The Purple Heart (18 page)

“
I grew up in a very small
town on the west coast. I don’t even think it would show up on a
map it was so small. I did grow up by the beach, though. Spent a
lot of my youth there surfing.”

“
You surf? That’s so
awesome. I’m jealous. I wish I were coordinated enough to surf.
Plus I’m pretty sure I’d be a shark magnet.”

“
Well, this shark sure
wants to take a bite out of you,” he said in a sultry smooth
voice.

And that one small statement changed
the entire dynamic for the rest of the night.

“
Oh? You want to eat
me?”

He growled, took my tea and dropped it
onto the tray. His hands were on me in a second and I was soon
underneath him.

“
You have no idea how tasty
you look.”

“
I’m sure those cookies
weren’t as filling as I could be. What’s stopping you?”

“
Nothing!” I was expecting
a feverous kiss, but what I got instead was the most tender and
sweet pressing of his lips to mine. He held himself up on one elbow
while petting my cheek and caressing my hair. Our eyes were locked,
and the familiar hum was more intense than ever before.

“
Sydney,” he whispered my
name reverently.

“
I love you,
Aiden.”

“
Sydney, you don’t have
to—”

“
Yes I do, because I do. I
love you, Aiden. I don’t ever want to live without you. Please say
you feel the same way.”

“
You know the answer to
that already, don’t you? How deeply I feel for you with everything
I am. Without you, I’m nothing, so I have no plans of ever leaving
you again. I told you once before, I can’t exist without you, but
it has to be because you want to be with me. Because you
choose
to be with me forever.”

It made my heart hurt slightly that he
didn’t say the words back to me. Who could blame him? The last time
he did, I pushed him away. It was my turn to tell him how I
felt.

“
I do choose you. I only
lost you for one night and I could barely survive. You’re like air
to me. I can’t live without it or you,” I told him.

He reached over, pulled me close to
him, and placed a sweet kiss on the top of my head. We stayed
wrapped around each other, no words needing to be said. Each
other’s presence alone was all we needed.

Around seven, the phone rang. I already
knew it was Cheryl and Gina checking in on me.

“
Are you going to get
that?” he asked.

“
It’s the girls making sure
I’m still alive.”

“
Then you should answer it.
They deserve to know you’re fine. They were there for you. I want
them to know how grateful I am to them for that. Please, tell
them.”

“
Okay.” I answered the
phone and both were on the other line.

“
How are you, Sydney? We’re
both very worried about you. Do you want us to come over or do you
want to come stay with us tonight?” Cheryl asked.

“
I love you both so much.
But no, right now I have company.”

“
Oh? Do tell?” Cheryl
said.

“
I took Gina’s advice and
called him to me. And it worked. We should change your name to
Gina-eous. He’s here with me now. We’ve been talking things out.
Everything is good,
so good
right now.”

“
Yay! I’m so excited. See?
Everyone makes fun of me, but when you have a connection with
someone that’s too strong for the boundaries of this world we live
in, you can touch them with your soul. Cheryl knows. She might not
admit it, though. Sometimes I send messages to her with my heart
and it never fails, she always calls me within ten
minutes.”

“
Stop doing that, Gina. I’d
call you anyway.” Cheryl was laughing as she said it.

“
Well, sometimes I’m in a
class and I need you to stop and get milk, so I tell you with my
head. You always come home with milk,” Gina revealed to
Cheryl.

“
Now you’re just freaking
me out. If I get thoughts about buying you expensive things, I’m
going to ignore it.”

“
Ladies, listen. I have a
message for you both from Aiden. He wanted me to tell you how
grateful he is that you were here to take care of me. He was very
touched by your love and concern.”

“
Tell them that I never
would hurt you intentionally like that. I was only following your
wishes,” he whispered to me.

“
He also wants you to know
he would never hurt me like that. That he was only doing what I
asked. And that he will never hurt me again.”

“
Well, let him know we
appreciate that and we would never let our girl hurt through
something like that alone. And we understand his side and we
forgive him.”

I opened my mouth to repeat their
words, but Aiden waved me off. We were sitting close enough he
could hear them. They were both loud talkers.”

“
Okay, we’re going to let
you two have some more time to talk. Call us if you need anything,
babe.”

“
I love you both so much.
Thank you.”

“
We love you too, honey.
You don’t have to thank us. We’re always here for each other.
That’s just how the three of us roll. You let Aiden know that we’re
really looking forward to meeting him.”

“
I will. Love you. Bye.” I
hung up and focused my attention back to Aiden. This was the right
time. There would be no more waiting. I needed him in every way. I
needed him completely. Down to my very soul.

“
Would you like to open a
bottle of wine and talk some more? I’m not really into tea at the
moment.”

He smirked and immediately went to my
wine rack. Not actually the rack I wanted him to go for, but the
wine was all part of my plan to make this the right time. I wanted
him and I needed his inhibitions down.

He returned with a bottle of vanilla
vodka, two glasses, and some guava juice I had in the fridge.
Even better.
We drank as we shared stories about our
childhoods. But eventually I was reminded of work and decided to
shift the direction of our conversation.

“
Why did you join the
military?”

“
Because I wanted to honor
all the men and women before me who gave their lives for my
freedom. I wanted to give back and also to carry on what every
soldier in the history of this country gave to me.
Freedom.”

“
That’s beautiful, Aiden. I
know you’ve made every single one of them proud.”

“
Why did you join the
military?”

“
Because of my father,
grandfather, and uncles. They were all in the military. I’m the
last one, you know. After me, there’s no one else to carry on our
name. Anyway, I wanted to give something to those soldiers who were
wounded. I didn’t want them to feel like they were alone. Whether
they survived or not, I wanted to be the one who held their hands
when they might be afraid. I guess I could keep that secret for
them. Sometimes they told me other things, too. Secrets aside from
their fear of dying or messages for their loved ones, if they had
one. And I made sure that every single message they gave me made it
home even if they didn’t.”

“
I want to give you
something. Can you wait right here?” he said, getting
up.

“
Of course.”

Aiden ran up the stairs and moments
later, was bounding back to my side. In his hand he held a small
black box with a military insignia on the front of it. He held the
box out to me. I stared at it for a moment; a strange pit in my
stomach, like every girl must feel when she thinks the box contains
a ring. I knew from the shape it didn’t, but I hesitated just the
same. He could have been made of stone, because he didn’t move a
muscle until I reached for the box.

I held it in my hands and admired it
before lifting the lid. I finally mustered the courage to see what
was inside. It held his Purple Heart. I had to force myself to look
away from it and into his eyes. I wasn’t sure of the gesture he was
trying to make. My face must have clued him in to my
cluelessness.

“
I want you to have
it.”

“
No, Aiden. You earned
this. I can’t take this from you.”

“
But don’t you understand?
My heart only beats today because of you. It’s my heart and I’m
giving it to you. Also, for being there for every soldier you
helped
move on to a different kind of life
. Because you know
I believe there is more after this one. You helped them make that
transition with your kindness. You deserve this medal as much as I
do.”

The significance of this gift was
immeasurable. I held it against my own heart and kissed him. At
that point, everything was forgotten except for kissing that man. I
couldn’t hold myself back anymore. I needed him to know how much
that gesture meant to me. How much he meant to me. I was quickly on
my back and he was on top of me.

His hands moved all over me. Soon, he
was slowly removing my shirt. He did it so reverently. He kissed
and caressed every inch of skin that he exposed like it was a piece
of gold from a lost treasure.

Our movements became feverish and soon
we were heading up the stairs, leaving a trail of my clothing in
our wake. There was no way we were going to get as far as his room,
so we ended up in mine. He swept me off my feet and gently placed
me on the bed. He was soon next to me and we continued to ravage
each other.

“
Aiden. Make love to me. I
want … I need to make love to you. Please don’t say this is the
wrong time. I can’t—”

“
Shhh. You don’t have to
beg me. I can’t resist you any longer. You’re the only reason I
breathe; the only reason my heart beats.”

An extremely sexy smirk covered his
face as I felt his hand run down to my panties. His finger ran
along the waistband, teasing me, and he began to slowly tug them
down. When he reached my sex, his fingers grazed over my lips and
he slid his fingers up and down them. I was so wet that even his
fingers alone felt like heaven. I wanted him inside me so badly. A
small moan escaped me, which made him groan along. The sound of his
desire for me brought me into a frenzy, and a new level of hotness
to our foreplay ensued.

He quickly pulled my panties off and
threw them to the side of the bed. I was completely unclothed now.
He was still fully dressed. I felt like I belonged completely to
him, his personal concubine, here for his every whim and desire. It
made me hotter than I already was. I spread my legs slightly apart,
to let him know anything was a possibility and I wanted it
all.

His mouth began exploring my body. He
started at my neck and slowly worked his way down to my breasts. He
held onto them as his lips gently caressed them, suckling them. My
skin prickled under his touch. Continuing, he ran his tongue down
to my stomach, moving ever so slowly, licking every inch of my
skin. When he finally reached his destination, I was dying for him
to take a bite.

He had one hand on my breast and
another between my legs. Soon his mouth was on my sex. He made lazy
circles over it with his tongue, stopping only to suck on it
gently, while he worked me with his other hand. Every part of my
body he wasn’t concentrating on ached for his attention. My exposed
skin screamed to be touched, kissed, and tasted. I could hold back
no longer.

I begged him, “Aiden, I want to feel
you, all of you, against me, your skin against mine. I want you
inside me. Take off all of your clothes, every last stitch. Please,
you have to make love to me right now.”

He smiled at my pleading tone, and
complied quickly. I helped unbutton his pants while he pulled his
shirt over his head. His body was amazingly muscular. My wondering
mind had done justice to it. He was everything I had imagined him
to be. This man was one sexy piece of ass and he was in my bed
about to make love to me. My heart exploded in my chest.

He lay down next to me and played with
a strand of my hair. I believe he was trying to calm himself before
we moved any further. I was having a hard time controlling myself.
Next to me lay the man of my dreams, both of us naked. I had to
feel skin to skin. I looked at him from under my lashes, my lids
heavy with desire for him, and silently mouthed the word
please
.

He pulled me on top of him. I need to
touch every inch of him. I began to run my fingers lightly down his
chest and something stopped me. I felt a deep divot. My fingers
hovered over it. It had to be one of the scars from the four
bullets he had taken in the chest. His body immediately
tensed.

“
Is this one of the places
you were shot?” His eyes left mine as he looked down.

“
Yes. I’m so sorry. It’s
not …”

“
It’s not what? Sexy? It’s
beautiful, Aiden. It’s a medal of honor. You took that bullet and
saved so many others’ lives. You gave all those men a chance to be
with their families. You have that scar for everyone’s freedom.
It’s extremely sexy.” I leaned down and placed a soft kiss on
it.