Love Unexpected (Navy Love Series Book 2)

by Santo, JC

  It isn’t until halfway through my first cup that I catch sight of a small piece of paper with some scribbles on it. Picking it up to examine it better, I’m met with Marshall’s handwriting.

  I toss the note back down and steal a quick glance at the clock. 10:32 AM.

  There’s no way I’m going to her work; Marshall has lost his mind. Even though I’m telling myself that, I still jump quickly into the shower and afterward dress in a Henley t-shirt and jeans and style my hair.

  Going to see her will only allow for more distance to come between my friends, who’ve become my family, and myself. I know this, but that doesn’t stop me from climbing on my Harley and steering it in the general direction of the very place I know I should be avoiding, the tiny coffee shop Tegan works at.

  I take the long way around town, it normally only takes ten minutes to get there from my place, but today my route takes twenty instead. Enough time to picture what Tegan is wearing today, how her hair is styled, if she’s having an easy or tough day. Enough time to question exactly what the fuck I’m going to say to her, and enough time to change my mind about doing this shit at least ten times.

  It isn’t until I pull up and park that where I’m at and what I’m doing sinks in.

  I honestly have no idea why I’m here. I was an asshole when I saw her last night, an asshole with the way I treated her at the wedding, and she probably doesn't want to speak to me at all.

  I’m just being a good friend, checking on her since I was the reason she cried last night.

  That’s the lie I tell myself as I climb off my bike and walk into the shop.

  I walk in and can’t help the disappointment that sets inside me when I don’t see her behind the counter. I refuse to ask the girl working where Tegan is right now. Already knowing she’s here thanks to Marsh, I assume she must be in the backroom.

  I collect my black house coffee from the flirty barista and take a seat where I have a clear, unrestricted sight of the backroom door.

  I reminisce over the short time that Tegan and I were sleeping together before it all came to a screeching halt—the day I found out Tessa was coming home early from her deployment due to being pregnant. It actually came at the perfect time too. Although nothing was ever said, I could tell Tegan was getting emotionally attached, trying to make our little arrangement into something more than it was. What I didn’t realize was that I was so caught up in how she was treating our relationship, that I didn’t notice I suddenly became comfortable with it becoming more myself.

  The epiphany hits me like a Mack truck, the thought of high-tailing it out of the small shop crosses my mind. Before I’m able to process any of it, the backroom door swings open and I lock eyes with Tegan from across the small shop.

  Tegan

  I woke up this morning feeling horrible, mentally and physically. I drank enough last night to give myself a hangover and add in my emotional breakdown in one of my favorite bars, in front of the last person I want to see me emotional, just adds more fuel to that already blazing fire of self-pity.

  All I wanted to do was stay in bed all day but duty called. Duty in the sense of overpriced coffees and superficial college girls who need their nonfat, soy lattes.

  The small shop I work at is about ten minutes from campus and my apartment. It’s really nice during the warmer months when I can walk or bike from school to work and home. Now, though, it’s cold enough that I decide driving is the best option today.

  Luckily for me, my boss wanted us girls to take turns working the counter today while the others cleaned and pushed stock out to the front.

  I’ve spent most of my five-hour shift in the back. Seeing my puffy eyes when I walked in was enough for everyone to volunteer to take my time up front.

  Of course, my first time going to the front, I push through the door and see none other than Reed sitting in the shop, and immediately I know today will be just as shitty as last night was.

  I place the boxes of supplies I’m carrying down on the counter, keeping my back toward him. Maybe if I ignore him he’ll leave.

  After ten minutes of me slowly stocking the cabinets, the bell over the door chimes, signaling someone entering or exiting the shop. I continue the impeccably-slow feat of clearing out two boxes then chance a peek over my right shoulder, checking to see if Reed was the patron who chimed the bell on his exit.

  However, the shitty smirk I see from said patron tells me that not only did he not leave, but he also caught me sneaking a peek at him. I quickly head back into the stockroom, praying that the next thirty minutes will pass by quickly.

  With only five minutes of my shift left, I finally reappear up front. There are four people waiting for their orders to be taken, and I almost feel sorry for Megan, the only coworker who doesn’t care for me, but she’s left me up front alone on busy days plenty of times. With a quick goodbye, I scramble to the front door, desperately trying to avoid Reed.

  I keep my head down, engaged in sending a text and I’m thankful when the door is opened for me. However, the moment I look up to thank the kind person, I’m once again met with that shitty smirk.

  I swear that thing makes me want to smack him and kiss him at the same time.

  “Thanks,” I say shyly as I pass him. I don’t know why I expect that to be the end of our conversation, but judging by him following me out, I guess he didn’t just come in for the coffee today.

  He stalks behind me all the way to my car, no words spoken. I’m mentally freaking out. Is he here to give me a piece of his mind now that I did it to him last night? He, I can only assume, is behind me silently brewing, waiting for his moment to unleash exactly how he feels about me.

  Finally making it to my car, I try to avoid him again and begin carelessly throwing all of my crap in the backseat.

  “Tegan.”

  I continue ignoring him.

  “Tegan. For fuck’s sake, will you at least talk to me?”

  “Reed, I have somewhere to be, so can we reschedule this argument for another time?” I pull my phone out of my pocket to see that I’m running late. “I really have to go.”

  For once, I’m not making it up; I have a study group at 4:00pm with Matthew and a few other friends.

  “So you avoided me the entire time I sat at your work, and now you’re just going to leave when I want to talk?”

  “I’m sorry,” I say quietly as I climb into the driver’s seat.

  I put the car in drive and watch as he stands there while I pull away. I don’t know whether I’m happy I have somewhere to be or sad that I just passed up an opportunity to talk to Reed alone.

  I pull up at the campus library, my thoughts still jumbled from that little run-in with Reed. I know I need to clear it all from my mind. Matthew is going to kill me if I’m distracted for another study session.

  He’s sitting on the library steps with a transfer student, Raegan, waiting for me. Although Matthew hasn’t come out and said it yet, I think he has a little thing for Raegan. I’m going to have to talk with him about that, see what he’s waiting on. It’s obvious the two of them like each other.

  Without asking, I know Liam, Caleb, and Meredith are already inside. We meet here twice a week: once during the week and every Sunday. I met Meredith and Matthew in my microbiology lab and through them was introduced to Liam and Caleb. Matthew is somewhat like a mentor to Reagan. He’s supposed to help her with any issues she may have. From what I can see, he takes this task very seriously.

  Two hours later, with persistent pushing from Caleb, Liam, and Meredith, I finally call it quits on studying. I highly doubt I’ve absorbed anything we went over, because my mind was elsewhere the entire time; like wondering what Reed would have said had I listened to him.

  We exit the building and say goodbyes to Meredith and Liam since they are on their way out to dinner and a movie.

  I can’t help but to be jealous of their relationship. They seem to be best friends as well as lovers. There’s no hostility, no sneaking
around with them. Everyone accepts their relationship, while I, on the other hand, seem to find the one person my sister doesn’t want me to date.

  After my objections, Caleb insists on walking me to my car. While I appreciate it, I could do without his flirting. We’ve been through this before. Caleb has made it very clear he’d like more between us, but I’m determined that it will not happen.

  As we approach my car, I see a tall, slender figure leaning against my passenger door staring holes into Caleb’s arm that is now around my shoulder.

  “Hey, man, you mind not leaning against my girl’s car?” Caleb calls out as we get close enough that I’m able to make out his features. Tanned skin, tattooed arms, and stormy, green eyes. His arms are crossed over his toned chest, the ankles of his muscled legs crossed.

  “Excuse me?” His tone is almost sinister.

  By this point, I’m standing directly in front of Charlie Reed. With Caleb’s arm still around my shoulder.

  Reed still hasn’t looked anywhere but at Caleb’s hand.

  “Do you have a problem, dude?” Caleb’s voice seems like it’s starting to carry an aggressive tone. I need to defuse the situation quickly.

  I shrug Caleb’s arm off my shoulder and step up to Reed.

  “Hey.” Once he finally quits glaring at Caleb, he locks his eyes on me. “You okay? Is something wrong?”

  A look of confusion crosses his face, but he’s fast to mask it.

  He looks back and forth between Caleb and me.

  “So, this—” he gestures toward Caleb “—is what was so important that you couldn’t talk to me earlier?”

  “No, no—”

  “Who the hell do you think you are talking to her like that?”

  I whip my head around to Caleb.

  “Caleb, you need to leave. I can handle this. Reed and I need to talk.”

  Realization dawns on him as he finally puts the puzzle pieces together. This is Reed, the guy that broke Tegan’s heart.

  He slowly nods. “You sure you don’t need me to stay?”

  I nod back at him. “Thank you.”

  He looks back at Reed. “Don’t fuck with her again, dick.”

  “Yeah? Let me hear you call her ‘your girl’ again and you’ll be the one I fuck with, pretty boy.”

  “Caleb, just go, please.”

  I’m sure it’s done out of spite, but he kisses my hair, glaring at Reed the entire time and then walks away to his car.

  We stand in awkward silence before both of us try to speak at once.

  “What are you—”

  “Look, I—”

  I let out a nervous laugh and fidget with my purse strap as I look everywhere but at him.

  “Can we go somewhere and talk, Tegan?”

  His question causes my eyes to cut to his.

  “There’s nothing to talk about, Reed.”

  He shakes his head.

  “There’s plenty to talk about, babe. We can start with why the fuck that prick had his hands on my woman.”

  His woman?

  Reed

  My woman?

  I have no idea where that those words came from.

  Is it true? I have no idea.

  Do I want it to be? Fuck yes.

  Does that realization scare the shit out of me? Hell yes.

  I need to talk to her. I know she wants this as much as me, both the physical aspect and the more.

  “Come on, let’s go back to my apartment. We can have dinner and talk.”

  “Reed, why do we need to talk? There’s nothing between us anymore.”

  How did I know this wouldn’t be as simple as I had thought it would be when I was thinking it over last night? I should’ve known better.

  “Tegan, you’ve got two options here. You can get in your car and drive to one of our apartments or I will throw you caveman style over my shoulder, toss you in my truck and take you to mine. Which do you prefer?”

  This poor girl is probably so confused. One minute I’m a complete jackass to her, and the next I’m practically begging her to talk to me. I can’t say for sure that I even know what the hell I’m doing. There was no elaborate plan when I came to her school, I just knew I didn’t want us to be over.

  I know I still have a lot of past demons to deal with, but I’m hoping she’ll hold my hand through all of it.

  That’s what I need. Someone who’s willing to stand by me as I walk through this fire. Close enough to suffer some burns, but willing to take the pain to keep me from getting stuck.

  Not knowing what else to do, I lean in and take her lips in a hard, rough kiss. My tongue pushes its way through her sealed lips. I’m surprised there isn’t much of a fight from her.

  By the time I pull away, we’re both panting, and Tegan has a dazed look to her.

  Oh, yeah, she can argue all she wants; she still wants me on some level.

  “I'm taking you home. Now.”

  “Okay.”

  I walk her to my truck and then climb in my side. I give her one more hard kiss to her lips then take off. Peeling out, I make the short drive to my place.

  Tegan leads the way up the stairs to my apartment. I, for some reason, cannot keep my hands off of her. The entire way up the two flights of steps, I'm alternating between gently tugging her ponytail, grabbing her small hips, and kissing her freckled shoulders.

  I need to be inside Tegan, now.

  Outside the door, she fumbles with the keys I handed over to her while I continue my exploration of her body, now adding an occasional thrust against her small pert ass.

  All that I'm doing must be affecting her—I've never seen Tegan have so much trouble opening the door.

  “Tegan, baby.” She stops moving, I lean in making sure the heat of my breath cascades around her sensitive ears. “If you don't hurry up with the door, I'll fuck you against it out here.” I press my cock into her backside once more. “And as much as I'd love to see your body pressed firmly against this door, it’s for my eyes only. So get the fucking door open so I can fuck my woman in privacy.”

  My next door neighbor’s door stands a mere twenty feet from us and my door. Normally, I wouldn’t care about being exhibitionist, but not with Tegan. I don’t want anyone else seeing what belongs to me. And while she may not have admitted it to herself yet, she does indeed belong to me.

  I lightly suck on her neck as she finally unlocks the door and pushes it open. Not separating myself from her, I follow her in, mouth still making a trail of kisses up toward her ear, and kick the door shut behind me. Somehow I’m able to lock it without looking back as well.

  Tegan leads us straight to my room, carelessly dropping her purse and book bag along the way.

  Seems she’s just as anxious for this as I am.

  I lay her back on the bed and take my place beside her as I pull her earlobe into my mouth.

  “Reed, I thin-—” I place my finger to her lips to silence her.

  “Shh.” I place a kiss to her neck. “We’ll talk later, Tegan. I haven’t seen you naked in over three months, I’d really like to change that now, if it’s okay with you?”

  “I, uhh… Okay.”

  I take her lips in a slow kiss, gently seeking entry, when all I really want is to demand it. I know I need to go slow with all of this. If I want to make anything work with Tegan, I'm going to have to prove myself to her. And I intend to start right now.

  If I were just fucking her, I would've already had her naked. I want to show her that she's more to me than just sex this time. As much as I want to have sex, I have no intentions of it, at least not yet.

  Lifting up, I remove my shirt while she tosses hers to the side. Most guys want the girl with the huge chest, that’s never been my style. And Tegan just reiterated that fact by removing her shirt and revealing that she wasn’t wearing a bra. One less thing to worry about. Plus, more than a handful is just a waste, right?

  I gently push her back down and straddle her. I take her hands and place them over my rock
hard shaft.

  “Feel what you do to me, Tegan?”

  She slowly nods her head.

  It’s been so long since a woman has touched me that I feel like I could cum from the friction her hands are causing against my jeans. I push her hands away and smile when I hear the whimper leave her mouth. But I don’t let her want distract me. Right now, this is all about her.

  “I haven’t had sex since you,” I whisper in her ear. “If I let you keep touching me, I’ll embarrass myself.”

  I shimmy down her body and pop the button of her jeans then begin working them down her legs as I scoot further down.

  Once her panties and jeans are both removed, I settle myself between her widely spread legs. My eyes unhurriedly take in all of her beautiful naked body.

  Thanks to Marshall and J.C.’s help, I know we both have alibis for the night. Marshall mentioned in passing to Hunter that he and Tegan are seeing a movie together. While, if anyone asks, I have plans to be at the bar with J.C. That means twenty-four hours of uninterrupted alone time with Tegan.

  Time to reacquaint our bodies.

  I start off slow with gentle laps across her tender flesh.

  It’s been three excruciating months since I laid eyes on her body like this—ready, willing and waiting to fall apart at my touch. I plan to take my time with each and every orgasm I get from her.

  I feel as if I can do this all night. However, that idea is quickly discarded when I feel Tegan’s death grip on my hair at the exact moment her hips thrust up.

  “Reed, please,” she softly cries out.

  Hint received.

  I pummel two fingers inside her tight little pussy as my tongue begins working over her clit faster and harder.

  Within minutes, the soft cries have become full on yells throughout the room.

  She grinds herself against my face as she clamps down on my fingers and rides out her orgasm.

  I return back to my slow strokes with my tongue while her body comes back down from the high I sent her on.

  Her tap on my shoulder has me crawling up her body, where I’m met with a long, deep kiss.