Wait For Me (6 page)

“What options?” she asked hurriedly, interrupting him. She bit her lip at her own impatience, but she had to know what else there was, what else there could be for him.

“Chomping at the bit, are you?” he teased. “I can train. I can sit behind a desk. I can recruit. I can do what I’m doing now, but on a scaled back basis. There options,” he said again. “
You’ve known me since high school. Have I ever harmed anyone or hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it?”

“No.”

“I don’t do that now, either. I have honor and integrity. I know what I’m doing and I’m damn good at it. You’re the reason I go and you’re the reason I come home. Any target I’m given is fully researched before I accept. I never go after anyone who isn’t an impediment to our freedom and our way of life.”

“Impediment?” She frowned. “Such a curious and innocent word.”

“Fine. Threat. I’m no different now than the man I was before Dane’s untimely arrival. You just have more answers than you even knew you had questions for.”

She nodded. “I know.” And in her head, she did. She looked away from him momentarily and wrapped her arms around herself. For the first time in her life, she was trying to cover body in front of him.

“But?”

She heard the razor-sharp bite of that one word and quickly glanced back at his face. She shouldn’t have. His eyes had hardened, the recrimination in them crystal clear. “It’s just—”

“It’s just what? If I kill while under the normal Army heading, it’s all right, but as any other type of soldier, anything else government sanctioned, anything under a heading other than Army it’s not?”

“But you take money for it. You get paid to do it, right?” More straws she grasped at.

“Honey, I’ve got news for you. The military still pays me. I get a regular deposit in my bank account and I’m technically doing the same thing as before. The official lines are just a little more blurred. And believe it or not, there are things I’m not allowed to question.” She started to interrupt him again, to tell him she knew he’d always gotten paid, that this seemed different though, somehow, but he held up a hand and she clamped down on her tongue until he finished. “It was prettied up, politically correct, but the wounds, the transgressions, the need for it to be done was no less vital. I’m a first-rate sniper. All the men with me were. I’m not the only man who does this. I’m not the first and I sure as hell won’t be the last. There are things we do that no one wants to know about, things that no one should ever know about, but what I do, what guys like me do, we do because someone has to. And yes, of course we get paid. These firms and agencies are looked down on for what they and those who work for them do. They have the equipment, some are privately funded, and do the best they can to work with their military counterparts. No one likes them, not even me. No one likes to know what goes on either, but everyone wants to be safe and wants the bad guys gone. These people can do it with far fewer questions asked. Now,” he took several steps forward, “why don’t you explain to me why you covered yourself?”

“Not a conversation to have naked, Vin,” she muttered. And it was one he hadn’t raised his voice to have. He was calm on the outside, but the blue fire in his eyes told her something completely different. He was angry, hurt. He was still aroused and she was still damn horny.

“I disagree.” He reached for her and removed her unresisting arms from around her breasts and hips. “I’m having to lay myself out to you because your boyfriend decided to dig where he shouldn’t have.”

“For the last damn time. He’s not my boyfriend.” Semantics. She knew what he was saying. If it hadn’t been for Dane. If it hadn’t been for her need not to be alone while at the same time getting back at Vin for having left her once again... “You could have told me yourself,” she said again.

“To get this reaction? To have the woman I love look at me with fear and uncertainty, as though she can’t decide whether she should run and hide or stay put? I’ve already apologized I’d have come clean with you, told you the truth, but on my terms, in my time, when I was ready, when you were ready. Maybe that’s selfish, but I’m learning as I go, just as you are. There’s never been formality in our relationship, baby. It’s always just been understood that we belong together and will one day be together.”

“
Vinny
—” she started to plead but was cut off once more, this time by a short negative motion of his head.

“I have to finish out this term of enlistment. This, you and me, this was part of my agreement with them when I was offered the position. Between assignments, I’d be allowed to come back to you. They know your name, where you live, and how to contact you should something happen to me.”

“Don’t say that. Don’t say things like that.”

“Mel, you can’t ignore it. You can’t bury your head in the sand, and if that’s what you’ve been doing all these years... The other side of that coin however, is that I know I helped you do that to some extent, to live with your head buried and thank God, it’s never come back to bite me on the ass, but it’s still a reality, a possibility. You’re my girl. You’ve always been my girl and I’ve done my level best to protect you, to keep the blackness of this world from touching you.”

“Vin, you don’t have to keep going. I get it. I swear I do.” That was no lie. She might not want to get it, but she did. Loud and clear. His hand had been forced, in more ways than one. He’d had to tell her the truth and in no uncertain terms, and he’d been right, she would worry more, she would be scared.

“It’s already started, so might as well finish it.” Mel nodded and watched as Vin raked a hand through this short hair. “I hadn’t planned on us living here, but I knew you weren’t ready to give up the only place you’ve ever known. Your mama is still alive and I couldn’t take you away from her. Not to mention, I don’t think even I could convince her to leave here. She loves this little town and so do you. I wanted you to keep it for as long as you could, but it’s too close to a large town, too close to the capitol of South Carolina and I thought it would be better for me, for us if we lived out farther, maybe the mountains. Someplace a little more off grid, but with Dane knowing what he does...” Vin shook his head, worry etching his brow. “I don’t trust him and so the old adage comes into play here. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.”

“He’s petty, Vin. Surely you can see that. I mean nothing to him.”

“No, baby, but I do. There’s no love lost between us and he’s always been against war, against the military, against anything that money couldn’t buy. I don’t know that he’ll make trouble, but I won’t chance it.”

“I’d have gone anywhere with you. You only had to say the word and I’d be packed and ready.”

“Mel, I know that.”

“But you wanted me here.”

“Yes. I wanted you here. Here is where my memories of you are. Here is where my happiness is.”

“I should be mad at you. I should be pissed off like earlier. You’ve given me no choices, no chance to have my own say in this, in us, in our lives. You’ve not been fair, Vin.”

“No, I haven’t and yes, you should be pissed. I wouldn’t blame you for that. You’re right. I’ve made all the decisions. I did what I thought was best, what I thought you’d want when it came to your life. You love this town, love this place, this piece of the world. I do too. I love knowing I could come home, to this town, this house, and to you. I’m so sorry.” Vin shook his head and looked down. “And yet,” he said softly, “given all this, you are still wet, still aroused, aren’t you?” He moved to touch her and for a split second she started to shrink back, but he caught her with a quick arm around her back. “Don’t back away from me, not now, Mel. Please.”

Chapter Three

Don’t back away from me, not now, Mel. Please.

The need that shook his voice when he spoke those words, especially that one at the end... Please. She couldn’t resist it and when his other hand dropped between her legs and he worked his fingers against her clit, she let him in.

She bucked and together they found a rhythm. She spread her legs open on either side of him and just as she was about to come again, he slid deep so she could orgasm on his cock. It was how he preferred it and it was how she preferred it, too.

Her muscles clenched around his length, and then his groan was in her ear. He thrust against her and she wrapped herself around him at his hips and shoulders. She rode the waves he kept stringing out, but the more he fucked her, the more the waves just wouldn’t stop.

He was a man on a mission and she was all about letting him finish. She wanted to hold him, keep him. She didn’t want him leaving again and she knew that in some ways, her ignorance about his job had kept her from thinking he’d never come back, kept her from thinking about the danger he was in every day. She was twenty-four years old and she needed to get a grip. She tightened her arms and legs and crushed herself to him, getting as close as possible. She loved it when they fucked, but this time, there was another element, a deeper degree of emotion simmering just below the surface.

“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered into her hair. “I promise. It’s okay.” He never slowed down, he never stopped moving back and forth inside her. His skin was slick with sweat and his ass squeezed tight as he drove forward. His entire body was tightly strung, his muscles were bunched and the electricity that sizzled between them, that had always sizzled between them was even more charged than normal.

She clung as he roared his release, his body jerked and stilled and jerked some more. His breath came harsh in her ear and his arms kept her anchored. He filled her with cum as he always did. She’d been in an accident that left her unable to have children without serious risk to herself or the baby, and before she’d been twenty-two years old, she’d had surgery. She’d been fine with it all save for the not so small desire she had to be the mother of
Vinny’s
children.

He hadn’t loved her any less because of it either. It was the one time he’d come home that they hadn’t screwed like bunnies with spring just around the corner. She was still in the hospital when he’d gotten to town and he’d come to see her, then took her home. He stayed with her at her mama’s house and the two of them took care of her, nursed her through pain and sadness.

She’d always known what a special man Vin was. His tenderness was all for her, and he wasn’t cold, wasn’t heartless. She knew him better than anyone and so what if her love for him clouded her thinking? He’d never looked at her with anything but reverence, love, and more lust than could be satisfied in one lifetime.

“God, baby,” he groaned and pulled away only enough to kiss her forehead.

“What a pair we make.” She couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “The handywoman and the sniper.”

Vinny
chuckled. “Could be the title of a romance novel.”

“Could be,” she agreed. She was sated, her body blessed out and limp, yet she held on to him with every ounce of strength she had left. Tears tracked down her cheeks and settled on his shoulder. “I want more,” she whispered. “I want a life with you.”

“I know, Mel.” He petted her hair, soothed her as best he knew how. Mel loved him for that, for trying, for never giving up on her. “But I can’t give it to you. Not yet. Given what we’ve lived through already, two more years is a piece of cake.”

She choked on a sob and pushed at him, but he didn’t move, didn’t budge. She pushed again and all it gained her was him wrestling her arms behind her back. He was still hard inside her and no matter how she wiggled and writhed, he was immoveable.

“A piece of cake? That’s what you think? Fuck you, Vin,” she spat, spit flying from her lips. “Maybe it’s easy for you. Maybe it’s easy for you to walk away, to go off and be a hero, a soldier, whatever it is you are now, but it’s not easy for me to watch, to be left behind, to not know if or when...” She’d started off yelling at him, trying to claw at him, but by the end, she was worn out, her voice barely more than a
thready
whisper.

She fought him still, but soon gave up and hung her head with a sigh.

“You done now?” he asked into her matted-with-sweat hair. She nodded. She didn’t want to get away, not ever, but this position, their bodies connected… She was too weak to resist him. There was no barrier to shield her from how much she loved him or how much she knew he loved her. “Good. Listen to me for a second, all right? Just listen.”