Worth the Wait: Love Happens Series, Book Three

1. Bellamy

Bellamy

March 29th…

As a traveling nurse, the appeal of being able to go anywhere while simultaneously having nowhere of my own was too hard to resist. My coworkers at the hospital had families, people that loved them, counted on them, while I had neither.

That made me the perfect candidate when a position became available. I applied and, when it was offered to me, I saw it as a sign and accepted.

For the past five years, I’ve been all over the United States, as well as a few other countries. Met more people than I can count, treated everything from minor to life threatening injuries, encountered diseases long believed to be eradicated, and logged an insane amount of frequent flyer miles.

I have also loved each and every moment of it, despite how scary, how perilous, some of them might have been. But, as thankful as I am that I was able to help those in need, I couldn’t make the connections I’d begun missing.

My job didn’t afford me the chance to and any I attempted to create were fleeting. Time and distance inevitably lessening the bond we’d forged. Yes, I still stay in contact with colleagues I worked side by side with, but it’s not the same. Our conversations were of a shared past and their present which involved falling in love, getting married and having kids, while mine was about my next destination.

Granted, fellow medical personnel were already experiencing that back when I agreed to take this role. It didn’t bother me then. In fact, I saw it as a disadvantage on their part.

They were tied down while I could go wherever I wanted.

Do whatever I wanted.

Accept whatever assignment interested me and not have to explain why.

So, what changed?

I didn’t know when I initially asked myself that question and it continued to elude me until I walked past a husband and wife having dinner together. I was alone, as usual, and I couldn’t stop glancing at them.

In a none creepy way, of course.

For the first time, I envied someone that closeness with another. Wished I had it.

Wondered if I ever would.

Honestly, I’ve never met a man that I saw any possibility with on a long-term scale.

Yes, I have indulged here and there when there was an attraction, though they were few and far between.

The last being a year or so prior.

Scratch that, more like two. Or is it three?

Could that be why I can’t stop staring at the man across the room?

He’s with a group of, what I assume are friends, though their lack of any resemblance doesn’t necessarily make them any less of a family.

I may have lost mine almost a decade ago, but I still remember what it felt like to have one.

The greatest feeling in the world.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve never tried to look start a new one.

That loss? It stained my heart, my soul.

And, seeing it now with hindsight, I know it caused me to insulate my emotions.

At this moment, though? They refuse to be ignored.

I can’t say what it is about this guy that’s different, only that something is.

He makes me feel.

Suddenly, I’m Bellamy again. Not only Nurse Sutherland.

It’s exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time.

Thankfully, I don’t seem to be the only one sensing it.

I’ve felt his eyes on me a few times. The pull is mutual and, while I’m a bit scared to explore it, I’m even more so not to.

His companions stand and disappoint hits. Not wanting to watch him leave, I focus on my menu. I really need to figure out what I’m going to eat anyway.

Despite my appetite fading.

“May I join you?” Looking up, seeing it’s him, a separate kind of hunger sweeps through me.

“I’d like that.” I’m not going to play games, pretending I wasn’t watching him and vice versa. My time is valuable, as I’m sure his is, and I’d rather not waste it.

“I’m Peter,” he introduces himself, extending his hand toward me.

“Bellamy,” I reciprocate, taking it. I feel a jolt when our palms touch and wonder if he does, too. The shocked expression on his face as he stares at them lets me know he did. “I thought you left.”

“I told them to go without me. I needed to stay here.”

“To meet me?”

“Yes. I knew if I didn’t, I’d…”

“Regret it.” He seems relieved that I know and feel the same.

“I don’t normally do this.” Peter chuckles. “I don’t at all actually.”

“Eat dinner?” I tease, loving the crooked smile I get in return.

“Approach a woman.”

“Let me guess. It’s usually the other way.”

Peter blushes. “I won’t lie and claim it doesn’t happen.” Not hard to see why. “However, I have never acted on any of them.” He shrugs. “It’s not my way.”

“Good.” Another plus in his factor. Not that he needs more positive attributes. Peter is handsome, tall, and clearly in good shape. He also has kind eyes, which is the most important, in my opinion. Doing what I do, I tend to see people at one of, if not the, lowest points. Meaning, I’ve seen what a human can do to another. Looks can be deceiving, height can be an advantage, and muscles can be a weapon.

The eyes, though? They can’t hide who you are at your core.

At Peter’s, I see a nice man.

A man I’d really like to get to know.

Even if all we do is talk.

Which is exactly what we do for the next hour. He ate with his friends, yet still finds room to polish off another meal. Whether it’s because he didn’t want me to eat alone or he needs the fuel, I appreciate it regardless.

I’m guessing him to be around my age of twenty-eight, albeit a few years older.

“What do you do for a living?” Peter asks after we’ve finished our food. In between bites, we stuck to easy topics, silently agreeing to keep the heavier stuff until after.

After has come. “I’m a traveling nurse.”

“Do you enjoy it?” I like that his first question is more about me than my job. It means he values how I think and feel.

In the past, my answer would’ve been an immediate yes. When that’s not forthcoming, my pause serving as a red flag for me, I know I have some big decisions to make in the very near future as my current contract expires soon. “Not as much as I used to,” I admit. He nods, showing an understanding of my predicament without offering platitudes or advice. Instead, he lets me continue. Seeming to know that I need to get it out. “Initially, I applied for the role because my coworkers had roots.” I catch the sympathy my confession invokes and tack on, “My parents passed my freshman year of college. Carbon monoxide poisoning at a hotel they were staying in while on vacation.”

“I’m sorry.” It’s sincere, not a knee jerk response that so often follows news of a tragedy.

“Thanks. I won’t claim it still doesn’t hurt, but it has lessened over time.”

“It’s like a scar,” he says. “The wound itself will heal, but it will always leave its mark on you.”

Peter gets it. Which can only mean he’s experienced it. Now my heart aches for him. “How long has it been?”

“A year,” he quietly answers. I know he doesn’t believe saying it louder will make it any less true, only that speaking it period pokes at what is clearly still a painful reality. “My mom.”

Hoping it sounds as genuine as I mean it to be, I put my hand on his arm and tell him, “I’m sorry, too.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you and your dad close?”

**Peter**

“Yeah. Losing her brought us even more so.”

“I’m glad you had, have, each other.” Who did she have? I get the feeling she didn’t have anybody and I hate that for her. It explains why she was able to take a job that pulled her from everything she ever knew. Which was probably the biggest selling point for her. At least I had my brothers-in-arms to help me through my grief.

My team, consisting of me, Carter Jacobs, Marcus Wayne, Tyler Dawson, Frederick Iverson, and Teddy Brown, are tight. Not only because we’ve faced life and death situations together, though that is part of it. But we all meshed from the moment we met. Within seconds, it was if we’d been friends forever.

An instant knowing that I’d never experienced before or after.

Until now.

And that was prior to actually meeting Bellamy.

I’m trying to focus on the moment instead of the knowledge she doesn’t live in the area nor have any idea when, or if, she’ll return.

Emphasis on the trying.

I’ve never had a problem with failing, it’s part of life and can teach you a valuable lesson. But in this case? I wish like hell my attempt to be in the moment was successful.

As the diner starts to do their closing routine, I know we’ve delayed the inevitable as long as we could.

“I’m not ready to say goodbye to you.” There. I put the ball in her court. What happens next is up to her.

“Then don’t.”

**Bellamy**

Peter follows me to the motel I’ve been staying at while I’m in town. I’ve been put up at better and worse, so I’m content with the current lodgings. The doors are all facing the parking lot, allowing tenants to come and go without passing through a lobby.

There are plenty of restaurants in the surrounding radius, making it a change of pace from locations that have had one or two to choose from.

Having the same food day in and day out quickly gets tedious, yet I can’t complain. I’ve learned to be grateful for every bite I’m able to consume. Having been to places where eating was a luxury and not a standard allotted to everybody was an eye-opener.

We go to my room and, after he removes his jacket, nerves begin to set in. “Nothing has to happen tonight,” he assures me. “Or any.”

That squashes my anxiety. “I like you, Peter.”

“I like you, too, Bellamy, and I want to spend time with you.”

“While I’m here.” I hate having to put that quantifier on it, but I need to know if that’s all this is to him. I’m not saying I’m against the possibility, only that I want to know ahead of time what his mindset is where this is concerned. “I think this could definitely become something, though, if we let it.”

“I think it already is,” he states, then he takes me in his arms and kisses me.

**Peter**

Nothing has felt as good as holding Bellamy and putting my mouth on hers. Not even getting home after a yearlong deployment.

Needing to be clear, I let her know I didn’t come here expecting this. “Then it’s a surprise for both of us.”

We fall back on the bed, my shirt coming off and landing on the floor with hers soon joining it. I have to take a minute to draw on my control after seeing her breasts encased in dark blue lace and satin. A color that perfectly matches her eyes. Whether that’s intentional or a happy coincidence, I don’t know. All I know is as beautiful as it looks on her, she’s even more so once it’s removed.

Because it means there’s nothing between us in this aspect when it feels like there’s a plethora of it in others.

Resolved to find a way around those, I vow to put all my focus on them later.

Bellamy deserves the entirety of it now and I want to give it to her.

So, I do.

Pressing my lips to her chest, directly where I estimate her heart to be, I try to imprint every emotion I’m feeling for her into it.

When she gently places her hand on my head and indicates she wants me to move, I take it as consent to do what I’m craving.

Taste her.

I unbutton her pants and pull the zipper down, my gaze fixated on her breasts as they jiggle while she lifts her ass, allowing me to yank them off.

The worry I’m feeling this more than she is evaporates upon seeing the center of her panties and the proof of her desire for me.

She’s about to see mine for her.

After she fills my mouth.

**Bellamy**

Peter pushes the gusset of my underwear to the side and begins tracing the crease with his tongue. Slipping it inside, he explores me and I’m soon at his mercy, begging for release while simultaneously trying to stave it off.

Even if this is all I have with him, I’ll be thankful.

While praying for more.

**Peter**

“Bellamy,” I groan, hating like hell what I have to say. Her eyes are dazed as she gives me her attention, her chest still heaving from her climax, and the pride it gives me is a helluva thing.

I did that to her.

“Peter,” she pleads, clearly ready for me to continue.

That makes two of us, baby.

“I don’t have protection.” If only I’d been a boy scout growing up. “Haven’t needed any in years.”

“Me either,” she shares. “I’m uh,” she exhales. “We’re covered.”

We should’ve had this talk earlier. “I’m clean,” I assure her. “Get checked regularly due to my job.” Not that I’ve told her what that is. Something she needs to know if this goes where I want it to.

“Me, too. I get the shot. With all the traveling I do, it’s easier.” My experience would be considered limited giving my age, and how a certain group view those in a uniform, but I’ve never gone sans condom.

Never wanted to.

But I sure as hell want to with Bellamy.

Staring at her, giving her a chance in case she chooses to change her mind, I slide inside her at a nod of agreement.

“Fuck!” This is going to be fast. I’ll make it up to her later. I can’t go over the edge without her, though. With my finger on her clit, my mouth on her nipple, and my heart in her figurative hands, I push as far into her as I can. Then I retreat, only to take my rightful place again, and again, and again. Bellamy urges me on, letting me knows she’s close and soon we’re coming as one.

And I am immediately ready for the next round.

She’s so tight.

So perfect.

So mine.

Whatever I have to do, I’m keeping her.

I can’t let her go.