Page 13

Chapter Twelve

Early this morning had lasted a long time, and falling back asleep in Beau’s arms had been magic. Now that the sun was really bright, it seemed that my man was intent on using all that he had learned for another round. He licked the sweet spot under my jaw and my toes curled as he blew over it.

“Are you done playing possum?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Will you stop if I tell you I’m awake?”

“No,” he assured me.

“Then I’m awake.”

He trailed kisses along my jaw until he found my mouth and took control. He started slow, but soon it was the kind of kiss that could power a city block. When he broke our kiss, I whimpered my displeasure. But then he was sliding down my body, kissing and licking, touching and praising, driving me out of my mind.

Eventually Beau hit his target as he spread my legs and kissed and licked my needy sex.

“You taste so good, Maddie.”

I had nothing to say. All I could do was feel, as his tongue delved deep and began to fuck me. My arms were limp, I had no strength to touch his head. I wanted to. I wanted to grab his hair and insist he fuck me properly.

“I don’t want to come this way,” I whined.

His tongue swirled around my clit, then he sucked it into his mouth, and I about died.

“No. Cock.” I demanded.

He lifted his head. “Do you have condoms?”

I frowned. What was he talking about?

For a second, the shift in tone hit me sideways. One minute I was floating, seconds from falling apart in his mouth, and the next minute he was asking me questions.

Oh yeah. Condoms. I remembered those things.

“Maddie, I only had the one condom. Unless you have any, you’re stuck with this.”

“Dammit. I thought soldiers were supposed to be all prepared and stuff.”

“I’m a Marine, not a soldier.”

“Soldier. Marine. Whatever. You should have been prepared.”

He shook his head, then slid even deeper into my bed and parted my folds again. There was no teasing this time. He thrust at least two fingers inside of me and sucked my clit into his mouth. His fingers moved like they were searching for something. Then I cried out and trembled.

“W-w-what?”

His tongue swirled around my clitoris as he continued to suck. His fingers continued to brush against that magical spot inside me. I was going insane. I was so close. So desperately close to shattering.

“Beau,” I gasped, but I didn’t know if it was a plea or a prayer.

He didn’t answer, just groaned against me, his mouth working me like I was the only thing that mattered in his world. His curved fingers continued to stroke that place inside me that made everything unravel.

The pressure coiled tighter and tighter and then, and then…

I came apart with a cry, my back bowing off the bed, my hands fisting in his hair, everything in me pulsing with pleasure until I saw stars.

Somehow, he held onto me, but he never stopped. He continued his endeavors, letting me ride out my pleasure. When I finally slumped back against the mattress, dazed and trembling, he looked up at me like I was his own personal miracle.

Which was only right, because he was mine.

* * *

Beau opened my car door and held out his hand so I could more easily step on the running board to get out of his truck. For God’s sake, it was about the same height as my Jeep, and I constantly jumped in and jumped out of my vehicle all the time. Hell, it wasn’t like I was wearing a dress or skirt. I wasn’t even wearing sandals. I was in jeans, a crop top, and my boots. But if Beau wanted to be all mannerly, I wasn’t going to complain.

It’d been my suggestion to grab coffee at Java Jolt. Not only was I dying for a vanilla chai with whipped cream, but I had my fingers crossed that they’d baked cranberry orange scones this morning. Of course, I’d have to deal with Ruby. She always worked Sunday mornings. The after-church crowd was one of her busiest times. Hopefully, she’d be too busy to give me too much shit.

When Beau shut the truck door, then linked our hands together, I about swooned. Here he was, holding hands with me in front of everybody. Tedious Ted didn’t believe in PDAs, so Beau was freaking me out. But as we continued down the sidewalk toward the coffee shop, I enjoyed holding his hand more and more.

He let go to open the door for me, then he guided me in with his hand on my lower back. I did a full body shiver. Mr. Marine better be buying some condoms today.

Just as I suspected, the place was packed and the line was long. Beau and I were one of the few who were in jeans. Everybody else was dressed in their Sunday best. When we got in line, Beau slipped his arm around my waist.

“What’s good here?” he asked.

“Everything,” the pre-teen girl behind us said. She was probably about twelve years old. Maybe three or four years older than Bella.

“What’d I tell you about listening to other people’s conversations?” her mother admonished as she gave Beau and me a strained look.

“I was just filling them in,” the girl grumbled.

“Beau, she’s right. Everything is great here,” I said.

The girl grinned at me, and I winked at her.

We were finally near the front of the line. We just had to wait for a cute high school couple to place their order. They were both staring at the pastry case like it held the answers to their next biology test.

“If they stare much longer, Ruby can file for a restraining order,” Beau whispered in my ear.

I covered my mouth to hold back a laugh. Beau was right.

Ruby was at the cash register, and I could see she was getting perturbed and heading toward pissed. I looked behind us. There were at least ten more people.

“Do you like chocolate?” Ruby asked the couple.

“Shea does,” the young man answered.

“You’re in luck. You’re my two-hundredth customer this morning. You get a free muffin. The one caveat is that it has to be chocolate. Sorry I can’t let you choose. With the chocolate muffin, I recommend the honey vanilla cappuccino and the vanilla chai. How does that sound?”

The couple grinned at one another. “I’ll have the cappuccino,” the young man said.

“I’ll have the vanilla chai,” the girl named Shea said.

“Great. I’ll get the muffin warmed up and your drinks ready for you in a jiffy. Just wait at the end of the counter.”

They walked away, holding hands. It made me even more aware of Beau’s hand at my waist and how much I liked it.

As we stepped up to the register, Ruby took a step back and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Well, well, well,” she drawled. “If it isn’t Little Miss I-Don’t-Date and the new town heartthrob, all snuggled up together. In public.” She gave me a piercing look. “Care to explain, Missy?”

I felt my face go crimson. Beau? He just grinned.

“Morning, Ruby. Damn shame we weren’t the two-hundredth customer. Since we weren’t, you got anything special you might recommend?” Beau asked smoothly.

“Not anything as special as Miss Maddie’s love life.”

She was talking loud enough that I was sure everybody in the coffee shop could hear.

“Ruby! Dial it back.” It was both a plea and an order.

She winked at me. “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the…” Her eyes got wide. “Now, where were you last night?”

“I swear to God?—”

“Relax, babe,” Ruby laughed. “You’re glowing. It’s adorable. I hate it. I’m jealous as hell. Now, I know you’re having a chai tea with whipped cream and either a blueberry muffin or an orange and cranberry scone. So, which is it?”

“The scone,” I sighed.

“What about you, big guy?”

“I’ll take a coffee black. Large. And a bacon-cheddar scone.”

“Your order will be up in no time. There’s a seat in the back corner. I’ll have T.J. bus it. Go grab it before it’s gone. T.J. will bring your food.”

“Fancy service today.” I smiled. “I’m liking it.”

Ruby leaned over the counter and motioned with her finger for me to come closer. “I figure he wore you out last night, so you might need to sit down.”

Damn, I was blushing again.

Beau was already at the table, and T.J. was wiping it down by the time I got there. Beau had my chair already pushed back for me, and he was kicked back in his. I noticed that he’d taken the one with his back to the wall. Drake had once told me he always liked to see if someone was coming at him. It must be a military thing.

By the time I sat down, T.J. was setting down our warmed pastries.

“Alice is backed up. Your drinks will take longer. Sorry.”

“No problem, T.J.” I smiled at him. He blushed. T.J. was a high school student who always blushed if an older woman smiled at him. Therefore, working for Ruby, he was perpetually lit up like sunrise.

Beau broke off a piece of his scone and popped it into his mouth.

“Damn, this is really good.” He looked surprised.

“Told you.”

He broke off another piece and ate that, too. Then he gave me a long look.

“How come social work? You always had a dream of being an interpreter. I remember how you worked so hard studying French in high school, and all those Pell grants and scholarships you applied for so you could attend ETSU.

“Go Buccaneers,” I said, raising my hand.

Beau chuckled. “Did you go to many football games?”

“Of course I did. I was a student, wasn’t I?”

“So, you got the scholarships?”

I nodded. “And the Pell grants. I didn’t have to take out many student loans. I paid those off in two years. I was lucky.”

“What happened to the dream of being an interpreter for the United Nations?”

“My roommate was studying to become a social worker. Some classes she was taking really resonated with me. Especially the one called Human Behavior in the Social Environment. When I read her text, I decided to take the class.”

“Yeah, but interpreter to social worker is quite the shift,” Beau said as T.J. set down our drinks. The kid left before I could even thank him, so I turned my attention back to Beau.

“It was, but I thought about how different my family’s life would have been if a good social worker would have become involved. How they could have helped us, and maybe Piper wouldn’t have been hurt so badly by our father.”

Beau winced and set down his coffee that he was about to drink. “I forgot about that.”

“Yeah, Drake tried to shield all of us from that. He told Trenda and Evie what really happened, but I heard. That’s why he had to join the Navy. At least our dad had to go to prison.”

Beau reached out and covered my hand and squeezed. It wasn’t much, but it helped me as I thought about that horrible time in our family’s life.

I needed to change the subject. “What about you? Why did you join the Marines? Why didn’t you tell me you were just going to up and leave?”

Beau didn’t let go of my hand. He looked me dead in the eye.

“You know that I never even considered college. It always seemed so unattainable for me. I barely scraped by enough to graduate. I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.”

I turned my hand over and tangled my fingers with his, squeezing him hard.

“For God’s sake, Beau, you could barely attend high school, not when you were taking care of your mom.”

“Yeah, but even when I did, I struggled.”

“Again, how were you supposed to succeed when you missed so many classes?”

Beau gave me a sad smile and released my hand and took a sip of his coffee. “You always were my biggest fan. As for the Marines. I talked to the recruiter, and he convinced me that there I could succeed. There I could find a family.”

“But I was your family.”

He gave me a long look. “Maddie, I wanted something different from you than just friendship. Something you weren’t ready for. I needed to leave.”

I wanted to cry. Beau must have seen it.

“Hey. I found a home. It was a good thing for me. Really good. I don’t regret it one bit… Well, maybe a little.”

“What do you regret?”

“Sometimes I wish I could have done more.” He picked up his scone and took a bite. I looked down at mine and realized I hadn’t eaten any. I took a bite, then washed it down with my drink. I waited for Beau to say something more. He didn’t, so I prodded.

“What do you mean you wished you could have done more?”

“My team was in Chad once. A small village outside of N’Djamena. We weren’t even on an actual mission, just recon and recovery. There were kids in the village with bloated bellies and hollow eyes. One little boy came up to me and asked if I had rice. Just rice. Not candy. Not toys. Rice. It broke my heart. It broke all our hearts.” His face was suffused with pain. “I work with the best men imaginable. I couldn’t forget him. Still can’t.”

He looked down at his coffee like it held the memory.

“We gave the kid and the others everything we had. Our MREs, protein bars, raisins, granola. Everything. We knew we were going to be picked up in two days. We were going to be good.” His eyes met mine, soft and shining. “It felt like we were trying to dig them out of a sandstorm with our bare hands.”

He was still the Beau I remembered. I told him so.

“That’s why I have to figure this out. This is more than a maybe. This seems solid. Almost like it’s meant to be, Maddie. Do you feel it?”

I nodded.

But to me, it felt like everything.

It was going to kill me when he left.