She stood up, then knelt on the bench between my boots, cradling my face in her soft hands. She lifted my head to look at her, and when I looked into her beautiful pale blue eyes, I felt as if someone ripped open my chest.
“Reaper, first of all, Chas—the guy you saw me dancing with—is an old friend from high school, and he’s gay. So what you thought you saw was definitely not what it actually was. Funny enough, I was behind you in line at Fareway the other day, but I didn’t know it was you at the time, and I thought you were hot as shit. Then when I saw you standing over by Erik and my brother? Well, maybe it was the alcohol—no, definitely the alcohol—but I was dancing for you.” She laughed. “Shoot, I should probably be asking if you have someone.”
She wasn’t with him.
He was fucking gay, for Christ’s sake.
Holy shit. Way to jump to conclusions, you dumbass. Now I really felt like a dumb fuck.
“Jesus, Stephanie, no. There isn’t anyone else. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I’ve been a monk. But every fucking one of them? Every one of them I pretended was you.”
“I think I would prefer not to imagine that.” She laughed again and leaned in to kiss me gently on the lips. As soon as our lips touched, it was as if a fire was ignited between us. It was like a kiss couldn’t just be soft and gentle between us. Our kisses were desperate, frantic—a battle of tongues, lips, and teeth.
Grabbing her ass, I hauled her up to straddle my lap and pulled her jean-covered pussy tight against my cock as it strained against my own jeans. I felt the sharp intake of her breath against my mouth, and she moaned as I ground her against me. With my arms wrapped tight around her, I pressed her into my chest and threaded my fingers deep into her tangled blond curls. When I broke from the kiss, both of us gasped for air, and I pulled her head back by her hair to have better access to her neck, where I began to kiss and nip on her soft, smooth skin. Damn, she tasted better than I remembered.
One of my hands slid down, slipping under her shirt and lifting it above the top of her bra. I almost lost my mind when I saw them swelling up over the top of her lacy bra as they heaved with each breath she took. I pushed her bra down, leaning over to run my tongue along the top curve of her plump tit and then sucking the nipple into my mouth. She held my head close to her chest, showing me it felt good, but she didn’t keep me from going back and forth between her puckered nipples. Pulling back abruptly, I released her nipple with a popping sound before capturing her mouth with mine again and squeezing both luscious tits in my hands. When I felt her breath quicken and her back arch, I knew she was going to come just from our juvenile actions. Her body stiffened and she stopped grinding her hips to press herself tight to me. Then she buried her head in my shoulder as she groaned into my neck and then bit down at the spot where my neck met my shoulder.
“That’s right, baby. Don’t hold back. Come for me. Don’t stop.” I held her tight as I rained kisses on her head and nipped her ear through her curtain of hair.
Holding her by her ass, I slid down off the table and dropped to my knees, laying her back as gently as I could into the soft green grass. As I knelt between her legs, I looked down at her flushed face and her wild tangle of curls spread out on the ground. Her lips were parted and her eyes were bright and wide in the glow of the setting sun behind us as it glittered over the water. I could smell the earth around us, and it seemed to call to me on a primitive level.
God, she was fucking beautiful. I had no idea what this shit was between us, but she felt like eternity and I didn’t want to let her go. Ever. And I was going to show her how much I fucking needed to feel her wrapped around me.
I grabbed her shirt, pulling it up over her head and setting it to the side. Her tits were still resting over the top of her bra like an offering I couldn’t resist as I leaned over to run my tongue across them and sucked lightly on each nipple. Reaching down, I pulled off her boots and unbuttoned her jeans, pushing them down her legs until she kicked them off her feet and ankles. My lips never left my worship of her body as I slipped my hands under her when she arched her back, giving me better access to the hook and to her nipples. Her bra came loose and I tossed it to the side before dragging her panties off as fast as I could. After she was completely nude, I knelt there between her spread legs and took her in to compare and memorize her body now against the first time I saw it. She was abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous. Perfect. Just fucking perfect.
Her tits seemed a little fuller than I remembered and her hips had widened slightly into a woman’s hips. She still had her belly button pierced and her belly, though slightly curved, was still taut, and I ran my fingers lightly along the few faint silver lines I had missed the last time—evidence of when our child had grown inside her. I imagined her belly swelling with my child, our daughter, and I felt an instant pang of regret that I hadn’t been there to see it, but quickly pushed it aside. There was no room for regret between us. Regardless of where things went from here, in that moment and for as long as I could keep her, she was mine.
I ran my hands in a featherlight caress across her belly, to her hips, across her groin—causing her to shiver—and finally, across her mound and down her wet folds. I leaned over, pressing light kisses to each of the faint marks from our baby. When I raised up, I cupped her wet pussy firmly as I leaned over her with my weight held on one arm so I could look her in the face.
“This pussy? It’s mine. No one else’s. I do not share. No one touches this but me. Say it.”
“It’s yours,” I heard her breathlessly whisper. I groaned as I leaned in to kiss her and my fingers separated her slick, wet folds, teasing her before sliding first one finger then another into her in an imitation of what I would soon do to her with my cock. She moaned, clawing at my back through my shirt and pressing her pussy into my hand as I circled my palm on her clit and fucked her with my fingers.
Her walls quivered before they tightened and pulsed around my fingers. Her creamy cum soaked my fingers and hand. Sweet fucking hell her body was made for me. There was no way this woman could respond like this to anyone else, and I was going to make sure she never did. This pussy? This body? My soul knew it was mine. Touching her was like coming home. Being inside her was like a healing balm that soothed my blackened soul.
I couldn’t believe the things he did to me. It should be against the law for a person to feel this good. He played my body like a master pianist played the piano, bringing forth music that shattered the soul. When he pulled his fingers from between my legs and raised them to his full lips, I couldn’t believe it. Oh. My. God. He wouldn’t… He did. I watched him lick his fingers before leaning in to kiss me.
“Taste how your body responds to me,” he whispered before kissing me gently and running his tongue across mine. I never, ever, in a million years would have thought that would be a turn-on, but I became a shameless hussy with him. Pulling away from the kiss, I begged him to remove his clothes. I needed to feel him, touch his skin… taste him. My hands wildly grasped at his shirt and jeans, plucking and pulling at them.
He gently extricated my hands from his clothes and stood above me. I knew I looked wild and savage as I lay sprawled out on the ground, panting as I watched him undress. He wasn’t moving fast enough, and I heard myself whimper. Holy crap, he was driving me crazy!
Reaching over his head, he grasped his shirt by the back and pulled it over his head in one swift sweep, tossing it to the ground. He unbuckled his belt, unfastened his jeans, and slid them down his legs, stepping out of them as he kicked them to the side. When I saw the defined ridge in his boxer briefs and the small damp spot on them at the top, I licked my lips before biting the lower one in anticipation as he slid them off, his thick cock springing out as he freed it from its confines.
I noticed the bold tattoos that twisted and wrapped his arms from wrist to shoulder, some I remembered from before, but many were new since then. He had a large eagle across his chest with the tips of the spread wings touching the fr
ont of the swirling abstract designs wrapping around his shoulders. A set of dog tags tattooed within other abstract designs and words ran all along his left side and matched the real set glinting around his neck. The tats did absolutely nothing to detract from the sexy, sculpted muscles he still maintained, and I actually might have started drooling.
Sweet Mary, mother of God.
The muscles in his legs flexed and bunched as he crouched then knelt back down to the grass. He even had tats on his left leg, but I wasn’t able to see what they were before he was lying over me, bracing his weight on his forearms so as not to crush me. He brushed my hair from my face and looked piercingly into my eyes.
“Do you know how many times you saved me? Kept me strong? Brought me back?” he asked me in a low voice. I shook my head. His lips brushed softly along mine as he whispered, “You are my angel, Steph. You were with me the entire time.”
“God, Colton—I mean, Reaper… I feel like I’m going to… I want to tell you…” I couldn’t form a complete sentence. It was like my brain had turned to mush. He did that to me.
“When it’s just us like this, baby? Use my real name. Only with you, like this, can I be the man you remember from that first night. You deserve so much more than what I am. God, Steph, I’m so fucked up inside.” My hand caressed his face.
“Even though we haven’t been together these past few years, you were never out of my thoughts. I don’t want to scare you away or make you say anything you don’t feel or want to say, but I need you to know where my head is before we go any further. Colton, I think I’m falling for you. I can’t help it. You’ve always been in my heart,” I said breathlessly. My heart raced as I worried I would chase him away with my confession.
“Fuck that. You aren’t making me say or feel anything I don’t want to. I love you, Stephanie. It sounds insane, but I’ve loved you since the first time we were together. I loved you while you were a figment of my crazy fucking imagination in that shithole country. I loved you while I was delusional in the hospital after the explosion. I don’t deserve you, but I love you now, and I will love you till I take my last fucking breath. You need to know where my head is before we do this.” He looked at me, motionless, waiting for… what? Possible rejection? He must be crazy. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him down to kiss me again.
His lips ignited a fire in me when he pressed them to mine. This was no soft, gentle kiss. This was a fierce claiming. We both explored every aspect of each other. We nipped and collided. His strong forearms framed my shoulders as his fingers threaded through my hair, anchoring us together.
He ended the kiss and reached over to his jeans. I heard the crinkle of the condom wrapper and watched him rip it open with his teeth, lift up, and roll it on. Holy hell, that was hot. Then I watched as he held himself at the base and stroked a couple of times before guiding it to my entrance. His eyes never broke contact as he flicked his tip through my wetness then plunged to the hilt. I sucked in a hissing breath as he filled me completely, and it took a minute for my body to acclimate to his invasion.
My entire body tingled and quivered as he slid in and out slowly at first, and then gained speed. I felt my muscles tensing up in expectation and the telltale pulsing begin at the deepest core of my body. Every muscle felt tight, and I pulled desperately at the grass before grabbing his ass and raking it with my nails. I screamed as my climax ripped through me, sending my soul flying through the air and floating to the ground, finally landing in the incessant throbbing of the finale of my orgasm. I noticed fine beads of sweat break out over his forehead and across his chest. After he had prolonged my pleasure until I thought I might truly shatter, he resumed stroking into me in a rhythm as old as time.
“God, Stephanie… you unravel me…” he rasped, before his own muscles tightened. He groaned, and I felt his cock thicken and pulse as it filled the condom. He collapsed over me, wrapping me tightly in his arms, kissing my head and temple reverently. Our hearts seemed to pound in unison. Nothing about this felt wrong. It was like falling together. Like finding that lost piece of myself.
“WHAT DID YOU MEAN when you said ‘in the hospital after the explosion’?” She was lying replete with her head pillowed on my bicep and my arms wrapped around her. Her fingertips ran lightly over my forearm where it rested across her chest. Fuck, as soon as those words were out of my mouth earlier, I regretted them. I had never talked about the accident with anyone. I didn’t want her to know exactly how fucked up I was, but I didn’t know how to hide it from her now. I took a shaky breath and my chest ached.
“It was in Afghanistan before Christmas the year we met. I was riding up front. Mason—Hollywood—my spotter, was sitting behind me with Kamil, our interpreter, behind the driver.” I felt myself drift back to that day, remembering it like it was yesterday.
The Humvee rocked and jolted along the shitty-ass trail they called a road in that God forsaken hellhole they called Afghanistan. We were in a small convoy headed to our rendezvous point where we would meet up with a trusted informant. We would then take that intel and break off to get into position. Our target was a key member of the fucking piece of shit Taliban. It had begun to feel like a hopeless cause, because it just seemed like when you killed one, another sprouted up to take his place, but I had my mission. There hadn’t been a soul on the road as we traveled, and it gave an unnatural eerie feel to the land. Everyone was on edge and vigilant, watching for anything that seemed out of place or suspicious.
We had been about fifteen clicks out from the rendezvous point when we hit a large rock, causing us to swerve off the road. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion and I couldn’t hear anything. We were flying through the air, tumbling over and over. I frantically fought to hold my phone. Even though it was powered down and I wasn’t supposed to have it, I knew my angel’s picture was in it and I clutched it with a death grip. It felt like the fires of hell rained down on us. Debris in the Humvee was flying around inside like missiles, hitting us repeatedly before working their way out the windows as we tumbled. Something must have busted open because it splattered across my face and chest.
We came to a jolting stop and my hearing slowly returned along with a constant ringing sound as we sat at an angle against a bunch of boulders and rocks. Everything was still muffled, but I could hear screaming and then realized it was me. I tried to catch my breath as the pain surged and seared through the left side of my body. Hearing a moan, I looked over into the baby face of the driver. He was covered in blood and looked at me with fear in his young eyes as he mumbled, “Help me, Sarge.” Then he coughed, followed by a gurgled sound before blood ran out of his nose and mouth. I kept saying “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” as his sightless eyes bore into me. His blood ran down and dripped on my shoulder. I desperately tried to unbuckle, but my left arm wouldn’t work right. I twisted slightly in my seat to see the interpreter staring sightless at the roof of the Humvee with his one remaining eye and his head flopped to the side. Twisting hurt so bad I couldn’t catch my breath. Mason was screaming behind me, but I couldn’t see him. I yelled for him to hold on as I shoved my phone back in my IBA with my right hand and tried to move to get to Mason, but the pain was excruciating. I began praying to my angel and whatever God she served.
It seemed like hours had passed before I heard voices yelling and gunshots exploding around us as bullets pinged off the rocks. I had no idea who was shooting or if the rest of the convoy was safe. The gunshots stopped, and I heard more yelling and boots running in various directions. It was frustrating as fuck not being able to protect myself with my own damn weapon. I tried to see outside the Humvee, but something ran in my left eye, burning, and we were lying on my side of the vehicle. All I could see around us was dust, rock, and dirt. “SSG Alcott! SGT Lange! SPC Thompkins! We’re coming in to get you!” It was getting harder to breathe, and I could barely keep my eyes open…
“The last thing I remember was hearing Mason moan, and I prayed it meant he was alive and would mak
e it. I thought I was dying. I didn’t expect to see anyone ever again. I remember briefly regaining consciousness in Germany, but no real details. The next time I was lucid, I was in a hospital room in BAMC, the Army Medical Center down in San Antonio, wrapped up and wired up to so many machines I thought I was in a Sci-Fi movie. Mason was in a wheelchair dozing next to my bed. He had both lower legs in some kind of funky casts. He jolted awake and told me I had suffered multiple fractures to my left arm, three of my left ribs, and my left leg had a rod at the thigh and the lower leg had pins, plates, and screws. I found out what I thought was mud from the dirt and a busted canteen was actually our blood being splattered around inside the Humvee. They said if we hadn’t hit that rock, we would have all been killed instantly, but it set us off track just enough, I guess. He told me I had internal bleeding and for a while they didn’t think I was going to make it. There were many days and nights after that where I wished I hadn’t. If Mason hadn’t found me again after I got out…” I couldn’t speak anymore. The telling was nearly as draining as the events themselves. “Let’s just say, between Mason and the MC, they pulled me back. Mostly.”
“Is that where this came from?” She tilted her head back to face me and ran a fingertip along the scar on my cheek. In a knee-jerk reaction, I reached up and grabbed her hand, halting its progress. It was a burning reminder for me, and just her touching it made me angry inside.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“No, don’t be sorry for me, baby. There are other people who deserve your pity and empathy. I don’t deserve any of that.” I stared up at the stars that were beginning to come out. They were barely visible through the leaves of the trees above us. The night sky was darkening, and I could hear crickets and frogs in the shadows of the lakeshore awakening. I had no idea what time it was, but I knew we should probably get going.
Colton's Salvation: A Demented Sons MC Novel Page 14
