“It’s okay, Dad. You can tell us,” she said.
“When Bly told him to stop, he started laughing. The mouthful of dog dish water sprayed her in the face. When she yelled at him, he fell and bumped his face.”
All three of them braced for it.
“He cut his mouth and bled for a while.”
Ethan was very protective of his family. His son was his only child until Charlie was born. Yes, Callen shared his, but Callen James was his first born. That little boy was his legacy.
“Is he okay?” Ethan asked, struggling to remain calm.
Wyler turned the tablet around. CJ was sitting beside him, eating a popsicle.
When they saw his swollen cut lip, they weren’t too freaked out. He appeared to be happily sucking away.
“Hey, little man. I miss you,” Ethan said.
The minute the child heard his voice, he had his focus. “Dadda. I bad.”
And there was what Wyler was upset about.
“No, CJ, you’re not. In fact, you’re one of the best things in my life,” Ethan added. Yeah, Bly was gone. There was no reason that a child should be made to feel like he was bad, and never at two years old.
“I bad. I bad.”
Elizabeth was getting angry. “Baby cakes, you’re not bad. You’re my sweet little love bug,” she stated.
“Momma. I bad.”
“Never, baby boy. You’re just as good as EJ and Kitty Cat.”
He kissed the tablet with purple, sticky lips.
“Hey, Dad?” Elizabeth called.
His face came back on the screen, and he knew what she was going to ask. “After he fell, he wouldn’t let her near him. I was trying to calm him down, and she told him he was B-A-D like his mother.” Wyler spelled it.
Where Elizabeth didn't mind being called that, she wasn’t going to let any of her brood be hurt by some woman’s words. “Please tell me she’s gone.”
He nodded, eyes filling with tears. “I know you’re going to take them away from me. I’m not parenting material. Thank you for letting me try. It means a lot to me.”
“Whoa,” Ethan said. “Are you quitting after firing our housekeeper?” he asked.
Wyler was confused. “I had you bring a woman into your home who has your son programmed to think he’s bad.”
CJ started saying it over and over.
Wyler closed his eyes. “See.”
They all knew the man was hurting. In the past four years, he’d more than redeemed himself. He’d shown that he was loving, sweet, and a good father.
“Well, if you’re quitting, I guess I can fly home to take care of the kids,” Callen offered. “That sucks, since you were doing such a good job. If you can’t do it anymore, we understand.”
CJ climbed up into his lap and rested his head on his shoulder.
“I love them more than my own life. Once again, I let the wrong part of my anatomy do the thinking.”
Elizabeth laughed. “You think these two always think with their brain?”
Ethan laughed. “Dad, you’re doing a good job. Don’t leave. When you walked out on me as a kid, it hurt.”
“Me too, Dad,” admitted Callen. In that moment, he realized something. They could NEVER tell the man what had happened to him. If CJ calling himself bad was pushing the man over the edge, finding out that Callen had been molested for a couple years by his mother’s boyfriend would kill him.
“They were born knowing you, Dad. They need you. We need you. Don’t let Bly break up our family,” said Elizabeth.
Wyler wiped his eyes before kissing his grandson.
“If you can hold out until tomorrow, I can call Ginny and see if she’ll come over and play with the kids. It’ll give you a break, and she loves them.”
“Pat her down before she leaves. She’s always threatening to steal Cat. One day she’s going to pull it off too!”
“What?” Callen said, staring at her.
They laughed at the look of horror on his face.
Even Wyler joined in. “I love you three. I’m blessed to have all of you in my family.”
They all were.
“Maybe the next housekeeper should be a man. There’s plenty of Natives who would work out,” Wyler admitted.
Elizabeth squealed in joy just to torment them.
“Hell no! No man is going to be handling our woman’s girly things!” demanded Callen. “It’s never going to happen.”
Ethan agreed with him one hundred percent. “Our woman has all the Natives that she can handle.
Finally, with their joking, the sadness was gone from Wyler’s eyes.
“Call us if you need us, Dad,” Elizabeth said.
“Bye, CJ. We love you,” Callen called, grinning when the little boy waved and focused on him.
“Wuv you, Cal-Cal.”
His heart melted.
As soon as the tablet went black, Callen faced them. “Under no circumstance do we tell him about Dean Quinlan. He’ll take a bridge.”
Ethan didn't doubt that. “Yeah, I’m with you there.”
Even Elizabeth, who didn't like to lie to Wyler, believed it was for the best. “I’ll take it to my grave.”
Callen changed the subject. “I suppose I should go take Tony and Jaxon some pizza,” he said halfheartedly.
Ethan grinned, tormenting his brother.
Leaning over, Callen began kissing Elizabeth. His whole body went hard at the way her hands felt roaming across his chest. When he finally broke away, he stared into her eyes. “I’m so going to screw your brains out tomorrow.”
She started laughing. Her Callen was amazing.
Giving his brother a fist bump, he grabbed the pizza and headed to the door. “Enjoy your debauchery. I’ll make up for it on my night.”
Ethan watched him cross the land between the cabins, just to make sure his brother was safe. Once at the door, he waited until Callen knocked and was let in. Once it closed, he turned and stared at his wife.
“Come to daddy,” he said, grinning wickedly. It felt like weeks since his woman had been in his arms. A threesome was hot, but sometimes a man just needed a lone dose of Lyzee.
Crossing to him, Elizabeth wrapped herself around him. “Well, do you want to eat first or have really raunchy sex?” she teased.
While that appealed to him, he had something better in mind. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he hit the one app button and music streamed out.
“Can I have this dance, Elizabeth?”
Whenever he caught her off balance with something romantic, her heart always went to mush in her chest. Ethan was the first love of her life.
Before him, none of it mattered.
“I would love to,” she said.
Slowly, he swayed with her body pressed to his. Spinning her out, he dipped her low. One of his favorite things was dancing with his wife. In their hectic life, he didn't always get to lead but in that moment, he was in charge.
“You’re beautiful tonight,” he offered, running his hands down her body and to her ass. With his hands, he cupped her and held her near.
“As always, Mr. Blackhawk, you’re sexy as sin.”
His breath caught in his throat as she left wet openmouthed kisses across his chest. As always, her touch healed him.
“When you sit around with your shirt open, I want to run my hands all the way down your body.”
He closed his eyes as her fingers stroked down his abs to the top button of his jeans.
“When you touch me, I can’t think,” Ethan admitted.
Elizabeth pulled his mouth down to hers to devour him. It was almost as if she was trying to crawl inside him. She wanted him that bad.
Ethan held nothing back.
This was just part of the allure of Ethan Blackhawk. Whatever emotion she was feeling, her husband always reciprocated.
Boosting her up, she wrapped her legs around his hips and fell into the punishing kiss. It was a tug-o-war with her leading and driving it, and then him stealing bac
k control.
Finally, they released the kiss.
“Bedroom?” he asked, needing his wife. As always, she knew how to stir him right up. His heart was pounding, and his ability to string together sentences was gone. All he wanted was to feel himself buried in her body.
“Yes, Ethan,” she purred, taking his earlobe between her teeth to tease him. It was one of the spots on his body that made him crazy, and she knew it.
He fought not to drop her as her mouth made him wild. Once inside the room, he kicked the door closed before tumbling onto the bed with his wife. She curled around him, burying her hands in his hair.
“Whenever I get a whiff of your cologne, it makes me want to climb into your lap and ride you,” she admitted.
If that were the case, he’d never change it or forget to put it on.
“You’re overdressed,” she stated, pulling her own shirt from her body.
Ethan watched Elizabeth, and as her breasts tumbled free, he wanted to worship her body. Already, she was starting to show the proof of the little life she was carrying. Her breasts were fuller, her hips curvier, and the rest of her was just luscious.
Moving off the bed, he noticed she was following.
“Let me help you, Ethan,” she purred, flicking his jeans open. Instead of going right for the obvious, she ran her fingers, lips and tongue across the muscles at his hips. “This part of your body makes me all wet and wild,” she stated, moving around him. When she stood behind him, her hands found the front of his jeans and slowly lowered the zipper. As she located the waistband of his boxers, she decided to explore a little.
After all, why the hell not? This was one of her favorite men in the world.
When her body was pressed to his back, and her hands found him, Ethan dropped his head back and moaned. She was stroking and teasing his flesh.
God, he wanted her so bad.
“When I touch you, I just can’t stop,” she whispered. “You’re like my addiction,” she admitted, stroking him at the same time.
His jeans fell from his hips as he focused on her hand driving him closer and closer to the edge.
“Elizabeth, you’re my everything,” he murmured, turning his head to meet her mouth with his. Their tongues tangled even as his body shook in need.
Slipping around to the front of his body, she went to her knees and tugged his boxers further down. There stood her prize. It seemed like forever since she’d tasted the man who first claimed her heart.
Starting at the base of his erection, she slowly slid her tongue up the full length of him. When he shook, she did it again, only this time, when she reached the top, she took him in her mouth, swirling her tongue across the tip. As she moved slowly, Ethan’s breath increased.
“Oh, baby! So hot,” he muttered, closing his eyes. If he watched her mouth slide up and down his erection, he’d lose it. With his wife, there would be no control.
When he couldn’t take anymore, he had to stop her. “Please,” he began, only to have her add her hand. There was one thing about his Elizabeth. Her mouth was sinful, and whatever you asked her not to do, she was definitely going there.
Somehow, he found a little control. As his hand slid into the back of her hair, he directed her further down his erection. “All of me, Lyzee,” he whispered, opening his midnight blue eyes, as he was unwilling to miss a single second of his wife swallowing him whole.
She let him control their love making.
“Christ,” he muttered. All the muscles in his body rippled, as if the control was threatening to break free. She was taunting the darker side of him, and she knew it.
Stepping back, he needed to catch his breath.
“Get on the bed, Ethan,” she directed, even as she tugged down her shorts. Beneath them, she wasn’t wearing any panties.
Being a smart man, he wasn’t going to waste as single second. He’d have to be out of his damn mind to do that. Here was his woman, and she was ready to bounce in his lap.
Leaning back against the headboard, he waited for her to straddle his body. With eager fingers, he ran them through her wetness. “I just wanted to make sure you’re ready for me.”
As she placed her hands on his shoulders, her lips went to his ear. “You always make me wet, Ethan.”
If he survived this, he was going to walk around with a big smile on his face all day tomorrow.
As she took him in her hand, he watched her get him in position. His hands went to her hips, and she slowly slid him home. When he was fully encased in her body, he wanted to roll and pound himself into her.
But he wouldn’t.
This was Elizabeth’s show.
Little by little, she began the ride.
One of the things he loved most about her body was her breasts. They were bobbing right in front of his face. It was like an invitation to feast on them. As he located a plump nipple, he took it in his mouth and started dining on his wife.
Her gasp at his licking, sucking, and teasing, drew a low moan from deep within his chest. There was something so hot about your woman responding to the simplest touch.
When he switched to the other one, her tempo changed. It was getting faster, a sure sign that she was close. Bracing for the explosion, Ethan used the pad of his thumb to shove her off the edge. When she tumbled, it was with his name on her lips.
As Elizabeth used his body to stay upright, the world exploded around her. From his ragged breath, she knew he barely survived.
Opening his eyes, he stared at her with so much want and need. “Elizabeth.”
It was her only warning before he rolled, placing her beneath him. With his erection still buried inside her body, he stared down into her face. “I love you,” he whispered, as he began the slow glide, which would bring them both back to the precipice.
This time, they’d fall as one.
Ethan couldn’t break his gaze. There was something about staring into her eyes. They were the windows to her soul, and it was the most beautiful one he’d ever seen.
“I love you,” she whispered, meeting him stroke for stroke, as he got deeper and deeper into her body. It was like they were one.
“So close, baby,” he murmured, driving into her. When he shifted the angle, it was all it took. Her orgasm tore through her, pulling him with her for the fall.
Shouting her name, he poured hotly into his wife before collapsing on the bed.
“My only,” he whispered.
“Forever,” she replied.
Minutes passed, and finally she spoke. “What’s that, Charlie? Daddy needs to feed you or when you’re a teenager you’re going to date five boys at once, and one of them is going to be twice your age.”
He snorted. “She’s her mother’s daughter already.”
“Pizza while we work?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yeah, baby. It’s a date.”
* * *
Once inside Tony and Jaxon’s cabin, he knew something was very wrong. The energy was bad, and the man before him appeared to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe it was meant to be that he came here.
He could try and cheer him up.
“I got us dinner. Are you hungry?”
“Not really,” Tony admitted.
“Okay, well, you need to eat, and so does Jaxon. Where is she?” he asked.
“Asleep. She took a pain pill and had a protein bar. She wasn’t in the mood to stay awake.”
“Have as seat, Tony,” said Callen, opening the box. “How about you start at the beginning, and tell me everything.”
What would be the point? Tony knew he couldn’t win this one, not even if he tried.
“You know I’m your friend, right? You can trust me, Tony. I might be able to help you out. I happen to know a lot about getting your heart handed to you by women.”
Yeah, like his mother, every woman he slept with to forget, and a fiancée who ran him through the ringer. Callen was the self-professed king of heartbreak.
“I’m in lo
ve, and she’s going to leave. I can see it in her eyes. Each time I look at her, I see the intent. Jaxon is waiting for that one moment when my guard is down, and she’s going to bolt.”
“How do you know she’s going to leave?”
He told Callen how much she disliked her job.
“Okay, so what’s the problem?”
Tony stared at him like he was missing something. “I just told you she was going to leave.”
“You do realize that you both don’t have to work for the FBI to be a couple. While long distance relationships can suck, they still mean you get the girl until you figure out a way around it.”
“If she walks away, my heart is going to break. I never put it out here, and the one time I do, it’s thrown in my face.”
Callen understood more than Tony knew.
“What do I do?”
“I can only tell you what I’d do. If it were Lyzee, and she ran, I’d chase after her.”
In fact, that had just happened, except the roles were reversed. His woman followed him and that meant the world. “When you love someone, you do whatever it takes to stay with them.”
“What if it’s not real?” he asked, scared shitless.
“When I was in love with Elizabeth, I tried to fill the void with Desdemona. I knew she wasn’t going to be right, here,” he said, touching his heart. “Yet, I refused to listen. I wanted to have someone so bad, that I was willing to compromise everything. Then, I asked her to marry me.”
Tony never heard the entire story.
“She said yes, and never really loved me for me. Desdemona wanted a family to protect her, and that’s all I was. We fought about it nonstop. She stopped wanting the man I was, and tried to make me into one who would worship her. Only, I couldn’t. She didn't own my heart, Tony.”
“Did you love her at all?”
“Yes, but not in the ‘spend the rest of your life’ together, kind of way. I was in love with the idea of her. I wanted someone who would be mine.”
“How did you know it wasn’t real?” Tony asked.
“When we fought, she’d get violent. Things would be said, guilt was thrown out, and tears would be used. That’s not a relationship. When you love someone, yes, you fight, but you don’t fight dirty. Desdemona would throw things, call me names, and all I wanted was to be loved. I wasn’t sin free,” he stated. “I couldn’t give her my heart, because I knew who I wanted. I’m just lucky my brother was willing to share.”
Redemption is Here (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 9) Page 38
