Chapter 29
“It’s been Maya all along.” ~ Caleb
Caleb
M aya’s words of love give me the extra boost of confidence I need to push down my zipper. I lift up my ass and she helps to draw my jeans down my legs.
I can’t look at her face. I don’t want to watch the disgust form there when she realizes how badly injured my leg was. When she sees the mottled skin, the scorched area where the bullet exited my thigh, the jagged edges around the bullet hole.
“Who did this to you?” She growls.
Growls? I slowly swivel my head to catch her gaze. There’s no disgust there. She’s angry. No, not angry. She’s pissed.
“Those mo-fos.”
I chuckle. “Mo-fos?”
“Mother f-ers. I hope you busted a cap in their ass after this.”
Laughter bursts out of me. “Busted a cap in their ass? Am I gangster now?”
“Do not make fun of me. This is not a funny situation.”
I sober. “You’re right. It’s not. ”
“What happened?”
“I can’t tell you.” I’m a coward. I’m hiding behind operational security. But I don’t want to tell the woman I love how I failed. How I caused a fellow soldier to lose his leg. Guilt swamps me but Maya huffs and I focus on her.
“I know you can’t tell me where you were or who you were fighting. We’ve been pen pals for over a decade. I know the drill. I’m not an idiot. But you can tell me the broad strokes.” She caresses my thigh. “How did this happen?”
“I was trying to escape with my squad when I was shot by an AK-47. The bullet hit me in the back of my thigh and exited in the front.”
She gasps. “Sounds painful.”
The worst pain in my fucking life. “The bullet shattered my femur and tore my muscles all to hell.”
“Wow. I can’t believe you can walk.”
I grunt. “Didn’t walk tonight, did I?”
“Stop the smugglers! You’re in pain. I’m a selfish cow. I forgot.”
She lays the ice pack on my thigh and pain shoots through my leg. I grit my teeth to stop myself from groaning.
“Do you have any pain medication?”
“The stuff the hospital gave me makes me groggy.”
“What about over-the-counter pain meds? Do they help?”
I debate lying and saying I don’t need anything. But if I don’t take at least the edge off of this pain, I won’t make it to the bedroom on my own. It wouldn’t be the first time I slept on the sofa. But I can’t sleep on the sofa with Maya here for the night.
I point to the kitchen. “I have some Tylenol in the drawer next to the refrigerator.”
Maya jumps up and rushes to the kitchen. She returns seconds later with two pills and a glass of water.
“Now,” she says once I’ve swallowed the pills. “Hudson said I should massage the area. What do you think? Will a massage help?”
Despite the pain rushing through my leg, my cock twitches at her question. My cock might be on board with a massage but I’m not. It’s bad enough Maya saw my injury. She doesn’t need to touch it. Her skin is smooth and soft. My thigh feels rough and hard. It’s the opposite of sexy.
She narrows her eyes on me. “Are you being all weird again?”
“Weird?”
She motions to my leg. “You’ve been secretive about your injury since you came home.”
“Hell yeah, I have. Look at it. You’re gorgeous and I’m a certified freak.”
“You’re lucky I don’t believe in violence,” she grumbles. “Or I’d slap you.”
I rear back. “Slap me? You’d slap me?”
“Slap some sense into you. How dare you call yourself a freak! You’re not a freak. You’re a hero. You’re my hero. ”
I’m not a hero. If she knew what really happened, she’d realize the truth. And then she’d dump my ass. Which is why she’s never finding out the truth.
“I’m nobody’s hero.”
“Agree to disagree. Now, do you want a massage or do you want to continue to be a big baby?”
“Are you saying I’m a baby?”
“I didn’t stutter, did I?”
“What happened to my shy, sweet Maya?”
She purses her lips. “Why does everyone think being shy means I’m meek? There’s a difference between the two, you know.”
I hold up my hands. “Sorry, I questioned you.”
She pokes me in the chest. “You should be sorry. You know better than to think I’m meek. And I’m not shy when I’m with you. You make me feel safe. Safe enough to be myself without worrying about what other people think.”
Warmth spreads through my chest at her words. Despite everything – how I pushed her away for a decade, how I treated her when I first came home – she feels safe with me.
I hope I can live up to her expectations. I’ve failed my friends before. I can’t fail Maya. I can’t live without her. She’s the one person I need to breathe.
I palm her neck and lay my forehead against hers. “I love you, Bunny.”
“And I love you, soldier. But sometimes I want to kick you when you get all stubborn. ”
I chuckle. “I know another person who’s extremely stubborn.”
“It’s not stubborn when I’m always right.”
I rub my thumb over her pouty lips. “Always?” She nods. “Even when you got detention from the principal for setting off glitter bombs in the vice principal’s office?”
She rolls her eyes. “It was a misunderstanding.”
I cock an eyebrow. “You didn’t set off glitter bombs in the vice principal’s office?”
“I plead the fifth.”
Pain shoots through my thigh and I grunt.
Maya frowns. “What is it? More pain? The ice isn’t working. Shall I try to massage the area?”
I open my mouth to tell her fuck no but she holds up a hand. “Sorry. That sounded like a question. It wasn’t.”
She stands before dropping to her knees between my legs. My cock twitches with such vehemence it nearly escapes my underwear.
“First, let’s get rid of any impediments.” She shimmies my jeans down my legs until the material is pooled around my boots.
“I’m beginning to think romance books are big, fat liars,” she mutters as she unties my boots. “I swear no one ever has problems with shoes or boots in the sexy scenes. What happens to their footwear? Does it magically disappear?”
She lifts my foot and yanks off my left boot. “I guess they could magically disappear in a paranormal romance. Vampires have lots of magical powers, too. ”
She rids me of my other boot before pulling my jeans off of me.
“There. Much better.”
“You needed me without pants to give my thigh a massage?”
She points at my face. “You’re smiling and your dimple is out. I’m winning.”
She pushes my knees apart and scoots in between them. My cock hardens and lengthens at the sight. “Pretty sure I’m winning.”
“This is just a massage. It’s not foreplay.”
“Bunny, you have your hands on my naked skin. My cock doesn’t care if you’re giving me a massage or not.”
Her gaze drops to my cock and she licks her lips. I groan. “You’re not helping the situation.”
She bats her eyelashes at me. “What situation?”
“Vixen,” I mutter.
She giggles. “I don’t think muttering vixen is the deterrent you think it is. I’ve always wanted to be a vixen. The sexy heroine in my own story.”
I thread a hand through her hair. “Maya, you are the sexy heroine in your own story.”
She rolls her eyes and I tug on her hair. “Look at where you are.”
“I’m about to give you a massage.”
“No, Bunny. Look at where you are. You’re in this cabin with me with my pants down and my injury on full display. When I returned home a few months ago, I was determined to become a hermit. I didn’t plan to leave the cabin except for physical therapy.”
“But you came to Nova’s baby shower.”
“Because I couldn’t help myself. I knew you’d be there and I wanted to see you. Just once to get my fix. I told myself once would be enough.”
“Until I badgered you to let me in.”
I grunt. “You stopped by a grand total of three times before my resistance crumbled.”
“Because your parents showed up.”
“Do you know how many times they showed up and I refused to let them in? More than a dozen.”
She gasps. “And you didn’t let them in?”
“Are you starting to understand the influence you have on me now?”
She nods to my hard cock. “I think I understand a bit of the influence.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I want to bury myself inside you until I don’t know where you start and I end, but it’s more than sex. You, Maya Jenkins, are my everything. You have no idea how I lived for your letters and care packages. How your funny stories and sweetness kept me going all these years.”
“It’s always been you, Maya. From the first time, I chased those bullies away and you stared at me with those whiskey eyes, you ensnared me.”
Her lips tremble and her eyes swell. “You ensnared me, too.”
“Good.” I nod. “Because you are never getting rid of me.”
“I’m never letting you go. ”
I lean over to kiss her but she scoots away. “Nope. No kissing.” She waggles her eyebrows. “On the mouth.”
“You don’t have to—”
My words are cut off when she slips her hand into my briefs and wraps it around my cock. She pumps up and down a few times before opening her mouth and taking me inside.
“Fuck,” I groan as my cock is surrounded by her warm mouth.
My thigh trembles with pain but I ignore it. I can handle all the pain in the world to feel Maya’s mouth around my cock.