Second Chance SEAL: A Bad Boy Military Romance (4 page)

P
iper was fucking insatiable
. Which was good, since I wasn’t going to go easy on her.

That night, we fucked and sucked each other until we both collapsed from exhaustion. I couldn’t remember the last time I came that much in a single night, but the girl sucked me fucking dry with that perfect mouth and tight little cunt.

We fell asleep together, wrapped in sweaty sheets, spent and exhausted. I had no clue how long we fucked, but it was very late by the time we finished.

Early morning light streamed in through the window. I snuck out of bed and went into the bathroom. I washed my face and brushed my teeth, looking at myself in the mirror.

The night before had been incredible, and Piper was amazing. But I knew I couldn’t get involved with someone, not yet at least. Not with my job still hanging over my head.

I was a Navy SEAL. The government owned my ass. I went where they told me, when they told me. I was lucky to get some time off, but I knew that time was quickly coming to an end.

In a few days, I was supposed to report to my base in Virginia, and from there I was shipping out to Syria.

I had no clue how long I was going to be overseas. It could be a few months, or it could be a few years. Piper didn’t know, hell, nobody really knew. I was keeping this to myself. I’d done enough tours of duty, and a lot of guys in my position would have retired from active duty already.

But I couldn’t imagine giving it up. I lived for the battlefield. It was the only place where I felt alive, felt right. I needed the feel of metal in my hands as I hunted down America’s enemies and destroyed them. That was what I was trained to do, and it was what I did very, very well.

I wasn’t supposed to get attached to anyone when I was home. And truthfully, I barely knew Piper, but I could already feel something tugging me toward her. I’d never felt something like it before, and didn’t know what it meant. But I knew that I wasn’t going to be staying around for long, and I couldn’t risk letting things go to far.

“Good morning.”

I looked up. Piper smiled at me. She was wearing my dress shirt from the night before.

“Morning,” I said.

“Last night was . . . “

“Yeah,” I said. “I know.”

“We need to get down for the breakfast. I should get going.”

“Okay.”

“See you later?”

I nodded. “Sure.”

She smiled and went back into the main room. She got changed back into her dress and then left.

I sat back down on the bed and breathed in the smell of sweat and sex. The memory of the night before came tumbling back through me, and I was practically hard already just thinking about Piper.

She was something fucking special. I’d never been with someone like her before.

I stared at the door and could see myself wanting more, needing more.

That was exactly what I couldn’t risk.

“Fuck,” I said out loud to myself softly.

Fucking Syria. I shouldn’t have done that last night, shouldn’t have let myself feel something like that. SEALs weren’t supposed to get close to anyone, since we could be called on to die at any moment. I was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for my country, but I didn’t know if it was fair to ask someone else to be involved with a man like that.

I stood up and automatically began to pack. I didn’t have much to put away, since everything I carried fit inside of my field pack. I was trained to pack light and fast, which I did. Once I was dressed and everything was tucked neatly into the bag, I stood there, surveying the room.

I knew that I was expected at breakfast. I looked down at my watch and shook my head.

Another time, maybe.

I quickly left the room, getting away from the smell of Piper that still lingered in the air. I grabbed a cab out front and it drove me out to the airport.

I stood in line at security and let my mind wander. I only had a few days before I had to ship out, which meant it just wasn’t worth trying to see Piper again. Besides, we didn’t even live in the same city.

I shook my head, trying to get rid of those thoughts. I didn’t know why I kept thinking about her. It didn’t matter. We had one night together, just a one-night stand. I’d never left a woman like this before and wanted more, and yet there I was, still daydreaming about Piper.

I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. Maybe she was angry that I skipped breakfast and disappeared, or maybe she didn’t care. I had no clue if she saw it as just another one-night stand, or if she wanted to see me again.

It didn’t matter. I didn’t fucking matter. I was going to war. I had to forget about this fucking girl and move on with my life. I couldn’t afford to be distracted, not when my job was so demanding.

Soon, I was through security and I found myself sitting at the terminal, flipping through my phone. My flight wasn’t for another couple hours, and so I had plenty of time to kill.

And plenty of time to think.

I leaned back in my plastic padded chair and sighed. I was going to keep obsessing about seeing this girl again. I just fucking knew it.

I might as well do something about it.

I found the hotel’s phone number on their website and called the front desk.

“Hello, how may I help you?”

“I’m looking for a guest that’s staying with you.” I paused, realizing that I didn’t know her last name. “She’s there for a wedding. Her name is Piper.”

“Last name?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t have it.”

There was a pause. “One moment.” I heard her typing. “We have a Piper Bowers here.”

“That’ll work.”

“I’ll put you through.”

There was a pause and then the line began to ring again.

It rang and rang. I was about to hang up, figuring she was still at breakfast, when suddenly someone grabbed the phone.

“Hello?” she asked, breathless.

It was her. It was Piper. “Hey,” I said.

She paused. “Gates?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Oh. Why weren’t you at breakfast?”

“Had to get going.”

“Oh.” I heard the disappointment in her voice. “Well, okay.”

“Maybe this is crazy, but in my line of work, you can’t afford not to just go for what you want.”

“Okay,” she said, sounding a little surprised. “What do you want to say?”

“I want to see you again.”

“I’d like that.”

“But I can’t,” I went on. “I’m shipping out to Syria in a few days. I’ll be gone for a while, probably.”

“I see.” She sounded disappointed. “I understand, I guess.”

“I don’t know why I felt like I needed to tell you that, but there it is.”

“Can I write to you?”

“You can,” I said. “I might not be able to write back.”

“That’s okay.”

“Good. Write to me if you want. Otherwise, good luck with life, Pipes.”

“Yeah. Okay. You too, Gates.”

I paused, wanting to tell her how I couldn’t get her out of my head, but instead I hung up.

Closure. That was what I needed. I couldn’t say why, but I needed closure from that one-night stand. I knew that if I let it, that night could become much more. Piper could become much more.

I wouldn’t let it. Not while I was about to deploy.

I had to focus now. This thing with Piper is finished. I allowed myself one second of weakness, but no more.

I was a soldier, a SEAL. I was a trained killer shipping out to fight.

No more distractions. I couldn’t afford it.

I
stretched
up toward the top of the cabinet, up on my tippy-toes, fingers straining to grab the jar. I managed to slide it inches, inches, but I couldn’t get my hand around it. I made a quick hop, knocked the jar, set it wobbling, and watched as it slowly dropped from the shelf.

And then he was there, another pair of hands. He grabbed the jar before it hit the ground.

“Tony,” I said, surprised.

He looked at me and smiled. “Careful.”

“Sorry.”

He handed me the jar of organic peanut butter. “This stuff is gross, you know. I hate that you have to stir it.”

“It’s better for you.” I took it from him and gave him a quick kiss. “Now go get dressed.”

He nodded and grumbled. “Yeah, okay.”

“We’re leaving in a half hour.”

“I know, I know.”

“We can’t be late. Lauren and Greg have been good to me over the years.”

“Yeah, babe. I get it.”

I sighed. Tony was a decent guy. He owned a night club downtown, and we met through the TV station that I worked for. He was promoting his place and I was reading the weather, and it was love at first sight.

Well, not really. Frankly, I didn’t like Tony the first time we met, but he eventually grew on me. We started dating about six months ago, and only just moved in together recently.

Tony wasn’t the man of my dreams, but he was nice enough. Lauren didn’t approve of him, but she could be so picky sometimes. It was hard to live up to her standards, and besides, she didn’t have to approve. Tony was my boyfriend, not hers.

I finished making the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread and put everything back before sitting at the kitchen table and eating. I looked at my phone and Tony was still in the bedroom although we had to leave in ten minutes.

“Tony,” I called. “Are you almost ready?”

“Yeah, babe. Whatever.”

I sighed. “We’re leaving in ten minutes.”

“I know, okay? I get it.”

Tony had a temper and was always late. I had to constantly be on his ass, or else we never would get anywhere on time. That was a big stress in our relationship. I tried to work around him, but sometimes he was just impossible.

I finished eating and put on my strappy sandals. I walked back into the bedroom and found Tony standing near the dresser in his underwear.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“What about these pants?” He held up some chinos.

“Tony, they’re great. Put them on. Come on, we’re going to be late.”

“Don’t nag,” he said. “We’ll get there. Relax.”

“You know there’s always traffic.”

“Sure, babe. Sure. I’m going.”

I sighed and left the room. I sat down in front of the television and stared at it absently. There was a commercial for the Navy on, and I frowned.

It reminded me of Gates. I hadn’t thought about him in almost a year, but suddenly that night came rushing back to me. The intense attraction, the amazing feelings. I remembered it all so vividly.

I also remembered writing to him. I remembered hearing nothing, even after a few letters. I stopped writing because I felt totally crazy. We barely knew each other. We had that one intense night of passion, but that was all. The phone call the next morning sounded like he wanted something more, but it didn’t matter. He disappeared to Syria, and that was that.

I did nothing wrong. I didn’t feel bad. But every time I heard something about the armed forces, I couldn’t help but remember Gates. At least up until I met Tony and we started dating.

But watching that commercial made me remember that weekend. Probably also since we were going to Lauren and Greg’s housewarming party, and Gates was Greg’s best friend. I hadn’t heard anything about Gates from them, and I didn’t ask. I figured if something happened, they’d tell me. No news was good news, and I’d rather not know anything else.

“Okay,” Tony said, emerging from the bedroom ten minutes later. “Let’s roll.”

I stood and we headed out of our apartment. We found where he parked his black Lexus and climbed in, heading out into New York traffic.

Lauren and Greg bought a house out in Connecticut, in the suburbs. It was actually really close to the city, but the traffic made the drive take forever. Lauren used the train to commute to work every day, and Greg worked at a local VFW. They were renting for a while, but when Lauren got pregnant she decided that they needed to get a house. As soon as that baby popped out, they bought, and the rest was history.

The drive ended up taking ten minutes longer than anticipated, which meant we were twenty minutes late. I was pretty pissed with Tony as we pulled up, but I tried not to let it show.

“Be nice in there,” I said to him as we walked up the front steps. “I know you don’t love these guys.”

“I’m always nice, babe,” he said, although I distinctly remembered him and Greg nearly getting in a drunken fist fight two months ago over some stupid sports argument.

Lauren answered the door, a big smile plastered on her face. “Sweetie!” she said, and we hugged. “Pipes, how long has it been?”

“Two weeks,” I said, laughing.

“God, really? Feels like forever.”

“I know, right.”

“Hi, Tony,” she said.

“Hey, beautiful girl. Lovely house.” Tony kissed her on the cheek.

“Come in, you two,” she said. She ushered us inside.

The place was a lovely little cape cod. Lauren had amazing taste, and so the whole place was this chic nautical theme, all reclaimed wood and boats and brass. She had a nice little spread for the guests, plus lots of beer. Tony disappeared almost immediately, drink in hand, and I let him go. I didn’t need him to hang around me all day.

“Come on,” Lauren said. “Wait until you see the back yard.”

“How’s it feel to own a house?”

“Weird,” she said. “It’s a lot of responsibility. And stress.”

I laughed. “I bet.”

“There’s so much that can go wrong. Houses are like basically silent killers.”

I laughed again as she led me out through the kitchen and back into the yard.

Lots of people were milling about, and I didn’t recognize most of them. Lauren and Greg were both very outgoing people, so they made a ton of friends easily. I worked too hard to make a lot of friends, so I didn’t know most of the people there that afternoon.

The back yard was beautiful, spacious and gorgeous. They had a little deck, and Greg was there near the grill, talking to some tall guy that had his back turned to me.

“Greg,” Lauren said. “Pipes is here.”

“Piper!” Greg turned to me. “Good to see you.”

That was when his tall friend turned toward me, and I felt like time stopped.

Gates smiled at me. I remembered that smile, that handsome as hell smile. It was just as cocky and confident as I remembered, but there was something else to him. There was a new scar along his chin and a heaviness to his eyes, like he was tired or something. In that instant, I suddenly knew that he was the same man that I remembered, but he had seen some things that had changed him. I didn’t know how I knew that, but it was there n his face.

“Hey, Piper,” Gates said.

“Piper, you remember Gates,” Greg said. “You two met at the wedding.”

“I remember,” I said. “Hi, Gates.”

He smirked at me, and I didn’t know what else to say. I wanted to ask him if he got my letters and why he disappeared. I wanted to know how long he’d been home and why he never looked me up. I had a million questions.

But in the end, he was just a one-night stand. He owed me nothing.

“Well,” Lauren said. “Let’s continue the tour?”

“Sure,” I mumbled.

“It’s good to see you again, Pipes,” Gates said to me.

“You too.”

Lauren quickly moved the two of us away.

“Did you see how he was looking at you?” Lauren whispered, laughing. “Oh my god. It was like he wanted to throw you down and ravish you right there.”

“Yeah,” I said weakly, confused and surprised.

“Imagine if Tony saw that. He’d flip.”

“Probably.” Then I blinked. “Where is Tony, anyway?”

“Who knows?” Lauren steered me back inside.

As we headed into the kitchen, Tony came up to us. He had a serious look on his face.

“Listen, babe,” he said. “I gotta go.”

“What?” I asked. “We literally just got here.”

“I know. I know. It’s just, it’s business. I gotta go.”

“The club?”

“Yeah, my job. It’s really important.”

“You drove here.”

“I know. I gotta go, though.”

“I can drive you back,” Lauren said. “Or there’s the train. You don’t have to leave.”

I frowned at Tony. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sorry, babe. It’s an emergency.”

“Okay,” I said, sighing. “Go. I’ll get back on my own.”

“You sure? I can drop you off back home.”

“No, I’m sure.”

“You’re the best, babe. Sorry.” He kissed me on the cheek and then quickly walked out of the room.

“Does he do that a lot?” Lauren asked me.

“Yeah,” I said. “His business is stressful. It’s a tough job, you know?”

“I know,” Lauren said, but I didn’t hear the edge to her voice.

I was too busy thinking about Gates.

I couldn’t believe that he was standing just behind me, right back in the yard. I could turn around and actually see him. He was real, not a figment of my imagination like he felt so many times over the last two years.

Gates had been just one night, but that night loomed large in my mind. Even when I wasn’t thinking about him, that night was still somehow in my mind. Every night since was compared to that night, and they were always lacking somehow. I never reached that sort of intense joy and pleasure that I managed to get to with Gates, not even with Tony. Nothing else compared.

And now he was back. I thought that I would be disappointed if I ever saw Gates again, but I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, he was more handsome than I remembered. Maybe it was the extra weight to his eyes, the intense mystery hidden there, but somehow I found myself even more intensely attracted to him than ever before. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that I was with Tony.

I couldn’t just turn around and throw myself at Gates. That would be pretty inappropriate.

But I really, really wanted to.

It was crazy. I really wasn’t that kind of girl. I barely dated until I met Tony, since I was way too busy with work. But now all of a sudden with Gates back, I found myself feeling like a teenager again. It was stupid and I knew it.

“Come on,” Lauren said, pulling me out of my daydream. “Let’s go see baby Joey. He’s with his grandmom.”

“Oh, yeah. Your kid.”

She laughed. “Yeah, my kid.”

“Lead the way, mama.”

She laughed again and we headed into the other room, into a world of babies and little socks and dirty diapers.

But even while I was holding Joey and laughing at a story about him peeing all over Greg’s record collection, I just kept thinking about Gates. I just kept thinking about that night.

I knew it was dangerous that he was back, but I couldn’t help myself with him around.