Trusting a Warrior (Loving a Warrior #3) - Melanie Hansen Page 0,87
No begging, no pleading, no riding together, nothing that could smack of coercion at all.
Leaning over, Geo gave her a short, hard kiss, then headed toward the bedroom, reappearing several minutes later pulling a T-shirt over his head. “Gonna go run a few errands,” he said noncommittally.
After the door had closed behind him, she sank into a chair at the kitchen table and buried her face in her hands.
Please, God. Please let me be doing the right thing.
A furtive twist of guilt went through her, one that she quickly banished. Yeah, sleeping with him might not have been the wisest course of action, but goddamn, what a night. Three times they’d made love, three glorious times that’d left her limp with satisfaction, the last one right as the sunrise started peeking through the blinds.
She shivered at the memory of his sleepy kisses, lazy hands and languid thrusts from behind, her top knee hooked over his forearm. They’d showered together before heading into the kitchen for their unconventional breakfast, Geo declaring himself famished.
“No wonder,” she’d teased him. “Good sex is hard work!”
He’d pulled her into his lap and kissed her thoroughly in agreement before letting her go.
Sighing, her lips still tingling, she pushed to her feet and padded into the bedroom to strip the sheets and tidy up, only to stop short in the doorway with a gasp. “Oh, my God!”
He’d already stripped the bed and remade it with crisp, perfect corners. Their scattered clothes had been picked up and stuffed in the hamper, the bathroom sink wiped down, wet towels hung neatly back up.
Lani clasped her hands to her chest and spun around in a circle before sinking to sit on the edge of the bed. “You’re a keeper for sure,” she said aloud to the empty room. “Husband material, boyfriend material...”
A pang shot though her. He might be a keeper, all right, but she couldn’t keep him. So what if he was a dishes whiz, a good listener and a generous and considerate lover? So what if she’d woken in the night to find him splaying his palm low on her belly, as if hoping to feel the baby move?
The pang morphed into an ache so sharp that tears sprang to her eyes. No, she couldn’t keep him. Not as long as he was a SEAL.
How many of her friends over the years had given birth alone, their husbands gone—out of touch, out of reach? How many of them had had to deal with missed birthdays, forgotten anniversaries, serious injuries, illnesses?
So many things left for them to handle alone, married as they were to men who were gone far more than they were ever home.
Lani squeezed her eyes shut.
An afternoon on Tabitha’s porch while the kids were all in school. The laughter flowing along with the wine, excited plans bandied about for the guys’ homecoming in only two weeks. Suzette had a pregnancy to announce to a husband she hadn’t seen in almost six months.
“Harry’s gonna shit when he sees me,” she said, cackling. “We’ve only been trying for two goddamn years, and then with one last goodbye fuck, boom...knocked up! I can’t wait to surprise him!”
Hoots and jokes from the women about all the homecoming babies about to be conceived, and then Suzette pushed to her feet. “Y’all, I bought the cutest maternity lingerie the other day. Lemme show you!”
Caressing her baby bump, she hurried to her house across the street.
A little envious of her happiness, visions of her own childless future with Rhys swirling before her, Lani hadn’t even noticed the government car that’d turned the corner until someone gasped.
Frozen in horror, they watched it creep along before pulling over to the curb and stopping—in front of Suzette’s house.
Anguished shouts of “No!” interspersed with the tinkle of wineglasses crashing to the ground...
For the rest of her life, Lani would never forget the sight of Tabitha’s long blond hair streaming out behind her as she ran barefoot across the street, desperate to get to her friend before the Navy chaplain did. Before Suzette’s world crashed down around her ears. Before she learned that Harry would never meet his long-awaited son...
“I can’t do it,” she gasped, the painful memories splintering her heart into pieces all over again. “I can’t live my life like that. I can’t.”
She’d had enough of goodbyes.
* * *
Geo killed the engine and gazed up at the small house.
“In a lot of ways, the second year is harder than the first. She’ll need friends now more