The Lonely Hearts 06 The Grunt 2 (10 page)

“Well, you just say the word and I’ll be there.”  He looked up to see Courtney pass by the doorway.

“I will.  Thanks, Brett,” Judy said, hanging up the phone.

Brett hung up and stood quickly.  “Is there any way at all that I can help you?” He felt like a piece of shit with her having to do the work.

“I’m fine,” Courtney said voice lighter than her mood. “Just give me a minute and we can head out.”

“We don’t have to.”  He scratched his ear. “She wants to be alone.”

Courtney lifted a brow but refused to say, “I told you so.”  With a nod, she threw the bags over her shoulder and hiked upstairs.

Chapter 9

“Rain, rain go away.  Come again another day.”

The sun had not even broken the horizon and Courtney was already awake.  Unable to sleep a second longer, her eyes flashed open, and she realized that her husband - after eight months of being away - was lying right beside her in their marital bed.  

She had grown used to the bed being cold and lonely on his side, but his body heat radiated over to her now. She prayed a grateful and heartfelt prayer to God for that blessing considering how differently things could have played out for their family.  Brett could have never been injured on that fateful day, and then he would have been dead too, never to return home to her, never to have met Bella.

Turning slowly over on her side to face him, she studied the mysterious Brett Black as he lay in peaceful slumber.   It was funny. He had been her husband for over a year, but she was still smitten with him like she was the first day that they met in the Swansboro library. 

She remembered thinking that day how he looked like the poster boy for the Marine Corps, even before she knew what he did for a living – well dressed, well groomed, well spoken.  Yet, he was human, clinging to his son, looking for answers and scared to death of an impending divorce.  Even then, he was honorable and gentle with her. 

Now that she knew him better than she knew anyone else, she knew that he was so much more than a poster boy – he was a hero.

Sometime during the night, Brett had kicked the covers off, like he always did.  Despite Courtney dropping the air down to a crisp 65 degrees, he was still sweating and probably in pain even in his dreams.

Completely naked, he rested flat on his back with his hands curled under his head and his bad leg propped up on pillows. 

She scooted a little closer to smell his masculine musk, a fragrance of sandalwood, soap and deodorant. 
Mmm, she had missed that smell.
  The pinkness of his lush, sweet lips teased her with memories of their first kiss and their last.  She inhaled him, madly wanting to reach over and kiss his heart shaped, and wide-set mouth. 

Hungrily, her eyes cascaded down his long tanned body assessing his every asset.  His six-foot, two inches Michelangelo-like wide, muscular frame.  Veiny, brawny tattooed arms.  His beautiful marble-like face.  The long thick column of his neck with that teasing mole near his Adam’s apple.  A mountainous wide chest. Carved, sinewy muscles rippling down his elongated torso.  A rock-hard eight pack. Sleeved colorful tattoos that ran down the length of both forearms to his large hands.  Scars from multiple tours of duty.  The cut of lean muscle between his legs and thighs that curved down into a perfect V-shape.   Curly blonde hair that started at his wide upper thighs and ran down his legs past his bulging deltoids to his huge tattooed calves.  The deep dip of his innie belly button. Lastly, another trail of blonde hair nestled around his thick penis, lying lazily over on his leg. 

The sight of it all made her want him inside of her. 

How she longed for him to take her the way he once did when he used to command her body as soon as he laid eyes on her.  How he tasted her, kissed her, licked her into an oblivion of ecstasy.  Did he even desire her anymore?  Recent events clouded the truth from fiction.  He could potentially be overwhelmed with all that had happened to him, but she still couldn’t fight the tiny voice in the back of her head that brought marital doubt. 

“It’s you,”
It
whispered like a cunning snake to Eve in the Garden.  “He doesn’t want you.”

They couldn’t make love at the hospital, and to make thing worse, they hadn’t made love last night. It had been their first night alone, and he had fallen asleep on the sofa in the den looking at photos of his team members.  She had so much planned, but none of that mattered.  The sight of him lost in agony had hurt her to her heart, but when she had told him to come to bed – so that she could try to make the pain go away – he had turned her down. 

Somewhere in the night, he had finally come to bed, but only after she was asleep. 
Had that been intentional?
  A way to avoid her and her desperate advances. 

Courtney was starting to think that the extra baby fat she still carried had ruined things between them.  When he met her, she had been fit from swimming and unscarred from carrying a nine-pound baby.  Now she was 15 pounds heavier and a lot less toned.

Another thought bothered her even more.  Maybe, just
maybe
, life married to her wasn’t what he had expected.  Was she different to him now as a wife instead of a girlfriend?  Was she not as much fun?  Had her mystery disappeared?  The thought made her even sadder. 

She loved him so much, and yet she felt like she was losing him, as if she was being ejected from his life by life.  The idea of such a thing troubled her immensely, because she had always been sure of herself both emotionally and physically.  However, motherhood was a different concept all together.  It had caused her to second-guess everything that she had once believed about life. 

Without thought, her little fingers found their way to his meaty chest.  She laid her small hand over his heart and listened to the beat.  Strong and fast, it boomed. 

“I love you,” she whispered, fighting back tears. 

Brett’s crystal blue eyes flashed open and stared at her, although his stoic face did not change.  “I love you too,” he said, moving his left hand over hers.

She looked over at his wedding ring and fought back sobs. 

Nestling his head down in his pillow, he blinked slowly.  In a deep southern Texas baritone soft as silk, he asked, “Why are you crying, baby?”

Courtney sniffled and wiped her nose. “I don’t want to say.” 
She really didn’t.
It was one thing to be quiet, and unsure of yourself.  It was a total different thing to admit it to someone else.

He shifted a little to the side without moving his leg.  Muscles flexed in his wide chest with every movement.  “Say anyway.” He swallowed hard. 
Had he done something?
Had he not done something?
  His face finally lit up with concern as he became more coherent. 

Courtney bit her lip in nervousness. “I miss you,” she confessed innocently. 

He frowned, blonde eyebrows furrowing. Suddenly, he was confused. “I miss you too, but I’m right here.”

“No,” Courtney said, moving her wild hair from her face.  She looked up at the ceiling to avoid his eyes. 
How did she say this without sounding ridiculous?
  “I miss you…
intimately
,” she said, blowing out a breath. 
Okay. There it was.  Out in the open. 

Without a word, Brett trailed an intense sensual gaze from her angelic brown face ripe with expression down her long swan neck to her large breasts.  Her nipples were hardened under her soft cotton USMC t-shirt. His mouth parted involuntarily as his groin began to swell.  Just looking at her turned him on.  He finally spoke, “And that made you cry?  Not being intimate?”  His gaze continued down to her long, muscular thighs and the tight little spot hidden by hot pink lace panties.

She knew that look of lust.  It caused her heart to flutter.  “I thought maybe you didn’t want me; you know that you didn’t find me attractive anymore since the baby.”  Hence the big t-shirt to cover up the little after-baby bulge. 

His eyes darted back to hers.  Then suddenly he chuckled and then sighed.
If she only knew.
“Baby,” he said, shaking his head and pulling her closer with an iron grip. “I
want
you.” Sliding his hand down her back to her small waist as she crawled on top of him, he looked up at her. He needed her to understand what he had to say, because it was the truest thing that he could explain. “I want you so bad until it literally hurts inside.  If you think for a moment that
baby fat
of any kind on you is going to turn me off, you’re crazy.  You gave me my daughter.  You’ve raised our son.”  He shook his head emphatically and tried to find the words. “Woman, I’m crazy about you.  And I’m attracted to you, more than you know.  And you look amazing.”  He scanned her body. “Every sensual curve.  Every little mole.  Your skin color.  Your eyes.  Your lips.  Every single part of you is beautiful just the way it is.  You’re the woman that I fell in love with. Nothing has changed.” 

Courtney wiped another tear. “It feels good to hear you say that.”  A smile curled her lips. 

That’s what he wanted to see.  A smile.  Everything in his life up to this point had been shit…everything except her.  If she was okay, then maybe he would be too. 

He smiled back playfully.  “Yeah?” Pulling her down closer to his face, he looked at her plump lips.  “It feels good to hear me say that I want you?” he asked in a near whisper. He could feel himself coming alive at just the thought of taking her.    

His smooth voice sent zingers up her spine and goose bumps over her body.  Straddling him, she bent to him and kissed his lips. “Yes,” she whispered into his mouth.  The first kiss was quick and playful. 

“I want you,” he said with finality. 

As he uttered the words, everything changed. The room suddenly became electrically charged and what started out as caring and gentle was slowly becoming carnal and visceral.

The second kiss was slow and passionate.  His velvety tongue slipped into her mouth and tasted her hidden desires.  Her fingers lingered on his chest, clawing at him as she kissed him deeper.

His warm hands felt so good on her skin, finding their way under her shirt and up her torso.  Massaging her aching muscles, caressing her skin, he relished in the sight of her.  Her silky skin.  Her tempting curves.  

How in the hell could she think that he didn’t want all of this? Hell, he’d kill for it. He had killed for it.

She looked so vulnerable right now, so in need of being taken care of.  He had been away an incredibly long time from his new wife, and she had been so alone.  Now, it was up to him to make up for all the time that had been missed, and it was a job that he would do with all the passion that he could muster.

“Come here.”  Brett slowly sucked on her bottom lip and pressed his fingers down into her skin.  “Can you feel me?” he asked, thrusting upward and at the same time cupping her round breasts and pinching her nipples. 

Courtney sucked in a ragged breath.  It had been such a long time, but his touch was so familiar. “Yes. I can feel you.  You’re getting harder.” Her hair fell over on his shoulder.  Closing her eyes, she opened her legs wider, aching to have him inside of her. 

              He inhaled her perfume. “You’re making me harder,” he said, clenching his square jaw.  He undulated under her, watching her face.  “You do this to me.  You make me so hard until it hurts.”  His hot breath singed her skin. 

“I need you,” she begged.  

“I need you more.”  Brett slipped both hands around her waist and grabbed the sides of her lace panties.  He liked these. 
Pity
. 

Ripping them off, he grunted and flung them across the room.  “I’ve thought about you every day since I left.” His heart raced in his chest.  Sliding a digit over her tender clitoris, he watched her body blossom. If her pheromones had been visible, they would have lit up the room like embers from a fire.  “Every single day, I dreamt of you.”  Her wetness slipped over his hands.  Pulling his fingers away from her, he slipped them inside of his mouth and made her watch him taste her essence. 

Courtney’s sex instantly clenched tight. She missed his lips there. Just the thought made her even wetter, and the sound of her rubbing against him became more audible as her sex became slicker. 

“The taste of you,” he whispered as he sucked his fingers.  “The feel of you.”

Moving her hips downward with his grip, he pushed the tip of his engorged penis inside of her. “Coming inside of my wife.”

Courtney’s head flung back and her eyes closed tight.  Heat burned through her body into his as she waited for the connection to be made.  Legs trembling with desire she felt her breath get caught in her throat.

“Take me,” she muttered.

“
Take
this off,” he ordered, pulling her shirt off.  “Don’t ever be ashamed around me.  You’re beautiful.”

Bobbing full breasts emerged; nipples erect and begging to be tasted. The sight of her long torso, her wide hips and thick thighs drove him insane.   Turning to steel, he moved his veiny shaft between her legs, teasing her. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, knowing it had been a long time since he had been inside of her.  He had to remember to be gentle, if not a gentleman.   

“You won’t,” she bit out.  “Do it!”  

Courtney planted her hands firmly on the broad caps of his shoulders.  Taking in a deep breath, she adjusted to the sudden thrill of him entering her body, one slow, tortuous inch at a time until he was buried to the hip.  Her body pulsated around him, tightening around his throbbing shaft.  It was pleasurable pain and she welcomed it gladly. 

He hissed, muscles tightening all over his body.  “Slow,” he said, holding her down.  His nostrils flared. “It’s been a long, long time and you feel so good.”  He would have to walk himself through this first session, lest he make a fool of himself.  She had been waiting nine months; surely he could give her more than nine minutes.