Page 61 of Love Me Knot

“I’m nowhere near finished with you, Jarhead. If you’re leaving, so am I.”

Chelsea stares blankly for a bit. “Okay…um…I’ll be right back?”

I cross my arms and step closer. Chelsea, surprised and hopeful, rushes to explain. “I have to handle a few things. Could you give me five minutes? I’ll be right back. I swear it.”

I nod but say, “If you don’t return, I will come get you. I won’t even care if you bolt for the security house.”

Chelsea ducks out of the room without another word. I pick up my expensive tux, drape it over a chair, and brush my teeth before sliding into bed. The clock on my phone says Chelsea has about two more minutes before I go after her.

My door swings open barely a minute later, and Chelsea tiptoes across the floor, timid as a mouse. The moonlight spilling through the windows reveals that she didn’t put on any clothes. Her hair is down, and the dramatic makeup is gone from her face.

I open the covers in invitation, and Chelsea hesitates. “Jackson…just… I need to know something first.”

The woman fidgets with her hands, noticeably nervous. This is one time I sense pushing her would be a bad idea, so I let her speak her mind. Chelsea takes one step closer to the bed and asks, “Why me?”

Her question doesn’t surprise me. I’ve actually thought about this a lot. What I could reveal might scare her away, but offering a simple reply of why not you wouldn’t be enough. Chelsea needs raw and genuine, or she’ll never relinquish the innate need to protect her heart.

“Why you?” I ask, rising from the bed. Chelsea holds her ground as I close the few feet between us. I reach up to finger her soft waves and lock eyes with her. “Because when I think about my life fifty years from now, I hear you whispering my name.”

The risk I took in revealing that truth must have been the vulnerability Chelsea needed to see. She steps into me, leaning her head against my chest. I’m tempted to hold my breath, afraid I’ll do or say something to break the spell.

I shouldn’t have worried. Chelsea lifts her head, slides her hands up my body, and pulls my mouth down to hers.

Chelsea

Though it’s midnight to my body, sunrise is almost here. Jackson has only been asleep for about ten minutes. He’s lying behind me, tucked against my back, with his arm wrapped around my waist and a hand cupping my breast. His hot breath caresses my neck as I relive the night.

Jackson’s confession said something to me I’d never heard before. The man wants a future with me in it, flaws and all. With Trace, a life with him was something I had to earn. He dangled our relationship in front of me like a carrot on a string. I was always one misstep away from losing it.

I hear you whispering my name, Jackson had said. After that, I didn’t want anything but him, and once more wouldn’t be enough. Moonlight spilled through the windows as I brought Jackson to his knees while on mine.

That was the first time I put my mouth on a man without it being an expectation_a far cry from the times I did it to prove my worth. When Jackson’s legs began to quake, I pushed him onto the bed and climbed on top, riding hard until we both were out of breath and shaking. Thank God for birth control.

My eyes finally drift closed to sleep, though I’m afraid of how things might be when we wake up. Things might be exactly the same, or I could wake up from this dream and be cast aside again. I guess I’ll find out.

The sun is high in the sky when I wake, but in my head, it’s six a.m., like in Virginia. Jackson’s heat is missing, leaving me with nothing to chase away the doubts flooding my mind.

I’m about to slink off to my room when Jackson’s door opens. He’s freshly showered and carrying two cups of coffee. At his smile, the butterflies that survived the hurricane take flight in my middle. “I worked you over pretty hard, so I didn’t want to wake you too early.”

Jackson sits on the side of the bed, placing one of the cups on the nightstand for me. I sit up, bringing the sheet with me. “Thanks.”

I take a few sips and moan at the much-needed caffeine infusion. “How long before we fly out?”

“My men and I will catch a transport to Rota in about an hour. You guys leave a few minutes after us. Knot and O’Reilly want to meet when we’ve all landed.”

Nodding, I study the coffee in my mug. “No doubt they’ll be busy all day looking for this Pentagon player.”

Jackson doesn’t say anything else, so I look up to see him staring, smiling serenely. “What?”

“It’s nice to meet you, Chelsea.”

I get what he’s saying. Jackson is witnessing the true, authentic Chelsea without the uniform or pretense I like to hide behind. I may not know what I am, but Jackson is convinced he does and still likes what he sees.

The man stands and gestures toward the bench at the foot of the bed. “Alright, Jarhead. It’s time to get moving. I brought your stuff in here. You get cleaned up, and I’ll keep the wolves at bay downstairs.”

Jackson bends down to kiss my forehead and leaves. I sip on my coffee, hiding my grin from the empty room.

I join the crew in the kitchen half an hour later. Most of the SEALs are outside packing their gear into the three vehicles set to deliver them to the airport. My stuff is packed and waiting in the entry hall. I took a few extra minutes to make sure Jackson and I didn’t leave anything embarrassing on the terrace or the private atrium below.

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