Pierced Love

by t. h. snyder

  It’s just about time and the coordinator escorts the bridal party down the stairs and into the vestibule.

  This entire day has been wonderful up to this point and it’s only going to get better.

  The music starts and the girls begin to proceed down the aisle of the church. I follow them as we line up along the altar and wait to see Allie walk up with Jim. She looks absolutely breathtaking and I’m so happy to have her as a part of our family.

  The ceremony goes by so quickly and, before I know it, we are on our way to the club for the reception. While in the limo bus on the way over I see Zeke slipping Zoe a glass of champagne. Loudon pull me into his side and nuzzles his nose into my hair.

  “You want something to drink?” He asks.

  “Nah, I’m good. I want a clear head to remember this day forever. It’s special in so many ways.”

  I rest my head on Loudon’s shoulder and keep my lips sealed until we get to the club.

  The reception is absolutely amazing and everything turns out to be perfect.

  After the happy couple cut the cake and share in the father daughter and mother son dances, Loudon pulls me out onto the dance floor.

  Bubbles fill air and the song that begins to play is perfect for what is about to happen next. As we start to dance to Jason Mraz’s song, I won’t give up, a single tear falls from my face. This man here with me right now hasn’t let me give up on him or us since the first day we met.

  He is my perfect everything and I never want to spend a second of my life without him by my side.

  “Loudon,” I whisper.

  He sways us back and forth to the rhythm of the song and ,with my cream colored dress on, I melt into him.

  “Yeah, doll?” He asks

  My heart begins to race in my chest and I feel like I’m about to burst with happiness.

  “I love you,” I say into his ear.

  I can feel the smile form on his face and he picks me up into his arms and twirls me around.

  “You’ve just made me so happy, Zar. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you to say those words to me.”

  He sets me down on my two feet and pulls away just enough to look me in the eyes. I smile back at him and kiss his lips.

  “You’re everything to me Loudon and I don’t know what I’d do without you. Thank you for always being there for me and fighting for us.”

  “There’s no question in my mind where I want to be. It’s always with you, Zar. I love you too,” he says placing his lips to mine.

  I’m so happy right now that I can’t help but smile again.

  “You're my favorite daydream, Zar,” he says.

  “I feel safe with you. You are my light, Loudon.”

  “Your smile lights up my world,” he replies.

  “You’ve pierced me with your love and I’ll never let it go.”

  Storm by Lifehouse

  Butterflies and Hurricanes by Muse

  Dream On by Aerosmith

  She Hates Me by Puddle of Mud

  Come Out and Play by The Offspring

  All My Life by Foo Fighters

  Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

  Follow Through by Gavin DeGraw

  Something by Escaping the Fate

  Everything I’m Not by The Veronicas

  Umbrella by All Time Low

  Headstrong by Trapt

  Come Undone by My Darkest Days

  Rooster by Alice in Chains

  This Little Girl by Cady Groves

  Without You by Hinder

  Smile Like You Mean It by The Killers

  I Won’t Give Up by Jason Mraz

  Collide by Howie Day

  Touch Me August 26, 2013

  Touched By You October 26, 2013

  Touched By Another January 26, 2014

  You’ve Been Touched February 14, 2014

  Pierced Love December 15, 2013

  Cursed Series Spring 2014

  Fighter Series Summer 2014

  t. h.snyder is my pen name.

  I am a 34 year old single mother to our two amazing kids.

  I became an avid reader in spring of 2012 and since have read over 250 books.

  My genre of interest ranges from Romance to thrilling Paranormal.

  This is more than just a hobby for me, it’s a passion to read the words of great authors and bring life to their stories with my reviews and character castings.

  I started writing my first novel in June of 2013 and I am anxious to see where this journey takes me!!

  You can continue to show your support by liking and following me on facebook, twitter, and goodreads.

  http://www.thsnyder.com/

  https://www.facebook.com/authorthsnyder

  https://twitter.com/thsnyder4

  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7152850.T_H_Snyder

  Blurb from Destroying the Wrong

  By Evelyn Stone

  Alissa Sullivan has got it made -- a supportive, loving family, a cause she believes in, and her new boyfriend. With her best friend Kat at her side, she was counting the days until the end of high school when they could go away to college together. Then she met Scott, a man who wouldn't touch her but would turn her life upside-down.

  Katherine Horne is perfectly content being in the background. All she wants is to graduate and get out of the town she's grown to loathe. She'd do anything to avoid confrontation but when she finds herself in increasingly humiliating situations, she realizes some things can't be ignored. Especially when it comes to bullying.

  With their carefully planned futures unraveling, Kat and Alissa will come to realize the bond of their friendship will be tested... and might not make it through intact.

  Excerpt from Two Weeks With a SEAL

  Book 1

  The Wakefield Romance Series

  By Amazon Best Selling Author

  Theresa Marguerite Hewitt

  www.facebook.com/TheresaMargueriteHewittAuthor

  @TMarguerite

  Blog

  Links to buy:

  Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Weeks-Wakefield-Romance-Series-ebook/dp/B00C53PC7Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1381015448&sr=1-1&keywords=two+weeks+with+a+seal

  Barnes&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/two-weeks-with-a-seal-theresa-marguerite-hewitt/1114304321?ean=2940044252417

  Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/275086

  PROLOGUE:

  I can’t believe it. It is actually snowing. I have lived in Wakefield, Virginia all my life and have only seen it snow a handful of times and of all the days, it decided to snow today. Today is the day I am saying goodbye to my mom. The day after Christmas and two days after my twenty-fifth birthday and here I am burying my mom. Kind of a huge downer right? I try not to let the tears well in my eyes, but I can feel them there as I look out the glass sliding back door of our double-wide trailer, my fingers resting on the cold glass.

  See, my family is far from perfect and now I am the only member left. Well, my Uncle Rick is still alive but I don't give a flying fuck where he is, you'll see why.

  My family, the Griggs family of Wakefield, Virginia, have been upon the topics of gossip pretty much my whole life and I know my name will be on the tip of people's tongues today as well. Our downfall, at least in my eyes, started in October of 1992. It’s funny how I remember the date, the image of what I had seen still burned in my retinas. The yells and whispers that came in the years following still echo in my mind at night.

  My dad, Robbert Griggs, is a tough man, raised by the whip and other traditional Southern values. He is a big man, standing six foot five, his thick arms and legs making him look even more like a giant, and his large hands easily could palm anything. I remember being a tiny girl, wrapping my arms around his leg and he use to walk around with me like that, finally having to tickle me to get me off, and then swinging me above his head. His dark brown hair was always kept pretty short, his beard growing long in the winter, his grey eyes looking lik
e storm clouds when he was mad. October of 1992 brought that man that I had thought of as this great sense of strength, down to nothing but a nightmare in my book.

  My older brother, Randy, had walked me home from the elementary school that day. The leaves had been all over the ground but it was still pretty warm out because I remember that Randy was wearing shorts. We had walked into the house and I remember strange noises coming from the living room, and I ran like every five year old girl would to investigate. Being so young I didn't really understand what I was seeing. But Randy was ten and he knew a little more of the world than I did and he tried to cover my eyes, yelling at my father as he dragged me from the house.

  We had interrupted my dad and his mistress, having sex on our family room couch. Randy ran across our road, dragging me crying behind him, to our neighbor Ms. Tillman and he had called our mother at work. Sometimes is still seems unreal and there have been countless time when I wished that is was. Maybe my life would’ve turned out different and I wouldn’t be standing here, wishing my mother was healthy and happy standing beside me.

  I would learn later in life that my dad’s 'mistress' was really a hooker, and that my dad paid her in drugs. This man that I had thought of as an awesome giant filled with love, was in fact a dirty drug dealer and manufacturer brought into the game by his brother, my Uncle Rick.

  My mom threw him out of the house, making a huge scene to the point where the police had to be called, hauling my dad and some of his clothing away in one of their patrol cars. It wasn't the last time that I saw my father though, oh no, the last time will forever be burned in my memory every time I watch a television show or movie that has a situation where a man slaps a woman.

  It had been past our bedtime, on a school night, and Randy was in his room and I was in mine with only the light sounds of our mom doing her before bedtime routine of shutting lights off and locking doors echoing slightly throughout our homey double-wide. We were happy, content even in our meager lives. Randy and I wanted for nothing and our mother showered us with love.

  The snapping of the door frame is what brought me out of bed, the screams of my mom bringing tears to my eyes as I raced to my bedroom door only to be intercepted by Randy, pushing me back in and shutting the door behind him; dragging me into my closet. Randy's grey eyes were so much like my father's, watering as he told me to be quiet, putting his hand over my mouth as the slapping sounds bounced off of the walls.

  My dad's voice was loud and harsh, calling her a 'bitch' and a 'no good whore' as the fist to flesh sounds filled the night air. Randy's hand tight to my mouth as we huddled together, both with tears streaming down our cheeks.

  "Stay here," he had whispered to me, my five year old mind panicking, telling him no, grabbing at his legs as he shut the closet door behind him. He shoved a chair up against it so I couldn't follow him as I put my little hands up to the slanted panels of the door.

  I stayed in that closet, my arms wrapped around my legs pulling them close, my tears drowned in my knees till Randy came back to get me, his face all red from the back of my dad's hand.By that time the cops were there, the red and blue flashers coming through the front windows as Randy held my hand leading me out into the living room.

  Our mother's best friend since high school and my best friends mom, Cindy Byrd, took us in, ushering us away as our mother was loaded into an ambulance and our father into the back of a patrol car. My mom spent three weeks in the hospital, coming home with a cast on her right arm and bruises all over her face and body. My dad spent a year in jail. His collect calls haunted my mom whenever she picked up the phone to hear that automated message from the Greensville Correctional Facility in nearby Jarratt, Virginia.

  My mom, Ruth Griggs, did an awesome job bringing us back together as a family; purging our home of pictures and items that reminded us of that bastard. He showed up every now and then at school, looming outside to try and talk to me and Randy and he was shooed away by the teachers. In 1995, we read in the local paper that he had been arrested in a huge ATF raid, charged with multiple counts of possession and the manufacturing of methamphetamines. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison, returning to Greensville, where he still tries to call collect and sends Christmas/Birthday cards every year, addressed only to me, Rhea Noel Griggs.

  After that, it was like a dark cloud had been lifted off of my mother's heart. She blossomed into a new woman, growing a back bone and even dating every now and then. She was super active in our childhood, watching every football, baseball and track meet for Randy and every basketball and softball game for me. Randy was five years older than me, so when he graduated it was a huge tear jerker for my mom, especially since he had decided to enlist in the Navy with his best friend Chadwick [Chad] Payne, who I have been unashamedly in love with since I was five years old.

  My brother Randy was six foot three, his light brown hair a mix of our father's dark brown and our mother's dirty blonde, always kept buzzed close to his skull. I was only thirteen when he and Chad had enlisted and like every girl who has an over protective older brother, I was kind of glad to have him out of my life.

  Our country had just declared war on terrorism, so yes it was scary, but I was young and I wanted to spread my wings without having an older brother hover over me at all times. Saying goodbye to him at the recruiter’s office I cried more for Chad than I did for Randy, both of them hugging everyone. I loved my brother and had told him that for the first time in years as he hugged me that day, a wide smile causing his dimples to show as he grinned down at me. He had winked and waved at me as Chad and he walked to the travel van bound for the airport, and I'll admit I ran and jumped up into the bed of our old Chevy just to wave one last time as they turned out of the parking lot. I swear that Chad had winked at me, both him and Randy waving as they disappeared.

  I ran wild at home with Randy gone, my best friend Kendall Byrd and I becoming two little hellions. While my brother and Chad spent a year going through Navy SEAL training, Kendall and I had our first kisses and first 'boyfriends', mending each other's broken hearts when we realized both guys were only interested in one thing and dumped us when we wouldn't give it up.

  Another eighteen months brought the ceremony where Chad and Randy were issued their Navy SEAL Trident insignias, both being assigned to SEAL Team 10 based out of nearby Norfolk, Virginia and their first deployment overseas. Over the following three years Randy and Chad only came home a few times, my mom and I taking the little over an hour drive more than a handful of times visiting with them for a few hours at a time.

  I graduated high school with honors in 2005, attending The College of William and Mary majoring in Pre-Law, my dreams of becoming a lawyer in my sights. My first semester was great, returning home for Christmas I gushed about all of my new friends to Randy when he came home, dressed in his camouflage and utility boots. A party thrown by some of Randy's high school friends brought everyone in our age group together, the cliques realigning themselves as if we had never been separated, the alcohol flowing freely.

  Randy had assigned Chad to be my 'babysitter', having him hover at a distance to make sure I didn't drink too much since I was still underage and I noticed for the first time that Chad actually paid attention to me. That night, in the basement of local beauty queen Heather Rachel's house, I lost my virginity to Chad in a flurry of kisses and muttered un-meaningful 'I love you’s'. We had been drunk and it had happened, not that it dampened the undying love that I had for the irresistible man. I still remember exactly what we both were wearing that night, the way his lips had felt against my skin and the way my hands had shook when I touched him. I wish every night that I had had the guts to tell him what I said was real for me; that I really loved him.

  I was a new woman after that Christmas, focusing in on my education and graduating in the spring of 2009 with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Taking my LSAT in the summer of 2009 I was elated when I passed with an abnormally high score of 165, and being accepted to The William and Mary Law
School was only icing on the cake.

  That first year of law school was challenging, making it so that I only got home a few times and making time for boyfriends all but impossible, ending a year and a half long relationship that I had had with a classmate. Randy and Chad were deployed in late February, their tour planning on coming to an end in July; so when June rolled around my mother and I were planning a big welcome home party along with Chad’s mom, Dana. We had never prepared ourselves for the phone call that brought the notification of Randy’s death.

  June 25th, 2010 we buried Randy beside my grandfather, Tracy Brunson, in Spratley Cemetery; the white cross head stone standing out like a sore thumb amongst the dark grey ones. Taps was played, guns fired, prayers read, all with my mother sitting beside me crying endlessly for her son. Chad stood with the other members of SEAL Team 10, all in their dress uniforms, their Commander going to hand the folded flag to my mother.

  He saw that she wasn’t emotionally ready for it, so turning to me he said, “With my utmost condolences,” and I nodded my head, accepting the flag and hugging it to my chest while he continued the normal condolences speech. At two o’clock the next morning was the second time that I made love with Chad, the murmured meaningless ‘I love you’s’ mixed with his tearful ‘I’m sorry’s’. It made me love him even more. As he lay sleeping beside me, I poured my heart out to him in whispers, telling him everything I had every felt for him knowing he wouldn’t be the wiser in the morning.

  Since that day, my mother had been a broken shell of herself, becoming a ghost of her once beautiful care-free soul. She rarely left the house except to go to the local liquor store. I had to drop out of Law school to help pay the bills, working a 7 to 5 job at Victoria’s Secret in the Patrick Henry Mall [an hour away] as Assistant Manager. The doctors prescribed her anti-depressants and at first they seemed to help, but then she started to drink again and skip on taking her pills.