by J. M. Madden
The big man seemed surprised but nodded, ducking his head as he slipped through the doorway.
Ember brushed her hand through her son’s hair. “That was very nice of you to invite him back.”
Snuggling under the blankets, he blinked up at her sleepily. “He needs a family. Maybe ours. He doesn’t have anybody out here.”
Her lips curved at his sweet little heart. “Maybe you’re right. We’ll see, buddy. I love you. Have good dreams.”
As she pulled the door closed behind her, the tension in her body began to hum. Dishes clanked in the kitchen, so she headed in that direction.
Zeke was unloading her dish drainer, going through cupboards until he found the right place for things.
“You don’t have to do that.”
He glanced at her from beneath his hair and shrugged. “M-might as well. We always pitched in when I was a kid.”
“Do you have brothers and sisters?” she asked curiously.
He nodded. “Two of each. I’m the second youngest.”
She raised her brows at him. “And are they still all on the farm?”
Sighing, he shrugged. “K-k-kind of. They all live within a few miles of one another, sharing resources and la-la-lab,” he stopped to take a breath. “They all work together. I’ve moved the farthest away.”
Ember so wished she could do something to help him out with his words. At least he wasn’t stuttering as much as when she’d first met him.
“You were really nervous when you started coming into the grill. Was that all because of me?”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “W-w-why would you think y-you made me n-n-n-n-nervous?”
When she grinned at him and raised her brows, bumping his arm with her shoulder, he cursed. “Partly. It’s crowds, in general. R-raises our anxiety l-level. And I’m not like I used to b-be.”
“Physically, you mean?” He handed her a pan to put away.
They had reached the end of the dishes, and he didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. Turning to lean against the sink, he sank his hands into his pockets. Ember moved to lean against the opposite counter, almost mirror to his position, though she folded her arms beneath her breasts.
“I started playing football w-when I was a kid. All through school. High school, I started to ser-ser…really grow.” He spread his arms expansively. “The physical stuff came easy to me. They made me quarterback and I was popu-ular. Won state and national championships.” Crossing his arms, he stared off into his memories.
“School was easy for me.” He winked at her. “So w-were the girls. I had a bit of a reputation as a p-party guy. But it got boring.”
Ember cocked a brow at him. “You got tired of women falling all over you? What kind of kid were you?”
Grinning, he shrugged his heavy shoulders and shifted his stance, looking a little shamefaced. “Okay, m-maybe I didn’t mind that so much, but after a while it got m-mo-mo…tiring. My parents wanted me to wo-work with them, and I couldn’t. I graduated school and immediately enlisted in the Marines.”
“Were they hurt?”
He sighed. “A bit. They thought I would get killed. Which, I almost did.”
Ember didn’t like to hear him talk like that. Her stomach turned at the thought of him never coming home. He was such a strong, vital force that she just couldn’t imagine it.
“Did they gloat?”
His eyes flickered.
“Not exactly. I got the whole ‘if you had stayed on the farm’ thing.” He shrugged. “I went home for a while after I got out of the hospital be-be-because I still had a lot of rehab to do. But I was r-restless. A friend told me about LNF and I sent them a resume. I didn’t know any of the guys while I was in the Marines, but I was in the same Company Chad and Duncan had left. Duncan c-called for me to come for an…in-interview and they welcomed me in like I’d always been with them.”
“Wow.” That was so impressive.
“I was a m-m-mess when I started. But they still saw something in me and hired me.” He shrugged and made a face. “They let me off when I need to go in for p-p-procedures, or rehab. If I need to have surgery they give me w-work I can do in the hospital and home if I feel up to it. I don’t know if any other job would be so understanding as LNF.”
Ember’s stomach felt off.
“Do you have more surgeries coming up?”
He shrugged his shoulders and looked at his boots. “Reconstr-r-ructive stuff. I have a few more to go.”
It was obviously not something he wanted to talk about, so she shifted topic. “What are you doing for Christmas?”
He looked up to scan her face. “Nothing really. I’m supposed to go to J-john and Shannon’s house at some point. He’s one of the partners and Shannon is our o-o-office manager.”
Ember chewed the inside of her lip. “Well, you’re welcome to come over here too. We’re going to be opening presents and my dad may come over at some point. Frog Dog is open a half day tomorrow, then closed on Christmas.”
His face warmed with a smile. “I appreciate the invitation. I don’t want to be a pest.”
“Oh, please,” she snorted. “I love having you here.”
For a long moment, he didn’t say anything, but the feeling in the room changed. “I love being here.”
Ember stepped into the space between his spread feet and leaned up for a kiss. Zeke immediately wrapped his arms around her back to pull her snug against him.
The arousal that had been simmering in the air spiked, and Ember’s nipples became sensitized. She brushed her breasts against his chest, wishing their clothes were already gone. She felt Zeke swell into her belly.
“We have a few hours, right?”
He nodded against her mouth and slipped his tongue inside. She moaned as he cupped her head and forced her to take him all in. Ember decided then and there that he was the best thing she’d ever tasted. She wondered if he tasted like that all over. Pulling away she pressed kisses down his scruffy jaw, down his corded neck and to the collar of his T-shirt. Running her hands beneath the fabric, she pushed it up to his shoulders. Zeke pulled it over his head and dropped it to the kitchen floor.
Ember sighed as she ran her hands over the hard contours of his upper body. She already knew he worked out a lot, and it was very evident in the way his muscles were cut. Dirty blond hair covered his chest and darkened in the cleft between his pecs. A narrow trail cut through the center of his abs, and she desperately wanted to explore.
The kitchen wasn’t necessarily the best place to do what she wanted to do.
She grabbed his hand and backed away, tugging him through the doorway and down the hall. She closed her bedroom door behind them and motioned to the bed. “Sit down, please.”
In the dim light from the bedside lamp, his blue eyes heated and he grinned as he did what she asked.
Ember reached for the zipper under her arm and tugged it down, slowly revealing the black teddy she wore beneath. Zeke sucked in a breath as she let the dress fall to the floor, and his hands curled into the comforter. “You wore that for me?”
Smiling, she took a step toward him. He immediately cupped her breasts then ran his hands down her sides to her hips. His touch through the satin felt phenomenal, and distracting. Lowering herself to the floor, she wedged herself between his knees and began to unfasten his belt and jeans. His eyes closed and he leaned back on his braced arms to give her room to work.
Ember had never done this for a man before, but she wanted to learn what made him yearn for release. He made her come so easily, she wanted to do the same for him.
When his pants were unfastened, she stood long enough to tug them down his legs, then went back to her knees to admire the stretched blue cotton of his briefs. Dancing her fingers over his substantial length, she tried to be patient, but greed now controlled her movements. They didn’t have very long and she wanted to enjoy him.
When she peeled the cotton away from Zeke’s penis, it stood st
raight and proud up from his hips. Roped with heavy veins, it was flushed dark pink with blood flow. Her mouth watered. Leaning forward, she pressed an openmouthed kiss to the underside of the fleshy, purplish head, making it flex. She wrapped her right hand around the base and licked up from her thumb, confirming her earlier thought. Sweet. But musky, too. Definitely masculine.
Wrapping her lips completely around the head, she ran the tip of her tongue into the crease in the middle. Zeke groaned and met her eyes. “Fuck, Ember.”
The exclamation made her smile, as she pulled up. “Like that do you?”
“God, yes.”
Spreading her lips she swallowed him again, this time working down his length. She tried to meet the hand at the base with her lips, but he was a little too long to do that comfortably. So she started to work her hand up as her mouth went up.
Zeke groaned and fell back to the bed, clutching the bedspread beside his hips. As her mouth rode his length, he began to twitch beneath her. His legs shifted restlessly.
Ember had never been so turned on in her life. The fact that she could do this to him—this huge, strong man—empowered her like nothing she’d ever done before.
She bobbed faster, intent on bringing him the same pleasure he had to her many times over. She tasted salty fluid on her tongue and almost orgasmed herself. He was getting close.
When he wrapped his hands into her long hair and began to guide her movements, thrusting up into her mouth, Ember moaned, which seemed to excite him even more. “Fuck, I’m g-going to come. You need to move if you’re going to.”
She didn’t budge.
The first hot flood of his release almost choked her until she timed her swallows with her plunges. He jerked beneath her as if he’d been shot. His fists left her hair and clutched at the comforter as he arched off the bed and moaned. Ember had to move with his body to keep him in her mouth, and it was the raunchiest, most sensual encounter she’d ever taken part in.
Zeke’s movements eventually slowed and he sagged into the mattress, panting. Ember gave him one more lingering swirl with her tongue and pulled away. She snagged a towel from the clothes basket on the floor and wiped her hand and mouth, then climbed up onto the bed beside him. She was slick with need, but oddly satisfied with his satisfaction. If he wanted to roll over and go to sleep, she would be content.
As he rocked his head to look at her, she had to revise that. Zeke was gloriously relaxed, but there was something in his eyes that told her they were just starting. His body gleamed with sweat and as he rolled off the bed to remove his underwear, the mood in the room changed. The little bit of submission he’d given her was gone, and his jaw clamped with determination as he crawled over her to nestle between her legs, braced on his arms. He had already started to harden again and she was surprised at how easy it seemed to be for him. “I didn’t think guys could go like that, one right after another?”
Grinning, he nipped at her lips. “I have a l-l-lot of time to make up for.”
Her choked laughed changed to a squeal as he levered down to suck her satin-clad nipple into his hot mouth. One hand reached to unsnap the soaked crotch of her teddy, then his agile fingers were inside her, stroking her hard. Between the atmosphere of the room, her arousal and his determination, it was mere seconds before she started to orgasm against his hand. He wrung every tremor from her he could, and when he replaced his hand with his cock, she was more than ready for him to sink into her.
But he stopped, quivering over top of her, and started to pull away.
“What?”
“Condom.”
She didn’t want him to leave. She clutched at his shoulders. “Don’t go. I’m clean and I have an IUD. I just want you inside me.”
Groaning, he rested his head against her breasts. “Are you f-fucking sure? I’m clean too, but I want you to be p-p-positive.”
She nodded against the bed and he gave her no more warning. He slammed into her heat and started to piston against her. Ember cried out and widened her legs to take him deeper. She dug her fingernails into the shifting muscles of his ass, urging him on as the bed groaned beneath them.
“You feel as good inside as this does outside.” He glided his hand down her hip.
“And you feel massive like this, too big for me to take, but it’s just right, too.”
His length plunged into her over and over again, and that burning excitement began to build inside her. Then from one stroke to the next he shoved her over that peak.
Ember thought for sure she was going to lose consciousness, the spine-cracking pleasure was so intense. Zeke never gave her a chance to catch her breath. If anything, he plunged harder to reach his own satisfaction. As he reached his own peak, Ember was caught by a secondary orgasm as her body accepted everything his had to give. She held him to her as his body shuddered its release.
When he finally sank into her neck, she was as wrung out, but satisfied as she could be. Even his crushing weight felt right to her. Zeke’s hot breath blew her hair as he lifted up enough to look down at her. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, running her hands over every sweaty, muscled inch she could reach. “Hell, yes. May be a little tender in the morning, but I’m getting used to that.”
His brows pulled together in concern. “H-h-how tender?”
She cursed herself for making him worry. “Not enough to stop doing this but enough to remind me sometimes throughout the day that I cradled you here. It’s very sexy, actually.”
The frown deepened. “Why didn’t you say something?”
He started to pull out but she tightened her legs around his hips. “Because I had a feeling you’d do this. Go all protective. If I didn’t like it, I guarantee you wouldn’t be invited back, Zeke. I think with practice,” she gave him a little wink, “we’d take care of the tenderness issue. My body is doing things it’s only done once before.”
Some of the worry faded from his eyes and he pressed a kiss to her lips. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. Ever. At least, not deliberately.”
Ember nodded. “I know. That’s why I’m nuts about you.”
His head jerked back and he looked at her sharply. “What?”
She shrugged beneath him. “I’m nuts about you. Love to see your face walk through my doors. Can’t wait to talk to you. I feel safe with you.”
He blinked heavily, as if he didn’t believe the words he heard.
Ember decided she wouldn’t tell him she loved him, because if his reaction was any indication, he’d probably panic. He seemed honestly surprised that she would enjoy his company.
“You k-k-know, I’m the same way. You m-make me not feel like a damn freak.”
Tears filled her eyes and rolled down her temples. “You’re not a freak. You’re a courageous man who’s been through a lot for his country. People should be going out of their way to meet you and thank you.”
He snorted. “I don’t know about all that.”
She caught his gaze. “I do. And I thank you for going over there and trying to make my life and that of my child better.”
He kissed her, as if to soak up her words, then buried his face in the pillow beside her head. From top to bottom and everywhere in between, they were as close as two people could be.
Chapter Eight
Zeke shook his head as he walked out into the cold that night, shocked at the changes that had taken place in the past few days. Ember was amazing. She left him speechless with her words. Probably a good thing. They’d been together such a short time, though, that he had to be leery. She hadn’t been with him long enough to know what he went through, with all his surgeries and rehabs. He’d been very careful to not say much about that part of his life.
Christmas fell on a Thursday this year. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. Four days after that he was scheduled for another reconstructive surgery, his thirteenth.
He hadn’t told her anything about it.
Guilt nagged at him. If they were building a relationship, s
he’d be pissed that he didn’t say anything to her about the procedure. But if he did it, and told her later, he would save her a ton of worry.
She didn’t need the anxiety right now on top of everything else.
As he headed toward the LNF office, he ran his hand over his head, shoving his hair out of his eyes. In a few days he’d be shaved again, and every line, mark and divot in his head would be out there for the world to see.
Hell.
*****
Duncan was the only one in the office when the phone rang the next morning. “Lost ‘N’ Found Investigative Service.”
A voice cleared at the other end. “Is Duncan Wilde in?”
“Speaking.”
“Mr. Wilde, this is Detective Angela Holloway, Denver PD. I wanted to talk to you about the report you filed the other night on the missing man.”
Duncan limped his way behind his desk and sat down. “Yes. Have you learned anything?”
“No, not really. I just wanted to confirm the information you’d given to Detective Roberts.”
The detective asked him a series of questions, and he repeated all that he knew about the homeless former soldier, but it wasn’t very much.
Detective Holloway sighed on the other end of the line.
“Well, that matches up with what I have. Unfortunately, I can find no record of an Aiden Willingham being discharged from any of the service branches within the past five years, and no personal information, either. I’m kind of at a dead end. Unless a body turns up or I get a tip, the report will stand as a missing person. I wish I could give you better news.”
Duncan frowned and swung the chair to look out his window. The morning vista was impressive, but he didn’t even see it. His eyes scanned the deserted streets.
“I have a feeling,” she continued, “that we’ll find a body in the next few days. I’ll be blunt, Mr. Wilde. That was a lot of blood in that alley. If he had issues like you suggested, it sounds like he may have taken his own life.”
Duncan clenched his jaw. He hated to admit it, but the younger vet probably had done something drastic. That kind of blood pool didn’t come from a cut finger. It came from somebody deliberately trying to kill or maim. Aiden had been the only one in that alley, as far as they knew.
