Page 7 of Striker’s Foul (Shiver of Chaos #3)

She’s quiet for a moment before continuing in a soft voice. “I wanted to look for you, but in the beginning, I was just focused on settling in and finishing school. I wasn’t going to tie you down if you wanted out.”

“I didn’t want out.” I turn toward her. “Your father said you’d accused me of raping you. I never took any money from him.”

She bolts upright, then groans from the sudden movement.

“I never accused you of anything.”

“I never wanted out. I have a feeling dear Harold played us against each other. Was your mother involved in breaking us up too?”

“No, I don’t think so.” She lies back down. “In her suicide letter, she said one of her regrets was not knowing what Harold had planned. She wished she could have spared both of us. I didn’t understand what she meant until now.”

“So your father fucked us both over.”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever sleep with Julian?” I ask, needing to know.

“No. We were just friends. He’s only ever hugged me, that’s all.”

“Good. I’d hate to have to kill him after he saved my life numerous times.”

She coughs out a chuckle. “I find it so weird. I’d heard stories about all of you from time to time, but never any names or real details. Like the one about the guy who spit milk out his nose when the girl on your team said she had bigger balls than her partner.”

I smirk, remembering that moment. “Rogue said she had bigger balls than Gambit, and Deere shot milk out his nose at me. That was a good time. It was before Deere was killed.”

“I heard about that, and how the team was disbanded. My papa was a Vietnam veteran. He talked to Julian about his time in service. It was Julian who helped him get medical care for his chemical exposures during the war and got him to see specialists. He knew how much I loved my papa.”

“Did you ever date?” I ask the next question weighing on my mind.

“No. Jude has been my sole focus, him and finishing my degree. Besides, after you, no one could compare. I had an Olympic soccer player who was going to the Cup. How do I top that?” She laughs and rolls to her back again.

“I never went. The sheriff was going to charge me with rape. I was given the choice of prison or the military.”

“That’s what he meant last week when he said he never should have given you a choice.”

“Your dad—” I start, but she huffs. “I mean, Harold really hates me. I don’t know why.”

“I don’t either, but I’m sure the man who attacked me tonight was sent by him.”

“I’ll keep you safe.”

“Okay,” she says, her voice growing quieter.

She sets the ice pack on her nightstand, and soon, her soft snores follow. I should get up and go to the spare bedroom, but instead, I fall asleep next to my angel.

A sound wakes me, and my body goes on alert.

Then I hear it again. A soft moan. I turn toward Amelia and see my angel writhing on the bed, her legs scissoring under the covers.

I can’t stop myself even if I wanted to.

I roll over her body and kiss her cheek.

She moans louder, then her eyes pop open.

“You need something, angel?” Even to my ears, my voice sounds rougher than normal.

She tries to roll away, but I press the lower half of my body onto hers, trapping her, careful not to put any weight on her ribs or chest.

“It’s nothing.” She tries to squirm from under me.

“Angel, if you need something, all you have to do is ask me. I won’t deny you.”

She turns her head toward me. “Please,” she says softly. “I ache so much for you. It’s only ever been you.”

“Thank fuck,” I growl as I rise up and rip the blankets from between us.

Carefully, I slide down her body and pull her shorts and panties off, tossing them over my shoulders to the floor. She moans as I settle between her thighs. I know I shouldn’t, but a part of me won’t let me leave her needy and aching.

I glide my tongue through her folds. Her flavor that somehow I forgot was true nectar bursts across my tongue.

“Fuck, angel. I’m starved,” I tell her before diving in.

My tongue, lips, fingers all get involved. She orgasms right away, but I don’t stop. I take her up two more times before my aching cock demands his time. I rear up and look down at her. I pushed up her top at some point. The glow from the lights outside illuminate her gorgeous tits.

“Remove the shirt,” I demand.

Her sex-hazed eyes blink a couple of times as I rip my shirt off, then unbuckle my jeans. I stand next to the bed and drop my pants to the floor. Then I climb back over her body.

“I want all of you, Luke,” she says, giving me the permission I was waiting for.

I notch my cock at her entrance, but I don’t push in.

“Forever this time, angel. Always and forever.” I demand of her.

“Yes.” She moans, and I thrust in.

Her tight heat wraps around my cock, making my eyes cross. My dreams don’t even compare to this heaven. As soon as I bottom out inside her, I realize I’m not wearing a condom. That damn little devil on my shoulder fist pumps, hoping I get her pregnant again so I can be a part of it this time.

“Angel, I’ve dreamed of being right back here so many times, and it never compared to the reality,” I tell her as I lean over her body before finally taking her lips for the first time in years.

Just like the first time I kissed her as a dumb teenager, my body feels light, my heart thumps hard in my chest, and everything settles again. All the anger and pain fade away.

She moans against my tongue, and her hands are pulling at my hair, trying to get it loose.

Reaching behind me, I untie the leather wrap and let it fall to the bed.

Her hands bury in my hair, and she tips my head where she wants it.

I pull up, and her hands roam my chest, playing with the hair I barely had the last time we were like this.

Her nails dig into my flesh, and I need her deeper.

I need her to never walk away from me again.

I roll us and put her on top of me. She sits up, and my cock goes deeper.

She leans back and moans. Around her neck, I notice a necklace with an oddly shaped pendant.

As she starts to move just like I taught her so many years ago, I play with her breasts, noticing the tattoos along her body.

Then I get a better look at the necklace.

It’s the ring I gave her, mounted on a special pendant so it lays flat on her chest.

“You kept my ring?” I ask as I sit up, lifting the necklace to show her.

Amelia pulls her lip between her teeth and nods.

“You’ve always been the only man for me. I promised you forever, and I was giving it to you.”

Again, I roll us, positioning her under me. “I’m getting you a better ring, and I’m never letting you get away from me again.”

“Please, Luke.”

I know it’s a plea to keep my word this time, and also to finish what I’ve been doing to her body. I pull out and piston back in, hard and deep. She grabs her pillow and pulls it over her head as she moans loud and long.

“Fuck, we are getting a house where our son can’t hear us.”

I continue to move in and out of her in long, deep thrusts.

She finally comes, crying out my name, muffled by the pillow.

I pull it away and take her mouth in a fierce kiss as I piston harder into her.

Then I plant myself deep, unloading all my cum inside her open and ready uterus.

She moans and comes again, her body trembling and rippling along my cock.

Her breathing is heavy, and I hold myself over her.

“This wasn’t a quick fuck to get it out of our systems. This is the start of us again.”

“I’m scared,” she says as tears start to roll down her face.

I wipe them away with my thumbs and press into her more.

“I am too,” I admit before pulling from her body and getting up. I head toward her bathroom.

“Damn it. We forgot a condom. Why, Luke? Why can’t we remember the most important, basic things?”

I shrug and walk back to her with a wet washcloth. “Angel, I’m not wrapping up, and you can’t make me. I get to have a pregnancy with you that I’m part of.”

“If I’d known Julian knew where you were, I would have come to tell you. I didn’t purposely keep him a secret. I didn’t know how to find you. I searched for you every chance I got.”

“That would be Browser’s fault. He erased all the members of our unit from every record. We were never to say we were Americans or identify ourselves. That’s what a forward elite unit does.”

Amelia yawns as I climb back into bed, sliding under the covers. I wrap my naked body around hers and hold her against me. After all these years, I feel like I’m finally home. She’s everything to me.