Hadley

The six-hour drive from the little town south of Lexington to Brecken’s home in Chicago flew past as we talked about all the things most couples would discuss during the first week or two of dating. Our childhoods, favorite books and movies, all the little things that made us who we were. We were doing it backwards since we were already married, but it didn’t matter because we’d learned the truly important stuff about each other back in the Nicaraguan jungle. Not only had we made it through hell together, but we’d spent more hours in each other’s company than most couples would after a couple months of dating.

The parking garage he pulled into was dark and kind of scary. I was a little uncertain until the elevator, which required a passcode to use, took us straight to the penthouse and the doors opened to the foyer of a gorgeous apartment. I started to walk out, but Brecken surprised me by sweeping me into his arms.

“I believe it’s customary for the groom to carry the bride over the threshold.” His voice was a whisper of sound, his breath hot against my ear as he carried me into the living room before setting me on my feet.

The design was all black leather and shiny chrome, a bachelor pad fit to grace the pages of a home décor magazine. There was a giant flat screen television on one wall and what looked like a gourmet kitchen across the open space. But the most impressive part of the apartment was the floor to ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan. I was drawn to them as though by an invisible string, placing my palms against the cold glass as I looked outside at the incredible view.

I didn’t hear Brecken approach me from behind, but I felt him when he pressed me against the window. The contrast between the heat of his body and the glass, chilled from the outside temperature, sent a shiver through me. The view blurred as Brecken twisted me in his arms until I was facing him. Then his lips crashed down on mine, our tongues tangling together while his hands made quick work of the removal of our clothes, leaving him completely naked and me standing in nothing but my tiny, white lace panties.

When he tore his mouth from mine and wrapped his lips around one of my nipples, I moaned and tangled my hands in his hair to hold his head in place. Mewling and rubbing against him, I was close to the edge just from the attention he lavished on my breasts—licking, sucking and nibbling at the sensitive flesh. My back arched and my hips moved restlessly against him in search of more contact. A silent request he answered by dipping his fingers into my panties, sliding them through my wetness. His mouth lifted from my nipple, and I watched as he replaced it with his drenched fingers.

“I could live on the taste of your pussy alone,” he growled. “But as much as I want to eat at you for hours, it’s going to have to wait because I need to be inside you. Now.”

“I need you just as much.”

His eyes darkened further at my response. He claimed my mouth one more time, letting me taste myself on his lips before he spun me around to face the window again. I raised my hands and placed them on the glass to brace myself, widening my stance and tilting my hips to give him better access. His hands slid around my hips, thumbs resting on the small of my back. He leaned over and whispered in my ear. “So fucking beautiful, seeing you spread out for me like this.”

Then the heat of his body was gone except for the feel of his legs outside mine as he lined his dick up with my entrance and drove into me with one powerful thrust. There was none of the pain from our last time, only the intense pleasure of his hardened length sliding against my inner walls. “So good,” I moaned.

“And so fucking tight.” His fingers dug into my hips as he pulled out and plunged back in, over and over again. He went deeper and faster with each ram of his hips. “My wife.”

His voice held a purring satisfaction at being able to call me his. It made my pussy flutter against him. “My husband,” I gasped, sending him into a frenzy.

“Your pussy is mine, my precious girl,” he growled into my ear, pushing me against the glass as he hammered into me. His hand slid up my back, along my arm and down to my hand. “This ring marks you as mine for all the world to see, but I want to leave other brands on your body. Ones for my eyes only.”

I felt the scrape of his stubble before his teeth sunk into my shoulder. The sharp sting made me shudder with pleasure. When he didn’t let go, holding me submissive underneath him, the way a lion would his lioness, while he thrust in and out, I exploded. “Brecken!” I screamed.

With my pussy clenching around him, Brecken followed me with a shout, his hot come pouring into me. When my heartbeat calmed enough for me to catch my breath, I giggled. “Bedded, wedded and bedded again. All in three days’ time, too.”

His chest shook against my back as he laughed. We stood like that for a few minutes, laughing together with him deep inside me, before he pulled out and lifted me into his arms. “I think I can do better once I get you in our bed.”

Ours, I liked the sound of that. He carried me down a hallway and into the bedroom, gently placing me on the mattress before landing on top of me. Then he proceeded to show me how much better he could do, several times through the night.

I rolled over, enjoying the feel of the cool sheets against my naked skin and reached out for Brecken. Finding his side of the bed empty, I sat up in surprise. Brecken hadn’t left me alone without waking me up for a morning quickie in the week since we’d arrived in Chicago. I wandered into the connecting master bath and noticed the mirror was still fogged as I washed my hands and brushed my teeth. I couldn’t be too far behind him. Maybe he’d planned to surprise me with breakfast in bed. Moving towards the door, I halted in my tracks with my hand on the knob when I heard voices coming from the living room.

“So much for the idea of breakfast in bed,” I muttered to myself as I entered the walk-in closet and put on a pair of silk pajamas, throwing a robe over it before I headed down the hallway. Finding my parents seated on our couch across from Brecken was quite the shock. My small gasp of surprise alerted them to my presence, and all eyes turned to me. My husband rose from his seat and moved towards me swiftly, but my gaze remained locked on my parents. I hadn’t seen them in more than half a year. And we hadn’t spoken, not once during all that time.

I didn’t understand what was happening. Brecken knew how much our estrangement pained me, but he also knew the reason for it. I thought he understood how I felt about what my dad did for a living. When we’d made the drive to Chicago last week, I’d been surprised by Brecken’s story about how he’d met my father. I couldn’t fathom a reason for the connection between my dad, the illegal arms dealer, and a well-respected General in the Army. He’d asked me a lot of questions about my parents, but I figured it was all part of the getting to know you process. Apparently I thought wrong and his questions were for another purpose.

“Morning, precious.” He dropped a kiss on my lips as though this morning was the same as any other. Then he moved his head until his mouth rested above my ear. “I know you’re scared, but I need you to trust me here. I did some checking into your dad’s company over the last week. Some things didn’t add up so I dug further. What I found will surprise you, Hadley. In a good way, but your dad asked if he could be the one to explain it to you. That’s why they’re here.”

My heart filled with hope as I gripped Brecken’s hand and turned to face my parents. My mom’s eyes were full of happy tears when we sat down across from them, Brecken settling me on his lap with his arms wrapped around me.

“You look so happy,” she whispered.

“I am,” I confirmed in a soft voice, sending her a quick smile before shifting my gaze to my dad. My voice hardened when I continued. “Now. But I was the furthest thing from happy when Brecken found me in the jungle after your associates took me from my dorm room and you left me there to rot for two weeks, wondering if you were just going to let me die because I hadn’t forgiven you yet.”

“Hadley, no!” My dad jumped to his feet, pacing back and forth behind the couch where he’d been sitting, one hand running through his hair. “You’re my daughter, and I love you. I never wanted anything to happen to you, that’s why I pushed you away in the first place.”

I jerked in Brecken’s arms. “What the heck do you mean, pushed me away?”

He moved around the couch, and I froze in place until he dropped down beside my mom. “I arranged for you to discover my illegal arms dealings.” He made air quotes when he said the last three words. “Which aren’t so much as illegal as they are sanctioned by the US government.”

“You lied to me?” I gasped.

He stared straight at me, anguish evident in his eyes. “I did, but it was necessary. I was working on a project.” He cleared his throat and shifted his gaze to Brecken for a moment before looking at me again. “I can’t go into a lot of details because they’re classified, but Brecken can confirm that everything I’m telling you is the honest to God truth.”

“I can, precious,” my husband whispered in my ear.

I nodded and my dad continued with his explanation. “My situation put me in a unique position to help the Army in their search for an enemy who’d managed to get their hands on a weapon they needed to get back. Badly.”

“Badly is an understatement,” Brecken added. “Your dad didn’t have much of a choice. Too many lives were at stake.”

My dad waved it away, like him helping to save lives didn’t matter. “It was a decision I quickly came to regret because the only way to insert myself with them was to take possession of something else they wanted and to play coy in an effort to draw them out. Only it backfired, and threats were made against my family. Against you specifically, presumably because you were the easiest to access since your mom spends most of her time behind the gates of our home.”

“Your solution was to push me away? Wouldn’t that have put me at risk even more?”

“The profiler involved with the case assured me that their leader would lose interest in you if it appeared that I couldn’t care less.” His head hung low, and his voice dropped. “So we spread a story about you not being my biological daughter and I told them we weren’t even speaking to each other and that I’d finally been successful at removing you completely from your mother’s life.”

My mom took his hand in hers. “He would have pushed me away too if they’d been able to figure out a story that made sense.”

“The men the Army was hunting are beyond dangerous. They’re vicious and bloodthirsty, and I was willing to do whatever it took to keep you safe. Even if it meant you hated me forever. But they somehow figured out our ruse and took you. I just about went crazy trying to get the Army to help me search for you. To help me rescue you,” he pleaded. “Eventually, the General put me in touch with a man who he said was your best bet.”

“Brecken,” I sighed.

“The General was right. He managed to get you out.”

“The guys who took me, are they still out there?”

A look passed between the two men, I wasn’t certain what it meant but it seemed to hold a promise. “Not for long,” my dad answered.

My situation had been desperate when Brecken had rescued me in the jungle. Before that, I’d spent so many months thinking my dad was a horrible person, responsible for the deaths of others. Brecken had managed to restore my faith in him. I had a feeling I was going to spend the rest of my life with him accomplishing impossible feats to make sure I was happy.

“I never thought in a million years that I’d be thankful for being taken the way I was, but I am because it brought me to Brecken.”

My husband’s arms tightened around me as my parent’s gazes dropped to the hand I extended, showing off the rings Brecken had placed there. I meant every word, too. I’d endure it all over again if he was waiting for me at the end. Our relationship had been forged in the fires of hell. It would withstand the test of time.