show the peach color of her cheeks. With her hands curling into the lapel of the robe, her ring is once again sparkling in the morning light. “Come on in, Sweetness. Princess and I were just having a father daughter chat.”

  Silently, she walks across the floor, stopping to kiss the baby on the top of her head, and then continue to the coffee pot where she fills two mugs. “I was thinking when I woke this morning and you weren’t in bed, that this had all been a dream.” Taking a seat in the chair beside me, she places a cup of coffee before me. “But then I heard your voice telling Grace about growing up and how much you enjoyed it.” Taking her hand in mine, I search her eyes for any change in her decision to marry me. “I’ve always believed that two people can fall into bed, determined it will be just an action to soothe an itch, but one of them comes out of the bed with feelings. Sometimes it love, occasionally disgust, but there are always feelings there.”

  “Sweetness, I didn’t have to fall into bed with you to know how I feel about you,” I tell her, bending over to place a kiss to her cheek. “But I can assure you, now that I’ve been in your bed, it will take an act of congress to get me out.” Audrey’s shove to my shoulder gives Grace a reason to laugh and toss a Cheerio at me.

  “As cliché as this sounds, I’ve loved you from the moment I first laid eyes on you. Everyday since then, I’ve had this craving, this hunger to be with you, inside you, around you. I fantasized about you in the shower the morning after the first dinner we had at the shop. Trust me, the reality of you is so much better than the picture I had of you in my head.”

  Audrey’s eyes dropped to the untouched coffee cup wrapped tightly in her hands. “Do you think people will say we moved too fast?” I pushed back my chair to give me room to pull her toward me, a look of surprise accompanies the slosh of coffee on the table.

  “Last night after you fell asleep, I watched you as you breathed in and out. How your eyes fluttered and I hoped you were dreaming of me and our life together. Audrey, I have seen things in my time with the Marines that no human should ever have to witness, giving me an advantage on how short life can be. And it is my belief there is no measure of time, no mandatory waiting period, for love to happen. Sometimes it takes years of building up trust, and other times, like with us, the love is quick and incredible, lasting for the remainder of our years. You cannot accept the timelines of other people and their expectations when they’re not living in your world.”

  Priscilla Morgan may have given her blessing when it came to a tiny wedding for her baby boy. But it was the planning of the engagement party she shot to new levels. Audrey learned fairly quickly to close her mouth and nod her head when it came to agreeing with her future mother-in-law.

  With the ballroom of the Charleston hotel available and able to accommodate three hundred people, Priscilla filled the room to capacity. She even invited Portia, so the bitch could get it through her head this was a done deal.

  Audrey glided around the room in a green dress, one she had the most peculiar story behind. One afternoon, she went to the mall to try and escape the heat of the summer. She found a table in the food court and settled in for some people watching as she soaked up the air-conditioning. A couple started arguing when the man’s phone began ringing and a picture of him and another girl appeared on the screen. Audrey became very animated as she told the story of how the woman began to scream at the man, demanding to know who the bitch was. She had pulled the phone from his hands and answered the call, placing it, presumably, on speakerphone by accident. Turns out the woman calling, was the man’s wife who was in labor with their child. Security had showed up to see if they could help, when the woman threw the phone at the man, grabbed her shopping bags, and started to leave. As the man’s phone rang again, the woman stopped at the table Audrey was sitting at, tossed the bags on her table and told her to keep them. Audrey tried to give them to the man, suggesting he take them back to the store and g
et his money back, but he refused, telling her to keep them. The dress and shoes were from some designer momma considered gasp worthy and Lainie begged her to will the shoes to her when she died.

  “So, have you decided who will be your best man yet?”

  Momma had hired a professional band to play during our party, and the music was going strong. I stole my future wife from a conversation which looked painful, so she could dance with me. “I’m thinking of calling a buddy of mine from Afghanistan, Zach Michaels.” Audrey give me a perplexed look, running her fingernails through my hair. “Sweetness, I can’t choose between my brothers. One of them would be hurt and I want this wedding of ours to be a happy event.”

  “You know, we could just avoid the whole wedding party all together and just have Grace standing with us.”

  “Which would anger people even more.” I wrap my arms around her, basking in the comfort her touch provides me. “Audrey, our family is important, I think I’ll ask them both to stand beside me.”

  “And that is the intelligent man I am madly in love with.”

  The best thing in life is finding someone who knows all your flaws, mistakes, and weakness and still thinks you’re completely amazing.

  Chase signed off on the house yesterday, his contractor sick to death of his constant phone calls and insistence of him not wanting to know what would happen if he didn’t finish in time. A cold front had moved in last week, helping the leaves on the trees to change into the oranges, reds, and golds I love so much.