When I got back to the room, it was to an empty bed. I dropped the duffel and marched to the bathroom.
With a towel wrapped around her naked body, she was gingerly leaning over to turn on the shower.
“You never listen,” I growled.
She spun around and looked at me sheepishly. “I got impatient.” She gripped the towel closer. “And I can manage this.”
I pulled my shirt over my head. “Maybe. But I’m not going to let you.”
Her eyes flashed. “Levi, I’m not in the mood.”
My fingers stopped at the button of my jeans. “Woman, the last thing on my mind is sex. I want to take care of you.”
“I’m perfectly fine. I just got knocked around.”
“You’re pretty banged up.”
“Seriously, Levi, I’m made of sterner stuff. You forget I can take a hard pounding from you.”
Images of me rutting between her legs with headboard-destroying drives flashed through my head.
“Jesus Christ, Kelly,” I grumbled, quickly lowering my zipper over my rapidly hardening cock. “Now is not the time to give me a hard on.”
Her eyes tracked my movements. She was making it difficult to remain clinical. If it wasn’t for her battered face, I’d say she wanted to jump my bones given how her tongue came out to swipe at her lower lip. Her cut lower lip.
She tipped her chin. “Then what do you intend to do with that.”
“It’s my problem. You’re not showering alone. Deal with it.” I stalked toward her.
“I can give you a hand job,” she mumbled.
“What in the hell did Bristow give you?”
“No idea,” she shrugged. “Typical pain killer. I still feel the pain, but I don’t care.”
I kicked off my jeans and my boxer shorts. My mouth twitched when her eyes widened, taking in my erection.
Clearing my throat, I moved past her. “Okay. Come on. Let’s get you in there.” I checked the water temp and adjusted it so it wasn’t too hot.
“Nooo,” she whined.
I glanced at her. “Warm and cold. You don’t want your bruising to get worse. Bristow gave us ice packs.” I nodded to the towel. “You can let go of that now.”
She gave a huff and stripped it off to hang on the hook by the shower door.
While I helped her settle under the spray of water, staying detached was a struggle. My head and emotions were still consumed with rage. I tried not to think about her bruises, because she’d feel my fury in the close confines of the glass enclosure, but when her naked body pressed against my swollen shaft, I couldn’t help groaning into her hair. My go-to method of running through baseball stats to keep the blood in my head and not in my dick went down the drain.
She turned around and pressed her tits against me. “I can feel you.”
I was hard as a rock, but, somehow, I managed to grab the shampoo and started lathering her hair. While she rested her cheek on my chest, her arms wrapped around my torso. “All I could think about was you and the girls,” she whispered. “That I needed to get back to my family.”
Words backed up in my throat. Hope rose inside me. “What are you saying?” She glanced up, smiled, and raised a hand to cup my jaw. Then she turned away from me, leaving me reeling.
She could’ve said she just wanted to get back to the girls and left it at that. I wouldn’t have felt hurt or resentful if she didn’t think of me when she was in captivity. I was prepared for a long road to win her back.
Lust had long abandoned my body. Instead, it was filled with so much more. And as I gently helped Kelly wash away the traces of the night, I realized what I felt was hope, that this time, I’d get my family back and do it right.
Kelly
I woke up to light peeking through the window. It wasn’t the window of my bedroom. Disoriented, I turned my head to the right and immediately regretted it. My whole body, including my face and neck screamed at me. But the sight of my husband’s broad back inked with various Nordic symbols was a welcome sight. His right arm was cocked at an angle and a Spartan helmet tattooed on his bicep with the words “with it or on it” was on full display. A bittersweet smile touched my lips. Callum had the same tattoo. It was from the movie 300 where the laconic phrase meant to come back with your shield in victory, or die on it if defeated. That movie was iconic with the SEALs.
The events last night came filtering back. It was almost as though I dreamed it. Was it real? I couldn’t believe I was kidnapped, beaten, and rescued.
I shifted on my elbow and let my gaze enjoy the line of my husband’s back that led to his muscular butt. He was wearing boxer shorts now, but before our girls got into the habit of visiting us early in the morning, he slept in the raw.
I sighed wistfully. Was it only yesterday morning we’d woken up together?
“I can feel you admiring my ass,” an amused gravelly voice said.
“It’s a very fine ass.”
“The front is better.” He slowly shifted onto his back, casually folding his arms and putting them under his head as though he were a sultan about to be serviced by a harem.
I rolled my eyes and scooted away so I could see him better. “Thanks for taking care of me.”
“It was my pleasure, beautiful.”
It took all my willpower not to touch my face, because I knew my husband enough that it would destroy his mood to be reminded that he hadn’t protected me from Blaze. He would always be a protector. And given how he and the kids were first in my mind yesterday when I thought I would die, he had always been the one. We just lost our way and let our issues come between us.
“So, I fell asleep on you last night,” I said.
“You had a horrific day.” His sleep-roughened voice was incredibly sexy. I didn’t know why I was love-doped over my husband when I couldn’t have sexy times with him in the state I was in. Well, maybe I could, but … stop! Obviously it had been a while since I woke up in bed with a man. Yesterday morning didn’t count because the kids interrupted.
“We didn’t have our talk about … us,” I said. Funny how I wanted more than ever to put the decision behind us. What happened yesterday was an eye-opener about what was important.
“No, we didn’t.” His eyes grew hooded. “Could you give me a hint which direction you’re heading?”
“Whether it’s divorce or reconciliation?” I asked. At his scowl, I quickly added, “I think we should give our marriage another chance.”
A broad smile transformed his face. He sat up on the bed and leaned against the headboard. “This is progress.”
I laughed lightly. “Tell me about it.” Then my face turned serious. “I’m scared and I’m still working through my abandonment issues. I felt like a single parent even when you were home and whenever you disappeared without a word—”
“I fucked up last year,” he cut me off abruptly. “When I went and rescued Garrison and Bristow’s asses and didn’t tell you I was leaving for Ukraine. That won’t happen again. And, if it’s classified, I’ll just tell you it is.”
“Thank you.” He’d been good about it since that happened, and I’d stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop. It took our separation for him to see what he’d been missing out on with Ashley, and he accomplished that goal beautifully with the tenacity I knew he was capable of. “You’ve done a great job with Ash. You’re her favorite person now. Sometimes I get jealous.”
“It’s because I let her get away with a lot of things,” he puffed a short laugh. His sheepishness was adorable although adorable was the wrong word to use. Hot. He was hot.
“No, the turning point was when you danced with her after she messed up at that recital.”
Levi’s face turned fierce at the memory. “When your little girl is miserable and she asks you to wear that pink tutu, I don’t care if you’re a badass SEAL or a ruthless mercenary, you fucking wear that tutu and put that smile back on her face.”
I stared at him, taken aback by the emotion and conviction evident in that declaration. It was a foregone conclusion that I’d never fallen out of love with the man. I might have fallen deeper.
A knock on the door interrupted our heart-to-heart.
I panicked and touched the side of my face. “Shit.”
He jumped out of bed. “I’ll take care of them. Do whatever you need to do.”
