Patriotic Duty (15 page)
Authors: C.J. Pinard
He smiled slightly at me.
“I’m yours as long as you’ll have me.”
I put my hand on the back
of his neck and pulled him back down to me, kissing him again. I slid my hands
up on his scarred chest and over his scarred shoulder. Grabbing my T-shirt, he
pulled it off and threw it to the floor, where it landed on top of my leather
jacket. He lightly kissed my collarbone and the valley between my breasts and
murmured, “Cara, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you.”
My bra was next. He
unhooked it, black satin and lace fluttering to the floor in the most
disgraceful way possible.
I ran kisses up his neck
and unsnapped his jeans with vigor and urgency, and as soon as the zipper was
down, he slid out of them and pushed me back down onto his bed. Pinning both
hands over my head, he rubbed his bare body on mine and I moaned at the feel of
his hard chest against mine. I wrapped my arms around his back and rubbed
gentle fingers over the warm, hard muscles there.
Peeling off the boxer
briefs, he ran his hard length against me and then his fingers found my most
intimate core.
“Oh, Riley… oh,
please
…”
“How bad do you want me?”
he breathed into my ear.
I was about to peak from what
has doing with his talented and tender fingers when he stopped.
“Please, Riley, I want
you. Please, now, I’ve missed you so much,” I said, kissing him again.
He eased himself into me
and I cried out as he groaned into my ear.
“My
God.
I’ve missed you, too, Cara.
So
much.”
After just a few strokes I
was crying out his name and digging my fingers in the flesh of his back. He
also didn’t last long and found his pleasure with a breathy groan, his arm
still wrapped around me, his face buried in my neck.
We lay like that, kissing
and caressing for what seemed like hours until he rolled onto his back and
pulled the sheets up over us.
I propped myself up on my
elbow and traced my finger along his chest as he stared up at me. I found his
white Stetson cowboy hat on the nightstand and I put it on my head.
He looked at the hat and
grinned, but I just continued to stare at him.
“I have a question,” he
said.
“What?”
He looked at the hat
again. “Where is my 49ers hat?”
“I hocked it on eBay,” I
said seriously.
His expression dropped. “You
didn’t.”
I couldn’t keep a straight
face. “I’m joking. I still have it, I was
gonna
save
it for Aiden but I guess you can have it.”
He laughed. “No, Aiden can
have it. I’ll just borrow it ‘til he can fit in it.”
“Now I have a question,” I
said, staring into the deep depths of his eyes.
“What’s that?”
I stroked my fingers along
his arm. “Are you still in the Army?”
He nodded. “Yes. They
wanted to discharge me, but I fought it and they let me stay. Unfortunately,
I’ll be doing desk duty for a while, but at least I’m still in.”
I looked a little
confused. “What do you mean ‘unfortunately’? That sounds way better than going
back to the sandbox.”
He sat up on his elbows
and his eyes bored into mine as he spoke. “Cara, I’m a soldier, it’s what we
do. I signed my life over to the Army. It’s all I know. I’m in for life,
beautiful. Can you handle that?”
I stared at the scarring
of his face again, taking in every groove and ripple that had so cruelly taken
away his perfect features and realization dawned on me just then. Of course he
wanted to stay in. He had sacrificed so much for them, he probably felt like
the military was a part of him now. He had done his patriotic duty, and I could
tell he was too proud to just leave it behind and go work as a civilian.
I nodded. “I don’t care,
Riley.
As long as we’re together.”
His eyes looked into mine
once more. “Are you sure?
Because I’m going to be stationed
somewhere else in about a year.
Can you handle moving again?”
“As long as they have a
prison where I can work, I don’t care where we go.”
I thought about how my
mother would kill me dead when she found out, since she was moving to Colorado
in the spring. I would cross that bridge when I came to it, though.
Riley got up and pulled
his boxer briefs on, and from the faint light from the window, I could see the
scars extended his entire body, the outside of the left leg, from the foot to
the top of his head, not one part of his body was left unscathed from the cruel
roadside bomb.
He turned and pulled
something out of his dresser drawer and came to sit on the edge of the bed. I
sat up, taking the sheet with me and looked at him. He held open his hand and I
saw a small velvet bag with a drawstring on his palm.
I smiled.
“More jewelry?”
I went to grab it and he yanked it away with
a smile. “You sure you can commit to this life?”
I looked a little confused
and said with a grin, “Did I stutter a few minutes ago? I said I’m in. Now give
me the goods,” I pointed at the shiny velvet bag, hoping it was another
necklace or maybe a bracelet.
He slowly opened it and
pulled out a beautiful white-gold princess cut diamond ring, slipping it on my
finger.
“Cara Reid. Marry me.
Please?”
With my mouth open in pure
shock, I looked down at the ring. “I thought you said you just
thought
about buying me a ring when you
were overseas.”
He chuckled. “More lies.”
“Why didn’t you return
it?”
“I couldn’t,” he
whispered. “I just couldn’t.”
I stared at the beautiful
ring and was speechless. Tears once again dripped out of my eyes.
“You didn’t answer my
question,” he chastised.
I nodded. “Yes, Riley. Of
course I’ll marry you!”
He tossed the bag over his
shoulder and smiled at me. Pushing me back on the bed, he kissed me once again.
We lay like that for a good solid hour, touching, kissing, and making up for
lost time.
Love was funny like that.
I suppose when you find the one you’re meant to be with, nothing will stand in
your way. Not miles or distance, not war or tragedy or scars or bad luck. If
two souls are meant to be together, they will find a way. And I had found mine.
By the grace of God, and the undying love of two people who refused to give up
and try to love anyone else, we found a way. Riley wasn’t broken or damaged, he
was just perfect and I would be proud to be seen with him. His sacrifice was
nothing anyone could judge, and I was excited that I would soon call myself a
military wife.
THE END
Partial
proceeds of this book will go to the Wounded Warrior Foundation. God bless our
military!
Song List:
Alone With You – Jake Owen
The Dance – Garth Brooks
Second Chance –
Shinedown
Want To – Sugarland
Do I – Luke Bryan
What Mattered Most – Ty Herndon
The Thunder Rolls – Garth Brooks
Shameless – Garth Brooks
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye – Luke Bryan
Felt Good on My Lips – Tim McGraw
Breathe – Faith Hill
Stay – Sugarland
Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
Some Nights – Fun
Amazed –
Lonestar
Let Her Go – Passenger
What Hurts the Most – Rascal
Flatts
Stay –
Rhianna
(feat.
Mikky
Ekko
)
Colder Weather – The
Zac
Brown Band
T.R.O.U.B.L.E. – Travis
Tritt
Against All Odds – Phil Collins
He Didn’t Have to Be – Brad Paisley
How do I Live? – Trisha Yearwood
Breakeven – The Script
Make You Feel Wanted – Hunter Hayes
I
Wanna
Talk About Me – Toby Keith
OTHER
BOOKS BY C.J. PINARD:
Enchanted Immortals (Book #1)
Enchanted Immortals 2: The Vortex
Enchanted Immortals 3: The Vampyre
Enchanted Immortals 4: The Vixen
Three of a Kind: Tales of Luck, Chance &
Misfortune (“Leprechaun” – short story) FREE on Amazon and everywhere.
Summer Sizzle: Stories of Love, Lust, and Passion
(“Whose Bed Have Your (Combat) Boots Been Under?”
– short
story) FREE on Amazon and everywhere.
Coming
soon:
Unscathed (A contemporary romance collaboration
with Tim O’Rourke)
Beneath
Broken
(contemporary romance)
BSI: Bureau of Supernatural Investigation
(paranormal novella)
Soul Rebel (paranormal romance)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
I am a west coast native who currently lives in
sunny Florida USA with my family. Coming from a family of writers and editors,
I feel writing is in my blood and hope people will lose themselves for a little
while in the fantasy and fun of my stories. I love to invoke emotion and
laughter in people.
I also love getting notifications that people
have sent me an email, added me on Facebook, or on
Goodreads
,
so stop by and say hi - don't be shy! I'm not! :)