Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
It was over two weeks before I was able to make it home. Stepping off the plane, I saw Adam, Tai, and my father waiting for me. They all wore expressions of despair. None of them were as bad as mine though.
I was engulfed in hugs, and I broke. Utterly broke. My wife. The woman I loved with all my heart was gone. What the hell would I do now? One thing I was sure of, though, was that I would never love another. She deserved that from me. I would be true to our pledge of forever. No matter what.
I had a week to bury my wife and get back to base. A week to try to find some answers.
Chapter 2
Being married is like having a best friend who doesn’t remember anything you say.
-E-card
Winter
The man I’d been watching was calling me Winter. My eyes went to the sweatshirt he was wearing; I went to his right arm, took his hand in mine, and then yanked the shirt up revealing the same tattoo. Letting his hand drop, I yanked my shirt off over my head to reveal my tattoo to him.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked with a frantic note evident in my voice.
I was so confused.
His callused hand went to my side and ran from just underneath my breast to the waist of my jeans. Goosebumps appeared, chasing the path that his hand had just followed.
“It’s beautiful. You must’ve had it done right after I left. Wow, did you get…” His voice froze midsentence, when his fingers encountered the raised, ugly scar that started at my hipbone and flowed to just above my knee. “What the fuck is this from?”
His hands tore frantically at the button of my jeans. My heart pounded, but not for the reason you would normally think of when a stranger took off your jeans. I soon found myself with my pants down around my ankles, and Jack’s face practically touching the top of my thigh as he studied the scar. His large muscular hands framed my thigh, overlapping at the inside, squeezing lightly. I wasn’t scared in the least, though. My body knew his. Something felt so perfectly right about him touching me that not even the slightest bit of reluctance hit my body.
“What…What…What happened?” He finally choked out.
He leaned forward and kissed the puckered scar, and then leaned his forehead against it waiting for my reply.
“I don’t know. I didn’t even know my name until about ten minutes ago. You called me Winter; something seemed so right about it. The same goes for your name. When that man pulled me out of the car, my mind froze, and went somewhere I never knew existed. I was screaming your name and didn’t even realize that I was doing it.” I finally said.
He yanked the bandana off his head and his spiky black hair sprung up. My hand lifted on its own volition, and his silky smooth hair slipped gracefully between my fingers. God, it was so soft and thick. My fingers started running through the soft locks, fingernails scratching on the way back to the front. His head leaned against my thigh a little harder, and he practically growled in pleasure.
“God, I missed this the most. You touching me. This feels so good, so perfect.” He said gruffly, lips moving against my thigh.
“When?” I whispered heavily, finally broaching the subject I’d been studiously avoiding.
“Seven years, three months, and twenty two days.” He said, standing and pulling my jeans up deftly, buttoning them, and then stepping away.
He ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the roots as he paced the room.
“I was in Afghanistan for three days before I realized that I didn’t want to leave you there without a piece of me. We were married by proxy within a week of my deployment. My father gave you away and Adam stood in for me.”
An image of a grizzly old man with a jovial smile filled my thoughts, and I smiled. “Pops!”
Jack’s sad smile made mine slip away instantly. I watched him, but I knew. His dad wasn’t alive anymore, and I felt such a sinking loss at that news, that it stole my breath.
“He died about two years ago. He never stopped thinking that you were alive. He’d tell me every time I came to visit that you were out there somewhere waiting for me to come get you. I guess he was right. I should have listened to the old bastard, but I went over those police reports for months and months in my downtime. I had Adam look into as much as he could. God, I can’t freakin’ believe this! You’ve needed me for seven goddamned years, and where the fuck have I been?” He finished on a yell.
His fist went through the wall in the next instant, and I wasn’t very surprised. The man always had one hell of a temper. A memory came to mind of a time when a boy started taunting me about my mother. He was one of those guys who didn’t take rejection very well, and after I turned him down for a date, he’d made it a necessity to torment me every time he got the chance. Only, the last time, Jack was there to beat the crap out of him.
I snickered, and he turned to me sharply. “I just remembered when you did that the night you…” My voice trailed off as I realized what I was about to say. I hadn’t seen him in seven freakin years, and here I was about to comment about the night we’d had the best sex of my life.
Not that I had anything to compare it too since I hadn’t been sexually active in the last seven years, nor do I remember any encounters before that. However, by the looks of it, I’d done the dirty with Jack more than once, if the expression on his face was anything to go by.
“What do you remember?” He asked gruffly.