Текст книги "Bad Boy's Baby"

Автор книги: Sosie Frost

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Текущая страница: 24 (всего у книги 28 страниц)

Chapter Fifteen – Zach

Son of a bitch.

What was she doing home so early?

“Shay.” I stood. “I thought you’d be out for a bit longer.”

“Imagine that.”

Shit.

She was pissed, and her anger was another vice trying to crush my head from the inside.

I called to her when she retreated from the room. “Shay, it’s not how it looks.”

She tried to be mad, but her words trembled instead. Her lip quivered. Fuck. I’d kick my own ass for hurting her.

“Save it,” she said. “I should have known better.”

“Let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” she said. “It’s not like…like we were…”

Dating. Exclusive. Made for each other. Fucking perfect together.

“Shay!”

And she was gone. Storming upstairs.

Why was she back so goddamned early?

And how was I supposed to reveal who Gretchen was without fucking everything up?

I groaned. I’d paint the bulls-eye on my ass now. Shay would kick me to the curb, and I didn’t want her aiming too low.

“The little missus is jealous.” Gretchen leaned on the coffee table. It didn’t help that she was all fucking leg in the skin-tight cocktail dress she wore for the house-call. “I’m assuming you haven’t told her about me.”

“What’s to tell?”

Gretchen shrugged. “I’m always trying to drum up business.”

“Stick around. She’s loading a shot gun. You can stitch me up.”

She stood, tucking a blood-pressure cuff into her bag. “You’re lucky I like you, Zach. Please promise you’ll take care of yourself. No more working out for four hours a day.”

“Two.”

“Zach.”

“Three and a half.”

“You’re healing,” she said. “I know you refuse to believe it, but you aren’t one hundred percent healed yet. So use your brain and be glad it still works right.”

“I am.”

“No, you aren’t. If you had an episode that scared you bad enough to call me during my date.” She wagged the doggy-bag from the Italian restaurant. “Then you’re overdoing it.”

“The appeal is in two weeks.”

“All the more reason to rest. I already lost my brother in this war. I’m not going to lose his best friend too. Okay?”

“I hear you.”

“Go rest.”

Gretchen shouldered her purse and bag. “And, for Christ’s sake, go talk to Shay. Tell her what happened. She won’t judge you for getting injured overseas. She looks sweet…as long as she doesn’t rip your innards out first.”

“If she hasn’t yet…”

Only one way to find out. I escorted Gretchen to her car to delay coming clean to Shay. Even if she forgave Gretchen, she wasn’t going to be happy about my condition or the truth about my extended leave.

I knocked outside her bedroom.

No explosions. No gunshots. So far so good.

She didn’t answer, but I didn’t expect her to welcome me with open arms and legs. I knocked again and edged inside.

“So…you came home early…”

Nothing.

The room was empty. Bathwater hummed from behind the partially closed bathroom door. I watched as Shay shifted at her vanity, but I didn’t say anything. Just stood there like a damned idiot, without a single fucking idea of how to start my apology or explanation.

The bathroom door opened. Shay shrieked.

She hadn’t tied her silk bathrobe, and the pink graced her dark curves with a hypnotic beauty.

I stared. Who the fuck wouldn’t?

The softness caressed her full breasts, and the hint of her slit peeked between the short pleads of the robe. She wasn’t quick enough to hide from me. Even better, she missed the hem of the robe and revealed more. She screeched and turned to tie it. The pink silk barely kissed the bottom curve of her perfect ass.

“Zach!” She pulled the robe’s belt tight, either to shield her nudity or because it’d be a felony to knot it around my neck. “Knock first!”

“I did. You didn’t hear.”

“Then don’t come in!”

“Let me explain.”

“Don’t start with me.”

Shay wove her curls into a quick bun, a little too violent for the clip she jammed against her head.

“I’ve had a horrible night,” she said. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. You’re free to hump whoever you like.” Her eyes widened, dark and brimming with tears. “But my father ruined his family because he strayed bed-to-bed. Don’t you dare make me into some other woman.”

“Other woman?” Christ, she thought I was dating Gretchen? I took her hand before she escaped to her bath. “Gretchen isn’t my girlfriend.”

“I don’t need the specs on your petty officer’s latest mission.”

“She’s my doctor.”

Shay stilled. I pulled her business card from my wallet.

“Dr. Gretchen Mahoney,” I said.

“Internal Medicine?” Shay flipped the card over. Her voice softened. “Why did you have a doctor in our living room?”

Our living room.

Fuck. I snuck into her heart with all the subtlety of a boot to the door and a flash grenade. If I blew it now, I’d wish the shrapnel had finished the job on me.

“It’s a long story,” I said.

She stared at the scars on my arm. “I want to hear it.”

“I wouldn’t dream of interrupting your bath.”

Shay hesitated, holding my gaze for any reason to stay. I held my breath as she returned to the bathroom. The faucet turned off. My chest ached in relived agony.

She leaned against the doorway. I knew she debated if she could trust me. No reason to lie then.

“I gotta come clean,” I said.

She swallowed. “I figured that was coming.”

“I’m not fucking around with Gretchen. She’s just a friend, helping me because I served with her brother. She took on my case as a favor.”

“Your case?”

I sat on the bed and patted next to me. Shay’s eyebrow rose like I unzipped my pants and offered her a seat on my cock.

Why was this so hard? It wasn’t like I was still in the hospital, pissing through a tube and waiting for them to glue my skull back together. I made it out of the fucking desert alive. I healed. I survived.

Would she see it as a miracle?

Or would she see the same man I saw in the mirror?

Weak. Frail. Aimless.

“I’m not on leave.” The words stung. My hands curled into fists. Six months ago, I couldn’t even do that. Progress. “I was medically discharged.”

Shay frowned. “You said you were going back to the SEALs in a few months.”

“I know.”

“You lied?”

She bit the word. It felt like a slap across the cheek.

“I am going back,” I said. Hope healed more than the migraine meds Gretchen tried to shove down my throat. “Now that I’ve recuperated, I’m appealing the discharge. I’m meeting with te doctors for a physical in two weeks. If they believe I’m fit to serve, they’ll issue me a medical waiver. I’ll reenlist.”

“What do you mean recuperated?” She asked. “What happened to you?”

Like she hadn’t seen the scars. I could pack muscle on top of more muscle, but all people saw were the purple, fading scars where my guts tried to blast out of me.

“IED.”

Shay edged closer to the bed. “So you were…hurt.”

An understatement. “Yeah.”

“How badly?”

“A couple fractures short of entering a classified Navy SEAL cyborg program.”

“Zach. Talk to me.”

I sighed. Shay slipped to my side. I smiled as she tugged the robe over the sinful darkness of her thighs. That little silky reveal was enough to refuel me for another tour.

“It was bad,” I said. “I’m…not at liberty to tell you where I was or what I was doing there.  I can say I’m damn lucky that I made it back to the helicopter. I should be another bloodstain in the sand.”

Her eyes widened. She traced a shiny scar over my wrist. “But you’re okay now?”

“Of course,” I lied.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were on a medical leave?”

“Because there’s a chance they won’t grant me that waiver. They might not clear me to re-enlist. If that happens…”

I eyed the master suite. The estate grew on me. I still couldn’t find my way through it in the dark, but a man got used to living every day as a fantasy.

Especially when the most beautiful woman in the world caressed a scar that came from a fireworks accident when I was fifteen, not the explosion that nearly ripped my skull apart.

I brushed her hand with mine. The simple contact was better than any morphine they shot in my veins at the VA hospital. “Last night, you asked me what would happen if the one thing you wanted in life was taken from you?” I met her gaze. “I understand that fear. Completely.”

“You want to go back to the SEALs?”

“More than anything.”

“But it almost killed you.”

“It’s my life. Wanted it since I was a kid. I didn’t have much of a family, and I thought my dad was a soldier. It seemed a natural life for me.”

“Do you like it?”

“I did,” I said. “I liked the travel and excitement. Never had a reason to stay at home.”

Until now.

I didn’t say it. Probably should have.

“I’m sorry.” Shay looked away. “Oh hell. I sounded like an idiot downstairs.”

“I didn’t tell you Gretchen was my doctor when you first met her. I didn’t want you to know I had been hurt overseas.”

“That was dumb.”

Yep. Especially after I realized a girl didn’t get that jealous for nothing. “I promise. Nothing’s happening between me and her.  Gretchen’s engaged. I have more to worry about than you.”

“Why?”

“Well…” I grinned, grateful for the conversation change. “She’s a lesbian.”

“That is a relief.”

“Should I be concerned?”

Shay’s playful tone amused me more than her robe slipping over her shoulders. “No, I’ve been very satisfied lately.”

“Just satisfied?”

She hummed. “As much as can be expected.”

“I’ll have to work harder. No one’s ever accused me of being adequate.”

Shay didn’t want to play. She tucked a falling curl behind her ear. I wished she let me do it for her. A brush to her cheek tempted me more than night between the sheets. Every second she allowed me to touch her cocoa skin was a gift, a blessing second only to her smile.

So why did her smile fade?

“You came back early,” I said. “Everything okay?”

She nodded. I didn’t believe her. I took her hand.

She let me hold it.

I’d explode just imagining her lithe, gentle fingers pumping my cock.

“It was a rough night,” she said. “My friends…weren’t acting like my friends.”

“What’d they do?”

“Asked for money.” Her eyes rose to mine, honest and desperate. “And I would have helped, I would have. But…I don’t have the trust. And they got mad...”

Shay was as lovely on the inside as out. She’d spend her last cent trying to make sure everyone was happy. She’d run errands, copy homework, and give money because she mistook gratitude for love. And her asshole friends seemed the type to exploit it.

I tugged her close, surprised when she rested her head on my shoulder. “You don’t owe them anything, baby.”

“But I will help them.”

“I know.”

“I just hoped tonight would let me clear my mind. I needed…to think.”

And I needed to kiss her. Maybe that was her problem. Too much thinking, not enough kissing, touching, and fucking.

“They didn’t even try to help with Professor Sweeten. They asked how I pissed her off and then…bam. And Heaven, I swear, she better not come near me again. Not unless she’s on her knees and I’m on my way out of church.”

“Sounds like a rough night.”

“Why are you the only one who understands?” She swallowed. “Why are you the only one who even tries to understand?”

“Because I know what it’s like to have everything but still lose the one you want.”

Shay quieted. I thought I blew it. It sounded romantic in my head, but what the hell did I know? There was still too much shrapnel, swelling, and half of the desert rattling around my brain for me to make sense of most things.

I should have spelled it out for her. Laid it all out and waited for the rejection.

But I always did like torturing myself. Kicking my own ass meant I was getting stronger. Worked in the weight room, on the battlefield, and in the bedroom.

I didn’t have to say a damn thing. Shay reached for me, her delicate fingers stroking over my cheek. She leaned in, gentle, and kissed me.

Goddamn, those lips. With a single nibble to my bottom lip, Shay might have asked me to burn down the damn estate, and I’d have agreed with the flick of my tongue against hers. My cock throbbed for her. I shifted in my jeans, but that gave it room to get harder.

I wanted this fucking woman.

I wanted everything about her. The pouty lips. Those hidden curves under the robe. Her body. Her heat.

Her dreams. Her secrets. Her every vulnerable thought.

And, in return? I’d be the one there for her. Her douche-bag friends or absent father would never hurt her again. I’d comfort her. Hold her. Kiss her.

Until I shipped back out.

Holy Christ.

I spent two months in the hospital and six in therapy. Every damned second of my recovery was spent forcing myself to take the next step, add the next weight, and meet the next challenge.

I never had a reason to stay that could compete with my desire to go.

Until her.

Shay stood. I curled my fingers in the comforter so I wouldn’t throw her onto the bed. She tickled the knot of her belt.

The silk opened.

Fell away.

And she stood before me in perfect, goddess-like perfection.

Dark. Sensual. Curvy and feminine and absolutely utterly beautiful, from the ebony curls of her hair to the swell of her breasts and the hidden treasure tucked between her thighs. She let the robe drop to the ground and turned. Her firm ass brought a man to his knees quicker than a gun slammed into the back of the head.

She escaped into the bathroom. I stared after her, my heart punching a hole in my chest.

The water started again. Her voice echoed from the tub.

 “Zach?” Her words were a light tease. “Are you coming in or not?”

Chapter Sixteen – Shay

Heading to campus sucked.

Just plain sucked.

That’s why I didn’t do it alone.

Zach didn’t know how much it meant for him to tag along. Unfortunately, he decided to cheer me up on the back of his Harley. In a history of bad ideas, crawling onto a two-wheeled monstrosity driven by a guy named Hard might have been my most dangerous adventure. It still wasn’t my worst idea, but if I cracked my skull off the asphalt or swallowed just one bug, so help me God…

“Are you sure this thing is safe?” I bit my nail. Zach fit a helmet over my head. The dimples flashed. He thought my reluctance was hilarious. “I’m really not brave enough for this.”

“It’s fine. Once you hop out of a helo in hostile territory under enemy fire, a little bike ride seems pretty relaxing.” Zach wore a pair of sunglasses. Aviator. Like he tried to be the cliché soldier. It worked. “Still, I’d rather tour Afghanistan on the bike than take I-75.”

“You think you’re so cute.”

“So do you.”

I wasn’t answering that. He had to work for it. And, knowing Zach? He would.

Eagerly. Like a little boy in a candy store.

“Come on. I’ll ride you to the campus, then we’ll get lunch.”

I secured my backpack and triple checked it wouldn’t spill my life onto the highway. “Lunch?”

“That okay?”

He said it so casually.

Sure, I made a scene when I invited him into my bathtub. And yes, he fulfilled his promise when I finally granted him entry into the master bedroom. But lunch?

Somehow that changed our arrangement to something…different. Good different, but still confusing and exposed. My emotions blended into a weird cocktail of Zach and went straight to my head.

Really, lunch was where our relationship should have began. I went from leaping into bed with him to hating his guts and back again. That emotional whiplash hadn’t stopped for small-talk, baby pictures, or embarrassing stories about our prior relationships.

Had we done it right, I would have started by smiling at him over a menu, flirting by biting a straw, and then excusing myself from the table so he could watch my ass sway. Now we were a couple sways too late for that. Probably a few bounces, spanks, and wiggles too.

Zach shifted his long legs over the motorcycle. He patted behind him.

“Better hang on tight,” he said. “You know. Like last night.”

I smacked him through the helmet, picking a path over the coiled parts and chrome finish. I awkwardly fit onto the seat. I had no choice but to cling to Zach. The bike angled, and my waist ground against his back.

Just what we needed while flying down the highway at sixty miles an hour.

Zach patted my knee and pulled my arms over him.

“Lean when I lean. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Yeah, and Eve trusted the serpent too.

The bike rumbled under us. The first few turns I screeched instead of leaned, but Zach’s heated laugh warmed me. I focused on his movements. By the time we reached the highway I had enough confidence to open my eyes. I clung to his broad shoulders and let the morning wash over us.

A motorcycle. A SEAL. Zach even made baking a pie sexy. I fought to not fall head-over-heels for him if only so I wouldn’t tumble from the bike.

The bag rested heavy on my shoulders. I brought my schedule, my information, and a formal letter of withdrawal. I managed to not cry when typing it up. Printing the document was another story. That emotional breakdown ended with streaked lines, broken toner, and half a package of Oreos to soothe me.

My goal in life.

Gone.

Hell reserved a special circle for horrible professors. The ones who promised to grade on a curve and didn’t. Those who never graded their tests and only posted scores the day before finals. The absent-minded flakes who forgot to assign homework in class and instead emailed the assignment the night before it was due.

The cruel monsters who crushed innocent students trying to get ahead.

I didn’t care about the money I lost in tuition, just how hard I busted my ass to get on the Dean’s List. All that wasted time. Then again, what did time matter to me? It wasn’t like I was in a hurry to find a job and make money. I’d transfer to another school, take my classes, and then do student teaching with a saner advisor.

And I had to prepare to do it alone.

My friends weren’t in a chatty mood after I stormed out of dinner—especially as the forty dollars I tossed on the table didn’t cover all their meals. And Zach…

Zach wouldn’t be hanging around either. My heart ached. I’d actually miss my nuisance house guest when he re-enlisted in the SEALs.

Though I’d rather lose him to a deployment than anything worse.

I didn’t want to imagine something bad happening to him.

I gripped him harder. He didn’t seem to notice—the bastard was too busy accelerating, splitting a lane between two cars and edging onto the exit ramp. I pinched my eyes shut and clung to him as the bike roared over the road.

He didn’t just get off picking up pretty girls from bars. He was a pure adrenaline junkie. No wonder he wanted in the SEALs. He acted like a total idiot as a civilian.

We cruised to the campus and parked outside the administration offices. I hobbled off and handed him my helmet.

“Want me to come in with you?” He asked.

Escort me through this hostile territory? Not without a polo shirt as camouflage, his gun exchanged for a laptop bag, and his radio swapped for Beats headphones. I shook my head.

“I’ll handle it.”

He didn’t remove the sunglasses. That only attracted glances from passing girls. He grinned as I spied a cluster emerging from the nearby dorms.

“They’re freshman,” I warned. “Look, but don’t touch.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “They don’t got a thing on you, baby.”

Christ, I believed him. Again. That would have to stop.

Or did it?

Ugh. Not what I needed to worry about while facing the crumbling foundation of my future.

I marched into the administrative offices with all the confidence I could fake. The secretary greeted me with oversized glasses and undersized patience. I tried to smile, but I didn’t know what expression said Hi, I’m dropping out of college and disappointing generations of my family. Where do I sign?

I opted for something simpler.

“Hi. I…uh, I was withdrawing from my classes. I have my form…”

“Student ID number.”

I rattled it off. She waved for the papers in my hand—the few letters I gathered from my professors who waived the F in favor of an Incomplete.

“A member of the student relations board will call you once this is processed. Please be aware we cannot grant refunds on this semester’s tuition.”

“Oh, I…I know.”

“Have a nice day.”

That was it? I swallowed. The secretary dismissed me with a slurp of her diet Coke.

Was it really that easy? All of Professor Sweeten’s threats, the humiliation at the academy, the sleepless nights—and all I had to do was hand in a letter?

I could have emailed my failure to the school.

What the hell was I doing standing before a complete stranger pretending not to fall to pieces? These people wouldn’t help. They’d sweep me into the same garbage bin as the other shattered students who fell apart before making it into the real world.

Thank God Momma wasn’t here to see this. Or Dad. He was the one who paid for it.

I returned to Zach. He tossed me the helmet.

“It was quick,” I said.

He shuddered. “Words a guy never wants to hear.”

I forced a smile. “I’m not very hungry.”

“But I know the best burger joint.”

“Zach—”

“Hop on. They make a chocolate milkshake that’s more tempting than you.”

Ice-cream did sound good. For a girl without a future and a severe allergy to cats, about the only thing I could collect in the future would be pints of gourmet ice-creams.

Hell, if I really wanted to become an eccentric hermit, I’d invest in some prime ice-cream makers with all my untouched money…

The idea struck me with the same severity as an ice-cream headache. I hopped on the bike and patted for Zach to ride.

“Damn. Someone likes her desserts. You should have told me. I can do wicked things with whipped cream—”

“Drive, Zach.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

True to his word, Zach delivered us to a gluttonous heart-attack waiting to happen—a Mom and Pop diner with food served in a puddle of grease. The milkshake crowned with a heaping layer of whipped cream bigger than my head. It was a good choice.

I nibbled on my fries, scrunching my nose as Zach dipped his into my chocolate shake. He didn’t let me argue.

“Just try it.”

I rolled my eyes and buried the fry into the mess. Sweet, salty, and perfect.

“You gotta stop fighting me,” Zach winked. “No, you can’t live here. No, I don’t want to talk to you. No, don’t put it in there, that’ll hurt.”

“Very funny.”

“You okay?” He asked.

I shrugged, happy for the milkshake to distract me. “I think so.”

“No shame in ordering a second of those.”

Oddly enough, I didn’t need chocolate to survive this crisis. I teased the cherry through the whipped cream and shrugged.

“What if…” I didn’t know how to phrase it or if it was even a viable idea. “You know how everyone tells me to forget college? That I should just buy my own school and screw those who held me back?”

Zach gobbled half of his burger down. He nodded.

“Why don’t I buy a school?”

“Mrphschool?” He swallowed. “A school?”

“Or…a charity. I was thinking…I don’t have to be a teacher to do what I wanted. In fact, I’d be limited if I taught, stuck with a set curriculum and working inside the administration. But, if I had like…an after-school program? Or a school with summer events? Tutoring and games and all that?”

Zach put the burger down. He smiled. His dimples were every bit the affirmation I needed.

“I think it’s a good idea.”

“Really?”

“Sure. With our money? Hell, a chicken in every pot and a tutor for every kid.”

My heart lumped but forgot to bump. “Our money?”

“Yeah. It’s a good cause. Toss my share in there too. I’ll pull a salary again once I re-enlist.”

“You’d…do that for me?”

“Shay, I told you before. I’m not in this for the money. I wanted a place to crash and a gym to train in so I could pass my physical.” He sipped his Coke. “And I wanted a chance to get closer to you.”

I looked down. The milkshake refroze in my stomach. This wasn’t a conversation to have over a burger and fries in a tiny diner.

“How close did you want to get?” I asked.

He waved a pickle at me after watching how I inhaled mine. He let me take a bite of his.

“Are you asking if I got my quick fuck and will be on my way?” He said.

In every sense of the word. “Of course not.”

“I’ll have you know, I’m not anywhere close enough to you yet.”

There wasn’t really any place left on me to get close to. All my places were thoroughly discovered. Sometimes twice. Sometimes three times while accompanied with fierce denial in the morning. What else did he want?

And then I knew.

“Look, Zach—”

“Don’t give me the step-brother line again. It doesn’t weird me out. It shouldn’t make a difference to you.”

“Okay, bro,” I sighed. “Let’s ignore the family tree for a second. You said it yourself. You’re re-enlisting.”

“So?”

“Will a Navy SEAL make it home for dinner at night?”

He quieted. “No. But there’s leave every once in a while.”

“I’m not looking for every once in a while. You have your life, what you’ve planned to do, what you’re built for.” I regretted the words as they only encouraged him to flex. “You want to be a SEAL. I understand that. But I can’t get wrapped up in this only to have you leave. Zach…I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

“You wouldn’t be.”

“We have our own goals, okay? We need to focus on those. We had some fun together. More than we should have. But I can’t let myself fall—”

Shit. I almost said it. And no big industrial truck rumbling by or hooting laugh of another diner muffled the mistake. Zach stared at me.

“Shay?” He clenched his fist around his drink. “Only two things could keep me out of the SEALs now. One would be a douche-bag doctor failing my physical. The other—”

My heart pounded. “—Don’t.”

“I never had a reason to settle down.”

“Zach.”

“You’ve always been alone.”

“Stop.”

“I literally had my life flash before my eyes, and I had nothing to show for it except a dozen classified missions and an empty apartment. Almost dying gives a man perspective. Maybe there’s more for me.”

“I can’t do this.”

“Shay, why fight it?”

“Because…” My lip trembled. I didn’t want to fight it anymore. I didn’t want to do anything but rest in his arms, giggle at his crude humor, and lick every last drop of the milkshake from his chest. “I…”

A shadow crossed over the table. A middle-aged moment-killer winked at Zach and set the check by his hand.

“Thanks, folks, come back now.” She didn’t mean it.

I stood, shouldering the bag. “We should go. Thanks for lunch.”

Zach crinkled the bill as he stood. He wagged a finger at me, but his smile returned, bigger than ever.

“We’re not done yet,” he said. “You and I got a lot to discuss.”

“We really don’t.”

“Yes, we do.” He loomed over me, brushing my chin with the bump of his fingers. I swallowed, trapped in the size, the scent, and the power of him. “From this moment on, baby, you are mine. And I’m going to spoil you, pamper you, and fuck the hell out of you until you finally admit it. That I promise.”

He parted from me to pay the tab. I rushed outside to gulp as much air as possible. The humid, smoggy afternoon didn’t help, but I was at least free of him.

Until I saw the bike.

A half hour trip back home, clutching on a man more dangerous to me than the open road and his crazy driving.

Zach wanted me to admit what I felt.

Keeping that hidden would be more than a challenge.

It’d be Hard.