by Kimberly Fox
“I’m way too sober for this,” I say, shaking my head. There are so many eyes on me right now.
“Shut up A.J.” Megan says. “It’s show time.”
Chapter Three
Chase
Day One
This one will do. I button up the tight black shirt and look at my reflection in the long mirror. Fuck yeah.
The hot sales chick at the store said it looked sexy on me. Well, it was sexy enough that she made out with me in the changing room after. She slipped me her number and asked me to call her after work but I had a plane to catch.
It still feels weird to wear civilian clothes. I only arrived on American soil three days ago before coming here to Belize and I still feel strange without a Kevlar vest strapped to my chest.
I comb my hair to the side as that girl from the beach pops into my mind. She looked amazing with her thick curly hair that I would love to sink my hands into as I slide inside her. Her yellow dress was hugging her curves in a way that made me question why I ever enlisted in the first place. There are no hot barefoot girls in flowery dresses over in Iraq.
She must be staying at the resort. I’ll be inside her by the end of the week.
I’ve been in Iraq for the past eight months with nothing but a passed around porno mag with the pages stuck together. I need to get laid. Desperately. It’s been eight long months and I’m ready for the flesh and blood, real thing. I’m ready to get my dick wet.
I take one last look and head into the main room of my suite. I wonder how my brother Ethan is going to react when he sees me. I told him I couldn’t get leave from overseas for his wedding but then this shit happened and they forced me to go home.
I arrived while the whole resort was eating dinner. My knee was killing so I went for a swim in the ocean to loosen it up. It didn’t really work so I have to do what I fucking hate.
The needle is as long as my dick but I’m much more of a prick. I sit on the bed and pull up my shorts. My heart starts pounding as I fill the syringe with the vicious yellow liquid. This hurts like a fucking bitch. And I’m no pussy. Believe me.
I take a deep breath and hold it in my lungs as I slam the needle into my knee. Fuck! It burns like fire but as soon as I press the hammer of the needle down it subsides. The bottle of pills are on the nightstand staring at me like a judging parent. The doctor says to take them but they make me too groggy. I can deal with the pain. But I can’t deal with having my wits dulled.
I bite down on my lip as I stretch out my knee. This is getting really fucking annoying and I’m starting to get discouraged. It’s been aching all day with the traveling and it just seems to be getting worse with every day that passes.
When you sign up for the Navy SEALs you think it’s going to be a bullet or a knife that ends your career early but in reality, with most guys, it’s the wear and tear.
If the bad guys don’t get you in the SEALs than your own body will. I’ve been shot three times, stabbed once, lived through two car explosions and so many firefights that I can’t even remember half of them. I have a long list of injuries, enough shrapnel permanently lodged in my body to make up two grenades and I was still always cleared for active duty.
But this fucking knee keeps giving out on me and I can’t even carry my pack like a fucking weak ass civilian. It’s pathetic. I better be allowed back in after this shit clears up or I’m…fuck it. I’ll be back in.
I take one last look in the mirror to see if I look good enough for that hot girl I found on the beach, slide my flip flops on and head out the door. My knee is already on fire as I step into the hallway but I walk past the elevator anyway and head for the stairs.
Little grunts escape my throat as I walk down the staircase. If I can’t fight the pain then I’ll fucking enjoy it.
I love the pain, I say to myself on every stair. I love the pain. I love the pain.
My whole life has been pain. My whole life has been a struggle. They told me I would never make it to the SEALs and I fucking did. They’re telling me now that I won’t make it back in and I’ll fucking show them again.
Nobody tells Chase Taylor what he can’t do.
My knee starts to feel better as the injection does its magic and I walk onto the flat ground. It helps too that the SEALs taught me how to ignore pain. There’s always pain overseas. One hundred pound pack on your shoulders, wearing forty pounds of gear while you hike for miles in the desert heat. Now that’s pain. This here in my knee is civilian stuff. Preschool shit.
To ignore the pain you just have to think of your happy place. And my happy place right now is on my knees with the hot chick from the beach’s naked legs spread out before me.
I walk towards the seafood restaurant with a spring in my step. I’m ready to make my happy place a reality.
My brother Ethan is the first person I see inside. He’s a head taller than everyone else and he’s the kind of guy, with his dark features and good looks, that always draws your eye. I get an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach as I work my way towards him. I don’t know whether to expect a hug or a punch. The latter is usually the case between me and my big bro. We always seem to be butting heads.
I walk past the bar and grin as I see the woman who I’ve been picturing naked for the past half hour sitting there drinking a beer. She takes a sip of her beer as I stare at her stunning features in the light of the bar. Her tempting lips wrap around the bottle as she tilts her head back and drinks.
A moan escapes my lips as my eyes trail down the soft skin of her neck to the dick hardening cleavage popping out of her dress. The bottom of her dress is hiked up her heavenly thighs showing off her luscious legs. A flip-flop is dangling from her perfect toes.
When my eyes make their way back up to her face she’s staring at me with rosy cheeks. So easy. I already have her in the bag. I’ve been around enough to know that if a girl blushes from only a look she’s as good as fucked.
I lean into her ear as I walk by. “I’ll be back for you later,” I whisper, as the smell of her mango scented shampoo makes my dick throb.
“Great,” she says, her rich green eyes following me. “I’ll be waiting here with a restraining order.”
I stop dead in my tracks and turn back to her. “You’re going to need more than a restraining order to keep me away from that hot body of yours.”
“That sounded a little rapey,” she says with a mischievous look and a smile brewing on her face.
“It’s not rapey if you’re begging for it,” I say with a grin.
“Begging for it?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.
I nod. “On your knees begging for it.”
She just laughs as a deep familiar voice rings out behind me. “Chase? What the fuck man?”
I give her a little wink as I turn and see my brother Ethan with his hands open and a shocked look on his face. I step forward and we give each other the quickest hug in human history. We’ve never been too good at the sibling affection thing. We were always better at knocking each other’s teeth out.
“What are you doing here?” he asks, touching my shoulders like I’m a hologram or something.
Heads are starting to turn and people are looking at us. I glance back over my shoulder and the hot chick is watching with interest.
I just shrug. “I couldn’t miss my big brother’s wedding.”
Ethan’s initial shock is winding down and he’s looking at me curiously. He looks older and calmer than the last time I saw him. There’s something about him that’s different, a sort of content peacefulness that’s hard to describe. I’ve never seen him like this before.
“I thought you couldn’t get a leave of absence,” he says with narrow eyes.
“I did,” I say, shrugging. I didn’t have a fucking choice.
A pretty girl with auburn hair slides under my bro’s arm and he wraps it around her like it’s the most natural thing in the world. She looks like a toy doll under his thick tattooed bicep. “Hi,” she says with a big smile
. “Brother-in-law.”
“Chase,” Ethan says, pushing her forward. “I’d like you to meet my fiancee, Tanya.”
She holds out her tiny hand. “Nice to meet you Chase,” she says in a sweet voice. I shake her hand, trying not to crush it. So this is the girl who tamed my wild brother. I’m curious to get to know her.
“Hi Tanya,” I say. “I’m sorry I popped up uninvited.”
“Nonsense,” she says, waving her hand at me. “Of course, you were invited. I’m so happy that you’re here. It wouldn’t have been the same without Ethan’s family here.”
Ethan’s family. Yeah right. I have to stop myself from laughing.
Someone jumps on my back and my first instinct is to throw them onto the ground, break the beer bottle within reach and slash their throat. I take a deep breath and remember where I am.
“Hey cuz!” my dorky cousin Lucas says jumping around to my front. “It’s so good to see you!”
He pulls a sweaty girl who’s dancing wildly on the dance floor. “This is my wife Megan,” he says proudly.
Megan is grinning at me fiercely. “Hi Mr. Navy SEAL,” she says with her hand out. “I’m your honorary cousin.”
“Wow, cuz,” I say, shaking her hand. “You snagged yourself a hot one. Don’t you know that you’re way out of his league?”
Lucas laughs nervously.
“Really?” Megan asks, looking at Lucas with a playful smile. “Any hot Navy SEALs you can hook me up with?”
“Tons,” I answer.
Lucas has stopped laughing. He gulps.
“We’ll talk later,” Megan whispers before skipping back to the dance floor. I like her already.
Ethan grabs my shoulder and leans into my ear. “Let’s grab a drink and go talk outside.”
The hot girl in the yellow dress is still at the bar. “Alright,” I say to Ethan. “I’ll get the drinks and meet you on the beach.”
She pretends not to notice me as I walk beside her and signal the bartender. That’s fine. I just ignore her right back.
She cracks first.
“You’re Ethan’s brother?” she finally asks. “The Navy SEAL?”
The Navy SEAL. How much of my identity is wrapped up in those three little words? What the fuck am I going to do if I lose that title?
“Chase,” I say, holding out my hand.
She looks at my palm with a raised eyebrow but slides her hand in anyway. “Cynthia,” she says as warm electricity flows between our hands. “I’m one of Tanya’s bridesmaids.”
I jerk my head back in shock. “She asked you to be a bridesmaid?”
“Yeah,” she says, looking at me in confusion. “Why?”
“I thought that bridesmaids weren’t allowed to be the hottest ones at the wedding.”
The bartender comes over and interrupts us. “What you have amigo?”
“Four beers.”
Cynthia’s deep green eyes turn back on me as the bartender walks to the fridge. “So, you’re going to be here all week?”
“Don’t sound too disappointed,” I say with a smirk.
“I’m not,” she says with a sexy grin. “I’m just wondering how long I have to carry my pepper spray around for.”
I step to the side towards her so that her dangling foot touches my leg. She doesn’t move it.
“Better keep it nice and close,” I say, gazing down at her dress hiked up her toned thigh. “I can be unpredictable when it comes to lusciously long legs.”
“I will keep it nice and close,” she says, sliding her purse towards her. “And careful. I can be unpredictable when it comes to creepers staring at my legs.”
The bartender drops the four bottles of beer in front of me with a clunk. I nod to him and hand him a tip. Got to love all-inclusive.
I slide a cold beer in front of her, place one in front of the empty stool beside her and grab the other two in my hand. “I’ll be back for you in a few minutes. Save my seat.”
She lets out a chuckle as I step away from the bar. “I don’t wait for any man. Especially arrogant, cocky, abrasive men who flash me their penises.”
I step back and lean into her ear. That mango shampoo is getting my dick hard. I’ll never look at a mango the same way again.
“I’m worth waiting for,” I whisper. “Trust me.”
She bites her lip but doesn’t say anything. Ethan is at the door staring at me impatiently.
“Just keep that hot ass parked on this stool,” I say. “I’ll be back.”
I leave with the two beers and her hot friend with the black hair and expensive looking dress rushes over immediately to talk to her.
Ethan is outside staring at me with a serious face. “A phone call would have been nice.”
“Geez brother,” I say as I stop in front of him. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
He exhales and his tense shoulders relax. “I am, Chase. Of course, I am. It’s just you could have replied to the wedding invitation like a normal person instead of just showing up here unannounced.”
“You want me to leave?” I ask turning away.
“No,” he says, grabbing a beer out of my hand. He starts walking towards the beach and motions for me to follow him.
We step onto the sand and my knee immediately starts acting up. I clench my jaw to ignore the pain.
The bright moon seems out of place on such a dark beach. It lights up the aggressive waves which are coming in rough and hitting the shore violently.
“I’m sorry, Chase,” he says, looking up at the stars. He reaches over and clinks his beer bottle on mine. “You just caught me off guard. That’s all.”
I exhale long and hard. He’s right. “I should have called,” I say, looking at my feet in the sand. “The way we left it last time…I…that wasn’t right.”
Ethan nods. “It hasn’t sat right with me since. I don’t want to leave things like that again. Especially when you’re over there.”
I know what he means. There’s always a strong chance that I won’t come home.
“I’m sorry about your motorcycle,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Water under the bridge brother. It’s just a hunk of metal.” He punches my shoulder. “It doesn’t matter.”
We walk in silence for a minute before my knee is killing me and I have to sit down. I sit on a beach chair and Ethan sits on the one beside me. We stare at the ocean as we drink our beers. We’ve never been good at talking about our feelings. That’s how it usually goes with us. We get in huge blow-up fights but never talk it through afterward.
“How did it go over there?” Ethan asks, grabbing a handful of sand and letting it leak through his fingers.
“It’s a shit show.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s going to take decades,” I say. “We’re helping a lot of people at least. They have it pretty bad over there.”
Ethan reaches over and slaps my back. “I’m proud of you,” he says, looking me in the eye. He’s never said that to me before. He seems to be a changed man. “You’re doing more good in the world than me.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “Look at your pretty little wife. You seem to be making her happy.”
He smiles. “Yeah,” he says, peeling back the label from his beer. “She’s amazing.”
Wow. My big brother is actually in love. I never thought I’d see the day.
“So,” he says, after a bit of uncomfortable silence. “When are you going back?”
That’s the gazillion dollar question. And the one I’m afraid to know the answer to. I want to go back yesterday but I’m not sure if I’ll get the green light. I really can’t face that possibility right now.
“Next week,” I lie.
He straightens up in his seat. “Are you coming back home to Chicago?” he asks. “You’re welcome to stay with us.”
“Nah, it’s okay,” I say, taking a long sip of my beer. “We get good discounts on hotels.”
Ethan nods.
We sit the
re awkwardly drinking our beers. We’ve never been good at talking to each other. We’ve always been better at punching each other in the mouths rather than using them.
“I need to get laid,” I blurt out.
Ethan laughs. “Been a while?”
“Way too fucking long,” I say, shaking my head.
“No pretty boys in the military?” he asks with a grin.
“Tons,” I say with a smile. “You’d love it. But I need some pussy.”
Ethan waves his arm around. “Well, you’re in the perfect place. Vacation pussy is always the easiest. It’s like a ripe peach just waiting to be plucked off the tree.”
“What about Cynthia?” I ask, throwing it out to test the waters. It’s the first time I’ve said her name out loud. It feels nice after repeating the name in my head repeatedly for the last few minutes.
Ethan hisses a breath and shakes his head. “These are good girls.”
“Look at you all protective and womanized,” I say with a chuckle. Wow. He has really changed. This isn’t the same Ethan that I grew up with. “What did this wife do to you? Did she chop off your balls?”
“Just don’t be a prick with her, okay?” he says, looking annoyed. “She’s one of my fiancee’s best friends.”
“I don’t know how to be anything but a prick,” I say, rubbing my chin. “That’s what women love about me.”
“Just go easy on her,” he says softly. “These are good girls. Don’t go corrupting them.”
“I’m not going to corrupt her,” I say with a grin. “I’m going to make her toes curl. She’ll thank me in the end.”
Ethan takes a huff of breath. “Just be nice. Please. Or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
We sit in a stiff silence for a minute before we nod at each other and stand up. “Well,” I say with a shrug. “She’s waiting for me.”
“Yeah,” Ethan says, heading back.
I grit my teeth and try to ignore the fierce pain in my knee. It hurts to walk in the sand but I don’t let it show. I’m not showing any weakness in front of my big brother, no matter how much he might have changed.
