Protecting Cheyenne (SEAL of Protection Book 5) (18 page)

“I can’t promise it’ll all be sunshine and roses, Shy.”

“I never asked for that. I’m not an idiot. I work weird hours. You’re in the military. You’re a SEAL. I know you’ll be sent off to do something I can’t ask about and will never know about. But you know what? You’ll come back to me. I couldn’t have lived through…hell,
we
couldn’t have lived through what we did to have it taken from us now. When you have to go, I’ll cry, I’ll pout, I’ll be sad. But I’ll hang out with the girls. We’ll drink too much in the safety of someone’s house, I’ll go to work, I’ll continue on until you come home. Then you’ll boss me around, deny me orgasms, then give them to me over and over again until you’re satisfied. Then you’ll fuck me until we’re both noodles, then we’ll do it all again. And I’ll love every second of it.”

Dude smiled over at Cheyenne. “I love you.”

“I’m not done.”

“Sorry, Shy, by all means, continue.”

Cheyenne smiled at her man. Fuck she loved him. “I figured something out. And once I did, I got it.”

“What’d you figure out?”

“I figured out that when and if you get mad at me it’s not because you’re necessarily
mad
at me. It’s because you’re worried about me.” She paused a fraction then continued. “And I know you told me this, but I didn’t
really
get it. That day on the beach, when I was scared to call you because I was afraid you’d be mad…it’s because my sister would get mad at me. She’d get furious and scream at me. She scared me and that’s what I understood anger to be. But then I saw it with Fiona and Hunter. We went to a movie and she forgot to text him. When she did finally get in touch with him, he yelled and ranted and raved, but through it all, Fiona was stoic. She wasn’t afraid of him. When he was done he hugged her so hard I thought her ribs would break.

“He was worried about her. He was mad because he thought she’d had a flashback. He didn’t know where she was and he thought she could be in trouble. I got it. So I don’t want you to ever be afraid to yell at me. I know you won’t hurt me, and I know you’re mad because you care about me, because you’re worried. I get it now.”

Dude had to pull the truck over. Jesus. He pulled into a parking lot of a business that was right off the road. He put the truck in gear and opened his door. He strode around until he got to the passenger side. He opened the door and immediately leaned in, resting both hands on the seat next to Cheyenne.

“Shy, I swear to God, you have to stop doing this to me when I’m driving.” Dude smiled at her then moved so his hands on her thighs. “I love you. I love you so much it scares the living hell out of me. I worry about you all the time. All the fucking time. You could be in the other room and I worry if you’re okay. Are you hungry? Cold? Happy? Sad? Content? I have a feeling you’re going to see me ‘mad’ a lot. I’m thrilled to pieces you told me, but know that I’m going to do everything I can to not yell at you or get mad. I don’t want you to lose your independence. Hell, I love that about you, but you have to promise to keep me updated about where you are and when you might be getting home.

“Text me, call me, leave me a note, whatever it takes, just tell me. You want to go out for lunch? No problem. Text me. You want to go shopping with the girls? Great. Spend all the fucking money you want, but tell me that’s where you’ll be. If you’re stopping to get gas before coming home? Let me know. Because I swear if you’re two minutes late I’m going to worry. I’m not being controlling, I’m not being an asshole. I’m
worrying
about you. I can’t handle you being taken out from under my nose again. I swear I can’t. If I don’t know where you are for five minutes I’m likely to call the team and track your ass down.”

Cheyenne put her good hand on Faulkner’s cheek. “I promise.”

“Oh and you should probably know, you and all the other girls will have fucking tracking devices on just about everything you own.”

“What?”

“Yeah, we worked with Tex and he’s ordering them and will set up the software.”

“Uh, that’s a bit over the top, Faulkner.”

“No, it isn’t. Caroline was taken by an FBI traitor and hauled out into the middle of the ocean so they could dispose of her body. Alabama was living on the fucking streets and no one could find her. Fiona was taken into a foreign fucking country and about to be sold as a sex slave and Summer was kidnapped by a murderous, bastard, pedophile rapist. And you, you had three fucking goddamn bombs strapped to you and were hidden in the basement of an apartment building. It’s not over the fucking top at all.”

“You’re swearing a lot, Faulkner.”

Dude just shook his head and dropped it to his chest and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get himself back under control. Figures that instead of bitching about the fact he’d just ordered tracking devices so he’d be able to find her no matter what she was wearing, carrying, or where she was going, Cheyenne concentrated on his language.

Dude lifted his head up again and leaned in to kiss her. He took Cheyenne’s lips in a hard, deep kiss then drew back and smiled. “I can’t place it.”

“Pomegranate.”

Dude shook his head again and ran his tongue over his lips. “Delicious.”

He kissed Cheyenne on the forehead then backed up and closed her door. He jogged back around to his side and jumped in. “Okay, we’re going to be late, I’ll just blame you and your penchant for wearing flavored lip crap.”

“Okay,” Cheyenne agreed with a smile, not knowing what they were going to be late for, but not caring either.

Dude drove until they pulled into a familiar parking lot. Cheyenne beamed at him.

“Are you serious?”

“I figured since you bitched so much about not getting to finish your girl’s night out, that there was no time like the present. Although, you’ll have to deal with it being a friend’s night out instead. Everyone’s inside waiting on us.”

“Thank you, Faulkner. I love you.”

“I love you too, Shy. But don’t think I’ve forgotten about you not saying the words until we were in a life and death situation. I owe you for that.”

“I’m sure you’ll make me pay…tonight.”

“Damn straight I will. When we get home I’ll help you remove your clothes and get you situated on our bed. I can’t tie your arms, but I’ll tie your legs until you’re spread eagled and can’t close them. You’ll not touch me and not move an inch while I take my fill of you. You won’t be allowed to come until I say, and Shy, I’m pissed you made me wait to hear you say it.”

Cheyenne smiled, his words said he was pissed, but the carnal look in his eyes said otherwise.

“Then I’ll take you hard, while you’re still tied, and see how many times I can make you explode before I fill you up.”

Cheyenne’s ears rang and she could feel her own harsh breathing.

“Do we have to go inside?”

“Yes. And you’ll not drink anything alcoholic. You still probably have some morphine in your system and I won’t chance it. You can have orange juice, but no soda, your body needs nutrients, not crap right now.”

“Okay, Faulkner.”

“When I say it’s time to go, we’re going. Don’t argue with me. I know you’re probably more tired than you’re letting on. And your shoulder probably hurts too. That over-the-counter painkiller probably isn’t cutting it. But I wanted to give you this, Shy. I’ll give you anything and everything you want if it’s in my power.”

“Okay, Faulkner.”

“I love you, Shy.”

“I love you too.”

“Okay, let’s do this so we can go and welcome you to your new home.”

“Our new home.”

“Yeah,
our
new home.”

The large group of friends sat at the table at
Aces
. Cheyenne, Summer, and Alabama had insisted on coming back to the bar at the first opportunity. Their men, of course, wanted to boycott the place altogether and never set foot in it again, but the women put their foot down.

“I won’t allow those jerks to run us out of the best bar in town. We love this place.” Summer had argued with Mozart until she was blue in the face, and he, as well as Dude and Abe had still refused.

They’d only given in when the women made plans to go back on their own. Of course that made all the men change their minds in a heartbeat. They wouldn’t let them go back without them.

The moment Cheyenne stepped inside
Aces
, she’d frozen, but Faulkner was right there at her back. He put his arms around her and pulled back into his hard body. They’d stood in the middle of the entrance, not moving. Faulkner leaned down and whispered in her ear. Cheyenne could feel the breath from his words tickling her ear.

“You can do this, Shy. You’re not alone. You just stand here as long as you need to. I’m here.”

His words gave Cheyenne the strength to take a deep breath. She intertwined her fingers with Faulkner’s, rubbing her thumb over the stubs of his fingers for a second, then she turned in his arms and laid her head on his chest, wrapping her arms as far around his back as she could without hurting her shoulder.

“Thank you, Faulkner. I love you.”

“I love you too, Shy. Come on, let’s get a drink.”

After that, entering
Aces
became easier. It had gotten to a point where Cheyenne and the other women would meet up at the little bar at least once a week. Sometimes they’d be by themselves and other times they’d go with their men.

The men also still went there to unwind as well, with their women’s blessing. Typically they’d have a women’s night in and a men’s night out at the same time. The men could go out and have a beer or two, and the women would hole up in Caroline’s house and do whatever it was that women did when they got together.

Three months had gone by since the women had been kidnapped and for once, everything had been quiet. The team had left twice on missions, but they were short and they hadn’t been out of the country for more than four days for each one.

The team sat around the table nursing their beers and Cookie laughed when he caught Dude looking at his watch for the third time in the last twenty minutes.

“Suck it up, Dude, seriously, you can go one night without ordering Cheyenne to service you.” Cookie said the words softly, for Dude’s ears only, wanting to tease him, but not wanting to share his secret.

“Shut it, Cookie, I warned you not to spread that shit around. I know you heard what Cheyenne said in that basement, but that stays between the three of us.”

“Don’t worry, Dude, I might tease you about it, but I’d never break your, or her, confidence that way.”

Dude just snorted. Cheyenne had left for her shift that afternoon and he’d taken her hard that morning. She was always willing to do whatever he wanted to try, and that morning he’d gotten creative. Dude had blindfolded her, tied her hands behind her back, and played with her back passage for the first time before taking her hard. Dude loved that Cheyenne trusted him enough to try things she wasn’t sure about. Their lovemaking that morning took the ultimate trust, and Cheyenne had not only tolerated him making love to her in a new way, but if her moans were any indication, she’d enjoyed it and wanted more.

The waitress, Jess, limped up to the table and put another round of beers on the table. She turned to leave without her usual friendly conversation.

Benny grabbed a hold of her upper arm as she turned to go. “Hey, Jess, how’ve you been? Haven’t see you around lately.”

Benny, and the other men frowned at the grimace that came over the waitress’s face. Benny quickly let go of her arm and she stepped back a foot and glanced at the men around the table then back down to the tray she was holding in her hands.

“Uh, yeah, I’ve had some stuff going on at home.”

“Everything okay?” Benny asked, not liking how she’d flinched from him. He wasn’t the biggest man around the table, but he wasn’t exactly small. He knew he could be scary, but Jess
knew
him. She knew all of them. She’d been serving them all for a while now.

“Yeah.” Her tone was flat, and while not unfriendly, it wasn’t inviting further conversation, which was unusual for her.

Benny watched as she glanced around the room furtively and then simply turned away from the table and limped with her funny little gait, back to the bar.

“That wasn’t normal,” Dude commented unnecessarily.

“No shit.” Benny returned, his eyes not leaving the waitress as she gathered another set of drinks from the bar.

Dude watched as Benny took a deep breath and turned back to the group. They could tell he didn’t want to let the odd encounter with the waitress go, but he did anyway. The conversation turned back to their normal friendly chatter until finally Benny was the first to call it a night.

“I know you guys all have women to get back to, and I should be the last one to leave, but I’m just not in the mood anymore. Say hey to all your women for me. I’ll see you at PT.”

Dude and the rest of the team watched their friend leave. They were worried about him. Benny was now the odd-man out. The only man on the team that didn’t have a woman to worry about, to love. They couldn’t lose him. They might pick on him, but Benny was an important part of their team. No one wanted to see him put in transfer paperwork to another SEAL team.

After Benny left, the rest of the guys decided they might as well call it a night too. They all had women waiting for them. Dude’s thoughts turned back to Cheyenne. He looked at his watch. Perfect. Eleven. She’d switched to first shift and didn’t have to work through the evening anymore. After work that afternoon she’d gone over to Caroline’s house for dinner and to visit for a few hours.

Even though she’d been visiting with her friends, Dude had told her to leave around a quarter to eleven and head back to their house. He planned it so she’d arrive home just before he would, and he’d told her just how to be waiting for him. She always followed his instructions to the letter. He had a bag in the truck waiting with new toys he’d picked out just for her. Dude couldn’t wait. He was the luckiest bastard alive.