Love Heals All (Once Broken Book 2)

by Alison Mello

  He barks at me, letting me know he’s not happy I took his frisbee. “Is this what you want?” He jumps up and barks again. “Go get it.” I throw the frisbee toward Brooke and he runs after it. We continue on like this for a good thirty minutes. We probably would go longer, but clouds are rolling in and we don’t want to get caught in the rain. I call for Brody, who runs to me like a good boy. I tell him to sit, and he listens. He sits still while we gather the remainder of our stuff.

  No sooner do we get everything into the car than the sky opens up and it pours. “Looks like we’ll be spending the rest of the day inside.” Brooke pouts.

  “I wouldn’t be too sad. There’s a lot of fun things we can do inside.” I pull out of the parking lot and head straight to my place.

  When we get back, I grab the umbrella to take Brody out. He hasn’t gone since the park, and I don’t want any accidents. When I get back inside, I find Brooke in the kitchen unpacking the picnic leftovers. She’s so busy she isn’t paying any attention to me as I lean on the doorway watching her every move. She’s busy opening cabinets and trying to figure out where things go. “What are you looking for?” She jumps.

  “Holy shit, Vaughn! Don’t do that! You scared me.” She puts her hand on her chest.

  I take the few steps needed to close the gap between us. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Well, you did.” She smacks me on the chest playfully. I pretend to be wounded, and it makes her laugh. I take the cooler bag from her hands and put it down on the floor. I wrap her ponytail around my hand and pull back, exposing her neck. I can see her breathing has already changed. I lick up the vein in her neck to her ear, gently biting down on her lobe, I then lick her earlobe and whisper, “I want to taste every inch of you.” She whimpers when I step away. “First we have to figure out dinner.”

  “That’s easy. Take out.”

  “Or I can cook.” I pull some chicken sausage from the freezer and set it on the counter to defrost.

  “Okay, Mr. I Can Cook. What are we having?” She places her hands on her hips and awaits my response.

  “You’ll see. I promise it’ll be good, but first while that’s defrosting, let’s see if there’s a movie on.”

  We both take a seat with Brody at our feet, and we scroll through Netflix looking for a movie to watch. We settle on How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. She tells me that she and Courtney have watched this movie a few times over. “This reminds me of the movie Twister. I made my brother watch that movie with me like a hundred times.”

  “No way. When’s the last time you got him to watch it?”

  She giggles. “When he first moved back to Georgia.”

  My eyes go wide. That wasn’t all that long ago. This girl has her brother whipped and I can’t wait to bust his balls over it.

  We sit watching, with her pointing out her favorite parts. The movie was a bit girlie for me but she’s happy and there were some funny parts. “Are you hungry?”

  She shrugs. “A little.”

  “I’m going to start dinner.” I pull some tortellini noodles from the cabinet along with a jar of white sauce. Once the water is going on the stove, I grab the broccoli from the freezer. “This is my version of chicken and broccoli tortellini. It’s quick, easy, and tasty,” I explain, since Brooke looks totally confused.

  “Can I help?”

  “Sure, can you grab an onion?”

  “Sure, where are they?”

  “In the fridge.” She makes a funny face. “I know some people keep them in a pantry, but I don’t have one, and I grew up with my mom leaving them in the fridge.” She shakes her head but gets one from the fridge and we begin making our dinner together, flirting as we do. We bump hips, fling water at one another, she even spanks me when I lick the spoon to see how it tastes. “What? I have to test it.”

  “You could have let me test it.”

  “No way. You don’t get to taste it until it’s done.” I strain the noodles in the sink and dump them back into the pan, adding the sauce to finish it off while Brooke puts the frozen garlic bread in the oven. I point to a cabinet. “Can you grab plates?”

  She hands me the two plates. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.” I start putting tortellini with chicken sausage and broccoli onto plates and by the time I’m done, the garlic bread is ready. “Look at that, only took about twenty minutes, and dinner is served.” We take a seat at the table and Brody sits in the middle of the kitchen whimpering over our food. “No, go eat your dinner.” I point to his dish but he doesn’t budge. “You can’t eat this.” I place our plates down on the table and we dig in.

  “I need to find a place.” Brooke puts a napkin on her lap.

  “Okay, do you know where you want to look?”

  “Yeah, closer to the clinic, which works out good, because it puts me closer to you as well.”

  “We can do some research if you know what you’re looking for.”

  She takes a bite, her eyes close and she moans. “This really is good.” She continues eating and then adds, “Well, I’m thinking I would like to rent a house if I can find one that’s reasonable. Nothing too big or too fancy, because I want to save as much as possible to buy a house.”

  “Why do you want to rent a house? Why not an apartment?”

  I shrug. “An apartment would be the natural first step, but I would love to have a dog too, or be able to have Brody over, and if I rent a house I can have a yard to do that.”

  “In my opinion, either way is fine. You have to go with what your gut tells you.”

  “I’m not good with gut instincts.”

  “I am, and mine tells me it’s time for dessert.” I quickly scrape our plates into the trash and then dump the leftovers into a container and place it in the fridge. By the time I’m done with that, Brooke has put our dishes into the dishwasher. She’s washing her hands when I come up behind her, placing my hands on her hips. I lean in and smell her hair. I love the way she smells of coconut all the time. “You smell delicious,” I tell her between kisses. Her head rolls to the side and I press my lips to that sensitive spot just below her ear. I slip my hand up over her shirt between her breasts to her neck, where I gently grab her throat and hold her still while I continue tasting her. She rolls her hips, pressing her lovely ass against my already hard cock. My other hand goes under her shirt to cup her tit. I press her back to my chest. She rolls her head back onto my shoulder, pressing her breast into my hand as I massage it. She’s biting her lip and moaning while I play with her nipple. The sounds she makes shoot straight to my cock. “I need to taste more of you.” I pull away. Taking her hand, I lead her down the hall to my bedroom. I stop myself, remembering I told her we’d go slow. “Am I going too fast for you?” She shakes her head no, and before she can say more, my hands are on the button of her shorts and I have both her shorts and her thong down at her ankles. She slips off her sandals and steps out of them. “Lay down in the middle of my bed.”

  She crawls on, showing me her ass, which I playfully slap. “No worries, baby. I’ll claim that at some point too.” Her head shoots back to look over her shoulder at me. She starts to lay down, but I’ve changed my mind, so I grab her beautifully round cheeks, stopping her. I pull them apart to expose her soaking wet pussy. She lowers her upper body so her face presses against the pillow while I lean in to lick from her clit to her ass. She sucks in a deep breath as she begins to pant. “I promise you this will be good.” I continue lapping up her deliciously sweet juices. “Fuck, you taste amazing.” Using my thumbs, I attack her hardened clit. She presses her hips back into my face as I fuck her pussy with my tongue and rub my thumb over her clit. Her muscles tighten telling me she’s getting close, but I’m not ready to taste her release yet. It’s time for her to see how good it feels to have me devour her ass the same way. Again, I lick a path from her pussy to her ass, this time I stay put, my tongue poking at her tight hole, she’s whimpering and panting as I eat her up.

  “Va
ughn, please.” She’s begging for release. My name rolling off her tongue sounds amazing. Slamming two fingers into her soaking wet pussy, I continue to eat at her ass as I fuck her tight little hole. “Oh my…” She screams out before biting my pillow. I quickly remove my fingers and lap up her release as she grinds her hips against my face, riding out her orgasm.

  She starts to laugh, because Brody barks outside the bedroom door. He probably heard her scream and is worried about her. “Brody, I’m fine. Go lay down.” He whimpers and we hear him plop down on the floor against the door.

  I escape to my bathroom to grab a warm facecloth. When I return she’s still in the same position. I gently wipe her up and collapse down on my bed.

  “That was intense,” she mumbles.

  I chuckle, sitting on the bed next to her. I stretch out and her hand glides up over my leg. Her eyes are closed, but she still manages to go straight for my hard cock. My eyes close when she gently squeezes it through my jean shorts. I feel the bed move when she sits up and begins to unbutton my shorts. “What are you doing?”

  “You’re not the only one who wants dessert.” She wraps her hands around my cock, freeing it from my shorts. She looks up at me licking the full length of my cock and then wraps her luscious lips around the tip. She slowly sucks me deeper and deeper into the back of her throat. It’s taking all of my might not to grab her hair and fuck her mouth hard.

  “Shit, that feels so good, baby.” She slips her hand between my legs and massages my balls sucking me harder. “Fuck, I’m going to lose it.”

  “Please do. I want to taste you.” She hollows her mouth and takes me almost all the way to the root, and then hums as she pulls back off. The vibration shoots straight to my balls. Thank god she never lets my cock leave her mouth because the second she sucks me back in, I explode. She instantly sucks me deeper, swallowing every drop I give her. Fuck me that was the most intense orgasm I’ve ever had. Once she’s sure she’s gotten every drop, she pulls away, licking her lips. To be funny though, she runs to the bathroom and comes back a minute later with a warm washcloth to clean me up.

  “Oh, someone thinks she’s funny.” I grab her up and slam her on my bed, tickling her. She laughs and screams, causing Brody to bark.

  “Ha, you better be nice or your dog will have to come protect me.”

  “Yeah, how fucked up is that? He’s my dog.” She laughs and runs back to the bathroom. I grab her a t-shirt to relax in and a pair of my lounge shorts. We open the door to let the dog in and he runs straight to his bed. We decide to watch TV in here with him for the night.

  Chapter 8

  Vaughn

  It was so nice having Brooke in my bed last night. I’m not sure what it was, but it was great to sleep all night without a nightmare. I may have to have her stay over more often. She would be a beautiful cure to my problem. Today’s my first day to work since I brought Brody home and I want to take him to meet Callen for our morning run. Brooke is staying back to make coffee and get herself ready for work as well. She’ll need to leave shortly after I return.

  Brody did a great job keeping up with us, although I did ask Callen to go easy today. I needed to see how he does before we work him too hard, and I have to say I was proud of him—he did great. I’m willing to bet he’ll have no problem keeping up with us even at our normal pace.

  When we got back, Brooke was standing in the kitchen all dressed for work sipping her coffee. She looks beautiful in her business attire with her hair pulled back. She’s wearing a lab coat that says the clinic’s name on it. I walk into the kitchen, her eyes rake me over, and she licks her lips like she wants to devour me. I give her a quick kiss. “I have to shower.”

  “I have to get going,” she responds, dumping her coffee into the sink and putting her cup into the dishwasher. “I’ll talk to you later?”

  I nod and watch her pet Brody quickly before she walks out the door, locking it behind her. I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face as I make my way to the shower. “You like her, huh, buddy?” I pet him. “Yeah, me too.”

  Now that I’m set for work. I grab my keys and kneel down to pet Brody one more time. He’s lying in his bed, pretty beat from the run. I’m hoping this means he’ll sleep for a bit and just chill until I get home. “You be a good boy while I’m gone and we’ll have some fun after work.” He licks his face and closes his eyes. Not even a bark. I chuckle and walk out of the room. I need to get moving. It’s Callen’s turn to grab coffee, but I still don’t want to be late.

  When I pull in, I discover I’m the first one here. For me, that’s a good thing. I can get to my office and get through some emails before I brief the guys on what we have to accomplish this week. Summer is upon us, and that means even more missions, and more missions mean more preventative maintenance, and more breakdowns. I settle in and boot up my computer. While I wait, I decide to send Brooke a text.

  Vaughn: I hope you have a good day at work.

  As I hit send, there’s a knock at my door. “Good morning, sir. What can I do for you?”

  The Major steps into my office. “I know it’s early and the guys aren’t even here yet, but as soon as they get in, I need you guys to head out to recover a broken down Humvee. There’s hell to pay because it’s been sitting since early this morning.” He leans on my door.

  “Yikes.” I shake my head. “Whose head is rolling for this one?”

  “Not my problem.” He laughs. “It’s not my ass and it’s not anyone in our section. Just make sure it’s recovered as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, sir. Any idea what’s wrong with it?”

  He shakes his head. “None. It was a brief email stating it wouldn’t start. They gave us the location with orders to recover it as soon as possible. I promised them you’d get someone on it immediately.”

  “No problem, sir. If it’s okay with you, I’m going to go out on this one and leave Callen here with the rest of the team. I want to observe the guys and see how Callen handles the shop.”

  “Your team. It’s your ass if he screws up.”

  I chuckle. “He won’t screw up, and we’ll figure out what’s wrong with the vehicle and report back to them on a return date immediately.” I scribble a note on the pad sitting on my desk. This is going to be a job for Callen.

  “Thanks.” He nods and walks out of my office. I hear a faint “good morning, sir,” in the distance. It sounds like Callen just got here, but I pay it no mind because I have emails I need to respond to, and I need to get the location of that vehicle so we can recover it.

  “What was the Major doing here? He never comes in here at this time of day.” He peeks his head out the door to make sure no one is lurking.

  “We have to recover a Humvee. He didn’t say why, but they need it back ASAP. That means you have to drop what you’re doing and check out what’s wrong with it. They said it won’t start.”

  “God only knows with the MPs on this base,” he mumbles under his breath as he walks out of my office. I chuckle and shake my head. My phone pings to notify me of a text.

  Brooke: So far, so good. I hope you have a good day as well. Call me tonight. I want to know how both your and Brody’s day was.

  Vaughn: Will do.

  I put my phone back into my belt clip and go into the bay to see if everyone is here. We don’t need a ton of guys to do a recovery on base, but I want to observe one of my specialists do a recovery. That means it’s going to be me, Max, and Liam on this mission. Callen usually goes with the guys for this stuff, but I want him to stay back and keep an eye on things here and help Nolan and Tommy.

  “Good morning,” I call out to the guys. Callen hands me my coffee and I thank him. “Gather around here for a minute.” The guys all do as I ask and settle down. “The Major was in to see me this morning. It appears one of the MPs has a broken down Humvee that we need to recover here on base. We need to get it off the side of the road immediately because someone’s ass is on the line. It was abandoned early this
morning.” The guys start laughing. “All right, all right, listen up. Recovery will be handled by myself, Liam, and Max.” I turn to Callen. “Callen, you’re in charge here while I’m gone. You’ll work with Liam, Nolin, and Tommy on getting one of these vehicles done and out of here so we can check out the Humvee as soon as we get back. I’ve promised the Major that we’d get on it immediately and let them know when they can have it back.”

  Max and I grab a truck. He jumps into the driver’s seat and I tell him where the vehicle is. “Hey, Sarge, are you going out with us on Friday?”

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” My brows furrow confused.

  “Callen says you have a girl now. He thinks you’re going to stop hanging with us.”

  I laugh. “He does, does he? Don’t you say anything to him, I’ll fix his ass.”

  Max laughs as he drives in the direction of the Humvee. “So, what’s up with the observation?”

  “Come on, guy, you know how this goes. Of my three E-4s, you’ve been here the longest. That means I need to make sure you know your shit. I’m promotable, as is Callen. That could mean you make sergeant in the near future, and for that to happen you need to prove you can handle everything you need to without help. This is your mission, you tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” He shakes his head. “You got this. I know you know what you’re doing, now it’s time to prove it. But do me a favor, no shortcuts. You do it by the book.” He nods and I can see the wheels are spinning while he drives. He’s going over the steps in his head. I sit in silence the remainder of the ride so he can process everything.

  ***

  Brooke

  I’ve had a really long day. I’m beat and my feet are killing me. It’s five thirty and Vaughn should be calling me any minute now. I run up to my room to change into some comfy clothes, no longer wanting to be in my work clothes. Dr. Kramer is adamant that we dress in professional attire. He’s usually in slacks with a button down shirt and tie with his lab coat. Now that I’m an actual vet, I’ve been wearing slacks and dress shirts, but it’s so hot for that. I need to figure something out because I do not like wearing skirts. No sooner do I slip on a t-shirt than my cell phone rings. It’s Vaughn. “Hey, big guy. How was your day?”