Her Marine Next Door - Aliyah Burke Page 0,62
smile was more of a threat. He didn’t appreciate that.
“Move.”
She did. Barely. Her sticky-sweet perfume curled his lip.
Parker stepped in Cullen’s room. Per usual, his son held a conversation with the bear. One that stopped when he was noticed.
“What’s going on with Murray?” He sat beside him. “How can we make him not be sad any longer?”
Cullen sent a quick look to the door. “He misses Mama. And Alpin.” A heavy sigh. “And Mama.”
Parker inched closer, his tone deliberately low. “You, too?”
Cullen nodded, tears lingering in his big blue eyes. “Don’t tell Mommy.”
His heart broke. What kind of kid begged his father not to tell his mom he was sad and missed someone he cared about?
“It will be our secret.” He dipped his head. “Want to know something else?”
“What?”
“I miss her, too.”
“We can get her back?”
God, he hoped so. He needed her. “I will.”
“Love you, Papa.”
His heart melted. “Love you, too, C-Man.” He brushed a kiss over his forehead and one over Murray, because that was how Mama did it.
Cullen gave him a sad smile and settled in his bed. “’Night, Mama,” he whispered. “Love you.”
He choked up as he allowed himself a final caress over the boy’s head before walking out of the room.
It didn’t get any better the following day. He was stressed all day long. Once his house was dark, Parker flopped on his bed with a groan, clad in nothing more than a pair of black warm-up pants that said “MARINES” down the right leg in gold. This was more stressful than dropping in behind enemy lines. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and tried to relax.
He’d been called to the base today to meet with his commanding officer. While he was still officially on medical leave, he swore his CO could still control the time of day he took a leak if he wanted to. Leave or not, that man could say jump and he would ask how high.
Cullen had been left with his parents as Gemma was gone—she’d be back tomorrow—but his boy was in one foul mood. Nothing would calm him down. Eventually, he told him to go to his room.
Exhaling a long slow breath, he covered his eyes with one forearm and sighed.
Rolling to his right side, he reached for his phone. He hesitated as he hovered over the call button for Skylar. God, just to hear her voice would be amazing. That seductive, slightly raspy voice that put fire in his blood without her intending to would surely be enough for him to find a peaceful path to sleep.
He rubbed the heel of his palm over his rapidly thickening erection and groaned at the slight contact. His touch wasn’t what he wanted in any way, but it would do in a pinch. And right now, that’s what he was in.
He went to the bathroom and cleaned up after jacking off to yet another memory of Skylar and him, checked on his son once more, then stumbled back to bed and flopped face-first on his mattress, only to crash moments later.
The clock read eleven thirty the next time he woke, to the sound of Cullen screaming for him. Getting up, he ignored the pain in his leg and ran to his son. It took a while to calm him down from the nightmare but when he finally went back to sleep, Parker realized he needed some water.
He didn’t want the eye-piercing glare, so he left the lights off and headed toward the kitchen. Scratching the back of his head, he hitched up the band of his workout pants and continued on, favoring his left side, where the muscles were sore from physical therapy. The poke from one of his son’s plastic soldiers stabbed into him, and he twisted to try to avoid it, because where there was one there were more. His leg, already weakened, didn’t take kindly to the swift adjustment, and it gave out on him. He stumbled into the coffee table, and everything went black as he hit the floor.
Pain beat him into awareness. Parker didn’t move, trying to assess the current situation. Not much made sense to him, other than the radiating discomfort coming from different parts of his body.
He moved one arm and sucked in a sharp breath. Dislocated? Fractured? Possibly broken. His feet were on fire, and his back hurt, as did his calves. He needed to get up to the light and see what the fuck was going on.
Goddamn minefield is what happened.