Chapter 13
Hawke
Making sure she’s settled with a book, I go out for a perimeter check. My senses and emotions are on high alert. After making my rounds I pause in the woods in view of the main door of the cabin and stare up at the stars.
Damn, the way her hands cupped my butt, the way she met each of my thrusts, her soap silkened hair wrapped in one of my fists, made me come undone.
Her moans of pleasure as I took her hard in the shower echo through my brain.
The moments, the feels, keep playing in my mind and already I need her again.
She’s here with me. A life I could never have imagine flickers on the horizon. A hope I was afraid to entertain. She’s mine now, and no way in hell is anyone taking her from me.
But a baby? Being a dad? That’s some scary shit I never envisioned for me.
Growing up the way I did... Hell, most of the time I double wrapped I was so afraid of surprises.
When I realized Laney was the love of my life, but she was too good for me, I never thought about having a wife, let alone kids, a family.
As a soldier I didn’t think about dying.
It was part of the job. Some of us made it out, some didn’t.
I was always aware of the men who did have families to go home to.
Someone waiting. We all had tasks to perform, but still I tried to protect my troops when and where I could.
Some of the scars I bear were to save someone else.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I always thought of myself as expendable. There was no one to miss me.
But now... Now Laney needs me. She says she wants me. What if I don’t have to stay in the shadows? What if we both walk away from this? What if we get a chance to be together, to be a couple, a family? What if I just gave her a baby?
Could I really be a father? I have no idea how to be a parent.
No, that’s not true. I’d know everything not to do.
Not just from my own experiences but from being the commanding officer to my men.
Many of them also ended up in the military because they saw it as the only way out of a dead-end life.
A lot of them came from broken homes and poverty.
After all, the poor have always been the country’s expendables in war.
But becoming a dad? Something warm and soft builds in my chest. Laney’s baby. A little girl just like her.
Never, never have I ever hoped. Now I can’t get the thought out of my head.
I’m going to end this, and Laney will never suffer again. If she still wants me... I will love and protect her for the rest of my life.