Arrogant Neighbor: A Navy SEAL Romance (12 page)

We rocked, like he was offering nothing more than comfort, and I was willingly taking it. But our bodies were locked together in the most intimate of ways, and I so wanted him to come inside of me, to fill me with proof that I was the one woman who could push him over that edge, to be the only woman who had the power to turn him on that way.

His breath was coming like he was running a marathon. He couldn’t kiss me anymore, couldn’t catch his breath. So he let his lips slide over my chin, the heat of his mouth washing over me as I ran my fingers through is hair and tugged him closer.

He suddenly stood, catching me by surprise. He slammed my back into the wall, rattling a picture that hung there. His hands under my thighs, he pulled my hips down so that he was pounding as deep inside of me as it was humanly possible to get. It was almost painful, the way he thrust against me, the way the base of his shaft slammed against my clit. But there was something so primitive about it that I didn’t want it to stop. I wanted him to use me, wanted him to forget about everything but how good it was. I wanted him, wanted—

Oh, my God! It felt so good!

We weren’t making love. We were fucking. And it was indescribable.

I buried my nails in his shoulders as my body succumbed to another orgasm. I felt it everywhere, in my pussy, my clit, my belly, even my toes. There had never been anything like it. And still he thrust, still he pounded himself against me. My vision darkened a little. I wasn’t sure how much more I could stand. And then his grip on my thighs became a death grip, the pain only adding to the pleasure. He roared. He literally roared. And I felt his manhood swell just a little bit more, felt the heat of his orgasm burst inside of me. He kept moving, kept thrusting until he simply couldn’t do it anymore. Then he just stood against the wall, me impaled on his pulsing cock, a simple drag of air a thing of the past. I couldn’t catch my breath.

“Fuck me!” He touched my face, brushed my wet hair away from my face. “You okay?”

I nodded, but I couldn’t speak. He carefully carried me back to the bed and lay me down. I grabbed his arm and made him lay beside me, buried my face in his chest.

It took time, but my lungs finally remembered how to breathe.

He kissed me all over my face, his hands moving gently over my body.

“Did I hurt you?”

“I’m okay.”

“Are you sure? I didn’t mean to—”

I pressed my fingers to his lips. “Don’t apologize. That was amazing.”

“It was,” he proclaimed, lifting my hand to press his lips against my palm. “You are fucking amazing.”

I smiled but I was so exhausted I couldn’t even think about keeping my eyes open. I curled up against him and began to drift, happier than I’d thought it was possible to be.

I
was taking
a pan of tacos out of the oven when my phone rang. Sloane came up behind me and slipped it out of the front pocket of my jeans, her fingers scraping the side of my cock as she did. It seemed like I was always hard when she was around. And after the other night, I think it was worse than before.

I watched her skip across the room, reading the display on the phone.

“Waterston, Inc.,” she said. “Is that the company you’re thinking about working with?”

“No.”

“Waterston. Isn’t that that big building downtown? The one that employs like half the people in the city?”

“I think so.”

“Why would someone be calling you from there?”

I walked over and took the phone from her, shoving it into my back pocket. Then I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her neck.

“It’s Saturday. Why don’t we forget about everything but this? But the here and now?”

She sighed as she leaned back into me. “Sounds good to me.”

I rocked her back and forth for a second, watching the tension slowly leave her face. She’d been pretty stressed lately, between her work load and this thing with her parents. Her mother kept calling, trying to get her to commit to going to her wedding. She didn’t think I noticed, but I did. And I saw how each of those conversations made her lips pucker like she’d just tasted something sour and how it was making her restless at night, causing her to be tired all the time.

I wanted to have a conversation with her father, but I was afraid it would only make things worse for her.

“Go sit on the couch. I’ll get you a glass of wine.”

She turned in my arms and kissed me so softly that it nearly took my breath away.

“Let’s skip the wine tonight. It makes me sleepy, and I want to be fully awake later.”

My body immediately responded to the promise in her words. I kissed her back, then pushed her away from me before dinner could burn and spoil the evening.

“Go sit.”

She smiled, but she turned and walked away. I watched, loving the way her body moved in the jeans she was wearing. I groaned as I turned away, headed back to the kitchen.

I finished the tacos and set a couple on plates. I carried them into the living room where she was curled up under a blanket, the tv remote in her hands. She was flipping through the channels, looking for something to watch. I sat beside her and set her plate on the coffee table before digging into mine. She settled on some lame family movie, one of those ones that always have some sort of moral at the end.

“Do you really like this sort of thing?” I asked between bites.

“Yeah. It’s interesting.”

“Do you really think normal families are like that?”

“Like what?”

“A loving mom and dad. Brothers who only tease their sisters because they don’t truly appreciate how much they really love each other?” I glanced at her. “You realize that no family is really that perfect.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Just because your dad’s an asshole…”

She shook her head, but she didn’t say anything.

“I just mean that these movies aren’t as realistic as they could be.”

“Wasn’t your family a happy one?”

“Yeah. Until my dad was hit by a drunk driver on his way home from the grocery store.”

I took another bite of my taco even though I knew she was staring at me. I’d never mentioned my dad to her before. I don’t know why. And I don’t know why I just blurted it out that way. It was kind of cruel, I suppose. But I didn’t want her all feeling sorry for me about something that happened years ago.

“Do you think we could have a happy family?”

I nearly choked on my food. I set the plate on the table next to hers and swallowed hard.

“What do you mean?”

She just shrugged. “I don’t know. You don’t believe in happy families and I definitely don’t have an example to emulate. Do you think it’s possible either of us could ever have a happy family?”

My heart was pounding. I had thought…well, I don’t suppose it mattered what I thought. It was clearly not the same thing she was thinking.

I took her hand and tugged her into my arms.

“I think life is what you make of it. If you want to have a happy family, then I suppose it’s possible. I didn’t mean that it wasn’t. I just meant it was unlikely, especially the way these movies show them.”

“Do you want children?”

I didn’t honestly know how to answer that. I sat still for a moment, stopped stroking her back for a moment.

“I’ve never really thought about it before. I suppose someday.”

“But not now?”

“A month ago, I was bringing home drunk girls and entertaining the police in my living room. I’m not sure now is a good time for me to think about the responsibility of raising a whole new life.”

She nodded against my chest. “I guess that’s true.”

“We have our whole lives ahead of us, Sloane. Why are you asking about all this now?”

“I don’t know. I guess everything that’s going on with my parents…”

I kissed the top of her head. “We’re not your parents.”

She didn’t answer me. She just curled up against me and, after a little while, her breathing slowed and deepened. She was asleep.

I just held her for a little while, loving the way she fit in my arms.

Would I want to have a child? I really didn’t know. But if Sloane was the mother…an image suddenly flashed through my mind, a little girl with dark hair like mine and green eyes like Sloane’s. And a smile that could break hearts. Wouldn’t that be something? A little girl to spoil rotten. I couldn’t help the smile that spread over my face. Would my mother have the last laugh if I settled down, had a kid, and went to work for Waterston, Inc.? It’d be playing right into her hands.

Strange thing was, it didn’t sound all that bad.

I
paced for so long
, I’m surprised I didn’t burn a hole in the carpet of my living room. I slipped out of Major’s warm bed to come home and take the pregnancy test. I’d put it off for days, hoping my period would just suddenly appear. There’d been some spotting after the other night, but it stopped as quickly as it started. And that scared me more than taking the test did.

What if something was wrong? What if I was pregnant and rough sex had done something to hurt the baby?

I wasn’t sure what I wanted more: for the test to be negative or for it to be positive.

I didn’t know. I kept thinking about it, and the idea frightened me, but then I would think of a perfect little boy who looked like Major, and my heart just melted. It wouldn’t be so bad, would it?

Except for the fact that Major didn’t want kids. Not yet, anyway.

I asked him. I finally got up the nerve to broach the subject, and he was so eloquent about it. At the time, it sounded reasonable, what he said. But now? What if he really didn’t want kids? What if I told him, and he gave me money to get an abortion? It’s not like he hadn’t already suggested it.

What did he say that night, all those weeks ago?
“If something comes of it, tell me. I’ll take care of it.”

That wasn’t very encouraging. And then, just a week or so ago, he said it wasn’t like we were getting married. That he’d have plenty of time to do stupid things. Those weren’t the words of a man who was ready to deal with a pregnancy surprise.

But there was really only one way of finding out. I needed to know if there was such pregnancy.

With a deep breath, I finally went into the bathroom and opened the bag I’d hidden days ago. Inside was a simple test in a box much too big for the stick it held. I quickly scanned the directions and did what it said, down to the letter. And then more waiting.

I went into the bedroom and curled up on my bed, thinking about Major on the other side of that wall. He asked me last night if I could go anywhere in the world, where would it be.

“San Francisco,” I said. “I’ve always wanted to see the Golden Gate bridge.”

“Not Paris? London? Rome?”

“I’d like to see all those places, too. But I’ve never been outside of Texas. I’d really like to see the Golden Gate Bridge.”

I expected him to laugh at me, but he just looked thoughtful. That was the way Major was. He thought he had it all figured out. And when he didn’t, it threw him for a loop. That’s one of the things I loved the most about him.

Love. Yeah, I’d said it. I was falling in love with him and I hated myself for it. My first truly grown-up relationship, and I was in love less just over a month in. What would he think if he knew that?

I was such a child. When was I going to learn? Adults don’t just fall in love with the first guy who makes their toes curl during sex. They give it time, get to know the guy, get to know his family, meet his friends and—hopefully—got their approval. But I’d never met Major’s family, didn’t even know his dad was dead until recently, and I’d only met one of his friends. Jack surely didn’t like me.

It wasn’t a good situation. Major was a bad boy who was trying to be good, right? It wouldn’t last. This wouldn’t last. He’d get bored and then…what? I’d be alone with a baby he didn’t want, living my mom’s life all over again. Only Major likely wouldn’t ever come back for me.

But I wanted to believe I was wrong. I wanted to believe that Major cared about me, too. That he was willing to commit to this thing…to whatever it was we had going on. I wanted to believe that if I was pregnant, he would be there for me.

I wanted to believe it so badly that when the time was up on the test and I saw the result, I rushed right over to his place to talk to him about it. Only Major was still asleep. His phone, on the other hand, was vibrating with an impatient caller on the other end. I picked it up and stepped out into the hallway. There was no name beside the number, but I thought it might be important. It was eight o’clock on a Sunday morning. Who would be calling but someone with bad news?

“Hello?”

“Sorry,” a female voice said, “I must have the wrong number. I was trying to reach Major Waterston?”

“This is Major Rutherford’s phone,” I said.

“Oh. He’s going by Rutherford now? I should have guessed.”

“Who is this?”

“Kara,” she said, like I would know who that was just by the uttering of the two simple syllables. “And you are?”

I closed my eyes as I leaned back against the wall. “How do you know him?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your—”

“Did you say Waterston?”

“Yes.”

“As in Waterston, Inc.? As in the Waterstons who own most of downtown?”

“That’s them.”

“A.J. Waterston?” I asked, picturing the name on the outside of the tallest building downtown.

“Major’s his son. If you’re answering his phone, you must know that.”

“You would think so, wouldn’t you?”

I dropped the phone to my side, my mind spinning as the girl on the other end continued to talk, trying to get my attention. I thought of the expensive booze in the cupboards, the fact that Major rarely spoke about this family, the fact that he didn’t seem to need to work to pay his rent. It didn’t make sense, but then it did. The spoiled rich boy trying to see how the other half lives without actually giving up anything.

He’d been lying to me. From the very beginning. And here I thought…and the girl. Who was she? Where did he meet her? Is that why he had that look on his face when I asked him where he’d been, all dressed up in a tie and button down Oxford? Was he out with her then?

I dropped the phone and walked away. I couldn’t believe I’d done it. All those years I watched my mom tear herself up over a man who didn’t want her, who didn’t want the life she had to offer him. He lied to her, cheated on her, broke her heart over and over again, yet she went back to him again and again. I swore I’d never be her. Yet, here I was, in love with a man who’d lied to me almost from the beginning.

Here I was, pregnant by a man who couldn’t even tell me his real name.

What the hell was I going to do now?