The Returning Hero

by Soraya Lane

  “Yeah.”

  Brett tried to growl but she just laughed at him and tugged him lower.

  “Shut up and kiss me,” she said.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She laughed as he kissed the hollow of her neck, just above her collarbone, holding down her arms so she was powerless to move. His lips slowly moved up her neck, before settling on her mouth. His grip on her loosened as she submitted to his kiss, moaning as his tongue teased hers, lips soft one moment then rough.

  Jamie pushed up his shirt, hands sliding against his bare skin, moving across his scars and up to his shoulders, then down again.

  “That’s a dangerous game you’re playing,” he muttered against her mouth.

  “I know,” she whispered back as she ran her hands up his stomach this time, taking her time so she could feel his muscles, exploring every inch of him.

  “Do you want me to strip you naked here on the floor?”

  Hmm. She did like the sound of that… “Is that a take-it-or-leave-it question?”

  “No,” he said, nose against hers as he stared into her eyes. “Multichoice.”

  She waited, his breath hot against her skin.

  “The other option is that I pick you up and drag you to your bedroom. So I can have my wicked way with you there,” he said, his voice deep and husky.

  There was no mistaking what he wanted from her, and she wanted it every bit as bad.

  “I’ll take option two,” she said, liking her newfound confidence, that she could tell him what she wanted without being too shy. “It just so happens that I have nothing else to do today, so my schedule’s clear.”

  “So I’m just some toy to pass the time with?” he asked, holding her down by the wrists again and kissing her, before hauling her up and scooping her up into his arms.

  Jamie slung her arms around his neck, loving that he was strong enough to just pick her up and carry her, like he was her protector. She knew she could take care of herself, but knowing she had a man in her life who’d stand by her side no matter what was something she loved.

  “No, I’m saying you’re my lover, and I want you to…” She didn’t finish the sentence, the heat in his gaze making the words stall in her throat.

  “Lover, huh?”

  “Unless you don’t want to be?” she asked, catching her bottom lip beneath her teeth.

  “Oh, I want to be,” he said, forcing her lips to his in a kiss that left her breathless. “Just don’t expect me to let you out of your room anytime soon.”

  Jamie pressed her face into his chest as he carried her down the hall and kicked the bedroom door shut behind them.

  Last night she’d been miserable, and this morning she was so happy she couldn’t stop smiling.

  Brett put her carefully on the bed and stared down at her. “I love you, Jamie,” he said, all hint of playfulness gone, his tone serious. “I’m in love with you.”

  “I’m in love with you, too,” she said back, not hesitating, loving that she was hearing the words straight from his mouth as he looked into her eyes, rather than secondhand, as he had admitted them to Logan.

  Brett lowered himself over her and kissed her again, softer this time, more gently.

  It was time for her to let go of the past and make a new future with this gorgeous, kind man, and there was no part of her that wasn’t sure. She wanted to be with Brett, and no one was going to take that from her. Not ever.

  * * *

  Sunlight was pouring into the room, and Jamie was fighting to keep her eyes open.

  “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been in bed at this time in the afternoon before,” she mused.

  Brett laughed, which sounded like a weird kind of rumbling from where she had her head pressed to his chest. She was curled up beside him, the sheet half-covering them, as she basked in the way he was stroking his fingers across her skin. Jamie felt like a well-petted cat, so content she could have purred, loving that he couldn’t seem to take his hands off her.

  “It feels good, doesn’t it?”

  “What?” she murmured. “You touching me like this? Because you can keep doing it until it’s dark out, or forever, for that matter.”

  Brett moved his hand to stroke her hair. “Just being together. Not fighting it anymore.”

  “You know that Sam wouldn’t have been angry with us,” she said, wishing she didn’t have to break the intimate moment between them, but needing to say what was on her mind. Jamie pushed up and stared down at Brett. “It doesn’t mean I didn’t love him with all my heart, but I think we met all those years ago for a reason, Brett. Because I met two men I could have fallen for, two men I might not have been able to decide between if I’d known that you’d come looking for me, and it’s our time now. It’s never been right before, but it is now.”

  Brett had an expression on his face that she couldn’t read, but she could at least tell that he wasn’t angry.

  “I’m not scared of facing Sam one day,” Brett told her, his lips kicking into a half smile. “He knows I would have traded places with him if I could have the day that bomb went off, and by the time I do see him, he’ll be able to tell that I loved you just as much as he did.”

  Jamie dropped a slow, casual kiss to Brett’s lips. “So are we just going to live in bliss for a while and never leave the house, take baby steps?”

  Brett’s face turned more somber and he sat up and propped himself against the pillows. “I know it didn’t go well the first time, but I think we need to try to talk to Logan again.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “You do?” The thought terrified her, especially how things had turned out, what she’d gone through thinking that Brett had left her.

  He ran his fingers through her hair and tucked a few wisps behind her ear, his eyes never leaving hers. “Nothing is going to scare me off or change the way I feel about you Jamie, but Logan is important to both of us, and I want to try to make amends. Make him see that this is real, that this isn’t something that’s going to go away just because it makes him uncomfortable. I want to explain to him why everything he said is flawed, why this is right.”

  She nodded, sighing as his hand cupped her cheek and she relaxed into it. “Okay. I just don’t want to burst this perfect little bubble we’re floating in right now. I want to stay like this forever.”

  “We won’t ruin this, not this time,” he said. “I promise.”

  She trusted him, but she also knew how Logan’s disapproval could affect them both if it went bad again. “So if he punches you again or tries to make us feel disgusting for what we’ve done?”

  Brett leaned forward to drop a kiss to her forehead. “Then we tell him that his friendship means a lot to us, that he’s family, but that we’re in love and we need him to respect that. We’re not going to change who we are or how we feel for anyone.”

  Jamie found herself nodding. “And when exactly are you proposing we do this?” she asked.

  “Tomorrow.”

  “And everyone else in our lives?” she asked.

  “We can take telling the rest of the world a little slower, I think,” he said, pulling her closer so he could put his arms around her. “Logan can be our first step, and then we’ll just take it one day at a time. Do what feels right, when it feels right.”

  Jamie shut her eyes and relaxed against Brett’s bare chest, happy that it was warm enough that they could just lie naked, with only the light sheet covering them.

  “You have a plan for how we convince him to see us again?”

  He tightened his hold on her. “You can organize to meet him, say you want to talk with him, take the dogs to the river or something,” Brett told her. “No matter how angry he is with me, he’ll never say no to seeing you.”

  “You sure about that?” she mumbled against his chest.

  “I’m sure,” he said. “When I turn up, too, he’ll have no choice other than to see me, to hear what I have to say.”

  “If that’s how you want to do it, then tha
t’s how we’ll do it.”

  “Good,” Brett said, hands stroking her back and disappearing beneath the sheets, against her skin. “Because now that that’s sorted, I want to forget about everything else for the rest of the day and just think about you.”

  “Oh, really?” She laughed, wriggling as he held her, teased her.

  “Yes, really,” he said, capturing her mouth in a kiss that made her turn into liquid against him. “And that’s only the start of it.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  JAMIE HAD A flutter in her stomach that wasn’t doing anything to help her nerves. She opened the back door of her car and signaled for Bear to jump out, just like Brett had instructed her to do with him, and he obediently hopped out and waited beside her.

  “Don’t overthink this.”

  She stared at Brett over the top of the car, where he was leaning. “I’m starting to think this wasn’t such a good idea, that’s what I’m thinking. Why didn’t we just tell him that you would be coming?”

  Brett sighed and walked around the car to her, and pulled her into his arms. “Because he would have said no, and he would have been angry before he even arrived.”

  She held on tight to him before stepping out of his embrace and clipping on Bear’s leash. “Come on then, let’s go and get this over with.”

  “You’ll be fine. Just be yourself, and I’ll deal with Logan if things don’t go as planned.”

  Jamie shut her eyes, took a deep breath, then walked off through the park and to the river where she’d organized to meet Logan. For all her talk originally about wanting to be honest, about wanting Logan to know, she wasn’t feeling so confident anymore. She would do anything to protect her relationship with Brett, and this felt like doing the exact opposite of what she should be doing.

  “Once bitten, twice shy,” she muttered to herself.

  She looked across at Bear, wondering why he’d stopped walking, why he had his head cocked to one side, watching her. Jamie dropped to her haunches to give him a cuddle.

  “I’m sorry, boy. I keep forgetting that you’re always trying to figure out what I’m saying.” She unclipped his leash, knowing it was about time she trusted him. “Let’s go find your friend, huh? Off you go,” she instructed, flinging her arm out in the signal Brett had taught her.

  Bear gave her a look, like he was making sure he’d understood her properly, before trotting off ahead. She might be feeling more confident as a dog owner, but her knees were positively knocking over the idea of seeing Logan.

  “Jamie!”

  She looked up and saw him, standing by the river, hand held up in the air. Bear paused, looked back at her, clearly asking if he was allowed to run over to the other dog.

  “Go see,” she told him, walking faster herself and watching as he bounded off to say hello.

  It was now or never.

  “Hey, Logan,” she called out when she was near.

  “Hey,” he replied, closing the distance between them and kissing her on the cheek.

  It didn’t feel anywhere near as awkward as she’d been expecting, seeing him after what had happened, but she knew everything would change when Brett appeared.

  They both watched the dogs sniffing and playing, happily getting to know one another again.

  “Do you think they remember each other?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Logan said, jamming his hands into his pockets. “They’ve spent months at a time in the same place, and I don’t think they forget. They probably have better memories that we do.”

  “Want to take them for a wander?”

  Logan nodded and gave the dogs a whistle. “Jamie, about what happened…”

  “Logan, I don’t want you to apologize. There was nothing about the other day that went as planned.” Jamie touched her hand to his shoulder, squeezing slightly. “I’m sorry I put you in that position. It was wrong and we should have thought it through better instead of just springing the news on you.”

  He stopped and stared at her, like he wasn’t sure what to say.

  “You’re going to hate me for saying this, but Brett? He deserved a black eye. I’m only sorry about the way I spoke to you.”

  She sighed, shaking her head. “But that’s it, Logan. Brett didn’t deserve it. I’m as much to blame as he is for what’s happened between us. You can’t not attribute some of your anger toward me.”

  “Jamie, sweetheart, you’re a widow. You’re probably lonely.” His expression was kind but it also annoyed her, like the fact she’d lost her husband meant she couldn’t make up her own mind about how she felt or what she did. “Brett took advantage of you, so it is his fault.”

  She knew she had to tell Logan the truth, now, before Brett turned up, because this conversation wasn’t exactly going as planned. “Logan, Brett and I met before I even knew Sam. Pretending like us being together isn’t partly my fault is just patronizing.”

  His eyebrows shot up and his face seemed to visibly harden. “I’m not sure I’m following you.”

  “Do you remember, years back, Brett telling you about a girl he’d met? A girl he spent weeks looking for?”

  Logan laughed. “Yeah, and he never found her.”

  “But he did,” she told him, voice low. “That girl was me, and I’d just started seeing Sam when Brett finally tracked me down.”

  “You two weren’t…”

  “No!” Jamie said, not wanting him to imagine the situation being worse than it was. “I remembered him, of course I remembered him, but he never said anything about looking for me, about the night we’d met. Because he could see how happy Sam was, and he took the high road and walked away. Until recently, he never even told me what had happened.”

  Logan shook his head. “I think we need to keep walking.”

  Jamie fell into step beside him, wanting desperately for him to understand what she was trying to say.

  “Brett and I have always had feelings for each other, but nothing would ever have happened while I was married to Sam.” She took another deep breath. “I loved Sam so much, and nothing could have jeopardized our marriage, but with him gone and Brett back?”

  Logan didn’t say anything, but she knew he was listening.

  “The fact that something has happened between us now is okay, Logan, because we’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “Sam has only been gone…” He shrugged. “Whatever I say isn’t going to make a difference, is it? You’ve clearly already made up your mind.”

  Jamie slowly shook her head, but she panicked when she saw Brett walking in their direction.

  “What?” Logan asked, looking over his shoulder. “What the hell is he doing here?”

  “Don’t overreact, he wanted to come and make things right with you.”

  “I should just leave,” he muttered.

  Jamie looped her arm through Logan’s to keep him in place. “No, you’re not. Because we’re all adults here, and you guys are best mates. You’re not falling out because of me, and you need to promise me that you’ll listen to what he has to say.”

  She watched as the dogs ran over to Brett, running circles around him then bounding back off to the river to inspect the ducks again.

  “Hey,” Brett called out.

  Logan stiffened, but she didn’t let him go.

  “Geez, your eye really came up,” Logan said.

  Brett shrugged. “Guess I deserved it.” He passed them each a coffee from the cardboard tray he was holding. “I just want this coffee to go better than our last attempt, so can we all keep our fists to ourselves?”

  Brett had angled his body slightly to watch the dogs, and Jamie knew Logan was watching him.

  “You must miss Ted even more when you’re around these two,” Logan said.

  Brett’s eyes were nothing short of honest when he turned back, the look in them enough to break Jamie’s heart. “It’s easy for someone else to tell me he was just a dog, but I miss him like hell. All the time. I don’t think I’ll ever stop thinking about t
he way he died, about what I lost that day.”

  They all stood and sipped their coffee.

  “Jamie told me, about her being the girl from all those years back.”

  Brett took another sip of his coffee before sending a smile in her direction. “I need you to know that I would never have come between Jamie and Sam, but I love her, Logan. I always have. This isn’t something new for me, it’s just something I’ve never acted on before.”

  Jamie could hardly breathe, she was terrified of what was going to happen now. Of what Logan was going to say. How his reaction could change everything.

  “Did you come here wanting my blessing, or do you not care either way?” Logan asked.

  “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have told you the other day, and I wouldn’t be standing here now,” Brett told him. “I’m not going to walk away from Jamie, but then I’m not planning on walking away from you, either. Not after all we’ve been through. I just want you to try to understand.”

  Logan started to walk, slowly, and they both started to move, too. The dogs were having a ball and they followed them along the gentle curve of the river.

  “I think I just need some time to get my head around all this,” Logan confessed, running a hand through his short hair. “It’s not that I want to be the one that comes between you two, I just need to process it. It’s a lot to take in.”

  Jamie couldn’t help the smile the spread across her face, and the wink Brett gave her made her heart race. It was a baby step, but it was a step in the right direction.

  “You both mean too much to me to lose either of you. So if you need time?” she said. “Take as much as you need.”

  “And you really think Sam would have been okay with this? That he wouldn’t want me to do everything and anything to protect you? To stop you from making a mistake?”

  “Logan, you don’t need to protect her, because I’m not going to hurt her,” Brett said, stopping at the same time Logan did. “Me walking away? That’s what would hurt Jamie. And I love her.” He smiled at her, eyes connecting with hers. “I love her, man.”

  Logan tipped his head back, eyes closed, before shaking his head and looking first at Jamie and then at Brett. “Just give me time. I just need time to wrap my head around all this.”