Embattled Ever After (Lost and Found Series Book 5)

by J. M. Madden

  Duncan had seen a lot in his life and most of it was laid out upon his skin. Most of the time he didn’t even think about what he looked like, but seeing young, beautiful Alex catalogue his injuries hurt more than he expected. He refused to apologize for them. If she wanted to be with him then she needed to see it all.

  The wet shorts hung forgotten in her hand as she scanned across his chest, then drifted down to the tattoo on the left hand side of his ribs. She was too far away to read the names, but she smiled sadly. She was smart enough to understand the soldier’s cross and what the ink commemorated. Then her eyes drifted down to his erection and it was almost like a physical caress. His body flexed with eagerness and her eyes darkened.

  She glanced away long enough to fling the shorts toward his bathroom, then turned back and started to walk toward him. Duncan had done his own checking out and couldn’t believe how gorgeous she was. Pampered women had a way about them, an enhanced femininity. It was very easy to see that Alex Hartfield enjoyed being a woman. From her expensively cut hair, her freshly manicured finger and toe nails painted a dark red, to her expertly waxed bikini area and the expanse of soft pampered skin that glowed in the light of the hallway, she was a complete woman. Duncan wanted to lay her down and explore her, inch by luscious inch. And he wanted to give her pleasure like she’d never known before.

  Alex stopped in front of him and reached out a single finger to run down the center of his chest. Duncan wanted to bask in her touch, but need was pushing him now. Cupping her face in his hands, he bent to her mouth, loving that she opened to him so willingly. And her kisses were as heady as the rest of the attention she paid him.

  When she tugged on his hand, pulling him toward the bed, Duncan did not resist. It was what they both wanted, right or wrong.

  But he refused to let her lead the entire encounter. As she moved to lay back on the bed, he lowered himself beside her, refusing to wince with the pain. All thoughts of tiredness and wanting the day to be over flew from his mind as he looked at the bounty before him. Propping himself on an elbow, he leaned down to kiss her, resting a hand on her tummy. She gasped as he traced designs over her skin and her hips shifted. Needing to know more, he measured the expanse between her hip bones with his spread hand, and explored the fine pores of her skin. Then he drifted his fingers down the expanse to her pubic area.

  “You are a true redhead.”

  She giggled, and it was a very carefree sound. “Yes, I am. Did you have doubts?”

  “Nope. Not a one.”

  Leaning in, he swirled his fingertips through the moist hair, then burrowed a finger into her heat. She was utterly soaked. Duncan groaned, the tip of his dick tingling, needing release. “That is so sexy,” he murmured.

  “You’re telling me,” she sighed. A shudder wracked her lean body and her hips rolled into his touch.

  Duncan burrowed his finger deeper, finding her swollen clitoris. Alex had no hesitation in telling him what she wanted, even guiding his hand when he didn’t hit just the right spot. It seemed like just a few moments and she gave him the greatest gift he’d gotten for a long time.

  Alex orgasmed for him and called out his name as her body arched off the bed. She pinched her breasts in her hands and moaned, looking at him through passion-glazed eyes.

  After a show like that there was no way he could deny her when she tugged him over top of her. Duncan carefully arched his hips and slid into her as if they were meant to be.

  Alex gasped beneath him, clutching at his sides. “Oh, my God…you feel so right in me.”

  Duncan couldn’t argue. The woman in his arms felt miraculous, and he almost could believe he was in a dream. But this dream was too nice compared to his other dreams. Those held death and destruction and she was the opposite of those things. She was light and life, and everything he wanted, but could never seem to have.

  Alex clutched his ass, pulling him deeper into her. Duncan surged, need pouring through him in a tidal wave. Watching her, feeling her, everything had combined to put him at the edge of climax, and it didn’t take but a few strokes to know that he had to slow down or it was all over.

  Alex moaned when he slowed and arched up, trying to encourage him to keep going, but Duncan was determined. It would be incredibly easy to come right now, but he would feel cheated if he didn’t savor it a little longer. Instead, he curled his body and began kissing down her neck. Some erotic, spicy scent tickled his nose. God, he just wanted to immerse himself in her.

  Levering himself up on his arms, he looked down at her. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips swollen from his kisses. And her eyes. They glimmered like emeralds, full of arousal and lingering satisfaction. “Why are you slowing down?” she whispered.

  “Because I’ve been on an erotic edge for two days since you got here, and it would be entirely too easy to give in.”

  She rocked up, deepening their contact. “That’s the point, isn’t it? To give in? Believe me, this won’t be the only time we do this.”

  Duncan grinned at her, loving that she planned on more from him. “Yes, but I’m an old man. Once I come, I’m shot for the night.”

  A dark auburn brow lifted. “I seriously doubt that. Old man, my ass. I say take your pleasure and we’ll go again.”

  With that, she arched her hips again, more forcefully. Gritting his teeth, Duncan tried to resist, but she just felt so damn good, it wasn’t even funny. Little internal muscles deep in her feminine core were rippling around his length. Succumbing, promising himself he’d do better next time, he slid into her, seating himself as deeply as he could. Alex hissed out a breath of air, her hands fluttering around him. “Oh, yes, please, Duncan,” she sighed, nipping at his earlobe.

  That flash of pain excited him, and in spite of the pain in his hips he settled into a deep, hard rhythm that had her panting beneath him. She undulated, her hands roving all over him, then holding his hips when he settled into time. Her panting breaths accelerated and her pussy clutched at him, then suddenly she jerked beneath him and gave a high, keening cry.

  Duncan rode her orgasm, absorbing every nuance of her shuddering pleasure, before he finally released the hold on his own control and allowed the heat to swamp him. It fired through his blood and swallowed him under. For several seconds there was no room, no house, no pain, just the release contorting his body. And her arms. Her arms were there to hold him tight as the wave of pleasure tried to drown him.

  Duncan had enough consciousness to prop his elbows over top of Alexandra so that he didn’t crush her. When he blinked down at her, his body spent, she smiled up at him with a Mona Lisa smile. “That was so fucking hot,” she told him firmly.

  Grinning, he tried to go up on his arms above her, but they quivered like jelly. With a final kiss, he pulled out of her sweet heat and rolled to the side.

  Almost immediately his own body began to ache, unused to the activity. “I think you tried to kill me, woman.”

  She giggled and rolled up onto an elbow to see him. “No, you tried to kill me first. I’ve never had orgasms like that before.”

  Duncan took her words with a grain of salt. It had been a long time for him, and he didn’t have the flexibility he used to. Or the experience. Alex, on the other hand, seemed like a woman who knew what she wanted and did everything she needed to get it. He loved that confidence in her.

  She suddenly leaned up and planted a kiss on his lips. “You’ve got that pensive look on your face, like you’re rethinking everything. Don’t. I have to go clean up.”

  With a sexy grin, she rolled off the bed and turned to face him. Wetness glistened at her thighs. “This is all your fault, babe.”

  Duncan grimaced at the reminder that they hadn’t used any kind of protection and he forced himself to sit up. His body screamed in protest.

  Alex stepped in front of him, hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to get up and I was just pointing out our combined pleasure, nothing else. I have an IUD in and I’m completely clean. You have to
have sex to catch a disease and it’s been a very long time for me.”

  A knot of tension eased in his gut. “Same here. I certainly didn’t have the presence of mind to grab anything.”

  She leaned down and kissed him, nibbling softly. “I’m going to shower. Why don’t you keep the bed warm? You’ve had an exhausting day. We both have. I’ll be back in a few.”

  Turning, she padded to the bathroom, her tear-shaped ass swaying. She’d barely cleared the doorway before Duncan fell back to the bed and let exhaustion take him.

  * * *

  Shannon cooked John an awesome breakfast that morning, though he noticed she didn’t eat it. She picked at a few pieces of pineapple from a container in the refrigerator.

  And if he studied her objectively, he could see where she’d gained a tiny bit of weight. Her breasts seemed just a little fuller, and there might be a rounding to her tummy. It was so barely visible, though, he could easily attribute it to his mind playing tricks on him, showing him what he wanted to see.

  The shade of gray she turned when she cut the sausage, though, was very visible. “Are you okay?”

  She’d nodded, turning her head away to breathe through her nose for a minute. “I’m fine. There are just some things that bother me now.”

  “And how many of those have I not noticed?”

  John was furious with himself. How in hell could he call himself a lover, when his didn’t even notice changes in his partner? The person he was supposed to be closest to in the world?

  Shannon seemed to sense he was brooding because as soon as they cleaned the breakfast dishes away she made herself a cup of tea and sat at the table with him. “I don’t think we have time for you to mope about what you didn’t know.”

  John sighed, knowing she was probably right. They had a lot to plan for. “So, where do we even begin?”

  The morning sun made her eyes shine brilliantly with excitement. “I want to go shopping for baby furniture and clothes and all the millions of little things they need. We need to sign up for Lamaze classes, register with a hospital.”

  All of the food he just ate sat like a brick in his stomach. They had several months, at least, but it suddenly sounded like just the blink of an eye. They had so much to do. They needed to renovate one of the other rooms into a nursery. “When do you have doctor appointments?”

  A thoughtful look passed over her face. “I have one in a few days. It’ll be about the ten week mark. Once I go to the twenty-week checkup, that’s when they do the ultrasound. I think it’s every month until the last month. Then it bumps up to every week or two weeks. It depends upon how my pregnancy progresses.”

  He nodded and wondered if it would be ridiculous to take notes on his phone. “When is the baby due?”

  “Mid-July. Or thereabouts.”

  She smiled and rested a hand on her flat tummy. John’s throat tightened at the emotion he could see on her radiant face. This had already made her so happy. “I’ll be there for every one.”

  She shrugged as if she wouldn’t be put out if she didn’t show up for every one, but John made himself a promise in that moment. He would be there for every appointment. This was too important not to be there.

  His childhood had been less than sterling. At five he’d been dropped off at a church by his mother. He’d never known who his father was. He’d spent years in foster homes, probably learning exactly how a parent should not behave toward children, but it was all he had. None of his girlfriends had ever had kids and he’d made sure every woman he’d been with was completely protected. Shannon was the first one he’d allowed himself to be bare with. “Wait, I thought you were on something?”

  She shrugged. “I was, but no preventative is one hundred percent. You know that.”

  Yes, he did, and he had to admit they’d been going at it like bunnies for a long time. Once they’d committed to a physical relationship it had been full-speed ahead.

  Shit, commitment. They needed to get married. “We need to get married soon.”

  Shannon grinned at him and leaned forward, propping her head on her hand. “The commitment-phobe wants to get married now? My, what a change.”

  He frowned. “I didn’t know you were pregnant before. No child of mine is going to grow up a bastard like his father.”

  Her expression turned thoughtful. “If that’s what you want, John. You know I won’t argue. It’s what I’ve wanted all along.”

  They reached out at the same time and held hands. John turned her fingers over so he could look at the ring, brushing his thumb over the stone. “Is this enough for you? It seemed like the more I looked, the more confused I got about what you might like.”

  She touched the stone as well. “You did great. It’s perfect, I swear, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

  But he still felt off, like he’d royally fucked up, but he wasn’t sure how to fix it.

  “Well, so what do we do first? I mean…” he waved a hand, words escaping him.

  “Well, today we chill. The next couple of days, we chill. When the stores open later, we can go shopping. Maybe we can get on the net and see what we want to do, how we want to decorate. We can think about re-doing one of the rooms, too. I think we’ll use my brother’s old room, since it’s the closest to ours.”

  Rocking back in his chair, John nodded. This conversation seemed so surreal. This wasn’t something he’d ever expected to deal with in his life. Babies and bottles and nappies were as foreign to him as the likelihood he would join NASA and go to Mars. It just wasn’t something he’d ever thought about. It wasn’t that he’d never planned on having kids, just that the thought had never occurred to him.

  He’d never planned on getting married or even engaged, either, but after he met Shannon things changed, everything changed. Those big life milestones didn’t freak him out like they used to.

  The baby freaked him out though. No lie.

  “Yeah, we can look online and see what we like. And I guess it depends upon boy or girl, too, huh?”

  Shannon smiled even broader. “Yes.”

  John scrubbed a hand over his face. What a cluster.

  The image hit him suddenly, of Shannon rocking in a chair in the corner of the bedroom, cradling a dark-haired baby. The vision didn’t shock him like he expected it to. Instead, it settled into his bones like it belonged there, it settled him somehow and his world righted itself again. “Okay, babe, lets go look at dressers or something on the computer and see what we come up with.”

  Without giving her a chance to argue he drew her down onto his lap and pushed on the wheels of the chair, heading into the living room. She giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Yes, Sir!”

  * * *

  Chapter Eight

  Duncan woke confused. His hip hurt like a motherfucker but the anxiety that normally plagued him seemed… diminished.

  Then Alex sighed and moved her leg against him and it all came rushing back.

  What the fuck had he been thinking? All of the swearing he’d done to himself had gone out of his head the minute she’d touched him. No, it wasn’t her touch. It was the attention she paid to him. Though he’d tried to warn her away, she’d traveled all the way out here for him. When he’d warned her that he wasn’t a catch, she’d taken the risk of making the first move last night. There was a small part of him that sat up in joy, amazed he meant that much to someone. Anyone. But the fact that it was Alex made it that much more special.

  Alex Hartfield was a beautiful woman. There was no doubt about it. But she was so damned young… When he’d been deployed to Iraq, she’d been toddling off to school. Damn, that made him feel old. Where the hell had all the time gone? Yes, there were bad days when his hip was killing him and he just wanted to toss in the towel, but in general he’d never felt as old as his years.

  He couldn’t help but smile when he thought of the look on her face last night as he pushed her into another orgasm. He certainly hadn’t f
elt old then, either.

  Dark auburn hair fanned over the pillow beside him. Alex was curled on her side, mouth slightly open. You would think that would be an inelegant position, but not on her. She looked completely sleep-rumpled and mouth-watering.

  Beside all those damn recriminations sat the need to have her again. He ached with arousal, and it was beginning to take precedence over the pain. She shifted on the mattress, as if she felt him looking at her. Then her lovely luminous eyes fluttered open. A radiant smile spread her lips and she rolled to her back to stretch.

  Those lovely breasts of hers elongated, pink tips pointing in his direction. Duncan gritted his teeth, but he knew it was stupid to fight. Leaning down he captured her left breast in his mouth, sucking it into the depths. Alex cried out and burrowed her fingers into his hair, holding him to her. Sucking on her deeply, Duncan allowed his hand to wander south, to her pubic area. She’d taken a shower last night. He’d woken when she’d climbed into bed and wrapped herself around him, but he hadn’t been able to wake more than that.

  He was wide awake now though, and planned on starting her morning right.

  Releasing her breast, he shifted over top of her enough to kiss the right breast. “Oh, yes,” she sighed.

  He played there for a moment, then began to shift lower. When he reached her thighs he spread her knees wide, and leaned down to kiss the dark red hair hidden there. Alex gasped at the touch of his tongue, but she didn’t pull away. No, she tipped her hips up toward him.

  Duncan used to be good at this, but it had been a while. Carefully spreading her lips with his fingers, he delved deeper, searching for and finding her clit. Above him, Alex cried out, wiggling. Duncan cupped her hips in his hands and settled flat on his stomach, loving the response she was giving. No, the response he was evoking in her.

  He teased and coaxed and enticed, and she quivered. Long legs moved restlessly and she clutched at his head. Then she began to pant, and squirm. Duncan didn’t let her pull away, though. He kept his mouth sealed tight to her, and his tongue lapped at the moisture flowing from her now. Shifting, he slipped a finger into her wetness and stroked inside her pelvic bone, easily finding her g-spot. He rubbed that spot firmly, flicking back and forth, then forward and back. She arched her back, trying to shift away, then moving in time to his thrusts. Alex screamed as she climaxed, her thighs tightening around his head. Duncan kept up the pressure until she cried out again, a second, easier orgasm rolling through her. With a final, lingering lick, he pulled away.