Protector #5 (A Navy SEAL Military Romance) (5 page)

“Didn’t she see what was going on with your
parents?” Brian asked.

“Of course she did,” I replied. “That’s why
she spent so much time with me. She knew I was lost and lonely, and that I had
no idea why my parents ignored me.”

“But couldn’t she have said something to
your father?” he asked.

“Oh, she did,” I said as I shook my head
recalling all the times my grandmother had confronted my father about his
neglectful parenting. “She was merciless in her critique of his failure as a
parent.”

Brian nodded as if he understood what I was
explaining. I told him about the frequent fights between my father and my
grandmother, and the way in which she berated him and made him seem small and
weak. I was never sure if he knew I’d heard the abuse, but I was fairly certain
she’d known that I had often been lurking outside the sitting room where they
had their conversations. She was cruel and spiteful, and she said some incredibly
awful things to him and about him.

“I never quite understood why,” I said
remembering the last time they’d fought. “My grandmother was so incredibly kind
to me and she had the biggest heart in the world. It always seemed so odd that
she could love me so much and hate my father with such intensity. Or at least I
thought she hated him, but then I was fourteen, what did I know?”

“Yeah, it’s hard to understand that stuff
when you have no frame of reference or history,” he agreed. I stopped and
looked at him carefully. He knew something. What that something was, I didn’t
know, but I was going to find out.

“The last fight they’d ever had was right
before my grandmother was to take me to Europe,” I recalled. “My father showed
up to bring my passport and be supportive, I think. My grandmother lit into him
before they’d even closed the door. She dressed him down for being inattentive,
and then scolded him for not bringing my mother with him to wish me a good
trip. She knew that my mother wasn’t well and that she’d been hospitalized yet
again, but she couldn’t help but poke at my father’s wound.”

I explained how my father tried to defend
himself by explaining what had happened to my mother, but my grandmother had
coldly cut him off with a “You’re just like your father; good for nothing,” and
then stormed out of the drawing room. She saw me there listening and for a
moment I saw a look of pain cross her face before she rushed upstairs. She
spent the next two days in her room, and on the third day, she emerged with her
hair and makeup perfectly done and announced that we’d be leaving for New York
that afternoon. We hadn’t been scheduled to travel until the end of the week,
but she had decided it was better to get to the city and wait for our flight.

 
I
described how we’d spent several days in New York City shopping and eating and
having a grand time, but that every time I looked at my grandmother, she seemed
sad. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but at fourteen I still had a healthy
respect for adults and she’d been my manners coach, so I didn’t dare ask.

“I loved my grandmother more than anyone in
the world, but she was…” I trailed off.

“She sounds like she was troubled,” Brian
interjected.

“Yeah, troubled is a good word for it,” I
affirmed. I looked over at him, I’d been talking for what felt like hours and
he looked ready to drift off into a comfortable food coma. I laughed. “Do you
need to get to bed?”

“Who me?” he asked in a sleepy voice. “I’m
not tired at all! I could party all night.”

“Sure, sure, big man,” I laughed. “Do you
want to share the bed with me? It’s more comfortable than the couch, I think.”

“Why Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce
me?” he joked.

“Oh get real, I’m just being nice,” I said
laughing that he was using a line from a 1970s movie on me, a younger woman.
“We can share.”

“Yeah, that would be nice, if you don’t
mind,” he said more seriously as he yawned and stretched. “My back is killing
me and that couch is not made for guys my height.”

I felt guilty that I’d made him spend so
many nights on the couch, but I’d had to in order to gain some kind of distance
from him. Tonight would be different, we’d get a good night’s sleep and figure
out the game plan in the morning. I smiled as I walked to the bedroom and
changed into my pajamas as Brian set up the security system for the night.

*****

We slept soundly that night and woke up
wrapped in each other’s arms the next morning. I woke first and lay next to
Brian watching him sleep. He hadn’t had a night terror in a few days, and the
look on his face was one of complete peace. I lay my head on his chest and
listened to the sound of his heart beating slow and steady as he breathed in
and out. It was meditative and I drifted into a peaceful place between sleep
and awake, so it was a few minutes before I realized that he’d woken up and was
gently stroking my hair.

“Morning,” I said as I looked up at him and
smiled. He gave me a sleepy morning smile and then tightened his arm around me.

“Morning, beautiful girl,” he whispered into
my hair. I shivered as I felt his fingers move from my hair to my cheek and
begin to trace a light path from my forehead to my chin. I lifted my hand and
placed it over the top of his as he stroked my face loving the feel of touching
him as he touched me. Slowly he traced his finger down my cheek until he could
rest them beneath my chin and tip my face up toward his.

We lay gazing into each other’s eyes for a
long time before he dipped his head and brushed his lips across mine. I let out
a soft moan as I felt his lips pressing against mine and the soft tip of his
tongue lightly licking my upper lip. He ran his fingers through my hair as he
lazily teased my lips.

I could feel the blood coursing through my
veins as I gripped his hand and returned his kisses. I arched my back to press
my body against his and felt his hand move to the small of my back where he
played with the hem of my tank top before sliding underneath it and stroking my
skin. I gasped as I felt his hand on my bare skin and pressed my lips more
insistently against his. He pulled back just enough to keep the kisses light
and teasing, and I groaned. I wanted so much more than this morning tease and I
could already tell he did, too, as I felt his thick shaft pressed against my
thigh as it swelled and grew harder.

I smiled when he sighed deeply, and opened
my eyes to look directly into his. In an instant, I knew he had ceded control
and I shifted so that I could sit up and look down at him as I slipped my hand
into his boxers and grasped his cock. His eyes widened as I began slowly moving
my hand up and down, then withdrawing my hand I held his gaze as I brought it
up to my mouth and ran it across my tongue several times coating it in my
saliva before slipping it back under his boxers and stroking more insistently
now.

“Oh God,” he groaned as my slippery hand
slid up and down over and over.

“No, not God, just me,” I whispered in his
ear seconds before I let go of his cock and yanked his boxers down. Brian
watched me as I quickly slipped out of my pajamas and straddled his abdomen.

“Oh shit,” he whispered in awe. “You are
incredibly beautiful and unbelievably sexy.”

“Well, thank you,” I smiled as I gripped his
upper arms and began sliding myself down his body so that his cock was
positioned between my outer lips, then I began slowly moving back and forth as
I coated his cock with the wetness that was already freely flowing from between
my legs. Brian held
is
breath as he felt me using him
as a tool of masturbation, but I wasn’t letting him off that easily or that
quickly.

I reached down between my legs and grabbed
ahold of his rock hard shaft and teased my clit a little as I bent down and
kissed him deeply. That forced a moan from Brian’s lips as he looked up at me
with eyes full of desire and need.

“You want it, don’t you?” I whispered into
his lips.

“God, yes,” he groaned. “I’ve never wanted
anything more!”

“
Mmmmm
,” I
murmured as I continued my teasing. “Maybe I should give it to you, then?”

“Yes, Ava, please! Please!” he begged as he
pushed his hips up looking for a way inside my warm wet pussy.

I smiled as I firmly gripped his cock,
guided it to the edge of my needy entry and then slid down fast and hard. Brian
gasped as he felt me envelope the length of his cock in one swift stroke, and
then lay still as I began to rock back and forth on it. I could feel the tip
pressing against my g-spot as I moved my hips and I pressed my hands against
his chest to give myself better leverage. Brian did his best to resist slamming
his hips upward, but he couldn’t stop himself from giving in to the small
upward thrusts that quickly began to push me to the edge of orgasm. With my
hand between my legs, stroking my clit, I rocked back and forth feeling his thickness
filling me.

I leaned forward and kissed him just as I
reached the point of no return, and whispered “Yes,” into his lips.

Brian reached around me and grabbed my ass
so that he could thrust hard and deep as I came hard on his cock. I cried out
as he slammed into to me once, twice, three times and then let out a deep moan
that came from somewhere deep inside him as he stayed buried inside me as he
released all the tension and need that had built up throughout the week.

 
After
we’d both returned to earth, we lay still connected on the bed, me on top and
him underneath, just holding each other. I wanted to tell him how much I’d
missed this, but instead I lifted my head and kissed his lips softly; hoping
that he’d understand.
 

*****

We
lay tangled up in each other for a long time, and then
in a moment of impulsiveness, I said, “Tell me about your family. What are your
parents like? I haven’t seen you calling them any more frequently than I’ve
called mine now that I think about it.”

“That’s different,” he said quietly.
“There’s a reason for it. It’s just…complicated.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sorry,” I said sarcastically.
“My family dynamic is so simplistic and basic that I forgot that other people’s
families are really complex.”

“Ava, don’t,” he cautioned. “That’s not what
I meant.”

“Sure it is,” I said. “That’s exactly what
you meant, and I resent it.”

“Ava, don’t ruin this, please?” he sighed
heavily.

“I’m not ruining it,” I retorted. “I’m
asking you a personal question that you are refusing to answer. I’ve told you
everything about my life. Everything about my parents, about my grandmother,
about my relationship with Dominic, and now I’m asking you to reciprocate.”

Brian sighed again as he pulled me closer
and played with my hair. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he was thinking
about what I’d said. After a few minutes I felt him shift, then grab my arms
and slide me off of him onto the bed next to him so that he could prop his head
on his bent arm and run his hand over my naked body as he spoke.

“My family is messed up, I’m going to warn
you in advance,” he said warily. When I nodded solemnly, he continued. “My
father died when I was a baby. My mother never actually told me what happened,
but there were rumors that spread around town and I heard them all. Some said
he jumped off the water tower in the middle of town on a dare while drunk, and
some said he smashed his car into a brick wall while driving drunk. You get the
picture…my dad was a drunk.”

I reached out and held his hand for a moment
without saying a word. Brian nodded slightly and continued, “My mom and I were
alone for what felt like a really long time, but it was really only about three
or four years. She waited tables at a local diner, and neighbors took care of
me while she was at work. It wasn’t bad, and I don’t remember us having any big
problems, but then I was what, four?” He laughed a little and I smiled up at
him as he remembered.

“Then one day my mom came home and said I
was going to have a new dad. Two days later, Will moved in. He was a tall guy,
a former Army sergeant who loved order and rules, and his guns. God, the man
loved his guns more than anything on earth. They scared the hell out of my
mother, but Will told her not to be such a
fraidy
cat
and took her out to the range to learn to shoot. She did it a few times, but
she always came back swearing she’d never hold another gun again. Will was nice
to me, he took me fishing and camping, and played ball with me, but about a
year after he moved in, my mom gave birth to my sister and nothing was ever the
same again. The sun rose and set on Claudia, and she was the cutest baby ever.
I loved having a little sister, she was sunshine and love.” He stopped for a
moment and bowed his head so that I couldn’t see his face. When he looked up
again, it was obvious that there was a lot of deep emotion buried beneath the
surface. I lay quietly as Brian continued to trace patterns on my naked skin
and after a minute or two, he continued speaking.

“I was twelve the year that Claudia turned
six, and we threw a huge party for her in our backyard. Balloons, cake, games,
the whole nine yards. There were at least fifty kids at the party, and at some
point we lost track of where Claudia was. Will told me to find her and bring
her back to the party. None of us was worried because Claudia had a habit of
drifting off and finding adventure or a new friend, but in our town that wasn’t
dangerous. Everyone knew who we were and someone always brought Claudia back
home safe and sound. I scoured the entire block, but I couldn’t find her
anywhere, so I headed back to the house to see if she’d come home before I
expanded my search area. As I was headed up the front walk, I heard an
incredibly loud bang. I turned to see if Butch Jackson was backing his hot rod
out of the driveway across the street, but saw nothing, then I realized that
the bang had come from inside our house. I tore up the stairs, ripped open the
screen and ran back to my mom and Will’s bedroom…”