ROMANCE: Badass Boss (Billionaire Alpha Bad Boy Romance) (Western Mail Order Bride Calendar Contemporary)

by Susan Fleming

  Stone examined the sofa and mentally laid his six feet eight inch body on it. He lopped over by several feet. He reluctantly said, “I think you’re right.”

  They got ready for bed. Delia made a circle in the air with her finger. Stone turned around. Wearing only her panties and bra, she grabbed a sheet from the foot of the bed and lay on the couch. She frowned. “You didn’t look at me. You should have looked or tried to look so I could have yelled at you for looking at me in my underwear.”

  Stone’s voice didn’t have a lot of strength. “I’m sorry. You’re right, but I’m tired too.”

  “I forgive you, but try next time.”

  “I will.”

  “That’s the spirit.” She brought the sheet up to her neck.

  Stone undressed to his shorts standing next to the bed.

  Delia sat up with her hands pressing the sheet to her body. “Come here. I want to look at you.” He did, sleepily and without compliant. She traced the little, round scars from the AK47 with her fingertip then the smaller scar on the front of his chest. “This is where you were shot.”

  “Yes. The doctors did a good job of patching me up.”

  She found the other scar; the one that ran along his ribs along the other side. “I have to ask. A man attacked you with a knife. Why?”

  “I don’t know. It was just a bar fight in Cabul. I didn’t get a medal for it.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “I took his knife away from him and killed him with it.”

  “That’s not easy.”

  “I was close enough to smell him.” He wasn’t smiling when he said his next words. “He smelled like manure and old sweat.”

  She turned him around to look at his tattoos. She said, “I like this one.”

  “Which one?”

  “The tattoo with the girl in the bikini, it’s funny. Here’s one that’s quite serious.” She read it aloud. “People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence at their behalf.” She looked at the other tattoos and found her hand running softly over his skin. She added her other hand. Stone didn’t comment or pull away. She could feel his muscles shifting strongly underneath his scarred tissue. She said, “Time for bed.”

  “I agree. Call me if you need anything.”

  “I will.”

  She watched him walk over to the bed. She saw a little of the tiger-like grace she’d seen earlier. She also saw the limp. She said, “Stone?”

  “Yes.”

  “I feel worse now. That quotation is absolutely correct. I’ll sleep well tonight knowing you’ll protect me. Don’t be too angry with me. I’m still a little confused.”

  “‘I’m not. Go to sleep.”

  Chapter 12

  The Truth

  A sleepless hour later, Delia took her cell phone to the bathroom. She sat on the toilet and called home. She said, “Mom? It’s Delia. I’m sorry to wake you up, but I’ve got to know something. I might get involved with a veteran who has PTSD. His hip and knee are prosthetics. How bad was it with daddy. I watched you work so hard with him. Was it something you think I could handle.”

  There was nothing but silence on the line. Delia said, “Mom, are you still there?”

  “Delia, you’re wrong. I’ve never seen you be this wrong. You usually have such a good grasp of things. I don’t see how you screwed this up so much.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Sweetheart, I never sacrificed anything to take care of your dad. I love him. When he came back home, I was overjoyed because I could touch him and hold him again. He was still alive. He needed help with everyday things, and I wasn’t about to let anyone else take care of him. But I didn’t mind that. He was mine. I love him more now than I did then. Do you understand?”

  Delia paused. “I thought you were being dutiful when you wouldn’t let anyone else help him.”

  “Every time I helped him get dressed or took him to the doctor at the VA, I was important to him. There’s something else you need to remember. You and your brothers were all born after he got back. That’s something else I appreciated. If he’d died, I would have spent my nights alone.

  “I guess I never thought of it like that. I understand more now. I love you, Mom. Good night and thanks.”

  “Sorry, you can’t go yet. Tell me about him. Mother’s need to know who their daughters are getting involved with.”

  “He’s huge, six eight, at least. He spent two tours in Afghanistan. He’s handsome and caring. Like I said, He’s got a prosthetic hip and knee. It makes him limp. He has PTSD like daddy.”

  “Does he treat you well?”

  “Yes. He cares for me and protects me. I can’t talk about it in detail, but he saved my life today.”

  “Wonderful. That’s what I needed to know. Thanks dear. Call me when you’re back home.”

  Chapter 13

  Life Choice’s

  It happened at three in the morning. Delia woke up to a noise like a quiet scream. She sat up and listened. Stone was sitting up in bed. His mouth was wide open, and he was trying to scream. Sleep stifled the sound except for a weak noise full of desperation and fear. He held his hands out in front of him and pleaded, “No, don’t shoot.”

  Abruptly, he violently fell back on the bed, his hands clutching his chest. He moaned and reached for something at his side. His hands held an imaginary pistol. He sat up again and fired the non-existent gun five times before falling backward. He thrashed around, muttering, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. It’s important to me, doc.” One of his hands leaped up in the air and grabbed somebody’s lapel. He pulled it down. “I mean that. Cut whatever you have to cut off, just keep me alive.”

  He fell back on the bed again and began to weep. Deep sobs made his huge body tremble.

  Delia couldn’t take it. She’d seen it before with the brother and father, she had to help. She walked over to the bed and slid in. She pulled his massive body over on his side and held his head against her neck. “Stone, this is Delia. You remember me. You’re with me. You’re having a dream. Can you hear me. It’s Delia.”

  The sobbing stopped after a few minutes. She glanced at the sofa and shook her head. She whispered in his ear. “Stone. I care about you. I really do. Please rest,I’ll protect you. While you’re with me, you won’t have any more bad dreams. I won’t let you. Stay asleep. You’re safe.”

  Stone mumbled, “I will.” It was odd to watch this mammoth man with the manly tattoos and multiple scars meld gracefully into her body. She stroked his soft.

  The next morning. Delia woke up with a very comfortable feeling. She wiggled around for a few moments enjoying the warmth of the strong arm around her and the hard body holding her. It touched her from just below the back of her neck to her toes.

  Her eyes jumped open when she remembered where she was and who she was with. She listened to his rhythmic breathing for a few minutes while she tried to find a way back to the sofa.

  His body held hers with a security she hadn’t found anywhere else, except when she was a little girl and her father carried her off to bed. She sighed and thought, “Just a little longer. I’ll be alright.”

  She wasn’t. Stone woke up with his nose in her hair and his arm under her head. He blinked a few times. “Delia?” then somewhat ungallantly, “What’s going on?”

  She tried to scoot out of the bed. He held both her shoulders and turned her around facing him and pulled her back into him. His chest hair tickled her nose, and his masculine odor stormed into her body. He had awakened enough to make his next words diplomatic. “Did we do anything?” His hand touched the fabric of her bra. “No, we didn’t. You wouldn’t be wearing anything if we had.” He took a deep breath. “Are you alright? Did you have a nightmare?”

  Delia made the decision she’d look back on as the turning point in their relationship. If she’d said that she had a nightmare and had crawled into his bed for comfort, they would have parted after a
few months. She didn’t do it. She knew she was going against everything she thought she wanted. She did it anyway. She leaned back so she had eye contact. “No, Stone. You had the nightmare. I couldn’t watch you suffer, so I tried to help. You were crying. I came to your bed and held you against me to help you calm down.”

  “Did the dream include me begging not to be shot?”

  “Yes. It also has you killing the man who shot you.”

  “That’s the only thing that keeps my male ego intact.”

  Delia rose up on one elbow to look at his face. He wasn’t being sarcastic or cynical.

  He watched her study him and said, “That wasn’t one of my shining moments. I should have done it like a French soldier I read about. He’d been captured by the terrorists. They kept him overnight then put him up against a wall. His final words were ‘Now, I will show you how a Frenchman dies’. He did. I didn’t. I pleaded for my life. No dignity.”

  “You killed the man. That gives you back your manhood.”

  “I guess.”

  Chapter 14

  Leave

  Stone stopped talking. He reached under her and lifted her off the bed. He had both hands under her hips. He moved her over directly on top of him and let her down against him. She couldn’t help herself. She could have ran across to the sofa, but he wanted her. When a woman spends a night caring for a good man, she makes a place in her heart that’s not easily denied. Delia snuggled against him. She shuddered when she felt his arms cross her back and their gentle pressure keeping her close. She rubbed her nose and eyes into his neck.

  He didn’t say anything. She didn’t either. It was too nice. She noticed that, unbidden, her legs had spread out to the sides. Her knees were outside his. She had a sudden mental image of his strong, sturdy cock easing into her channel in that position. That didn’t startle her or cause her to panic. It made her burrow into his chest even further.

  She got up on her elbows. She didn’t move anything else. She looked into his eyes and thought “He has green eyes. They’re a pretty color.”

  Out loud, she said, “What’s the plan for today?”

  “Obviously, we go to the office first. I want to know what that cube is. Why it was being smuggled inside the gas tank of one of our cars and who put it there.”

  “That’s a good idea. She kept looking into his green eyes and sighed. She said, “I’ve come to a crossroads. I have to chose which kind of man I should be with. I’m in your arms and not wearing much. It feels wonderful. I don’t want it to end. Ever. I guess that’s what I’m choosing. I should really ask you. Will you be my man? No, wait, I want to say it in my own words. I know the feminists will disapprove. I don’t care. Will you let me be your woman?”

  Stone answered by unhooking her bra and saying, “Only if this is for the long run.”

  Delia didn’t answer with words. She stripped her bra off her arms and kissed him with dedication. Stone felt her soft breasts against his chest.

  Delia’s eyes abruptly widened. She said, “I see you noticed I’m topless.”

  “What gave you the first clue?”

  “That rowdy, great log presently between my legs and touching my delicate places.”

  “Oh that.”

  “Yes. that.”

  Stone massaged her rump with both hands. This stressed the little button in her private garden. She said, “Oh” and looked at the headboard of the bed. Her mouth slowly dropped open.

  Stone waited until her eyelids drooped slightly and turned them slowly on their side. He let her continue turning until she was on her back. Her head rested on his arm. He pulled her closer and kissed her. She said, “More.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Stone dropped his head down to her left breast and his right hand between her legs. She let her legs drift outward and bent her knees.

  Stone’s index finger on his right hand found the entrance to her hips and slid inside. When he stroked the top of her sheath, she gasped.

  In a little while, Stone noticed that her eyes were almost shut. He could see her pupils dart from side to side. She breathed deeper and deeper.

  Her smell changed from lovely women to something from the jungle. Her hand searched around until it found Stone’s cock. She curled her fingers around it.

  Ten minutes of attention to her breasts and neck and her button and sheath brought her to full arousal. She tilted her head toward him. Her eyes couldn’t see him or anything else in the room. She whispered, “Come inside me.”

  Stone moved his considerable length and breadth over her body and knelt above her legs. He stripped her panties down her legs. She opened her legs and held out her arms. “Come here. I’m yours.” He laid himself down on top of her gently. She lifted her knees and hooked her ankles together behind his back. He noticed that her hips were moving, searching for his cock.

  She finally used her fingers to place him at her entrance. He pressed forward slowly. Her entrance expanded as the head of his cock opened it up. She turned her head to the side and groaned very softly.

  When the head of his cock slid past her opening, Stone stopped. Delia’s sightless eyes looked up at the ceiling. He pulled back just enough to let the biggest part of the crown of his cock expand her opening then came back in, expanding it once again. He did this several times. Delia nodded in small jerks. She gasped and grabbed his butt with both hands and squeezed him.

  A thin sheet of perspiration suddenly covered her body. She moaned and pulled Stone inside her. He penetrated her slowly and carefully, watching her for any signs of pain or discomfort. His cock touched the end of her tunnel, and he paused.

  Her hands on his butt didn’t let him move. He had the chance to look at her carefully. Her eyes were swollen and dark as if she were wearing makeup. Her lips full. He trailed his eyes down her body. Her neck and chest carried a reddish color, most prominent on her breasts. Her hard nipples stiffened. He bent down to take one then the other in his mouth. He bit down, very gently, and she gasped. He lifted himself up, and his eyes trailed down her belly. Sweat pooled in her navel and covered her skin.

  The junction of their bodies seemed to pulse with its own life as if it were moving and caressing without their permission.

  Stone started withdrawing. Delia face showed deep disappointment. She shook her head erratically. When he pulled out almost all the way, Stone thought she’d cry. He immediately penetrated her again. Her expression brightened and she happily writhed around his cock.

  They established a nice, simple rhythm. Their hips approached and backed away in perfect partnership.

  Delia unlocked her ankles. Her knees gradually sank down to the sheet. They lay, limp and relaxed on the bed. Her arms settled slowly with her hands close to her head. She smiled. Her hips moved and nothing else. Her eyes even stopped endlessly searching for something on the ceiling and stayed in the center of her vision.

  Long minutes later, Her eyes sprang open. She grunted. Her arms and legs flailed around without her will.

  Stone felt her channel contract around his cock. It felt like it was milking him for his semen. She whined and moaned and turned her head from side to side. Her back arched, pushing her belly up against Stone.

  She subsided gradually, with several pauses for smaller orgasms. She brought her knees up so her feet could rest on the bed.

  Her eyes focused on Stone who looked like a man with a cramp in his leg. She concentrated on her sheath. “You’re still hard. Go ahead. You can finish now. I’m done.”

  His words came out strained. “Inside or out. Answer quickly or it’ll be inside.”

  “Stay inside. I want to feel you.”

  “Good, because I can’t hold back any longer.” He let all the air out of his lungs and pulsated against her. Once he touched the back of her sheath, he closed his eyes and made small motions, no more than half an inch.

  Stone cried out once and grunted as his body pumped his semen inside of her.

  She looked down between their
bodies. She could see the base of his cock straighten and constrict and feel a new warmth and wetness deep inside her. She looked at him in wonder.

  When he was finished, he started to fall on top of her. She pulled her arms into her sides and let him cover her with his magnificent body. She nuzzled his neck with her forehead. She felt like she was completely encased in a good man’s protection and love. She wanted to burrow into his chest and live there forever.

  Stone worked his hands under her shoulders and held her close. His hand moved up her neck to the back of her head to support her. He held her against him.

  She was completely, and perfectly, his woman. And that made him her man. They would never part.