Tattered Love

He stopped laughing and teased, “Now I’m hard again thinkin’ about your mouth. See what you did?” Mace asked as he grabbed my hand and wrapped it around his impressive length that was indeed hard.



Warmth flooded me as I looked down to his hand covering my small one moving slowly up and down his shaft. Our gentle fondling turned into another heated round of sweet lovemaking, followed by a long shower. I couldn’t help but touch him when he was naked before me; his body was a work of art. All hard lines and smooth skin. If his reactions were anything to go by, Mace was of the same mindset. Every inch of my skin had been traced by his tongue, and I mean every inch, repeatedly.



Wrapping the big fluffy towel around me, my stomach rumbled letting me know I’d missed lunch. Mace must have heard it. His eyebrow cocked. I simply said, “Food,” and walked out of the bathroom toward the kitchen.



Later that night, curled up around each other on the sofa still naked after lunch was interrupted by Mace taking me across the kitchen table, then again on the floor in the living room while trying to put a movie on, needless to say I’d given up on clothing. I was comfortable tucked up tight against Mace under a soft throw blanket, tracing patterns on his taut stomach, realizing this was exactly where I belonged.



“I hate cheaters,” I blurted, taking his attention away from the game on TV. “My mother cheated on my father for years. She hurt him.” Mace looked down at me with softness in his eyes, waiting on me to finish. “My last relationship, well, he cheated on me too. And not just once, but repeatedly. The whole time we lived together, he had been sleeping with I don’t know how many people from the time we got together. For two years it happened and I was oblivious to it.” Still avoiding his face, I kept my gaze on my hand resting on his chest. It still made me feel stupid to have not known. “I never thought it would happen. I never thought I wouldn’t know I felt—still feel stupid for not seeing it for two whole years. I swore I wouldn’t let anyone in again. Then you walk yourself into my shop and my world tilted on it axis. Even then, Mace, I didn’t want to let you in.” I ended on a whisper.



Mace lifted my face with one finger under my chin. Looking into my eyes, he leaned down and gave me a chaste kiss. “I’d never cheat on you, Scar. He was a moron to throw what he had with you away. Kinda glad he was a dick though. Means I got you, and babe, I ain’t gonna let go.”



Well, if I didn’t already love him so damn much, I think I would have fallen right there and then.



After a few moments of silence, Mace must have figured it was time to share as well. He put his arms around me, almost like he was holding me in place in case I ran away.



“Janelle calls every month for money. At first, I didn’t question it; I just gave her whatever she asked for. I felt like I owed her. Her loss was the same as mine. If I had been there, she wouldn’t have been drinking or drugged up maybe. Anyway, she needed it, so I gave it to her. It took about six months until I realized she was just using it for her next fix or booze. Once she admitted it, I cut the cash flow off and just started to pay her bills, rent, electricity, gas, anything that came up. She called again early this month and told me she needed to meet with me.” I stayed quiet this time. I had plenty to say, but I wasn’t sure I could say any of it without showing my anger, and I didn’t need to do that, especially when Mace was opening up.



“I met with her and she told me that she owed some serious drug dealers a heap of money and had nobody else to ask, besides I owed it to her.” I bit down hard on my tongue so as not to lose my boiling temper. “I went to sort out her latest mess and found out she owed more than even I had, $10,000. I can’t help her even if I wanted to.”



“It’s not up to you any more, Mace. What happened to Belle wasn’t your fault; I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face if I have to. IT. WASN’T. YOUR. FAULT.” I sat up running a hand through my long hair, aggravated.



“I know that now,” Mace whispered, looking down, his hand on the back of his neck, elbows resting on his knees.



My face must have shown my shock at his words because he rushed on. “I know that now because you’ve made me realize I couldn’t have changed what happened. I wasn’t there. I couldn’t be there when it happened, and I sure as hell never thought it would happen. I have you to thank for lifting that suffocating guilt.”



I jumped onto his lap and kissed him hard and deep, holding him to me “Baby, it wasn’t your fault. None of it was.”



“There’s more, Scar, more I have to tell you and I want it all out. No more secrets between us. I don’t want anything else in our way.”



I nodded my head once, how much worse could it get, right?



Chapter Nineteen



Here goes fucking nothing. Shit!



“You know I was in the Special Forces, and you know I’m not anymore. It was my choice to get out. The last mission I was on...It went bad. Real bad. The tour was almost over when it happened.” Scar looked at me cautiously but didn’t say a thing. “We pulled over to dismantle a roadside bomb. I was leading twelve men that day and only six came back without any physical scars. I was driving the first truck with Jude and four of my guys. Ace was driving the second rig. He pulled in behind me and took his guys to dismantle the bomb. I should have checked it. Ace missed the second trigger. Exactly twenty seconds after he finished with the wires, the bomb detonated.”



My mind took me back to the day it happened. As I explained the scene, I found myself slipping into my own memories. It played out before me like a vivid picture show. It took me back there. I still felt the heat. I still heard the sounds. My head throbbed and my chest ached.



“My stomach pitched as everyone hit the ground. A loud boom then screaming was all that could be heard.” I felt Scar’s gaze on me so I went on. “Half the unit was in the direct path of the explosion. I hadn’t checked Ace’s work that time. What was fucked was that I did on occasion, and I’d done it so many times before that I trusted him. I should have checked. All it takes is a noise or sight of something to get distracted.”



The memories consumed me. “I started barking out orders and leapt into action, bile rising in my throat as I took in the horrifying scene before me. Half of my twelve-man team was down. I swallowed down the vomit that threatened to come up as the adrenaline coursed through me. He had missed the fact the bomb had a secondary timer designed to kick in after the bomb was disarmed.”



I snapped out of my daydream and shook my head to clear it. My body ached as if I was back there. “If I was more alert, doing my job properly, I would have saved six men that day. I could have spared the families who now live in a world of torment without their loved ones.”



Scar’s face had softened as she said quietly, “Mace, baby, you need to stop taking shit. It wasn’t your fault. Some things just aren’t within your control.”



Rather than arguing about it, I figured I’d just keep quiet and snuggle down on the couch with my girl while watching the game, thinking I was damn sure this was as close to bliss as I was ever gonna get, and it was a hell of a lot more than I deserved.



Just over a week later, I washed quickly in the shower, knowing that Scarlett would be on my case if I didn’t hurry up. We weren’t officially living together but we may as well have been. I was always at her place. The one time I wasn’t there when she got home from work, she’d stomped over to Trip’s place and gave me an earful that ended with her being bent over the couch and being shown just how much I loved when she was pissed at me.



It was her fault in the first place that I was needing a shower. Her hot body sashaying through the front door when she got home from work was enough to make any man drop to his knees in awe and worship. And I was just the man to take on that challenge. I worked her pussy fast and hard only moments after she’d dumped her bag on the kitchen counter. I had a new found fondness for the black granite kitchen countertops after our hot-as-hell quickie. Her sexy bright green high heels wrapped firmly around my ass as I pushed myself hard in and out of her tight little body was incredible. Beyond incredible. Her perfect ass sitting at the end of the counter. Definitely, a place we’d have to revisit.



I walked into the bedroom after my shower and stopped dead in the doorway. The towel around my waist did nothing to curb the effect of Scarlett bent over, sliding her tiny feet into a pair of sexy heels, ass in the air with only a tiny scrap of black lace hiding what I knew was the tightest, hottest piece of tail I’d had in my life.



She turned and stood facing the mirror, putting her hair into some kind of twist. Her back was to me. She was wearing a vibrant purple and black corset, those barely-there panties, and now four-inch black satin pumps which had my already rock-hard cock throbbing. I just couldn’t get my fill.



“Mace, honey, if you don’t hurry, we’re going to be late,” she said softly, looking back at me through the mirror.



I took three long strides towards her, palmed her sweet luscious ass and I pulled her back into my raging hard-on. Although I knew she knew what I was about to tell her, I felt the need to let her know where we were on the timeframe. “We’re gonna be late, babe,” I growled. My voice filled with vicious need. I just had to have her immediately.



The crook of her neck called to me, and the smell of her cherry body wash gently assaulted me. Resting my face firmly on her neck, I flicked my tongue and tasted her sweet flesh which in turn caused her knees to weaken slightly; her hand reached out to the dresser to steady herself. A moan escaped her plump lips as her eyes fluttered closed. One hand still palming her ass, the other coming around the front, I ran my hand softly across the swell of her breasts that were spilling from the elaborate corset. She pushed back and ground her hips against me.



This woman was going to be the death of me. It wasn’t natural to want somebody as much as I wanted Scarlett.



“Trip’s gonna kill us,” she huffed as I opened the passenger-side door to her car. I don’t think she realized it, but as soon as Trip or any red-blooded male got a look at her in that outfit, they’d understand just why we were half an hour late to the damn party, but I wasn’t about to point it out to her. She’d just get in a snit and make me wanna screw her seven ways from Sunday again. I reached into the back seat and removed Trip’s elaborately wrapped gift shaking my head, a new Tattoo gun wrapped in blue metallic paper tied with black skull print ribbon. Where the hell do you even find ribbon with skulls on it? And what guy needs a bow on his shit?



I reached around her and pushed the door to the restaurant open, holding it until she was through before following after her. We hadn’t even gotten ten steps into the balloon filled function room before the family descended. “Balloons. Well, fuck me, aren’t you a big boy now. Did you get a new sipper cup and pacifier with your pretty little party?” I laughed, giving Trip a one armed hug.



“Fuck off, asshole.” He smiled and took his gift from my hand before moving in on Scar throwing a wink at me and telling her, “When you’re done slumming it with that douche, you come see me, babe.”